Totale

I didn't see the pilot and maybe they reran it, but the English guy was on one this week Tivo marked as "New".

I've watched a couple of those, they're OK. It started out with Bobby Deen as co-host but they came up with somebody else, a guy with an English accent whose name I already forget. Fine with me as I never was much of a Bobby fan - I watched a few "Mama's Meals" but that was mostly because (especially for a gay dude) he had some of the cutest girlfriend cooks ever seen guest on that show. Nikki did have better ideas about lightening things up though - she replaced the mac in a lobster mac & cheese dish with spaghetti squash which I have to say would probably work.

Bobby Flay said it three times on BBF the other night. Even the subtitlers believed him and spelled it wrong in the CC.

I'd like to see him (or somebody) do a healthy eating/fitness oriented show that at least mentioned the Paleo diet sort of thing which is very popular these days in those circles. Most people living real life who are interested and see some of the positive benefits don't have the discipline to go whole hog at it. But some of the basic principles (more veg, less to no grain) can be of use and much like vegetarianism you don't have to be a zealot to get use out of them.

I like Mexican and Indian flavors so the two FN shows I've made most recipes from were "Spice Goddess" and "Mexican Made Easy", neither of which I believe is in current production. There's something applicable to FNS in each. I've made and enjoyed several of Marcela's recipes, her Shrimp Gobernator Taco is the bomb. She had been to culinary school, had Spanish-language TV experience and had published a cookbook before her show started. I saw one a couple of days ago from very early on (before they changed the opening and took away the picture of her walking away from the market looking like she just smelled poo). I'll tell you, at the beginning she was pretty rough, easily as nervous as any of the rookies on FNS - and her show was on the air. I think she said "and the kitchen smells amazing" about 15 times in the 20 minutes of show, and she introduced one ingredient (beer) as it was added that she never mentioned prior and never explained - it was like "and this is when you add that beer". She's not too good on stating measurements so it's good the recipes are online - frankly when I watch the show I'm more focused on "do I keep these ingredients around and am I ever gonna actually make this?" Bal, on the other hand, was always slicker than prunes through a duck and was pretty meticulous about giving measurements and explaining recipes. Her Spice Goddess show was as technically good as any instructional show I've seen on FN. So of course they decided to screw that right up, and for her second series they got in lots of family time Ree-style and sent them on field trips and introduced phony drama, cut back on that boring cooking and made her show unwatchable just like it seems they want to do for the "winner" this time because somehow they got themselves convinced that's what the public wants. (And the fact that either of those women provokes a similar reaction in me to the vapors epidemic currently going on over a certain ex-football player doesn't have anything to do with it. Trust me ...)

If you have the coin to film and produce your own show and present it to FN all tied up in a bow (including promotion which you handle yourself online) so all they have to do is insert commercials and press "Play", I bet you can have one of your own, too, if you want it. She has the coin and did want it.

Can someone open a window? We've got several ladies coming down with the vapors all up in here ;)

A web series needs a script, too.

I think I'm going to go rogue and actually not chase down their extra ten minutes a week online or OD and be as "surprised" as anyone else when the "winner" of SS is revealed. I'm going to do my best at not hearing about it (no spoilers in the episode threads, please!!) and won't look at this thread once I hear it's started. Because let's face it the mothership is already a storytelling fantasy to carry along the product placement shots and fill up the dead summer hours, and their storytelling is getting off to a pretty shaky start this year since it appears they promoted the interns who were on the "vet Lenny" team last year to scriptwriters, and I'm curious to see what they can come up with for a truly shocking re-entrance.

Wasn't Rosa chopping a pepperoni or salami stick when she had her sudden brainstorm that she could make crostini "if only I can find some kind of protein"?

Bad song but pretty good eye candy on the Italian version, he said shallowly.

The preview blurb made it look like at least part of the season finale next week is on election night. I've got sads because I was hoping they'd save that for next year when the Real Life US election struggle would be going on in parallel.

Note that the straightjacket in xaxat's quoted contract above is not just for the winner, but for anyone named a finalist. Aren't the top 3 supplicants all "Finalists"? They all appear on the last show and one gets cuts halfway through and has to sit there smiling and seething throughout the oceans of clips. Then they're all in iron-clad contracts from then out? That sux.

How I long for a non-special episode. I can't remember the last one. But I lost about half my interest in the show when they eliminated the judging to make more room for sob stories, anyway.

Hell, if I was them I'd try to get away with blaming it, like as if it were real.

Finally caught up last night. Did not Michelle leave her fish station in disarray, so Milly couldn't find anything when he took over which put him in trouble? Not quite as dire as Nick wasting all the meat, but up there. I assumed between that and her annoying voice she'd be the other nominee.

I always thought Nikki was a good bet from that season, and they tried her out on Damaris's show not long ago.

I see no ethical reason why they couldn't name the dealership. There's a restaurant review show in Boston called The Phantom Gourmet that has a dozen plugs in a 1/2 hour show for like 'The official insurance agents for the Phantom Gourmet show' and 'The official bank of the Phantom Gourmet show'. If a hairdresser paid them I'm sure there would be an official Phantom Gourmet hairdresser. Isn't that just how advertising works?

I'm sure they desperately want someone to pay them money to pimp out their product, money just like the Bravo guys get. But so far nobody's paying.

I think FN host duties consist of showing up and reading from the teleprompter while pantomiming through the steps of the recipes the test kitchen has developed, then smiling through whatever live appearances have been contracted for you. Even gluing Pay Day bars on your chest and mugging through a fake commercial is more compelling television than that.

Continuity With Change. Perfect.

The spaghetti recipe o-gal seeks was not from this season so giving them your name won't get it. Exercise google-fu.

Yeah, I immediately thought terrible disease, but he says he did it on purpose and feels great http://www.mnn.com/health/fitness-well-being/blogs/presto-chango-how-magician-penn-jillette-lost-105-lbs-on-a-healthy

Oh, yeah, sounds like tons of fun - if you've never had to live through working a crappy job like that and take lip from all sorts of subhumans who don't have a celebrity microphone prompting them. Let Wendi and Ellen (both of whom I like) hand out chucks of hot dogs in a Costco for a week and then do their segment. I'll bet they'd have their puppet just politely say "thank you, miss" and go find a more worthy subject to harass, like a venture capitalist. Sorry to go off topic. I'll be the only one here who likes Mo to seal my fate.

Maybe I can get a job as an asshole. I'm not sure I could take the pace, though - I'd want weekends off, and whoever this dude is looks like he's at it 24/7. Which makes me even more sheepish that I guessed Wright Brothers, too.