Youch. I can't say I really understand the venom toward the hosts of the programs as opposed to the producers themselves. As for my take on the programming, I'd say that it's satisfactory. There are very few programs that I absolutely must see, but since regular television programming doesn't really do it for me, I often have it on in the background anyway. I look forward to Good Eats because I usually learn something, and if I don't at least I'm entertained by the quirky humour. I've been keeping an eye on Cooking School Stories, but it's mainly of interest to me at the moment because it's topica for mel; I begin my own classes in about a week and a half. Is it a really good show? Probably not. Finally, Iron Chef always amuses me with its over the top drama. There are others that are enjoyable, but those are the three that I make a point to try to see. The dilemma for FoodTV is keeping the style of its programming varied and interesting. Just as they can only show so many shows where a cook "roasts a chicken", they can only show so many where the host travels to Locale X and samples the local cuisine (Food Nation, A Cook's Tour, The Food Hunter, $40 a Day, Keith Famie's Adventures, Food Finds, Mario Eats Italy, The Best Of, etc.). I think it's a good idea for FoodTV to try to branch out and cover as many areas of food as they can. It's not Cook's TV or Professional Kitchen TV, after all, and they're certainly not in it for the "art" -- they have to make money, and that means appealing to the "foodies", not just the home and professional cooking enthusiasts. I can tell you that I know plenty of people who are enthusiastic abou food yet hae little to no desire to step into a kitchen and prepare it themselves, either at home or in a professional kitchen. Is there anything wrong with that? I don't think so. The bottom line, I think, is that is they want their programming to become fresh and interesting again (it's gone stale, I think we can all agree), then they need to shake up the formula and take chances. This leaves them open to a failure or two, but if they don't try they have no chance of succeeding and the Network chokes to death on its stale, old programming. Date Plate looks horrible to me. I won't be watching it, but I'm not about to become enraged at them for trying something outside of the box.
