While Food Network is full of culinary competitions, Tournament of Champions has stood out for its creativity and unpredictability. For Tournament of Champions Season VI, a new champion will be crowned, but will the title pattern continue.
When Tournament of Champions premiered years ago, the Guy Fieri led competition turned an elimination style bracket into a high energy, must-watch weekly show. Even though all the chefs were well-known faces, the Randomizer played havoc with their cooking abilities. One spin could set the chefs down easy street or have them trekking towards disaster.
For the new season, all former champions will not compete. Instead, they will take on other roles in the show. This aspect opens the door for a new winner to hoist the belt.
According to Fieri, “One thing you can count on with TOC is that we’re always upping the ante, making the competition even more intense and unpredictable. With all four past champs putting down their knives for this round, it’s anyone’s game! So don’t sleep on the qualifiers or anyone else as this year it’s truly anyone’s chance to grab that belt!"
While anyone can win, one pattern has held true with TOC. All the winner have been women. Although Jet Tila has come close, no male chef has made a true run at culinary supremacy. Could it finally be a man’s year?
In addition to former champions stepping aside, Food Network has upped the ante with the Qualifying Rounds. As seen previously, those chefs, like Britt Rescigno and Kevin Lee, have found their way to go rather far into the tournament. Only time will tell if the Qualifiers can take down one of the bracket favorites for a big upset.
The main bracket chefs include: Karen Akunowicz, Kaleena Bliss, Sara Bradley, Chris Cosentino, Rocco DiSpirito, Tobias Dorzon, Amanda Freitag, Stephanie Izard, Kevin Lee, Antonia Lofaso, Tim Love, Shota Nakajima, Nini Nguyen, Michael Reed, Britt Rescigno, Joe Sasto, Chris Scott, Adam Sobel, Dale Talde, Casey Thompson, Jet Tila, Fabio Viviani, Lee Anne Wong and Claudette Zepeda. Additionally, eight qualifiers will join the line-up.
Tournament of Champions Season VI debuts on Sunday, February 16 at 8pm ET/PT with the opening qualifying rounds. There will be eight weekly episodes with the finale airing Sunday, April 20 at 8PM ET/PT on Food Network.