'Worst Cooks' Contestant Rachel Coleman Gets dlisted

I have looooooooved Rachel Coleman since the first episode of Worst Cooks in America. Who wouldn't?!? Please give her her own show after all is said and done, Bob Tuschman! Hell, you can run it during the times you normally show infomercials. I'll TiVo it!



Check our Rachel's grand nomination of dlisted's Hot Slut of the Day. Congrats... I guess!

Did You Watch 'Mexican Made Easy'

The longstanding drought of Mexican-themed programming on Food Network is now over... for at least six episodes.

Did you watch Mexican Made Easy this past Saturday?

I did and thought it was pretty much okay. Pretty good, even.

Host Marcela Valladolid is almost a Mexican carbon copy of given-a-show-partially-because-they-neeed-an-Italian-themed-show Giada De Laurentiis. She's petite, pretty, smiles brightly at the camera and knows how to cook and talk at the same time.

Mexican food is incredibly popular, so I'm surprised it took this long to get a Mexican show. But did we love it??????

Food Network & HGTV Back on Cablevision

Tri-State region residents rejoice (although if you were die hard, you probably already switched cable operators) 'cause Food Network & HGTV have reached a fee agreement and are coming back to Cablevision!

This ends a nearly three week dispute between the two companies.

“This is the resolution everyone wanted,” said John Lansing, the executive vice president of Scripps Networks Interactive. “Cablevision has been a valued distribution partner, and we’re gratified that together we were able to reach a successful conclusion that will benefit their customers and viewers of our networks.”

They didn't disclose what the new rate was, but I guess it's something both parties were happy with... or begrudgingly agreed to.

I was most surprised to read that Food Network only earned about 8 cents a month on average from distributors, while the channel w/ lower ratings, HGTV, earned 13 cents on average. Weird.

Hopefully everyone who went without is now enjoying their Food Network & HGTV. My First Place is on! (Oh, and some Iron Chef rerun.)

Mary Alice's New Ink

I think it's pretty much a requirement that employees at Charm City Cakes have at least one tattoo... and bakery manager/subject of her own fan club/all around awesome person Mary Alice has more than met the quota.

Check out her new tattoo—an image from the children's book Make Way for Ducklings.


Wow! Looks like a painful spot, but what do I know. I have no tattoos (can't think of any image or design I care about enough to get forever immortalized with) and have only had a few things pierced in my more youthful days. Nothing down there, dirty minds;-)

Anyhow, congrats on the new ink, MA! It looks great on you. And check out those guns! Hello, Kelly Ripa.

Food Network Cruises and Travel Programs Coming Soon

Think stepping foot off of solid land will allow you to escape the ever-present Food Network stars? Think again.

Coming soon, "innovative and engaging Food Network travel programs" will be offered through Vacation Discounters, Inc. including cruises with Food Network personalities and trips "based on Food Network shows."


Paula Deen's already a cruise ship regular--appearing almost every year as the prime talent and marketing hook on one cruise ship or another. I guess it was only a matter of time before we got the Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives cruise.

What other Food Network cruises do you think are on the horizon? The Pat & Gina Neely Loveboat? Sunny at Sea?

Would you take a Food Network cruise?

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Happy Monday, everyone. I've been busily working on lots of things here in D.C., barely finding any time to watch Food Network. I did catch Ina's new episode with the "engagement chicken" and I'm dying to get that in my oven before it starts warming up too much around here.

Have a good week!

Headline I'm Not Interested in Clicking On, Or, TMI About Paula Deen's Relationship w/ Hubby

I'm afraid to click on this, but anyone more daring can go ahead:

"Deen, husband share satisfying morsels of life"

I can only imagine what kind of "satisfying morsels" they share together.

An Intimate Conversation Between Mario Batali & Meryl Streep

Rachael Ray on "I Get That a Lot," Not Famous Enough To Get Her Name Spelled Right

Yikes... Rachael Ray is obviously famous enough to guest on the CBS prank show "I Get That A Lot" (aired last night), since the whole point of the show is to put celebrities in "normal" situations and trick would-be customers into thinking that they're not really who they think they are. By now, everyone on Earth (and some parts of the Moon) recognizes Rachael Ray.

Celebrity she may be, in the year two-thousand-and-ten she's still getting her name spelled incorrectly... even by the show's own network!



Check out rachAel, below, as a dry cleaning attendant.



I love how the woman at the end claims to have been able to recognize her because "she's Italian" and "so when she moves her hands this way and that way, I knew it was her."

Cablevision Be Damned, Food Network Gets Highest Ratings EVER on Sunday Night

Well, even though approximately 3 million cable subscribers in the Tri-State region weren't able to watch, Sunday, Jan. 3 turned out to be the highest-rated, most-watched night in Food Network history.

Two big premieres—Iron Chef America: Super Chef Battle and Worst Cooks in America—attracted a combined average audience of 3.7 million viewers, according to the network.

Additionally, the 7.6 million viewers who watched the super chef battle helped make Food Network the most-watched cable network on Sunday night.

That's a pretty big achievement!

Still refusing to negotiate, Cablevision?

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I watched some of the Super Chef Battle, but honestly found myself flipping around after a bit. Even though it was cool to see the White House and Mrs. Obama, that portion of the special was rather short. They were in and out of DC in what seemed like 10 minutes. Then, the rest of the battle was just a bit too drawn out for me.

Maybe if Mrs. Obama had made more of an appearance and they had featured a little more on the actual garden and what goes into cooking the White House meals I would have been more interested. (Truth be told, I sometimes get bored watching regular one-hour Iron Chef episodes, so I'm surprised I stayed on for almost 2 hours with this one.)

Did you watch? What did you think of Mrs. Obama and the "secret ingredient" that wasn't much of a secret.

Food Network President Brooke Johnson on Cablevision Dilemma

I spoke with Food Network President Brooke Johnson earlier today via conference call regarding Cablevision's and Scripps Networks' inability to come to an agreement on new licensing fees, resulting in Food Network and HGTV going dark in about 3 million Cablevision subscribers' homes in the Tri-State region.

But first, Cablevision released a statement last night about the spat, putting most of the blame on Scripps:

"Cablevision offered Scripps the ability to continue delivering HGTV and Food Network to our customers while we negotiated a new agreement. This is common practice in the cable industry, and such an extension occurred in the recent dispute between Time Warner Cable and the Fox Network, and in Scripps’ own negotiations with Time Warner Cable. But instead, with virtually no warning, Scripps took the extraordinary step of flipping a switch and removing its channels from Cablevision - effectively holding their own viewers hostage in order to pursue a more than 200 percent fee increase from Cablevision and our customers. The channels where HGTV and Food Network appeared on Cablevision remain available, and if Scripps really cared about their viewers Scripps could put their programming back while we negotiate a new agreement. We believe it was irresponsible for Scripps to take the channels off, and it is irresponsible for them not to put the channels back on."

Ouch.

When asked about the assertion by Cablevision that Scripps would put their programming back on for the time being if they "really cared about their viewers," Brooke Johnson said Cablevision was being "disingenuous" and only acting in their own self-interest. "They'd be happy to negotiate for the next five years," said Johnson. (Scripps also issued a reply to Cablevision's statement.)

Meanwhile, Scripps has not encouraged anyone to switch cable providers, despite many in the region already having done so. "We're trying to take the high road," said Johnson. "We would like to reach a successful conclusion," she added, calling this ordeal an "anomaly" and "perplexing situation."

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Brooke and the team at Food Network definitely seem upset over this whole situation, and feel badly that many subscribers in the Tri-State region aren't getting channels they're still paying for. Buttttttt, it doesn't seem like either side will budge anytime soon.

When asked about the possibility of streaming more shows online or providing content to iTunes, Johnson said she didn't agree with the idea of making people pay for content that they should be able to receive with the cable subscription they're already paying for... so don't expect lots of online content to start popping up.

I'll keep my fingers crossed for those of you affected.

'Worst Cooks In America' Review - Food Network Addict

For years, standard programming on Food Network meant instructional cooking shows. Trained chefs donning proper attire and expertly sharpened knives navigated around infomercial-like sets in a New York studio where they ad-libbed for 30 minutes straight, only taking time to work in the occasional commercial break or "swap out" a pre-prepared dish to keep things moving.

Then it was deemed that kind of programming didn't reflect "real life' America. The perceived audience (stay-at-home housewives) lead a busy life. They didn't have the time to sit in the kitchen for hours cooking recipes that needed 30+ ingredients.

Instead of thirty ingredients it become thirty minutes. In walked Rachael Ray.

But as quick and easy as it is, Rachael Ray and her trademark 30 Minutes Meals are not real life. Her shows are highly orchestrated with super luscious looking ingredients fit for TV. Also, what housewife wouldn't want someone standing right outside their own kitchen always preparing the same exact meal exactly one-step behind them, ready to pop in at a moment's notice and erase any mistakes?

And that's why I like Worst Cooks In America so much.

In this 5-week elimination series, 12 of the worst cooks in America—and they are bad—come to New York and work with chefs Anne Burrell and Beau MacMillan in a "culinary bootcamp" for the chance to cook for food critics (there's a twist) and a $25,000 prize.

What's so entertaining about this series is the same thing that works for so many other reality TV shows: watching people initially fail, often in humorous ways, only to get built up to greatness.

But it's the failing that we all secretly enjoy. Why else would American Idol both showing the audition episodes if all we cared about was the sappy winner's sendoff song? The miserable failing is what makes it a little easier to sit on the couch and judge people through the TV screen. "Well, I know I could do better than that!"

In the premiere episode, the top 24 have to prepare a signature dish that best represents their cooking ability. I laughed out loud at some of the contestants' dishes: a whole boiled chicken with swiss cheese melted on top, "peanut butter encrusted cod", and triple chocolate pancakes that the contestant likens to cow patties.

Mmmmm!

Exaggerations aside (and it is hard to tell if some of these contestants are for real or not), I'd guess that a good portion of America really is about this clueless when it comes to cooking. Many are surely unaware what mise en place and shocking vegetables--two things mentioned in this first episode--means.

Some contestants seem to have a sense of humor about themselves and their abilities. Others seem genuinely upset by their shortcomings and desperate to change. I think if this limited series can keep the humor and lightness up and the tears down (the first ep already had two bouts of crying!), then we're in for a yummy, yummy treat.

Worst Cooks In America premieres TONIGHT, Jan. 3, at 10pm ET.

Food Network & HGTV Dropped by Cablevision in NYC

On New Year's Eve, as I was re-watching the episode of The Next Food Network Star where the contestants cook at Ina Garten's house in the Hamptons, little did I know that had I been living in New York or the Tri-State region (and a Cablevision subscriber), that would have been the LAST NIGHT I HAD FOOD NETWORK (or my newfound love HGTV, where I spent more hours in the day watching House Hunters).

That's right, Cablevision dropped the two Scripps Networks channels like they were the damn New Year's Eve ball in Times Square at midnight on 12/31.


I've never been so happy to not live in New York!

Of course, this is all about money. Food Network and HGTV have increased their ratings and viewership and, in turn, want Cablevision (and other providers) to pay more for their offerings.

According to Scripps, Cablevision, which serves about 3 million television viewers in the New York City, Long Island and Tri-State Region, charges its subscribers an average fee in excess of $83 per month. Of that, Food Network and HGTV combined receive less than 25 cents per subscriber.

Food Network and Scripps want more than a quarter.

Soooo, apparently, subscribers are only really giving FN & HGTV less than 25 cents to receive those channels. Scripps shows results of a study called the 2009 Beta Cable Subscriber Study and found that:

"The average cable subscriber believes Food Network is worth $1.03 per month and HGTV is valued at 73 cents per month, which is considerably more than Cablevision has been paying for the networks’ programming and more than Scripps Networks Interactive is asking on behalf of the two brands in current contract negotiations."

Hmmm... if it was possible to JUST subscribe to Food Network & HGTV, I'd gladly give them a little over a buck for FN and a few quarters for HGTV. Imagine a cable bill of $1.76!

In response, Scipps is urging affected subscribers to visit IloveFoodNetwork.com and ILoveHGTV.com for information on how to demand Cablevision put the two networks back on the air.

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Any fellow Food Network/HGTV addicts out there affected? Want me to call you and put the phone up to the TV so you can at least hear what's going on? I'm here to help. ;-)