Have you guys seen the new Rachael vs. Guy Celebrity Cook-Off show on Food Network? Well if you haven’t, let me fill you in and I guarantee you will watch–especially if you love watching celebs duke it out on reality shows. The show airs on Sunday nights, and last Sunday was the series premiere. And the premise is that Rachael and Guy, two of the Network’s more prominent stars of the past decade, head up teams of four celebrities in a cooking competition. As is the case with many of these type shows, we’re talking (my apologies to those competing) celebs that are kind of washed up, B-listers or C-listers (or at most high A-minus).

We’re talking Taylor Dayne, Aaron Carter, Summer Sanders, Coolio, Cheech Marin, Lou Diamond Phillips, Alyssa Campanella, and Joey Fatone. Yikes. The first episode had them break into two teams, each coached by Rachael or Guy, and they had to cook for 300 guests at an outdoor BBQ party in New York City. The best cooks seem to be Phillips, Marin, Sanders, and Coolio. Dayne and Carter were the two worst cooks on the losing team, and had to face off in a 30 minute shrimp challenge to see who went home. The loser was Carter, who wound up in the bottom because of a horribly bland macaroni salad. Dayne was able to stick around, much to my chagrin, because while she was quite the star in the late ’80’s with gorgeous, flowing hair, she had some serious plastic surgery done and looks frighteningly like Michael Jackson.

Anyway, do yourself a favor and check this show out….it’s funny and quite entertaining.

Sure proof that the years are whizzing by–Food Network’s hit reality show, Food Network Star, will premiere its 7th season on Sunday, June 5. This season, they have expanded the field to 15 contestants, and promoted Giada di Laurentiis to judge alongside long-time judge and fellow Food Network personality Bobby Flay, and network execs Bob Tuschman and Susie Fogelson. There will also be appearances by Alton Brown, Cougar Town star Courteney Cox, Paula Deen Guy Fieri, Rachael Ray, Wolfgang Puck and more.

The finalists include: Mary Beth Albright (Washington, D.C.), Justin Balmes (Marietta, Ga.), Whitney Chen (New York), Katy Clark (Long Beach, Calif.), Penny Davidi (Los Angeles), Justin Davis (Minneapolis), Howie Drummond (Highlands Ranch, Colo.), Jyll Everman (Glendora, Calif.), Susie Jimenez (Carbondale, Colo.), Juba Kali (New Orleans), Jeff Mauro (Elmwood Park, Ill.), Vic “Vegas” Moea (Las Vegas), Chris Nirschel (Hoboken, N.J.), Orchid Paulmeier (Bluffton, S.C.), and Alicia Sanchez (New York).

For more information about the show including contestant photos and bios, please visit http://www.multivu.com/players/English/46437-Food-Network-Star/ or go to www.foodnetwork.com/star

So, how bad of a cook are you? Are you so bad that you’d be willing to go on national TV, show the world how bad you are, and then compete with other chefs who are equally miserable? That’s the premise of “Worst Cooks in America,” a reality show on Food Network now in its second season. The one thing, of course, that these contestants have going for them, is that they are being taught how to cook by world class chefs–who this season are returning team leader Anne Burrell, and also newcomer and host of “Restaurant: Impossible,” Robert Irvine. Of course, last season it was Anne vs. Beau MacMillan, and for some reason Beau’s contract was not renewed (we really dug this brash New Englander, but they went and replaced him with a brash Brit!).

This season, they began with 16 contestants, and each week two are eliminated after a challenge, one from each team by their team leader. Last night was episode 4, and we’re now down to four chefs on each team. The winning chef will take home $25,000, but the final challenge will involve cooking for food critics who don’t know they are being fed a meal cooked by one of the “worst chefs in America” who by then have been taught some mad skills by Anne and Robert.

The idea behind this show is brilliant, and it’s really remarkable how fast these chefs come along, some of them faster than others. In fact, just like last season, the finalists will probably have a hard time convincing the judges that they were so horrible in the kitchen when Season 2 began.

If you haven’t seen this show and are looking for a reality cooking show fix, check out “Worst Cooks in America” on Food Network on Sunday nights. I mean, football season is basically over, and were you really going to watch “Desperate Housewives” with your significant other?