Reality Check: 'Superchef Grudge Match' host Darnell Ferguson pleads not guilty after Jan. 9 arrest

Food Network personality and “Superchef Grudge Match” host Darnell Ferguson is out on bail after his Jan. 9 arrest on charges including felony burglary and strangulation, following an incident at the home of his estranged wife.

Local media in Louisville, Kentucky, as well as TMZ.com and other national outlets, said Ferguson, 36, was arrested in suburban St. Matthews after Tatahda Lefebvre Ferguson, 30, filed a complaint and restraining order against him on Jan. 2, on behalf of herself and their three children living with her.

Her complaint stated Darnell Ferguson allegedly entered her home without permission, verbally abused her, punched holes in a wall, broke a door, strangled her and threatened to kill her. The arrest report, per People magazine, said Tatahda Ferguson suffered “redness, scratches and pain to her neck and a scratch to her upper thigh,” adding she was taken to a hospital for treatment.

Darnell Ferguson pleaded not guilty at Jefferson County District Court on Jan. 10, and was released on $10,000 bond.

The couple have a blended family of eight children, his attorney, Krsna Tibbs, told People. Tatahda Ferguson had written in a September 2016 blog post that at the time she was the mother of one child while her fiance, Darnell Ferguson, had three, and that she was expecting her first child with him. The Alabama magazine Birmingham Christian Family four months ago pictured the couple with six of their offspring, ages 2, 4, 6, 10, 11 and 12, and noted that two 16-year-olds live elsewhere.

Food Network, which did not respond to a Newsday request for comment, has pulled season 2 of the culinary competition “Superchef Grudge Match” from its schedule, with other programming now running in its Tuesday 9 p.m. time slot.

Attorney Tibbs said in a statement to People, “We ask at this time for privacy for Darnell and the entire family so that they can heal and continue to work on co-parenting as they move forward with their divorce.”

Premieres

Tuesday at 9 p.m., National Geographic charts a sixth season of “Life Below Zero: Next Generation,” following individuals who left their traditional lifestyles to live off the grid in Alaska, or at least as off the grid as one can be with a TV crew … Early Friday on the streaming service Netflix, “Love on the Spectrum” season 2 returns to chronicle romance among people on the wide-ranging autism spectrum. The series’ initial season took all three Emmy Awards for which it was nominated, including outstanding unstructured reality program … and Sunday from 10 to 11:30 p.m., TLC’s new “Love & Translation” offers us three American bachelors at an exotic island, joined by 12 non-English-speaking women from nine countries. Without a translator, will they be able to speak the language of love, or at least lust?

Recaps

And then there were four, as chef Gordon Ramsay eliminated first Leigh Orleans aka Leigh Fairbrass and then Dahmere Merriweather on “Hell’s Kitchen.”