Hot Bench

Behind the tabloids, speculation, and rumors lies the truth. Celebrity guests have the chance to set the record straight.

A cooking competition series.

An investigative journalist tries to help people get together with their family, find loved ones or rediscover their cultural roots.

Another entry in the overstocked barrel of TV courtroom shows, Judge Alex was the first such series to feature a Hispanic jurist as its star. Havana-born Alex E. Ferrer had been a cop, SWAT team member, and prosecutor before ascending to a judge's chair with the Criminal & Family divisions of Florida's 11th Judiciary, Miami-Dade County. One of the youngest of the TV judges (he was 44 at the time his daily, half-hour series debuted), Ferrer was also graced with a wry sense of humor -- though he brooked no nonsense in his courtroom, telling more than one litigant or plaintiff to "tell the truth or take a walk." Distributed by Twentieth Television beginning September 12, 2005, Judge Alex scored the highest ratings of any new daily show of its period, thanks largely to a major sale to the Fox network-owned-and-operated channels.

Seven noteworthy food truck restauranteurs face off in a cross-country competition to determine the most skilled chef among them.

Contestants are paired with celebrities to test their pop-culture knowledge by identifying famous individuals in entertainment, sports and politics. Based on the board game "Identity Crisis."