History Series / ComeDineWithMe

* FollowTheLeader: Quite a few narrators of game shows/reality shows since Come Dine With Me have cribbed off Dave Lamb's snarky delivery.

** A similar outburst took place when contestant Heather (in Basingstoke) was placed fourth after regularly clashing with another contestant, Zaira[note] Heather had been condescending towards Zaira and didn't ever eat the desert Zaira did, Heather kept reminding her over again that she was a lady, also on Heather's night Zaira had a hair in her food and the other two guests were fair in their scoring but it wasn't enough[/note].

* PutOffTheirFood: Never completely happened but a close call was the one Brighton guy who drowned his food in Mayonnaise, drank Coca Cola to the point his entertainment was Burping which grossed out one of the guests. Later on he would ask for Mayo on the other guy's night which was received, but on the final night he smuggled it onto his food only for one of the guests to rat him out.

** A similar outburst took place when contestant Heather (in Basingstoke) was placed fourth after clashing with another contestant, Zaira.

* CordonBleughChef: The more ambitious (and oftentimes deluded) contestants can come off as this. One woman served Creme Brulee with Cream Cheese rather than custard, which went down as a good as a Chocolate Fireguard. Someone else did a Sausage Trifle, one man was into fitness and served Chicken and Rice for all three courses, the desert being Tavuk (Turkish Rice Pudding with Shredded Chicken) he was willing to eat it, but two of the guests left the table.[[note]] Incredibly, this is a legitimate dessert: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tavuk_g%C3%B6%C4%9Fs%C3%BC[[/note]] And then there was the couple whose three courses consisted of chicken wings cooked in chili and cherry cola, a bacon roly-poly with cheese custard, and "brownie roulette".

* AnAesop: "Actions have consequences and you really shouldn't expect people to forget how you have treated them in the past because you are now doing what is expected of you". Many contestants have lost the show, not because their food was bad or poorly presented, but because their poor conduct to the host the night before bit them in the arse when it was their turn to host the dinner party.

* AnAesop: "Actions have consequences and you really shouldn't expect people to forget how you have treated them because you are now doing what is expected of you". Many contestants have lost the show, not because their food was bad or poorly presented, but because their poor conduct to the host the night before bit them in the arse when it was their turn to host the dinner party.

* AnAesop: "Actions have consequences and you really shouldn't expect people to forget how you have treated them because you were doing what was expected of you". Many contestants have lost the show, not because their food was bad or poorly presented, but because their poor conduct to the host the night before bit them in the arse when it was their turn to host the dinner party.

** Contestants ''will'' remember how they were treated by the host and fellow guests and it will leave an impact on how they score the night. Many contests have exchanged heated words and insults and then expected to be given a high score when it's their turn to host dinner, only to receive a poor score because of their conduct the night before because everyone saw through the act and were incredulous to their efforts to appease everyone. Similarly, if the host was fair and polite as guest, it does allow guests to be kinder to them as well when it's their turn to host dinner.

* HundredPercentCompletion: It's never happened, and it's rare for the hosts to get anything higher than 30-35, the highest score was Ian Cook from Liverpool who received 39, the only negative for his night was that he served water in plastic bottles instead of in glasses.

** There was another time where the winner was forced to admit on the Saturday that he hid the fact he was a classically trained chef and the guests re-scored him for his deception.

* LaserGuidedKarma: In the Barnsley week they had a guy called Paul Davies who was a businessman and a serious foodie to the point he spent everyone else's night saying what wine would have been suitable, also his long winded way of answering question grated on them especially first night's host Verene Farrell who had enough in one of the nights. His night was last and the guests weren't looking forward to it, despite being all talk the menu despite having different wines was simple compared to others.

The concept is simple: Five (four in primetime) contestants take turns hosting a dinner party at their houses (you don't have to cook the food; but it's generally the done thing). The four/three other contestants mark it secretly on a scale of 1 of 10. The contestant with the highest score wins £1,000. [[note]]It is noticeable that the Irish version pays €1,000, which even after Brexit is still less than £1,000. (For now, anyway. June 2018.) Are Irish contestants being short-changed?[[/note]]

* The Ditz: Sophie from Cardiff at Huw's house, she and Gina went looking around and looking in his bedroom Gina remarked on his open planned en-suite bathroom as being classy but Sophie's only remark was what happens if he has a stinky poo, she even goes as far as to as this at the table and Huw reveals he's single and so it doesn't matter.

There's also a ''Couples'' Variant that's hosted over 3 days in a single episode, while a CelebrityEdition with the same format as the regular edition also exists.

* HundredPercentCompletion: Never happened, it's rare for the hosts to get anything higher than 30 nowadays, the highest score was Ian Cook from Liverpool who received 39, the only negative was that he served water in plastic bottles instead of glass.
* AlcoholInducedIdiocy: Well there's plenty of booze on some nights so of course, it's going to happen:
** A great example was Andy Wright from Bristol, who made the excuse that they kept giving it to him.
* AmoralAfrikaner: in Leeds, expat South African contestant Garth managed to offend all four others, with ease, simply by being, well, male and South African. His forthright and un-toned-down opinions, especially on the status of women, were not well received.
* AnAesop: A likely unintentional one but still effective "Actions have consequences and you really shouldn't expect people to forget how you have treated them because you were doing what was expected of you". Many contestants have lost the show, not because their food was bad or poorly presented, but because their poor conduct to the host the night before bit them in the arse when it was their turn to host dinner.

* BodySushi: Featured in one episode.
* TheBore: Early in the show there was a foodie who gave a lecture on each wine which was so dull, that the editors would fade cut to the end of the lecture. Unsurprisingly the guests were glad to leave.

** One guy made the news after he made one guest cry. She was a strict Vegetarian and he purposely served her a Pasta Bake with Canned Soup and Non-Vegetarian Parmesan and Roast Potatoes in Goose Fat. He received a 1 from her unsurprisingly, but he claimed he did it as a "joke". [[note]]https://www.expressandstar.com/news/2011/03/15/no-regrets-says-come-dine-with-me-baddie/[[/note]]

* CheatersNeverProsper: The Show was made for this Trope, in the 2nd series a woman gave low scores in order to win, caught out she was forced to re-score her competitors or leave the show, she did and was Runner Up instead. There was another time where the winner was forced to admit on the Saturday that he hid the fact he was a Classically Trained Chef and the guests re-scored him for his deception.
* ChirpingCrickets: Boy when someone says something you can imagine it.
** One example was a man who had been sightly chauvinistic towards the women in the group but then on his night when up to 11 when he used a friend's daughters [[spoiler:who were Waitresses anyway]] to serve it his table, every time he rang the bell next to him the others guests sat in silence, until they requested him to stop and send the girls home.
** Another time had a woman who kept saying the wrong thing to one of the guests, she kept saying the wrong things on her own night, it to the point of Night Four, nobody wanted to spent time with her so the Host had her counting the table decorations.

* CordonBleughChef: The more ambitious (and deluded) contestants. One woman served Creme Brulee with Cream Cheese rather than custard, which went down as a good as a Chocolate Fireguard, then someone did a Sausage Trifle (I wish I was joking), one man was into fitness and served Chicken and Rice for all three courses, the desert being Tavuk (Turkish Rice Pudding with Shredded Chicken) he was willing to eat it, but two of the guests left the table.[[note]] Incredibly, this is a legitimate dessert: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tavuk_g%C3%B6%C4%9Fs%C3%BC[[/note]] And then there was the couple whose three courses consisted of chicken wings cooked in chili and cherry cola, a bacon roly-poly with cheese custard, and "brownie roulette".
** Sometimes gross sounding food has surprised people for example Cardiff's Emma Nurse (who was ironically a real Nurse) her starter was Brussel Sprouts Pate which was off putting for some of them, but on the night it tasted quite nice.

* DeadpanSnarker: Narrator Dave Lamb. Though much less deadpan (and much more snarky) as time goes on.
** And he ''never'' narrates the celebrity versions where the contestants have more influence and a greater say over the production...
* DidntThinkThisThrough: This happens a lot in this show but here are some examples:

** There was a foodie that was also a wine snob that had to give his opinion on everything the others did, well his night was the last and his Starter a Roasted Pepper Soup, he explained the complexity of it to the Camera, however, his guests felt the opposite calling Soup one of the easiest things to make and unsurprisingly called him out on it resulting in a Karma low score.
** One of the hosts was low on booze and he hoped that the guests would gift him a bottle of wine to help, comes the night they gift him flowers meaning he had to water down the few bottles he had.
* DiggingYourselfDeeper: During one week the one woman kept saying the wrong thing to one guest saying things about her weight to the point on night 4, she was left alone during the point when the other guests look around the host's house, thankfully the host got her something to do while she finished the Starter.
* DinnerAndAShow: The contestants get the dinner. We get the show. And not so much in the current series - the idea seems to have dropped out - is that the host provides some sort of entertainment to their guests in between courses.
* TheDitz: A week in Bristol introduced Harriet, who came over as a ditzy DumbBlonde, slow on the uptake, utterly unfamiliar with French cooking terms and full of malapropisms... it is revealed she is an emergency ambulance paramedic. On this showing, you recall ''Series/{{Casualty}}'' is filmed in Bristol, and given the death rate at Holby Hospital, you wonder...
** Another example was Sophie from Cardiff at Huw's house she and Gina went looking around and looking in his bedroom Gina remarked on his open planned en-suite bathroom as being classy but Sophie's only remark was what happens if he has a stinky poo, she even goes as far as to as this at the table and Huw reveals he's single and so it doesn't matter.
* EpicFail: In one episode, contestant Lee had a dinner party so poorly planned and so poorly made (combined with his unpleasant attitude) that the guests gave him an overall score of 7; the lowest score on the show.

* FishOutOfWater: Sometimes the challengers are from different classes, it's funny to see classy people slumming it. But in the one Celebrity Special, there was Four Northerners and One Socialite, the camera shows her displease with the others, after night 2 she quit the show and her replacement was somebody more suited to the group.

* {{Flanderization}}: Watch an early episode and you could be forgiven for thinking there was a different narrator. Dave Lamb's voiceover was originally restrained and unobtrusive but began to take centre stage as it got more snide and sarcastic.

* ProductDisplacement; The British version was for a long time sponsored by wine company Echo Falls who used a catchy song, Camera Obscura's ''French Navy'', as backing music to the "sponsored by" segments at the start and finish and book-ending commercial breaks. When the show changed sponsor, people contacted the makers to ask why they'd dropped the theme tune: it simply stuck in viewers' heads as the theme music, despite the fact the ''official'' theme tune, a low-key piece played on ominous pizzicato strings, was still there at start and end of the show.

** In 2008 ITV created ''House Guest'', which is a carbon copy of this show but one of the guests also stayed the night; it lasted a year. In 2010 ITV also created another ripoff in all but name, called ''May the Best House Win'' which in place of a dinner the contestants looked around each others homes. It was mildly successful lasting two years but how far can you go with that concept.
** In 2010 Channel Four created ''Series/FourInABed''. This show is about Bed and Breakfast owners each spending a night at each others places over the course of a week, reviewing it, and then scoring each other in terms of how much money they feel their room was worth. The viewer might think '' Come Dine'' is bitchy; but for a [[AWinnerIsYou plaque]], the competition here can get cut-throat. [[note]]And of course the real reason for competing is a half-hour television advertisement - totally free - for your B&B[[/note]]

* FrenchJerk: A Bristol week had an expatriate Frenchwoman called Anne, who took the French Jerk persona [[UpToEleven way past eleven]]. She refused to drink a host's wine, turning it down in a most haughty manner as unworthy of her. Then scoffed at a co-guest's occupation of soft-furnishing salesman, considering it unbearingly boring, along with an obligatory snigger of derision.

** And then, in a week where there were three women and two men. Unfortunately for one of the two men, the three women ''all'' appeared to fall for the charms of the other male contestant, flirting, giggling, preening and competing for his attentions. Over three nights this went UpToEleven and the hapless second man was completely ignored and treated like part of the furniture. This became progressively uneasier to watch and reached a crescendo of embarrassment when the disregarded party, on his own night to host, was still treated, at best, as if he was the waiter bringing food to the table. In his own home, by his own guests. He put up with this stoically - until he exploded and delivered a monumental TheReasonYouSuck tirade to the others. Even though you could see his point, and wondered if the show's producers had deliberately set him up as a ChewToy, it was still squirmingly embarrassing to watch.

* CordonBleughChef: The more ambitious (and deluded) contestants. One woman served Creme Brulee with Cream Cheese rather than custard, which went down as a good as a Chocolate Fireguard, then someone did a Sausage Trifle (I wish I was joking), one man was into fitness and served Chicken and Rice for all three courses, the desert being Tavuk (Turkish Rice Pudding with Shredded Chicken) he was willing to eat it, but two of the guests left the table.[[note]] Incredibly, this is a legitimate dessert: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tavuk_g%C3%B6%C4%9Fs%C3%BC[[/note]] And then there was the couple whose three courses consisted of chicken wings cooked in cherry cola, a bacon roly-poly with cheese custard, and "brownie roulette".

* CordonBleughChef: The more ambitious (and deluded) contestants. One woman served Creme Brulee with Cream Cheese rather than custard, which went down as a good as a Chocolate Fireguard, then someone did a Sausage Trifle (I wish I was joking), one man was into fitness and served Chicken and Rice for all three courses, the desert being Tavuk (Turkish Rice Pudding with Shredded Chicken) he was willing to eat it, but two of the guests left the table.[[note]] Incredibly, this is a legitimate dessert: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tavuk_g%C3%B6%C4%9Fs%C3%BC[[/note]]

* EpicFail: In one episode, contestant Lee had a dinner party so poorly planned and so poorly made (combined with his unpleasant attitude) that the guests gave him an overall score of 7, the lowest score on the show.

* AssholeVictim: When a guest is proven to be abrasive and judgmental rather than hospitable and courteous, ''nobody'' feels bad for them when they lose.

* EpicFail: In one episode, contestant Lee had a dinner party so poorly planned and so poorly made, combined with his unpleasant attitude, that's the guests gave him an overall score of 7, the lowest score on the show.

* Jerkass: It's not uncommon for the average contestant to be this.