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Top Chef New York Season 5

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marigold:
An interesting article:

Top Chef Teases: It simply wouldn't be a new...

It simply wouldn't be a new season of Top Chef without some new twists, and we get a taste of one in a lengthy profile on NBC executive Lauren Zalaznick: "Andy Cohen, the head of original programming and development at Bravo, floated a proposal for Top Chef that would involve, early on in the new season, a surprise challenge and the swift elimination of a contestant. Zalaznick and company wouldn't allow me to give away what is known in the genre as "the reveal" — the unexpected dramatic twist — but suffice it to say, the challenge was an otherwise mundane cooking task that, when performed under pressure, would thoroughly unnerve the chefs."

Link: http://www.nbcbayarea.com/around_town/dining/Top_Chef_Teases__It_simply_wouldn_t_be_a_new____BAY.html

marigold:
An interesting article:

‘Top Chef’ Producers Consider Elimination … by Death!

The New York Times Magazine is profiling Bravo head Lauren Zalzanick this weekend, but the article is online already. What tantalizing details does it have for Top Chef fans? Too few. But what we did learn tells us that the producers are getting deliciously diabolical:

The conversation eventually turned to “Top Chef,” a cooking competition that is one of Bravo’s most popular shows. For its fifth season (which begins Nov. 12), the show would be set in New York City. One contestant being considered, it turned out, had a seafood allergy. “That’s funny,” Zalaznick said, giving a purely professional assessment. “Let him do a seafood challenge.”

We're also titillated by this bit:

Andy Cohen, the head of original programming and development at Bravo, floated a proposal for “Top Chef” that would involve, early on in the new season, a surprise challenge and the swift elimination of a contestant. Zalaznick and company wouldn’t allow me to give away what is known in the genre as “the reveal” — the unexpected dramatic twist — but suffice it to say, the challenge was an otherwise mundane cooking task that, when performed under pressure, would thoroughly unnerve the chefs. “I really like it,” Zalaznick said. For her, the idea neatly captured the ruthless way in which the big city can chew up and spit out even the best provincial talents: “It’s like, you’ve really arrived in New York — it’s where you fight for your terrible pot-washing job after you’ve been executive chef back in wherever, and then you get fired for washing your pot wrong."

Anyone have any idea what that "mundane cooking task" might be? We vote knife skills.

Link: http://nymag.com/daily/food/2008/10/top_chef_producers_consider_el.html

marigold:
An interesting article:

What ‘Top Chef’ Will Shill This Season

Expect to see Top Chef challenges incorporating Campbell's soup, Diet Dr Pepper, and the “Quaker family of products,” this season. Ad Age reports that the show’s producers have veto power on product placement and that no challenges will repeat from previous seasons. But if you have a soft spot for Gladware, don’t fret. Clorox (Glad’s parent), Toyota, and (a smaller-staffed) Food & Wine Magazine will still be crowding the Top Chef kitchen. In the first half of 2008, Top Chef was ranked third on cable for the most instances of product placement. Now there are even more opportunities to shill. We predict: Dr Pepper tacos or reinventing the casserole.

Link: http://nymag.com/daily/food/2008/10/what_top_chef_will_shill_this.html

marigold:
An interesting article:

The Affluencer

This article will appear in this Sunday's Times Magazine.

From her office to your (probably well appointed) living room: Zalaznick, a current queen of cable.



Back in mid-July, on one of those blithely sunny, long-gone summer days, Lauren Zalaznick, an executive at NBC Universal, met with two of her subordinates for a status report on Bravo Media, the network she took over in 2004 and turned into one of cable’s most remarkable success stories. Many of the development projects discussed that day in her office, at 30 Rockefeller Plaza, captured the glossy, upscale, insider sensibility that has come to characterize Bravo under Zalaznick’s watch. She heard updates on an untitled project about polo players, a reality show about high-end detox centers and another about “Filths” — an acronym for Fathers I’d Like to Have (or, as Zalaznick explained, “Very wealthy dads”).

The conversation eventually turned to “Top Chef,” a cooking competition that is one of Bravo’s most popular shows. For its fifth season (which begins Nov. 12), the show would be set in New York City. One contestant being considered, it turned out, had a seafood allergy. “That’s funny,” Zalaznick said, giving a purely professional assessment. “Let him do a seafood challenge.”

Andy Cohen, the head of original programming and development at Bravo, floated a proposal for “Top Chef” that would involve, early on in the new season, a surprise challenge and the swift elimination of a contestant. Zalaznick and company wouldn’t allow me to give away what is known in the genre as “the reveal” — the unexpected dramatic twist — but suffice it to say, the challenge was an otherwise mundane cooking task that, when performed under pressure, would thoroughly unnerve the chefs. “I really like it,” Zalaznick said. For her, the idea neatly captured the ruthless way in which the big city can chew up and spit out even the best provincial talents: “It’s like, you’ve really arrived in New York — it’s where you fight for your terrible pot-washing job after you’ve been executive chef back in wherever, and then you get fired for washing your pot wrong.”

“You don’t think it’s a little gratuitous?” asked Frances Berwick, the general manager for Bravo.

“Guess what?” Zalaznick said. “It’s the toughest city in the country.” She and Cohen tossed around a few ways they could ramp up the drama even more. Berwick laughed and shook her head. “That’s terrible.”

Terrible if you’re living it, great if you’re watching it — that is one of the basic formulas for reality TV, a genre that has been wildly popular for years, if never exactly hip. Zalaznick’s innovation has been to take this form of mass entertainment and make it boutique and chic, aiming for a small but young and affluent audience, the kind that advertisers covet.

Since she arrived at Bravo four years ago, Zalaznick has been polishing the genre of reality TV to a high sheen, taking its contestants off primitive islands and placing them squarely in sophisticated corners of cities like New York and Los Angeles. Instead of eating insects, navigating obstacle courses or flaunting their physical charms to woo lonely rich guys, the contestants on Bravo compete, with just as much zeal, to show their good taste and talent in high-status fields like food, fashion and design.

The formula may be lowbrow — attractive people pitted against one another, ruthless eliminations — but the content is, if not exactly highbrow, then certainly high-style. It’s voyeurism for the voyeur with a good eye.

It's a long article. To read the complete article click here: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/02/magazine/02zalaznick-t.html?_r=1&scp=3&sq=Lauren%20Zalaznick&st=cse&oref=slogin

marigold:
An interesting article:

How 'Top Chef' Cooks Up Fresh Integrations

Like al dente pasta, integrated marketing ideas for Bravo's "Top Chef" are constantly being flung at the wall to see what sticks.

Now entering its fifth season, "Top Chef" has emerged as the reality series for the NBC Universal cable network, now that the fate of former flagship series "Project Runway" remains in legal limbo between the Weinstein Co. and new cable parent Lifetime. But "Top Chef" has been coasting on a highly successful integrated-marketing strategy that has kept longtime sponsors coming back and recruiting new marketers for the upcoming "Top Chef New York," premiering Nov. 12 at 10 p.m. ET.

New sponsors make reservations
Returning for this go-round for season-long integrated sponsorships are Toyota, Clorox and Food & Wine magazine, with Campbell's Soup Co., Diet Dr Pepper and Quaker new to the table.

So what's Bravo's secret ingredient? Kevin McAuliffe, VP-branded entertainment for NBC Universal cable entertainment sales, said the answer is a strong commitment to creativity and keeping ideas fresh, which can take some doing.

"At the very early stages, we have gut-check conversations where we say, 'Here's the kind of things we'd like to creatively follow or look to bring into the show that fit its sensibility,'" he said. "Once we go through that, then we determine the kinds of ideas we're going to pursue based on the specific direction we get from programming and producers."

Challenges ongoing
The bulk of negotiations for "Top Chef New York" first began during the network's upfront conversations with advertisers in May and June, with deals often being inked five to eight weeks before any cameras start rolling. The show's producers, Magical Elves, and the Bravo programming executives have final say on each of the show's creative executions, which include a strict policy on not repeating any of the show's quick-fire or elimination challenges. So for returning sponsors such as Toyota and Clorox, Mr. McAuliffe's biggest task is to find new ways to incorporate different brands from each company's suite of products.

And because each sponsor is exclusive to its respective category, some precautions have to be taken to keep everyone pleased. In the case of season three, "Top Chef Miami," the show's producers wanted to use a stretch limousine to transport contestants to a challenge on a yacht. Mr. McAuliffe immediately got on the phone with the sponsors at Toyota to give them a heads-up that they would be using a non-Toyota vehicle on the show. "They were like, 'We get it, and by the way we're not competing with stretch limousines,'" a relieved Mr. McAuliffe recalled. "There is a lot of back and forth to make sure everybody feels protected."

Clorox, meanwhile, has used its sponsorship to provide contestants with Glad food storage and trash products, occasionally creating entire challenges around the brands. "We do a lot of collective brainstorming with the Bravo team, because you want to be unique, be relevant and still be interesting. It's not easy coming up with the challenge idea," said Ellen Liu, Clorox's media director.

And not all the branded integrations are appearing in the show itself. Prior to production, Mr. McAuliffe and his team ask the season-long sponsors their marketing objectives going into the upcoming season, and determine the best platforms in which to place the integrations. In the case of Glad, the company was looking to promote MealsTogether.com, an initiative to encourage home dining among families, and not necessarily within the context of a quick-fire challenge.

Nicole Sabatini, Bravo's VP-strategic marketing, said the network created a customized vignette for "Top Chef Chicago" asking different contestants their favorite meals to cook for family members, with a drive to a customized microsite featuring a downloadable recipe book featuring the chefs' favorite dishes. Glad also sponsored a sweepstakes awarding one family the chance to win a block party hosted by contestant Casey from season three. The partnership was able to air throughout the entire season, and was even extended into retail through Glad's existing in-store marketing relationships.

Marketers like what they see
The seamless integrations from brands such as Glad and Toyota were a big part of the appeal for attracting the new season's sponsors, including Diet Dr Pepper, the exclusive carbonated beverage partner for "Top Chef New York." Lauren Radcliffe, director of branded entertainment for the Dr Pepper Snapple Group, said the marketer's recent forays into brand integrations on NBC's "30 Rock" for Snapple and MTV's "Band in a Bubble" for Dr Pepper have raised the bar for her team's own media-planning strategy, so the goal for "Top Chef" was to outdo themselves.

"It was so apparent we'd be able to really communicate our brand positioning through the show and achieve a great audience fit in terms of viewers," Ms. Radcliffe said of the "Top Chef" deal. "We likened the brand to food in our advertising -- our tagline is 'Nothing diet about it' -- so we wanted to relate the brand to food in such a natural, organic place."

Attracting new sponsors will also be key to the show's future as the top reality franchise for Bravo now that "Project Runway" has said its fifth -- and, lawsuit pending, presumably final -- "auf wiedersehen." The show grossed $37.75 million in ad dollars for the network in 2007, with an additional $16.1 million in 2008 year-to-date, according to TNS Media Intelligence.

Recent Nielsen IAG research found Bravo to be the highest-ranked network on all of broadcast and cable TV in top categories for the first half of 2008, thanks to shows such as "Top Chef," "Project Runway" and "Make Me a Supermodel." The network took top honors for in-program placement brand recall (63% vs. No. 2 Fox's 46%), brand opinion (26% vs. Fox's 12%) and perceived fit (21% vs. Fox's 16%).

In a separate Nielsen IAG study, "Top Chef Chicago," the series' fourth and highest-rated season, posted high brand recall for sponsors such as Toyota (67% vs. the cable average of 49%), Glad (77% vs. the 73% cable average) and Food & Wine (77% vs. the 70% cable average).

Link: http://adage.com/madisonandvine/article?article_id=132146

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