Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Restaurant Stakeout Returns & Thieves Inc. Premieres Tonight

Photo - Food Network
The 4th season of Restaurant Stakeout is beginning tonight on the Food Network at 9pm.  Somehow, this show continues to draw good enough ratings for it to be renewed for more seasons.  Despite the show having a lot of 'fake reality', it consistently draws over 1 million viewers.

Regarding the fake-ness of the show, many restaurant owners have come out after their show aired to tell their story about how fake the filming was and that many of the situations are set up and there were also paid actors working.  A lot of times, the show actually reaches out to the restaurants to see if they want to be on the show, rather than the other way around.

A NorthJersey.com article earlier this week had the owner of Michael's Roscommon House saying "even the fake was fake," and he revealed things such as:

  • The show depicting their restaurant as failing, which it was not.  The failure premise of the show with Willie coming in to save the day was scripted.
  • The owner's friend actually works for the crew of Restaurant Stakeout, and asked him if he wanted to be on the show.  
  • The owner did it for publicity, and because he knew a crew member, didn't want to be portrayed badly.
  • The revisit that was supposedly 6 weeks later was actually 2 days later.

Also premiering tonight at 10:30 is the series premiere of Thieves Inc, which is a hidden camera show that deals with theft in the food industry.  More information about the show is here if you are interested.   I wonder how believable the incidents will be on the show, but I doubt they will be very believable.

Throw in Mystery Diners in between these 2 shows, and you have 2 hours worth of fake hidden camera shows on the Food Network tonight.....


14 comments:

  1. I don't even turn the channel as fast when I see Guy Fieri as when I come across Diegel or that other huckster, Charles Stiles. They are just deplorably awful.

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  2. Proving once again that people out in teevee land are in fact, idiots.

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  3. Mystery Diners has to be THE worst show on TV. There is nothing even remotely believable about anything that happens on that show. Even the acting is horrible. How do these shows make it on when things like "The Next Food Network Star" award winners and then don't give them a show? What's the point of that when they just run crap like this? I would rather watch "Chopped" and "Unwrapped" reruns for the rest of my life. Bring back the good stuff.

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  4. FAKE!!!!! FNs credibility going down the crapper even more since the Paul's Dean debacle.

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  5. Mixed news from last night’s ratings (from TVBytheNumbers). ‘Thieves, Inc.’ (1.13 million viewers) had the highest demo rating of all (0.5) and dropped just 11% from its ‘Mystery Diners’ lead-in (1.27 million, 0.4 demo). ‘Restaurant Stakeout’ on the other hand, while getting 1.05 million viewers and 0.3 demo rating, was down a third of its audience and 40% demo from last season’s premiere (1.55 million, 0.5 demo on March 13th). We’ll see how they perform in the coming weeks.

    With these shows FN is going after the TruTV/Spike TV viewer and not its traditional cooking or competition show base. So far, ‘Mystery Diners’ has been a show that’s been performing extremely well, Friday or Wednesday and even on reruns late at night, and it’s proving that it
    can sustain by itself anchoring a night, without much support from DDD or other show.

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  6. Thanks for the info.. Will be interesting to see how the numbers play out throughout the season

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  7. I don't mind that there are a number of shows on FN that are fake (you might as well add chef wanted to the list). It's sort of like watching pro wrestling. What I can't figure out is why FN doesn't do a show like DDD on higher class restaurants.

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  8. I thought I was the only breathing human that couldn't stand Fieri; thank you!

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  9. I think most breathing humans would agree with you

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  10. Have always loved FN but hate the fake stuff. What happened to having good Chefs (they have some) and being honest and truthful about Next Food Network Star, etc. Whatever happened to having Character? They are quick to condem

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  11. On a Stakeout show in Red Bank (Danny's, I believe) the beginning had the restauarnt manager being watched, then in the middle Willie staged a theft by the manager to spoof the owner to see if he would be tough. If the owner really called in Stakeout for this I would be pretty upset as an owner. Diegel even called the manager during the filming to set this up.

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  12. Really??? There are that many stupid people that find this entertaining? Worst cr*p show on Food Network... It took all of 2 minutes the first time I saw this to realize that this show was a staged piece of poop. Food Network - Want a winning "reality show"... set Fieri's hair on fire and have contestents try to cook something on it. That I would watch!!

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  13. Willie, shame on you! Bonsai; Bon is a low sided dish ans sai is a plant it planting. There is not such a thing as a Bonsai Tree planted outside - even in front od a sushi bar restaurant. To be real you need to get real.

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  14. I don't know about microphones, but restaurant employees certainly are aware that there are cameras everywhere in the average restaurant.

    Oh, and Willie - unless you're actually black, please learn to pronounce the word "ask" correctly.

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