As the COVID-19 crisis gripped the nation, millions of people went into lockdown and suddenly found a lot of unexpected free time. Some picked up new or long-forgotten hobbies, while others soaked …
As the COVID-19 crisis gripped the nation, millions of people went into lockdown and suddenly found a lot of unexpected free time. Some picked up new or long-forgotten hobbies, while others soaked up extra family time. Still others combined the two and began focusing on more involved home-cooked meals. Social media exploded with images, videos and commentary about sourdough starters and banana bread, and that inspired a new wave of unscripted television series.
“What we were seeing kind of in the earlier stages of COVID when people were spending a lot of time at home and cooking more than ever, or cooking for the very first time, were a couple of themes. Some were looking for really specific info. The question that we got again and again was, ‘What can I cook from my pantry? What can I substitute?,’” says Courtney White, president, Food Network and Cooking Channel.
Answering the marketplace’s needs paid off for both Fox and Food Network. Fox boasts that “Crime Scene Kitchen” ranked as the summer’s No. 1 new series with an average of 3.6 million total viewers across platforms, while Food Network overall saw a lift in viewership, growing 9% year-over-year in the second quarter of 2020 alone, which made it the highest-rated second quarter since 2013.” just weeks before the service went live and debuting the first season of that series three months later.
Many of these shows were produced in a way that was assumed to be short-term, but still had to have shelf-life beyond pandemic times. Pushing through the added cost, time and footprint each show would have due to new health and safety protocols was also worth it to get the industry back to work, Wade says.
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