The Biggest Scandals To Ever Hit The Chew

"The Chew" was one of the top daytime talk shows in the country from 2011 to 2018. It was a refreshing show where food was the highlight of every episode, and guests and the hosts provided engaging background chatter while things were cooking on the set. The high energy of the hosts and audiences on-set, which resonated with viewers at home, was a byproduct of the many shenanigans that cameras never showed you. Carla Hall regularly got everybody up and dancing, while fellow host Clinton Kelly always matched her vibe and dance steps. And, Iron Chefs, Mario Batali and Michael Symon, gave lots of helpful insights about food and cooking. Lastly, Daphne Oz rounded out the group, giving audiences simple health and wellness advice while brightening the show with her charming personality.

Watching "The Chew" was like being in the kitchen with close friends, exchanging gossip and trading cooking tips while at least one person is busy baking or cooking a meal. It had become a part of many people's mornings for seven years before its untimely cancellation, the real reason for which was likely a combination of poor ratings and the sexual assault allegations against host Mario Batali. 

That wasn't the only incident that cast a dark shadow over a production that had always seemed to exude brightness and cheer. The untold truth about "The Chew" is that the show also had its fair share of controversies and criticisms, and we're going to cover them in this article.

Audiences didn't fall in love right away with "The Chew." In fact, some of the show's earliest reviews were downright bad. Huffpost called it "hard to swallow," while Variety said the hosts visibly struggled with the show's fast-paced format, despite acknowledging they may have still been adjusting and learning to gel with each other. It goes on to say that the show felt "overstuffed," packing in too many things in an hour, "valuing quantity over quality." 

A Daily News review also highlighted one of the common criticisms of the early episodes: The hosts presented the recipes as though they could be done in just a few minutes. For example, Michael Symons would demonstrate how to cook pork over kale and beans, but he breezed through the process so quickly, one would think it only takes a second to pound a hunk of pork into a thin cutlet (something that would surely have been prepped behind the scenes, hours before the shoot began). If anyone had been interested in a recipe, they would have had to look up the recipe on the show's website, which, Variety reported, crashed because of the high traffic of viewers who did precisely that.

It wasn't just viewers and television pundits that panned "The Chew" in its earliest days. The late Anthony Bourdain was one of its vocal critics, too.

The globe-trotting chef was asked what he thought of the noontime cooking-and-talk show in an interview with The Mercury News, where Bourdain, ever so honest and blunt, said he was "shaken" with disappointment. He had nice words for Mario Batali and Michael Symon, though. He respected them for their talents and humor, which he thought was comparable to Julia Child's. He even said Batali was a better chef and businessman than him. It was clear, however, that Bourdain considered their decision to host "The Chew" a bad one. "They had to know what they were getting into. I'm not trying to be funny or snarky — I'm really shaken," he said.

Symon responded on "The Chew" a day after the interview was published, "[Bourdain] questioned why we were on ["The Chew"]. And I'm on the show for obvious reasons, I want to cook delicious food, very affordably," Eater reports. But he couldn't help but take a slight dig at Bourdain. "You know, we love Tony. He's a great writer... [But] he doesn't do a lot of cooking on television, so I'm very happy he leaves that up to us." 

A lot of the criticism that "The Chew" received in its first year came from avid fans of the popular ABC daytime drama, "All My Children." The beloved soap opera ran for 41 years until its ultimate cancellation to make way for "The Chew". As expected, avid fans of the long-running show were not happy. They started a boycott campaign, banding with the fans of another beloved soap opera, "One Life to Live," which was also announced to be cancelled after nearly 45 years on air. Many even protested outside the ABC Studios at Lincoln Center, chanting "Save our soaps," as reported by Deadline.

As documented by the Hollywood Reporter, "The Chew" executive producer, Gordon Elliott, empathized with the irate viewers, but also asked them to give the new show a chance. Host Clinton Kelly also tried to soothe ruffled feathers and invited soap opera fans to watch "The Chew." "People tune in to soaps because they feel the casts are their friends," the "What Not To Wear" host said during a panel at the Television Critics Association press tour. "We're welcoming people to come be a part of this group of friends. We can't be soap operas but we can be a group of people you can hang out with."

The genuine chemistry and friendship between the hosts was one of the more endearing qualities of "The Chew," which won over many audiences who'd had enough of talk show hosts bickering and yelling at each other. Underneath the fun and rapid-fire banter were people who had become genuine friends on and off the camera.

But this wasn't always the case. The untold truth of Mario Batali was that one year after the show started, he made some curious comments about his co-hosts that prompted skepticism in an interview interview with Eater. When asked if he was going to continue hosting the show despite his many ventures, including the global expansion of Eataly, a restaurant chain in which he had a minority stake, he told Eater he would, as he enjoyed and found the work interesting. 

That said, when asked about his co-hosts, he stated, "I never would have chosen my roommates, but after a year of working with them, I realize that they don't have weird ulterior motives. These are pure people. Their messages are not all yet clear, even after a year, but they're smart and fun." Quite a backhanded compliment, if there ever was one.

It's common for celebrities who've never previously met or worked together to act like longtime friends in front of the camera. In a show like "The Chew", the initial pretense is a necessary and natural part of the process because genuine camaraderie between co-stars can be nurtured in the long run. This was why despite having a lot of criticisms about the show, Variety conceded that the cast just needed more time to gel.

But the awkwardness between Mario Batali and Daphne Oz seemed to go beyond the typical discomfort between two new colleagues. Six weeks into its first season, Gawker observed that Batali was "thinly [veiling] his utter contempt for Oz and her privileged, vegetarian ways with some of the best passive-aggressive behavior on television." To prove its point, the website pieced together some clips of Batali throwing shade towards Oz — sometimes subtle, sometimes blatant — and uploaded it on YouTube.

The video shows Batali making fun of Oz's vegetarian preferences, putting her on the spot for not knowing what bratwursts are, and making a pun about Oz using fake relish as toppings for vegan hotdogs. In one clip, Batali quite rudely said, "Let's just make sure to turn off the zipper machine right now," insinuating that Oz should stop chattering so he could proceed with his cooking demonstration.

All speculations on whether Mario Batali truly liked his co-stars paled in comparison to the biggest scandal to have rocked the "Molto Mario" host's career and "The Chew". In December 2017, Eater published an exposé on Batali and four women who had come forward accusing him of groping, verbal lasciviousness, and other inappropriate acts. Eater also included testimonies from a male chef, employee, and a former co-owner of Pó, one of Batali's earliest restaurants. The men corroborated the allegations. More women came forward soon after. News outlets covered the scandal, reporting disturbing details of Batali's alleged sexual harassment incidents. The tragic downfall of the chef was chronicled in the documentary: "Batali: The Fall of a Superstar Chef," which aired on Discovery+. 

The explosive news shocked the restaurant and television industry. Co-hosts Kelly, Hall, and Symon gave a statement on The Chew acknowledging the situation. "ABC asked him to step away from the show while the allegations are reviewed," Kelly announced. The hosts also reassured viewers of the network and the show's commitment to creating a safe working environment for all.

The massive backlash against Batali ultimately led to ABC firing him from "The Chew. The network released the following statement: "Upon completing its review into the allegations made against Mario Batali, ABC has terminated its relationship with him and he will no longer appear on The Chew."

As headlines about Mario Batali's sexual harassment scandal dominated the Internet and newspapers, Batali did not deny the accusations and issued a statement apologizing for the hurt and damage his actions caused his family, employees, and industry peers. In a report by NPR, Batali states: "Much of the behavior described does, in fact, match up with ways I have acted. That behavior was wrong and there are no excuses."

Companies, brands, and business partners eventually cut association with Batali after his statement went out. However, one friend stayed by his side despite the gravity of the allegations against him: Carla Hall.

The former model and "Top Chef" favorite had been criticized for supporting Batali. "Much to many people's dismay, I was there for him ... But it wasn't for me to forgive this person," Hall said to People Magazine. She added that what the newspapers say about a person does not entirely define them, so she refused to judge anyone based on that.

When Hall appeared in Bravo's "The Feast" in 2017, she also explained that the Batali reported on in the news was not the man she knew and befriended. "Mario never displayed those kinds of actions toward me — it was only respect and very generous in terms of his knowledge in the industry," Hall said. That said, she did express sympathy for the women who had a different experience with her friend.

On May 23, 2018, ABC announced that it would cancel "The Chew" after seven years and 1,500 episodes, and its one-hour time slot would be absorbed by "Good Morning America."

Many believed the cancellation was because of Batali. However, ABC and "The Chew" producer and creator, Gordon Elliott, said the decision was business-motivated. According to Huffpost, the show's ratings peaked in 2013, when viewership reached 2.654 million after consecutive weeks of increasing ratings. But by 2016-2018, The Wrap (via Yahoo Entertainment) reported that its viewership went down by 3%. A small number on the surface, but a closer look at the data showed a more alarming picture.

"The Chew" ranked last among all 13 daytime shows in 2018. Its audience share for millennial women (18-34 years old) dipped 21% from the previous year, while the overall ratings for women (18-49 years old) was down by 13%. These numbers sealed the show's fate, as this demographic made up the biggest chunk of the show's viewers.

In contrast, "Good Morning America" was the darling of daytime television audiences. It was the country's number one morning show for six years running, and ABC wanted to make the most of it by extending the show's air time. And so, the Emmy-winning show aired its final episode on June 15, 2018.

The cancellation of "The Chew" was a hot topic on its own, but subsequent reports that the show's staff had been totally clueless about the network's decision fanned the flames even more. According to US Magazine, staff members were called to a meeting the same day the announcement hit the news, so they felt blindsided.

"[The staff] were under the impression that the show was still strong and would continue. Ticket requests to see the show in studio were still strong, and their celeb bookings were still competitive in the daytime landscape," the source said. Episode shoots pushed through in the wake of Batali's scandal, so nobody expected that the next post-season hiatus would become permanent.

The remaining three original hosts, Carla Hall, Michael Symon, and Clinton Kelly (Daphne Oz left in August 2017 to focus on her growing family) addressed the matter the next day on social media. They became emotional in thanking the fans, each other, and the staff for a wonderful seven years. "There's no acting when it comes to our chemistry," Symon said (as reported by PageSix). "I am so grateful to have worked with you guys and to have gotten to know you over the past seven years."

In the years that followed, fans reminisced about "The Chew" and industry people would often say they missed the show whenever it came up in talk shows. But, despite rumblings of people wanting to bring it back to television, nothing was happening, until seven years after "The Chew" ended, whne Hall, Symon, and Kelly took matters into their own hands. They reunited and launched "Chewed Up," a reincarnation of the original daytime show that promises "zero filter and endless laughs." It is a podcast available on YouTube with new episodes uploaded thrice weekly.

Drew Barrymore gave a fantastic description for the show when the trio visited her to promote together for the first time. She said, "It's got recipes, interviews, and dirty jokes 'cause no one tells them what to do." Sure enough, Symon shared that his young granddaughter called him out for cursing on the podcast, something that would not fly in a typical television production.

The trio's no longer holding back; not their curses, not their honest thoughts about controversial topics. For instance, in the first episode, Kelly said, "["Chewed Up"] has nothing to do with ABC. Nothing. Nada. Just saying," while doing a slashing motion across his neck with his hand. "Not bitter at all," he continued, making Hall and Symon laugh. If another scandal should emerge from this new show, it will likely materialize with loud giggles.