On Sunday, January 3rd, 2010 at 10pm ET/PT, the new reality challenge cooking show Worst Cooks in America premieres on The Food Network.

Twelve of the most hopeless cooks in the country will compete in a high-stakes elimination series in Worst Cooks in America. At stake for the last two standing is the chance to cook for a panel of esteemed culinary critics and win the grand prize of $25,000. The winner will be revealed during the finale on Monday, February 1st at 10pm ET/PT. The five-week series will put the “recruits” through a culinary boot camp led by two acclaimed chefs: Anne Burrell, host of Food Network’s Secrets of a Restaurant Chef, and Beau MacMillan, executive chef at elements in Phoenix.

In the first episode, viewers are introduced to the contestants of this show who were nominated by their families and friends as the worst cook in America! The looks on all of the contestants faces when they found out how they were brought into this competition was quite humorous to say the least. The comedy doesn’t stop there, as viewers will find out the twists in the rules for the competition, more about the contestants as they attempt to duplicate the dish that their team leader Chef has cooked, and present those dishes to those leaders, Chef Burrell and Chef MacMillan. Viewers start out watching 24 contestants but it is soon cut down to 12 contestants, 2 teams, and one pair of really bad cooks facing elimination after the duplicate dishes are created.

The idea of this show is fantastic however the execution…it just seems a bit rushed to have people who don’t know how to cook at all try to make Tuscan Fish Stew and Poached Tiger Prawn. First, what average family casually cooks those meals at home? The first round should have been a more simple meal, so that viewers could connect better with the contestants. The show should really build up towards the more challenging meals. Instead, it seems everyone is a lost puppy faced with a round intending for no immediate success, moreso just a hot mess. Was this round just to emphasize how bad these cooks are? We trust that they are bad, as the title of the show speaks for itself so getting to the next point… It was extremely uncalled for when one of the chefs threw a fit because one of the contestants overused the saffron, or some type of herb.

The chefs need to give these new cooks a cooking 101 class before getting angry at them for things that they are ignorant to. Build these people up instead of tearing them down after giving no direction at all in the first place. Lastly, when the Chefs are tasting each of the contestants dishes, the first few times after they have both said something along the lines of, “This is really bad” it is funny, but after that just becomes redundant. While the show definitely has potential to become very entertaining and even more resourceful, at this point it seems like the show needs to toss out a few ingredients, add some new ones, and then I can truly enjoy this week by week.

For more Worst Cooks, click here.