TV cooking game shows are a popular form of reality show. Shows like Hell's Kitchen and Top Chef have viewerships in the millions, and they are raking in the cash through sponsorships, DVD sales and products.

 Iron Chef is the show that started the TV cooking game show craze. The show originally aired in Japan in 1993, and quickly gained a cult following. The premise of the show involves one chef battling against another to cook several dishes all based around one theme ingredient. The challenger cooks against one of the Iron Chefs, and their dishes are tasted by a panel of judges and Chairman Kaga, and assigned ratings based on taste, plating and originality. The contestant with the highest cumulative score is declared the winner.

The show was so incredibly popular in Japan that it was picked up in America. Airing on UPN, the first U.S. version was called Iron Chef USA, and featured William Shatner as the chairman. This version wasn't as popular as the Japanese version, but it was later reincarnated as Iron Chef America for Food Network. Iron Chef America got a new chairman, Mark Dacascos. It also got new Iron Chefs, including one of the original chefs from the Japanese version, Masaharu Morimoto. This version quickly became one of the most popular shows on Food Network, and is currently airing its seventh season.

 Bravo TV's culinary game show Top Chef has a viewership of millions, making additional cash from sales of DVDs and its own cookbook. In this show, contestants compete in two battles per episode, with one contestant generally being eliminated on each show. The first challenge of each episode is called the Quickfire. During this challenge, contestants are given a task to complete within a certain time frame. A guest judge usually declares the Quickfire winner after tasting or viewing their creations. This winner is usually given immunity from elimination for that episode, except later in the season when immunity is no longer given. At this time, contestants no longer receive that immunity, but they are given some other advantage instead. The second round is the Elimination Challenge. This round is similar to the Quickfire, but at the end of the round, one contestant is cut from the show.

One by one the contestants are eliminated, until there are only two or three left for the last challenge. For the last challenge, former competitors are usually brought back to assist the chefs in the last round. The winner is given the title Top Chef, as well as $100,000 in cash, and the opportunity to appear at the annual Food and Wine Classic.

 Gordon Ramsay first experienced success in Britain with several popular television shows. Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares featured Chef Ramsay visiting failing restaurants and injecting new life into them, helping them get back on their feet.

The F Word brought families or celebrities in to cook in his restaurant of the same name, with each family receiving a point total at the end of the episode. Diners in this restaurant only had to pay for each course if they were entirely happy with it. The point total given to the guest cooks was derived from the number of guests who decided to pay for each course of the meal. At the end of the season, the family with the highest point total was declared the winner, and they were brought back to cook in the last episode of that season.

Hell's Kitchen also started in Britain, but Chef Ramsay was only on the show for a single season. After this, it was taken over by Ramsay's former mentor, Marco Pierre White. The show was brought to the United States with Chef Ramsay as the host. In Hell's Kitchen, contestants have to participate in two challenges per episode. The first challenge is a simple task, after which the winning team receives a reward, and the losing team is given a punishment. Rewards might include a day at the spa or a photo shoot for TV guide. Punishments might involve cleaning the entire dining room after a messy challenge or prepping both kitchens for that night's dinner service.

The second challenge is the actual dinner service. Chef Ramsay spends the entire night screaming at the chefs as they attempt to cook, usually performing very poorly in the face of such extreme pressure. At the end of the evening, the losing team usually has to nominate two people for elimination. Chef Ramsay typically chooses one of the two contestants to be eliminated, although he has made some suprising decisions in the past that fell outside this format.

At the end of the season, the two final chefs each open their own restaurant in one half of Hell's Kitchen. They have to decorate the restaurant, name it, create a menu, and choose their brigade of sous chefs from former contestants.

The winner of this final challenge is usually given a prize equal to $250,000. During the first seasons of the show, the prize was represented as the winner being given their own restaurant. Later this was revised to state that the winner would be given a one year contract for the position of Executive Chef at a prestigious restaurant, and a salary of $250,000.

The Chopping Block is a show that aired for one season on NBC. Hosted by one of Gordon Ramsay's former mentors, the show pits several couples against each other to compete for the final prize. It was based on an Australian show by the same name.

The Chopping Block aired to poor ratings, and the ratings declined so much during the season that NBC elected to run repeats of another show in its place. The rest of the season's episodes were aired online via NBC's website and the popular video website Hulu. Those episodes were finally shown on television later that year, but it was announced that the show would not be returning for a second season

 Other shows have tried to enter this popular genre, but most have failed. Ted Allen of the show "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy" hosted a show called "Chopped", but it has so far failed to reach the level of popularity of many similar shows. Marco Pierre White hosted a show on NBC called "Chopping Block" that lasted only one season before being canceled.

It's hard to tell why some sites do so well and others fail. It could be attributed to the charisma of the host, the show's format, the day and time it airs, or one of many other elements that can't be quantified. It may never be fully understood why these shows performed poorly.

Top Chef and Hell's Kitchen are both entering their sixth season this year, and Iron Chef America is currently in its seventh. The popularity of these shows has enjoyed a meteoric rise, and it doesn't look like it's going to be slowing down anytime soon.