TVSquad

Are you a Martha Stewart person or a Rachael Ray person?

I don't know if it's on the par of Mac vs. PC or Coke vs. Pepsi, but when it comes to their TV shows, I think we lean towards either one or the other. They're on at the same time in the Boston area, and I've been watching them the past week to see what the differences are, what their strengths are, their weaknesses, etc. Here's my special investigative report.

Just saw a news crawl on CNN about Rachael Ray's new syndicated talk show, which will premiere across the country on September 18. It said that Ray's show will feature "can do advice" about cooking, travel, and...relationships?

Oh, great. Dr. Phil with a spatula.

Seriously, do we need yet another talk show that gets into the relationships and personal lives of the guests? Is Rachael Ray going to show a woman in the audience how to make BLTs and then ask her, "so, were you abused as a child?" I mean, Rachael...why can't you stick with your strengths, which is making food in the kitchen that all of us can do, giving us travel tips we can use, and having some fun? Why drag relationships into the show's mix?

I still haven't seen any evidence that this is going to be the "different" daytime show that the ads have been touting.