"reality television" news and stories

Doughnuts and wine go together like... wait, that's insane, right? Not at a place called Psycho Donuts in San Jose, California owned by former techy Jordan Zwegoron. Set up like a "light-hearted" asylum, it's complete with lab coat-clad employees, a padded booth, straitjacket and group therapy area where customers are given plastic bubble wrap (for popping, natch) and donuts named "Cereal Killer," "Kooky Monster" and "Massive Head Trauma."

"When you walk in, you're our patient, and we make you better with doughnuts," Zwegoron told the Santa Cruz Sentinel. That all may not spell 'family friendly' but it's TV gold for producer Nicole Block of LA-based Highlighting Entertainment, who's shooting a sample episode of a doughnut-and-wine pairing reality show to pitch to TLC, the Food Network and the Cooking Channel, reports the Sentinel.

"There's a lot of cupcake and cake reality shows, but we haven't seen a doughnut show," says Block. "Zwegoron is a good character and the doughnuts are unique, so we think Psycho Donuts will be a good candidate." She's decided to match up the crazy confectionist with wine from Poetic Cellars on the hills of Soquel, CA. The cellar's shtick? Each bottle is labeled with a poem. We can't say what's in the paired-up doughnut, but it's four-pronged and goes by "the poetic psycho," like any good reality TV star.

One of my guilty pleasures about the end of the year are all the 'Best Of' lists that pop up. I don't know why, but I always find it really entertaining to watch a year of pop culture, media, politics and (of course) food boiled down to an assortment of Top Ten lists. If you also find it fascinating and want to put your $.02 into the process, then I suggest you navigate yourself over to Yumsugar, where they are giving their readers an opportunity to cast votes on a variety of food-related topics.

The image above is nabbed from their poll about who is the Best Food Reality Judge of 2007.

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Not to leave any possible stone unturned, it seems that the Food Network has plans to expand their reality television horizons this fall as they conduct a search for The Next Iron Chef. Though details are very limited at this point, the show will apparently be hosted by Iron Chef's own Alton Brown, and the contestants will be culinary professionals hoping to become one of the shows celebrity Iron Chefs alongside the current roster of Bobby Flay, Mario Batali, Masaharu Morimoto, and Cat Cora.

Though a number of old shows have been weeded out, The Food Network has enjoyed increased viewership over the past few years and are working on introducing even more new content to their regular line-up, including "America's Best Recipe" - where everyday cooks compete for best recipe in various categories, as well as "Food Dudes", which will follow two young "scruffy" chefs from Hollywood as they run their catering business.

It seems as though the days of one (highly trained) chef standing behind a counter preparing meals are definitely numbered.

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Tonight TLC will begin airing a new series entitled, Honey, We're Killing the Kids!. The show will focus on 13 families from across the nation who's children's eating habits have become seriously unhealthy. A constant intake consisting of over sized portions of sugary, fat laden, low fiber foods has left these children inactive and at high risks for diabetes and heart disease.

Dr. Lisa Hark, who hosts the series, focuses on the cause of this epidemic in our country. She helps educate the families about how to make healthier food and activity choices that will benefit their lives for the longterm. She also uses a computer imaging program that takes a current picture of their child and fast forwards it into young adulthood to give the parents a frightening look at how obesity will shape their children.

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