The Next Food Network Star-related stories
Posted Oct 9th 2009 12:00PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Food/Home/DIY, Industry, OpEd, Reality-Free
When you're a cable network and you're only reaching 55 million households and want to reach twice that amount, what do you do? If you're Scripps Networks, you rebrand the channel and give it a new name. That's why
Fine Living will become the Cooking Channel in 2010.
The way I see this, since Scripps owns the Food Network, the Cooking Channel will be sort of a Food Network annex. Food Network 2.0. Food Network, Two. In actuality, a lot of the programming on Fine Living now is connected to Food Network. Old
Iron Chef episodes, Emeril LaGasse and Mario Batali and Wolfgang Puck ... all cooking shows that were once on Food Network.
Now that it's going to drop the Fine Living angle and concentrate on cooking, all the overflow from Food Network will have somewhere to go.
Continue reading Fine Living will become the Cooking Channel
Posted Sep 19th 2009 1:01PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Food/Home/DIY, OpEd, Celebrities, Reality-Free
Recently, I was channel surfing and I stopped on a show called
Just Cook This! With Sam the Cooking Guy. The fact that it was on FitTV nearly made me move on (to me a healthy cooking show is oxymoronic!), but this guy Sam, the cooking guy, kept me tuned in. Well, I can now say without equivocation,
Just Cook This! is my new favorite food show and I'm in love with Sam.
Sam is actually not a formally trained chef or a caterer turned cook or a restaurateur or any of the other types that have made their way to TV. I looked him up and Sam Zein was a regular Joe, working for a pharmaceutical company, who dumped it all to make a TV show about travel, which turned into a food program instead. FitTV, which is part of Discovery, probably bought the show because they liked Sam. And that's the beauty of the show.
Continue reading Just watch this: Sam the cooking guy is great!
Posted Aug 18th 2009 1:01PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Food/Home/DIY, OpEd, Celebrities, Pickups and Renewals, Reality-Free
Remember how in Miss America, the emcee would always say that in the event that Miss America cannot fulfill her duties, the first runner up would step in? Apparently that's how it works with
The Next Food Network Star, too. Just three weeks after
Melissa D'Arabian was declared the winner, her number one challenger -- the guy who placed second --
Jeffrey Saad has been given his own show. It's not on the network, but it's a show nonetheless.
According to Food Network honcho Bob Tuschman's blog,
Jeffrey Saad will be doing a mini-series on the web site -- exclusively for now -- called
The Spice Smuggler. The premise is based on the Alton Brown directed pilot that Jeffrey presented in the finale of
The Next Food Network Star.
Continue reading Food Network Star runner-up gets a show, too!
Posted Aug 9th 2009 6:02PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Food/Home/DIY, OpEd, Pickups and Renewals, Casting, Reality-Free
A week ago -- in TV time --
Melissa D'Arabian was crowned the winner of The Next Food Network Star. Presto-chango and one week later, her new show debuted on The Food Network, called
Ten Dollar Dinners with Melissa D'Arabian. That wasn't the concept she was talking about during the competition, but within hours of last Sunday's finale, FN had decided that this would be the format for Melissa.
It was with a lot of curiosity that I checked out the debut of
Ten Dollar Dinners. Would Melissa be able to adapt her "kitchen survival guide" and perky homemaker style to a skin flint, sawbuck a dinner concept? Would the personality -- that the judges harped on wanting to see -- come out in a slickly-made premiere episode?
Continue reading The Next Food Network Star's Ten Dollar Dinners debuts
Posted Aug 4th 2009 10:02AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Food/Home/DIY, Programming, OpEd, Casting
If you watched
the finale of The Next Food Network Star, you know that homemaker, non-pro cook Melissa D'Arabian was the big winner. Hopefully, you really, really like Melissa and not just the pilot she created for the competition,
Kitchen Survival Guide, because
Food Network has shucked the concept.
That's right, less than 24 hours after cleaning up the confetti, Ms. D'Arabian was handed a new show with a new angle. The title will be
Ten Dollar Dinners with Melissa D'Arabian.
Continue reading Food Network cooks up new concept for its new star
Posted Jul 29th 2009 10:02AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Other Reality Shows, Food/Home/DIY, OpEd, Watercooler Talk, TV Squad Lists
Jacob at FoodNetworkAddict.com has come up with five good reasons why he thinks
Melissa Darabian will win The Next Food Network Star when the competition wraps next Sunday. His points are well thought out, especially the one that suggests that Melissa's journey on the show has been dramatically edited to make her seem like an underdog who has now emerged as a dynamic player. However, I'm banking on Jeffrey Saad to win. Here's my five reasons:
1. The likability factorSince the opening episode, there hasn't been a more attractive and likable competitor on
The Next Food Network Star. Jeffrey makes viewers feel comfortable, like a Tom Selleck or James Garner, and when you're talking about TV personalities, that's the most important asset. Jeffrey would be welcomed on TVs in living rooms -- and kitchens -- around the country.
Continue reading Five reasons why Jeffrey will win The Next Food Network Star
Posted Nov 20th 2008 8:03PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Food/Home/DIY, Celebrities
Thanks Chef Michael Symon, but your services are no longer needed on
Dinner: Impossible. Yes, he's been given the pink slip because it seems the folks at Food Network realize that they may have acted a bit rashly when
they changed chefs last April.
The Food Network has rehired Robert Irvine and will reinstate him as the host of
Dinner: Impossible.
Apparently,
fudging his resume wasn't quite the high crime and misdemeanor it was made out to be. In fact, the network's dramatic reversal is proof positive that
Dinner: Impossible has not been the same show with Chef Robert.
It's easier to forgive Irvine for padding his credits -- including facts like cooking for the Queen and preparing meals at the White House -- than it was to find as charismatic a star to anchor the weekly show.
Continue reading Dinner: Impossible chef welcomed back
Posted Aug 4th 2008 8:04PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Other Reality Shows, Food/Home/DIY, Casting
Even though
Food Network has had a few hiccups lately especially on The Next Food Network Star, I'm happy to see that the execs still can spot talent when it crosses their path. I watched the finale of
The Next Food Network Star and saw Aaron McCargo Jr. win the title and then caught his new show
Big Daddy's House. He was excellent and far more relaxed and appealing than he was on the competition show.
In fact, in the finale episode, I was more impressed with one of the two contestants that didn't win, Adam Gertler.
Now Food Network is giving Gertler his own show. The program is called
Will Work for Food and it's going to be premiering on September 30 on Food Network.
Continue reading The Next Food Network Star runner up gets a show, too
Posted Jul 30th 2008 1:43PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Other Reality Shows, Food/Home/DIY
A couple of week's ago, I noticed -- and ranted here -- about the
Food Network showing a promo for the penultimate (or nearly penultimate) episode of
The Next Food Network Star which revealed who would be eliminated in the show that I was viewing. It seemed like bad form to me, but some people defended FN and advised me to get a DVR and use it. Just to be clear, I have two and use them extensively. This was a case where I was watching a rebroadcast a day after the airing, commercials and all. My point was that FN should know better than to schedule a promo for that reveals so much about the show you're watching even on a rebroadcast.
Anyway, now it turns out that Food Network has made yet another flub that's spoiled the surprise of
The Next Food Network Star reveal. This one occurred on their web site. D Magazine reported that a week before the finale of the competition reality show, video interviews with the three finalists were broadcast on the web site
and the winner was clearly indicated. In case you have the finale on your DVR and haven't watched it yet,
The Next Food Network Star will be shown after the jump.
Continue reading The Food Network flubs again
Posted Jul 18th 2008 9:31AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Other Reality Shows, Food/Home/DIY, Programming
The Food Network is one of my favorite channels, I admit it. I can tune in just about anytime and enjoy
Ace of Cakes or
Good Eats or
Boy Meets Grill or Paula Deen, whatever. Generally speaking, they seem to have a good, consistent and enjoyable programming package.
Okay, that's what's good about FN. Now for the sour to go with the sweet. Last night I was catching up with
The Next Food Network Star, watching the second showing of the reality competition show because I wasn't able to watch the original broadcast. No big deal, right? Wrong!
Continue reading The Next Food Network flub
Posted Jun 11th 2008 1:39PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Food/Home/DIY, Pickups and Renewals, Casting
It sounds like the Food Network has finally come up with a show that will compliment Alton Brown's Peabody-award winner
Good Eats. The foodiest member of
Queer Eye for the Straight Guy,
Ted Allen, has signed to host Food Detectives, a new Food Network series. Starting Tuesday, July 29th at 9 o'clock ET, the half-hour show will begin illuminating the world about the stuff we eat. They will be "pulling back the curtain and revealing the answers to some of the most puzzling food mysteries."
Actually, the concept is kind of like a
Mythbusters for food. Ted will host the show and folks from
Popular Science Magazine will provide the expertise. For instance, does an apple a day keep the doctor away? What about baked beans, do they really give you gas? If not, what's Beano going to do with all those commercials and product?
Continue reading Ted Allen to host new show for Food Network
Posted Apr 22nd 2008 11:04AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Other Reality Shows, Industry, OpEd, The Amazing Race, Survivor, Project Runway
Okay, I admit it. I like reality TV. Or maybe I should say unscripted TV. These days the parsing of the term "reality" has become as much a discussion as the genre itself. And don't kill me for calling it a genre. It is. It's here to stay. As long as producers can come up with ideas that make money and networks give them air time, reality/non-fiction/unscripted television is going to continue to proliferate the tube.
It's not with any great pride that I admit I'm hooked on reality shows -- some reality shows. My favorites include the high quality, classy shows, like
The Amazing Race and
Top Chef and
Project Runway, as well as trashy ones, i.e.
The Real Housewives of Orange County (and New York),
Hell's Kitchen and
Bridezillas. I like some of the competition-oriented shows, but that doesn't stop me from gazing in astonishment at the train wreck docu-series like
Hey Paula and
Being Bobby Brown. In fact, when I hear Kathy Griffin riffing on those shows -- her imitation of Whitney screaming "Bobby!" is classic -- I want to cry out, "Yes, yes, I watch that one, too."
Continue reading True confessions: I watch reality TV
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