A culinary ‘American Idol‘ is set to hit the United States. Masterchef, starring Gordon Ramsay will feature nonprofessional cooks who will compete to create that perfect dish. Ramsay will co-produce the show through his domestic banner. Production is due to begin soon, with Fox expected to order close to 12-15 hour-long segments of the show. Fox has so far only confirmed that it had sealed the deal with Reveille, but has declined to comment on other details.
Several manifestations of the MasterChef format have aired in the UK, with the oldest one dating back to 1990. The Australian edition is by far the most popular, with its finale one of the country’s most-watched program in a decade.
Howard T. Owens, Executive Producer, Reveille said, “This is a huge, nationwide search for the best amateur cook in America. It is about people who are lawyers, construction workers and stay-at-home moms, but whose real passion is to make great food. This is their shot to prove they have what it takes.”
Fox’s MasterChef is expected to closely follow the format of its Australian counterpart, with each season seeing a contestant create a dish for the panel of three judges to earn their respective spots in the semi-finals. The remainder of the contestants meanwhile compete for the rest of the weeks on team-based challenges.
The show is yet to be scheduled and tentative plans at Fox include a late spring edition of Hell’s Kitchen, which will go into summer, and then will be followed by the unveiling of MasterChef.
Growing up in South Dakota, Actress January Jones was “fascinated by the ocean and everything in it.” Her pet fascination was Sharks. “I had shark books and every documentary I could get my hands on. I think they’re incredibly beautiful and prehistoric,” she says. But it wasn’t till she was 15 that Jones finally saw the ocean in real life which only served to deepen her interest.
“When I heard that shark populations were being depleted by staggering numbers, I realized (Oceana) would be a perfect play to put my time in to save our environment. Because without sharks, there is no ocean life”, the 31 year old actress said. Recently Jones signed on with Oceana to be a celebrity spokesperson for Shark populations which currently stand decimated. Dedicated to “the protection and restoration of the World’s Oceans”, Oceana is a group which is campaign driven and is aimed at protecting endangered species, stopping global contamination and protecting collapsing fish populations.
After shooting Public Service Announcements in the Bahamas for Nurse and Baby Lemon sharks recently, Jones announced that she plans to dive with Whale Sharks in April with Oceana. This month however, she heads to Washington, D. C., where she expects to fight against the controversial practice of Finning. Finning is the process where the fin of the Shark is removed for food and the fish is set free. This results in a slow death for the Shark. January Jones is well known for her movies “We Are Marshall”, “The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada”, “Anger Management”, “Love, Actually” and the Emmy winning AMC TV series “Mad Men”.
Despite rave reviews for the pilot from fans and surprisingly, critics, the unofficial word on “V” is that it is in trouble. Although the network confirmed that the Sci-fi drama would launch as planned on Tuesday, November 3rd at 8 p.m, its decision to split this seasons episodes into 2 pods has everyone questioning the future of the series.
ABC announced plans to initially run 4 episodes, take a break, and return mid-season in March. This led to rumors that the number of episodes on the show had been reduced. However, ABC and producer Warner Bros. vehemently denied these rumors, stating that the show will run for 13 episodes as planned. The reason for the break is logical, as network insiders point out that “American Idol” launches in January followed by the Winter Olympics in February, making the return of the second half of “V” in March a smart decision. The show, a franchise initially written by American Writer, Producer and Director Kenneth Johnson, is about Aliens known as “The Visitors” trying to take over the Earth and a group of humans called The Resistance who fight them. It debuted in 1983 as “V” a two part miniseries, followed by a three-part miniseries in 1984 titled “V: The Final Battle”. A regular one hour weekly series aired during the 1984-1985 television season and was referred to as “V: The Series”.
In February 2008, Johnson released a novel disregarding the two series which followed the 1983 miniseries. The alternative sequel was titled “V: The Second Generation”. Negotiations with Warner Bros. for a TV adaptation of this novel failed later that year, followed quickly by the announcement that Warner Bros. TV would be producing a complete remake of “V”. The remake is now written by Scott Peters, the creator of the show “The 4400”.
Stephen King is to try out the small screen once again, signing up to take his book ‘The Colorado Kid’ into an hour long series for E1 Entertainment. The project, titled ‘Haven’, centres around a spooky little town in Maine inhabited by cursed folk who live normal lives, but in exile. FBI agent Audrey Parker is brought in when these curses start returning, trying to keep those supernatural forces at bay. Along with this, she also tries to unravel the mysteries of Haven.The same team who turned King’s ‘The Dead Zone’ into a series for USA Network are on this project as well. Scott Shepherd will be ‘show runner’ while the executive producers will be Lloyd Segan and Shawn Piller. All three were executive producers on ‘The Dead Zone’ which ran for six seasons, which went off air in 2008. Sam Ernst and Jim Dunn, also previous ‘Dead Zone’ team members are currently writing the pilot for Haven and will also be the show’s executive producers. Other executive producers include E1’s John Morayniss and Noreen Halpern.
The indie studio has already committed to produce thirteen episodes of Haven and is currently in talks with a number of European broadcast partners to sing on and help finance the show. They plan to bring the international co-production to October’s Mipcom confab. Once an international partner is secured, the company will next work on finding US and Canadian broadcasters.
Haven is set to commence ‘some time’ in the next six months, once partners are secured and the casting finalized.
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The popular cable network Showtime is no stranger to controversy. Its two most popular series, Weeds and Dexter, delve deeply into dangerous territory as their protagonists tread the fine line between morality and immorality. In the case of Weeds, soccer mom turned drug dealer, Nancy Bowen (played by Mary-Louise Parker) struggles to keep the danger of her chosen profession from impacting the lives of her family. For Dexter, a blood splatter expert who just happens to be a serial killer, moral dilemmas abound. Dexter (Michael C. Hall) is not just any ordinary killer, he kills for a purpose—to mete out justice on the bad guys. Both characters challenge viewers to set moral judgments aside as they present scenarios that cause us to wonder if we would act differently given the same set of circumstances.
Californication, starring real life sex-addict David Duchovny, followed the travails of Hank Moody, a troubled writer. Hank turns to sex, drugs, and alcohol (and lots of each) to try to break through persistent writer’s block. Duchovny’s lead character was far less empathetic than Parker or Hall but the show brought to the foreground all things Hollywood. For those with stars in their eyes this calls into question just what you are so star struck by. Do these people really deserve our adoration?
For Showtime the next controversial show in the making is a new 10-part documentary series by director Oliver Stone. Secret History of America will take a sideways glance at what are considered to be important, but poorly covered events in American history. Judging by the reaction to Oliver Stone projects in the past, this series is certain to generate much debate. In particular, regarding the historical accuracy of the events presented.
Creating programming which is on the edge and generates controversy seems to be a successful formula for Showtime. As long as viewers have a taste for what can be a little dangerous and a lot thought provoking, Showtime will continue to push the envelope. After all, isn’t generating talk what brings viewers to the network?
Hell’s Kitchen, starring world-renowned chef Gordon Ramsay, is a televised competition for aspiring amateur chefs where the contestants create and cook their way to winning a six-figure salary and becoming head chef of one of Gordon Ramsay’s upscale restaurants.
Each contestant brings varying levels of culinary skills and their own unique flavor to the competition. The contestants are divided into two teams, the red team and the blue team. The members of the red team are women while the men make up the blue team.
The teams are given challenges to prepare food dishes that are served to dinner guests who evaluate the food and service. Winning a challenge usually gets the team a nice get-a-way or some other well deserved prize while the losing team must clean both kitchens, receive deliveries and prep both kitchens for the next meal challenge.
During the challenges Gordon Ramsay evokes fear in the contestants with his vulgarities, cursing, screaming and at times even throwing food, Ramsay’s way of sculpting the aspiring chefs to be the best they can be and in the end to make his final decision on the chef most deserving of the prize.
Chef Ramsay’s antics, at times, may seem devilish and insane but contrary to his self portrayal he is a kind hearted, successful, world-renowned chef affording a once in a lifetime opportunity to a talented but unknown chef.
Hell’s Kitchen and chef Ramsay bring reality television viewers into a chaotic kitchen of fierce competition, drama and culinary entertainment.
Warehouse 13 is a hit new science fiction series that follows the story of two mismatched federal agents who are enlisted to protect the world from a series of strange objects that each possess a supernatural power that must be contained. Thousands of these objects have already been contained and are housed at a facility far off the grid known as Warehouse 13. Whereas most science fiction programs on television today are bogged down by complex, ongoing plot lines, Warehouse 13 follows in the footsteps of more lighthearted fare such as Lost in Space and Eerie Pennsylvania where a viewer can choose to simply watch a single episode now and then and just enjoy the fun. At the same time, the writing for the show is steeped in enough solid science fiction that just about every episode has a storyline that is innovative enough to catch and keep your attention.
However, the thing that keeps most viewers coming back is the characters. They are far from cutting edge or original, but there is something about each of them that is charming and personable enough for the viewer to readily identify with. The two federal agents consist of the archetypal mismatched cop pair of the by the books female FBI agent gunning for a serious career with the federal government and a fly by the seat of his pants male lead who trusts his instincts. It’s not the most original idea, but the two have a chemistry that makes it work. They are employed by the caretaker of Warehouse 13, a lovable, pudgy fingered klutz is both charmingly aloof and deeply knowledgeable on the lore of the objects that the agents must collect. Warehouse 13 isn’t exactly must see TV, but it is certainly a pleasure to watch.