TVSquad

Fans of Rachael Ray rejoice! Haters of Rachael Ray can continue to seethe a bit more.

The enormously chipper Ray, who is all over television and the print media these days, has just signed on for another two years at Food Network. In addition to her very popular 30 Minute Meals program (60 episodes per year, as opposed to a previous 80 per year) Ray will host a new program titled Rachael's Vacation, which will have Rachael traveling around the world showing viewers her favorite sites, restaurants, and markets. Frankly, this seems like a combination of $40 a Day and Rachael's Tasty Travels, just without the budget.

Gallery: Rachael Ray

Are you a closet foodie? Can you whip up a five-course meal with only seven ingredients? If your doctor takes a blood sample does he (or she) find equal parts of blood and extra-virgin olive oil? Do you say 'Yum-O' a lot? If you fit into one or all of the categories mentioned above then future ruler of the world Rachael Ray is looking for you.

Ray, host of her own talk show as well as 30 Minute Meals, $40 a Day, Rachael's Tasty Travels, and five or six other shows I'm probably forgetting to mention, is starting a nationwide search to find a culinary savant who cooks and bakes for their family and church and not for the customers at their five-star restaurant. Rachael and the producers of her talk show will narrow the choices down to five promising cooks, who will be whisked away for two intense weeks of competitions and challenges to see who is really the best.

April 24th begins the annual "TV Turnoff Week". For seven days we are to turn off the boob tube and focus on other activities inside and outside our home. For instance, talking to the other members of our family or walking out the front door into that space full of yellow light and green grass. I think we call that the outdoors.

Of course, the purpose of "TV Turnoff Week" is the total opposite of what we do here at TV Squad, which is, um, report on television. So, as a public service to you we present this special episode of The Five: Reasons to not turn off TV during 'TV Turnoff Week'.

You can post comments on TV Squad articles:  We love your comments, even when you say we're messengers of Satan because some of us don't like Pearl Jam. However, if you don't turn the TV on, you're not going to be able to comment on any of the shows that we review. That will make all of us sad, and probably make our bosses even sadder. We'll end up losing our jobs, which will have a domino effect for all of our other blogging sites. Of course, that will cause AOL to go out of business, and the Internet will probably collapse unto itself. Dogs and cats will fight, cows will stop giving milk, and, yadda yadda yadda. We'll eventually be beating each other over the heads with clubs in order to grab the carcass of a dead brontosaurus.

I'm not quite sure why so many people dislike her, but there are entire web sites just for that purpose. Jill Hunter Pellettieri over at Slate writes an essay today on why all the blogs and all the food snobs should quit picking on her.

Good Eats is still my favorite show on the Food Network, but I think Ray is a good change of pace from all the trained cooks and brings things down to a level we can all understand. Plus she's kinda cute. 

Come on, you knew it was going to happen sooner or later. Rachael Ray is all over the Food Network with 30 Minute Meals and the show where she eats and cooks with celebs and that show where she tries to survive in a city for only nine cents a day, so you knew she was going to get her own food magazine. She's teaming with Reader's Digest to offer Everyday With Rachael Ray, a food and lifestyle magazine. You know it's good because not only will it cover all the things that everyday people are interested in (it will be similar to Real Simple), but the title actually rhymes. That's excellent. And here's my prediction: there will be some cross-promotion with a TV show of the same name that Ray will host. Martha Stewart, watch out.