How big is a serving?
This is one of the many unanswered questions on the new ABC daytime show "The Chew." One of the helpful hints is to have a dish, tell you how much it costs per serving, then not tell you how big is a serving.
All the bases are covered, at least by five people on a network show. Fun to see 60 minutes of network time devoted to food, but you get the feeling that 30 minutes would be enough.
The debut had segments from the five people, including Mario Batali on a golf course. Clinton Kelly showed us miniature versions of foods we'd rather eat whole. Carla Hall tried to convince us that kids wouldn't eat apples unless they were dipped in pancake batter. Michael Symon cooked pork and beans on kale, not terribly exciting.
As if we needed proof for why Daphne Oz is the "nutrition" expert, we get a visit from her famous father, Dr. Oz. Daphne made a power smoothie with vitamins. You would think a smoothie would be made from whole foods and you wouldn't need extra vitamins. I would hoping like hell that the smoothie contained apple juice, but that is a sore subject in the Oz household these days.
Dr. Oz proceeded to distract us with a bizarre story of Daphne being born the color blue. Other than slamming home the point about the only reason why she is on the show, his appearance was useless. And whoever is doing Daphne's makeup should cut back about 90%. Her makeup looks like an 8-year-old girl did her own makeup and poured on way too much.
In the debut episode, they tried to seem relevant in talking about the news. The hosts referred to a story in The New York Times on the cost of junk food versus a home-cooked meal. It would have been more helpful to mention Mark Bittman's name so viewers could find the article easier.
I confess I imagined that the hosts would sit around and talk about food issues in the news, ala "The View" and its various ripoffs. But this show doesn't want to stop and reflect too much because the next quirky feature is always around the corner.
The question that truly remains is "Why would people tune in to the same people 5 days a week for 60 minutes."
On Day 2, Batali came to dominate in the studio. The theme of the 2nd day was showing off financial outlets for 2 of the 5 hosts. Batali showed off his NYC market with his special guest, Whoopi Goldberg from "The View." Daphne Oz gave away copies of her book during her segment. As long as the hosts are getting richer, that's what matters. Uh, no.
Their attempts to be newsworthy brought laughter from this reporter. Clinton Kelly told us that he just found out in The Washington Post that the founder of Doritos had died. Well, that happened several days ago, and even newspapers had that information before Kelly did. Though, Kelly had a save by bringing out Doritos. Will be nice to see if they acknowledge junk food in many more episodes.
We were hoping that Daphne would provide some decent nutritional info. So far, this is all about her family name and products. At least she wore slightly less makeup and spoke a lot less outside her segment on Day 2.
The changes from Day 1 to Day 2 show that this program is still trying to figure out what it is doing. Too bad they didn't think that through in the months leading up to the telecast, or in creating a TV show. Until they figure it out, you probably won't notice what they do unless they make significant headlines. And then several days later, Clinton Kelly will bring in a newspaper and talk about what headlines they made.
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