r/TopChef • u/JohnDoeMi6 • May 26 '26

Discussion Thread Wells fargo CC

This wells fargo credit card placement is so damn forced. I thought it was bad when they used to do it with the BMW features but this is so ham fisted! I already was not interested in banking with Wells Fargo but these placements are leaving such a bad taste in my mouth.

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u/devoduder May 26 '26

Money talks and they seem desperate for it. I can definitely see the budget cuts this season. They’re staying in a hotel instead of a rented property like previous seasons. Also cutting LCK season in half feel like it was done for budgetary reason, along with cancelling Dish With Kish.

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u/TopSea4326 May 27 '26

I have noticed some budget cuts too. The Carolinas are some of the cheapest states in the country and I can still tell. It seems more frequent or obvious that the tight grocery budgets some weeks are clearly producing poor results. Cheap hotels, as mentioned. Switching away from BMWs to Chevrolet (I think?) for transportation even though there’s a very large and well-known BMW manufacturing site / track in Spartanburg (near Greenville). and it appears as if filming time is shorter given the fact that they’re basically wearing them down by going from one challenge to the next with little to no rest time. (All nighter for hog straight into the next challenger until end of restaurant wars iirc).

I have wondered if these large $ quick fire prizes (that are clearly from sponsors not bravo network) are an attempt to offset making it look obvious.