My Kitchen Rules snags former pro tennis player Adam Andersen, a ‘competitive beast’ in all things culinary
FORMER pro tennis player-turned-coach Adam Andersen is among NSW contestants lining up for the home-cooking series My Kitchen Rules on Seven.
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EXPECT to see Channel 7 lob a few more plugs for its monster reality television hit My Kitchen Rules into the network’s summer of tennis coverage, with confirmation former pro player-turned-coach Adam Andersen is among NSW contestants lining up for the new home-cooking series.
The competitive beast in Andersen, who guided the junior career of emerging Australian Open hopeful James Duckworth, has channelled that energy into the TV food challenge, teaming with new wife Carol Molloy.
Showing promise in sport when he first picked up a racquet at the age of five, Andersen attended the Australian Institute of Sport and played on the international circuit before returning to Sydney. He now coaches the school teams for Shore, Grammar and Wenona Girls College.
It was after he left the pro-circuit that his grandmother realised he couldn’t boil an egg, so she sent him for cooking classes at the famed Le Cordon Bleu, sparking a new passion and personal challenge. The reality TV test was something new again and a great opportunity to stop jeering from the sidelines and have a go, he said.
“I suppose every person that sits on the couch at some stage says ‘oh my god I could do that’ or ‘how did they make that mistake’,” he said.
“We were so good at critiquing but once you get involved within the machinations of the show, you go ‘we now know why people can make such simple mistakes’. It’s fun, but it is high pressure and very stressful as well.”
Also joining the show and adding a big dose of Texan charm will be the father-daughter combination of Robert and Lynzey Murphy.
Despite moving his young family to Australia 20 years ago, there’s still a lot of the cowboy in Murphy senior, a retired visual arts teacher, and one of the real characters set to charm the MKR masses.
Not surprisingly fashionable Tex Mex flavours and barbecue steak feature on the family’s menu. They learnt to catch and kill their dinner when they lived the ranch life.
Steaks aside, there could be a few surprises on their grocery list, sparking a new fad for bush tucker, perhaps? Season six of MKR will help launch Seven’s official ratings offerings on Monday, February 2.
HEELS START WALKIN’ ON RHOM
THE cult of Arena’s reality franchise, Real Housewives Of Melbourne is only building for the show’s hotly anticipated second season (back February 22), with this sassy new promo going live today.
With the honey tones of Marcia Hines on vocals for the reworked version of the country classic These Boots Are Made For Walkin’, the boosted and Botoxed original cast of Gina Liano, Lydia Schiavello, Janet Roach, Jackie Gillies, Chyka Keebaugh come face-to-face with the series’ two newcomers, Gamble Breaux and Pettifleur Berenger.
Striding through airports, strutting out of elevators as gasping fans ogle, the anthem plays on the notion of “The Housewives Effect” which has recently gone global, aired on US channel, Bravo and tantalising the Brits on ITVBe.
This columnist can testify to its international impact after an enthusiastic American guest at a recent wedding I attended confessed to me she’d watched the series as “cultural preparation” for her Australian visit. Guess we can be grateful it wasn’t Housos.
US FIRES UP FOR AUSSIE SLAP
FILING this column on assignment in Los Angeles, there is definite buzz here for the American remake of the ABC’s acclaimed miniseries The Slap (due to premiere February 12 on US network NBC).
Melissa George reprises her role of helicopter mum Rosie from the Christos Tsiolkas-bestselling book, with Thandie Newton as Aisha, Peter Sarsgaard as Hector and Mary-Louise Parker, Brian Cox, Zachary Quinto and Gossip Girl’s Penn Badgley all bringing their star power to this impressive ensemble cast.
The US production was adapted by Brothers & Sisters creator and executive producer Jon Robin Baitz and directed by Lisa Cholodenko (who directed the film The Kids Are All Right). The original is also getting an overseas airing via Netflix.
HOUSE OF CARDS SHOWS HAND
STILL on the streaming-video- on-demand (SVOD) service, fans of House Of Cards should anticipate getting access to the addictive US political thriller from February 27 in line with its just-announced US air date.
Other big dates for your TV diary include: season four of HBO hit Girls (on showcase from tomorrow); for Marvel comic fans, the crossover episodes of The Flash and Arrow are set to air back-to-back on Fox 8, 7.30pm, January 28; while the Breaking Bad spin-off Better Call Saul has been confirmed for February 8 in the US but no official word yet from local SVOD service Stan on when it will air in Australia.
SET BOX TO GOGGLE
ONE of the riskiest and more fascinating TV projects to hit our screens this year, Gogglebox Australia, where viewers watch other viewers being filmed watching TV, will premiere first on Foxtel’s LifeStyle Channel on Wednesday, February 11; then on Ten the following night.
This format has been a global phenomenon, especially in the UK, where it averaged an audience of about 10.1 million viewers.
Casting of the local version is thought to be finalised, with families chosen to represent a cross-section of the community and program tastes.
Time will tell whether Aussies find it the ultimate in behind-closed-doors voyeurism or numbing navel-gazing.
ONE TO WATCH: Dunn muscles in on Bollywood
TAKE it as gut instinct, but actor and playwright Adam Dunn is going places.
Audiences are seeing plenty of his, ahem, abs in a McCain’s commercial airing now, but the Tropfest filmmaker who made a star of the Sunrise Cash Cow will be seen flexing his real acting muscles next in the local Bollywood flick Unindian.
A student at the prestigious Stella Adler studio in New York, Dunn’s TV credits have included Packed To The Rafters, Wildboys and last year on Old School, with Bryan Brown and Sam Neill.
TV GOSSIP: Expect foul-mouthed fireworks
BRACE for another sweary contestant on The Block: Triple Threat, with production sources quick to dob in Gold Coaster Jess as the new Dee.
Her husband, Ayden, cops her potty-mouthed wrath early on when he makes a bad buy and she tells the audience he’s a “complete dickhead”.
The couple ride a roller-coaster of emotion, a relationship tested by the show’s gruelling process to the point where Jess shouts ‘‘I have asked you not to talk!’’ then turns to another contestant to confide about her frustrations over her husband.
DON’T MISS: Gervais could steal the Globes
COMEDY sister act Amy Poehler and Tina Fey are locked into hosting this week’s Golden Globes but funnyman Ricky Gervais has teased his plans for the show and could just be the loose cannon these gala gushfests need.
Nominated for his endearing lead role in Derek, the UK series he also wrote, the wag has flagged he may make the red carpet experience a little more awkward for all by arriving as his cardigan-clad character and just “hug everyone”.
Golden Globes, Monday, 7.30pm, Fox 8
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