Gordon Ramsay's 24 Hours to Hell and Back

It has everything you love about Kitchen Nightmares and Hotel Hell. I would love to see Gordon work with a restaurant for a month. He does so much great stuff in one day but you can't change peoples bad habits that quick.

I very much enjoyed Kitchen Nightmares back when it launched in the UK, the US version wasn't quite as good but still an enjoyable albeit heavily Americanized watch. I also enjoyed Hotel Hell, it took the format that step further by adding more depth thanks to its larger focus, stepping outside of the kitchen.

24 Hours to Hell and Back is a step back from the earlier shows, the focus is more on a gimmick rather than actually taking the time to explore a business and its owners and help resolve the issues they're having. By comparison it feels very scripted, and frankly a little soulless.

I watched through the first 5 episodes in hope things would get better, or to see if I was perhaps biased against the new show format. Unfortunately my opinion didn't change, if anything it became more steadfast.

It was not horrible, nor was it great, but it seemed more of the same as it was basically, "Kitchen Nightmares" but with the lame twist of having only 24 hours to revamp an eatery. Things seemed rushed, people MUST have been very tired doing this overnight. The set up of the show is that a failing eatery is supposedly being filmed for renovation, but unknown to them, Gordon Ramsay, is really doing his typical Kitchen Nighmare show instead. When they revealed it was actually Gordon, there was not much surprise shown, and the entire show seemed a bit set up and fake in some ways. Maybe the idea is just getting old, or maybe it never was all that real to begin with, but the drama seems way over the top, and everything comes together too well in most of these shows. Not a lot of finesse and just comes off seeming staged a bit.

Not a fan of this 24 hour format.

Lets start by saying when Gordon goes to these restaurants the staff have already been working for a few hours already (Lunch is in full swing) - THEN they have to stay and clean and cook for ANOTHER 24 hours. So these people are working non stop for about 28 hours?!? - They would be dead on their feet by the time the next service is happening and no help to anyone.

Just go back to the regular Kitchen Nightmares format, which was about 3-5 days. Its more believable and you dont get all these questions about the silly countdown clock

I've enjoyed Kitchen Nightmares since the earliest British episodes (that was a very different show, GR much calmer and more constructive); and the format tweaks in the new series represent a considerable 'improvement for the worse'. The false jeopardy of doing the shows in 24 hours makes the whole thing seem frantic, and there is no chance to assess what has happened - for either the restaurant or the viewer. Visiting the restaurant in disguise is a stupid gimmick; it's not as though restaurants in previous series had been able to deceive GR about the quality of the food! I'm only thankful he didn't try to do the accent.

I feel as Coke fans probably felt when they changed the formula: something I thought I could rely on has let me down.