I'll admit it, although I cook for a living and am in constant search for new recipes and ideas, I rarely watch cooking shows. I see food being cooked, and feel like I'm on the job. I rarely watch TV, but when I do its to relax, not see what I do when I'm working.
Having said that, I will say that I have watched Emirel and I really do enjoy his approach to cooking. He's not afraid to emphasise the strong spices and impart bold flavors, and He does a great job of both walking the viewer through recipes and giving background on techniques and ingredients.
Emirel's concept of "Kicking It Up a Notch" is something I adhere to.
But my favorite cooking show is Iron Chef. That show is just insane. Its like a sporting event/cooking show/bad japanese theater. My favorite episode is when carp was the featured ingredient. This table rises up in the middle of Kitchen Stadium with about 600lbs of live floppin' carp. There was a hillarious scene of one little Chinese guy trying to cold cock a sink full of carp with a meat mallet. Too funny.
The Octopus Battle had its moments too. The best was when a tenticle pushed off the lid on a 30qt. stock pot, and some dude started beating it back with a wooden spoon. I guess they just dump live octopus into boiling water over there.