Check, Please! producer David Manilow has narrowed the field of hundreds of aspiring hosts to 17— and they certainly present different visions of how the series would look in the era after the departure of longtime host and now The Boarding House co-owner Alpana Singh. It could be Sassy Black Check, Please!— with Charlie Trotter’s bubbly wife Rochelle. It could be hiphop Vin Diesel Check, Please!— with shaven-headed Cleetus Friedman, of the recently closed City Provisions. It could be well-connected Check, Please!, with Sarah Levy of those Levys, a TV-experienced pastry maker, or Donny de Castro, of those de Castros and Tavern at the Park, whose also has TV experience, having appeared on Dawsons Creek. It could even be Brooklyn Jewish grandma Check, Please! with Ina Pinkney of Ina’s, or Australian truffle hunter Check, Please!, with former Sixteen chef Frank Brunacci. And then there’s our colleague Anthony Todd, of Chicagoist, so it could be meta-media locavore Check, Please!
Anyway, whichever one of those it will be is, in part, up to you the viewer. You can now see the audition tapes and read the background info submitted by all 17 of the finalists, and you can vote— ONCE— for your favorite at the site here, now through April 17.
