Rachael Ray Gets A Foodless Talkshow

One of the Food Network’s biggest stars is headed for mainstream talk show competition. Celeb Chef Rachael Ray is getting her own talk show from the producing partners at Oprah’s Harpo Productions and King World. You may remember them as the companies responsible for cannoning Dr. Phil at us.

The show will not be food focused, though do expect a lot of cooking segments. Rather, expect something pretty much along the lines of “Oprah”, only with fewer celebrity guests. Tom Cruise isn’t jumping over couches to get a spot on the Rachael Ray show.

Rachael Ray is the author of 13 cook books and nearly as many shows on the Food Network, but does that really qualify her to become a day time purveyor of general house frau entertainment? There’s no denying she has charm. She’s consistently the best host the Food Network has to offer. She’s likable, charming, and unlike a lot of talk show muckity mucks seems to have a sense of humor. That could translate well into a more mainstream show, as long as she stays away from baby daddy DNA tests.

Rachael assures the press that should be no problem. She’s not interested in the Maury Povich/Jerry Springer genre of daytime talk. Rachel Ray isn’t into the mushy stuff. “My number one rule is no crying,” she says. Instead, she’s aiming for something she calls “kitchen table talk”, as opposed to the usual “couch talk” found on other shows. Does that mean her set will feature rickety wooden chairs around a comfy kitchen table? Unknown, but she does say audiences should expect a different vibe.

As a fan of the Food Network, this is kind of depressing news. It likely means she’ll abandon her many shows there in favor of working on this… a show which I know I’ll never watch. Many of her female Food Network viewers may transition over with her, but the rest of us are right out. On the plus side, it’ll be nice to have at least one beautiful woman on broadcast television who likes to eat.