Gordon Ramsay’s The F Word doesn’t know what show it wants to be

Following MasterChef on Wednesday night, Gordon Ramsay premiered his new live show The F Word that tried to do a wide array of different things. At various points, it was a talk show with celebrity guests. Then, at others it was some sort of weird Undercover Boss hybrid where Gordon went undercover as a surprise chef. Then, it featured a little bit of Hell’s Kitchen with him monitoring two different teams trying to cook for diners. Oh, and he also told off people who sent him pictures of their food on social media.

The F Word deserves some credit for their ambition, given that the idea of Ramsay doing a live variety show set in a restaurant in the summer is not something many networks would endorse. Yet, he is basically the King of Fox at this point in between this show, MasterChef, Hell’s Kitchen, and MasterChef Junior. This is without even mentioning his previous work there on Kitchen Nightmares and Hotel Hell.

Unfortunately, this show in its present form is a miss for Ramsay and Fox, mostly because in doing so many things, it doesn’t do any of them effectively, The celebrity interviews with Jamie Foxx and Snoop Dogg tonight were awkward in how Gordon wandered around before sitting with them, and there was zero investment whatsoever in the “cook-off” portion of the show. Watching Gordon get mad at people isn’t as much fun when they are barely on the screen, you have no clue who anyone is, and he’s a little bit more muted because he can’t swear on live television — ironic, given that this show has such a racy title to it.

The biggest thing that The F Word needs to do is scale back the big restaurant, and get rid of the whole competition aspect altogether since it’s been done a million times before. What this show could and should be is a play on Rachael Ray or a daytime cooking show, except edgier and fitting with Gordon’s brand. Feature lengthy celebrity interviews themed more around food, educate the audience more with recipes, and keep some of the funny bits like the behind-the-scenes elements, the pre-tape with Kevin Spacey where you actually learned a little about his relationship to food, and the telling people off via social media. That stuff is fine, but the overalls structure needs more control and less of Ramsay wandering about in some sort of obviously-artificial environment. It could just be a fun / creative talk show centered around food, something that doesn’t exist anywhere else on TV.

Maybe in time Fox and Gordon will figure this out, but for now The F Word feels more like something that needs to be sent back to the kitchen, and this is said as someone who’s devoured more Ramsay-themed content than we ever thought imaginable. The biggest advice to give it is this: We’re in the midst of an era where there is a natural curiosity about people. Focus on that, the food people eat, why to eat it, and then how to eat it.

What did you think about The F Word? Sound off with more of your thoughts with a comment below. (Photo: Fox.)