"tv shows" news and stories

So how will Kenny meet his untimely end tonight? Cuisinart? Freak flambé accident? Maybe just a good old 8-inch Henckel?

It may seem like it's been a long time coming (just because, let's face it, so much about the Food Network is ripe for parody), but tonight one cable titan takes aim at another: South Park is giving the likes of Guy Fieri and Alton Brown its signature bobble-head treatment.

Comedy Central isn't saying much about the episode, either in its press release or the 17-second preview clip. All we know is that Stan's dad gets obsessed with the constant stream of filleting, dicing, braising, sautéing, etc. that is the Food Network's raison d'être, and it starts to tear his marriage apart, leaving Stan's mom to pursue a mysterious "new interest" of her own.

Episode #1414 is called "Crème Fraîche," and it airs at 10 p.m. ET, ironically, as Eater.com points out, opposite the finale of "Top Chef: Just Desserts."

Food Network's Private Chefs of Beverly Hills is about to get a bit more public. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Private Chefs Inc. has filed a lawsuit against the Food Network over the TV series, citing that it violates not only a trade mark surrounding their company name, but also poaches from a series idea the company pitched to the network back in 2002.

Food Network's show follows six chefs from the Los Angeles based company Big City Chefs. The series debuted in December 2009 as a six-episode mini season, and is set to return for the second season on October 12.

Tomorrow night on Top Chef, Gail Simmons has a special surprise for the Chef'testants. She's throwing her girlfriend a bridal shower and they are cooking!

Creating a menu around the old maxim:

Something old, something new
Something borrowed, something blue
And a silver sixpence in her shoe.

... should be no trouble for the teams (Old, New, Borrowed, and Blue ... where's Sixpence?).

The only problem is, some of them don't look too excited to be Gail Simmons' personal chefs. Isn't this supposed to be a competition, not a service?

The episode airs tomorrow night, Wednesday, December 10th, at 10/9c on Bravo with guest judge Dana Cowin, Editor-in-Chief of Food & Wine Magazine.

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Bravo's Top Chef has cooked up a Restaurant Finder website.

Who better to tell you where to eat than the Top Chef chefs? You can type in the cuisine you desire and a city to get listings and reviews, or browse each chef's personal picks!

Some restaurants are recommended by multiple chefs, like Alinea in Chicago, which is recommended by Stephen, Radhika, Harold, and Tre. Their plugs for the restaurant even include "must eat" items. That's right. Top Chef even tells you what to order!

Stop bossing us around, Top Chef, jeez.

The new season of Bravo's Top Chef begins next Wednesday, November 12th, at 10/9 Central, and features new judge Toby Young, food critic and best-selling author of the book How to Lose Friends and Alienate People.

More info here at BravoTV.com.

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If you haven't watched PBS, Nickelodeon or the Disney Channel lately, a new study says that you may be surprised to see that a significant portion of the advertising, as well as the sponsorships, in the case of PBS, comes from food companies, including McDonald's, Chuck E Cheese, and others. Those who support limiting the "junk food advertising" seen by children are using this as ammunition, saying that children are too young to make "critical judgments about advertising" and that they are heavily influenced by the products they see. In short, they feel that advertising is a leading cause in making children crave high-fat, high-sugar foods and leads to an increased risk of obesity.

The networks, for their part, insist that they have cut back on food advertising and that many ads are not accepted unless they are in some way promoting education, social development or physical activity.

In the past, studies have shown that the average American child from infancy to 6 watches one hour of TV per day, while 8 to 18-year-olds watch 3 hours daily. This means that they could be seeing as many as 40,000 ads. An alternative solution to heavier restrictions on advertising is that the concerned parents behind the study could simply stop allowing their children to watch that much TV. If the numbers drop even by half, they would have that much less to worry about from advertising, no matter what products were being promoted.

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