No Desire to Teach You Anymore
Despite spending their first brand-building decade with instructional shows designed to make home chefs out of us all, you'll notice that much of Food Network's primetime line-up these days is comprised of competition shows like Guy's Grocery Games, Chopped and Cutthroat Kitchen, with the more educational programming relegated to weekend mornings. And that's how they want it. "Our job is not to teach people how to cook. Our job is to make people want to watch television," Kathleen Finch, who oversees FN, Cooking Channel and nine other networks as Discovery Communication's chief lifestyle brands officer, told Grub Street this year. "When we find talent that works, when we find a format that works, the viewers tell us through ratings, and then we just keep making more of it."