On Travel Channel’s Man v. Food, Adam
Richman has chowed down against humongous hamburgers
and frightening fills of french fries. But in his
upcoming season, he won’t pig out alone.
Man v. Food Nation, premiering June 1 at 9 p.m., will
feature locals chomping alongside Richman during
hometown challenges. Restaurants hoping to be featured
in the current season are submitting videos to recruit
Richman to step up to their plate(s).
Those looking to get Adam on their dish should know
he’s looking for “fun, not fierce,” he told The Wire after
the Scripps Networks upfront presentation at Cipriani in
New York last week. “I also want a sense of community,
where people are reflective of the place.”
Over the course of the 24-episode fourth season, Richman
plans to battle edibles from street carts and restaurants
along the Pacific Coast Highway and Route 66. He’s
also scouting places in markets that don’t have big reputations
for food: Providence, R.I.; Cincy; and Milwaukee.
The Gulf Coast is also in his sights: “I lived in
Montgomery, Ala., for half a year and have family in
Florida. It’s a big, vibrant place getting over last year’s
disaster [BP oil spill]. It’s thriving again.”
Just so you know, joints tasted by Man v. Food see a
65% to 90% sales bump, he said.
He credits the new format to an episode shot at Buffalo
Cantina in his hometown of Brooklyn, where New York
Yankees pitcher Joba Chamberlain had a cameo and advised
that “you just gotta wing it” before the challenge.
Given the borough’s ties to Dem Bums, Richman said
he’s eaten a lot of guff about his allegiance to the Bronx
Bombers over the years, but he’s also talked to centerfielder Curtis Granderson about appearing on the show.
Alas, Richman, who also gave a shout-out to rightfielder
Nick Swisher at Cipriani, had to decline The Wire’s invitation
to the April 14 Yankees-Baltimore Orioles game at the
Stadium. Something about going back into production.
OK. But next time, we’ll meet at the Wholly Guacamole
stand near section 327, and see who can throw down
the most trays of beef nachos.
Big-Hearted Ruby,
Other Style Stars
Fight Teen Obesity
Style Network’s hard-working host Ruby Gettinger was to
be in St. Louis over the weekend, helping out a town hall
meeting at the West County Family YMCA, with NBC’s The
Biggest Loser host
Alison Sweeney,
that was aimed at
teaching families to
help kids maintain a
healthy weight.
The event, cohosted
by Charter
Communications,
also featured teens
Tanisha Mitchell,
Carsyn Nash and
RachelQualley from
Style series Too Fat
for 15: Fighting Back,
who, like Gettinger
(of Style’s Ruby) discussed
their struggles
with food addiction.
Gettinger told
The Wire last week she hoped to hear from the kids and
parents in attendance, as much as impart advice. “I want
to find out what the kids are saying the problem is, that’s
the first place I want to go,” she said. “What do they want
out of life? I want to know what they’re going to do to make
their dreams come true. They have to feel like they have
hope, and I want to give that back to them.”
Style’s plan was to film the event for a half-hour special
in June, Too Fat for 15: The Obesity Crisis.
Gettinger said one thing she tells parents is not to
make unhealthy snacks available at home, where unhappy
kids can “self-medicate” with them. “That was
one of my problems as a teenager. My mother did all
she could, but it wasn’t helping me to have ice cream
sandwiches, candy, chips in the house.”
Season 4 of Ruby, which sees the host (who once
weighed 716 pounds) again fi ght weight gains brought on by
emotional trauma, airs Sundays at 8 p.m.
Cable News Gets
High Marks From
Zogby Survey
Multichannel-video distributors came out smelling like
roses in a Zogby poll being used last week by the Consumer
Electronics Association to back its push for government
reclamation of broadcast spectrum and Hill legislation
for spectrum-auction incentive authority.
While the goal was to make broadcasting look expendable,
the effect was also to make cable look like news’
breakfast of champions, as it were.
According to the poll, when asked which they could most
live without, more than twice as many said their smartphone
(36.7%) or broadcast TV (39.6%) as said their cable
or satellite service (17.1%).
The respondents — 2,138 Americans surveyed online
April 5 to 7, with a margin of error of 2.2% — also said
cable was the second most popular source of breaking
news (29.8%) after the Internet (although even that question
used CNN.com as a suggested site).
By contrast, only 9.8% said local TV news was their main
source of breaking news.
The National Association of Broadcasters tabbed
the poll as bogus, saying other studies still have
broadcasters as the go-to source for news.
CEA stands by the poll “100%,”
CEA spokesperson
Megan Pollock told The Wire. “But, honestly, it doesn’t
take a poll to tell us that consumers aren’t getting their
bunny ears out and watching TV for the latest news.”
