Hi! As far as I can tell, they are not used anywhere (that matters): official website, press website or season posters. I also checked some TV listings, VOD services and a foreign broadcaster. So I don't think we should use them.

Hi!

Thanks for getting back to me on this

The different (often location-based) titles are used on the official website as subtitles the different series (to more easily separate them, since there are so many seasons now).

For example the last season was "Top Chef Kentucky" as presented in this episode guide: https://www.bravotv.com/top-chef/season-16/ep-1-the-fastest-two-minutes-in-cooking

The press website also uses the subtitle presenting it as "Top Chef Kentucky" in the listing of the first episode, so it's consistent:

"Top Chef" Kentucky begins as fifteen of the country's finest chefs are off to the races at Churchill Downs for the ride of their lives.

(from https://www.nbcumv.com/programming/bravo/top-chef/episodes-schedule)

Also, they are used in the show itself (as shown by the screenshot), and often also presented as such vocally in the episodes. Shouldn't on-screen titles be a high ranking decider on this?

Since the titles definitely are used in an official capacity (as they are used inside the actual show and on the official website), do we lose anything by adding them as Season Titles even though they aren't 100% consistently used for all posters and TV listings?

Could they be formatted as "Season 16: Kentucky" instead -- does that help? (However, number itself isn't lost on the site even though it's not included in the title, since all seasons are still numbered, so I personally think that's redundant.)

Or, should season titles only be valid if the season title completely replaces the shows title in all capacities? I.e. if the season title is more of a subtitle and is interchangeably used with Season X , should it then not be used..?

I'd happily take part in any mod discussion on this, if you see fit

Or if you've already discussed this, just let me know and I'll "back down" -- but my main point either way would be that the title is used on-screen and should then be included on the site.

Cheers! /Gustav

Just to help (or complicate ) the discussion, how prominently the season (sub)titles are used on the posters has changed over the years:

For most seasons they more prominently used on the posters:

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/8147Q9pFvmL._RI_.jpg

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51s9r3UfALL.jpg

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/91QPuYgRMRL._SL1500_.jpg

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/512gYN0-hEL._SY445_.jpg

While some seasons use them more sparingly, like Kentucky where it's only used in the artwork as "Product of Kentucky":

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMTU0OTAzODI4NF5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTgwNTk5Njc5NjM@._V1_.jpg

And for season 15 (Colorado) it wasn't used all in the posters (but was still presented as such inside the episodes as the screenshot in the original post shows).

/Gustav

Could they be formatted as "Season 16: Kentucky" instead

That is definitely an option!

For most seasons they more prominently used on the posters

It does look like some of the earlier artwork had a more prominent location. The old website has a lot of similarities with the current one though: https://web.archive.org/web/20090201061920/https://www.bravotv.com/top-chef

Shouldn't on-screen titles be a high ranking decider on this?

I personally think the official website and press material should rank a bit higher on this one. For example, one of the most famous example of reality series with subtitles is Survivor: CBS changed the name of the show to "Survivor: Edge of Extinction", the official artwork has clear subtitles, iTunes uses the subtitle as does the Canadian and Australian broadcasters.

But Top Chef only has the location sparingly in some of their season artwork and episode/season descriptions. Do we really need to use the location as season subtitles? Shouldn't the artwork and descriptions be enough for us too?

Well, I guess I'm thinking the more correct information is better, and with the hosts (and on-screen titles) presenting the seasons as "Top Chef: " in each episode, a person watching the episodes would be able to find the seasons on the site based on what is shown when actually watching the media.

I guess I'm definitely more interested what the actual media presents itself as, than what TV listings, websites or other off-screen information holds, which I find kind of irrelevant compared to the titles actually included in the media.

Discarding those titles as unofficial and redundant would be like telling a person presenting themselves as Jake Smith that their birth certificate says Jacob Smith, so they are _not _Jake and should not be known as Jake to anyone, which I find kinda troublesome I guess

Let me know what you all think and I can add the relevant season titles if you agree.