Crock-Pot On The Defensive After 'This Is Us' Episode Puts Slow Cookers In A Bad Light
Tuesday night's (Jan. 23) episode of NBC's This Is Us finally revealed how the beloved family patriarch Jack Pearson died and it involves a Crock-Pot.
Death By Crock-Pot (Spoiler Alert)
Ever since the show returned to the small screen, fans have been eager to find how Jack (played by Milo Ventimiglia) dies. His sad fate was finally revealed to fans in a Tuesday night's gut-wrenching episode.
The episode showed Jack cleaning up the kitchen while his wife Rebecca (Mandy Moore) was fast asleep after watching the Super Bowl with him. Jack turned off the slow cooker, which was given to him by his elderly neighbor George, without realizing that it has a faulty switch.
Shortly after he went to bed, a dish towel caught on fire as a result of sparks from the defective Crock-Pot. Then, the kitchen was engulfed in flames within minutes, which is assumed to be the cause of Jack's death given that he failed to replace the batteries in the smoke detector downstairs.
Fan Meltdown
Not long after the episode aired, fans of the award-winning series took to social media to express their anger over the Crock-Pot, with some saying that they were going through their slow cookers in order to avoid the same fate as Jack.
My mom just threw our crockpot out #ThisIsUs #SOSIMILAR pic.twitter.com/RmeXQrfog5
— Chelsea Stevens (@ChelseaMS731) January 24, 2018
I've never hated a Crock-Pot more in my life. #ThisIsUs — Emily Sabens (@ecsabens) January 24, 2018
Company Issues Statement
On Wednesday, Jan. 24, Newell Brands, the company that owns Crock-Pot, released a statement to defend America's favorite appliance.
"Crock-Pot understands the concerns brought up by last night's episode of 'This Is Us,' and we too are heartbroken by the latest development in Jack's storyline," read the statement. However, it is important that our consumers understand and have confidence that all Crock-Pot slow cookers exceed all internal testing protocols and all applicable industry safety standards and regulations as verified by independent third-party testing labs."
The company also noted that it has sold more than 100 million units of the appliance over a span of five decades. It has never received any consumer complaints similar to what was depicted during Tuesday's episode.
The company concluded its statement by urging the This Is Us team to help them in making the facts known about the safety of its product. The show's creator didn't waste any time in rushing to Crock-Pot's defense and posted the tweet below.
Taking a moment to remind everyone that it was a 20 year old fictional crockpot with an already funky switch? Let's not just lump all those lovely hardworking crockpots together. #ThisIsUs — Dan Fogelman (@Dan_Fogelman) January 24, 2018
