An interesting piece of news today from NPR. America’s Test Kitchen founder Chris Kimball, has left the show, though since the 2016 season has already been filmed, the change won’t be apparent for some time. In addition, Kimball is no longer affiliated with Cook’s Illustrated magazine.
The breakdown in negotiations came after the parent company, Boston Common Press, created the role of CEO to oversee growth, which sounds like it is going to be a major focus moving forward. This led to friction in the salary negotiations between Kimball and the new CEO David Nussbaum. From BCP,
“We made every effort to offer Chris a reasonable contract that reflected his significant contributions to the company and are disappointed that we could not reach agreement,” says Boston Common Press CEO David Nussbaum. “We know this change will be a surprise to many, but we are confident that the ensemble cast, 50 test cooks, and support team for America’s Test Kitchen will continue to offer our audiences the same high quality product going forward.”
America’s Test Kitchen is the most-watched cooking show on public television – nearly 2 million viewers tune in each week.
I liked the show; refreshingly intelligent in the morass of gimmicky Food Network style shows. I’m sad to see him go.
Jill says
WOW! It will be interesting to see where he lands…and how the show fares. Maybe Jack Bishop will play the lead cook now. He certainly deserves some more attention.
PDX Food Dude says
I’ve heard that Jack Bishop is a vegetarian, so he seems like an odd choice for me.