Chopped is about the only thing I still watch on the Guy Fieri AKA Food Network these days. I watch it in part for the strange ingredients they keep coming up with (which SNL nailed!) and to see what the chefs do with things that are every day ingredients for many home cooks but which many of them wouldn't normally touch on a bet.
How many of us would know what a durian was without Chopped? (BTW, there was a story recently about a college library in Australia that was evacuated because someone left a durian in a trash bin.)
I agree with the lament that I'd like to see a bit more of the actual cooking, like how they make their sauces. (Having read several books on stocks and sauces, I think I can connect the dots a bit, though.)