Guy Fieri has done it again. He took the concept of the classic game show Supermarket Sweep and turned it into a cooking challenge. The show, Guys Grocery Games, has been entertaining audiences for 18 seasons. A winning streak that long can only be fueled by change and evolution. No one watches the same thing for that long without getting bored. But, this isn’t always done blatantly. It is the tiny changes that bring about biggest results. Keeping this spirit in mind, we endeavor to discover the changes this show has made to reach its current state of evolution:
What is Guy’s Grocery Games?
Guy’s Grocery Games is a reality-based cooking game show hosted by Guy Fieri on the Food Network. During each episode, four chefs compete in a 3 round elimination contest where they must cook a dish and complete a challenge. The chef that is able to complete all these challenges successfully can win up to $20,000 in a shopping spree bonus round.
1. Episode Changes
The set of the show looks like a supermarket, with ten aisles stocked with a variety of foods including frozen items, meats, and fresh produce. Each chef has a station for prepping and cooking. During every round, Fieri tasks the contestants with cooking a dish and completing a game or other challenge, usually within 30 minutes. To get the ingredients for their meal, they must take a shopping cart and make one round around the supermarket. At the end of every round, the judges taste and evaluate the dishes and select one chef that must go. After the three challenges are completed, the last chef remaining advances to the bonus round, the aforementioned shopping spree, for a chance to win up to $20,000. While this is the basic gist of how each episode works, two separate formats have been used since Guy’s Grocery Games came on the air. They are as follows:
- Seasons 1-11: During these seasons, the chef had to retrieve one specific item from each of the supermarkets’ ten aisles. For each correct one placed in the shopping cart, the chef received $2,000.
- Seasons 12 to the present day: With this new format, Fieri asks five questions, with the answer being a particular item in one of the aisles. For each one the chef places in the cart, he or she will receive $4,000.
2. Games and Quizzes
Guy’s Grocery Games has been on for 18 Seasons. It takes a lot of creativity to keep things fresh over such a long period of time. As such, a large variety of games and challenges used in the show are tweaked to keep things interesting. New games were also added as the series progressed. During the first 11 seasons, the show featured a number of culinary quizzes as well. The answer to each quiz was a specific item and the first chef to bring it to Fieri won an advantage for the round. For instance, the winner could declare a certain aisle off limits to the other contestants.
3. It’s all about location
The first season of the show was shot inside a real grocery store in California. This format was changed for season two. Instead, a market was built inside a warehouse in Santa Rosa. It took the crew two weeks to build and they stocked it with well over $500,000 worth of food. That’s a lot of food. But don’t worry, the food didn’t go to waste. All the perishable items on the shelves were donated to local farmers and food banks after each episode.
4. Spinoff spin on
In evolution, the best thing that can happen is reproduction. That is, you are able to create something separate from yourself. This was the case for Guys Grocery Game. His show was so popular that it inspired the creation of a spinoff called Dessert Games. In this game, talented dessert chefs pick, prepare, and plate three delightful confections in the middle of a market. The last chef standing gets the chance to show their knowledge of desert ingredients in a shopping spree that can net them up to $10,000. Unfortunately, the show did not resonate with audiences. It was canceled after just 4 episodes.
The Bottom Line
Guy’s Grocery Games has been on the air for 18 seasons. This is a long time relatively speaking but, is even more significant for TV shows. The secret to this longevity is keeping the audience happy and entertained. The best way to do so is through evolution and, as is evidenced above, Guy’s Grocery Games has mastered this process.
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