Country of origin United States Original network Fox | No. of episodes 16 | |
Original release January 15 (2016-01-15) – April 29, 2016 (2016-04-29) | ||
The fifteenth season of the American competitive reality television series Hell's Kitchen premiered on January 15, 2016 on Fox. The prize was a head chef position at BLT Steak at Bally's Las Vegas. Country Club Chef Ariel Malone won the competition.
Contents
Gordon Ramsay and Marino Monferrato returned as head chef and Maître d' respectively. season 10 winner Christina Wilson is the interim sous chef for the red team filled in for Andi Van Willigan, who got married and returned in episode 7 of this season. Aaron Mitrano replaced James Avery as sous chef for the blue team. Wilson is the second former Hell's Kitchen winner to return as one of Ramsay's sous chefs, the first being season 2 winner, Heather West, who was the red kitchen's sous chef for season 6. Jason Thompson also returned as narrator for the first time since season 12.
This is the first final since season 9 where the finalists have been on the same team from start to finish, the fourth all-female finale (following seasons two, eleven, and fourteen), the second all-female final three, and the first all-female final where the winner has not moved to the blue team at any point in the competition, the first final since season 5 where both finalists were nominated the same number of times (discounting the finals where none of them were ever nominated). It is also the first season with just one remaining male chef in the top 6, and the second season since season 10 in which no chef withdrew from the competition. This is also the first season where every chef was nominated for elimination at least once.
Opening sequence
Season 15's opening sequence features the chefs at a base camp. Ramsay is then shown placing the HK flag on top of the mountain. For the first time in Hell's Kitchen history, the opening sequence did not play after the recap of the previous episode, but after the remaining contestants had made the way up to the dorms and just before the next morning, where they came down to face their new challenge.
Contestants
Eighteen chefs competed in season 15.
Contestant progress
Controversy
Following his exit at the end of episode 12, Frank, an active-duty Marine chef, stated his dislike for female chefs during his plea and claimed he never allowed any to work under him, saying "The blue team never had any drama until the females came aboard and that's when the ship sunk. And that's exactly why I get fucking female Marines and I send them back wherever the fuck they came from." Following his comments, Marine public affairs representative Bryan Nygaard stated Frank's comments regarding female Marines "are not consistent with the Marine Corps' values of honor, courage and commitment," and he would "notify my chain of command as well as Sergeant Cala's chain of command to ensure that corrective action is being taken." Several days later, Frank was removed from his position with the Commandants' staff and transferred to the Enlisted Aide Program.
Ratings
The fifteenth-season premiere of Hell's Kitchen premiered to an audience of 3.43 million, 660,000 lower than last season's premiere, and down 10,000 from season 14's finale.