Guy Fieri Says ‘Tournament of Champions’ Contestants Get ‘PTSD’ From the Show

According to Guy Fieri, things on Tournament of Champions are just as tense behind the scenes as they are on air.

Following the qualifiers round and bracket reveal in February, Tournament of Champions officially kicked off its seventh season on March 1. The Food Network series features over 30 of the country’s best chefs competing in a tournament-style culinary competition. The last chef standing takes home a $150,000 cash prize and the Tournament of Champions belt.

“Live audience. What you see is what you get. No bulls***. No changing the rules. No changing the clock,” Fieri said of the show on the Thursday, April 9, episode of the Literally! with Rob Lowe podcast. “And this thing called the randomizer that creates the criteria, no two competitions will ever be the same. There’s nobody that could be sitting at home or in their kitchen saying, ‘OK, if this, this, and this happened, this is what I would do.’ It’s impossible because you never know what’s going to be on the randomizer.”

Fieri went on to describe the series as “life-changing,” as it highlights what he says are “the greatest chefs in the world.” However, there are certain qualities that culinary hopefuls must possess to handle the competition.

“You gotta really have a backbone about you. You gotta really have truth and belief in yourself to go and do this because it’s scary,” Fieri told host Rob Lowe before revealing, “People get PTSD from this. It’s gnarly, gnarly, gnarly.”

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Fieri continued, “You wanna come behind the scenes? [There’s] tears, holes in the wall, kicked over things, people getting pissed, people getting happy, people finding their higher power, people calling their wife, their husband. I mean, it’s a gamut of emotions that goes on.”

Despite the behind-the-scenes drama, Fieri said the show is a chance for him to “celebrate the people that I love and I respect and I admire,” adding, “To be the ringleader of this is an amazing opportunity. It’s what I love so much about what I do, and I would have probably been done a long time ago.”

He continued, “I’m very satisfied and fulfilled and have a great family, great wife, great kids. And my philanthropy, as I said, is my big focus. But knowing what these shows like — we have a new one called Flavortown Food Fight, which is another one of bringing chefs you may not know of and putting them in the environment that they’re best [in], which is cooking and restaurants. … And then, [Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives], going around and putting a spotlight on the places that already exist and saying, ‘Hey, by the way, next time you’re in Schenectady, check this joint out.'”

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Fieri previously gushed about Tournament of Champions in an exclusive interview with TV Insider. “This whole TOC experience is a win for me on so many levels. Being able to provide a platform for these incredible chefs to build their careers is really awesome,” he shared in February. “And I’ll tell you, as a chef myself, what I get to learn by watching them is next level. Every day on set is like living multiple culinary master classes.”

He added, “On top of that, all of us are very proud that we’re able to showcase these chefs in a way that audiences keep coming back for. There’s a lot of content out there in the universe, and it means a lot that the viewers find it as thrilling as I do.”

Tournament of Champions VII, Sundays, 8/7c, Food Network