Foodies to your trucks. On your mark. Get set. Race!
The Great Food Truck Race is off and running for Season 9 starting at 8 p.m. today on Food Network. Seven teams of food truck hopefuls will battle through the Southwest (California, Nevada and Arizona) while competing for the $50,000 grand prize.
For those unfamiliar with the series, The Great Food Truck Race is hosted by chef Tyler Florence, who has hosted several Food Network series. The teams drive their food trucks to a number of cities where they must deal with various food challenges, cook it up and sell the results.
Each week, the team that makes the least profit must make the long, painful drive home until only one team is left standing. It's a combo of good eatin' and a road trip: win/win.
This season the finale will be at 8 p.m. Aug. 30, so mark your calendars.
Unlike last season when we could root for Little Rock's Donnie FerneauJr. and his team aboard The Southern Frenchie truck, there are no Arkansans this year. Ferneau and crew (wife, Meaghan, and sous chef Amanda Ivy) made it to week four, losing to a team that had won immunity.
Here are this season's competitors and their home towns.
Buns N' Thighs, Chicago; Chops' Shop, Pearland, Texas; Heroes on a Half Shell, Frederick, Md.; Just Wing It, New York; Mobile Moo Shu, Detroit; New England Grill, Newport, R.I.; and Sassy Soul, Silver Spring, Md.
I think I'll root for Heroes on a Half Shell simply because of their clever reference to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
In tonight's episode, the race begins at a cattle ranch outside Los Angeles where the teams must hand-squeeze orange juice (see photo) to get the keys to their truck. Later, each team must create a dish with cuts of beef won in an auction and add them to their menu.
Future episodes feature a shrimp dish challenge in Las Vegas; battle of the beverages in Phoenix; a visit to the historic Territory Prison in Yuma, Ariz.; a date-theme competition in Coachella Valley near Palm Springs, Calif., and a return to LA for a Mexican-flavored finale where the champion will be crowned.
• The Wrong Cruise, 7 p.m. Saturday on Lifetime. There's nothing better on a warm, muggy Saturday evening than to chill out in the air conditioning and take in a Vivica A. Fox Lifetime movie, especially one billed as "a fun, escapist, edge-of-your-seat summer thriller."
Fans best know the 53-year-old Fox from guest appearances on scores of TV shows since 1988, as well as her roles as Will Smith's girlfriend in Independence Day (and the sequel), as Vernita Green in Kill Bill, and as Cookie Lyon's sister in Season 2 of Fox's Empire.
This is the fourth of Fox's "The Wrong ..." franchise for Lifetime in which she is also a producer. The others were The Wrong Roommate and The Wrong Child in 2016 and The Wrong Student in 2017. Set to debut Sept. 14 is The Wrong Friend.
Aside: The A in Vivica A. Fox stands for Anjanetta.
Lifetime is well known as the home of movies featuring women in peril and The Wrong Cruise is no exception.
In the film, Fox portrays Claire Tanner, a woman who takes her teenage daughter, Sky (Sidney Nicole Rogers), on a cruise for some much-needed mother/daughter bonding.
The two soon find themselves falling for a couple of handsome passengers, but when the ladies leave the ship for a shore excursion, they quickly realize that they've "been drawn into a web of deceit."
Mom and daughter manage to escape, but find themselves stranded in a foreign country with two dangerous dudes hot on their trail.
• Orange Is the New Black All 13 episodes of Season 6 download Friday on Netflix. It will be an attempt to recover from what Variety -- and others -- saw as a "scattered and chaotic" fifth season.
Season 6 picks up shortly after the three-day riot that ended Season 5 and will try to return the series to what worked for it in the past. The new season will concentrate on a smaller group of inmates who are headed for the maximum security prison just up the road.
They include Taystee (Danielle Brooks), Piper (Taylor Schilling), Gloria (Selenis Leyva), Suzanne (Uzo Aduba), Nicky (Natasha Lyonne) and Red (Kate Mulgrew).
The official Netflix synopsis: "The ladies of Litchfield are back with iron wills and nothing to lose. In maximum security, friendships will be tested and new allegiances will be formed. Will they turn on each other or keep their bonds intact?"
The series has already been renewed for a seventh season.
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Weekend on 07/26/2018