Andy DehnartTop Chef host Padma Lakshmi has often been accused of wooden delivery; while it’s not quite of early Big Brother Julie Chen proportions, it can be awkward. But there’s an explanation, beyond the highly rumored one: She’s a robo-host.
Entertainment Weekly reports that “the reason Padma sounds so robotic when she describes the challenges is because she’s wearing an earpiece through which all of the legally approved info is being fed to her.”
That’s a nice excuse, but why can’t she just, you know, memorize her lines? I’ve seen Jeff Probst tell Survivor contestants challenge rules without an earpiece or cue cards, and while he has a CBS standards and practices person and producers standing nearby to make sure what he says remains fair, his on-camera lines aren’t being read and fed to him off-camera.
But at least she has a sense of humor about her job. “I sit on my ass. I eat and I talk. I don’t have a to cook a damn thing. How awesome is that?”