YouTube on fire with "Minute to Win It" vids

Since we first heard about Guy Fieri's new game show, Minute to Win It, it was clear to me that people would love the games. Love The Games! So I did a little search on YouTube to see what was going on there. I had no idea ... check this out - YouTube search for "Minute to Win It".

On the day I did this search, I found quite a number of YouTube channels solely dedicated to users' practicing and showing off their Minute to Win It game skills. Here are a few of my favorites:

ChumackAttack8682
JessicaDuyka
KeepItReelMinistries
scoot2m
LoudmouthLee

And that's just a few!

NBC.com invites Minute to Win It fans to upload their game videos. Click here to upload your own, or check out the user-submitted videos here.

Ok, now this is where it gets really interesting: I found a radio station using a Minute to Win It game format as a contest promotion with their morning show. WSTO Hot 96 FM, based in Evansville, IL, is offering five finalist contestants up to $50,000 if they win all five, randomly chosen, Minute to Win It games! Click here for more.


*Link to video*

Moreover, regional fairs and festivals are adding Minute to Win It-like games at their events! Really, there are too many to publish and link from here, but here are two for the purpose of example:

http://tribstar.com

TERRE HAUTE — The Wabash Valley Fair Association ... will feature a new event from the TV show “Minute To Win It.” ... with attendees getting a chance to win thousands of dollars in cash and prizes. ... The show will have audience participation as guests will complete challenges straight from the new hit TV show “Minute To Win It” at 7 p.m. July 13 in the Grandstand.

www.augustagazette.com

Augusta, Kan. —"A Minute to Win It" games have been added to the June 4 Grasshopper Festival this year. The games based on the popular NBC show will be for anyone over 18 years of age. There will be prizes for different completion levels, including a weekend in Branson, Mo., for the grand prize winner.

Guy Fieri was in Los Angeles last week, taping new episodes of Minute to Win It at their studio in Burbank, CA.

ChefGuyFieri - On the set of @minutetowinit, new crazy challenges, wild contestants, and a kewl audience! Yeah

I have long tried to find out how to get Minute to Win It studio audience tickets, but I can't find ANYthing about it on GuyFiri.com nor on NBC.com. After a bit of research, I'm beginning to think the audience is cast?

breezy421 - I'm stuck at home today because @ordinaryheroes got a gig as an extra on Minute To Win It and took the car...
OrdinaryHeroes - ok, I'm off to bed early, because I am going to be in the audience for Minute to Win It tomorrow. HA! :D

EmmieJae - Studio City to be in the Audience on Minute to Win It.
EmmieJae - Heading home from the game show. We had so much fun, I am booked for tomorrow.
EmmieJae - At the bus stop. Heading to Studio City for Minute to Win It for my third day in a row.

Craigmackk - I did on-screen, extra background work for the NBC game show "Minute to Win It." Good times. Nice supplemental side cash, too!

edspangler - is off to do more audience work. Hope the contestants on Minute to Win It keep things exciting & throw more heavy projectiles at us today.

*Update*
Ah! Yes. Audience is cast too. Craigslist. You can also check StandingRoomOnly.tv to apply for Minute to Win It audience tickets.

The Australian version of Minute to Win It is looking for audience members; Former MTV presenter Darren McMullen will host. Live in Australia? Check out TVTonight.com.au for more information or follow minutetowinitoz on Twitter.

I'll leave you with this fun video, "Our small group decided to have a Minute to Win It Game Night. We split up into teams and chose 20 games to play against each other. Needless to say, it was a hilarious and challenging evening!"


*Link to video*

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Guy Fieri interviewed by Young Hollywood

Young Hollywood put Guy Fieri in the hot seat when he sits down to explain the fun behind his game show "Minute to Win It." The famed chef shows us his rock star personality is no show and tells us how he hasn't allowed the attention to keep him out of the kitchen. Hosted by RJ Williams.



Link to video

Most interesting to me in this interview was to learn how "Knuckle Sandwich" came to be the name for Guy Fieri's company. The story is some 3 minutes into the interview. Enjoy!

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An Arizona Triple D Dine-Around

How fun! I wish there were more of these kinds of events in cities where Guy Fieri has been for Diners, Drive-ins and Dives. Live in or around Phoenix, Arizona or have friends there?

A Triple D Dine-Around, Monday, June 14, 2010 from 5:30 - 9:30pm. Join Foodies Like Us for a Triple D Dine-Around. Three valley restaurants all featured on the Food Network show, "Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives."

Click to enlarge

Cost: $55 (includes transportation, 3-course meal, glass of wine)

1st Course: Chino Bandido - Asian-Latin Appetizer
2nd Course: Giuseppe's on 28th - Pasta Bolognese
3rd Course: Over Easy - Caramelized banana and pecan French toast with vanilla ice cream

Note: Vehicles will remain at Chino Bandido the entire evening. The trolley will return us at the end of the event.

Click here to reserve your seat.

These three restaurants were featured on the show in 2008 - 2009.

Chino Bandido - website - from A World of Flavors
Giusseppe's on 28th - website - from Homestyle
Over Easy - website - from Comfort Cookin'

FoodiesLikeUs.com is a Scottsdale-based food-centric company that brings the Valley foodie community together, and provides unique and affordable culinary adventures to the home cook. Hinged on uniting people who enjoy food, and who center their social activity around it, we introduce food lovers to new and affordable culinary experiences.

And they've been very supportive of the popular diners, drive-ins and dives from Guy's show. "Me and all the DDD peeps in da Mesa, AZ area. We did awesome event b4 my Mesa roadshow in Dec. So kewl to have everyone together," Guy Fieri tweeted a couple weeks ago.

Photograph taken December, 2009

The aforementioned event was orchestrated by Foodies Like Us. Great site, great events. In preparation for the Pre-Road Show party in Mesa, Arizona, Foodies Like Us did my favorite Guy Fieri interview to date and wrote a brilliant article. Please click over to read the article here.

If you're in the area in June or know someone who will be, sign up now to reserve your spot.

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Launch of ChefGuyFieri on YouTube

In an effort to have a more prominent online presence, Guy Fieri and his staff have been creating profiles and uploading content on various popular social networking sites. First came Twitter, then Facebook, a Flickr account ... and now YouTube.

Check out www.youtube.com/user/chefguyfieri.

As for the following video, let me explain. No, there is too much. Let me sum up.

Mike Hardin of Hodad's, San Diego:

I'm covered with tattoos. When I met Guy we hit it off right off the bat - he's down-to-earth, kinda crazy, and he's turned out to be a good friend. So my son and I went camping with him and his family, and sitting around the campfire at some point that evening the Guy bobblehead plan was put in motion (and I don't even drink). And here we are. It turned out very, very well. Credit goes to the artist, Brendon Embrey, at Seth's Chop Shop, San Diego.

- quoted from More Diners, Drive-ins, Dives introduction

Enjoy!


*Link to video*

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"Minute to Win It" picked up for Spring 2011

Guy Fieri's show, Minute to Win It has already been picked up for the summer months. And NBC recently announced that it will have a second season starting in March 2011. Variety's Michael Schneider interviewed NBC Universal TV Entertainment chairman Jeff Gaspin recently about the Network's upcoming programming.

MS: Why did you pick up all three midseason reality shows?

JG: When we made the choice to go back to shows at 10, we didn't have a lot to choose from. We had to come up with things we could do relatively quickly. "Who Do You Think You Are" and "Minute to Win It" we didn't promote all that much, and far exceeded our expectations. The audience is finding those shows on their own. "Marriage Ref" we helped guide the audience there. Seeing comedy perform well at 10, which is not a traditional comedy time period, we felt it deserved its pickup.

MS: And you own "Minute to Win It."

JG: It didn't have anything to do with being inhouse, other than we could turn it around quickly.

(full article)

NBC's website has the Fall 2010 line up here, www.nbc.com/upcoming-shows.

Sunday nights in the Fall of 2010 still belong to the NFL, (I hope Guy wouldn't have it any other way, no?) Football Night in America followed by Sunday Night Football.

Post-season in March 2011, the Sunday night prime time lineup is Dateline at 7/6c, followed by Minute to Win It at 8/7c and a new season of The Apprentice at 9/8c.

Wednesday's Minute to Win It on the 19th is a repeat episode of Last Man Standing (video) and Sunday is all new, the Wedding Special episode with Melanie and Jason, airing May 23, 2010.



And click over to People.com to view a video interview with Guy Fieri, singing the praises of Kevin Jonas' game skills.

Related links:
Casting - how to get on Minute to Win It
Blueprints - how to practice or play the Minute to Win It games at home

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A devoted Fieri fan denied photo op

On days like today, I am discouraged.

FlavortownUSA.com is a website devoted to Diners, Drive-ins and Dives. It is the most successful fan site for the show on the internet. Yes, even more popular than mine, haha. ;) It has higher traffic even than guyfieri.com! Webmaster Rick Graner is The Online Go-To Man when it comes to Diners, Drive-ins and Dives.

Rankings by Alexa.com (lower ranking = higher traffic)
FlavortownUSA - Global 437,615
United States - 131,826

GuyFieri.com - Global 642,083
United States - 192,343

When Rick heard that Guy would be shooting episodes for Diners, Drive-ins and Dives in his hometown Minneapolis area, Rick went on a quest for a picture, a snapshot with his iPhone on location. Read about it here, blog.flavortownusa.com.

When I read that he was unable to catch up on location, I wrote to a few contacts I have developed over the years. Most were simply unanswered; one jacked me around with false information, resulting in a missed opportunity.

I understand that security has been tightened around the TripleD shoots and locations. But if senators, football stars, radio hosts and food writers who didn't even like Guy Fieri can get in, why can't the show's most devoted online voice get in?

It does make one wonder what the hell one is doing. Rick's upbeat about it. I'm working to get there.



I was told by Guy Fieri's staff, "As for interviews, it is now fairly rare that we accommodate them during a DDD shoot." and "Guy's shooting schedule is jam packed while he is filming DDD. Its impossible for him to accommodate any interview requests while he is on the road."

Just tryin' to work it all out how "impossible" is a relative term.

Spring Fling For Green (GI0814H) with video

Guy's Big Bite - Spring Fling For Green - Aired: 5/16/10

Spring is in the air, and Guy Fieri is expressing his poetic pizzazz with a springtime pesto, some peas, and...tequila! It's a perfectly roasted Arugula Pistachio Pesto Chicken, some spring satisfaction by way of Sunchoke and Split Pea Soup topped with Goat Cheese croutons, and a Strawberry and Tequila Granita that blurs the lines between dessert and drink. Margarita in dessert form, or dessert in margarita form? Who cares?

Sunchoke and Split Pea Soup - recipe
(wiki on sunchokes)

Arugula Pistachio Pesto Chicken - recipe



Strawberry and Tequila Cooler - cocktail recipe

Keywords:
pancetta, leeks, sunchokes, ham hocks, dried split peas, Goat Cheese Croutons, chicken, arugula, pistachios, strawberries, tequila

Related Guy Fieri Recipes:
Side dishes with vegetables
Main dishes with chicken
Cocktails with tequila

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Guy Fieri kick starts Taste! in Myrtle Beach

It was a 24-hour fly by for Guy Fieri, but in that time he made quite an impression on the folks at the Taste! Gourmet Trade Show and Expo at the Myrtle Beach Convention Center in South Carolina.

Guy Fieri flew from California to Myrtle Beach on Thursday, May 13, 2010.

NatalieCoughlin - @ChefGuyFieri is sitting in my aisle of the plane. Pretty funny how so many people want to talk to him, but don't know what to say...

which got me to wondering, were I to share an airplane ride with Natalie Coughlin, I'm not sure I'd know what to say either! :)

Thursday evening, visiting celebrity chefs were invited to a private dinner with Taste! organizers at the Brentwood Inn, Myrtle Beach (view tasting menu).

richholl - on my way to dinner with Guy Fieri, Fabio Viviani, Aaron McCargo, and the rest of the crew from Taste!

RestaurantGal - I had dinner with Guy Fieri tonight.

Becky Billingsley wrote a very nice article about the dinner for the Myrtle Beach Restaurant News, saying in part,

"Hey, watch this," he said Thursday night shortly after arriving a private dinner party at The Brentwood in Little River. "This is called sabering the bottle."

Since the party trick involved whacking the top off a Champagne bottle with a chef's knife, the Food Network star decided to take his act outside, and the rest of the guests trooped out behind him onto the restaurant's front porch. Fieri held up the bottle and chopped, and the bottle lip, including the cork, flew off into the night.

Read the full article here. Video below takes a few moments to load.




Johanna D. Wilson of The Sun News also reported.

On Thursday night though, he was by far the liveliest guest among about a dozen people. He is courteous, funny, friendly, and gave guests firm handshakes and bear hugs. He loves yellow cars, thinks Jay Leno is cool and enjoyed being on Leno’s show each time he went.

Click here to read the article.

Guy Fieri's "Bad Boy Breakfast" was reportedly sold out. The breakfast was from 9:00 - 11:00 a.m.


Guy Fieri also had a cooking demonstration in the afternoon, as did Aaron McCargo Jr. and Andreann Geise, a competitor on Ultimate Recipe Showdown hosted by Guy Fieri in September 2009. (more on Andreann Geise)


Below, local News13 SCNow interviewed Guy Fieri in front of Ergo Chef's display table.



WBTW anchor and producer, Rusty Ray, wrote,

Guy Fieri ... took questions and signed autographs at a private breakfast Friday morning, and then put on a cooking demonstration for a packed theatre-style audience Friday afternoon....

For the full article, click here.

*Update*
Guy Fieri spoke to Caroline Live about the Myrtle Beach area and his thoughts on the Taste! event:

"You're this close to the water. You've got this much going on. You have this many nice people. The food's gotta be good. I mean there's no way it can't be good and you have this many people who are interested in food that are coming here to Taste! I'm looking forward to it. I hope we get some folks writing into Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives and telling us about the locations we can go to, and I get to come back and have a little vacation."

View video here.

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Guy Fieri's Triple D trip to Duluth, Minneapolis / St. Paul, MN

Filming crews for the Food Network's Diners, Drive-ins and Dives began taping segments for the show in Duluth, MN on Tuesday, May 11, 2010. They are scheduled to stay in the area, hitting local eateries, at least through the 18th and longer if needed.


Typically, production crews arrive in the area 3 - 4 days in advance of Guy Fieri, shooting beauty shots of the food and brief interviews with diners. Guy's schedule is not announced publicly, but I'd anticipate that he'll tape his kitchen segments from Saturday the 15th through Tuesday the 18th. That's just a guess - I'll update this post as new information comes in.

Where will Guy Fieri eat in or around Duluth, Minnesota? A usual production schedule includes 6 or 7 restaurants within a 100-mile radius, or so.

Duluth Grill - website
118 S 27th Avenue West
Duluth, MN 55806
(218) 726-1150
www.duluthgrill.com
Committed to sustainability
*Premieres 11/26/10 - Sweet n' Savory*

At Saras Table Chester Creek Cafe - website
1902 East 8th Street
Duluth, MN 55812
(218) 723-8569
www.astccc.net
The name of this place is confusing. Both "Chester Creek Cafe" and "At Sara's Table" are emblazoned on the door; and the sign on the building says "Taran's Market Place." - reviewer
*Premieres 10/4/10 - Sauced and Spiced*

Gordy's Hi-Hat - website
415 Sunnyside Drive
Cloquet, MN 55720
(218) 879-6125
www.gordys-hihat.com
Celebrating 50 years!
*Scheduled to air 7/26/10 - You Called It DV0912H*

Lake Avenue Cafe - website
394 South Lake Avenue
Duluth, MN 55802
(218) 722-2355
Facebook

*Update 7/1/10*
Add The Anchor Bar in Superior to the list.
Food Network films at Anchor Bar

Northern Waters Smokehaus - website
394 S Lake Ave
Duluth, MN 55802
(218) 724-7307
www.northernwatersmokehaus.com
*Premiered 6/21/10 - Fast Food Their Way*

Q Fanatic BBQ and Grill - website
180 Miller Road
Champlin, MN 55316
(763) 323-6550
http://qfanatic.com
*Premieres 1/10/11 - Po' Boys, Pasta And Pork*

Tips or sightings? Snapshots of Guy Fieri? Comment or link below!

Diners, Drive-ins and Dives has visited 11 Minnesota restaurants in earlier seasons, most around the Minneapolis / St. Paul area. Click here to view the Twin Cities region, and click here to view a map of the new locations around Duluth.

*Shoots in Minneapolis / St. Paul*
Kramarczuk Sausage Company Inc - website
215 East Hennepin Avenue
Minneapolis, MN 55414
(612) 379-3018
www.kramarczuk.com
*Premieres 8/30/10 - Family Joints*

The Blue Door Pub - website
1811 Selby Avenue
St. Paul, MN 55104
(651) 493-1865
www.thebluedoorpubmn.com
Twitter: twitter.com/bluedoorpub
*Premieres 10/20/10 - Made to Order*
Thank you anonymous tipper! :)
*confirmed - back open and back in business! just finished 2 days of filming with Guy and the Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives crew! We had a blast and thank you for all of your support*

Al's Breakfast - American Cookin' from Season 1
413 14th Avenue Southeast
Minneapolis, MN 55414 - map
(612) 331-9991
14 seats in the whole place
'Diners, Drive-ins and Dives' Guy stops by 60th Anniversary celebration at Al’s Breakfast in Dinkytown. Read about it and view video.

*Airs 9/20/10 - You Found Em*

Colossal Cafe - website
1839 East 42nd Street
Minneapolis, MN 55407
(612) 729-2377
www.colossalcafe.com
*Premieres 12/18/10 - Sandwiches Plus*

Click here for a Behind the Scenes look at taping Diners, Drive-ins and Dives in the Minneapolis area. "Twin Cities locations included The Blue Door Pub, Colossal Cafe, and Kramarczuk’s. Our behind-the-scenes look took place at the last two locations."

*Update* Click here for an article on the "Triple D Effect," the increase in business experienced by the DDD restaurants in Duluth.


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Guy Fieri and "Dude Food," an article from Time.com

Josh Ozersky from Time.com recently wrote an interesting article, "Real Men Do Cook Quiche: The Rise of Dude Food"

Just about anyone over the age of 35 recalls the book, Real Men Don't Eat Quiche, an iconic satirization of typically male stereotypes, written in 1982 by Bruce Feirstein who coined the term "quiche-eater" as an insult to a man's very masculinity.

Ozersky examines male gender extremes in culinary celebrities and publications, past and present.

Make no mistake: Guy Fieri is the Dudai Lama. Nobody else comes close to manifesting effortless machismo the way he does on Diners, Drive-ins and Dives; no costume department could ever have come up with his look: spiky, bleached hair, bowling shirt and perpetual sunburn. Fieri's effusiveness, his trademark exclamations ("fierce," "kewl") — he's the guy whose house you want to be at for the Super Bowl. He's the guy you want to organize your bachelor party.

If he's into food and cooking, there can't be anything remotely metrosexual about it. Not to put too fine a point on it, but Fieri is the anti–Ted Allen. Fieri is not hip, he doesn't have good taste, classy women wouldn't approve of him, and yet he swaggers happily on his charmed path, oblivious to all his shortcomings. He's just himself, totally and utterly inhabiting his dudeness, in a way that could never be faked.

Guy Fieri just loves being Guy Fieri. Even his occasional self-mockery is a form of preening. What could be more manly than that?

I'll only correct Mr. Ozersky in that I don't recall "fierce" being in Guy's vocabulary. "Gangsta," on the other hand, has crept into several recent Diners, Drive-ins and Dives episodes, a compliment roughly equivalent to "killer," in a good way. :) Read the full article here.

Guy being Guy is the very definition of his brand. In December of 2005, when Guy Fieri flew to New York for the Next Food Network Star, like Polonius's last piece of advice to his son Laertes, Guy's father advised Guy to be himself. And it worked.

When Guy did his first shoot for Diners, Drive-ins and Dives, he dressed as himself, spoke as himself, and surprised executive producer David Page that Guy's way of doing the show surpassed even David's initial vision of it. I think David was looking for another Al Roker to do the show. Instead, he got Guy. Thankfully! Haha.

In both cases, Guy was himself, and people ate it up. They're still eating it up, as you know.

The set of Guy's Big Bite exudes dudeness. "Guy Fieri now plays rock music in the background while cooking on Guy's Big Bite; this has made it more killer than I had thought possible!" - Clevelandjoe from Twitter.

Some of the initial criticisms of Minute to Win It centered around a LACK of Guy Fieri's dude-icious brand in the set. But things, they are a-changin'. BuzzerBlog recently wrote,

I’ve noticed they got away from their Millionaire clone set and now, accidentally, it looks like it’s taking place in a college gym with the wood floor everywhere. But regardless, it looks a lot brighter ... and they’ve ditched all traces and awkward edits from removing the models and mammoth smoke machines, so good on them. They’re really trying here.

Read BuzzerBlog's full article here.



Jonas Brothers Special - Cheered on by his family, Kevin Jonas goes all out to win big for his charity, Change for the Children Foundation. Video expires 6/4/10

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