The Blogosphere: The New Food Entertainment?

After writing on many different subjects ranging from video games to smart choices when eating, I felt it necessary to discuss food entertainment in a different light. There are numerous television stations that air shows having to do with cooking as well as many reality shows deciding who the next best chef will be. It is true that food television is becoming more popular by the minute and ratings will continue to soar as long as the programming stays entertaining. Food entertainment programming is starting to become a topic of concern in many food blogs. People are expressing their feelings about dumbed down programming and just plain repetitive shows. However, due to the growing success of food television and use of the web, a new form of food entertainment has been born. Welcome to what could possibly be the next best food entertainment, the blogosphere.

Food Network started off with shows on cooking and has continued to air programming with a wider range of topics. Shows such as Unwrapped and Good Eats delve into the creating, packaging, history and science aspects of food. Although these shows are highly informative and entertaining, viewers wanted more. With shows such as Iron Chef and Top Chef becoming such a phenomenon in the food world, Food Network decided to create The Next Food Network Star. This show is great for two reasons; one it is a reality show about food, and two it is designed so that the winner gets a test season. What a great idea! A show that creates new shows, or is it?

Popular food blog, Serious Eats, posted a question about how The Next Food Network Star has not produced a “star” besides Guy Fieri. Food blog, From Scratch (see above left) has commented on the same thing, as well as how the shows are dumbed down. On the other hand, the show Ace of Cakes tends to have a bit of dark humor and is much more entertaining than watching Sandra Lee and her Semi-Homemade recipes. People absolutely love Ace of Cakes . How would this become a huge problem for food networks? Finding appropriate programming. The viewers are starting to lean more towards entertainment and traditional reality shows than just instructional food shows. Are these issues leaving an opportunity for something new in the food entertainment world that is not necessarily television? I believe so.

From the moment that this blog was started there has been extensive research on a range of topics. Even when searching for information on serious topics there will always be a blog that makes for a “wow, did they really just write that?” comment. This is probably the most entertaining part of researching on the web. Up to this point, the best blog I have come across is Cake Wrecks. This blog is a constant stream of humor about when professional and amateur cakes go wrong. The writer and creator of Cake Wrecks, Jen uses witty comments along with stories from readers to create one of the most entertaining sites in the food world. Already voted Best Humor Blog by the Blogger’s Choice Awards, this site keeps getting better by the minute. Another site that I have mentioned before is Food Network Addict. For Food Network Nerds like myself, this is the place to find out the new Food Network gossip as well as additions to the network. The site is filled with plenty of humor specifically aimed towards the Food Network chefs and hosts, occasionally with drawings and captions of inappropriate nature. One other element to mention is that this writer gets great interviews from the hosts as well as decent advertising spots. He is definitely doing a great job with this blog.

What this comes down to is the fact that many people are becoming either inspired or frustrated with the programming and are turning it into amazing blog sites. Already, Food Network has picked up food blog, The Amateur Gourmet, and turned it into a web series. The probability they will try and turn more blogs into shows is pretty high. If they are smart they will try to get these blogs to sign on as either web shows or actual shows. There is a catch, if the blog creators are smart, they will just try and generate traffic and make money off of ad sales. Bottom line is that as programming becomes more and more generic, the off the wall blogs are going to generate more traffic. They are easier to access as well as easier to produce and maintain. They really are becoming a new and exciting venue for food entertainment.