Dine and Dash: Must-Flee TV

The Food Network has a brand new show in development, and there's bad news and good news.

The bad news is, it's a competitive eating reality show called Eat The Clock.

The good news is, there's still plenty of time to change the concept, not to mention the name, before the show airs in 2009.

The Food Network and Eat The Clock production company Pie Town Productions did not return calls for comment today. But according to the show's casting call, producers were looking for "high-energy, dynamic and competitive two-member teams...who are 25-45 and have some connection, knowledge or experience in the food industry." In terms of the show's premise, the listing describes that "two teams race through many of L.A.'s culinary hot spots competing in challenges for the ultimate chowhound smack-down!"

Poor Food Network. AMC has Mad Men, Bravo has Project Runway, TNT has The Closer but the Food Network has yet to find that cult hit that will bring it into the big leagues.

What's more, the Food Network hasn't even managed to corner the market on food-based entertainment. They stood still while the competition ate their lunch, creating popular chef-centric reality shows such as Fox's Hell's Kitchen and Bravo's Top Chef. No Reservations, a program with a devoted following that sends chef Anthony Bourdain noshing his way around the globe, is on the Travel Channel.

The closest thing the Food Network has had to a big hit is The Next Food Network Star, which puts contestants through the paces in pursuit of their own Food Network show. The finale for season three attracted 4 million viewers at the end of July, a Food Network record. But it has still failed to garner the ratings of Hell's Kitchen (8.8 million viewers for the finale), or the cult status of Top Chef.

As The Next Food Network Star continues to age, the pressure is on the Food Network to find the next (first?) big thing.

Hence competitive eating.

It seems like an odd solution for this moment in America. At a time when expanding waistlines, soaring food prices, and a sluggish economy are instilling America with a newfound yen for more frugal living, intentional over-consumption doesn't seem to quite capture the zeitgeist.

Casual dining chains like Applebee's and Chili's are floundering as consumers cut their budgets for eating out. Will watching contestants blow through a dozen oysters at Spago and then burn rubber to get to Matsuhisa (which is at least how we envision the show) not seem a wee bit wasteful? Not to mention unhealthy?

The Food Network is not the first channel to latch onto the idea. Cable channel G4 launched a competitive food eating show called Hurl this spring (not exactly an instant sensation), and Spike is now airing competitive eating events. But those two channels are heavily geared towards young men, the demographic one might expect to be awestruck at someone getting 12 hot dogs down the hatch in 60 seconds.

Eat the Clock is the Food Network's boldest attempt yet to appeal to a wider (read: more male, younger, more lucrative) demographic, another sign that the network is turning away from its standard celebrity chef-driven vehicles towards less "foodie friendly", more populist, programming.

For that reason, Eat The Clock could mean the Food Network cutting off its nose to spite its face. The show probably will not be enough to migrate large numbers of young men to the channel long-term, and for your average Food Network devotee, competitive eat-offs don't elicit the same frisson as watching Julia Child pull the perfect soufflé from the oven.

Liz Gunnison