Two new series will join the primetime lineup of TV One in the second quarter 2012: My Momma Throws Down, the fast-paced cooking competition featuring a weekly face-off between kitchen matriarchs, and Love Addiction, an emotion-filled documentary series that centers around helping women and men extricate themselves from destructive relationships with the help of the people who love them most.
Hosted by comedian and actor Ralph Harris (On Our Own, Last Comic Standing, Dreamgirls, Evan Almighty) and produced by Triage Entertainment, the producers of Iron Chef America, My Momma Throws Down each week will feature two mothers, nominated by a family member and backed by a lively team of family supporters, competing in a cook-off in the Throwdown Kitchen for cash and prizes, and judged by a panel of esteemed culinary experts, celebrities and food-loving personalities.
The competition is fierce, with each mother not only providing her signature dish for both the judges and her adversary to rate, but she will race the clock to create an entire meal on a moment’s notice. The families will prove to be more than moral support, with their knowledge, skills and talents playing a role in just how much time their beloved matriarch will have to create her meal. Each “Mominator,” or family member who originally put forward his family’s matriarch, will also take part in a special “smack down” challenge, the winner gaining valuable prep time for his mom in the kitchen. Each mom will also select a family member to serve as a “blind” taste tester, who will be sequestered and blindfolded, and whose vote for the most delicious dish will count as part of the final judging process.
Among the culinary experts expected to participate as part of the panel of judges will be Marcus Samuelsson, James Beard award-winning chef, cookbook author, chef/owner at the acclaimed Red Rooster Harlem and winner of Top Chef Masters; Marvin Woods, the celebrity chef, host, and author of cookbook Home Plate Cooking; Jessica Harris, educator, culinary historian, and writer of eleven cookbooks documenting the foods and foodways of the African Diaspora, including The Welcome Table: African-American Heritage Cooking and her latest, High on the Hog: A Culinary Journey from Africa to America; Melba Wilson, who, after getting her start at the renowned Harlem restaurant Sylvia’s, went on to open her own eatery, Melba’s, the Harlem fixture known for its signature chicken and waffles; Tanya Holland, the noted French-trained chef and owner of Brown Sugar Kitchen in West Oakland, CA and the author of New Soul Cooking: Updating a Cuisine Rich in Flavor and Tradition; and Chef Brian Hill, who initially rose to fame from his appearance on Top Chef and later in Food Network’s Private Chefs of Beverly Hills. He operated the famous Comfort Truck in LA, and now caters for a host of celebrities including the likes of Eddie Murphy and Mary J. Blige. Executive producer for TV One is Kaye Zusmann, and executive in charge of production is Tia Smith. My Momma Throws Down is scheduled to premiere in April 2012.
“At its core, My Momma Throws Down is a true celebration of the matriarch of the family, placing her passion, skills, down-home expertise, and reputation as a great cook on the line for all of America to witness,” said TV One President and CEO Wonya Lucas.
Love Addiction focuses on saving troubled men and women from their toxic relationships – through an intervention by the people who care most about them. Under the guidance of relationship experts, parents, grandparents, brothers, sisters, children and friends come together to help love addicts re-discover themselves and their lives in this powerful, transformational intervention series. Men and women no matter how smart, beautiful or worldly, can find themselves in relationships that are demoralizing and soul shattering. For some women, it’s married men. For others, it’s players, control freaks or countless variations of emotional abusers. Men can be addicted to bad love, too, including those who date ice princesses and gold diggers. In each of these cases, friends and family can be cut off if they say something critical; or be forced to watch silently while someone they love goes through hell.
Under the premise of doing a documentary on relationships, the couples’ relationship patterns are captured on camera. Then a formal intervention is planned. Ultimately the love addicted man or woman will have to make the choice: whether to break off the relationship or return to their bad love leaving their family behind. Will the loved one break it off and chart a new path? Can they stay away from the toxic relationship? The series shares their decision and then checks back 30 days later to see if they’ve freed themselves or fallen back into the negative relationship.
Therapists and relationship experts help the love addicted and their families deal with these crises, including psychologist Dr. Alduan Tartt, parenting, teen and relationship expert and author of author of The RING FORMULA: How To Be The Only One He Ever Needs; and personal growth and relationship expert Hasani Pettiford, author of Black Thighs, Black Guys & Bedroom Lies.
“Love Addiction is a key element in our plans to expand our programming about love and relationships,” Lucas said. “We all know friends or family members who almost serially seem to end up in bad relationships, or who fall under the toxic spell of a bad romance, and we wish we could help them realize how much better they deserve to be treated. This series not only will be riveting and full of emotion, it also should provide some great advice for those with troubled relationships and even those who want to keep their relationships healthy.”
Love Addiction, scheduled to premiere in April 2012, is produced for TV One by Mike Mathis Productions. Executive producer for TV One is Kaye Zusmann. Executive in charge of production is Robyn Greene Arrington.
