Month: August 2011

As Lagasse’s ratings grew, so did his personality.  His success would eventually balloon to the point that highly paid NBC executives thought it a good idea to give him a sitcom.  But while Lagasse’s dalliance with prime time comedy was an embarrassing disaster, his path to stardom revolutionized the upstart FoodTV channel.  His show put the small cable channel on the map with ratings that had been unheard of for a food show.  Latching onto that success, the network quickly embraced the Celebrity Chef model, de-emphasizing food in favor of people with star appeal.  And Lagasse himself made out like a bandit, using the show as the platform to craft an empire of restaurant chains, pre-packaged foods, and endorsements that by 2005 were estimated to be grossing $150,000,000 a year.