With his ruddy, boyish cheeks, well-pruned goatee, and Malibu Barbie–blonde spikes, it was only a matter of time before “food personality” Guy Fieri made the transition to game-show host. And so it has come to pass that NBC is currently casting contestants for Perfect 10, a forthcoming prime-time show to be hosted by the Diners, Drive-ins and Dives guru. The show’s ultimate prize, of course, is $1 million, and in a way that’s become increasingly typical of the late-modern game-show form, its rules are convoluted: Sixty seconds are given to contestants to solve ten progressively harder puzzles.
In some circles, Guy Fieri has become emblematic of our dualistic food culture, in a tried-and-true, Psych 101 kind of way, with defenders and detractors. Anthony Bourdain recently told us, “I look at that and think what a lot of people think: ridiculous and painful — even insulting. But I also think, ‘That’s one hard-working man, glad I don’t have to work that hard.’” Guy Fieri’s Food Network show Diners, Drive-ins and Dives is equal parts paean to vanishing, roadside America and a heartburn travelogue. Fieri’s onscreen chumming with veteran hash-brown slingers and double-chili-dog champions belies a much darker undercurrent of extreme cuisine, a day job that must also be accompanied by a stratospheric blood pressure. It’s the kind of stunt David Blaine would never touch. The prime-time Perfect 10 will likely have far fewer calories, in every imaginable way.
Guy Fieri to Host NBC’s Game Show Perfect 10 [Eat Me Daily]
