Trivia / Chopped

• Adored by the Network: If you were to turn on Food Network right now, chances are you will be watching this show. Not only has it come to dominate Food Network's prime time schedule, but it's spawned a number of spiritual spin-offs including Cutthroat Kitchen and even Chopped: Canada. Even Guy Fieri, who dominates most of whatever evening airtime isn't taken up by Chopped with Diners, Drive-ins and Dives, now has his own Chopped-style show, Guy's Grocery Games.
• Follow the Leader:
  • If one of the chefs begins to cry or otherwise has an emotional moment, you can be sure that one of the other chefs will dig for some reason to do the same in the next round (or even the same one, if they have a chance).
  • In a meta sense, many Food Network competition shows follow the four chefs, three round format, with variability of theme ingredients. Unlike Chopped, most of the other shows have the judges strictly judge what happened in the round and not judge the overall performance over the course of the show. See Cupcake Wars, Sweet Genius, and Cutthroat Kitchen.
• Hey It's That Music:
  • When the chefs are standing around the Chopping Block, the show sometimes plays background music from Space Empires V.
  • Some of the music used in Chopped seems to appear in Man v. Food. Possibly justified since both Food Network and Travel Channel are owned by the same company.
  • One of its musical clips is also used in Saints Row: The Third (specifically the music played when in a clothes shop).
• In Memoriam: At the end of "Chopped Star Power: Screen Sensations!" there is a title card that said "Alan Thicke 1947-2016" (it was his final television appearance before his 2016 death and sadly, he got cut in the first round.)
• Spiritual Sequel: To Iron Chef
• Star-Making Role:
  • Ted Allen was a food and wine expert, but hosting this show gave viewers brand name recognition.
  • The vast majority of the judging panel (especially Alex Guarnaschelli and Geoffrey Zakarian) are well respected chefs in their own right, but the show's popularity essentially put them on the map.
• What Could Have Been: Ted Allen humorously remarked that Chopped was originally going to take place in an eccentric millionaire's mansion, with the millionaire's butler serving as the host and the losing dishes being fed to the millionaire's pet chihuahua. Naturally, the Food Network found this "too weird," but wanted to keep the general premise of the show and put it in a more straightforward competition format.
• You Might Remember Me from...: The show has become one of the channel's most well known and prestigious cooking competitions—to the point of where it's not uncommon for chefs being profiled to mention that they were on the show, whether as a contestant or even as a judge (or even both, because some former contestants, like Anne Burrell, have been brought on as judges).