Oh, there was a new Top Chef last night. It’s still on my TiVo. Discuss it happily in the comments, and I’ll happily ignore you until I catch up.
In the meantime, do you love Top Chef but wish there was more of it? And that it had more of a focus on the competently crowd-pleasing food of your local Chili’s? Well, wish no more! NBC teaming up with the producers of Top Chef to show you what happens when a major network does the Bravo formula: United Plates of America, a cooking/business competition whose winner gets to open a chain of four restaurants.
I’m sure I’ll watch, at least for a while, but I have mixed feelings on the idea’s potential. On the one hand,
cooking = Top Chef, Hell’s Kitchen, etc.
and on the other hand,
restaurant biz = Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares, The Restaurant, etc.
In other words, audiences seem to like watching the sausage get made literally, but figuratively, not so much. (Confession: I actually thought the showdowns between Rocco DiSpirito and moneyman Jeffrey Chodorow were fascinating. But America did not agree with me.)
Excerpts from the release follow:
NBC announced today the new alternative-competitive series “United Plates of America” (working title) – from Magical Elves the Emmy Award-nominated producers of “Project Runway” and “Top Chef” — that will allow contestants to vie for arguably the biggest prize in reality show history — the opportunity to open a new restaurant chain in four cities across America.
The contestants’ fate will be decided by a panel of real investors who fund the chain of restaurants with their own money. As the competitors chase their American dream, viewers will also be fully engaged with interactive elements online at nbc.com.
[snip]
“United Plates of America” challenges its creative and ambitious contestants to realize their dream of opening the next great restaurant. However, achieving that goal requires substantial financial backing and business connections that few people can claim.
The winner will be selected by a panel of some of the most important names in both the dining and business worlds who will invest their own money in the final restaurant chain and have a huge stake in the game’s winner. Thousands of ideas will be narrowed down as each week the investors will put the chosen few through rigorous challenges to discover whose plan has the greatest potential for success. The stakes have never been higher for the contestants and the investors. The series will showcase larger-than-life personalities who will offer the hopeful restaurateurs expertise, support — and the kind of tough love it will take to overcome great odds. Ultimately, after a much-heated debate, the panel will choose the winning concept and decide whose idea will be America’s newest restaurant.
NBC, by the way, says the show entails the biggest reality show prize ever. Not sure if they’re measuring by cash value, square footage or calories.