Valerie Bertinelli's time at the Food Network has, unfortunately, come to an end. Here's what we know so far about her exit.
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00:00 "And all of those kid bakers that I got to watch grow up. I feel so lucky."
00:06 Valerie Bertinelli's time at the Food Network has, unfortunately, come to an end. Here's
00:10 what we know so far about her exit.
00:13 The former One Day at a Time actress was with the Basic Cable channel for almost 10 years,
00:17 but at the end of 2022, Food Network decided not to renew her contract. By that point,
00:22 Valerie's home cooking was already wrapping up, but Bertinelli was still hopeful that
00:26 she would be able to continue hosting Kids Baking Championship.
00:30 "Seriously, no pun intended, One Day at a Time. We take it like that. I mean, seriously,
00:34 you know?"
00:35 "You don't even have to know who I am."
00:36 Her manager Mark Schwarz told Variety,
00:37 "Her deal expired. They opted not to renew it. They could have come to me with an offer
00:41 just for kids. They never did. Simple as that."
00:44 While her contract technically ended at the end of 2022, Bertinelli was still appearing
00:49 on the network through February of 2024, when Season 12 of Kids Baking Championship ended.
00:54 "It's delicious and it's beautiful. You should be very proud of yourself."
00:58 The network was allegedly led to believe that Bertinelli would refuse to continue on Food
01:02 Network only as the host of KBC, but instead wanted her exclusive multi-series deal renewed.
01:08 Whether or not this is true, based on her manager's comments, it seems like Bertinelli
01:11 would have been happy to continue in her role as a KBC co-host.
01:16 Bertinelli was devastated when she found out that she had to leave the Food Network. In
01:19 a heartfelt Instagram post, Bertinelli spoke about the departure to her 1.5 million followers.
01:24 "It really hurt my feelings. And I know it's not supposed to. Logically. I know that it's
01:31 business."
01:32 It's possible that Bertinelli's contract was not renewed due to widespread budget cuts
01:36 and layoffs at Food Network's parent company. In 2022, WarnerMedia merged with Discovery.
01:42 Food Network, whose parent company before the merger was Discovery, was forced to make
01:46 difficult decisions in this consolidation. And, unfortunately for Bertinelli, her contract
01:51 may have been on the chopping block for this reason. For Bertinelli, the reasons don't
01:54 matter that much. She's just heartbroken about leaving her friends at the network.
01:58 "I think I'm just most sad that I won't be able to tell everybody what they mean to me."
02:04 Bertinelli didn't just love being on the Food Network, she adored it.
02:08 "It was so worth it."
02:09 Her time as the co-host of Kids Baking Championship was especially close to the actor's heart,
02:14 because the show got her through an incredibly challenging time in her life. Seasons 11 and
02:18 12 of the show were filmed around the same time, during the summer of 2022. This also
02:23 happened to be the same time that Bertinelli was going through a harrowing divorce with
02:27 her now-ex-husband, Tom Vitale.
02:29 Vitale and Bertinelli started dating in 2004, and were married in 2011. 2022 also happened
02:35 to be just two years after Bertinelli's first husband, guitarist Eddie Van Halen, passed
02:39 away from lung cancer.
02:41 Bertinelli spoke about how much Kids Baking Championship helped her cope in an Instagram
02:45 video, calling 2022 her "apex year of hell."
02:48 "Without sounding like a drama queen, the show saved my life."
02:53 Bertinelli said that seeing her amazing co-workers and being able to feel productive was immensely
02:57 helpful.
02:58 "It was like a flotation device. So it really hurts that I won't be able to go back and
03:04 see everybody and say, 'Hey, I made it through.'"
03:08 Bertinelli was hopeful that she would be asked to return. However, when it became clear that
03:11 she was not going to be asked back, she took it on the chin. In fact, Bertinelli had a
03:15 hunch ahead of time that her contract would not be renewed.
03:19 In January 2024, she took to X to respond to an article in People magazine, saying,
03:23 "I got an inkling I might not be asked back when I saw I was not in the holiday specials."
03:28 According to the article that Bertinelli was responding to, talks between the Food Network
03:32 and Bertinelli's team had stalled, citing that as the reason that the star was not returning
03:37 to the network.
03:38 Bertinelli was not afraid to call people out, saying in the same post,
03:41 "This is a tad misleading. There were never any talks, so no talks could be stalled."
03:45 Food Network was not exactly gracious when letting Bertinelli know that her contract
03:49 wasn't being renewed. In that same X post from January, Bertinelli claimed,
03:53 "I got a text by a third party on Friday that told me I would not be back. Lol. I was basically
03:59 ghosted."
04:00 While this gives the impression of bitterness, Bertinelli realized that she sounded a little
04:04 bit too harsh in this post. In another response, Bertinelli wrote,
04:07 "I have zero ill will toward anyone at FN. I enjoyed every single moment I worked for
04:12 them, and they are all lovely, kind, hardworking people, and I understand business is business."
04:17 A source close to the issue confirmed this version of events to Variety, making it clear
04:21 that there is no bad blood between Bertinelli and the Food Network, just feelings of sadness
04:25 on Bertinelli's part.
04:27 Straightforward cooking shows are few and far between on the Food Network these days,
04:31 as the network has been focusing more and more on competition shows for the last two
04:35 decades. In this way, Valerie's Home Cooking, an in-the-kitchen, heartwarming cooking show,
04:39 was a very special show for both Bertinelli and for Food Network audiences.
04:43 "It's so delicious."
04:45 On the tail end of her show ending and Kids Baking Championship not renewing her contract,
04:50 Bertinelli criticized the Food Network for its lack of focus on, well, food. On Threads,
04:54 the actor wrote,
04:55 "I fell in love with Food Network two decades ago because of all the amazing in-the-kitchen
05:00 shows."
05:01 "Hot stuff coming through next to Dessert Show with Debbie Fields, sugar and spice
05:05 and everything delicious."
05:08 Bertinelli has also cited a deep love for Julia Child in the past. In many ways, Bertinelli's
05:12 show was a continuation of this tradition that she loved so much. The post was a response
05:17 to someone else, who wrote that competition shows will kill the channel. Bertinelli finished
05:21 off her post by writing,
05:22 "I learned so much. It's sad it's not about cooking and learning any longer. Oh well,
05:27 that's just business, folks."
05:28 "I'm not going to be a cook for a while."
05:29 "I'm not going to be a cook for a while."
05:30 "I'm not going to be a cook for a while."
05:31 "I'm not going to be a cook for a while."
05:32 "I'm not going to be a cook for a while."
05:33 "I'm not going to be a cook for a while."
05:34 "I'm not going to be a cook for a while."