I've noticed in most cases on Kitchen Nightmares that either the food is good but one or two problem employees bring the entire restaurant down, or the food sucks ass but the service staff are generally sympathetic and will not mince words about the bad quality. In almost every case, management is in denial despite asking for help.
I wonder if they stage it that way on purpose, because I can't imagine getting lucky enough to have Gordon fucking Ramsay come to save my failing restaurant and having my ego stand in the way at the moment of truth.
It was often owner/managers that couldn’t stay the f out of the way of employees who knew what they were doing, didn’t have a menu that was cost- and manpower-effective, or didn’t get rid of bad employees.
The show was obviously edited for effect, but IIRC the businesses were legit. They were usually on their last financial “leg”, and owners would give up.
Virtually all the failures otherwise were because the owner or management refused to follow Ramsay’s advice.
Most of the failure seems to be having a massive menu that forces over use of frozen foods and massive food waste. Combined with management having no standards, so mediocre food gets worse and service becomes awful, which drives away customers.
Most every rescue is giving them a menu of 5-10 items and establishing basic standards. If kitchen nightmares chose restaurants that weren't already completely out of runway they would be far more successful. There were way to many places that didn't have the money to operate for 6 months to even have a chance of turning around.