australian television information archive

Cooks go off the boil

MAYBE it would have worked if we'd been allowed to vote people off.

The Cooks, Ten's "sizzling" new drama, has been taken off the primetime menu after only one episode.

A network spokeswoman said yesterday the show had been bumped "for obvious reasons".

We presume that means its desperate try-hard air and the least-likable cast of characters since those beer-fuelled weirdos were marooned on an island on Ten's reality show The Resort earlier this year.

But we could vote to evict them. And at least the people on The Resort knew how to talk like normal people (apart from Tabs, of immortal, "Why don't you open your earballs and listen a bit" fame).

The first episode of The Cooks—which screened to a panic-inducing low viewership of 121,000 people in Sydney on Monday night despite its heavy hype—featured robotic lines like, "I have missed you" and a "fiery Argentinian" named Carmelita (Emma Lung), who hissed things like, "I want to be THE dessert bitch of the inner-west" in what, we might add, sounded suspiciously like a Russian accent.

The majority who missed one of the lowest points in Australian drama history, however, can still tune in to see just how bad it is—from next week it can be seen on Thursdays at 10.30pm.

Ten has to keep the show on air in order to fill its quota of Australian drama.

The Cooks' 9.30pm Monday timeslot, meanwhile, will be filled with American import NCIS.

October 21, 2004
The Daily Telegraph