Two competitions kicked off last night, a brand-new competition and a reboot of an old favorite. Here are my quick responses to both episodes: Animal Planet’s competition Top Hooker started strong: it was a great first episode. While I’m sure fishing purists–including the ones on the show–were frustrated by the lack of actual fishing until …
Food Network Star
Food Network Star, one of the network’s few watchable reality TV shows, has announced its ninth season cast and twists, and they do not look good on paper: they include allowing an eliminated contestant to return (sigh), adding focus groups, and turning mentors Alton Brown, Giada De Laurentiis, and Bobby Flay into judges. Changes to …
Food Network Star, which keeps losing words from its title (it’s sometimes just referred to as Star now, but that’s dumb), remains one of TV’s best competitions. And in its seventh season, it did something remarkable: It changed things up and improved significantly from last season, which felt tired and predictable. CBS Eye Productions and …
Food Network’s usually strong competition Food Network Star is getting a makeover, which will hopefully help to pull it out of its increasingly familiar rut when it returns for an eighth season this summer. Judges Bobby Flay and Giada De Laurentiis will no longer judge, but instead will be joined by Alton Brown as mentors …
The creator and former producer of Food Network’s Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives, which stars Next Food Network Star winner Guy Fieri, says the star of his show is guilty of homophobic, sexist, and anti-Semitic behavior. Producer David Page, who created the show, sued the network for breach of contract earlier this year because he says …
Food Network Star dropped the word “Next” from its title this year, but it needs to rethink more than its title to stay fresh. The show’s seventh season concluded last night, and while judges and Food Network executives Bob Tuschman and Susie Fogelson remain among the best judges on reality TV, the show feels too …
Food Network’s excellent summer competition series Next Food Nework Star, which has changed its name by dropping the word “next” from the title, has added a new judge to its panel: Giada De Laurentiis. She joins Bobby Flay and the series’ real stars, Bob Tuschman and Susie Fogelson. There’s no explanation for the name change …