Sunday, August 4, 2013

Food Network Star Elimination and Recap - Finalists Revealed

Tonight on Food Network Star, the four finalists have to pitch their pilots to Bob Tuschman and Susie Fogelson, who will pick only three finalists that get to produce their pilot.  Before they pitch their pilots, they get to practice with Alton Brown, Bobby Flay, and Giada De Laurentiis.  Once the three pilots are green lighted by Bob and Susie, Guy Fieri directs all of the finalists pilots.

Continue reading to see who was eliminated from this episode as well as a quick recap of how the remaining contestants did this episode.



Everyone but Damaris wanted to do a traveling type show in their first pitch to Alton, Bobby, and Giada.  After ten episodes, this is supposed to be the first time Alton, Bobby, and Giada knew what the contestants wanted to do for a show?  Seems odd that this wouldn't have come up before.

  • Stacey Poon-Kinney - Pitched 'Stacey's Modern Magic' and wanted to go to restaurants with vintage dishes and reinvent those dishes to help a restaurant out.  Pretty much she wanted to do the last challenge from the show.  Stacey was the one eliminated after the first pitch and did not get to shoot a pilot.
  • Russell Jackson - Pitched 'Guilty Pleasures' in which he would take normal things and make them 'sinful' by adding bacon.  In his pilot, he made bacon, bourbon ice cream, which didn't have much to do with the cabernet sauvignon sorbet flavor that he tried.  He pretty much wanted to make bacon, bourbon ice cream, and used the ice cream shop as an excuse to make it.
  • Rodney Henry - Pitched 'Pie Style'(DUH). He will take your ingredients and surround them with dough.  I am pretty sure Rodney has naked pictures or dirt on someone from Food Network.  How has he won everyone over with bad pies and talking too fast?  The only one that could get excited about Rodney's pilot would be Guy Fieri.  Pie Fieri, Guy Style, Diners Drive-Ins, and Pies.  I found it tough to sit through a 2 minute pilot, so a 30 minute show would be torture to sit through.  Lot of 'Brothers' and hand shakes.
  • Damaris Phillips - Pitched 'Eat, Date, Love' where she would teach men to cook Southern dishes to win over women.  In her first part of her pilot, she did nailed the first take.  Didn't look at the camera enough during the cooking part of the pilot.  Her pilot was probably the most entertaining of the three, and is probably the front runner.

I'm not sure we have any enjoyable shows that have been pitched, but America will pick a winner anyways.  The winner's show probably will not be the same name or concept as the pilot they shot anyways.


I will have a poll up soon to see who everyone is voting for(or rooting for) to win and become the next Food Network StarThe Poll is now up - Link.

47 comments:

  1. I was underwhelmed by the finalists this year and also by the format....I basically split the 10 votes. Hopefully next year will be better.

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  2. I hope Damaris wins it, only because I can't stand the other two. But I am worried about it because that pie dude has been rigging the polls on the FN site since day 1. Probably getting all his loser unemployed musician buddies to vote for him 10 times a day and will continue to play the game.



    And the end result will be that no one will watch him. Assuming he even shoots a show, something that after the fiasco of last season, we cannot even take for granted.

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  3. But...that means you didn't really vote for any of them?

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  4. If Damaris doesn't win, then the people who watch Food Network have no heart, taste, or brains. Rodney is only entertaining in the sense that he's a complete train wreck - which won't translate during a produced show. Otherwise, he can't make consistent pies, he has about 20 words in his vocabulary, he is hard to understand, and if I had a drinking game on how many times I heard "Pie Style" during his show, they'd be pumping my stomach because of alcohol poisoning in the first hour. Russell comes off as a know-it-all which is funny because he failed as a restaurant owner, kept finishing in the bottom, and really doesn't have a unique take on anything. In the meantime, Damaris is a genuine, charming, flirty (in a non-threatening way), caring person who also can talk, connect, and most importantly, cool. She is BEYOND lovable! Go Damaris!

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  5. I missed the show tonight. Who got the boot???????

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  6. Not really, I though the Pie Guy's show looked more finished than the others... He got maybe 5, Russell 3, Damaris 2.... I didn't throw all the votes into one finalist like last year because I wasn't totally bowled over,

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  7. I hate that the voting requires a Facebook account. Not everyone wants to give up their privacy to those creeps at Facebook, especially just to vote for this, and I'm not wasting my minutes to call in.


    So, since I can't vote, all I can do is hope Damaris wins. I'm not a huge fan of her concept but it is a lot better than Rodney and Russell. Please, no Rodney! He's so tedious.

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  8. Right... Not impressed with any of them this season

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  9. Calling takes like 10 seconds, seriously. You dial,it picks up right away, you get some auto message thanking your for voting for [contestant] and it hangs up

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  10. Also, I think they do that to prevent rigging. It really is kinda the only way to stop the contestant's friends and families from logging in on tons of computers (at say, the library for instance) and voting more than the allowed number of times. It might hurt Rodney's chances, because I think he was doing that from day 1.

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  11. I guess they're no longer competing for a cooking show. Damaris is the only one where I thought I could actually learn how to make something new (like there were actual amounts for the ingredients.)

    I used to think Bob and Susie were good decision makers but the Pie Guy (yech) over Stacy???

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  12. I guess they rather have 3D 2.0 than RI 2.0?

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  13. I cant believe they axed Stacey! She was obviously the best! She and Damaris should have tied. but NOOOOOO. They had to pick PIE STYLE. More like MAKES MY WANNA CRY STYLE! And Russel is just creepy. Damaris is fabulous, but i still wanted Stacey.....
    Stupid hypocrites at food network. I could go on, but it would probably take a while.

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  14. Ugh. If I had to pick between Rodney and Stacey, I would pick Stacey in a heartbeat. Though I really want Damaris to win.

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  15. Yup, that's why Rodney got my Votes.

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  16. I was hoping for Stacey, Nikki, and Damaris for the final 3. But I swear, it's like they eliminated Nikki and then Stacey so that Rodney could have a better chance of winning. I really hope Damaris takes it. Throughout the season, she's had pretty good food, her presentation skills have improved, and she has a great personality. She has what it takes and I would enjoy her modern take on Southern food more than the other POV's from Russell or Rodney. Go Damaris!

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  17. I want to believe that being forced to vote for the lesser evil instead of someone we actually want defeats the purpose of the show but the reality is that the purpose of this show has been defeated long ago. If they ballot had a write in option, I would vote to forget these three and actually try making a real show with Justin Warner.

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  18. I have a pay as you go phone. It wasn't about wasting *my* time, but my phone's minutes. That's 10 cents a vote. I'm not paying to vote.



    You can rig it different ways, and they could come up with better ways to limit voting. They could use friends' phones, work phones, fake FB accounts.... if you're determined, they can do anything like this.

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  19. What you can do is authorize their app long enough to vote and then delete the app from your settings when you are done.

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  20. I guess you are right about that.

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  21. Can also use Google Voice to voice.

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  22. Russel is so stinking creepy to look at. I cannot even look at him. He looks like a spawn of the devil.

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  23. Better than the buffoon with the hat, though!

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  24. I'm shocked that Stacey was eliminated. She really had a camera presence and always seemed relaxed and confident. Moving on, my money is on Damaris. She has grown so much since the first episode and has toned down the 'sexy' thing, although I did see hints of it in her pilot. I am sooooooooooooooo over Rodney and his pies; Russell thinks he can cook, but Alton said in one episode that he's not as good of a chef/cook as he thinks he is. I just don't see how you can make an entire show around bacon, bacon, bacon, because he has included bacon in almost every challenge!

    Regarding voting, I agree with NG's comments about requiring a Facebook account just to vote. I don't want FN to have my personal information either so they can try and sell me 'stuff'!

    One more thing--What was up with Giada's 'outfit'? That sundress and those stilts she had for shoes were ridiculous. She needs to fire her fashion consultant or stop having her daughter giving her advice on what to wear.

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  25. i wanted stacy to win

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  26. The highlight of last night for me was Stacey being eliminated. I disliked her so much that I found Rodney preferable and that's saying a lot. Damaris is a doll but I'm not sure she's solid enough to carry a show. I like Russell. I usually can't stand Mohawks and tattoos but I like him and he has an impressive bio, the only one who does really.


    I don't think the poll that runs throughout the season is meaningful. Contestants can inflate their numbers if they have enough relatives and friends to vote every day. Last season Martita was way in front every week until she was eliminated. I doubt that TPTB assign any value to it.

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  27. I like Damaris better than the other two, but her concept made me cringe. What percentage of people watching FN are single males wanting to woo their partners with southern food? It's too kitsch-y for me. She should have just stuck with 'a modern take on Southern food'.

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  28. They actually took Russell over Stacey. Rodney waltzed right in to the final after Damaris.

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  29. Also, the polls showed cumulative numbers of responses to questions that changed weekly. Some questions were negative, and some were positive, but the numbers weren't reset, so if, say, Rodney got high numbers for a question asking who should go, and the question the next week was related to who had the best presentation, Rodney's numbers would remain high even if he garnered a low response to the second question. Fortunately, the numbers were reset for the voting for the final three.

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  30. Damaris' pitch was spot-on perfect. She's inexperienced in front of the camera -- Aarti Sequeira was even more awkward, and she's acquired a lot more polish. I wouldn't watch either Russell (pushing unhealthy eating) or Rodney (who has almost put me off of eating pie ever again).

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  31. Even if Stacy had gotten the pilot, none of us would have voted for her. Her show was restaurant impossible without changing the restaurant around. And Menu Impossible was the title to the last challenge. Stacy isnt original at all. Had she gone simple "im teaching you family recipes", it would have been Rachel Ray all over again. I was pleasantly shocked she got the boot this episode.

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  32. The downside to this episode is that my front runner Damaris became my last due to her ideal show. I hate it. I love her but that show is just a "No". Why would a guy embarrass himself with his lack of cooking skills on television, when he has search engines a his finger tips? There is no problem that Damaris is addressing in her pilot pitch. Her show is just some random show.

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  33. Russell's idea seemed pretty good until he ate that ice cream and did nothing with it. He didnt even bother to explain what cabernet sauvignon sorbet is or taste like! Is it sweet, sour, spicy- does it taste like honey, cake, fruit, wine? What Russell should have done was take the least popular flavored ice cream and spice it up with a guilty pleasure and THEN have everyone try it and see if it could ever make the menu. The good news: the feed back from customers was a great touch.

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  34. Rodney has annoyed me this whole competition but no lie- his show grabbed me. He told me what was in the grilled cheese sandwiches, what it tasted like, and the components to his pie. There were no questions asked at the end. But i would have liked to see Rodney put a spin on it. Instead of adding only one type of cheese, amplify the flavor with two cheeses and tell why those cheese's work good together with the pie. Just change it up or something so that its not so expected and one note. I was really interested to see the customers reactions. That was a cherry on top.



    But that "Sup Brother! Yo! Brother So cool man brother" almost made me mute my computer. But i ended up voting for him anyway. Love Damaris, hate her show. Dont like Russell, hate his show. Dont like Rodney but like his show - Rodney has 0 hate points is how i ranked it... I want to pick Damaris, but is this a popularity contest?

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  35. The mentor team forced her into the "cooking to impress a potential mate" concept. I think she'd have been perfectly content with Modern Southern. What got me was that the concept was almost identical to the one that got Andres kicked off in episode 2, in which Giada got highly incensed that anyone would implicate that guys can't/don't cook.


    Of course, Damaris' concept could be broadened to include women, married men and women, and even—one hopes—gay wannabe cooks.

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  36. Hows last years winner doing lol ;-)

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  37. I thought that it was the chef who described the ingredients, not Rodney.

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  38. A search engine & having the opportunity to go on tv and learn from a professional chef are 2 COMPLETELY different things wouldn't you agree? Also, learning something new is not "embarrassing yourself". Another thing, Food Network shows don't have to have a "problem" to address and most of them don't It's just people sharing recipes & there actually is a problem... the guys can't cook. Honestly, I don't really think you know what you're talking about.

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  39. On a scale of 1-10 how stupid do those of you that said Stacey was the "FN chosen one" feel? LOL.

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  40. Yes yes, it's much better to look at a wanna be rebel with a tiny ugly raggedy mohawk and a big nose than a simple guy with a hat...

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  41. LOL, so first Stacey was the Food Network chosen one & now it's Rodney? How about this, if they really liked ANY of them that bad they don't have to sabotage a competition. Get it together people it's the network. They could give anyone they want a show from any competition on their channel, winner or loser. They don't have to make some huge secret plot against people that they've specifically chosen. Some of you sound so ridiculous it's not even funny.

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  42. How could they have forced her if it was her idea in the first place? I agree 100% with he whole Andres thing & he's probably super pissed off about that. It's "cute" and "adorable" to watch a guy to to cook for a girl, but teaching guys how to cook healthy meals for their families (I think that was his idea) is insulting.

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  43. I can't believe people actually liked this stupid comment. If he was in fact rigging anything he would be disqualified. Having your friends ( which is completely ignorant & pathetic of you to bash his friends when you actually have no clue of who they are or how they are just because you don't like his personality ) vote for you is not rigging anything. I'm 99.999% sure that EVERYONE'S families and friends voted for them 10 times a day. Get it together.

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  44. I am pretty sure I know who one of them is. ;)


    Or is that you Rodney? Because if it is, I am so very flattered.

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