'Celebrity Beef' Host Joel McHale on Why New E! Series Won't Have 'Gordon Ramsay Precision' (Exclusive)

By Tania Hussain

After nearly seven years, comedian Joel McHale is heading back to the E! Network for a brand new series — and from the looks of his latest menu item, it will no doubt whet your appetite this summer. In an exclusive with PopCulture.com to chat about the "Summer of Joel" — a collection of TV shows like Stargirl and Crime Scene Kitchen featuring McHale all summer-long — McHale admits the new series, Celebrity Beef premiering on E! tonight is a fun, new series that gives celebrities the opportunity to squash their beef with cooking. But don't expect some Food Network-styled plates a la Gordon Ramsay.

"It's a comedy show with a bunch of celebrities cooking, and then me, kind of harassing them the whole time," McHale told PopCulture while chatting about his collaboration with Rold Gold this summer. "I would say it's a comedy show, then a cooking show. It's celebrities and us yelling at each other, making jokes and then cooking."

Touting it as a kind of "good time to hang"-type TV, McHale admits while it "doesn't have the sort of Gordon Ramsay precision," it's still very fun to see these celebrities spiral and unravel. "If it did [have that Ramsay precision], the whole thing would fall apart," the Community actor joked. "So I get to determine the rules and if someone's not done, I'll just be like, '10 more seconds. Go ahead!' But it was really fun to make and the celebrities were really — they were game for almost anything and surprisingly good at cooking."

Likening the "B-Eef network" series to a comfortable "Sunday barbecue," McHale says the best part of a show like this is how the audience will "never know how these things are going to turn out" at the last second. "I was like, 'Oh, this turned out pretty well!' because there have been things I've been in now going, 'Oh, well we'll get them next time.' So, this was really fun."

Executive producing Celebrity Beef, a series full of chaos chronicling a "good old-fashioned beef-squashing cook-off" that will pit a plethora of stars against each other finds McHale making his signature commentary — a missed staple on the network following his years of dry wit and sarcasm on E!'s The Soup from 2004 to 2015. In a description from the network, McHale will act as prosecutor, judge, and jury, creating twists and turns with various challenges throughout the showdown as these stars go head-to-head in a light-hearted face-off. The winner of each challenge will have an advantage over their competitor, such as being treated to exclusive ingredients, while the loser receives a cruel punishment, like swapping out their knives for gardening tools. At the end of every cook-off, contestants will present their final meal to McHale for the ultimate taste test, as he crowns one celebrity the winner and helps the duos squash their beef once and for all. The champion will also receive a trophy and is awarded $10,000 for their charity of choice.

Celebrity contestants this season include Cheryl Hines and Rachael Harris; Ben Higgins and Nick Viall; Cynthia Bailey and Todd Bridges; Andy Grammer and Justin Baldoni; Justin Sylvester and Loni Love; Dolores Catania and Caroline Manzo; Missi Pyle and Jeff Lewis, and Nikki and Brie Bella.

Celebrity Beef premieres on Tuesday, Aug. 2 at 10 p.m. ET on E! — airing before Kevin Hart's new season of Celebrity Game Face, which McHale says is a good timeslot because he is "much taller" than Hart who "might get intimidated."

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