The requisite six episodes of Guy Fieri's and Rachel Ray's Food Network Celebrity Challenge has been aired and one disparaging sign is the fact that the last two episodes were both aired on the same night. If a show is proving to be wildly successful networks will try to spread them out.
When all is said and done, also covered on this post, this series was the formulaic cooking contest type of show, the kind you see on MasterChef or Top Chef or Food Network's Next Food Network Star. Except, of course, that the contenders are "celebrities" D list types, the kind of celebrities seen on these celebrity type contender shows.
It's a concept that could work. There's a plethora of viewers out here across the fruited plains that like these type of food contest shows, including me. The notion of having celebrities competing in the cooking challenges is a concept that might not quite capture the interest of these same cooking show contest aficionados.
This series had some okay celebrity types. Cheech Marin was a good choice, as was Lou Diamond Phillips. Joey Fatone, well he's a celebrity type show regular. I didn't know Coolio or the other celebrity challengers.
Still and so, the celebrities don't have to be all that famous. The celebrities on Dancing With the Stars are often not all that well known. Trump's Celebrity Apprentice stars aren't world renown either.
It's just hard to get to know these famous folk as they cook up dishes to win money for their charity by winning the cooking challenges. On Celebrity Apprentice the celebrated contenders are doing all sorts of different things as they try to win challenges that might involve opening a store to performing on street corners. On Dancing With the Stars the celebrities dance, true, but there's the behind the scenes vignettes that shows the celebrities as they struggle with the tortuous practice. Their beloveds are often in the DWS audience and the viewers get to better know the stars struggling to win.
These cooking celebrities...well they...they cooked.
Nothing wrong with this but I don't see audiences across the fruited plains tuning in to see Chastity Bono cook a steak.
Thus the element of celebrity is lost on this series as I argue.
It becomes another MasterChef or Top Chef Nowhereburg is what I'm saying here.
I did think that Coolio was a really funny guy and his kind of cooking was just my speed. But I'd have felt that way even if he was not an alleged celebrity. The challenges were typical in many ways for these cooking shows. They had to make barbecue, prepare food from strange ingredients, run a food truck operation, up to running a restaurant for a day. A typical food contest spread up to the finale.
This series had Rachel Ray and Guy Fieri, himself a winner of Food Network's Next Food Network Star, as leaders of two teams. As it would turn out the teams managed to keep an even keel throughout the series. , even ending with a finale featuring a member of Guy's team and a member of Rachel's team. It would not do, wink, wink, to have either of the Food Network Celebrity loose all their assigned contenders to have one twiddling their thumbs at the finale.
I'd watch this series again should Food Network decide to go with it again. But then I'm a bit of a cooking show contest junkee.
I don't think they need the celebrities is what I'm saying here. After all, how many celebrated types can cook all that well?
CELEBRITY WIFE SWAP-THE CELEBRATED AMONGST US HAVE MARITAL ISSUES TOO
ABC's had celebrities dancing for quite a few years on Dancing With the Stars.. Donald Trump converted his Apprentice series to Celebrity Apprentice to reinvigorated success. Over on Food Network they've got celebrities cooking.
Now we've got celebrities swapping wives and it's not like it sounds.
Actually, the show about swapping wives has been aired in the past and I did a review on it.
ABC took that older show concept only inserted celebrities into the mix. I must suppose that adding more well known personages to the drama helps bring up audience interest. In most cases the celebrities are competing to earn monies for a charity so there's the humanitarian aspect of it for additional appeal.
The concept of the Wife Swap series is an interesting one and does make a good use of an hour if one also crochets during the time. As the title suggests, two families swap wives for a week. The new wife, at first, joins the house of her hosts and is given a set of household "rules" loosely followed by the hosting family. She lives in the house of her hosts for a couple of days, meeting the husband, of course, and all the children of the hosting family. ABC provides an example of such host wife's rules, HERE.
ABC also provided a short video synopsis of the first episode of the series.
During this intro period the viewer, if the viewer has a brain, hones in on the problems of the hosting families. There is also little vignettes given by the guest wife that summarize her observations and her possible changes to come.
At some point the guest wife is allowed to change all the household rules as left by the host wife (who is the GUEST wife at the swapped house, keep this in mind) and insert her own household rules.
From the ABC web site for this series:
In this new series, the mothers in two celebrity families with vastly diverse values switch homes (but not bedrooms) -- embarking on a journey like no other and revealing the various ways some controversial celebrities live their lives. The two moms are given the chance to see how another celebrity raises their children and deals with life in the spotlight, while allowing both couples the opportunity to re-discover why they love each other and decided to get together in the first place. It's a mind-blowing experiment that will change their lives forever.
In each of the five one-hour episodes, two mothers with very different types of households swap lifestyles and children in a week-long challenge. In the first part of the swap, each mom moves into the other's home and adopts their new celebrity family's lifestyle, no matter how different it may be. They agree to follow a manual written by the departing mother that sets out the rules of their new household - how they parent, manage their social life, do house work, unwind and more.
In the second half of the week, everything changes. The new moms take charge. They introduce their own set of rules and get to run the new household their way. It's a radical shock to both celebrity families. The results are explosive, enlightening, emotional and often very funny.
On the Celebrity Wife Swap episode aired on 1/3/12, the celebrities swapping wives were Ted Haggard and Gary Busey.
Let us begin with the smile of having Gary Busey as part of any reality series. And, in fact, it wasn't that long ago that Busey was a contender on Celebrity Apprentice. I remember well Busey's brand of craziness and the havoc his presence often brought to the challenges.
Busey's second appearance as a reality star contender also causes me to stop and ponder...could appearing on these "celebrity" type of events become, de factor, a "career" for the contenders, a new way to earn fame and fortune, to eventually be a replacement for the original career of note that got them a spot on the venue?
This combination of host/guest swap was, indeed, quite intriguing, bound to raise curiosity.
Ted Haggard is a famous evangelist leader who fell into great scandal as a result of an alleged homosexual prostitute who said Haggard not only had a sexual relationship with him but he also shared drugs with him. The story gets murky as Ted did admit to sharing the drugs but never fessed up to the homosexual relationship. Haggard is married, of course as his wife Gayle was part of the swap. He also has five children. The status of Haggard's sexuality will be forever unclear as why would the homosexual prostitute charge an affair, what could be in such a charge for him?
As best I can figure there was some sort of proof re the drug deal, perhaps a photo, but there was no proof re the homosexual relationship so Haggard denied it. Haggard confessed to the drug charges but that's all.
Busey, on the other hand, lives with his "wife" of this swap as they feel no need to get married. The have one toddler boy.
As Busey's significant other learned during her stay at the Haggard house, the Haggard children were quite shocked by the charges against their father. Haggard, who resigned from his position at the break of the scandal, has started another church as told during this episode. His children felt left out as Ted undertook the burden of his ministry.
Over at the Busey house, Gayle felt that there needed to be more of a dose of physical activity, that Gary needed to get more comfortable interacting with his young son.
At this show goes, the offenders realized the error of their ways/the families reunite, happiness reigns and everyone goes off into the sunset to live happily ever after.
Celebrity Wife Swap airs on ABC, Tuesday nights at 10 pm. Future celebrities scheduled for swap include:
* TRACEY GOLD, actress, formerly of "Growing Pains," and CARNIE WILSON, singer/actress/TV host.
* GARY BUSEY, Academy Award-nominated actor for "The Buddy Holly Story" and TED HAGGARD, Evangelical pastor.
* FLAVOR FLAV, world renowned rapper, and DEE SNIDER, rock star.
* NIECY NASH, actress/comedienne, and TINA YOTHERS, rocker and actress, formerly of "Family Ties."
* MICK FOLEY, professional wrestler/writer, and ANTONIO SABATO JR., actor/model.
Drivel: Aquarium Renovation
We have begun another journey.
The 125-gallon aquarium gracing our living room had been a saltwater reef tank since 2004 when we took it apart in late February of last year and converted it to freshwater. That was a hard decision, but we had hopes of making a beautiful planted tank out of it. The fish weren't as colorful and the other "stuff" in the tank wasn't as exotic, but the monetary drain would stop and it would still look good.
At least, that was the plan.
This January, almost a year later, I have finally given up on that dream. The planted tank remained brown. The water had a brown tinge to it we couldn't get rid of. The plants - when they didn't just die -had brown edges. And while the tetras weren't brown, you couldn't see them very well through the brown water. We were still battling pH and kH and losing the war.
So last weekend we emptied the tank of fish. Every tetra which had survived the alkali soup - some of them for almost a year! - went back to a pet shop. Catching them was difficult, as we did not drain the tank. We had a plan, but needed more time to execute it than one afternoon, so we left the water and substrate in the aquarium for awhile.
Fish, plants, and driftwood all came out.
For a week, the aquarium bubbled along, empty of life save a few confused snails.
On Saturday, we took the rest of the stuff out. We removed the black planted aquarium substrate. Surprisingly, it was working; there was no smell at all. Not decaying plant, nor fishy leftovers. We gave all of it to the front garden.
We drained the aquarium of water. Every bit of tainted brown water came out. Harry used a shop vac to get the last bits of substrate and water from both the tank and the sump, which is a 30-gallon aquarium hidden below the aquarium, in the stand.
After that, the magic began.
Bit by bit, piece by piece, we set the aquarium back up. First, standard aquarium gravel in earth tones. Next, a four-foot piece of Astroturf, which had been soaking in our tub for several days to rinse off any possibly harmful residues. Then, new dividers meant to look like wooden walls and the big rocks from the old setup, followed by massive amounts of fake plants.
Fake wooden walls don't sweat brown tint into the water. Fake plants can't die.
When the dividers, rocks and plants were just so, we added our finishing touches. Completed, we stepped back and admired our new aquarium setup - a golf course, surrounded by jungle.
Everything set for a few hours, and then we filled the tank with water using the fancy gadget we bought awhile ago to do water changes. (For the technically inclined, it's either a reverse osmosis or a de-ionizing machine and I can never remember which.)
The aquarium took hours to fill, but when it was done . . . paradise.
We aren't done with the journey yet, though, because no fish can go in for about a week. The temperature has to come up to the desired level (it started at 63.8 and has reached 72.3 as of today), I have to test for all those fishy things, and we need to double-check that everything is working first. We're hoping to get fish for it this weekend.
In the meantime, I'm enjoying the new setup and feel like the aquarium is the masterpiece of the living room once again. It's been a long time coming.
Well we already covered the concept of celebrities swapping wives. Now we have celebrities competing to cook. And as is often the case with these sorts of things, the celebrities are competing for a charity of their choice that receives the prize should the celebrity win.
NEW YORK, NY – November 14, 2011 – Two of Food Network’s biggest icons, Rachael Ray and Guy Fieri, will square off against each other for culinary bragging rights in Rachael vs. Guy Celebrity Cook-Off, premiering Sunday, January 1st at 9pm ET/PT. In this six-episode competition series, the Emmy®-winning talk show host Rachael Ray and best-selling cookbook author and successful restaurateur Guy Fieri, will each serve as coaches and mentors to eight multi-talented celebrities, all of whom are passionate about food and cooking. Divided into ‘Team Rachael’ and ‘Team Guy’, each episode features celebrity contestants battling it out in a fun, fast-paced culinary fight-to-the-finish, with the two bottom-rated contestants from the losing team going head-to-head in a blind tasting elimination challenge. In the end, the last contestant standing is crowned king or queen of the Celebrity Cook-Off and wins $50,000 for the charity they are playing to support.
As the blurb above, copied from Food Network's own site for this series, the celebrities competing love to cook. I must suppose that celebrities can like to cook just as us mere mortals but I ponder how often and how really good celebrities cook their own meals.
Though, as is also often the case with these types of shows, these are no A-list celebrities doing the competing. Which is why, we must logically conclude, these B or even C list celebrated sorts even enter these things, not so much for the money for their charity though that's nice. But it's every bit as much a push to re-gain celebrated fame do not try and fool me. Joey Fatone, for example, was once a contender on Dancing With the Stars and now he cooks as Fatone continues on relentlessly on these sorts of venues that keep him in front of the public eye.
Nothing wrong with that. Someday there will be an entire class of celebrities who claim to fame will be….eh, competing in celebrity-only contests! Fatone and Gary Busey will be charter members.
The other celebrities featured on this series include Lou Diamond Phillips, an actor whose credentials are listed as being a Golden Globe nominee, questionable fame one might say. There's also Cheech Marin, a former pothead not getting acting gigs that feature former pot heads. Other celebrities cooking to compete include a former Miss USA, a rapper type named Coolio, a Broadway star, an Olympic medalist and some various and sundry actors.
The charities for the cooking celebrities include:
Alyssa Campanella – Susan G. Komen for the Cure
Cheech Marin – Hispanic Scholarship Fund
Aaron Carter – Kids Beating Cancer
Coolio – Music Saves Lives
Joey Fatone – Fatone Family Foundation
Lou Diamond Phillips – No Kid Hungry
Summer Sanders – Right To Play
Taylor Dayne – Cambodian Children’s Fund
I must ask what is the Cambodian Children's Fund and why this charity? And hey, the Fatone Family Foundation, nothing suspect here, eh?
So okay, what about the hosts and how is this competition ran?
Rachel Ray is either beloved or hated. Frankly I don't see what she's a subject of such visceral dislike by so many folks. If nothing else I think she's harmless.
Though Ray has been quite the success for Food Network, authoring many cook books and branching out to her own daytime show on a main network. As for Guy Fieri, I was covering the Next Food Network Series when Guy won that contest.
Guy too has been successful as a guru of food, his Food Network series, Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives being a staple of that network.
I daresay that both Rachel and Guy are personable hosts and lend a pleasant atmosphere to this show though I think it's time for Guy to do something about that hair..
Each of these hosts had selected an initial team of four to be on their team.
Team Rachel consists of
Summer Sanders
Lou Diamond Phillips
Aaron Carter
Taylor Dayne
Guy's team consists of:
Alyssa Campanella
Joey Fatone
Cheech Marin
Coolio
For the first cooking challenge of this series, the teams were charged with creating food for a bunch of people, Rachel with a "hot in the city" theme and Guy with a "Fiesta Loco" theme. Lou Phillips prepared some great ribs while Cheech came up with great sliders. All of the contenders created a dish for the challenge with Aaron Carter preparing some kind of gelatinous macaroni salad thing that landed him, and Taylor, in the bottom two.
The ranking are determined by votes of the diners, the contender with the lowest amount of votes for each team then charged with participating in a blind cooking challenge. This first night of the series, Aaron and Taylor had to make a dish within ten minutes that included shrimp. Both of the contenders made some kind of dish using lots of bread crumbs.
Guy and Rachel, without knowing who cook what, decide on the winner. The loser of this final challenge is sent packing.
Aaron Carter lost this challenge and was sent home.
For the second episode of the series, the teams were charged with making a dessert item. While this might seem like a simple challenge, the trick was that the dessert had to include a "savory" ingredient. For Rachel's team this item was anchovies and for Guy's team it was horseradish. The judges for this challenge were students at a culinary school.
Both teams used the Italian staple, conollis to package their savory. The cream of the connolli, as it was likely deduced, would effectively handle the surprise of a salty anchovy or hot wasabi Japanese horseradish. Indeed, the culinary students thought both teams handles this difficult challenge very well.
It would turn out that there was a tie for both teams so the team captains, in this case Summer and Alyssa, were to participate in the elimination challenge.
On a humorous note, didn't Cheech Marin bake up a batch of brownies, bringing back memories of those special Alice B. Toklas gems of yesteryear?
For their final challenge, Summer and Alyssa had to prepare a salad. As judged by Rachel and Guy during the blind taste test, Summer won and Alyssa was sent home.
As it stands as of this writing Team Rachel consists of
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