''Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution'' (retitled ''Jamie's American Food Revolution'' in the United Kingdom) is a

television show A television show – or simply TV show – is any content produced for viewing on a television set which can be broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, or cable, excluding breaking news, advertisements, or trailers that are typically placed betw ...

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

from March 2010 until summer 2011. The show was produced by British chef

Jamie Oliver James Trevor Oliver MBE OSI (born 27 May 1975) is an English chef, restaurateur and cookbook author. He is known for his casual approach to cuisine, which has led him to front numerous television shows and open many restaurants. Oliver reache ...

and

Ryan Seacrest Ryan John Seacrest (born December 24, 1974) is an American media personality and producer. He is the co-host of ''Live with Kelly and Ryan'', as well as the host of multiple media shows including ''American Idol'', ''American Top 40'', and '' ...

, following Oliver as he attempted to reform the US school lunch programs, help American society fight obesity and change their eating habits in order to live healthier and longer lives.

Premise

The show premiered on ABC on March 21, 2010, in the UK on

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...

on September 13, 2010, in Greece on

Fox Life Greece Fox Life is a Greek pay-television channel owned by the Fox Networks Group, which launched on 1 December 2008. The network also broadcasts to Cyprus, doing so since 15 October 2012. The program includes foreign series such as ''Grey's Anatomy'', ...

in November 2010 and in Italy on Raisat Gambero Rosso Channel in January 2011. Oliver, a celebrity chef and health campaigner in the United Kingdom, used a grassroots campaign in the US to curb

obesity Obesity is a medical condition, sometimes considered a disease, in which excess body fat has accumulated to such an extent that it may negatively affect health. People are classified as obese when their body mass index (BMI)—a person's we ...

. In the first season, his efforts were focused in

Huntington, West Virginia Huntington is a city in Cabell and Wayne counties in the U.S. state of West Virginia. It is the county seat of Cabell County, and the largest city in the Huntington–Ashland metropolitan area, sometimes referred to as the Tri-State Area. A h ...

, statistically one of the unhealthiest cities in the country. In an early trailer for the show, Oliver challenged a group of first grade schoolchildren to identify fruits and vegetables, and they were unable to do so. The show appeared to combine the concepts from at least two of his previous TV series' campaigns in the UK: ''

Jamie's Ministry of Food ''Jamie's Ministry of Food'' is a four-part Jamie Oliver food docu-series that aired from 30 September to 21 October 2008. Premise The series was based in Rotherham, South Yorkshire. Oliver aimed to make the town "the culinary capital of the Uni ...

'' and ''

Jamie's School Dinners ''Jamie's School Dinners'' is a four-episode documentary series that was broadcast on Channel 4 in the United Kingdom from 23 February to 16 March 2005. The series was recorded from Spring to Winter of 2004 and featured British celebrity chef ...

''. In the second season, Oliver took his food revolution to

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

, home to the 2nd largest public school district in the US. Much of the season revolved around the

Los Angeles Unified School District Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) is a public school district in Los Angeles, California, United States. It is the largest public school system in California in terms of number of students and the 2nd largest public school district in ...

board of education's refusals to allow him to film in schools and his subsequent attempts to circumvent their decisions in creative ways. In the episode from April 12, 2011, Oliver decried the use of

pink slime Pink slime (also known as lean finely textured beef or LFTB, finely textured beef, or boneless lean beef trimmings or BLBT) is a meat by-product used as a food additive to ground beef and beef-based processed meats, as a filler, or to red ...

in US ground meat and in US school lunches. In the episode, Oliver explained what the product is and why he was repelled by it. He utilized

artistic license Artistic license (alongside more contextually-specific derivative terms such as poetic license, historical license, dramatic license, and narrative license) refers to deviation from fact or form for artistic purposes. It can include the alterat ...

in demonstrating the concept by immersing beef trimmings in

liquid ammonia Ammonia is an inorganic compound of nitrogen and hydrogen with the formula . A stable binary hydride, and the simplest pnictogen hydride, ammonia is a colourless gas with a distinct pungent smell. Biologically, it is a common nitrogenous wast ...

, rather than gaseous ammonia, as in the

meat industry The meat industry are the people and companies engaged in modern industrialized livestock agriculture for the production, packing, preservation and marketing of meat (in contrast to dairy products, wool, etc.). In economics, the meat industry is ...

. Oliver has stated, "Everyone who is told about 'pink slime' doesn't like it in their food—school kids, soldiers, senior citizens all hate it." The

American Meat Institute The American Meat Institute (AMI) was the oldest and largest trade association representing the U.S. meat and poultry industry. In 2015, it was merged into the North American Meat Institute (NAMI). Overview Founded in 1906 in Chicago as the Amer ...

and Beef Products Inc. responded with a three-minute YouTube

infomercial An infomercial is a form of television commercial that resembles regular TV programming yet is intended to promote or sell a product, service or idea. It generally includes a toll-free telephone number or website. Most often used as a form of dire ...

Reception

In 2010, ''Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution'' was nominated for the Do Something TV Show Award from the VH1 Do Something Awards for its efforts to promote healthy eating at public schools. The show also won an

Emmy Award The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...

for Outstanding Reality Program. The show was renewed for a second six episode season on September 2, 2010. The season premiered on Tuesday April 12, 2011 at 8:00 PM Eastern/7:00 PM Central. After two episodes, the show was cancelled because of poor ratings and replaced by repeats of ''

Dancing with the Stars ''Dancing with the Stars'' is the name of various international television series based on the format of the British TV series '' Strictly Come Dancing'', which is distributed by BBC Studios, the commercial arm of the BBC. Currently the forma ...

''. ABC aired the remaining four episodes in June; because of this, episodes 3-6 aired in the United Kingdom on

before the United States.

U.S. ratings

Season 1 (2010)

Season 2 (2011)

Awards and nominations

References

External links

* The project's web page. * {{EmmyAward RealityProgram American Broadcasting Company original programming 2010 American television series debuts 2011 American television series endings 2010s American reality television series English-language television shows Huntington, West Virginia Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Reality Program winners Health campaigns Television shows set in West Virginia Television shows filmed in West Virginia Television shows filmed in Los Angeles Television series by Ryan Seacrest Productions Television Academy Honors winners