Continuing in his unerring quest to dominate the nations TV viewing habits, Simon Cowell debuted his latest attempt to pit members of the Great British public against each other in last night’s Food Glorious Food. According to The Guardian, what resulted was Cowell’s lowest-ever ratings launch. The show, which aims to find someone out there, quite possibly going by the name of Jo Public, who can concoct a brand new recipe for a meal to be sold on the shelves of Marks and Spencer.

Later on in the series, we may well take a look at how much Marks and Spencer regret agreeing to be involved in the show but for now, we’ll have a look at some of the critics’ response to Food Glorious Food. With just 12.7% of the audience share between 8pm and 9pm going to Food Glorious Food, something must have gone wrong. Choosing to ignore some of the snider takes on the new programme, The Telegraph’s review described Food Glorious Food as “twee, wholesome fare styled like a summer fete, with brass bands parping away in the background like The Antiques Roadshow.” However, it was that very summer-fete style backing that had many screaming from their sofa seats that Cowell’s ne show was simply a lame rip-off of The Great British Bake-Off.’

The Independent found humour in the very premise of the show: a cookery programme whose end-game is to produce a ready meal that people can buy so that they don’t have to cook it themselves. The Guardian, using the kind of terminology applied to contestant’s efforts on Cowell’s other famous show, X Factor, described the show as “a bad cover version of other food shows.” Cowell often sparks a ‘Marmite’ response to his shows but this time, he really seems to be struggling to find anyone willing to truly enthuse over his latest creation.