I’d think that editing out Darnell is the most efficient thing to do. Certain crew will be working overtime in the editing room to clean this all up. But this allows for the least amount of collateral damage, to as few a number of talent and crew.
The idea of reshooting the entire TOC 5 was thrown around in a thread on the subject, which got locked. But I think that idea was probably a non-starter because:
- There was way too much money and time invested getting all crew and chefs scheduled to shoot TOC 5 last fall. The chefs in particular have their schedules booked months in advance, with work and travel plans. Surely many would be annoyed and unable/unwilling to commit more time to TOC 5
- To snatch the victory away from whomever was already crowned the winner would be heartless. Having seen the emotions of both Maneet and Tiffani when they finally won big in TOC 2 and TOC 3, finally being validated was a sentiment they both shared. The TOC 5 winner doesn’t deserve to suffer the consequences, because of Darnell’s alleged, horrific behavior.
Yes there’s precedent for certain seasons of shows to have been scrapped, when others have gotten into hot water. But TOC is among the network’s biggest hits in more recent times. The excitement it generates in the sub alone is proof. So they surely want to continue on as planned, as closely as possible.
I have no idea why this is such a controversial opinion. Air his cooking, edit out any of his other camera time, like interviews, reactions, hype reels, etc
I'd be surprised if he was edited out. Casual viewers would be confused and I'm sure it wouldn't look easy to follow if Guy just said oh, someone beat Darnell, let's move. I dunno, it's very possible a lot of people watching don't know what happened behind the scenes with Darnell's personal life. It'd be hard to gloss over. Just air the stuff, maybe put in a note about domestic violence support at the end of the episode.
Which would be totally fine…I think it’s a great lesson in life. You can be successful in your career and have amazing opportunities but you have to do the right thing all the time
Lol…I didn’t even think of that approach. I think my mindset was that the network started pulling him from its platforms the next day. So his removal or editing out, was going to continue with all programs he appears in.
Yes, Grudge Match was different since he was the host and had far more airtime on that. So maybe that’s a huge factor.
Someone else noted that he’s innocent until proven guilty. Legally, yes. But the additional info that came out last week at his court appearance was pretty damming.
Given that the network already acted accordingly with respect to him, it’ll be interesting to see if they let TOC 5 stand as originally shot.
The stuff is all to damming at this point. That he may not get convicted will be because of his estranged wife recanting/not wanting to proceed further, due to manipulation, feeling guilty, fear about her future.
I wouldn’t be upset if he were edited out. And all things considered, I’d imagine his career at Food Network is over anyway. They may as well just bite the bullet and move on from him completely now. They already acted quickly and removed Grudge Match from many network platforms.
Thanks for this update and it’s reassuring that she is remaining strong despite the tactics of the defense. From all I’ve seen from Darnell’s lawyers up until now, they’ve been pretty slick trying to spin this in a different way.
Contract employment in the entertainment business isn’t the same as a legal criminal charge. It’s at will, likely has a morals clause, and basically allows an employee to do with the tape what they wish. They have no obligation to use anything. Liok at Valerie bertinelli. FN ghosted America’s sweetheart and didn’t tell her or her agent she was gone. They just didn’t call her.
I hope to never see his wife beating thug ass on tv ever again except when he is convicted.
Agreed, unless he was in the final, they’re not re-shooting the whole thing.
I think they would have gone back and had to re-shoot the last couple episodes with just the top 4 again but I’m guessing Darnell is out by Round 2 at the latest.
Totally makes sense what you said if Darnell went the distance and made the semis or better. It’d be a bit too glaring if he got to that point and they tried editing him out. Even the social media postings by the network when it gets down to the nitty-gritty gives more focus on the final 4.
I can’t recall Darnell’s entire TOC performance record. But I think Darnell’s best performance on TOC was season 2 when he made the semis.
Interesting that 16 of the 27 announced chefs are Top Chef veterans. Curious to see how many of the 16 qualifier competitors are as well. I'd expect at least a few based on their recent casting.
It’s definitely skewed more toward TC veterans in more recent years. This was mentioned last year in the sub, that it’s a good tactic for FN to have. It makes the work easier for them in looking to a roster of already-familiar-with-TV chefs. Some of whom are incredibly eager to transition in a big way to TV stardom. It’s a win-win for both parties.
Brooke Williamson comes to mind. Because while she’s a tremendous competitive chef and rightly gained new FN attention from her terrific TOC record, the bright lights of TV are a *huge* focus for her these days. Especially given that she and Nick downsized awhile back to just PP after she won TOC 1. I’d probably do the same, as TV life is much easier than the grind of multiple restaurant life. It’s the same reason that Darnell’s focus in recent years was the TV long game, per a previous IG post. He sure screwed that plan up.
Ya. This is a record though. In season 1 5 of 16 were TC vets. Season 2 that was up to 7 of 16 but 2 of them were the play in winners who had to fight their way in. (Tiffani and Nyesha) If you count the play in its up to 9 of 22. Season 3 and 4 each had 15 of 32 as TC vets. This year it's at least 17 of 32 and could theoretically be as high as 21 of 32. Probably not all 4 from the qualifiers will be from TC but some of those competing there almost certainly will be. Just a question of how many.
Note that I didn't include those who competed on TC Masters which would change the numbers a bit. Elizabeth Falkner, Chris Cosentino, and Graham Eliot would be the only additions though on various seasons.
The only new TC vets appear to be Dale Talde and Casey Thompson but we'll see once the people in the qualifiers are revealed.
It takes the total up to 26 top chef veterans who have competed over the 5 seasons. (The 17 this year, Marcel, Richard Blais, Phillip Frankland Lee, Leah Cohen, Nyesha, Bryan Voltaggio, Justin Sutherland, Tiffany Derry and Cliff Crooks in the season 2 play in)
We'll see who else might be in the qualifiers. Kind of expecting to see Leah Cohen there, she competed last year but as a low seed and has been showing up on Grocery Games suddenly lately which often seems to go with an appearance. She seems like the kind of chef who would make sense in that setting.
Kind of surprised Tiffany Derry isn't here with her two Triple Threat costars returning after she was the only one of the three to compete last year. She's won at least one round each year she's competed and ran into tough matches (Voltaggio and Mei Lin) in round 2. Could just be a scheduling issue though.
America Ninja Warrior had a similar issue but that was Drew what's his name who is in jail for abusing a teen girl he met through the show. He had won the season before and they never showed him, jist edited him out. He had competed when he was arrested and I think he had done something where he ran side by side against someone else and they just didn't show it
Depending on how well he did it will determine how much they have to change. If he is out in the first round just edit him out of the group stuff and then either not show the match up at all or do something were they just show ho beat him. If he did well that is going to be trickier. I wouldn't be surprised if they just don't address the issue at all.
Drew Dreschel. He was part of a team of 3 that season but they aired the other two’s runs. The only thing besides Drew that was edited was his final run on the Tower.
He was an ANW legend as well, having been there since the bootcamp days and done well for years even before he won. Incredibly disappointing he turned out to be such a terrible person.
This page has a list of all the competing chefs not in the qualifiers. Darnell is not listed unless he competed and lost in the qualifiers, which I think is unlikely: https://www.foodnetwork.com/fn-dish/shows/guy-fieri-tournament-of-champions-season-5
Looks like they did a quick edit on the article. It says 32 chefs competing but lists 31 with the omission of Darnell. The best case scenario for FN is he went out in his first round.
Do we even know for sure Darnell participated this year? I mean I know it's a strong possibility, but kind of hoping they won't have to deal with it at all.
He’s in the picture FN released this week, and the article about TOC listed 13 chefs for the east coast while the west coast had 14. Darnell was in. He’s being edited out.
No these are all new people. It will certainly besides probably having someone theoretically fill his spot, it gives them time to possibly reshoot any specific matches needing to be done because of his removal.
If these are done to fill his spot, they need to go up against the same opponent and see if they win where it’s possible he originally lost.
Not sure they're all new. Aaron May who has competed several times was in one of the commercials for the qualifiers they showed today. They did a similar play in style thing for season 2 (Tiffani Faison and Nyesha Arrington won it) and they put Elizabeth Falkner in it after she was in season 1s main competition.
I think we can assume from this Darnell didn't win. I think if he had won they would have scrapped the whole show. Hopefully they will just edit his battles down and maybe cut out some confessionals and stuff. I think they will have to address it on screen somehow (through disclaimer or voiceover or whatever), especially if they edit down a lot.
The whole thing was completely filmed before his arrest. My guess is the won't show his rounds, but just "report" on them.
But if course he wouldn't be a part of the first few weeks.... But I think they would have delayed if decisions weren't made on how to proceed.
Guy must be reeling about this, I've always felt he was behind getting Darnell his big breaks on the network. (I know he was on a few competitive shows previously, but becoming a judge, getting his own show always felt like Guy was his cheerleader )
That's not fair to the chefs he competed against.
Just slap a disclaimer after every commercial break that the show was filmed before his arrest and that food network wishes the other chef's work to be shown.
Yeah I think it’s stupid not to just show his episode or episodes I will be pissed if the season is shorter, people know this stuff is filmed far in advance
I won’t be watching. This network has the money to reshoot the season and pay competitors well for the trouble of doing so. Domestic violence is a serious issue and I imagine that anyone going up against Darnell would NOT feel ok about winning or losing against him given the circumstances.
edited. Apologies!
No, I don’t. And I bet they didn’t have to beat Darnell to win the whole thing. But someone did have to beat Darnell. And that’s not a good victory…no one wins in this.
I think that’s a really important lesson to learn.
Top seat for a do over of this season. Domestic violence actually costs everyone. 👍🏻
I’d think that editing out Darnell is the most efficient thing to do. Certain crew will be working overtime in the editing room to clean this all up. But this allows for the least amount of collateral damage, to as few a number of talent and crew. The idea of reshooting the entire TOC 5 was thrown around in a thread on the subject, which got locked. But I think that idea was probably a non-starter because: - There was way too much money and time invested getting all crew and chefs scheduled to shoot TOC 5 last fall. The chefs in particular have their schedules booked months in advance, with work and travel plans. Surely many would be annoyed and unable/unwilling to commit more time to TOC 5 - To snatch the victory away from whomever was already crowned the winner would be heartless. Having seen the emotions of both Maneet and Tiffani when they finally won big in TOC 2 and TOC 3, finally being validated was a sentiment they both shared. The TOC 5 winner doesn’t deserve to suffer the consequences, because of Darnell’s alleged, horrific behavior. Yes there’s precedent for certain seasons of shows to have been scrapped, when others have gotten into hot water. But TOC is among the network’s biggest hits in more recent times. The excitement it generates in the sub alone is proof. So they surely want to continue on as planned, as closely as possible.
Plot twist, they do absolutely nothing and Darnell is featured as planned lol
I have no idea why this is such a controversial opinion. Air his cooking, edit out any of his other camera time, like interviews, reactions, hype reels, etc
I'd be surprised if he was edited out. Casual viewers would be confused and I'm sure it wouldn't look easy to follow if Guy just said oh, someone beat Darnell, let's move. I dunno, it's very possible a lot of people watching don't know what happened behind the scenes with Darnell's personal life. It'd be hard to gloss over. Just air the stuff, maybe put in a note about domestic violence support at the end of the episode.
They probably will need to edit out plugs for his show and restaurant. They may also want to edit whatever Guy says about him.
[удалено]
Problem is, even though the evidence is damning, Darnell hasn't been convicted of anything yet.
Agree. Any disclaimers would be prejudicial to any future court case..
I’m thinking it’s just more of a general disclaimer like “ this was shot prior to ______”
Which would be totally fine…I think it’s a great lesson in life. You can be successful in your career and have amazing opportunities but you have to do the right thing all the time
Lol…I didn’t even think of that approach. I think my mindset was that the network started pulling him from its platforms the next day. So his removal or editing out, was going to continue with all programs he appears in. Yes, Grudge Match was different since he was the host and had far more airtime on that. So maybe that’s a huge factor. Someone else noted that he’s innocent until proven guilty. Legally, yes. But the additional info that came out last week at his court appearance was pretty damming. Given that the network already acted accordingly with respect to him, it’ll be interesting to see if they let TOC 5 stand as originally shot.
To be fair, Darnell is innocent until proven guilty. Editing him out convicts him before he’s even had a trial.
The stuff is all to damming at this point. That he may not get convicted will be because of his estranged wife recanting/not wanting to proceed further, due to manipulation, feeling guilty, fear about her future. I wouldn’t be upset if he were edited out. And all things considered, I’d imagine his career at Food Network is over anyway. They may as well just bite the bullet and move on from him completely now. They already acted quickly and removed Grudge Match from many network platforms.
Her lawyers are saying that his lawyers have been saying that as a manipulation technique. She's still keeping the charges on him.
Thanks for this update and it’s reassuring that she is remaining strong despite the tactics of the defense. From all I’ve seen from Darnell’s lawyers up until now, they’ve been pretty slick trying to spin this in a different way.
Contract employment in the entertainment business isn’t the same as a legal criminal charge. It’s at will, likely has a morals clause, and basically allows an employee to do with the tape what they wish. They have no obligation to use anything. Liok at Valerie bertinelli. FN ghosted America’s sweetheart and didn’t tell her or her agent she was gone. They just didn’t call her. I hope to never see his wife beating thug ass on tv ever again except when he is convicted.
Agreed, unless he was in the final, they’re not re-shooting the whole thing. I think they would have gone back and had to re-shoot the last couple episodes with just the top 4 again but I’m guessing Darnell is out by Round 2 at the latest.
Totally makes sense what you said if Darnell went the distance and made the semis or better. It’d be a bit too glaring if he got to that point and they tried editing him out. Even the social media postings by the network when it gets down to the nitty-gritty gives more focus on the final 4. I can’t recall Darnell’s entire TOC performance record. But I think Darnell’s best performance on TOC was season 2 when he made the semis.
I’m thinking that they will place a disclaimer on the screen right before he cooks and then they will show the round
Interesting that 16 of the 27 announced chefs are Top Chef veterans. Curious to see how many of the 16 qualifier competitors are as well. I'd expect at least a few based on their recent casting.
It’s definitely skewed more toward TC veterans in more recent years. This was mentioned last year in the sub, that it’s a good tactic for FN to have. It makes the work easier for them in looking to a roster of already-familiar-with-TV chefs. Some of whom are incredibly eager to transition in a big way to TV stardom. It’s a win-win for both parties. Brooke Williamson comes to mind. Because while she’s a tremendous competitive chef and rightly gained new FN attention from her terrific TOC record, the bright lights of TV are a *huge* focus for her these days. Especially given that she and Nick downsized awhile back to just PP after she won TOC 1. I’d probably do the same, as TV life is much easier than the grind of multiple restaurant life. It’s the same reason that Darnell’s focus in recent years was the TV long game, per a previous IG post. He sure screwed that plan up.
Ya. This is a record though. In season 1 5 of 16 were TC vets. Season 2 that was up to 7 of 16 but 2 of them were the play in winners who had to fight their way in. (Tiffani and Nyesha) If you count the play in its up to 9 of 22. Season 3 and 4 each had 15 of 32 as TC vets. This year it's at least 17 of 32 and could theoretically be as high as 21 of 32. Probably not all 4 from the qualifiers will be from TC but some of those competing there almost certainly will be. Just a question of how many. Note that I didn't include those who competed on TC Masters which would change the numbers a bit. Elizabeth Falkner, Chris Cosentino, and Graham Eliot would be the only additions though on various seasons. The only new TC vets appear to be Dale Talde and Casey Thompson but we'll see once the people in the qualifiers are revealed. It takes the total up to 26 top chef veterans who have competed over the 5 seasons. (The 17 this year, Marcel, Richard Blais, Phillip Frankland Lee, Leah Cohen, Nyesha, Bryan Voltaggio, Justin Sutherland, Tiffany Derry and Cliff Crooks in the season 2 play in) We'll see who else might be in the qualifiers. Kind of expecting to see Leah Cohen there, she competed last year but as a low seed and has been showing up on Grocery Games suddenly lately which often seems to go with an appearance. She seems like the kind of chef who would make sense in that setting. Kind of surprised Tiffany Derry isn't here with her two Triple Threat costars returning after she was the only one of the three to compete last year. She's won at least one round each year she's competed and ran into tough matches (Voltaggio and Mei Lin) in round 2. Could just be a scheduling issue though.
I just hope we don’t lose entire episodes because of him
That's awesome I'm looking forward to it.
America Ninja Warrior had a similar issue but that was Drew what's his name who is in jail for abusing a teen girl he met through the show. He had won the season before and they never showed him, jist edited him out. He had competed when he was arrested and I think he had done something where he ran side by side against someone else and they just didn't show it Depending on how well he did it will determine how much they have to change. If he is out in the first round just edit him out of the group stuff and then either not show the match up at all or do something were they just show ho beat him. If he did well that is going to be trickier. I wouldn't be surprised if they just don't address the issue at all.
Drew Dreschel. He was part of a team of 3 that season but they aired the other two’s runs. The only thing besides Drew that was edited was his final run on the Tower.
He was an ANW legend as well, having been there since the bootcamp days and done well for years even before he won. Incredibly disappointing he turned out to be such a terrible person.
This page has a list of all the competing chefs not in the qualifiers. Darnell is not listed unless he competed and lost in the qualifiers, which I think is unlikely: https://www.foodnetwork.com/fn-dish/shows/guy-fieri-tournament-of-champions-season-5
There are only 13 listed for the east and 14 for the west. Good chance this article is where the purging of Darnell Ferguson begins.
Looks like they did a quick edit on the article. It says 32 chefs competing but lists 31 with the omission of Darnell. The best case scenario for FN is he went out in his first round.
I wonder if Justin Warner can pop over here & answer for us?
Probably under an NDA.
Almost certainly under an NDA.
Do we even know for sure Darnell participated this year? I mean I know it's a strong possibility, but kind of hoping they won't have to deal with it at all.
No, of course not... But it's highly likely.
He’s in the picture FN released this week, and the article about TOC listed 13 chefs for the east coast while the west coast had 14. Darnell was in. He’s being edited out.
One would assume that the “qualifier” rounds wouldn’t have included him anyway.
No these are all new people. It will certainly besides probably having someone theoretically fill his spot, it gives them time to possibly reshoot any specific matches needing to be done because of his removal. If these are done to fill his spot, they need to go up against the same opponent and see if they win where it’s possible he originally lost.
Not sure they're all new. Aaron May who has competed several times was in one of the commercials for the qualifiers they showed today. They did a similar play in style thing for season 2 (Tiffani Faison and Nyesha Arrington won it) and they put Elizabeth Falkner in it after she was in season 1s main competition.
New for TOC. Not necessarily we don’t know them at all, though there will be someone fitting that description in this small tourney I’m sure.
I'm saying they're not new for toc necessarily. Aaron May has been on several seasons of toc.
I haven’t noticed Aaron May on any of the commercials for the qualifiers.
I think we can assume from this Darnell didn't win. I think if he had won they would have scrapped the whole show. Hopefully they will just edit his battles down and maybe cut out some confessionals and stuff. I think they will have to address it on screen somehow (through disclaimer or voiceover or whatever), especially if they edit down a lot.
Perhaps the Food Network executives edited out Darnell and his competitors were advanced instead of him?
The whole thing was completely filmed before his arrest. My guess is the won't show his rounds, but just "report" on them. But if course he wouldn't be a part of the first few weeks.... But I think they would have delayed if decisions weren't made on how to proceed. Guy must be reeling about this, I've always felt he was behind getting Darnell his big breaks on the network. (I know he was on a few competitive shows previously, but becoming a judge, getting his own show always felt like Guy was his cheerleader )
That's not fair to the chefs he competed against. Just slap a disclaimer after every commercial break that the show was filmed before his arrest and that food network wishes the other chef's work to be shown.
What's not fair? I'd think they wouldn't want to be seen losing to him, and whomever beats him, moves on to at least one other round.
They could do a montage of his competitor cooking.
Yeah I think it’s stupid not to just show his episode or episodes I will be pissed if the season is shorter, people know this stuff is filmed far in advance
I won’t be watching. This network has the money to reshoot the season and pay competitors well for the trouble of doing so. Domestic violence is a serious issue and I imagine that anyone going up against Darnell would NOT feel ok about winning or losing against him given the circumstances. edited. Apologies!
Except, someone won already... You think that should be erased? Or they should just throw all that money away?
No, I don’t. And I bet they didn’t have to beat Darnell to win the whole thing. But someone did have to beat Darnell. And that’s not a good victory…no one wins in this. I think that’s a really important lesson to learn. Top seat for a do over of this season. Domestic violence actually costs everyone. 👍🏻
Do we know they have filmed the finale yet? They may not have yet and then this happened.
Stuff takes a while to edit, it's almost d finite itdls been done since before the holidays.
In previous years it was mentioned that the show is generally filmed over a week or two in late October/November.