Having little to do by way of physical activity post-turkey this Thanksgiving holiday, I decided to step away from the computer for a bit and flip on the TV. Like any good travel fan, I immediately found my way to the Travel Channel with the hopes of catching up on all the travel-related television programming that I normally miss out on due to my sole exposure to basic cable (read: TV antenna) back home.

However, I quickly found, there’s a limit to the amount of exposure one man can take of shows dating back to 1996 on the top ten fast food restaurants in America, the top ten train rides in the Canadian Rockies, or how to survive in Orlando on $40 a day. Where was the edgy, interesting, though-provoking programming I’d come to expect from queuing up Bourdain on Netflix? When did travel shows all of a sudden become solely about food (or the amount one can eat of it)? Why do I suddenly get a sense I’m watching a never-ending string of corporate training videos?

(Disclaimer: Travel Channel, if you’re reading this, please disregard this last paragraph. Actually, please disregard this entire post. Anyway, “Hi”, and, yes, thanks for asking, I am a huge fan and, yes, I would like to accept your offer for a 12-episode series featuring yours truly trekking around the world, offering up my insight, humor, and congeniality for the American public viewing audience. Yes, I did hear you are owned by the same company that owns the Food Network. Yes, I would be amendable to making guest appearances with Rachael Ray — I love her buoyancy — and, yes, I would stop bad-mouthing your network and sister stations in the public sphere.) (more…)

There’s no question Anthony Bourdain reigns king over everything travelers dream about — getting paid traveling around the world with a film crew documenting it all. His snarky personality and textbook Kung Fu displays create perhaps the purest travel show that exists. When the Travel Channel was bought by the the owners of the Food Channel (and if you read The Expeditioner with any regularity, you have followed our collective thoughts about this), you can imagine our concern over the future of their programming. We feared Tony would become Emeril, and we’d be stuck watching Samantha Brown-turned-Rachel Ray until the slow and painful death of the travel show faded into nothingness. Now we have Food wars . . . and Man v. Food. Hardly a window into the culture of places we hope to tread one day.

I realize that simply eating food is not traveling. I also realize that stuffing your face until you are, generally, the size of the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man from Ghostbusters, doesn’t fill the pages of guidebooks with facts of an area. Perhaps, and I’m just throwing this out there, Adam Richman is some kind of magical face-stuffing Tinkerbell who has figured something out the rest of us are in the dark about. Let me explain.

(more…)

Okay, not having basic cable certainly precludes me from watching the Travel Channel much anyway, but their programming right now isn’t exactly making me want to rush out and order it either. Eater is reporting today that with the recent success of “Man v. Food” (apparently a show about a guy who eats alot of bad food in one sitting), the Travel Channel is adding a show called “Food Wars.” The premise of the show is that each week two local restaurants that specialize in the same dish are pitted against each other in a blind taste test judged by local patrons.

“What,” you say, “does an eating competition show have to do with travel anyway?” Great question. The answer? The same thing “Jersey Shore” has to do with music programming. Nothing!

As we reported back in November, Scripps — the owner of The Food Network and HGTV — took over the channel, and just as we kind of predicted (see my #2), the food-celebrity shows are on their way.

The sad part about this whole thing? Apparently these show are beating out our favorite travel show, “No Reservations,” in ratings on a weekly basis. Time for Tony to put away the Caipirinhas in Brazil and start digging into some 48-oz cuts of beef on live television? Let’s hope not.

Tony’s back with Season 6 of “No Reservations” on the recently-purchased Travel Channel. He kicked things off last week with an episode from Panama (where he helped set fire to six tons of cocaine), and one from Istanbul this week (see above). You can expect upcoming trips to Brittany, Prague, and the Hudson Valley (New York).

There’s still hope for the regular guy out there to someday get an outstanding gig with the Travel Channel and settle into arguably the greatest job on earth. I mean, if Samantha Brown can do it . . .

Jaunted did a piece, in which they attended a party co-hosted by our Travel Channel friends and “true power travelers,” Anthony Bourdain and Andrew Zimmerman. They asked them the question we’re all curious about, “Where do [you] travel when it’s not about working or showcasing a destination on the Travel Channel?”

Zimmerman’s answer was a bit surprising: “I’m a dad, so . . . we’re complete Disney World Geeks.”

Bourdain got specific: “I’m a father and I’m a little more high maintenance, now. I want to stay in one place, near a hospital . . . and yea, I kinda want room service and a beach chair.”

You see that? They’re family guys; all they really need is some time together, with as little stress as possible. I suppose, when your job consists of the occasional drinking of snake’s blood in Vietnam or putting down Samoan slug guts, a beach chair and a margarita wouldn’t sound too bad to you either.

As was reported in a surprise announcement last week, The Travel Channel was acquired by Cincinnati-based Scripps — owner of the Food Network and HGTV lifestyle television networks — in a deal valuing the channel at $1.1 billion. Other than a generous Christmas bonus for our man Anthony Bourdain, what exactly does this mean for viewers? Our take on three things that are going to change for the new Travel Channel. (Can you say “No Reservations: Cincinnati”?)

1. Samantha Brown: Passport To Unemployment

I saw Samantha speak at last year’s New York Times Travel Show, and I have to say, she comes across as probably the nicest semi-famous person I’ve ever met. She was bubbly, grateful, enthusiastic, but as I suspected, somewhat clueless when it comes to travel.

That’s not to say that she doesn’t have a following (her appearance completely dwarfed that of Andrew Zimmern), but as is so accurately described in this article over at Slate, Samantha is “a very nice lady — just the person to lead those 12-year-olds on a field trip. But she is also a painfully uncool person, as her chirping spunkiness makes gruelingly apparent . . . Brown is a tour guide who needs to get out more.” (We did learn that she does come to travel hosting by way of musical theater, so let’s give her a little slack here.)

I couldn’t agree more. Despite being undeniably likable, that only goes so far when you have to endure an entire hour spent with her locked within the confines of another cruise ship, or wandering the exotic backstreets of Epcot Center. Sorry Samantha, but my guess is that the new bosses are going to be looking for something a little more innovative to pump their bottom lines. (more…)

It finally happened. For the first time in over a year living in Asia, I got a bit homesick. Danggit, Anthony Bourdain, if you just weren’t so good at what you do!

The new episode of “No Reservations” on the Travel Channel visited Livingston, Montana aired not long ago. It’s a small town no more than one hundred miles of where I call home. As usual, Mr. Bourdain did a brilliant job of (would “tele-anthropology” be the correct term?) exploring the local culture and cuisine, spotlighting people and their inspirations, as well as the issues and pleasures of their postcard picture surroundings. The “wild west” seems to be gracefully evolving, with a continued sense of rugged character, which drew me there in the first place.

Please excuse my sentimentality; I think it’s time to go call my mom.

Anthony Bourdain’s “No Reservations” starts up its new season (#6 for those who are counting) this Monday, July 13th on the Travel Channel. Tony was in Argentina and Brazil in 2007, and it looks like he’s kicking off the new season by rounding off Southern South America with a trip to Chile, one of my favorite countries in the world.

Not sure what I make of the rest of the season. Thailand should be great, it’s kind of surprising he’s waited this long to go. New York Outer Boroughs will offer quite a few options, but his last New York episode mainly took place in the outer boroughs already, didn’t it? I’m Intrigued by the Rockies choice, my home region, who wants to take bets there are Rocky Mountain Oysters involved here?

• Chile (premieres July 13)
• Australia (premieres July 20)
• Rust Belt (premieres July 27)
• On the Street (premieres August 3)
• San Francisco (premieres August 10)
• Thailand (premieres August 17)
• Rockies (premieres August 24)
• Burning Questions (premieres August 31)
• New York Outer Boroughs (premieres September 7)
• Sardinia (premieres September 14)