There have been a some challengers on ICA without a formal culinary education.
I wanted to attend culinary school when I was younger and for various reasons I didn't. People still tell me I should. But since I have no plans to open a restaurant or be an executive chef at some fancy restaurant, I'm happy with the culinary knowledge I have.
What I like is people to have credibility and that's not say only chefs or people with culinary degrees have credibility. I'll watch a show until I figure out that this person doesn't know what they are doing, then I'm gone and its hard to win me back. That can be a chef or a non chef.
FN was built with chefs with the early shows, but since the network appeals to home cooks its logical to have people like that on there along with the chefs. I think there's room for both the professional chef and the home cook.
Really what I want are culinary instructors. I like to learn about techniques and ingredients.
BTW: the poor knife handling does bother me a bit but that's just for safety sake of both the host and the viewer. I think proper knife handling is very important and it doesn't take a lot to correct it. I tease my mom all of the time about the way she cuts veggies. And she has cut herself badly in the past.