Don't get me wrong. I love Gordon Ramsay. I adore Sarah Beeny even more. But aren't their big-rating Channel 4 formats, which both returned last night, getting just a bit, well... stale?
First up, it's Beeny in Property Ladder. Here's how it works. Two wannabe property developers do up a couple of homes. They ignore Beeny's advice. Something goes wrong. They fix it. But even if they don't, they still make shed loads of money because prices are always going up. Show over.
Over to Ramsay. A restaurant is losing loads of money. Ramsay tells them how to fix it, usually involving an entirely predictable formula of "simplify your menu and use local produce". They resist. There's some swearing. They relent. Restaurant fixed. "Done!", as Ramsay insists on saying at the end of every recipe in his other Channel 4 show, The F Word.
Now I know this has been apparent for a while now, but I went with the flow because it still had a little of the novelty factor.
But Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares is into its fourth year now, while Property Ladder has been doing since 2001. Has Beeny really been pregnant every year since?
The Property Ladder format hasn't changed much, although two developers now feature rather than one - presumably to keep our interest up.
But I suspect they are trying to ramp up the aggro factor in Nightmares. Last night's return was rather more niggly than normal and the trailer for next week, even more so. Maybe the show's researchers were told: "Find us the real hospital cases!"
Leafing through my Radio Times - "Best for Freeview!" it says on the front, which presumably means it's rubbish for Sky - I see that last night's shows were the first of two eight-part new series. Eight parts? There are only so many property developers I can feel happy for, and only so many times I can yell at the screen "Don't tell me, Gordon. Local produce, simply done? Yes! I knew it!"
Maybe next week's episodes will prove me wrong and Gordon will suggest an extraordinarily complicated eight-course set menu, and one of the homes will be torn apart by a tornado. Probably not.
Still, it could be worse. Holby City was on BBC1.
