Tuned In+Television | March 10, 2012

SXSW Watch: The Transmedia of Top Chef

By James Poniewozik

One of the TV buzzwords I’ve been hearing this year at South by Southwest is “transmedia.” Which, you may be surprised to find, is not a reference to RuPaul’s Drag Race. It’s the new term of art for using various other media platforms to create entertainment associated with a show, and one of the more aggressive networks at it has been Bravo. So Saturday morning the network filled a massive ballroom to talk about how it extended Top Chef online this season with Last Chance Kitchen.

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Tuned In+Television | February 22, 2012

Top Chef Vs. Chopped: Who Rules the Food TV Kitchen?

By James Poniewozik

Unlike the stunt-heavy Top Chef, which seems to have grown bored with cooking, Chopped is reliable, workmanlike and procedural, the Law & Order of cable food-competition shows.

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Tuned In+Tuned In | November 9, 2011

Reality TV: Bringing Families Closer Together

By James Poniewozik
NBC

When reality TV swept primetime, people had lots of guesses as to what would come of it. But I don’t recall anyone predicting that it would become the new family viewing.

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Tuned In+Review | November 3, 2011

Top Chef Returns: You’re Texas Toast

By James Poniewozik
BRAVO

Last night saw the debut of Top Chef Texas, and true to the popular cliché about the nation’s largest state (until Alaska ruined everything), it was bigger. I have long since learned that it is pointless to really judge a Top Chef season until it has a few episodes under its belt and the contestants [...]

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Tuned In+Uncategorized | March 31, 2011

Top Chef Watch: Coup de Gras

By James Poniewozik

Quick spoilers for last night’s Top Chef All-Stars coming up: In last night’s finale, Richard Blais and Mike Isabella flung foie gras ice cream against pepperoni sauce in the Top Chef All-Stars final round. Two four-course meals later, the Toppest Chef of all time is…

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Tuned In+Uncategorized | March 3, 2011

Top Chef Watch: Family Style

By James Poniewozik

Quick spoilers for last night’s Top Chef coming up: So before you all decide that I’m a heartless bastard, let me stipulate that last night’s “Give Me Your Huddled Masses” episode of Top Chef touched me in all the ways it intended to. I did indeed get verklempt at Michael’s memory of his grandmother’s gnocchi [...]

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Tuned In+Uncategorized | December 10, 2009

Top Chef Watch: Bad Robot!

By James Poniewozik

Spoilers for last night’s Top Chef finale coming up after the jump:

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Tuned In+December 9, 2009

TV Tonight: Who's Your Top Chef?

By James Poniewozik

If you’re interested, you need no reminder, but Top Chef: No-Longer-in-Las-Vegas-But-Napa has its finale tonight. Facing off are the seeming frontrunners the entire season: Kevin, of the burly beard, and the eerily dispassionate Voltaggio brothers (known affectionately in the Tuned In household as Good Robot and Bad Robot). Though I couldn’t begrudge any of them [...]

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Tuned In+November 19, 2009

Corporate Press Release Theater: Top Chef, the Chain Restaurant?

By James Poniewozik

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 [...]

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Tuned In+November 4, 2009

TV Tonight: Top Chef Reunion Dinner

By James Poniewozik

Not only is Glee taking the night of tonight, but even Bravo’s Top Chef: Las Vegas is on vacation. In its place, however, Bravo is offering us a special one-off of the show, or what we refer to in the Tuned In household as “a ripoff episode.” Unlike the clip jobs that Survivor like to [...]

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Tuned In+Uncategorized | October 29, 2009

South Park: The Meat of the Matter

By James Poniewozik

In the interest of balance today, time to post about some offensive TV on Comedy Central that I liked. South Park’s “Whale Whores,” while not an all-time great, was one of those episodes that hit for the cycle of South Park fixations: pop-culture mocking (Whale Wars, Lady Gaga), stories about the kids and, at the [...]

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Tuned In+October 26, 2009

Top Chef Franchise Goes Back for Thirds

By James Poniewozik

As Top Chef: Las Vegas steams toward its finale and another edition of Top Chef Masters has already been announced, Bravo is piling more on its plate (oh, I’ve got a million of these, folks) with another spinoff series, Top Chef: Just Desserts, which will feature the competing talents of pastry chefs. The idea may [...]

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Tuned In+Uncategorized | October 14, 2009

Our Thursday Problem

By James Poniewozik

The emerging consensus in Tuned Inland is that Thursday is becoming a problem. A high-class problem, yes: too much good (or at least potentially good) TV. I don’t even watch Grey’s Anatomy, yet at this point, I find myself finishing my time-shifted Thursday-night programming somewhere around the following Monday—especially since Mrs. Tuned In and I [...]

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Tuned In+October 6, 2009

Your Town, Too, Can Host a Bravo Show

By James Poniewozik

This morning’s e-mail brings the unsurprising word that Bravo is expanding its Real Housewives franchise, picking up its previously announced Real Housewives of D.C. for a full series order, as well as a second season of The Real Housewives of New Jersey. In other Bravo news, the network officially announced there will be a seventh [...]

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Tuned In+Uncategorized | September 10, 2009

Top Chef Watch: The Impossible (Almost) Happens

By James Poniewozik

Spoilers for last night’s Top Chef, translated from the original French, coming up after the jump.

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Tuned In+Uncategorized | August 28, 2009

The Morning After: Top Chef and Gay Marriage

By James Poniewozik

We’re into the fall-screener time of year, when the growing pile of shows-that-will-be-on-a-month-from-now is taking precedence over stuff-that-is-actually-on-TV-now. (HBO, for instance, just sent six episodes of Bored to Death, the Jason Schwarzman screwball-noir comedy, which after an iffy pilot is getting funnier by the episode.) So I’ll leave it to you to comment on last [...]

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Tuned In+Uncategorized | August 20, 2009

Top Chef Watch: Vice City

By James Poniewozik

Spoilers for last night’s season premiere of Top Chef coming up after the jump:

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Tuned In+August 19, 2009

TV Tonight (and Tomorrow): Knives vs. Needles!

By James Poniewozik

Tonight, Top Chef returns to Bravo, with season 6, set in Las Vegas. Tomorrow, the show’s estranged big sibling, Project Runway, returns after a long, litigation-induced absence, on a new network (Lifetime) and with new producers. My headline aside, it’s not like anyone has to choose between the two shows, which the networks had the [...]

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Tuned In+August 7, 2009

Dead Tree Alert: Top Tips for Top Chefs

By James Poniewozik

It’s a list! It’s an article! It’s a listicle! Today in the print TIME, in anticipation of the new season of Top Chef beginning later this month, I have a list of dos and don’ts for Top Chef contestants. (Also, I want to swear here and now that I came up with my theory that [...]

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Tuned In+Uncategorized | July 8, 2009

Luck, Be a Ladle: Top Chef Vegas Sets a Date

By James Poniewozik

If you follow the careers of celebrity chefs, or just like to gamble, you know that one of the surest steps in a successful career is opening a satellite restaurant in Las Vegas. So it’s only fitting that the next installment of Top Chef will take place in Sin City, and today Bravo announced a [...]