Hell's Kitchen Redux

From the Associated Press

Fox prepares new 'Hell's Kitchen'

Fox has set a premiere date for the second season of its culinary competition "Hell's Kitchen," in which another group of culinary masochists will vie for a job with renowned and hot-tempered chef Gordon Ramsay.

The show, in which teams of aspiring chefs compete for Ramsay's approval - and often end up wearing what they're cooking, courtesy of Ramsay - will open its second season June 12. It will hold down the same 9 pm time slot it had last summer.

In the first season, 27-year-old chef Michael outlasted 11 other competitors to win the competition and take a job working in one of Ramsay's London restaurants.

The stakes are somewhat higher this year: The winner will receive the title of executive chef at a fine-dining restaurant at the soon-to-open Red Rock Casino Resort in Las Vegas. Fox also says the winner "will be eligible" to have a financial interest in the restaurant and give input on its design.

"Hell's Kitchen" averaged a not-bad-for-summer 7.24 million viewers per week last year, ending with a high of 8.94 million for the finale. It also regularly won its time period among adults 18-49 and adults 18-34, Fox's target demographics.