Gordon Ramsay's F Word may have attracted a slot-winning 4.3 million viewers last night, but not everyone is impressed - ITV director of entertainment and comedy Paul Jackson this week described it as a "pile of poo".
Mr Jackson also claimed the programme had "injected a lot of [ITV's] Hells' Kitchen into the middle of the show".
The barbs may simply be the comments of a man still bitter at having not signed Ramsay himself - Jackson admitted he felt "personally let down" by the fiery chef re-committing to Channel 4 - but he may have a point when it comes to the actual content of the show.
To put it kindly, it's all over the place. One minute it thinks its Hell's Kitchen, the next its Jimmy's Farm. The only thing that seems to hold it all together is Ramsay effing and blinding.
It comes across as a classic example of the kind of show that starts with a good title and an expensive personality then desperately has to come up with the content.
Last night's episode jumped from three Essex lads being given a hard time by Ramsay in the kitchen - if I was them I would have told the chef to f-off myself - to Cliff Richard slagging off his own wine to Janet Street Porter making fish soup. We also got an update on Ramsay's pet pigs as well as a particularly random contest to see which recipes from other celebrity chefs mutts at Battersea Dog's Home like the best.
Its watchable, but watchable nonsense and all a bit forgettable - something which Mr Ramsay is not in real life and which his primetime vehicle shouldn't be either.
