Iron Chef Episode Where Bobby Flay Supposedly Quit Didn't Air As Scheduled

Photo - Twitter

On this past Wednesday night (December 13th), Food Network was supposed to air an episode of Iron Chef Showdown that featured Bobby Flay, but it did not air.  The episode was going to be the episode where Bobby Flay supposedly quit Iron Chef by revealing a t-shirt that said it was his last battle.  Bobby supposedly chose a t-shirt as he knew it would be hard to edit out of the show.  This episode was on the schedule all week and was being advertised, but when it got to Wednesday night at 9pm an Iron Chef Showdown episode with Stephanie Izard was on Food Network.

No advanced warning was given by Food Network that this episode would be moved/postponed, but Alton Brown responded to some fans on Twitter (pictured) saying it was his fault because he "didn't finish voice over patches in time."

Tory Miller, one of the chefs competing on the episode, actually had a watch party the night of the episode and everyone there watching was disappointed when the episode wasn't the one he competed on.  He even received no advanced warning of the postponement. Tory Miller also had a sold out $125 six-course meal planned Sunday for 100 people which was celebrating his appearance on the show.  He had planned to still have that dinner, but it looks like he has rescheduled.

This makes you wonder what kind of plans Food Network has for this episode of Iron Chef Showdown.  Are they doing heavy editing to edit out the original audio or the t-shirt?  Will they move this to the season finale and allow Bobby to quit for drama?  Or will it just be a normal episode?  We will have to wait and see, but when this episode has an air date, I will update this post.


UPDATE - A commenter below said the episode was released on Amazon Video the day the episode was originally scheduled to air.  He said it seems that Food Network was able to edit it where you couldn't see the t-shirt.  This makes you question Alton Brown taking the blame for not having voice overs done.  John Besh is a judge on this episode, so perhaps Food Network wanted more time to think about that.

Also on January 3rd, Food Network, Alton Brown and others on the show were all tweeting about the Iron Chef Showdown finale, so it seemed like Food Network decided not to air the Bobby Flay episode.  However, the episode is now scheduled to air on January 10th at 9pm ET.

UPDATE  2 - The episode aired, and Food Network edited out John Besh totally.  He was on the episode when it aired in Canada and when it was released on Amazon video.  Also, there were no signs of Bobby Flay's t-shirt.  More details with screenshots from the episode.

UPDATE 3 - Bobby Flay confirmed in February 2018 that he did quit Iron Chef with his t-shirt stunt and that Food Network wasn't thrilled about it.  He confirmed they had to black out his t-shirt, which was supposedly pretty expensive to do.