If you don’t have small children, you may never have heard of The Tiny Chef. It’s a Nickelodeon show about the adventures of an adorable little chef who lives in a tree stump and makes food for his equally adorable friends.
The show was three seasons in and recently scooped up an Emmy for Outstanding Preschool Animated Series. From the outside, it looked like The Tiny Chef was a huge success. Nickelodeon executives saw it otherwise and took a chainsaw to the chef’s tree stump, canceling the show completely.
The bad news came like a bolt from the blue to creators Rachel Larsen, Ozi Akturk, and Adam Reid. However, shows get canceled every day, so why is this particular one news? Well, check out the genuinely heartwrenching way they communicated this to their fans:
Oh. Nickelodeon BROKE this man…. pic.twitter.com/OGh0Cz6OCv
— Minty(@limooosin) June 24, 2025
Anyone who’s ever been laid off out of the blue will empathize with what this chef (and his real-world creators) are going through, particularly when he rapidly pleads that he’s been doing a good job, then, in a daze, politely thanks them for the news. For a second, he tries to continue watering his houseplant, before emotion overtakes him and he weeps on his bed.
Okay so my day is ruined
They absolutely did not need to go this hard, and I can only hope the heartless executives who made this call saw the video and it ruined their day. The response has been a deafening chorus of misery, perhaps best summed up by this morose Discord comment:
When the call’s done, he sulks to the ground in defeat. It’s the way that he’s fully aware he may never see his friends again. They’re all gone. The executives don’t care about family or acquaintances, and there’s nothing Tiny Chef could even do to stop it. All that’s left for the man to do is to just cry his troubles away. He hasn’t experienced cancellation before.
The feeling of not ever being able to see your beloved friends again is heartbreaking for anyone to experience, let alone a preschool show character. Dusting off his apron was such a nice touch here too, it really adds a lot to the scene, Tiny Chef might be vulnerable here but he’s still respectful, he doesn’t cause a scene with the Nickelodeon exec and by dusting the apron off it shows how much he’s matured over the course of the show. But of course, there is no show now. All of that is over. Tiny Chef has no one.”
… pass the liquor bottle. It’s going to be one of those days isn’t it?
Other replies are similarly heartbroken:
superb animation. the quivering lip, the desperate pleas, the subtle breakdown where he drops his duster. it's incredibly real and relatable.
— riley reality(@ilvos01) June 25, 2025
I didn’t even know what this show was but this video was sad
— Arkvoodle (@Arkvoodle55) June 24, 2025
I haven't even heard from the show before, but now I'm sad and now I want to support Tiny Chef and all the staff members of the show in everything they do from now on
— Bernaeon(@bernaeon) June 25, 2025
Fortunately, there is a silver lining. The outpouring of emotion at the cancellation has given its creators the confidence to go alone. They’ve set up a crowdfunding campaign to resurrect The Tiny Chef, where it will hopefully continue on YouTube.
In the meantime, if making children’s TV isn’t lucrative enough, the show’s creators clearly do a mean line in cutting, emotional, and heartwrenching drama. So maybe lean into that!
