Reality Check: Gordon Ramsay returns for 'Kitchen Nightmares' season 9

Gordon Ramsay’s restaurant fix-up series “Kitchen Nightmares,” which had ended its eight-season run last December /with Port Washington’s now well-regarded Diwan, will return for a ninth season on Fox this New Year’s Day, with an NFL tie-in.

The first half of the season, branded “Kitchen Nightmares: Road to Super Bowl LIX,” takes place among restaurants in New Orleans, the host city, starting with a two-hour episode Jan. 1. The series then goes into its regular Wednesday hourlong slot. Current and former NFL stars are slated to appear.

“With tens of thousands of football fans descending on the Big Easy during Super Bowl week, the restaurants will have an enormous opportunity to make it or break it,” Fox said in a news release.

The second half of the season will feature restaurants in Austin, Texas, and Houston.

“I’m in for a wild ride!” Ramsay posted on Instagram Friday.

They're ba-aaack!

More than 20 years after breaking out as early reality-TV stars with “The Simple Life” (Fox/E!, 2003-07), hotel heiress Paris Hilton and fashion designer and actor Nicole Richie will reunite in the three-part special Paris & Nicole: The Encore.” All three episodes drop Dec. 12 on the streaming service Peacock.

“Paris and Nicole bring fans up to speed on their lives and friendship in a way that only true legends can,” Peacock promised, adding, “Follow the dynamic duo as they try to produce a once-in-a-lifetime operatic performance based on their self-coined [word], ‘Sanasa.’ ”

A 30-second video teaser shows the two bantering in an opera house as they audition a singer wearing a full Italian Renaissance costume.

Premieres

With Food Network’s “Holiday Wars” having returned for season 6 last week, the cable channel continues to go full yuletide with season 11 of “Holiday Baking Championship.” A dozen bakers compete before host Jesse Palmer and judges Duff Goldman, Lorraine Pascale and Nancy Fuller on Monday with a two-hour premiere at 8 p.m. … Early Wednesday on the streaming service Netflix, the new series “Love Is Blind: Argentina” is the latest expansion of the flagship in which singles propose marriage after only speaking with the other person but not seeing them … Thursday, there’s more holiday baking on Food with season 8 of “Christmas Cookie Challenge,” which has a different $10,000 winner each episode. Eddie Jackson hosts, with Ree Drummond as judge … Opposite on A&E, the verité series “Alaska PD” returns for its sophomore season, following police in Fairbanks, Kodiak, Kotzebue and Petersburg … and Friday to 8 to 10:06 p.m. on Discovery, the “Gold Rush” remains on for a 15th season, with Klondike land baron Parker Schnabel and freelance miners Rick Ness and the Beets family.

Recaps

Glen Cove-raised Madison “Shye” Roberts won her first Battle Round duet on “The Voice” … “Dancing with the Stars” cut recent “Bachelorette” star Jenn Tran and her ballroom-pro partner Sasha Farber … Pascal Ibgui quit the show, leaving Charles "Chock" Chapple and Guy Gansert vying for the hand of “The Golden Bachelorette,” Joan Vassos … and “Survivor” voted off Tiyana Hallums.