‘Summer Rush’ Has Food Network Fans Convinced They’ve Run Out of Ideas
Reality shows about professions have become a cottage industry, even if they fall in line with presenting more non-reality than probable reality. The Food Network had to go there, apparently, with a recent new reality show about a family running a chain of restaurants. Called Summer Rush, the new summer series premiered on June 4.
Not everyone is happy about this show, because it seems to bring in the reality show tactics everyone sees on other cable networks. Fans of The Food Network have also taken to social media to express their dismay at the network for airing such a thing.
How bad is it, really? Take a closer look and see if TFN truly ran out of ideas.
What is the exact premise of ‘Summer Rush’?
The show is all about the Foy Family, with various siblings owning individual restaurants. Yes, this creates considerable competition among the family, something a bit unusual when most families operate one restaurant together.
Focus is on three particular restaurants owned by various family members. They have to make enough money to get them through the year financially, a daunting challenge in the times we live.
This show seems to have taped before quarantine, though, making the challenge slightly different from how it works now. Here, the family is pitted against each other to see how much money they can make in the shortest amount of time.
Taking place over 10 weeks, the episodes thus far frequently become intense, proving internal family drama is now a recurring trope in reality shows.
Why are fans hating on ‘Summer Rush’?
Go over to Reddit and one can see fans tearing into Summer Rush by calling it faked/staged B.S. Says the initial thread starter: “I’m watching it now and it is god awful…im sorry if this upsets anyone, but everything seems fake/staged.”
What fans find at fault is the show looks like summer filler rather than a truly superior show about food. Then again, with Guy Fieri and Ree Drummond dominating the network, they probably had to avoid giving them yet another series.
Bothering viewers the most is that the setup for Summer Rush seems too manipulative. The take is that the Foy Family must not be struggling too badly if they own three restaurants.
On the other hand, nobody really knows how hard it is to keep restaurants going. Statistics continually show 80% of them never stay open beyond five years according to CNBC. With this in mind, maybe Summer Rush has a little more reality than everyone sees.
Then again, the Foy Family are being paid to do the show
Said another person on Reddit: “Isn’t the entire premise of this show in the first place stupid? So their restaurant only has two months to make enough money to get them through the year. Well, they are getting paid to do this show, aren’t they? (And probably at least twice as much than they would make at their restaurants.)”
Comments like this do make sense and gives evidence these shows try to make the supposed ordinary people in the cast look financially strapped. In reality, being paid for their reality shows often makes them into millionaires if the show takes off.
A good example is History Channel’s Pawn Stars. They still present the Harrison family as an ordinary, middle-class family running a Las Vegas pawn shop. Yet, it turned them into a million-dollar TV dynasty within the first season.
Any other reality show that tries to make the participants look “normal” probably are not. Regardless, Summer Rush has a way to go to see how it fits in at The Food Network. If it really took on restaurant survival in the age of quarantine, reality would shine through at a very uncomfortable level.
