Worst Cooks in America Season Yanked After Winner’s Arrest for Child’s Murder

Food Network has moved quickly, scrubbing all evidence of the most recently completed season of “Worst Cooks in America” after its winner was arrested in response to the shocking and violent death of their adopted daughter, per TVLine.

Ariel Robinson, who won Season 20 of the popular competition series last year, and her husband Jerry were both arrested on Tuesday and charged with homicide by child abuse, per local news station WHNS in South Carolina. An investigation is ongoing, as noted by TMZ.

The coroner determined the cause of death for three-year-old Victoria Rose Smith to be blunt force injuries. She was transported to the hospital where she was ultimately pronounced dead.

A former ELA (English Language Arts) teacher at Sanders Middle School, a representative for the district told the outlet that she left their employ after the 2018-19 school year, before participating on “Worst Cooks in America.”

Robinson was also an aspiring stand-up comedian, who notably talked about child abuse in a 2019 routine. According to Deadline, she and her husband added three foster children to their family in March 2020 following the taping of her season.

While Food Network has not formally commented on the tragedy, all episodes and clips from Robinson’s season have been quietly removed from the network’s Discovery+, Hulu and YouTube pages, while episode summaries have been removed from the show’s official page.

Hosted by chefs Anne Burrell and Alex Guaranaschelli, the series takes notably bad cooks and puts them through a grueling boot camp under celebrity chef supervision to learn the ropes quickly and be able to out-cook the competition.

For her victory, Robinson took home $25,000 in the season which ran from June to August 2020. Season 21, which is currently airing, premiered on January 3.