Entertainment
15 Best Moments When Gordon Ramsay Hosted The Nightly Show
The Nightly Show on ITV was mainly created to cash in on the popularity of late night talk shows in the United States, like Kimmel, Fallon, Conan, Colbert, all of those. It was described by the broadcaster as a “high tempo mixture of topical monologue, studio games, celebrity guests, experts, and VTs (pre-recorded items).” Each week, a new presenter hosts the show from Monday to Friday, and there’s been a whole bunch of them so far, from David Walliams to John Bishop to Davina McCall to Dermot O’Leary to Bradley Walsh to Jason Manford, but it’s possible that no host resonated with the audience quite as much as celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay did on his week. The viewers enjoyed Ramsay’s hosting so much that there were calls on Twitter and other social media outlets for the chef to made the show’s permanent presenter. Fans tweeted, “@GordonRamsay boy you made me laugh tonight!!Job well done presenting the nightly show,” “@GordonRamsay you should stay permanently on The Nightly Show. #lovingit,” and “@GordonRamsay you need to host the nightly show every night!! Nice to have you back in the UK doing a show we’ve missed you Gordon!!” So, here are the 15 greatest moments from the week that Gordon Ramsay hosted ITV’s The Nightly Show.
15. When John Lydon made it awkward
On one episode of The Nightly Show, Gordon Ramsay was interviewing his two guests as a pair: former Sex Pistols singer John Lydon and actress Sally Phillips. As Phillips was telling Ramsay that she does not enjoy cooking as she’s had to make three meals a day for three kids. She said of what took the fun out of cooking for her, “It is like Monday night, you just get the stench of rubbish spaghetti bolognese.” And then Lydon jumped in to add on, “And a fat arse looking at you in the mirror.” Phillips, being the bigger person (no pun intended), brushed off the comment and got on with what she was saying, but an awkwardness was clearly left in the air. Ramsay was speechless!
14. When he defied his wife’s wishes to do the show
When his week of hosting The Nightly Show began, Gordon Ramsay instantly became a trending topic on Twitter as he was a huge hit with fans. Well, “Gordon Ramsey” became an instant trending topic on Twitter. Apparently, people have trouble spelling his name, which is understandable – his name is only in the titles of about seventeen different popular TV shows. But he almost didn’t even do The Nightly Show. He had agreed to do a week of hosting, but then reports came in that the ratings were in decline. So, Ramsay’s wife Tana saw this and, according to the chef himself, “First thing Tana said to me was: ‘Are you going to pull out?’ Am I fuck going to pull out! No. I wouldn’t do that. If I commit to something, I do it.” Good on you, Gordon.
13. When he stood up to critics
Gordon Ramsay got some flak during his time on The Nightly Show – namely for his swearing, but in some cases for his “timing and cadence,” as put so eloquently by one of the more sophisticated online trolls – but he didn’t let any negative feedback or criticisms get to him. In fact, he had a message for all the haters: “I just need to have a bit of fun with it. I know I’m going to get a kicking. It can’t get any worse. The knives are out. I quite like that. I’m robust. I’m going to stand strong and take the blows. I have to do something different, that’s important.” There’s something we can all learn from Ramsay’s attitude there – don’t let negative nellies get you down and just be yourself.
12. When he ordered two takeout meals
In one of the many food based skits that Gordon Ramsay did during his time on The Nightly Show, he took out two cell phones and used one to call a Chinese takeout place and another to call an Indian takeout place, in order to see which one arrived first. The gag was a little racist, as it was based on the idea of pitting two ethnicities against each other (which is what the whites did when they pitted freed slaves against the Native Americans during the Civil War). Fans weren’t too fond of the bit, either, as they tweeted, “This is actually so stupid…his phone isn’t even lit up,” “Wtf!! His phone isn’t on and as if someone would wait that long to answer the phone…please stop The Nightly Show,” “As if anyone expects us to care about Gordon calling two takeaways,” and “Is it just me or is this not real?” In the end, the Chinese takeout people won the race.
11. When fans couldn’t spell his name right
Gordon Ramsay was getting a lot of love on Twitter when he hosted a week of The Nightly Show, but none of his fans seemed to be able to spell his name right. It’s right there, in the credits of the show they’re actually watching, and yet they couldn’t get it right. But at least they were enjoying it. Fans were tweeting, “Gordon Ramsey is the best presenter so far!! Really enjoyed tonights show. Laughed all the way through…” and “Gordon Ramsey is the best presenter ever…Genuinely think Gordon Ramsey should be on the show every week. Man is a brilliant talk show host!” and “Gordon Ramsey is hilarious. He keeps saying ‘fuck’! You cannot get any funnier than that… Gordon Ramsey is fucking brilliant!!!!” and “Gordon Ramsey could actually save the show… F me but Gordon Ramsey doin a F ing good job!… lol BRILLIANT.. Gordon Ramsey on the Nightly Show give him a 6 week series #legend.” That’s all well and good, but it’s RAMSAY with an A!!
10. When he brought The Nightly Show back from the dead
After Gordon Ramsay hosted his first episode of The Nightly Show, when its ratings had been in decline, the reviews and audience feedback were shockingly negative, and ITV had been considering cancelling it, all of the praise came flooding in from fans on Twitter, who saw Ramsay’s hosting as a turnaround for the failing show. One fan tweeted, “WELL PLAYED SIR! knew you wouldn’t disappoint, best nightly show yet!” while others tweeted, “Got to hand it to Gordon….tonight’s ‘Nightly Show’ was actually watchable. Congrats to Gordon Ramsey! @GordonRamsay,” “@GordonRamsay #NightlyShow actually made me wanna watch! Bravo sir,” “Enjoyed @GordonRamsay on #NightlyShow! Best host so far, I think!” So, suffice to say, the easy watchability and charming charisma of Gordon Ramsay saved The Nightly Show from certain doom.
9. When he masturbated a cucumber
When Gordon Ramsay had Rules of Attraction and Dawson’s Creek actor James Van Der Beek on The Nightly Show as a guest, the actor showed him a Van Der Beek family recipe that involved “warming up” a cucumber by stroking it in a sexually suggestive manner and then made him scoop up cottage cheese with his hands in a strange fashion. Van Der Beek was probably having Ramsay on for a joke, but it was certainly amusing to watch the famous, foul-mouthed chef masturbate that cucumber – and James Van Der Beek did it, too. His hands didn’t stay clean. Van Der Beek was on the show to promote his new series, Carters Get Rich, set in the UK town of Milton Keynes, and said that throughout his research for the show, he has “yet to find a person who says that I must go there.”
8. When he taught Chris Moyles how to cook scrambled eggs
Chris Moyles is a radio and TV presenter in the UK with his own show on Radio X. He was one of Gordon Ramsay’s earliest guests during his week long stint on The Nightly Show. He admitted to the famous chef that he had forgotten how to cook scrambled eggs, and Ramsay wasn’t having any of it, so he strapped on his chef’s hat in order to teach him how to make the very basic dish. Now, if you imagine how Ramsay acts around professional chefs in Kitchen Nightmares and aspiring chefs in Hell’s Kitchen, imagine how patient and compassionate he was with a radio presenter who doesn’t have any passion for the culinary arts and doesn’t even know how to cook scrambled eggs. It was something of a treat to watch.
7. When he asked Scott Eastwood for Scarlett Johansson’s phone number
When A-list actress Scarlett Johansson was being interviewed on The Howard Stern Show and she was asked who she thought was the hottest guy around, she gave an answer that pretty much no one was expecting: celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay. The Stern interview with Johansson happened to take place in the same week that Ramsay was hosting The Nightly Show, so he took advantage of this worldwide media platform and this newfound information about GQ’s Babe of the Year, Esquire’s two time Sexiest Woman Alive, and the star of Maxim’s Hot 100 for many years and her secret celebrity crush. When he was interviewing movie star Scott Eastwood – yes, he is Clint’s son – Ramsay asked him for Scarlett Johansson’s phone number. Naughty Gordon – you’re married!
6. When Ramsay jibed James Van Der Beek about Dawson’s Creek
James Van Der Beek is the actor who played Dawson alongside Katie Holmes’ Joey in the teen drama series Dawson’s Creek on The WB. Over the years, the show has proven to be meme friendly, especially the scene in which Dawson cries. Gordon Ramsay mimicked that scene when he had Van Der Beek on as a guest in The Nightly Show, and Van Der Beek was actually surprisingly chill about the whole thing. It just goes to show that Ramsay knows how to joke around with his guests in a way that Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby of ITV’s This Morning don’t. When they had Van Der Beek on as a guest, they clearly offended the actor when they asked him where he’s been since Dawson’s Creek ended in 2003. Van Der Beek told them, totally straight-faced, “I have been on television the last 20 years, just to let you know.” But he was in better humor with Chef Ramsay.
5. When he pretended to cut his finger off in a blender
As any fan of his knows, Gordon Ramsay loves pulling a good joke. One of the funniest pranks that Ramsay pulled during his time hosting The Nightly Show was when he pretended that he had cut his hand on a blender. However, the sweary nature of his rant when he was pulling off this joke did upset some viewers who aren’t fans of his bad language. Viewers tweeted, “@ITVNightlyShow do you really think this is entertaining having Gordon Ramsay swearing? Love Dermot…do not love Mr Ramsay’s foul mouth,” “#GordonRamsay & his foul mouth – and they wonder why the @ITVNightlyShow has a decline in viewers! #NightlyShow @GordonRamsay,” and “Why @ITV do you give airtime to the foul mouthed @GordonRamsay it’s an embarrassing flop @ITVNightlyShow.” But hey, if you don’t like swear words, then what the hell are you doing watching Gordon Ramsay?
4. When he dissed Jamie Oliver
Gordon Ramsay will never miss out on an opportunity to take down his closest rival in the celebrity chef game, Mr. Jamie Oliver. In one of his The Nightly Show episodes, there was a technical glitch that took the show off the air for a few minutes. It was odd and left a lot of viewers perturbed, but they still came back the following night, where Ramsay jokingly explained the reason behind the glitch. He opened the show by saying, “Before we begin, I’d like to apologise for the technical fault that occurred during last night’s show. For some reason, we were mysteriously taken off air for a few minutes. We’re still trying to find out what caused it, but so far, all we found is this image from the backstage security cameras.” And then he showed an image of Jamie Oliver pulling a plug, to which the audience exploded with laughter.
3. When John Legend sang Ramsay’s best insults
Gordon Ramsay has been responsible for a lot of delightfully searing insults over the years, courtesy of his various TV shows. When John Legend appeared on The Nightly Show, he performed a song where he gave Ramsay’s best and most famous insults a more lyrical and gentle touch. He sang, “How the f*** did you burn ice cream? There’s more olive oil on this than Popeye’s dick. You put so much oil in this, the US wanted to invade the fucking plate. I’ll get you more pumpkin and I’ll ram it right up your fucking arse. Would you like it whole? Or would you like it diced? You put so much ginger in this, it’s a Weasley. Why did the chicken cross the road? Because you didn’t fucking cook it.”
2. When Ramsay dropped 16 F-bombs in 30 minutes
The Nightly Show is only on the air for a mere 30 minutes, but the typically foul-mouthed Gordon Ramsay managed to fit 16 F-bombs into that brief amount of time. He called fellow (and rival) chef Jamie Oliver a “fat fuck,” and referred to overweight children as “chubby little fuckers,” which of course, ticked off the anti-body shaming PC liberals of the UK, which might explain why 300,000 viewers tuned out halfway through the episode. You can’t say he didn’t warn them. At the beginning of the episode, during Ramsay’s opening monologue, he said, “I’ve got a very important message: because of my reputation for colourful language, ITV have asked me to warn viewers that the following program may contain bad language…right from the fucking start.”
1. When he made THAT sexual innuendo
This crude sexual innuendo was perhaps the funniest moment from Gordon Ramsay’s week hosting The Nightly Show. See, every night that the beloved chef hosted the show, he had a short segment where he would do a taste test with each of his guests. So, he would put a blindfold on them, feed them something, and make them guess what they were eating. When fellow chef Gizzi Erskine was on the show, he fed her some pickled onions and made a sly sexual reference. He told her, “You can spit it out if you wish. Do you want to spit it out?” When she shook her head, he said, “You don’t have to swallow.” The audience laughed, naturally, and Ramsay waggled his finger at them and said, “Stop it…I’m in enough shit as it is.”