With the fate of Bill "El Wingador" Simmons' America's Biggest Eater in doubt due to his arrest on drug distribution charges, another eating challenge television program project has been started. The Great American Eater is raising money on IndieGoGo and seeks to obtain $5,000 to produce a pilot episode.

July 9, 2012 at 9:05 am by ojrifkin · More posts about:Eating Challenges, Television | Permalink * Comments (7)

7 Comments »

  1. Anonymous said

    July 9, 2012 @ 11:58 am

    I think the fate of Wingador’s show has always been certain…from Day 1.

  2. Hmm said

    July 10, 2012 @ 12:01 pm

    What ever happened to “Hungry” the other film?

  3. Rhonda Evans said (Registered March 6, 2008)

    July 10, 2012 @ 12:22 pm

    The producers apparently went on a hunger STRIKE.

  4. Anonymous said

    July 10, 2012 @ 12:30 pm

    It seems all the rage now to raise money for projects, many of them are worthy, some not so much. People do not realize that it takes a long term approach to do anything fully and well, especially anything about competitive eating. People’s attention spans are short. A regular reader of this website knows which projects were fully finished, have lasted and which continue to be quoted and get some attention for the sport or the entertainment, whatever you wish to call it. Two books, Fagone and Ryan Nerz, the Crazy Legs film available on Amazon and Netflix. Please add if you wish but imo those are the ones which people go back to even if they are in the past. All television and YouTube is over in blinks. Obviously many tv shows have been about CE, Badlands appearance on tv gets replayed as well. But for books and a feature length film, there is a gap to be filled.

  5. ojrifkin said (Registered July 27, 2005)

    July 10, 2012 @ 3:47 pm

    Barry Rothbart, one of the producers of Hungry, said the film was coming soon on July 4

    http://www.facebook.com/therealbarry/posts/459079607449963

  6. Damon Wells said

    July 10, 2012 @ 4:08 pm

    I think a show like this can succeed, it’s all about Character development though, watching people eat gets boring, you need to add other aspects to it in order for the general public to stay interested. Man v Food would have lasted much longer because Adam was a likeable character and was a constant. Once Man v Food nation came out, it crashed in flames because we didn’t really have time to get to know the contestant enough to care. Not to mention, outside of Naader there wasn’t anybody worth a damn that could actually eat.

    Think about shows like Big Brother, it’s just a bunch of people living in a house. BORING! But if you have some interesting characters to play against each other it becomes compelling to watch. I’d watch a live cam of Gravy Browns and Pat B’s life all day just to see what they’d do next.

    I hope this show succeeds, as it will be good for putting competitive eating in the mainstream much like Man v food did for a few years.

  7. KevinRoss said

    July 10, 2012 @ 4:43 pm

    To elaborate further, there is multiple shows on TV about pawn shops, storage locker auctions, repossessions, and meter maids. Nobody could give a flying crap about these professions, but the quirky characters and production values make them fun to watch.

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