During the first two seasons alone, Ramsay visited 21 different restaurants all over the country and as of July 30, 2013, all but two of them have closed down — equaling just a 9.5% success rate.
In fairness, the venues that called on Ramsay and his show for help were already failing and hoped a week with the celebrity chef would revive their business.
But it’s just another tarnish on the genre of reality TV, which has proved to have many shows busted for being fake or scripted.
There have been four more seasons of the foul-mouthed British chef attempting to help struggling restaurants and his success rate has progressively improved.Season 3 and Season 4 had Ramsay visiting 23 restaurants, 13 of which are now closed giving him a 43.5% success rate — an improvement of nearly 35% from the first two seasons.
As RadarOnline.com exclusively reported last month, Chappy’s on Church in Nashville, Tenn. appeared on the Fox show during Season 6 but has since closed down and owner John “Chappy” Chapman blames Chef Ramsay, who called the restaurant “bland” and Chappy “a joke,” for his failed business.
“This is a very sad day since we have worked so hard,” he wrote on his Facebook page.
“We shouldn’t have done Kitchen Nightmares. We have spent several months struggling to come out of a negative situation.”
However, Chappy’s is the only restaurant out of 12 from Season 6 that has closed so far, and Season 5 and 6 are the most successful yet, with a combined success rate of 77%.
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As the article points out most of these restaurants are on their very last leg before they even get on the show so really it's not that surprising. It's a case of too little too late. It's kind of ridiculous for Chappy to blame Kitchen Nightmares though since his restaurant was actually seized due to him not paying taxes. Anyway just sharing some Gordon love.
