I did'nt have my Sky on for a while there due to things like work & TA deployments so I recently re-subscribed to Sky about 2 month ago.
UKTV Food was one of my favorite channels, I liked GFL & the programme with Merrilees Parker & John Christoph which,for the life of the name escapes me as well as Heavens Kitchen.
Sadly,since I resubed,I rarely watch the channel.The are far too many repeats of old shows done to death.The two new shows,Market Kitchen & Rhodes across India are bombing dreadfully.You just have to look at all the negative comments on here with regards to these two shows.
With the amount of money UKTV must fork out to show these repeats,surely they could invest in more new shows. Like say a competition show to find the best new chef in the UK & Ireland,giving 'junior' chefs the chance to shine.The is a lot of untapped talent out there working in pubs ect.
Just a thought.What are the views of the rest here?
Regards,
Merv

Merv, that's an interesting perspective being away from Sky for a while, as you'd be more attuned to notice the "difference" from the old UKTVFood.

As you have noticed from the 100's of threads here first about the loss of the iconic Great Food Live - then followed by critiques of Market Kitchen - then the complaints about interminable repeats of repeats and requests for "new" programming - and NOW this Rhodes debacle, there does indeed seem to be some problem with the "programming talent" at UKTVFood.

Any one of those things could be explainable as an "error in programming judgement" but it just seems to go on and on. As with this Rhodes programme, it's well and truly inexplicable.

I just returned from an assignment in the US and the amount of food programming they have there is phenomenal and so many shows I'd never even heard of. It was eye-opening. Your question as to why they don't pick up some of these shows is right on-point.

I think that, like you, many are not watching the channel with the same consistency they once did....a shame really. That's certinaly true for me also.

It is "sinking", I'm afraid.

The wife and myself seem to be watching Horse and Country(ch280) and Wine TV more than UKTV Food now. Both have some excellent food programs.

Rhodes around India seemed like a fantastic idea, and yet the execution has let it down, I will say it has got better.
It has to be said that they do need to cast the net a bit wider as far as the bought in programming, and also look to the tallent that came to the fore on GFL and develop some shows around those chefs. The other note is that they don't quite get the internet side of things, this site is a pig to navigate, and also it would be a great place to generate interest in new programming.

It does seem to be loosing its way at the moment, but at the end of the day it is a niche channel and only has a small pot of funds, to commission and buy in content

Quite agree Doug & Prodigal,
You just have to flick thru some of the other 'cable tv' sort of channels & see the cooking programmes they have on.One of my favorites is Planet Food.The episode with the beautiful scrummy Padma Lakshmi (Who is actually the wife of the actor who plays Daniel Jackson in the TV series Stargate) is miles better than the current "Rhodes screws India" series.
I hope UKTV Food can do better than what they are dishing up,I fear that they cannot tho.

I just love UKTVFood..I couldn't live without it I don't think! But I agree entirely that they seem to have lost the plot.

I still can't get over the cancellation of GFL, a complete tragedy. Insane.

But this "Gary Rhodes Insults India" is just absolutely over the top! What are they smoking??

Mervyn, I think Padma is Salman Rushdie's wife, or was ....?

Agree uktv may not have the budgets of some other channels but they must have spent a fortune on MK and 'RAI'. Agree they need to look at their talent deals as it's pretty obvious from his indiscriminate use that they signed Gary up for a significant deal. He's over-used and as we've all said, a very poor choice for what would have been an amazing series.

Conch, you're right. Padma is Salman Rushdie's wife. She recently hosted of the second series of Top Chef in the US and did a very respectable job.

I can't accept that budget is the problem with UKTVFood programming. It is simply incompetence. The amount of money they have poured down the drain on the awful Market Kitchen programme and now to view this Gary Rhodes travesty is just too much!

I couldn't agree more that Gary Rhodes is "overused". Even a new show with him smacks of a "repeat".

Love Top Chef. Hope we get the 2nd season soon and I want to see the Oz one which is supposed to be great.

Agree about budget, as I said MK must have cost a fortune. Their press release said it was their biggest ever commission. It's not what you've got it's how you spend it! And of course good manners don't cost anything. I wonder if Gary is aware of his behavior when he watches it back? Just dismayed the producers think it's acceptable.

Conch, you haven't seen the second series of Top Chef in the UK yet?! We had it here on the Food Channel about a half year ago. It was a bit more "tense" and "dramatic" than the first series but all the fun and competition were still there.

They've already started on the 3rd series in the US.

From everyone's comments it does seem you're UKTVFood programming is not "up to par".

I hear the good news that Jeni has landed a new TV program on the BBC. What wonderful news...I hope we get it here ASAP. I still can't fathom the decisions being made on your food channel?

Mervyn, so right! Everything seems back to normal now with this dire programming line up. and the return of the old "Market Kitchen" Awful.

For a few weeks there things were looking up, but then came Rhodes fiasco and now MK. No wonder so many have tuned out.

I am not liking what is happening to this channel. Why are they making the programming so bad lately? It is seeming worse and worse of late.

why no comments from m.k. bosses-are we commenting to ourselves?

arthur

Arthur perhaps. They might as well shut the whole channel down as long as Market Kitchen is airing.

Why are there these programmes so bad on UKTVFood? All the good cuisine now is on BBC? How can that be? Ce channel used to be so good, isn't it?

Please help them!

Just wait and be patient. UKTV is BBC's repeat channel. They will be on.

Can't sleep so I just tried to tune in on UKTVFood and it's not on the air? Why do they shut down? Certainly it doesn't cost anything to have giant reels of tapes of the overdone repeats being repeated just one more time does it??

I often get up in the middle of the night and UKTVFood has always been off the air as far as I can remember. I don't know what it costs to continue transmitting a channel but it's a nice thought!

I can't explain the programming decisions of UKTVFood, Sylive, they seem confused and inexplicable to me also. Yes, the channel was a lot better last year - at least we had GFL on the air then.

I couldn't agree more that UKTV Food is sinking fast. Soon it will be just known as the channel that brings us Gary Rhodes and Market Kitchen drivel.

Why are they putting Rhodes on all these shows? They should just put him on MK and be done with the whole mess.

Now, hold on just one second! UKTVFood may actually NOT be sinking fast..it may be very slow.

I've just read a terrific post from billy2blues on another thread, although I can't seem to find it now, where he compares UKTVFood with the MARY CELESTE

So, UKTVFood *is* sighted - occassionally in the fog - but no one is on board!!

The "Mary Celeste Channel"

If you campare the same weeks viewing figures for this year and last year, you may be suprised.

w/e 28.10.07 sees the top show attracting 62000 viewers
w/e 29.10.07 sees the top show attacting only 53000

Just as Market Kitchen didn't appear this year, nor did GFL last year.

w/e 21/10/07 the top show again attracted 66000 viewers
w/e 22/10/07 the top show attracted only 59000 viewers.
Market Kitchen comes in with 34000 but GFL was again nowhere to be seen in the same week last year.

UKTVFood isn't sinking, it is sailing proud.

breadman that is absolutely HILARIOUS

"The Mary Celeste Channel" I'll have to refer to it that way from now on.

Drifting in the television ocean without direction and with only ghosts on board!!

They could have a Market Kitchen spin-off programme "Snakes on a Boat" or perhaps "Squirrels on a Boat"

Yet another Market Kitchen crime this week. The producers like us to believe that they promote ethical and local ingredients, yet use foie gras and try to get us to buy Argentinian Beef.

Now in the latest twist of MK, we have Chris Galvin promoting French farm produce and bragging how much of the stuff he buys for his restuarant. Well, I'll stay away from his establishment, thank you.

Are the producers of this show even awake?!?

What ever happened to MK's lofty ideals of minimal food miles and promoting local British producers? Well??

Please support British. Stop all this "imports are better" slobber. Ridiculous.

Are you guys simply running out of ideas??? Just bring back GFL and put us all out of our misery.

I'd have to say that, after watching a wide variety of food programmes, with a few notable exceptions the American productions seem far better than recent British offerings.

The US shows seem to focus more on the actual food than gimmickery, Market Kitchen being one of the worst offenders.

It would be great if the programmers-that-be would give a look at some of the programmes being produced over there and give the channel just a bit more variety and less repetition.

Season's Greetings to everyone and here's wishing for a greatly improved, and more enlightened, schedule of programmes in 2008!!