Alton Brown Announced Sad News For Good Eats: The Return Fans
For four minutes on July 13, fans of "Good Eats" were kept in suspense. At 11:57 a.m., Alton Brown wrote a tweet that announced the resumption of "Quarantine Quitchen," his YouTube series, and the airing of the final new episode of "Good Eats." On its own, that sounds simply like a season finale. However, he included #EndOfAnEra, leaving fans to wonder.
At 12:01 p.m., Brown used the lack of a character limit on Facebook to explain that the final new episodes will air and to thank everyone who had helped over the last 22 years of his career. "This is it folks...the big hurrah," he typed. The whole tone read more as a full stop ending than a pause.
The show's end coincided with the end of "Chopped: Alton's Maniacal Baskets," leading fans to speculate about Alton Brown's career and whether he was leaving the Food Network. They cite a November 2020 episode of "Quarantine Quitchen," which can now only be found on Daily Motion, that has Alton Brown stating that he was facing unemployment with an inflection that implies it was not his choice. That pre-election stretch saw Alton Brown repeatedly placed at the center of social media storms of his own creation, per Daily Dot. So, it seems likely that "Good Eats: The Return" may not be returning after all.
There's still more from Alton Brown, though
Of course, Alton Brown was the draw for many to "Good Eats" and its revived series "Good Eat: The Return." Fortunately, it seems that he is intending to plow ahead.
The most obvious evidence for this is that he is hiring. On July 29, he tweeted that he was on the search for "a (qualified and hopefully experienced) social media/digital content wiz." This could mean many things, ranging from wanting someone else to handle his social media accounts to more ambitious plans of capitalizing on the renown Alton Brown still enjoys.
Alton Brown is also slated for a "Beyond the Eats" tour. This, as the Charleston City Paper reports, will be similar to his previous live performances. So, the brain behind the "Good Eats" brand is still at work and seems intent on pursuing a similar path. It just will not be the format many have grown to love.