What Killed ‘The Chew’: Low Ratings, or the Sexual Misconduct Accusations Against Mario Batali?

Or did ABC cooking/talk show simply choke on a combination of both?

The Chew
ABC/ Pawel Kaminski

“The Chew” just got spit out.

ABC said on Wednesday that it is canceling the daytime cooking series after seven seasons, making room for a third hour of “Good Morning America” (which ironically will not take place in the morning). When we asked, a person with knowledge of the decision to turn off the food-and-talk format’s pilot light pointed TheWrap toward “business reasons,” and steered us away from those Mario Batali sexual misconduct accusations.

Let’s explore that.

This season versus last, “The Chew” was down 3 percent among total viewers, per Nielsen, with its episodic average of 2.425

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