The man who is credited by many for putting the Food Network on the map is slowly being shown the door.
Emeril Lagasse is leaving the Food Network’s primetime schedule, according to network execs. But the popular celebrity chef isn’t disappearing from the airwaves all together. Rather, the “BAM! Man” is headed to the Fine Living Network; a move the chef hopes will breathe new life into his beloved “Emeril Live!”
The cooking show, which has been a staple on the Food Network’s primetime schedule since its 1997 debut combines cooking, music from a live band, and Lagasse’s dynamic personality. Unfortunately, over the last year or so ratings have dipped (at its peak the show averaged about 700,000 viewers and last year it only attracted 579,000, according to Nielsen Media Research) and several months ago the Food Network moved the show from 8 p.m. Eastern to 7 p.m., which only hurt ratings more.
According to Food Network execs, reruns of “Emeril Live!” will air in the afternoons there, but beginning July 7th corporate sister the Fine Living Network will run new episodes of the show at 7 p.m. seven nights a week.
For those of you who can’t stand repeats you should know that during the first week “Emeril Live!” runs on the Fine Living Network all the shows will be new. After that a new episode will be shown each Monday and the rest of the episodes will be reruns.
The downfall to switching networks is that Fine Living is carried in about 50 million homes, far fewer than the 90 million homes that have access to the Food Network. Still, network big wigs say Lagasse has the chance to boost his fan base since he is being paired on the schedule with Martha Stewart (on weekdays Fine Living airs reruns of Stewart’s syndicated program a day after it runs on its regular networks).
And here’s an interesting tidbit: the only way viewers will be able to see new episodes of “Emeril Live!” after the first round airs on Fine Living is if the ratings for the show are stellar. According to Lagasse, if the reruns do well on Fine Living in primetime and on the Food Network during the daytime, the show’s corporate owners said they would order additional new episodes.
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