Super Bowl LVII viewers got plenty of looks at celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay
throughout the big game. Maybe too many. Why was the Scottish chef so
prominently featured? As is often the case, the answer is all about money.
The Super Bowl isn't just a football game. It's an event with a capital "E," so it brings
out celebrities in droves. Super Bowl LVII was no exception. One famous face, though,
seemed to appear on camera every time the cameras panned the crowd. Just why
did we see so much of Gordon Ramsay? While he's certainly one of the world's most famous chefs,
much bigger stars were in attendance, including Jay-Z, Adele, Cara Delevingne,
and even Paul McCartney. We'd say a former Beatle trumps a celebrity chef any day.
Of course, there was a very good reason Fox kept showing Ramsay's
mug throughout the broadcast. It was for advertising purposes,
one of the main reasons the Super Bowl exists, aside from football.
One of the hottest tickets on television is the lead-out show, that is, the program that airs
immediately after the Super Bowl. Even if only a fraction of the people who just watched the
game don't immediately change the channel or turn their TVs off, that's still a heck of an
audience. The NFL touted that the 2023 Super Bowl was estimated to have drawn 113 million viewers.
Going back over the past 25 years' worth of Super Bowls,
it looks like the most common lead-out shows have been drama series,
with comedies a close second. There have also been a few reality shows, a talk show,
and even, on one occasion, a second dose of sports in the form of the Winter Olympics.
This year, however, Fox aired the second-season premiere of a cooking show that is also a reality
show, the Ramsay-hosted "Next-Level Chef." So Ramsay's numerous Super Bowl LVII cameos were
themselves meant to lead up to this lead-out and build an even bigger audience for the
show. Considering that Ramsay's shows tend to rake in a lot of money, the focus makes sense.
And when it comes to the football theme,
the Next Level Chef premiere caught the pass and ran it all the way into the endzone.
"What a game! Welcome to the world's toughest culinary competition."
The episode also featured Gordon Ramsay introducing a contestant with his own
special relationship to football. Specifically, he played for the team that came out on top in
Super Bowl LVII. Almost unbelievably, he also played for the team they beat.
52-year-old Mark McMillian – or as he used to be known, "Mighty Mouse" – was
a cornerback in the NFL for eight seasons in the 90s. He played on five different
teams throughout his career, starting with four seasons with the Philadelphia Eagles,
and later two seasons with the Kansas City Chiefs. Talk about synergy.
The retired former cornerback re-introduced himself to America as a Las Vegas-based home
chef. While he says he's far from professional, he's used to working
under pressure, and willing to test his skills on the national stage once again.
"I want people to see that anything is possible. So don't count me out."
According to Adweek, all the 30-second commercials that ran during the Super
Bowl cost the advertisers $7 million or more each. So the total amount of
advertising revenue Fox raked in was around $600 million, thus proving the old adage that time is,
indeed, money. The network was faced with something of a dilemma, though,
as it wanted to use some of that oh-so-valuable airtime to promote its own offerings.
The strategy it settled on was to narrow down the focus to just four shows: a new
dating show called "The Farmer Wants a Wife," the new sitcom "Animal Control," and the old
standby "The Masked Singer" as well as Ramsay's "Next Level Chef." Fox Entertainment Marketing
President Darren Schillace told Adweek that he hopes "a rising tide lifts all boats," meaning
that all shows on the network would benefit from the increased attention to the top offerings.
The best advertising strategy of all, however, may have been something that didn't cost Fox a
dime. Ramsay's numerous on-camera appearances during the game didn't take away from any of
that precious advertising airtime. As long as the chef remains one of Fox's hot properties,
it would do well to have him appearing at any and every major event the station
is televising. Maybe he'll even get a guest commentator spot one of these days,
letting him take his trash-talking skills to the "next level."