2009 Midseason TV Preview: Hell's Kitchen

Hell’s Kitchen - Season 5

Premieres: Thursday, January 29, 2009 at 9:00 PM ET
Network: Fox
Creator(s): Jeff Collins and Sheldon Lazarus (executive producers)
Starring: Arthur Smith and Kent Weed
Website: Fox.com

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Gordon Ramsey is set to return to Fox with new contestants to yell at and call donkeys. And let’s hope that this season, going up against the big show’s in TV’s regular season, can step up their game. Last summer the show lost its luster with some subpar contestants. Sure they messed up, but they were also uninteresting. If Fox is going to pit Ramsey and his misfit crew of wannabe’s against Grey’s Anatomy they had better deliver the goods.

What usually makes Hell’s Kitchen interesting is that many of the contestants are of the line cook variety. Yeah they throw in some executive or sous chef’s now and then, but for the most part these are people looking to further their cooking career. They don’t work for 3 Star Michelin chef’s, or if they do in any capacity it might be as a morning prep person. And for me that is where this show shines. It takes people who have a lot of promise and puts them up against, like him or hate him, one of the best chef’s currently on the planet.