Cheers & Jeers: ABC Bites Off More Than It Can Chew
The Chew
Jeers to The Chew for its unappetizingly overstuffed premiere.
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Even though one of its five cohosts oddly didn't attend the opening of ABC's All My Children-killing chat 'n chew — Mario Batali briefly appeared via satellite from a charity golf tournament in Jersey City — the table still felt way too overcrowded. In this culinary knockoff of The View, What Not to Wear's Clinton Kelly seemed uncomfortably shoehorned into the Whoopi Goldberg sassy-moderator role. And in case you missed the fact that "health and wellness expert" Daphne Oz is Dr. Oz's daughter the first ten times they mentioned it, the good doctor himself showed up for a "surprise" cameo to declare how proud he is of his newly little girl (she lost 25 pounds, and her weight-loss secrets were also crammed down viewers' throats).
Meanwhile, Top Chef's Carla Hall and Iron Chef's Michael Symon (both of whom brought their moms to the show) tried to out down-home each other: Symon cooked cheap-and-easy pork and beans, while Hall introduced the concept of "Gon' Bes": recipes gone wrong that, she assured us, are "gon' be OK." Someday maybe we'll be able to say the same about The Chew, if they can trim the fat from the cast, cut back on the cornball forced merriment and throw a few less ingredients into the proverbial pot.
What's your view of The Chew?
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