TV Talk: Pittsburgher competes on post-Super Bowl premiere of ‘Next Level Chef’
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When Munhall’s Kamahlai Stewart was contacted by a producer for Fox’s “Next Level Chef” in early 2022 via her Instagram page, Stewart thought it was a prank.
“We’re going on Gordon Ramsay’s show? Like, get out of here,” she said.
Once she realized the contact was legit, Stewart filled out a questionnaire and went on about her life running Munhall’s House of Soul catering with husband Maurice, preparing to open new event space Top Tier Venue in Swissvale, raising her children and competing on Very Local’s “Plate It, Pittsburgh.”
Then she got a call in July that she was a finalist for “Next Level Chef” and a round of phone and Zoom interviews began before she headed to London for filming in September.
“I arrived right when the Queen (of England) passed away. I’m like, can’t she wait for me to come meet her?” Stewart joked.
The second season of “Next Level Chef” premieres Sunday after “Super Bowl LVII,” before moving to its regular time slot, 8 p.m. Thursday, on Feb. 16.
In “Next Level Chef” cheftestants compete for a $250,000 grand prize. They are split into three teams with Ramsay mentoring one team, chef Nyesha Arrington mentoring the second and chef Richard Blais guiding the third team.
The action takes place on a three-story set with one team on each level. An elevator stocked with ingredients descends from above and contestants must grab as much as they can in the 15 seconds it stays on their floor.
Stewart, 41, is on Blais’ team and she lucks into getting on the top level.
“It’s like fighting for your last meal,” Stewart says in Sunday’s episode of grabbing ingredients. “I grabbed the ground turkey, but it wasn’t top tier. I’m at the top level. I’m trying to present a top-level plate. I’m like, what the hell are you gonna make out of this?”
Stewart said competing on “Next Level Chef” was an “awesome opportunity” that she hopes will help her to grow her businesses — she’d like to open a cooking academy and teach teens to cook from scratch, steering them away from fast food meals. But it also was exhausting.
“That 15 was like five seconds. It was so intense,” she said of grabbing ingredients. “You have to be able to make something from nothing.”
In addition to “Next Level Chef” and “Plate It, Pittsburgh,” Stewart was also on TV in August 2021 when Homestead police Chief Jeff DeSimone harangued a pregnant Stewart while she waited for her son’s medication at the Waterfront Giant Eagle pharmacy drive-thru window.
“I’m waiting for the medicine, and he’s like, ‘You need to get out of line and go back around,’ and I’m like, ‘If you’re in such a rush, you should go inside,’ ” Stewart recalled.
DeSimone was suspended without pay for three days following the incident.
“He never apologized,” Stewart said, “though some people on behalf of the bureau did.”
‘Animal Control’
Fox workplace comedy “Animal Control” (9 p.m. Feb. 16, WPGH-TV) has a lot of the right ingredients for a successful comedy — unique setting in a Seattle animal control department; Joel McHale as a snarky lead character not too different from his “Community” role; a talented, largely unknown supporting cast — but in its first three episodes the show doesn’t really jell.
Making matters worse, the opening scene completely cribs from a well-known 2013 “This American Life” story, “Squirrel Cop.” It’s a bad look.
McHale stars in “Animal Control” as Frank, a former cop with a chip on his shoulder, who gets a naïve new partner, Shred (Michael Rowland). They both report to awkward boss Emily (always excellent Vella Lovell, “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend”) alongside another animal control team, family man Amit (Ravi Patel) and free spirit Victoria (Grace Palmer).
Created by Bob Fisher (“Wedding Crashers”), Rob Greenberg (“The Moodys”) and Dan Sterling (“Girls”), hijinks with animals — real, CGI and puppet versions augmented with CGI — ensue. To succeed in the long-term, “Animal Control” needs to get funnier fast and spend more time on its human characters and less time on animal gags.
‘Walker’s’ ‘Pittsburgh Windmill’
Next week’s episode of The CW’s “Walker: Independence” (9 p.m. Feb. 16, WPCW-TV) is titled “The Pittsburgh Windmill,” but producers say no one from Pittsburgh had a hand in picking that episode title.
Per showrunner Seamus Fahey: “In making sure the audience is able to easily follow a complex con, we realized an opportunity in the writers room to not just have an expositional scene we’d be bored of where all the steps are laid out step-by-step, but rather filter it through Hoyt, who can’t really follow the intricacies of the con until he relates it to a similar con job he pulled off (AKA “the Pittsburgh Windmill”). … The bonus was (actor) Matt Barr’s pronunciation of “windmill” (look/listen for it).”
As to why “Pittsburgh,” Fahey said, “Sometimes the combination of words conjure laughter and that’s enough.”
New WQED-TV doc
“Alone: Isolation Hurts” (8 p.m. Feb. 16, WQED-TV) explores the intersections of mental health and social isolation through interviews about how isolation exacerbated experiences with alcoholism, suicide attempts and the stigma of acknowledging loneliness.
Produced by Beth Dolinar, the 30-minute film also will be available online at www.wqed.org/mentalhealth.
Channel surfing
John Cleese and his daughter have partnered with Castle Rock Television to create a sequel series to the classic Britcom “Fawlty Towers,” though no channel/platform is attached. … Sunday’s Grammy’s telecast drew 12.55 million viewers in same-day ratings, up 31% year-to-year. … Season two of “Bosch: Legacy” will debut on Amazon Freevee this fall with two potential spin-offs focused on Detectives Jerry Edgar and Renee Ballard in development. … Trade reports say CBS will replace “The Late Late Show,” which ends its run with host James Corden on April 28, with a reboot of half-hour former Comedy Central game show “@midnight.” … Pittsburgh-based director Andy Keleman filmed a regional Super Bowl ad at J. Verno Studios on the South Side — it’s a parody of the 1985 “Super Bowl Shuffle” for the Super app, but it will only air in the Chicago TV market.