S21.E08: Restaurant Wars

[ProudMary]

Airdate: Wednesday, May 8, 2024

Synopsis:

Split into two teams, the chefs are tasked to conceptualize and create two restaurants that feature a three-course progressive menu, with at least two options for each course.

[dleighg]

Will one team insist on three options for one or more courses, and fall down because of it?

[Salacious Kitty]

Or Laura tries to hog half the budget.

[CrazyInAlabama]

11 hours ago, Salacious Kitty said:

Or Laura tries to hog half the budget.

I would bet on that happening.    I hope she's just cooking, and not dealing with the wait staff, or front of house, because she would be horrible at either job. 

Edited May 9 by CrazyInAlabama

[WaltersHair]

Years ago I sat next to Judge Stephanie's dad on a flight from Phoenix to Chicago. He was so happy I knew who she was and he was so proud of her. At that time he said there was a long waiting list for reservations at A Girl and Five Goats. He told me to to use his name, but I was so excited I totally forgot it. Lovely man.

This Restaurant Wars brings back memories from those early days. The names of the restaurants almost always suck and I get second hand nerves for the cheftestants. Great episode.

 

[Bastet]

I don’t understand not addressing the fact one restaurant had an extra chef.  Why not wait until there were eight chefs left?

Anyway, Channel had the food I most wanted to eat (except vegan gumbo in a seafood restaurant).  There was another RW where the FoH person pretty much ignored the judges all night (that guy who didn't tell anyone he'd lost his sense of taste), so Michelle had me yelling at her through the TV when she decided to wait before going to the judges’ table.  I’m glad that didn’t wind up being a disaster.

Dos By Deul, I really only craved Laura’s tartare, as the sauce sounded great, but I don’t think I’d have disliked anything, even the dishes the judges complained about. 

Both restaurants looked nice in how they were set up.  This was a rather underwhelming episode to me, though.

[Thumper]

I missed it!  Who was sent packing?

[Msample]

Is it just me, or does just about every season see Restaurant Wars boot either the FoH or head chef ? It seems the best strategy is to keep your head down and just fe a sous chef.

[Msample]

15 minutes ago, Thumper said:

I missed it!  Who was sent packing?

Kaleena.

[The Solution]

I thought this episode was really incoherent with two different sets of judges tables in the restaurants and jumping back and forth between the two restaurants during the episode. It would have been much easier for me to follow if they'd  shown one restaurant at a time and spent more time on each restaurant with better explanations while it was going on. Too choppy and incoherent.

I know this is a really unpopular opinion, but I really dislike Dan. His fish looked really good, but I think he's a douche.

[mlp]

2 minutes ago, The Solution said:

I know this is a really unpopular opinion, but I really dislike Dan.

I like Dan a lot but I agree with the rest of your comment.  I had a hard time keeping track of which chef was doing what on which team.  The judges seemed mostly underwhelmed by everything so I didn't have a good sense of which team was doing better.  I can't say I was disappointed to see Kaleena go again.

[Fukui San]

I think this Restaurant Wars was fairly close. No dishes seemed outright terrible. I guess that the pork dish by Dos by Duel was the closest to bad. Both teams had service problems in the second service, which is interesting in that if the judges stayed together in one bloc I think that whichever restaurant they ate at second would probably have lost. The judges comparing notes afterward was interesting to me, particularly when they felt differently about a dish.

I don't know how tickets got screwed up to the extent that it did at Dos by Duel. But it's a Restaurant Wars tradition. Somehow a cheftestant should figure out a way in advance to have a more foolproof ticket and take it with them as one of their personal items that we learned about this season on The Dish with Kish.

[HappyDancex2]

I thought the restaurants came out nice and had similar color schemes.  A long way from clunky decor from pier one.

Not sure why Laura was FOH when all I picked up on was a terse RBF.  She didn’t seem charismatic at all.  Speaking of not charismatic I was fine seeing kaleena go mostly because she thought they did great and no one was going to convince her otherwise.

[HappyDancex2]

Is it me or is manny always making beef with mole?

This season doesn’t have a clear winner but seems like a season where the winner would be upper part of the pack in stronger seasons.  A few chefs, including eliminated Rasika, have had some nice high moments but by chance it doesn’t seem like anyone wants to push themselves out of their comfort zone.  Even Soo seemed unusually exhausted and lacking a twinkle in his eye.  

[Corgi-ears]

4 hours ago, Fukui San said:

Somehow a cheftestant should figure out a way in advance to have a more foolproof ticket and take it with them as one of their personal items that we learned about this season on The Dish with Kish.

Didn't Danny G. basically do that by writing/formatting the tickets, and only having the servers fill it out?

 

Can we now safely say that this is the Season of the Aguachile? Aguachile. Aguachile aguachile aguachile. Aguachile! Aguachile aguachile. Aguachile; aguachile. Aguachile, aguachile, aguachile. Also: aguachile.

Edited May 9 by Corgi-ears

[tv echo]

8 hours ago, Bastet said:

I don’t understand not addressing the fact one restaurant had an extra chef.  Why not wait until there were eight chefs left?

 

I agree.  I found it hard to get past the basic unfairness of one team having the extra chef. That's a big advantage over the smaller team.

[Lassus]

It's my annual RESTAURANT WARS IS TRASH post!

Anyhow, I know I'm not objective, but this is always my least favorite episode of the season.  Mostly because it's a set up meant to fail, and after DECADES of watching this episode, the chefs still make the SAME ERRORS EVERY YEAR.  Y'all watched this show last year, and the year before, and the year before, and the year before, and you STILL FUCK UP TICKETS?  You still can't manage to be a host?

If they really wanted to change it up, they'd give them a whole week of diners, and watch everything from start to finish.  Maybe that would be stupid, who knows, but I'm really tired of the same shit every year.  Maybe bring back everyone who'd been kicked off and make them a third restaurant wars team.

Where was the buying of dishes?  

When has any judge, ever, in the history of the show, complained about the placement of the tables?

I get needing a host at the start and and the end, but when she said something like "check in as much as possible throughout the whole meal" I definitely thought I would hate that as a diner.

Kwame really seems like a grump sometimes.

There is a certain nobility in not putting the judges before the other diners, but it's a very stupid nobility, a Ned Stark nobility.

I get that it's a fine dining and gourmand thing, but I have never in the history of eating out been to a high-end restaurant and thought "oh, this menu is very cohesive", so I generally end up finding that Colicchio complaint kinda bullshit.  It also makes me wonder if they talk to any other diners, because they never mention it if they do, but that seems kind of important.  "Well, we hated it, but everyone else loved it, so you lose."  It's a little Project Runway in that regard where the real-world customer loves it but the judges are all fuck you and this pleasing your customer nonsense that we told you to do.

Anyhow, sorry to hate-watch, but I always hope I won't hate it and I always do.

 

Edited May 9 by Lassus

[NowVoyager]

11 hours ago, Bastet said:

I don’t understand not addressing the fact one restaurant had an extra chef.  Why not wait until there were eight chefs left?

 

2 hours ago, tv echo said:

I agree.  I found it hard to get past the basic unfairness of one team having the extra chef. That's a big advantage over the smaller team.

Hmm. All season, Tom has been teasing that they could send 1 or 2 chefs home each elimination challenge, and he brought back both Soo and Kaleena from LCK. Maybe that made it hard to schedule logistically? Still, a solution would have to been to bring back the eliminated chefs and let the small team select one to be a sous chef--- not participate in brainstorming or shopping, just an extra set of hands to prepare the meal. The team with the extra person won, so it indeed seems unfair.

(Expecting another Restaurant Wars Rage post from @Lassus in 5,4,3,2.... 🤣)

 

[Lassus]

2 minutes ago, NowVoyager said:

(Expecting another Restaurant Wars Rage post from @Lassus in 5,4,3,2.... 🤣)

Ha!  I could have gone on.  I actually found putting the two hardest-core chefs (Tom and Kristin) at one table to be a bit odd, but... it's not actually rage-inducing.

As far as the 5 on 4 restaurant wars, something did seem a bit odd there.  Especially with the fact that no one really ever brought it up, which seems a prime drama/bitching point that could have been used.  I hate conspiracy theories, but it seems somewhat like the contestants were given some direction there.

[CrazyInAlabama]

11 hours ago, Thumper said:

I missed it!  Who was sent packing?

Kaleena went to LCK.  See the LCK topic for the information about that. 

[bravofan27]

I couldn't tell too much what was going on when and where. But some comments.

Laura did a beautiful job. She's very poised and elegant and I think she really killed her role and remained calm. Michelle definitely looked stressed out and uncomfortable as the face of the restaurant. Her avoiding the chefs when they arrived-- really surprised that she was that insecure/intimidated--- not sure. But she should have been psyched to see them, instead of scurrying away. Weird. This was her chance to engage with them, have 1:1 face time with them, show off her personality and connect in a different way. She blew it, IMO. 

I don't think Michelle is going win, just based on that. I think Tom is going to definitely remember. 

The black chef that was with Gail I think fell in love with Laura. As soon as she approached the table, he had this lovey dovey look in his eyes and had a soft voice and looked like he was in heaven just looking at her. Okay, I'm maybe being dramatic, but he was DEFINITELY into Laura.

Kaleena really showed her arrogance and her faking her leadership was appropriately called out. She was making decisions from the start with the menu, that were poorly conceived, and just being an asshole. She is competitive and hardworking, but she's not very smart. She might be able to fake it at work by projecting herself as dominant and "right" but I'm thrilled the smoke cleared and the judges could see what a jerk and cocky ass she is.

Rant over. 

[bravofan27]

2 hours ago, Lassus said:

 

As far as the 5 on 4 restaurant wars, something did seem a bit odd there.  Especially with the fact that no one really ever brought it up, which seems a prime drama/bitching point that could have been used.  I hate conspiracy theories, but it seems somewhat like the contestants were given some direction there.

I think the idea is that the chef that won the last challenge, even though now they aren't safe from elimination, are able to provide a benefit to the team they work with. So having a 5th chef was a lucky gift and wildcard part of the game, but driven because of having to find a way to reward the winning chef from the last EC.

IMO.

Having a 5th chef was the prize for the winner of the EC, and the others benefitted. There were clues they would do this, because recall that Charley received immunity just because he was paired with Michelle before (who had immunity). 

[seltzer3]

Yeah having a 5 vs 4 team is really ridiculous and unfair.

It really helps especially if when a team is in the weeds, not to mention each team has the same # of dishes so the division of labor is smaller among the team of 5.  Not to mention the 5th person is Michelle who is one of the front runners of the competition.

I know people are probably blaming Kaleena for the tickets.  But I know that a lot of recent seasons, a lot of the restaurant war "servers" are actually aspiring actors/actresses who have no experience in restaurants.  So its really frustrating that this problem of servers not knowing which table to take food too keeps happening.

Also it seemed like Laura isn't training the staff for the tickets, so the responsibility should have fallen on her.

[meep.meep]

5 hours ago, Lassus said:

It's my annual RESTAURANT WARS IS TRASH post!

Anyhow, I know I'm not objective, but this is always my least favorite episode of the season.  Mostly because it's a set up meant to fail, and after DECADES of watching this episode, the chefs still make the SAME ERRORS EVERY YEAR.  Y'all watched this show last year, and the year before, and the year before, and the year before, and you STILL FUCK UP TICKETS?  You still can't manage to be a host?

.....

I get that it's a fine dining and gourmand thing, but I have never in the history of eating out been to a high-end restaurant and thought "oh, this menu is very cohesive", so I generally end up finding that Colicchio complaint kinda bullshit. 

 

I'm with you.  I hate RW and only once has it ever been worth watching.  My idea is they should say it's RW, pick teams, and then cut away and show RW from the Portland season so we can see how it's supposed to be done, then cut back and say who won and who was eliminated.  Because it's never going to be better than Maria and Shota and the Asian/Hispanic kaiseki menu.

Not only am I not looking at a restaurant menu for cohesion, I'm often looking at it for something I can actually eat.  They never recognize that people have different restrictions in what they eat.  Good for the gal who made the vegan gumbo - bet all the vegans and vegetarians guests were happily eating it.

[carrps]

1 hour ago, bravofan27 said:

Having a 5th chef was the prize for the winner of the EC, and the others benefitted.

But the others getting the benefits is what makes it unfair. They could have sucked on the previous challenge, but they still get a BIG leg up this time. It really soured me on this episode.

Speaking of sour, dang, was Kwame a big ol' sourpuss. 

Savannah's chawanmushi looked different to me. I'm used to seeing it with a custard-ish layer on top, but hers looked like all broth (with scallops and veg). Which is fine with me, because I've never like it -- I find that custard-y layer bland and off-putting. Amanda's "gumbo" looked gross. Glad it tasted o.k.

Also, as someone said, the judges split seemed based on which restaurant they ate at first. Gail seemed to be really pulling for Dos by Duel. But Gail never wins. 😢

[seltzer3]

1 minute ago, carrps said:

But the others getting the benefits is what makes it unfair. They could have sucked on the previous challenge, but they still get a BIG leg up this time. It really soured me on this episode.

Speaking of sour, dang, was Kwame a big ol' sourpuss. 

Savannah's chawanmushi looked different to me. I'm used to seeing it with a custard-ish layer on top, but hers looked like all broth (with scallops and veg). Which is fine with me, because I've never like it -- I find that custard-y layer bland and off-putting. Amanda's "gumbo" looked gross. Glad it tasted o.k.

Also, as someone said, the judges split seemed based on which restaurant they ate at first. Gail seemed to be really pulling for Dos by Duel. But Gail never wins. 😢

I've noticed over the years that Gail has always been overruled in split decisions.  The most notable one was that Gail was pushing for Josie to get eliminated over Kristen.  And we know how that went.

[GiandujaPie]

This was a weird Restaurant Wars. It definitely seemed like the judges all had vastly different experiences. Each group definitely started off well but got more frazzled as the evening went on so the second restaurant that the judges went to all had more negative comments and experiences. 

I don't understand why all of the chefs don't do what Danny did and have pre-printed tickets so that the servers only have to check off what is ordered. And what is up with getting table numbers confused and taking the food out to the wrong table? Is it really that hard to remember each table number and take the correct dish to the correct table? 

I thought Laura did do well as FOH as she was calm and looked elegant. 

Personally, I thought the challenge should have been that for each course, they would have to have a vegan or vegetarian option available. There is no point in having a vegan option for an entree but no vegan options for an appetizer unless you just don't want that person to get an appetizer. 

[seltzer3]

2 minutes ago, GiandujaPie said:

This was a weird Restaurant Wars. It definitely seemed like the judges all had vastly different experiences. Each group definitely started off well but got more frazzled as the evening went on so the second restaurant that the judges went to all had more negative comments and experiences. 

I don't understand why all of the chefs don't do what Danny did and have pre-printed tickets so that the servers only have to check off what is ordered. And what is up with getting table numbers confused and taking the food out to the wrong table? Is it really that hard to remember each table number and take the correct dish to the correct table? 

I thought Laura did do well as FOH as she was calm and looked elegant. 

Personally, I thought the challenge should have been that for each course, they would have to have a vegan or vegetarian option available. There is no point in having a vegan option for an entree but no vegan options for an appetizer unless you just don't want that person to get an appetizer. 

A lot of the "waiters" in recent RW are aspiring actors that don't have actual food experience.  It kind of explains why a lot of the more recent seasons starting say S12 and on where you had a lot of these weird issues (not knowing which table the food goes too).  Top chef Kentucky was really egregarious, when all three teams had trouble with the wait staff.

[Lassus]

18 minutes ago, GiandujaPie said:

I don't understand why all of the chefs don't do what Danny did and have pre-printed tickets so that the servers only have to check off what is ordered. And what is up with getting table numbers confused and taking the food out to the wrong table? Is it really that hard to remember each table number and take the correct dish to the correct table? 

Restaurant wars does always somehow make waiting and running tables seem to be an Oppenheimer-level endeavor.

Edited May 9 by Lassus

[carrps]

1 hour ago, seltzer3 said:

Top chef Kentucky was really egregarious, when all three teams had trouble with the wait staff.

Kentucky is still the worst season for me. Even over season two. It's close, but Kentucky still "wins."

 

 

[bravofan27]

2 hours ago, seltzer3 said:

 

Also it seemed like Laura isn't training the staff for the tickets, so the responsibility should have fallen on her.

I don't think Laura understood what Kaleena wanted, as Kaleena was the one that wanted tickets a certain way and wouldn't accept them the way Laura provided, but it didn't seem like she took any time to train Laura how she wanted them. 

Never ever have the judges ever nailed the front of house person for not training the staff, or has it ever been brought up. To me, it seems that if the staff mess up, it's still the responsiblity of the FOH to notice it right away and fix it. Note that the judges had to beckon Laura over and TELL HER that their food wasn't arriving and it had been 30 minutes. Sure, it was probably cuz the servers suck, but Laura's correct move would have been to be at that table providing updates and apologies. 

[dleighg]

10 minutes ago, bravofan27 said:

I don't think Laura understood what Kaleena wanted, as Kaleena was the one that wanted tickets a certain way and wouldn't accept them the way Laura provided, but it didn't seem like she took any time to train Laura how she wanted them

I think the issue there was that the servers wrote "beef" and that was ambiguous because that could either mean tartare or the beef entree. So Kaleena said they should write tartare. Made sense to me and should have been clear to Laura. Of course what Danny did was much better to just create a template for the servers to fill in.

[caitmcg]

3 hours ago, meep.meep said:

Not only am I not looking at a restaurant menu for cohesion, I'm often looking at it for something I can actually eat.  They never recognize that people have different restrictions in what they eat.  Good for the gal who made the vegan gumbo - bet all the vegans and vegetarians guests were happily eating it.

Eh, this is one of many ways RW is nothing like an actual restaurant. They're not expected to cater to (or even acknowledge) dietary preferences or restrictions, and no doubt one of the requirements for being a guest is a willingness to eat whatever is proffered. It would be folly to agree to appear as a guest diner if you're vegetarian or vegan because you'd know there is a better than good chance that you wouldn't actually be eating much of the food, whether it's RW or any other challenge. 

[seltzer3]

1 hour ago, carrps said:

Kentucky is still the worst season for me. Even over season two. It's close, but Kentucky still "wins."

 

 

Right, but my point was that it really was not their fault (the Kentucky contestants), when the show made all three teams look incompetent.  In reality was the fact that a lot of the "servers" weren't really servers.

I think that was also the season (along others), where it was impossible for the chefs to clear tables.  Because people wanted to see Tom/Padma, so they wouldn't actually leave, causing horrible bottlenecks in the service.

Edited May 9 by seltzer3

[susannot]

4 hours ago, meep.meep said:

 

Not only am I not looking at a restaurant menu for cohesion, I'm often looking at it for something I can actually eat.  They never recognize that people have different restrictions in what they eat.  Good for the gal who made the vegan gumbo - bet all the vegans and vegetarians guests were happily eating it.

Same same same.  When I eat out-and I do a lot-I never look at the menu and think "I want to order a cohesive meal."  What I am looking for is excellent dishes that I can't or won't make at home.  Since I have culinary training, that rules out a lot.  So I also agree with kudos for the chef (amanda?) who made vegan gumbo with seaweed.  It fit the challenge and it was a great idea.

[sharifa70]

Tom, to Kristen: “What would you have done differently [in Restaurant Wars]?”

Kristen: “Chosen maybe a different team.”

I love her! 😂😂😂😂

[zscore]

They have done RW with uneven teams at least once. In Kristen's season it was 4 women vs 3 men, and the men won.  So it's not necessarily an advantage to have an extra chef. Also if the smaller team won they would get to split the prize money with fewer people.

[albarino]

I'm not quite sure why  the kitchen gets so wrapped around the axle with RWs.  Prime directive: Give the Judges A+++ service. This comes before everything and everyone else.

Their menus are limited. If you get behind, start plating food and then serve it.  For example, waiter leaves kitchen with two entrees. If the first table wants two of the opposite entree, move onto the next table to see if you can serve the entrees.  Yes, the not the judges tables will not get entrees all at the same time but it should be close with only two entrees, and reference the Prime Directive.

I was a waitress a log time ago and having a VIP table wait 45 minutes was pretty bad. 

 

[Yeah No]

I'm with everyone on always hating Restaurant Wars but I think even as they go I hated this one more than any in TC history. It was a combination of things starting with the uneven number of chefs on the teams but also extended to the way they presented it this year. Something was indeed weird and off. We didn't get to see very much of everything from the purchasing of things for the FOH to the chefs cooking, to seeing how the diners in each of the restaurants were rating their food and experience. And then the judging was confusing and repetitive and seemed to take up more than half the show. I couldn't even follow it after a while. I understand having all the judges at one restaurant then all the judges at the next one would take longer to film, etc., but I think is easier to follow.  

And then at the elimination I felt like they were really reaching to find something negative to say about every dish on the losing team and minimized some of their high points. Stuff they criticized about the losing team's FOH was actually done even worse on the winning team but they didn't utter a peep about that to the winners. It didn't convince me that there was even a clear winner or loser.  In all the episode was disappointing and felt a little unfair from a viewing perspective.  Despite that I didn't mind that Kaleena was eliminated again.  I'm generally OK with Dan but this is the second time I felt that he got a win partly because he's more familiar with local food and customs than the other chefs.  

[heyjupiter]

The restaurants looked the same which made it harder to tell them apart. They've had this back and forth setup before. It feels weird because they're going through the meal twice. 

Something about it didn't seem as urgent or creative as previous RWs. I usually look forward to it, but this wasn't exciting but so goes this season. 

Michelle, it doesn't seem like you should be hanging around in BACK when your title has the word FRONT in it. 

[Auntie Anxiety]

Comment from the shallow end: Gail, if you have a stylist, you need to fire that person immediately.

[BlackberryJam]

I wonder if they are experimenting with editing and production. It’s a fail if they are.

[marybennet]

37 minutes ago, BlackberryJam said:

I wonder if they are experimenting with editing and production. It’s a fail if they are.

Yes, I've wondered (but have been too lazy to check) if they are using a different director or directors this season.  The pacing seems off to me. 

Unpopular opinion:  I like restaurant wars.  (Ducks.)  I like that they have to think about a million things at once (food, creativity, decor, hospitality, balancing your treatment of VIPs with your treatment of not-VIPs, worker relations, what to do when people are waiting, . . .) the way I have to do in my work, the way most of us probably do.

[susannot]

1 hour ago, Auntie Anxiety said:

Comment from the shallow end: Gail, if you have a stylist, you need to fire that person immediately.

Agree from the shallow end.  I understand that you have a voluptuous figure but the super ginormous breasts are too much.

[Irlandesa]

I don't mind restaurant wars usually, especially since they've gotten rid of the "find glasses, napkins...etc." and have seemed to pare down the decorating aspect.  I'm not in love with the use of inexperienced servers and knowing the boot will likely be one of four people.  I'm actually surprised Dan won because they often give credit to the head chef or FOH person but I guess they weren't overly wowed by either restaurant and went with the best dish.

[Yeah No]

1 hour ago, susannot said:

Agree from the shallow end.  I understand that you have a voluptuous figure but the super ginormous breasts are too much.

Maybe she's trying to compensate for the absence of Padma's cleavage, LOL.  She's the only one on the show holding that torch now.

But seriously, the cleavage tradition on this show is a holdover from over a decade ago when seeing that on TV hosts was more common.  Thankfully it's not as common now save for shows like this one and "Housewives" that have been around a while.  And gala award events!

[Rai]

Sigh. To all those who hate RW, I salute you because I hate posts bitching about Gail's cleavage. But here we are! At RW and with Gail's rack. I personally didn't notice her cleavage tonight, which to my mind means they were pretty restrained. But also, as a gal with a similar build, I'm tired of people making such a big deal about it. She's got what the lord gave her, and finding the balance between covered and dowdy is very exhausting. Sometimes, the world will just have to cope with being polite and not judging a woman's body for existing.

Anyway, it was fine. I think that's my reaction to the season overall. It's FINE. The contestants are FINE. The challenges are FINE. It's not worth getting particularly worked up about, but it's not worth super praising either. I enjoy it when I'm watching it, and then it just sort of drifts away in my memory. It's FINE.

 

[Maximona]

22 hours ago, Lassus said:

this is always my least favorite episode of the season

Total agreement.

Every year, this episode sucks more.

[dleighg]

9 hours ago, Yeah No said:

I understand having all the judges at one restaurant then all the judges at the next one would take longer to film, etc., but I think is easier to follow.  

They really can't do that because (as we saw) the second turn is usually when the *&^% hits the fan, so it's important that *some* judges see each restaurant's second turn.

But it would probably be easier to follow if they showed one restaurant (first and second turn) and then the other one. But then again, that might be confusing to the viewer as well. 

[Rammchick]

9 hours ago, Auntie Anxiety said:

Comment from the shallow end: Gail, if you have a stylist, you need to fire that person immediately.

But gives me the reason for my once a season post:  Gail, please pack your breasts and go.

I think the issues we're seeing with pacing are due to the extended format of 75 minutes every week.  In prior seasons, only a few episodes were longer than 60 minutes, and things felt brisk and better presented.