Alton Brown is still going through “Good Eats” withdrawal.

The Atlanta food maestro retired his quirky Food Network show last fall after 13 years and 252 episodes.

“It’s difficult to let go,” Brown said in a phone interview this week from New York. “When one decides to put a stop to a life’s work, you kind of float in a funny state for a while. I’m working on it.”

Not that Brown is sitting in his Atlanta office eating bonbons all day. He continues to host “Iron Chef America” in New York and “The Next Iron Chef” in Los Angeles — and has been given regular duties on the upcoming season of “Food Network Star.”

The show, in its eighth season, has been given its first major revamp. Instead of individuals competing directly with each other to host their own Food Network program, the contestants are now broken into three teams. Each team will be led by one of the network’s mainstays: Bobby Flay, Giada De Laurentiis and Brown. Their mentoring roles are similar to the way …

Continue reading Alton Brown joins ‘Food Network Star,’ going through ‘Good Eats’ withdrawal »

Phil Phillips will be flying to his hometown Leesburg this weekend, paving the way to a possible win. CREDIT: Michael Becker/FOX

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Hollie Cavanagh had a great run but picking a Bonnie Raitt song did her in.

There were 70 million votes, 10 million more than last year. Jessica Sanchez was the first announced to be safe, followed by Joshua Ledet. Hollie joined Phillip Phillips for the final minutes, but Ryan Seacrest never said he was necessarily in the bottom two so he probably wasn’t.

Jessica, Phillip and Joshua are now guaranteed hometown visits. For the second time in two years, Georgia gets a hometown visit. Last year, it was Lauren Alaina.

Hollie, when she made it to the semifinals, was one of those half-dozen blond women, virtually …

Continue reading ‘American Idol’ top 4 results recap: who is out on ‘Idol’ and who made the top 3 »

Kevin Bacon at Dad's Garage's "Bacon Fest" last month. That was a celebration of bacon, not Bacon but it was nice to have him there!

As expected, Fox has given Kevin Williamson’s “The Following” starring Kevin Bacon and James Purfoy, a spot on its 2012-13 schedule.

It will either get 13 or 15 episodes, according to ew.com.  Both that show and J.J. Abrams’ “The Revolution” (picked up by NBC) were shot in metro Atlanta last month.

Here’s the description of “The Following”: “an edge-of-your-seat thriller about the complex relationship between a diabolical serial killer (Purefoy) and the damaged FBI agent (Bacon) who took him down. After the killer escaped, the agent is reactivated and discovers that he is no longer just hunting one man, but a massive cult of serial killers created and manipulated during his time in prison.”

We’ll know where each show is on the respective TV schedules next week, but the question we care about locally is: will either show stay in Atlanta …

Continue reading Kevin Bacon Fox pilot (’The Following’) shot in Atlanta picked up »

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Atlanta’s TNT saved “Southland” from NBC.

Now raise a wine glass to sister station TBS, which has picked up ABC’s quirky sitcom “Cougar Town” for 15 episodes next years, according to TV Line.

The show, which survived three seasons but no consistent time slot on ABC, built up a modest but fervent fan base. Creator Bill Lawrence, worried about the show when it didn’t appear on the fall or spring schedule, held fan parties across the nation out of his own pocket, including one in Atlanta over Christmas break. ABC eventually stuck it on the schedule this spring on Tuesdays after “Last Man Standing.”

“Cougar Town is a smart, whimsical sitcom that draws its humor from likable, relatable characters,” said Michael Wright in a press release. “We are thrilled to have Cougar Town moving to the TBS neighborhood as the network continues to expand its slate of original …

Continue reading TBS picks up ABC’s ‘Cougar Town’ »

Did perpetual underdog Hollie Cavanagh pick the wrong songs and cost herself a shot to get past the other three? CR: Michael Becker / FOX.

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Jessica Sanchez is like a gymnast always pursuing the most difficult possible routine. A few weeks back, she covered Whitney Houston’s version of “I Will Always Love You,” one of the toughest, showiest songs in history to pull off.  The consensus: excellent!

Last week, she attempted Tina Turner’s “‘Proud Mary.” Consensus: more miss, than hit. Tonight, she not only covered an Etta James song with plaudits, but then tackled the ultimate in “Look at me! I’m a singer!” song: “And I’m Telling You I’m Not Going.” This teen’s got gumption! From a technical standpoint, she was spot on.

But does she bring the angst and grit of either Holliday or Jennifer Hudson? Not quite. Maybe it’s youth. Or her personality. Still, plenty of fans …

Continue reading ‘American Idol’ top 4 performance recap: who can you tell will go home? »

Here’s the spot to live blog tonight from 8 to 10 p.m. for the top 4 performance show. Two themes: “California Dreamin,’ ” meaning songs from California artists and songs you wish you had written, which pretty much means anything. With only eight performances spread over two hours, I’m wondering how they are going to pad things. Spoiler songs include”

“Have You Ever Seen the Rain,” (CCR) – probably Phil

“Steal Away” (Etta James) – probably Jessica

“You Raise Me Up” (Josh Grobin, which was just sung on Monday by Chris Mann on “The Voice”) – probably Hollie

“Faithfully” (Journey) – probably Joshua

“And I’m Telling You I’m Not Going” (Jennifer Holliday– AGAIN?) – probably Jessica

“I Can’t Make You Love Me” (Bonnie Raitt–another “Idol” staple) – probably Hollie

“Volcano” (Damien Rice) probably Phil

“It’s a Man’s Man’s World” (James Brown, also sung on “The Voice” last week by runner-up Juliet Simms.) probably Joshua

“The Voice’ finale pulled in 11.9 million viewers, up from 11 …

Continue reading ‘American Idol’ live blogging top 4 performance show »

WABE-FM’s considerable power to draw donors continued yet again in the just concluded spring fundraising period, with a record $1,348,391 in pledges from 14,542 donors.

The non-commercial station’s pledge numbers are up 3.8 percent from a year ago. The donor numbers are up slightly from a year ago when the station drew 14,331 donors.

“The biggest reaction from the staff is what an incredible group of listeners and supporters we have,” said John Weatherford, chief operating officer. “With long-term unemployment the way it is, to have this level of support is phenomenal.”

Individual giving now exceeds underwriting, he notes.

Although spring fundraising is usually lower than fall, that total is actually more than the station raised in the fall of 2011 ($1,324,098.90).

I also looked at Public Broadcasting Atlanta’s Form 990, which provides annual basic financial information to the federal government. It is not available on the WABE website so I went over to their office last …

Continue reading WABE-FM breaks another pledge record in spring with $1.35 million »

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THE VOICE — Episode 215B "Live Show" — Pictured: (l-r) Flo Rida, Juliet Simms — (Photo by: Lewis Jacobs/NBC)

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The two hours of “The Voice” tonight were padded with group sings, Justin Bieber, Lady Antebellum, Hall & Oates, Flo Rida, comedy sketches/promos for “Parks & Recreation” and “Saturday Night Live” and mildly amusing outtakes from the judges. (Because it’s all about them, right?) A couple of the metro Atlanta folks came back to sing a bit: Pip and Sera Hill.

Oh, wait. There was a winner, too.

Carson Daly didn’t start eliminating people until 10:48 p.m. He then dragged out it by interviewing the four of them. Four long minutes later, he finally announced the fourth place finisher: Chris Mann.

Daly said only 0.25 percent separated him from third place, Tony Lucca.

Four percentage …

Continue reading Who won ‘The Voice,’ season two? »

Melissa finished a respectable fifth place on "Dancing With the Stars." CREDIT: ABC

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Melissa Gilbert had a tough birthday. She was ousted from “Dancing With the Stars.”

But she has to be happy she made it as far as she did. Her average judge scores lagged far behind the other five remaining dancers.

“It’s been a real blessing and a joy,” she said, hugging her dance partner Maksim Chvermovskiy. “Maks has been amazing and an incredible teacher and incredible friend… I’m amazed I made it this far.”

The “Little House on the Prairie” star ended on a high note Monday, garnering her highest score to date with 27 for her Samba after a solid Foxtrot with a 24.

She was joined on the chopping block with Roshon Fegan, the Disney teen star, who was almost cut a week ago. This despite the fact he garnered two 10s on his first …

Continue reading Who’s out next on ‘Dancing With the Stars’? It’s a double elimination! »

Kim Zolciak will return for a fifth season of "Real Housewives of Atlanta." CREDIT: AP

NeNe Leakes’ attorney last month told me she’s coming back to the fifth season of “Real Housewives of Atlanta,” which has reportedly started taping already.

Now Kim Zolciak today has confirmed she is sticking with the show another season on her Twitter page.  (Her attorney a couple weeks ago said he wasn’t sure at the time.)

Although during season four, Zolciak was focused on having her baby and didn’t engage as much with the other cast members (and she is pregnant again this season), Bravo still likes her and she obviously likes the paycheck to sustain her lifestyle.

Zolciak’s current spinoff “Don’t Be Tardy for the Wedding,” which debuted April 26, has not pulled in the ratings of “The Real Housewives of Atlanta” but the numbers have been still relatively strong, averaging about 1.5 million viewers for its first three of six episodes.

In the meantime, Cynthia Bailey, Phaedra Parks and …

Continue reading Kim Zolciak confirms she’s returning to ‘Real Housewives of Atlanta’ »