Food Network Star: "Deliciously Unpredictable Demos" (7/8/2012) [*SPOILERS*]

[ipsedixit]

Adios Martita.

Live demos with rigged "things that could go wrong" (who else sees the irony in that?)

Justin gets heckled.

Yvan loses his voice.

Michele gets time warped.

Oranges ultimately does in Martita.

Onto next week!

[cellophane_star]

I do not get Ippy... At all.

[paulj]

There's a surprising lot of interest in a show that no one likes.

[huiray]

Morbid interest. Rubbernecking to see the latest car crash. That sort of thing.

[BubblyOne]

FN competition shows like this always do well in the ratings- it's the resulting product that usually sucks. I'm hoping Justin wins. Whatever he makes wouldn't be the 350th rendition of something I've been cooking since my teens.

[ennuisans]

I'd bet that even if he doesn't go all the way Justin will get a show if he wants it, and can't really say that about anyone else. And if he gets a show without winning, I'd bet that a woman would win FNS, and I'd bet that would mean Nikki. In all fairness she's pulled herself together a whole bunch in the last couple of weeks.

Sure hope all that betting is legal in my jurisdiction.

[BubblyOne]

The thing about Nikki is that she's been at 1% for weeks in the FN fan vote. She'd have to do something outrageous to get any support at this point. Edited to add I just looked and Martie is in 2nd place behind Justin.

Agree about Justin. I just hope they give him a cooking show and not some other stupid FN riff.

[DiningDiva]

Martie has done herself a lot of favors over the last 2 epsiodes, so has Yvan. In some respects I think she should have won the challenge this past Sunday, I thought she did better than Yvan.

[BubblyOne]

Martie is absolutely perfect for FN. Another show I would never watch.

[ennuisans]

Totally forgot about the viewer vote determining the winner. All bets are off. :p

If Justin gets a cooking show I hope it's as idiosyncratic as he is. Not just a show about how to make oyster foam on the half shell, but that really gets into his mental process behind breaking ingredients down and remixing them.

[DiningDiva]

Of course there is. We may not particularly care for the show but we do like to b*tch about it

[smartie]

ha aint that the truth!

not sure this mentoring thing has really worked, Bobby Flay seems totally disinterested.

[rasputina]

Probably because he knows his group sucks.

[ennuisans]

Really, I think he's just a cardboard cutout. I've got all three followed on Twitter and I don't think Flay has ever ever commented about the show, as opposed to Alton and Giada. But then Flay has never struck me as a people person.

[ipsedixit]

I enjoy the show.

[paulj]

Here's last Sunday's ratings
http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2012...
It's much higher than other FN items like ICA and DDD. I don't the channels that rated higher.

[sandylc]

Wow, no wonder it's hard to find anything good when I want to watch TV!!!! That list of shows has pretty much nothing good on it.....

[James Cristinian]

ipsedixit, you enjoy the show, really? Oh wait, so do the wife and I. We dvr it and enjoy it during the week at our leisure.

[ipsedixit]

I don't see what's wrong with saying you like a Food Network Star, or any other FN show.

[jmckee]

Oh, but haven't you heard? It means you know NOTHING about food and care NOTHING about cooking :-)

[ipsedixit]

And that is wrong ... how?

[paulj]

Because it's the 'lowest common denominator' or some thing like that. :) Though I've had trouble getting a clarification of that term from people who use it to describe FN programming.

[sandylc]

Just for fun:

From the free dictionary: Lowest common denominator - The most basic, least sophisticated level of taste, sensibility, or opinion among a group of people.

[2roadsdiverge]

Andy Denhart over at RealityBlurred considers Food Network Star to be the show with the greatest makeover in reality TV. he lists some of the many things the show gets right

http://www.realityblurred.com/reality...

[BubblyOne]

Too bad he doesn't know this is season 8.

[chowser]

When did they start getting so hung up about personal stories? Why would it matter to viewers what Martitia's father did or that she gets together w/ girl friends? I don't remember their hammering in personal stories so much in the first seasons. Martita's presentation about the orange was much more about the food and what to do with it than a story about stealing tangerines. This is FOOD network, not Lifetime.

And, warning that something could/would go wrong should have made them more prepared to joke their way through. Once people started heckling, leaving, that's a good sign that it was set up--go with it.

[DiningDiva]

The story thing started 4 or 5 years ago. If you watch the non-competition FTV shows these days all the hosts are telling stories. I think they're trying to have their hosts make a personal connection with the view and be all folksy and chatty and not be a talking head. Personally, I associate food with cooking and eating, not with story telling. The problem with the stories we get from these contestants is that they're all so contrived and disingenuous that they come off as phony and hollow. They don't believe them any more than we do. They're jumping through as many hoops as the FTV puts up there in hopes of winning a show.

Julia Child established a great personal connection with most of her audience and included chatty and witty comments, remarks and little stories, but that wasn't the focus of what she did. It was just kind of a natural by-product of Julia being Julia. Martin Yan and Jaques Pepin also told little stories too, just enough to get you interested in what they were actually cooking, novel concept cooking on a cooking show. They also had something this crop of wannabes lacks...that would be personality.

This is the worst batch of "talent" I think they've come up with so far. None of them are compelling or interesting. Alton looks old and tired, Bobby just looks exasperated and bored and Giada just looks like teeth and hair. I wish there were better choices a 9 pm on Sunday.

I hate to sound so cranky but I've about had it with this show. The game, not to mention the schtick, is old, tired and needs to be retired, not retreaded as it was this year.

[Shrinkrap]

It did not help that Giada had a shampoo commercial or something running. But I am all for rising above the bashing.

I still like Justin, and still hope Alton can see what will work for ME, and still get HIM paid.

[huiray]

"I wish there were better choices a 9 pm on Sunday."
----------
There is. True Blood on HBO, for one. :-)

But with regards to this intense seeking for "stories" and "life experiences", preferably tear-jerkers; or heart-rending and sob-sob stories of how you surmounted all those incredible travails of life or being abandoned as a child etc etc (never mind stealing tangerines) that Medusa and Kermit seem to hunger for - I totally agree with you (and chowser and sandylc and RUK above) that it is really, really NOT something I have much interest in, if any at all. Get with the COOKING and teaching - but as has been said so many times now, that seems to be the least of concerns for FN and Medusa and Kermit.

[Joanie]

Also Falling Skies on TNT is on at 9 but I DVR the 11PM episode. Not a science fiction gal at all but enjoy this show, maybe it's my fondness for Noah Wylie and ER.

In any case, yeah harping on the stories they're supposed to tell gets tiresome. These things would come naturally with a show, sometimes you just have to cook the food and tell them how it's done.

And why does Alton seem so pissed all the time?

[sandylc]

He's an angry guy in general. The rest of us keep failing to live up to his expectations. It's why I get a thrill out of it when I catch him in a mistake. I still treasure the moments when Mario Batali would correct Alton on Iron Chef. I was at an Alton book signing once (not on purpose, just happened upon it), and he was a crabby jerk to his audience. You know, the people who came to see him and buy his book.........

[2roadsdiverge]

I've heard over and over that Alton brown really isn't a nice guy. It's one reason that -- while I respect him and enjoy learning from him -- I would never want to meet him. Even on FNS I see flashes of his jerkitude and it snaps me out of the show.

[wincountrygirl]

I would think shows on the FOOD network should be about food. If I want life stories, there is the biography channel.

[C. Hamster]

I'm actually liking Marty more and more, though I doubt I'd watch her show.

I doubt I'd watch any of their shows. Maybe Justin's.

[sandylc]

Justin's food seems mildly interesting - if allowed, he could do some interesting stuff.

[pdxgastro]

Exactly. As Bob said, you'd watch Justin to see what he does next.

[Janet from Richmond]

I've never been a Marty fan but liked her this week.

[RUK]

Isn't there a disconnect between the ease of speaking to the camera as "talking heads" and so many times "stumbling" in front of the camera - prime example Martita. This show is evenly and well scripted.
And yes, why do they think we are interested in their silly stories about their Grandmas, huge smiles ( shudder) etc.

[Joanie]

I was surprised Nicki was safe so quickly but I guess they had to whittle down Giada's team. I hated G's stupid cheering after Yvan's presentation.

Justin was super quick with the "heckler" but did get a little testy.

The more I see of Michele, the less I like her but I thought her contrived glitch was really unfair. The others were things that really could go wrong whereas you assume that the person working with you isn't going to be throwing up 10 million random times left for your spiel.

[coney with everything]

" I hated G's stupid cheering after Yvan's presentation."

SO agree. I get positively homicidal when I see her 64-tooth grin and maniacal cheering.

It was so obviously telegraphed that someone from Giada's team would be leaving, they should be paying royalties to Western Union.

[RUK]

Oh YES!!

[sandylc]

Agree! And does anyone else think that the judges must have seen something different than we did? Their comments about performances rarely make sense.

[wincountrygirl]

+1

[wincountrygirl]

Not only her cheering but her sulking when Martita lost too. The only person whose show I'd watch is Justin.....

[chicgail]

I wonder if Alton, Bobby or Giada get something if one of their proteges win. Anyone know?

[ennuisans]

They get producer credit on whatever show results.

[chicgail]

I assume that there is a check that accompanies the credit.

[DGresh]

Agree with both your points. Thought that Giada's cheering was entirely inappropriate, and thought that Michelle's glitch was totally unfair. What is she supposed to do with wildly incorrect timings? That's a case where you shouldn't really try to "cover it up"; you should call out to the producer to get a new tech guy over there!

[sandylc]

Is anyone else tired of:

POV

Your story

signature dish

energy

?

[DiningDiva]

Yes

[rasputina]

absolutely

[wincountrygirl]

YES!

[libgirl2]

A million times!!!
I want a chef with no POV, no story, no signature dish and absolutely no energy!

[sandylc]

"I want a chef with no POV, no story, no signature dish and absolutely no energy!"

YES!!! And I even want them to screw up their lines and even their recipes once in a while...We want real people with genuine personalities who REALLY know their food and refuse to make repeated versions of the flavor-of-the-week trendy recipe/food. FN, are you listening?

[chicgail]

You want Julia Child! Me too.

[libgirl2]

She was so much fun to watch! Things went wrong and she just laughed. Sure she had POV and some interesting stories, but her show had humor not sleek production. She didn't have to recount something "painful" from her past or let us know her "connection" to a dish, besides she ate it an liked it.

[sandylc]

Kitschy, overproduced, overscripted crap, GO AWAY!