I mentioned in an earlier blog post that I'm not much of a TV watcher because my schedule and lack of DVR have prevented me from watching the prime-time shows.

But I recently discovered Time Warner On Demand.

On Demand is literally the poor man's DVR. For the price of digital cable, I can watch several shows from several networks whenever I want for as long as they are available (and as long as I'm not too picky about the shows because there are only a handful of networks that have a handful of shows available).

One show that On Demand has gotten me into is Food Network's "The Next Iron Chef". I love "Iron Chef" and I love competition.

The premise of the show is fairly simple: 10 chefs are vying to be the next "Iron Chef," so they compete in challenges in which they are judged by each other and a panel of judges (including Cleveland's own Iron Chef, Michael Symon). Each week someone is eliminated; Sunday's episode is the seventh. The challenges are getting progressively tougher, and host Alton Brown appears to be getting more in-your-face to the competitors during the show. (I'm even intimidated by him, so I clearly do not have what it takes to be the next Iron Chef.) Two of my favorites were eliminated in weeks five and six, but another of my favorites is still in the game for now. Let's hope that chef makes it through tonight. Actually, I might be happy with three of the four remaining as the next Iron Chef; one of the competitors is really burning my muffins and I'd like to see that chef gone.

To get a taste of the show, check out Iron Chef Symon's take on the first episode (which includes who gets eliminated in the first challenge):



-- Cheryl Sadler
CSadler@News-Herald.com