Tuesday, August 12, 2014

Food Network Star Lenny McNab Controversy - Should He Lose Job Before It Starts?

Should the Food Network immediately distance itself from its newly ordained "Next" Food Network Star, Lenny McNab?

Apparently, there may have been some glaring oversight in the vetting department of America's culinary headquarters, as the cowboy chef, Lenny McNab, who was voted the winner of the Food Network Star competition has some crude and crass skeletons in his not-so-private closet. After McNab was announced as the winner - via voting by viewers - message boards and online forums exploded with all sorts of criticism of the choice. The story - or controversy - was uncovered by the writers at "Food Network Gossip" blog. In questioning whether Lenny's past will cost him his show, FNG listed a series of crass and inappropriate comments that McNab has made in the past, as well as mentioning a disturbing video from Lenny's YouTube Channel that has since been taken down.

Many of McNab's alleged comments contain extremely foul language and crude, disparaging comments about his "fans" and the Food Network Star known as the Pioneer Woman, Ree Drummond. It seems like McNab has a history of making crude comments and videos, and there was a lot of evidence of someone called "Chuckwagon Chuck," assumed to be McNab, who regularly called in to the "Ron and Fez" radio show. And there is some mention of "Chuck" stalking one of the show's hosts. At this point, many of the comments and videos have been taken down - though it's probable that some of the content was downloaded and could re-appear.

None of this is surprising to many Food Network Star viewers who found Lenny a crass and unsophisticated contestant from the start. Lenny was my last choice from the beginning, and I was put off by his behavior most of the time. With that in mind, I'd hope that the Food Network, which had to recover from Paula Deen fallout after firing her for inappropriate behavior, would simply cut losses and never film his show. Heck, it's not unprecedented, as the winner from two years ago, Justin Warner, was basically dismissed by the network without ever really filming a show. Of course, the Food Network stars have other controversies in their past, so it will all come down to potential earning power vs. losses.

Let's hope we've seen the last of Lenny McNab.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is horrible and an insult to everything I hold sacred about the Food Network... Alton - have you gone to the dark side? is everything sinister now supposed to be interesting... are scenarios that bring out the worst in people, like Cut-throat Kitchen supposed to be interesting... now Lenny McNab... I watched (and unfortunately listened to) a couple of his YouTube Videos and felt like I was going to throw up... this is who he is people... why would we want to watch this... he made guacamole for his demo and they said it wasn't even very good. People like him are welcome to his bawdy, raunchy voice, but please show on an alternative channel where those that enjoy that can tune in, but please do not expose the rest of us (and our children) to his rude, demeaning and disrespectful communication... what a humiliation for the Food Network... I actually like Nadia G... she is an individual but does not express Lenny's horrible outbursts... does he have social Tourettes or something? who talks like that... he is going to What to Ree Drummond in the what? excuse me... and we would want to watch him cook for what reason?

Unknown said...
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mmazenko said...
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mmazenko said...

Uh ... thanks?

You do realize you're commenting on a show from almost a year ago, and that Lenny's show was never produced, right?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lenny_McNab