Why This Matters: Shows focused around food and family offer viewers a comfy respite from the contentious cultural mood.
Family cooking shows, which see families competing to craft and serve a better dish than the clan across the way, are suddenly hotter than a Viking Professional 5 Series oven. Family Food Showdown started on Food Network March 3, and Dinner Takes All breaks bread on BYUtv beginning March 20. The Big Family Cooking Showdown is on Netflix, and Family Food Fight, hosted by Ayesha Curry, will run on ABC.
Cleve Keller and Dave Noll, whose Keller/Noll created the competing chefs series Chopped on Food Network, created Dinner Takes All, a mix of cooking competition and food trivia. They hope the rookie show captures the best of both family TV and food TV. Our hope is that our show embodies everything that family programming means, said Noll.
Dinner Takes All features two teams of five family members who build their best Sunday dinner, including an entr e, three sides and a dessert. Family members are also quizzed on their knowledge of food. Winning families get a year's worth of groceries or cash. Kelsey Nixon hosts. Between the cooking competition and the food trivia games, Keller calls it an incredibly hard show to host.
"Family Food Showdown"
Valerie Bertinelli hosts Family Food Showdown, which features three rounds of cooking challenges and two families doing culinary battle. Each episode sees the top family take home $10,000. Food Network is on board for 13 episodes.
We look for standout families with really strong culinary chops, engaging stories, challenging situations with high stakes, Food Network president Courtney White said, along with some valuable takeaway information, and of course, beautiful, delicious food.
The Big Family Cooking Showdown is a BBC series with two seasons on Netflix.
ABC announced Family Food Fight last summer, but has not divulged a premiere date. Based on an Australian format, the series will have eight families sharing a kitchen and fighting for a $100,000 prize. Host Curry, who also hosted Ayesha's Home Kitchen on Food Network, said at the time, Cooking is such an important part of my family life, and I can't wait to find others from across America who share that passion for creating delicious dishes and have great stories to tell.
Hail to the Chef
While the family angle is a fresh one, food programming has of course been around nearly as long as television has. Unlike shows about, say, motorcycles or fishing, everyone can relate to food. We all eat, said Walter Podrazik, co-author of Watching TV and TV curator at the Museum of Broadcast Communications. Many of us cook. We all know someone who cooks extremely well.
Some say the seemingly endless strife bouncing about in our nation, much of it brought on by political in-fighting, makes food programming and family food programming in particular a good fit in 2019. Podrazik refers to such programming as, fittingly, comfort food.
People are rediscovering the fun of family, the reassurance of family, he said.
Speaking of fun families, Phil Rosenthal created hit comedy Everybody Loves Raymond, and then shifted to food programming. I'll Have What Phil's Having ran on PBS in 2015 and Somebody Feed Phil, a reimagined take on I'll Have What, debuted on Netflix in 2018.
Rosenthal said he pitched a family cooking show to several networks around 15 years ago. His Family Recipe concept would have two families prepare a signature meal, with one family sampling the other's meal and a winner named. No network bit.
Rosenthal calls food the great connector in our society. We all have to eat, and we usually eat with family, Rosenthal said.
He added that food programming almost always goes down easily. In this peak TV era of dark characters and at times convoluted story lines in our popular dramas, foodie fare is easy background music, Rosenthal said. It's a subject we all know and love.
Time, and the Nielsens, will reveal just how much demand there is for family cooking shows today.
For her part, Food Network's White is optimistic about Family Food Showdown, which she likens to a big family event say, Thanksgiving or a reunion where it's all hands on deck in the kitchen, for better or for worse. Those fabulous food gatherings that are the heart of family, White said. To see those real dynamics of families play out during cooking challenges is incredibly entertaining.
Why This Matters: Shows focused around food and family offer viewers a comfy respite from the contentious cultural mood.
Family cooking shows, which see families competing to craft and serve a better dish than the clan across the way, are suddenly hotter than a Viking Professional 5 Series oven. Family Food Showdown started on Food Network March 3, and Dinner Takes All breaks bread on BYUtv beginning March 20. The Big Family Cooking Showdown is on Netflix, and Family Food Fight, hosted by Ayesha Curry, will run on ABC.Subscribe for full article
Member Exclusive
Get Access to Our Exclusive Content
Learn MoreAlready subscribed? Log In
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
07/10/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, today announced the latest Long-Term Supported (LTS) release of Dalet Flex. Build...
06/09/2026
June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
16/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
16/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
16/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
16/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
16/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
16/07/2026
Zixi, a leader in live video delivery and workflow orchestration, and Comcast Technology Solutions (CTS) today announced a strategic new integration to deliver ...
16/07/2026
Blackmagic Design Cameras Capture Immersive Flight for New Cirrus App
Brie Clayton July 15, 2026
0 Comments
Leader in Personal Aviation taps URSA Cin...
16/07/2026
XenData Announces LTO Archive Appliances with both File and S3 Object Storage In...
15/07/2026
The 2026 FIFA World Cup is a big deal for DAZN, which has distribution rights in three markets: Italy, Spain, and Japan. Each requires a different editorial app...
15/07/2026
As sports-media organizations manage rapidly growing content libraries and incre...
15/07/2026
HBS director of digital Johannes Franken talks SVG Europe through the operation built to serve FIFA World Cup 2026 rights holders remotely from Stratford, east ...
15/07/2026
IBC has unveiled the conference program for IBC2026, with this year's event ...
15/07/2026
Software-defined wideband RF platform supports 96-kHz monitoring, streamlined fr...
15/07/2026
New AI-powered module enables broadcasters and content owners to extract dialogu...
15/07/2026
Weeklong gathering at EBU headquarters will test new IPMX capabilities and expand certified product ecosystem...
15/07/2026
Force Tech has announced the appointment of Bryan Adams, CTS, as Vice President of Integration. Adams will oversee AV and broadcast integration project delivery...
15/07/2026
USA Sports has announced an exclusive English-language agreement with the Bundes...
15/07/2026
ITV Sport's FIFA World Cup 2026 coverage has been produced from one of the m...
15/07/2026
Program will provide professional camera kits, training, and technical support to participating local newsrooms...
15/07/2026
San Francisco church becomes first U.S. deployment of the 2 M/E production switcher...
15/07/2026
Former ESPN and NFL Network executive to advise startup league on media, distribution, technology, and fan engagement...
15/07/2026
The Houston-based RSN is the live-game home of the Astros and Rockets...
15/07/2026
Launched alongside new FreqSoft installer
Designed to bridge the gap between hardware and software, Freqport's FreqInOut FO1 unit provides a simple way ...
15/07/2026
Save up to 55% on software until 23 July 2026
Expressive E have just launched their Summer Offer sale, with discounts of up to 55% now applied across their ...
15/07/2026
Real-time stem-separation tool updated
zplane have recently released a new and improved version of their real-time stem-separation plug-in which they say ma...
15/07/2026
A new benchmark in bass enhancement
Described as a new benchmark in bass enhancement , Baby Audio's latest release has been designed to augment the lo...
15/07/2026
DMC Production's AR 1 and AR 2 units reverse the conventional OB workflow, keeping all production-critical processing at the venue while operators work remo...
15/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
15/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
15/07/2026
GigaCloud, a leading Ukrainian cloud service provider, and Cubbit, the first geo-distributed cloud storage enabler, today announced a new Business Alliance Part...
15/07/2026
SMPTE, the global society for media professionals, technologists, and engineers, has announced the launch of the SMPTE 110th Anniversary Campaign, a fundraising...
15/07/2026
Studio Technologies, a leading manufacturer of high-quality audio, video, and fiber-optic solutions, unveils the new StudioComm Model 762 Stereo Level Control, ...
15/07/2026
COW Jobs: Producer, Virtual Events - Hybrid, Full Time, Salaried
Brie Clayton July 15, 2026
0 Comments
Producer, Virtual Events (Hybrid | Full-time | ...
15/07/2026
Brazilian media organization builds nationwide CDN with Broadpeak's high-performance software for low-latency streaming and new content distribution service...
15/07/2026
DHD announces a new utility designed to increase the efficiency of its audio mixing systems during initial installation and subsequent configuration.
Anyone w...
15/07/2026
BCNEXXT Brings Next-Generation Vipe to IBC2026, Breaking the 1:1 Channel-to-Server Ratio New innovations liberate broadcasters from legacy playout infrastructur...
15/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
15/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
15/07/2026
General-purpose robots and autonomous machines are moving from research labs to ...
15/07/2026
Wednesday 15 July 2026
Screeners and press pack now available: Gomorrah: The Or...
15/07/2026
Trinity's Treasures features Ruth Negga, Eleanor McEvoy, and David Norris, a...
15/07/2026
Join geographer Dr Susan Hegarty, Engineer Tim Joyce and Architect Orla Murphy a...
15/07/2026
Home to leading manufacturers, robotics pioneers, infrastructure builders and iconic gaming companies, of course, Japan is one of the world's centers of AI ...
14/07/2026
South end zone videoboard, cloud-based control system will be ready for 2026 football season...
14/07/2026
Redesigned website, enhanced mobile app unify content, ticketing, and personalized fan engagement...
Why This Matters: Shows focused around food and family offer viewers a comfy respite from the contentious cultural mood.
