The first season of '' Man v. Food'', an American

food reality television series Food reality television is a genre of reality television programming that considers the production, consumption and/or sociocultural impact of food. Reality food television emerged as a recognisable sub-genre in the 1940s. Historically, food real ...

hosted by

Adam Richman Adam Montgomery Richman is an American actor and television host. He has hosted various dining and eating-challenge programs on the Travel Channel and History Channel. Early life and education Richman, an only child, was born into a Jewish fa ...

on the

Travel Channel Travel Channel (stylized as Trvl Channel since 2018) is an American pay television channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, which had previously owned the channel from 1997 to 2007. The channel is headquartered in New York, New York, United S ...

, premiered on December 3, 2008. The series debuted with back-to-back new episodes airing for the first two weeks then settling down to a pattern of one new episode followed by one repeat episode. First-run episodes of the series aired in the United States on the

on Wednesdays at 10:00 PM

Eastern time The Eastern Time Zone (ET) is a time zone encompassing part or all of 23 states in the eastern part of the United States, parts of eastern Canada, the state of Quintana Roo in Mexico, Panama, Colombia, mainland Ecuador, Peru, and a small por ...

. ''Man v. Food'' was executive produced by Matt Sharp, in association with the Travel Channel. The season contains 18 episodes and concluded airing on March 25, 2009. ''Man v. Food'' is hosted by actor and food enthusiast Adam Richman. In each episode, Richman explores the "big food" of a different American city before facing off against a pre-existing eating challenge at a local restaurant. Over the course of the first season, the final record wound up at 11 wins for "Man" and 7 wins for "Food".

Reception

Ratings

The first season of ''Man v. Food'' was initially picked up for 10 episodes and then, after initial ratings success, an additional 8 episodes were ordered. The ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the U ...

'' noted that the

received its highest-ever ratings for a new debut with ''Man v. Food''. They highlighted the show as an example of other networks moving in on the traditional turf of the

Food Network Food Network is an American basic cable channel owned by Television Food Network, G.P., a joint venture and general partnership between Warner Bros. Discovery Networks (which holds a 69% ownership stake of the network) and Nexstar Media Group ( ...

Critical reaction

''CityPages Minneapolis/St. Paul'' describes the show, "...like the food version of '' Jackass'', with host Adam Richman as its very own Steve-O". In the '' Star-Ledger'', television critic Alan Sepinwall wrote: "It ain't deep, and it certainly ain't healthy (I could feel my arteries clog just from watching), but it's fun". Features reporter Thomas Rozwadowski of the ''Green Bay Press-Gazette'' said that "playfully eager host Adam Richman has won me over" and that "it's all in good fun".

Episodes

References

{{Reflist

External links

''Man v. Food'' official website
2008 American television seasons 2009 American television seasons Man v. Food