See Bricker’s comments. Flay is an amazing chef, and I’d watch him cook bricks if that was what the show was. I’ve never to my recollection seen him cook something I wouldn’t eat. So he’s an arrogant asshole. Big deal. So am I. 
My opinion of Flay improved a bit during a series on American food. Standing in the country kitchen of a nice Pennsylvania lady, he took a big mouthful of scrapple. Carefully studying his expression, it seemed he really wanted to spit the nasty stuff out immediately. But he managed to be chew it up & swallow it, while being polite to the farm lady. Showing he could be a gentleman!
He’s got that Yankee brashness, which doesn’t mean he’s an asshole. Shrinking violets don’t become famous chefs; neither do they get TV shows. The chefs he visits aren’t delicate flowers, either; and they’ve agreed to go on TV–although I’m sure that, recently, fewer of them are surprised when Flay shows up. Last weekend I saw an episode in which he came to Houston & cooked chili. Texas chili-heads have never been averse to competition or publicity! (Results: A tie.)
Flay usually tweaks tradtional recipes. The judges tend to prefer the traditional methods–although Flay’s stuff still looks pretty good. The contestants get good publicity & he (usually) gets to show he’s a good sport–when he loses.
Flay does have a reputation as being arrogant, but he is a top notch chef, and his restaurants are well-run and have wonderful food (I’ve eaten at two of them).
Here, he loses twice as often as he wins, and he goes out of his way to put over the competition before, during, and after, regardless of outcome. Given the way he acted in his other shows, this one presents him in the best possible light.
I hate how he can take a simple recipe, such as mac and cheese, and totally complicate the heck out of it. And peanut butter in chili? I sure hope Flay made people aware of that secret ingredient. He’s the anti-Alton Brown.
I read that in something Anthony Bourdain wrote (a blog orsomething). he said that the show was developed because surveys were showing that the audience perceived Flay as arrogant, and the intent behind the show was to show him competeing with and losing to blue collar kinds of cooks cokking blue collar dishes to make him look more humble.
Bourdain implied that Flay was basically throwing a lot of the challenges.
Actually, Bourdain didn’t imply Flay was throwing the challenges, just that he was certain to get his butt kicked by going against experts in the dishes they make. You were spot on about the reasons he listed for FN coming up with the show, though. The network had decided to make Flay a cornerstone personality and needed a way to get people to like him more.
I doubt it would have much of an effect, even if some people got suspicious. It seems like Food Network has a bunch of those type of shows, where they feature some cuisine/dish/whatever from around the country. If FN showed up on your doorstep and said “hey, we’re doing a best of home cooking show, and you were nominated by a friend/family member to present your _________”, you’d bring your A-game regardless of if you thought you were going to do something for an off-hours filler show or against Bobby Flay. Plus he tends to show up when the people are already into the demonstration, so they’ve got their base prep work completed, and then get broadsided by this “whoa, Flay’s here” revelation.
It seems like Flay typically fails when he tries to get too “creative” with a dish. I applaud creativity in dishes, but if someone has a standard regional favorite that tends to adhere to certain ingredients, throwing in a bunch of “weird” stuff will not earn you points with the judges. Taking it just one step beyond, rather than a dozen, is usually the way to go.
At least it’s led me to believe that he can do more dishes than tamales. 
For a while it seemed like his response to the Iron Chef challenges was to make tamales out of the Secret Ingredient, so it’s nice to see him turn out respectable dishes from all over the country. Plus, it blunts my feeling of annoyance at his Iron Chef win over Rick Bayless, who is an awesome chef of modern and homestyle Mexican cuisine.
Actually, a lot of them act like they wondered if that was the true reason behind the Food Network’s interest in them, but they just proceed ahead within the confines presented to them. And as a regular watcher of Throwdown, I don’t think it’s hurt the production at all. It’s just one element of campiness that you either love or don’t.
I have a single data point on the “staged/real” question regarding Throwdown. During lunch with a colleague today, I found out that a family member of his was one of the Throwdown challengees, and that she truly was surprised when Bobby Flay showed up for the Throwdown. It was the Pad Thai show and, according to my colleague, she really thought it was a regional demonstration show, not a challenge. No faux surprise there.
Are you sure? I remember this blog post where he said the exact opposite of everything you said. Right down to saying that he was a founding chef and they were now misusing him, as opposed to trying to establish him as a cornerstone. I guess it’s possible he completely reversed himself later.
I attended a “bad boys of cooking” presentation by Mario Batali and Tony Bourdain. They both expressed the opinion that FN was doing this to Bobby because he came off as arrogant, and their target demographic of stay-at-home-moms aged 25-35 didn’t find him accessible. They said something to the effect of “Bobby can outcook any local chef, and he likes to win - that’s why he’s so successful. Throwdown brings him down to the level of Rachael Ray and Sandra Lee.” They also bashed fairly heavily on FN through the whole evening, though.
I think Bobby Flay is a pompous prick, and I don’t like watching his shows, especially Throwdown. My dislike started on the Japanese Iron Chef, when he pissed of Morimoto by standing on his cutting board. That said, I don’t like Rachael Ray either. Give me Mario, Tony, or Alton any day! Smart foodies rule!
That was a fun read. He was wrong about Emeril - he was the first to go. And - surprise, surprise - he’s not an over-the-top cartoon character anymore.
I watched (or read) an Emeril interview where he described where the “BAM!” came from. On his first show, Essence of Emeril, after a long day of taping, the crew was starting to nod off. Emeril woke them up, the producers liked it, and then he had to keep “kicking it up a notch” to appease his FN masters. It was nice to watch him return and team with Batali. Watching the Super Chef battle almost made me wish I had chosen a different career (which means that instead of typing this post, I’d be sweeping floors in some two-bit diner right now, waiting to bus tables for the dinner crowd).