Guy's Chance of a Lifetime

Bad people. Blow hards. One person in particular, bla bla my kid this, my Kid that. Total turnoff and nobody cares

This is bad comedy. Not even bad reality tv, it certainly isn't about cooking like grocery games or diner drives and dives. Stick to that if you value what food networks programming is supposed to be. Don't give this crap the eyeballs.

Just can't express how much this show is stupid. I gave it a shot because I've seen how much Guy has done for others during Covid and clearly he's grown a financial empire. I wanted to see, if only a glimpse, how he approached the business side.

However, a lot of the premise and feedback is so contrived and out of touch that I'm reminded of why I have never cared for Guy. For me, that all made for a hate-watch, which is probably part of his success. Can't argue that his formula has worked, just don't think it's for the reasons articulated on this silly show.

Guy Fieri launches a show to award a chicken franchise to one of a group of unlikable dopes who preen and mug for the camera as they "compete" in a series of stupid stunts.

This is NOT a cooking show so don't be fooled. Whoever wins the franchise sure as hell won't be wearing a paper hat and cooking in it. It'll be staffed by the same under-educated people you see in every fast-food franchise.

The contestants are all self-obsessed blowhards and the "judging" is beyond ridiculous. A show for the selfie generation.

I expected this to be The Apprentice with Guy Fieri as Donald Trump, and that's pretty much what I got. Basically, Guy is looking for someone who will be a franchisee of one of his Chicken Guy (exclamation point!) joints. Apparently, getting a Chicken Guy franchise is a big deal. (They didn't say whether the winner will have to put up the same amount of cash as a normal franchisee. The "prize" could turn out to be about as desirable as a job working for Trump.)

Like The Apprentice, this show has a group of go-getters vying for the boss's approval. The "judges" are Guy, various business associates and chefs, and (for some reason that escapes me) his son Hunter, who seems like a decent kid just humoring a dad with an outsized personality. Guy subjects the contestants to challenges designed to find out whether they have what it takes and to make them feel inadequate. The only difference from The Apprentice, as far as I can see so far, is that someone doesn't get "fired" at the end of each episode. I guess they all stick around to the end. But they do get paid varying "salaries" each week based on how well or poorly they "performed."

The first episode introduced the kinds of characters we've become used to in "reality" game shows -- the ex-military iron man, the brown-noser, the screw-up, the jerk, etc. And most of that, I assume, is the creation of the editors, with no connection to who these people really are.

So I got what I expected, and I was entertained. I expect I'll watch the whole series. Unlike many people, I find Guy amusing. It looks like the challenges will result in some moments of relatively natural drama. And if the show makes good use of the "judges," their comments should be interesting.

I gave this show several chances to be enjoyable. It failed to deliver. Most of the contestants could not run a vending machine. Guy's head has gotten quite large and his arrogance is on display here. Not a good show. Don't bother.