User Reviews

For a couple of years now they're showing more and more Cooking- and Food-shows on German (private) Television, something that has been lacking for quiet a few years (this is, unless you enjoy a 60-something lady cooking "Toast Hawaii", a combination of toast, ham, cheese and a slice of pineapple). Gordon Ramsays "Kitchen Nightmares", Andrew Zimmerns "Bizarre Foods", Bourdains "No Reservation", to name but a few. Among one of the more entertaining of those shows is "Man v. Food" which, in my opinion has some very positive features, but also some rather negative aspects. Let's start with the bad first: For one, Adam Richman isn't the most charismatic of presenters. Quiet the opposite: occasionally he comes across as pretty obnoxious, something between a hyped-up Frat-brother, wanna-be Hip-Hopper and a professional glutton. Sure, the variations of the concept are limited, but then again: there are only so many ways with which to stuff food into one orifice within a limited time. During the final, "challenge"-segments, it occasionally also hurts the taste-buds to see plates of food, that look definitely delicious, being so mindlessly destroyed within a limited time. But maybe that's only the food-snob within me speaking.

Which brings us to the good: Many Europeans, who have never visited the US, have the preconceived notion that Americans live on Hamburgers, Steak and the occasional fried chicken alone. Apart from the mindless gluttony of the challenges, the show gives some very nice travel-tip for outsiders, showing them that there is another world apart from McD's, Burger King and (for the obesity-conscious) Subways. "Man v. Food" gave me quiet a lengthy list of "to-dos" when I visit the States the next time and once I sit down at the Orochon-Ramen-house in Little Tokyo, I'll do so on recommendation of "Man v. Food". However, no "challenge" for me. See, I do enjoy enjoying my food and taking less than an hour for a good meal does seem like swallowing in haste.

In other words: Thanks for the recommendation, Mr. Richman, as well as for the freak-show.

As far as the more "exotic" food-shows go, I'd give it a 6/10

I still like this show but I miss Adam. Casey is a funny guy but Adam was a better host than Casey. Casey loses too many challenges. Adam won the majority of his challenges.

This decade has been a bit of a disappointment in terms of television programs. After a decade of excellent cartoons, sitcoms, and dramas, the 2000s has been quite lackluster in terms of prime time. With few exceptions (My main one being ABC's LOST) out there, I've turned my attention to video games and especially movies for entertainment much more often. However, there's a television show out there that delivers some of the most entertaining television in recent memory. The Travel Channel has been on a roll lately with rising ratings and whatnot, but thanks to Man vs. Food, the Travel Channel and reality programming in general has reached new quality peaks.

Man vs. Food is easily, hands-down, the best new television show within the last two years. Well-edited, perfectly hosted, and with enough energy to generate Manhattan, this program is a wonderful breath of fresh air for television. While it isn't for weak stomachs, the content is family-friendly, well-paced, and thoroughly enjoyable. The host is entertaining, caring, lovable, and has a love for food that most of us can only dream of having.

The concept is nice and simple: Adam Richman travels the country in search of food challenges that could make your arteries clog just witnessing the carnage. To add to the mayhem, he also scours the city in search of the more popular and successful eateries in the area. Unlike Andrew Zimmern, Richman doesn't attempt to really gross out, he tires to expand your horizons as to what you eat and how you actually eat it. Man vs. Food focuses on quality as well as quantity. Richman has already on Season 1 introduced us to a dozen award-winning restaurants as well as over a dozen crazyinsane eating challenges. Along the way he interviews people, and also runs into celebrities from time to time—ranging from Gladys Knight to baseball star Kevin Youkilis. The spotlight is never hogged; Richman shares the camera with the scenery, the local folks, and of course the food.

The main appeal in Man vs. Food are the challenges in the end that pretty much prove that Americans are easily among the biggest lovers (and most creative crafters) of food in the entire world. The human versus food battles range from eating a 12-pound pizza to eating a 5-pound burger (plus 5 pounds of fries) to fighting a 7-pound breakfast burrito to even taking on spicy food so hot it can make people bleed. Adam Richman, despite his lack of competitive eating skills, rises to almost all the challenges and the results range from hilarious to gross to perhaps even uplifting. It's just much too easy to root for him to win them all. Plus, why go against someone that introduces you to slices of pizza larger than babies and donuts bigger than your face? Locations are scattered all over, never limited to any one type of food or one region of the country. He has traveled as far north as Seattle and Boston, and made his way all the way down to Atlanta, and all the way west to Los Angeles and San Jose. But have no fear, with so many lovely cities in the United States, I can guarantee that we won't find an end to all the pursuing challenges; his main enemies are time, and his health. The only drawback would be if your city has yet to be featured in the program. Give it time, at this rate, he'll be knocking on your door.

Bottom Line: The best new show on television, hands-down. The concept has been done before, but has never been done with such humor and bubbly energy. Adam Richman is the best host in all of Travel Channel, and remains one of the few modern shows I'm willing to watch multiple times. America is never seen in a negative light, as the subtle and hidden beauty of the diversity and creativity of the country sparkles throughout the all-too-short 30 minutes of the program. I wish this show all the success in the world, because it deserves it, and I'd hate to see another Arrested Development situation develop. Highly, highly recommend.

There are a lot of shows on television that travel to a variety of locations to show off the different foods that we can eat, but Man V. Food is far and away the best of the bunch. Host Adam Richman travels the country to find the great pig-out places all over our great land. He also tackles a food challenge in every city he visits, ranging from 15 dozen oysters in New Orleans, to a giant burger challenge in Boston, to the Don Juan Taco Challenge in Austin, Texas(You have to watch the reruns on the Travel Channel to view the winner). Sometimes the winner is man, sometimes the winner is food. No matter who reigns victorious it is still an extremely entertaining half hour, even if you are not a big fan of these types of show. What sets it apart from other shows in this category and other shows period, is the host, Adam Richman. First of all, I can say, Adam can eat. You can clearly see after watching a few episodes that he is also having a lot of fun in what I would classify as one of the top twenty jobs in the United States. He gets to travel, he gets to eat. What else can I say. Beyond that he is intelligent about food, he is extremely funny for someone who has just downed seven pounds of burger and fries, and the viewer even gets to learn a little food history. Beyond that, its just fun to sit on the couch and say "I can do that" or "There is no @#$*& way I could eat that." So if you want to watch the best show on TV right now, turn to the travel channel. And Adam, if you ever want to try the Carnivore Pizza Challenge again, Give me a call. Great show.

Food fanatic Adam Richman, is the star of the show. Adam travels the country, in search of eateries, with some of the most mouth-watering cuisine. Adam has a lot of boyish charm, and an engaging sense of fun. Which no-doubt help fuel the amazing popularity, of this show.

The premise of this show, is that Adam accepts 'challenges' to see if he can finish either enormous portions of food, or food that is unbelievably spicy-hot. The catch is, Adam has to finish the food placed before him, within certain time limits-and he does. At least 90% of the time, anyhow.

For example, I've seen Adam put-away some incredibly daunting meals, such as a 72-ounce steak, complete with two side dishes And this was within one hour. Adam has always wolfed-down three dozen oysters, in under 30 minutes, devoured 16 hot dogs in 30 minutes, and blindingly-fiery-hot chicken wings, in 20 minutes.

When Adam says that he's 'just a guy with a serious appetite', he most definitely wasn't kidding! Adam is a big, burly got, but not morbidly obese, as you'd expect of somebody, who eats like Adam does for a living. He also seems to be in surprisingly good physical shape, when he runs around acting exuberant, before each food challenge.

I don't know how Adam can eat so much often greasy, fat-laden food, in one sitting. My guess, is that he starves himself, hours before each challenge. My only beef (no pun intended) with this show, is that the Travel Channnel shows too many re-runs of each episode. It would be nice, if they broadcast new episodes more often.

To me the chief appeal of this program, is that the public can pig-out vicariously, through watching Adam Richman devour so many huge, calorie-laden meals. Once, when he was gorging on a huge hot-fudge Sunday, he said'I know those of you who are watching, are jealous right now'. Most likely, he was right. Especially viewers who have to stick to their boring, taste-less, low-fat diets.

I first saw this programme while I was staying in a cottage near Swansea last summer and the first episode I saw was the one where Adam Richman visits various barbecue food restaurants around Kansas and attempts to chomp down a massive sandwich containing seven different barbecue meats. A little while afterwards, I tuned into Dave (an entertainment channel in the UK) for further episodes and I was hooked, in spite of my parents disapproving of this programme (thank goodness I no longer live with them) due to my mum finding it obscene and my dad feeling sorry for people in third world countries suffering from malnutrition while Adam had the opportunity to participate in challenges that involved him eating colossal servings of food throughout the USA.

About six months after watching my first episode, I began to go off it because Dave kept repeating the same episodes over and over again so I eventually tuned out.

Overall this was an addictive programme to begin with but it rapidly became repetitive. 7/10.

The best part about this show is the people in the background of the restaurants. Just get a little high on a crisp Sunday morning and focus on those people in the background 10/10

That Adam guy is pretty cool as well.

This show entertains us by showcasing a town/city's best eating joints. These are places where regular folks eat and shows us signature dishes for a city/town/restaurant. They vary from greasy spoons, mom and pop joints, seafood, fast food, dairy bars, etc. Those of you who hate this show and find it disgusting and gross need to realize that it is a TV show meant to entertain and if you don't like what you see, turn the channel! (Or you can apply parental controls in case you get the urge to watch). There are many TV shows depicting all sorts of behaviour such as crime, addictions, hoarding,tattooing, dating, etc. Some of it is reality some of it is fiction. But, all of it is on TV and is meant to entertain, not educate us.

Back in the day this show was a fun, amusing and interesting show. Adam Richman seemed to respect the people, establishments, and the food while having a lot of fun doing his job. The scary thing was you could actually see him gaining weight rapidly and you knew he couldn't do it for long. He rode off into the sunset, while getting his weight down, and they replaced him with a dullard that is his polar opposite. While Casey seems to be a genuinely nice guy, he is just too awkward and cringey to take seriously. He stares at the camera creepily and often while making moronic comments that you can see the people around him with "Wtf?" looks on their faces. The show is watchable though because of the food, most of which looks very good. While Adam beat some seriously difficult challenges in during his stint, Casey rarely comes remotely close to beating any. He won't stop talking during the challenge. Eat, you fool! Entertain us, clown!

What about someone who drinks the biggest amount of beer? No, I have better one, what about someone who can smoke more than anybody? What about, and I guess FOX will love this one, someone who has sex for the longest time as well?! Here's some *great* ideas for the network that brought us Man vs. Food. Maybe they'll have some zeal over one of them, or all of them. Maybe they'll work fine as even spin-offs for the same lead of this show, to have Man vs. Beer. Man vs. Smoke. Man vs. Sex. And Man vs. The American TV!

At first, I swear to God, I thought what a delicious idea; it would be an insightful tour all over America to watch a variety of restaurants, with diverse kinds of foods. I would learn something or two about how to make my food differently or better. But OH MY GOD!! How wrong was I?!! This is about some freak opening his mouth to the largest limit, eating like a pig, winning over and over being a black hole for food!

I don't get it. What's so amusing about someone who tortures his stomach, and our eyes, by eating exaggeratedly every time?!! Is it an agreement of some sort between the producers of this show, and the producers of The Biggest Loser, to generate contestants for the latter?!

Adam Richman is disgusting to say the least. Watching his face "concentrating" while overfilling his mouth is highly horrifying, sick, and no entertaining experience. According to the way he chooses his meals, no wonder if he made soon Man vs. Cholesterol. Man vs. Coronary Thrombosis. Man vs. Colitis. And the most appealing to FOX I'm sure: Man vs. Farts!

It looks produced by the serial killer of (Seven - 1995) who wanted to assure that the human is a slave to his own lusts, forcing someone - at one point - to eating himself to death. Hmmm, be aware FOX, you might face lawsuits because of that one!

This is not about facing food, it's rather about facing loathing, intellectual bankruptcy and cheapness. In other words, it's a deal for making the consuming American over consuming. I believe it's where the producers win, the restaurants win, the food companies win, Mr. Adam-has-a-jinni-in-his-stomach-Richman wins, and the viewer loses!

Finally, what about producing a show named Man vs. Reality TV? Well, in regard to some of the American Reality TV shows nowadays, that would fit a horror movie better!

Fantastic,

Because I said so. It's not every day that you can see someone who enjoys food enjoying it like Adam. My family & I have dinners where we sit around & keep our bodily functions down to a minimum & that's a nice holiday dinner... However, the other 340+ days a year are non-stop dinners & if someone needs to "pig-out" because they have homework or work or just got back from practice & is starving than put on Man V. Food & lets all enjoy the American Cookout together! Eating like Adam isn't completely unhealthy unless you sit on your butt all day & do not expend any stored energy! BTW, would you take fun food advice from someone who was really skinny? I wouldn't but I wouldn't ask Adam about his kung-fu either! If I had a question about beef brisket than you'd better believe he'd be the first one I'd call!

The show basically consists of during each episode that host Adam Richman goes to a different city and the beginning of each episode he goes to different restaurants around town and shows off what unique meals you can find around town. They even take the cameras back into the kitchens of these restaurants and see how the food is made. The end of the show consists of an eating challenge hence the show title Man v. Food. Adam usually has to take on a ridiculous food dish that most groups of 4 would have a hard time completing when they go out to dine but not Adam, he's completed a good chunk of these food challenges that I don't even want to think about. Sometimes the food challenge consists of eating like 5 different kinds of steak, fries, cole slaw and milk shake in an allotted amount of time for example.

Nope. Not a food show. This show is actually like a cartoon version of "The Wire", in that it is actually a microcosm of America. Whilst the wire takes a deeper dive into complex social issues, Man Vs Food pulls no punches, makes no attempt to brazenly show the world just how absolutely DISGUSTING American society is. Greed, sloth, self entitlement, extreme capitalism, zero regard for others and a blissful and absolute lack of remotely knowing how the world perceives America, and why that is critically important in the current political climate.

Just when you think it isn't possible to stoop even lower, America will always be the very first to say " hold my burger..."

What can i say? Where can i start? Is every ingredient in American food super processed? Bacon, ham, beef, fries, bread, sauce, cheese. Every time I see a salad or a vegetable on this show it seems to be apologising for having the temerity to appear. Add super sugar sodas and a frenzied crowd and you have the perfect recipe (no pun) for a tour through everything that's wrong with food in the good ol' US of A. Every State appears to have its own dish, which by extension appears to be the same as every other State differentiated only by .... Well I don't know the answer to that. Great to watch though, purely for the immense greed and lack of self awareness on display. I'm off to have a lettuce.

Good show! It's pretty cool to see the many places across the country that Adam and later Casey has eaten at. Most of the challenges are insane! I don't even know how those guys do it but they're like my heroes for eating those atomic wings, 3+pound burgers, a whole plate of nachos the size of a volcano or whatever!!

It's very easy to write off a replacement - you like an original presenter etc, and this can be wholly unfair - people are different, and sometimes that's ok. But...

Not in this case! While OTT and silly, Adam was genuinely funny, quick witted, and knew his stuff.

It's all well and good being amusing, but to also know a thing or two about your subject just elevates the premise of the show.

I have tried and tried with Casey, but he just shouts, has zero knowledge, leaves pauses like he's caught in the headlights, and just isn't funny.

Some great eateries, some amazing chefs. But a real step down in presentation. And ultimately the subject makes you want to watch, but the host just pull you in. No longer, sadly.

Who is this Casey Webb? They say he has years of culinary experience but you could sure fool me. All he does is stand around with a goofy, stupid look on his face ogling food no matter what it is. He never asks timely questions of the chefs, just stands there with that stupid, wide-eyed look. The challenges are equally as stupid as at least with Adam Richmond he won once in awhile.

This used to be a fun show to watch but now it is being driven into the dirt by a hugely underwhelming host. Did you not do any demographic and public opinion testing before making this cat litter box cleaning, occasional TV commercial making idiot your star?

At least I could watch Adam, but Casey is just flat out gross. He's constantly talking with his mouth full and showing us all the gross food in his mouth and I hate the way he keeps looking up while he's eating and of course, pausing to show us the contents of his mouth.

The guy has zero personality and just comes across as a total moron IMHO. The show is the definition of gluttony watching this guy shovel food in his mouth as fast as he can.

Adam usually seemed to respect the different restaurants and the food that they served as well. I'm glad he eventually moved on because that couldn't have been healthy, but they should have just cancelled the show instead of bringing this glutton Casey on board.

4 of 10 because that's how many seasons Adam had. They were all FANTASTIC! Adam is so personable, entertaining, funny and likable. Casey... sucks.

Adam was the heart and soul of the series. It's just an empty shell now.

All those overly dramatic reviews just have to be written by health freaks. My God, get over it, it's a TV show, nobody is ever invited to follow him, or try it at home. people watch it over here in Ireland & the UK too, and we don't have such massive obesity problems. if your kids are so easily influenced by what they see on TV, switch it off!

I love watching the mounds of crap that these restaurants conjure up. BUT, it is true that he kisses ass a little, I've never once seen him say something was terrible or even just not great. Everything he eats is "Awesome" and it is the over Americanised exaggerating (like every challenge has a crowd of overly eager - possibly actors - behind him) that ruins it in the end.

Watch it on a full tum and you won't go hitting the fridge ;)

I'm a Food Network junkie, so I'll try any food-related show once. So, when I saw the Travel Channels Man v. Food promos, I was dubious but knew I had to give it it's day in court.

First of all, I was prepared to hate the show and it's pudgy host. There's something so sadly pathetic about trying to present an over-weight man who gorges himself at food eating challenges as macho.

However, I like the host. Adam Richman is a very personable, charming individual. Which makes me dislike the show even more because it's all about this guy slowly killing himself by gorging on pounds and pounds of the most craptastic food America has to offer. Frankly, I think he's better than this and I hope his agent can swing a better deal for him fairly soon.

As for the type of food culture this show glorifies, is this really what the 2nd fattest country (Go Mexico!) in the world needs to be watching? Worse yet, MvF is shown in other countries. Yet another reason for the world to poke us in our flabby sides and laugh at us. Judging by this show, gone are the days when Americans used to have pride in themselves and a bit of self-discipline.

Man v. Food, much like Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives and that Paula Dean "cooking" show, is just food porn. How many different ways can meat, cheese, fries and bread be prepared? And why do people care after the first 2 episodes?