Model of jaded TV

THERE have been so many search-for-a-supermodel shows in recent years that it must be difficult for them to gain much of an audience beyond their main demographic of young females.

The godmother of all of them all, America’s Next Top Model (Monday, Living TV, 9pm) is into its 14th season in this part of the world, but Tyra Banks and Co barely register a blip in the mainstream these days, and RTE’s latest offering, The Model Scouts (Tuesday, RTE Two, 9pm), has reached its final stage also without making much of an impact. This is surprising, given the hype that The Model Agent generated last year.

As well as a somewhat jaded format that even location shoots in Paris and Sydney couldn’t rescue, the presenters of The Model Scouts also suffer by comparison with their predecessors. Jeni Rose and David Cunningham work with the fashion world’s leading agents, IMG, and they also manage to come across as decent, down-to-earth people in what must be an often vacuous industry. But they just aren’t as interesting as last year’s duo of Erin O’Connor and Fiona Ellis.

This week’s double bill starts with the remaining four contestants heading to New York for a number of assignments and the second last elimination. One of them makes a big impression at a casting for Teen Vogue, and their red carpet shenanigans also include hanging out at the apartment of supermodel Carolyn Murphy and attending a film premiere alongside the likes of Danny DeVito and James Gandolfino. For the final episode, the three remaining girls are back in Dublin for the last assignments and the ultimate selection of the winner.

And while models might appeal to a specialist young audience, the subject of food is on everybody’s lips at the moment. In many homes, the traditional turkey and Brussels sprouts just don’t pass muster these days as the foodie revolution has opened up a smorgasboard of possibilities and also heaped a whole new pile of pressures on those making the Christmas dinner.

Both the cure and the cause may be found on TV. The schedules are chockers with celebrity chefs and their seasonal recipes. Everybody is at it. On the domestic front, Home For Christmas (Tuesday, RTE One, 7pm and 8.30pm) takes an appropriately recession-conscious approach to the big day. Chefs Catherine Fulvio and Martin Shanahan join forces with ICA chief home economist Marie McGuirk to create a three-course Christmas dinner for five people, with a bottle of wine, for €50.

In Britain, Channel 4 has cornered the food market and Monday night features two of their heavy hitters getting ready for the festive season. River Cottage Christmas Fayre (8pm) has Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall offering different ways to stuff a goose, while Jamie’s Best Ever Christmas is the first of a two-parter in which Mr Oliver shows you how properly to carve a turkey.