From Travel Channel, the network that has brought us some cool food shows the last few years such as the Adam Richman Man vs. Food franchise, and various Andrew Zimmern and Anthony Bourdain shows, comes a hip new gluttonous guilty pleasure–Feed the Beast, hosted by Mikey Roe. The show premieres on Wednesday, March 6 with two 30-minute episodes back to back at 9:00 pm and 9:30 pm ET/PT, with the San Francisco and Austin episodes first in line.

The premise of the show is that Roe is a creature of late night, and appreciates everything that the midnight to sun-up time frame has to offer–from night life, to parties, to–you guessed it–food. And, just like night life in general, the craziest combinations and food offerings are also abundant after midnight. Roe is someone who really appreciates these foods too, and he also appreciates the atmosphere, activities and the alcohol that goes along with that food. He also knows where to go, and as a hybrid of, say, Richman and Guy Fieri, Roe knows how to make you want to try some of this crazy food right along with him. In fact, after watching the screeners on Sunday, my wife and I cooked up some Mexican breakfast for dinner.

You won’t believe some of the things Roe gets to eat, and it’s remarkable that he samples all of the crazy combinations of foods–for example, deep fried peanut butter and jelly sandwich followed by a jackalope sausage and bacon bloody mary. I don’t know if these were literally filmed in one night, or if there was much editing to be done, but if it’s all in one night, I’m seriously impressed by how much of an iron stomach Roe has.

Fans of some of the above mentioned shows are going to love Feed the Beast, and are going to love watching Mikey Roe take us to these crazy places. I just know it.

If you are a reality show junkie, you can get your fix pretty much year-round and on every major, minor and/or cable network. Food Network’s signature reality show–the type of show that has weekly eliminations–is Food Network Star, the program they use as a breeding ground for, um, Food Network stars. It’s now in its 8th season, and what really put this show on the map was the winner of Season 2–a dude named Guy Fieri. More recent winners have been Jeff Mauro, the Sandwich King; Aarti Sequeira, and her show Aarti Party; and Melissa D’Arabian (Ten Dollar Dinners).

In recent seasons, they have had 8-10 contestants, but this year they expanded it to 15 and started it earlier in the calendar year. The first episode aired last Sunday and episode 2 was last night. This year, instead of having regular judges and food network execs Bob Tuschman and Susie Fogelson along with network superstar Bobby Flay, the producers have done it differently by making up three teams of five–each with a coach. Flay is now a coach, and his competitors are Giada De Laurentiis (who was a judge for most of last season) and Alton Brown (who has also guested on the show) The contestants were hand-picked by each coach–and as you might expect, they sort of reflect their coaches’ personalities and, to some degree, their cooking styles. The team that wins the weekly challenges is all safe, and Bob and Susie choose one from each of the other two teams for potential elimination. The two are given a task in which they will be judged by Bob and Susie only.

Some of these contestants look like stars immediately, which is usually the case early on. It’s also typical for some of them to look just awful the first week or two as they may know how to cook, but presenting that on camera and/or to a live audiences is another thing altogether. There just aren’t many people out there who can do that effectively. Cristie Schoen from Team Alton is one of those who just couldn’t do this, and she was sent packing last Sunday. But Josh Lyons from Team Giada barely escaped elimination. That guy fronts a rock band (something he referred to about twelve times last week) but he is really awkward talking about food on camera.

Last night it was between Kara Sigle of Team Bobby and Judson Allen of Team Alton. If Alton had lost another team member, it would not have looked good. But Kara was the one sent home, and wow, was she ever awful in the main challenge, in which the contestants had to use a landmark NYC restaurant as a reference point to create a dish that they had to describe while being a “tour guide” on a double decker bus. Kara had Sylvia’s in Harlem, known for chicken & waffles. Kara complained about her assignment and was doomed from the beginning, especially when she tried to just re-create the dish and not do anything creative with the idea.

So it’s down to 13, and while we don’t intend to post a weekly recap, we may write about the show every once in a while. If you watched it last night, let us know your thoughts in the space below.

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

I had the pleasure of interviewing Food Network superstar Guy Fieri a couple years back and he was just the nicest guy. Here is a re-post of that interview on Bullz-Eye.com. Enjoy!

You can’t really rise to stardom any quicker than Food Network personality Guy Fieri. After winning season 2 of “The Next Food Network Star” a couple years back, Fieri has hosted or is hosting several shows on the network, and has become arguably its most popular and marketable personality. Fieri also released his first book, “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives,” the companion book to his most popular show. We had the chance to catch up with Fieri recently to talk about his incredible rise to fame, his book, and his shows. This is a guy who loves his job, and he’s managed to stay remarkably humble through it all.

Guy Fieri: Hey Mike, what’s up, man?

Bullz-Eye: Hey Guy. How are you?

GF: I’ve got a little bit of a frog in my voice but I’m here.

BE: Are you under the weather or just…

GF: Ah no. I talked my ear off. I talk everybody’s ear off at the Super Bowl. I’m kind of reeling in that a bit.

BE: Right on.

GF: But I’m good to go, brother! I’m good to go. What’s up?

BE: Sounds good, man. So I love your shows. I love your book. And I’m really glad that we have the chance to talk to you.

GF: You have great taste.

BE: (laughs) Right on.

GF: (laughs)

BE: So how do you balance it all with three top shows on Food Network, five restaurants, and a family?

GF: It really starts with being surrounded by a bunch of great people. With my restaurants, fortunately I have a really good business partner, a guy named Steve Gruber. Steve and I were doing restaurants way before the Food Network opportunities came about. But it’s the people inside of my company that make it all so possible. Then on top of it to be blessed with a great wife and a good Mom and Dad and a lot of people around me. So really it all comes down to, honestly, just having good people supporting what I’m doing. It’s not by any means easy. The thing I have to be willing to do is work…..I think I’m the one that is going to actually copyright the term “25/8.” You ever hear of the term “25/8?” It’s the cousin of “24/7.” I have to go “25/8.”

BE: I can imagine.

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