Shay Carl Mentors ‘Food Network Star’ Contestants At YouTube Space LA

As it rolls through its tenth season, Food Network Star regularly switches up its format to keep things fresh. For its latest twist, the Food Network reality show brought its contestants to YouTube Space LA, where they attempted to make a “viral video” with some help from YouTuber Shay Carl.

Shay is accurately described by a Food Network blog post as a “YouTube legend,” but his appearance on a cooking show initially seems a bit mismatched. However, the episode included no actual cooking. Instead, Shay was tasked with coaching three separate teams as they each produced video advertisements for Hershey’s products like Reese’s, Almond Joy, and PayDay.

Many YouTube professionals would tell the Food Network that it is nigh-impossible to engineer a viral video from scratch, but the three teams gave it their best shot, rolling out a trio of videos that featured everything from nudity to the Spanish language to a dating scenario featuring candy bars. These spots were then judged by representatives from YouTube before the Food Network Star

judges ultimately eliminated one of the contestants.

A quick summary of the episode is available in a video from the Food Network:

The episode is the latest instance where YouTube Space LA has connected the YouTube community to a traditional media powerhouse. The Playa Vista production space previously afforded content creators an opportunity to pal around on the actual film set from the recent Godzilla movie. This time, only one YouTuber got the chance to hang with TV cameras, but from the looks of it, he represented the community well.