Food Network Miraculously Signs Bobby Flay After They Had Totally Walked Away and Wished Him Well

In a shocking development, Food Network has signed Bobby Flay to a contract just weeks after they declared the negotiations ended and sent Flay packing!

It was just last month that Food Network sources leaked the “scoop” that they were walking away from Flay — with two months to go on his contract because “the sides were far apart on financial terms” — to Variety‘s Cynthia Littleton.

At the time, Littleton noted “Flay representatives at WME declined to comment on the situation, citing the policy of not commenting on active negotiations. That’s an indication that Flay’s team sees some hardball negotiating tactics afoot.”

But, she reported, “sources close to Food Network say the decision has been made to move on.”

Now, Littleton is back with another “EXCLUSIVE,” a very exciting one: even though they walked away and moved on in what was definitely not just a negotiating ploy so naked you’d need a pint of hollandaise sauce to cover it up, Food Network has signed Bobby Flay to another three-year contract!

The celebrity chef, restaurateur and author has set an exclusive pact that will keep him in the Discovery family through the middle of the decade and up to his 30th on-air anniversary with the cabler. The new contract also expands the scope of content opportunities available to Flay’s Rock Shrimp Productions, which produces most of his shows for Food Network.

What a shocking result.

As we noted in October, cable talent is typically constrained by Terminator-esque NDAs and non-disparagement clauses, so there wasn’t much Flay’s team could do publicly to respond to the leak. There’s also likely not much they can do now to signal whether Food Network blinked, or whether they did, in fact, Beat Bobby Flay.

But in an interview with Variety, Flay may have obliquely signaled what really went on, telling Littleton “Every single major network and single streaming service has, to use a pun, a very big appetite for this programming,” but adding that “I have an amazing family at Food Network and a great foundation,” and so he decided to stay.

Curiously, Variety’s exclusive didn’t include any reporting on the financial terms of Flay’s deal, so you’ll just have to guess who fricasseed whom.