In a move that can be described at beast as taking an ingenuitive leap and at worst as a clear signal of the channel’s desperation, The Food Network is giving a new show to a bunch of random Yelpers. Yes, you read that correctly. Those people that actually take time out of their to post comments online like “the food was AMAZZZZZZING but the drinks were expensive so I took three stars away for that” or “there was a crying baby next to me for five minutes so I will never return to this place again – sad!” If we had only known that rating random restaurants inaccurately on the internet would lead to a prime time television show, our efforts could have been refocused years ago! According to Forbes, the log line for 12 Hungry Yelpers pretty much says it all:
The show will use those terrible, and hilarious, reviews to help restaurants discover and fix their problems.
At least the show aims to improve the restaurants that they are attacking (er, “targeting”) but there’s still a pit at the bottom of our stomachs as to how this plays out. It’s basically making restaurants hear in person the reviews they already probably cringe at online. Plus, if Yelpers actually have to go on site to fix the supposed problems, then that means Yelp pretty much isn’t doing it’s job well enough now is it. At least there’s already a theme song set and ready to go for the intro. Fortunately there are the also a bunch of shows with kids, celebrities, and Guy Fieri to look forward to as well. 12 Hungry Yelpers may turn out closer to 12 Angry Yelpers, but at least there’s always Fieri’s hair gelled presence to look forward to as a backup plan.
(via Forbes)
