Posted in: TV | Tagged: gordon ramsay, Hell's Kitchen

Hell's Kitchen: From Worst to First, It's Time to Rank All 22 Seasons

Gordon Ramsay's Hell's Kitchen has had a long run - but how do the 22 seasons of the cooking competition series stack up against one another?

It's always interesting to see the progression of a reality TV series, especially when it's gone on for 20 years, like Hell's Kitchen. There's comfort in the quickly-familiar format, but that doesn't mean there isn't always room for improvement. 22 seasons (yes, I am a season behind) means there's a lot of growth over the show's history, and what better way to follow that than to rank the seasons in order from worst to first? Here's our look at how celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay's seasons stack up over the years:

22. In the last spot, the worst of the seasons, is Season 2. The sophomore slump definitely hit it as they landed on the men vs women format, but that led to the worst aspect of the early seasons: the sexism and cattiness. I almost quit watching because it was 80% arguments and 20% cooking. The aggression, especially out of the men, in the early seasons is far too much, borderline unwatchable at points with many being absolutely not re-watchable at all.

21. Season 8 just feels low-quality in a lot of ways. For a show like Hell's Kitchen, so much of its success relies on format and cast, and by season 8, the format is mostly worked out, but the cast just seems to be so far below the caliber of talent and temperament needed to run a waffle house, much less a fine-dining restaurant.

20. Season 3 has heart, but as far as an entertaining show goes, it gets a little confused. It felt like it was cast for drama and disappointment in the kitchen, and the show itself tried to shove in too many elements of other successful shows, and it didn't really work for them. It just suffers too many growing pains.

19. Season 4 continues with the struggles of the early seasons, and it's still pretty hard to watch—what's entertaining about watching people scream? I suppose the whole genre of reality television is built on that, but Hell's Kitchen thrives when it's focused on the competition and drama that stems from talented chefs fighting for the prize. Season 4 lost that.

18. Season 1 was the one that started it all, and while a lot of people argue that it's a different format, it's surprisingly solid and sets up the show's formula. It does lean more on reality TV casting as opposed to talent-based but thank goodness they quickly learned that marketing executives with zero kitchen experience don't really know how to work on a fine dining brigade and absolutely could not run a kitchen professionally. Are there some goofy challenges instead of ones that have become staples? Absolutely, but it's nice to see how everything got its start and to see confessionals from Gordon and Jean-Phillippe.

17. Season 11 is one of the longest, given that we started with 20 chefs—and it's not like it's just because so many talented competitors applied; the cast is stacked with ineptitude. One has to believe that Ramsay has a hand in casting, but with this season, I seriously have to wonder.

16. Season 15 was such a cluster, and not in a good way. It seems like the producers cast clueless cooks in order to set teams up for failure and get an explosion out of Ramsay, for television, of course. There were no true standouts, just the best of a bad batch, and spoiler alert: it sure wasn't Frank "karma smacked me in the face" Cala.

15. Season 16 didn't really redeem itself much from the prior season, and there were so many sour attitudes and "gross-out" punishments that it ranks low because it just wasn't fun to watch. When the winner of the season feels like the only person who belongs in the competition, that's a bad sign.

14. Season 10 gave us winner-turned Hell's Kitchen sous chef Christina Wilson, but there was a ton of unnecessary and catty-annoying drama in the kitchen, which led to me zoning out on a lot of it despite loving chef Christina. I'm here for the cooking and cooking-related drama, thank you, not dumb sexism and terrible attitudes from miserable people. From what they showed in this season, many contestants felt the same way.

13. Season 7 is decent enough, especially once it comes down to black jackets. The drama seems a little early in the season. It's not as good as season 6 casting or storywise, but overall, it's not nearly as bad as any of the early seasons. It feels like the show didn't quite know where to go after season 6 and floundered for a bit.

12. Season 5 was solid, if not a bit forgettable. There just wasn't a huge dramatic event or anyone grossly incompetent this season (unless you count Lacey), and the winner was well deserved. Overall, it was a drastic improvement over the previous four seasons, though not as good as some of the ones to come.

11. Season 13 competitors felt scrappy and had a lot of heart despite starting a little rough. Once some of the weaker chefs went home and the bumps were ironed out, it wasn't a bad season at all. It did have a bit more drama than I liked, but it was still a solid competition.

10. Season 22, "The American Dream," is far from the worst, especially owing to the fact that it's a modern season, so this is a well-oiled machine at this point. It does feel like it didn't really get going until the obvious weak chefs, in the beginning, were eliminated, but that's not a struggle unique to this season. It does feel a little obviously produced at times, but it stops short of feeling totally rigged. Expected? Yes, but this is a show that's run for two decades at this point, there's not much variety sometimes and that's alright.

9. Season 17 All Stars brought some fantastic chefs with big personalities back to Hell's Kitchen. Sure, some learned from seeing themselves get a villain edit the first time around, but some just didn't care or wanted to play the reality TV star game, and it does suffer a bit for it. Overall, though, it was a pretty solid season with some standout competitors.

8. Season 21 started off with the theming of "20s vs 40s," wherein they pitted younger chefs against older ones, and not only did it not work, but it felt like the early seasons with a ton of sexist comments, but with age. Now, they did get marginally better once the teams were returned to guys vs girls, but it still wasn't great. I will say, Alex? 10/10, one of my favorite winners (shout out the 'boro).

7. Season 18's "Rookies vs. Veterans" is exactly what it says on the tin, and after the All-Stars season, it is nice to see familiar faces alongside new faces in the kitchen. That said, it did feel like the rookie cast was better than a regular season cast because everyone went toe-to-toe with the vets, most of whom made it far on their seasons with good reason.

6. Season 9 got hard to watch with the incessant screaming matches on the red team – it just got to be too much and went on for far too long. That said, though, it was an entertaining season with solid competitors and one of the most evenly matched finale services in the show's history.

5. Season 20, "Young Guns," is actually the first season I started watching in its entirety as it aired, and it hooked me. That said, after watching the rest of the series, it doesn't quite hold up as well as some of the others, though it's still solid. Knowing the format that everyone is on some form of a level playing field is a nice switch-up after 19 seasons of the same thing over and over, for the most part.

4. Season 12 is another turning point in the series format, especially when it comes to black jackets. We see the first "Cook for your Life" challenge, and it's surprising we went so long without it. Black jackets have become an iconic and crucial part of the show format, especially the challenges leading up to the black jackets and finale. As for the season's competition itself, it's solid, with excellent competitors and a pretty good balance.

3. Season 14 is endearing and, honestly, one of the most wholesome feeling seasons of Hell's Kitchen. For the most part, it felt like everyone was there to cook and prove themselves. And the finale? One of the best, even though it didn't feel like much of a hardcore competition. But I don't watch for the screaming matches…usually.

2. Season 6 is widely regarded as the best season, for good reason. It marks a turning point in the show, not only for casting but also in format, doing away with many things, including the "hotel hell"-esque dining room makeover finale. The contestants from here on, for the most part, all seem to take it seriously and recognize that this is a real-life job they're competing for and not "most annoying cousin on 'Jersey Shore: Family Reunion.'"

1.  The number one best season of Hell's Kitchen is… Season 19, aka "Las Vegas." It's hands down my favorite – between the personalities (shout out my personal favorite, Mary Lou), competent cooks, interesting challenges, and storylines. It just makes the format sing instead of feeling like a slog like other seasons. It's an all-around entertaining season of television that is re-watchable, interesting, and comfort television at its finest.

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