Damaris Phillips - Predicted Winner of Food Network Star

Photo - Food Network

Voting for the Season 9's Food Network Star ended today at 9am ET (convenient for the West Coast fans, huh?).  I guess they have to film the final episode and have enough time to edit it and everything before Sunday, which may be the reason why voting ends so early.

With voting ending, and the current poll of who people have voted for on a previous post, I think it is safe to say that Damaris Phillips is going to be the next Food Network Star.  With over 1,000 votes cast, Damaris has a little over 72% of the people voting for her as of writing this.  I will keep the poll open until Sunday, but it is pretty revealing how big of a lead she has over the others.  None of the contestants or fan groups told people to come to this site to vote (which I wanted), so this should be a good enough sample size to know who everyone is voting for.  I also didn't allow for multiple votes per person.

So, do your votes really count, and will the Food Network listen?



The answer to that seems to be up to the Food Network.  While I would think they go with the voting results, it seems they do have the option of selecting whoever they want. 

From the Season 8 (Justin Warner's season that had voting) rules:

"33. All decisions related to the selection of the Semi-Finalists, Finalists, Food Network Star, the application evaluation, and eligibility requirements, shall be subject to change at Food Network’s sole discretion. Food Network reserves the right to disqualify an applicant at any time, to modify these requirements or any aspect of the Program as it deems necessary, and to cancel the production and development of the Program or any programming contemplated hereunder."

And from the Season 10 casting site rules (Yes, the are already starting to get ready for the next season):

"20. All decisions related to the selection of the Finalists, any Program winner, the winners of the challenges in the Program, the judging of the various challenges in the Program (including all aspects of any voting processes), the application evaluation, and eligibility requirements shall be determined solely by FOOD NETWORK and/or the Producer, are not appealable, and are subject to change at FOOD NETWORK's sole discretion. At any time FOOD NETWORK reserves the right to disqualify an applicant, to modify these rules and requirements or any aspect of a Program as it deems necessary, and to cancel the production and development of the Program or any programming contemplated hereunder. FOOD NETWORK is under no obligation to exploit the Program in any media. FOOD NETWORK reserves the right to select prospective participants and Finalists and to receive application materials at open casting calls, casting sessions, or through any other manner as determined by FOOD NETWORK in its sole discretion."

So, while Damaris probably has the most votes, we will have to wait until the finale on Sunday to see who actually is the Season 9 winner of Food Network Star.