From E! News
By Lia Haberman
NBC has removed The Restaurant from the menu.
The meatballs-and-machinations reality series has been dropped from the network's schedule for the rest of sweeps--not a promising move for the series, which could shape up to be Mark Burnett's first high-profile cancellation.
A call to NBC was not returned Monday.
Rocco DiSpirito's on-air experiment--launching his restaurant Rocco's on 22nd under 24/7 camera surveillance--entered its second season April 19 with a piping hot batch of six new episodes.
But the show has been plagued with on- and off-screen problems, including a legal battle for control of the restaurant between the chef and his financier Jeffrey Chodorow, which has become the show's main story line. DiSpirito claims Chodorow cooked the books. The money-man claims the camera-friendly foodie isn't worth his salt.
The duo's feud, which was the subject of a recent New York magazine cover story, has Manhattan residents fascinated. After all, New York City's trendy restaurant openings and closings are tracked about as carefully as fluctuations in the stock market.
However, TV viewers were less entranced with the kitchen drama's second season, with a measly 6.9 million tuning in per week for the first three episodes.
On top of that, the restaurant's real-life diners have had few good things to say about Rocco's chow and service. Ditto the New York Health Department, which cited the restaurant last August for six violations of the city's health code.
It apparently proved all too much for NBC to stomach and the net yanked the series with three episodes left to air. Repeats of Crossing Jordan and Law & Order: SVU will fill the Monday night time slot with Restaurant expected to return some time later this month, according to Variety.
