It's one thing to put a show up against American Idol and expect it to survive; it's another to not tell us what the show is really supposed to be about before throwing it out there.
Initially, we were told that "The Chopping Block" was the US version of the Australian show of the same name. This didn't interest me at all. But then I caught a re-run of the first episode on NBC's website and found that it's more like the UK's "Last Restaurant Standing" than "The Chopping Block".
Another misconception is that Marco Pierre White is just another Gordon Ramsey. This couldn't be farther from the truth! Where Gordon berates and belittles the competitors (which I admit can be fun to watch), White is very compassionate and actually cares about the success of the contestants.
Essentially, The Chopping Block consists of two teams made up of couples. Each couple is comprised of a chef and a server. Each team has their own restaurant; Soul (the black team) and Crimson (the red team). A hectic dinner service that is somewhat reminiscent of Hell's Kitchen, occurs and exposes the weakest link of each team. Ultimately, each restaurant's performance is judged by a secret food critic that dines at both restaurants and the restaurant with the worst performance has a couple fired by Marco.
At the time of the cancellation, there were still four couples left, potentially leaving at least three additional shows in limbo. There's no word as to when, if ever, these final episodes will air. For now, NBC is filling The Chopping Block's slot with re-runs of "Law and Order's Criminal Intent" (like that's going to do any better in the ratings?!?!?)
(04/08/09) UPDATE: The Chopping Block episode 4 and 5 are on NBC.com. What's odd is episode 4 is listed twice (as 4 and 5. They're both the same even though the thumbnails and episode number are different) and episode 5 is listed as 6. Whatever... at least it looks like we're going to see how this wraps up.