By Demographics. Iron Chefs were decided in advance, based on rating demographics. The let's pretend was shattered when Cora left because the core demographics of the food network was stay at home moms and when she became known publicly as a lesbian the ratings of episodes with her dropped, so you dropped her. The same reason every judge was visibly embarrassed and ashamed for sending Faulkner home twice. They knew they were being paid to do the wrong thing and it showed, but FN needed someone who appealed to their core demographic even if that demographic had a high percentage of racist homophobes. The Same reason Samuelson was sent home regardless of skill, knowledge and what was on the plate. A sad revelation to an otherwise entertaining concept.