Who is popular today?

The Somebody Feed Phil host refuses to be rude, gives his staff free cereal and forces himself to go hungry for his viewers’ benefit. No wonder he’s charmed audiences the world overBy and large, the key to a successful food and travel show is its host. Stanley Tucci’s Italian series, for example, is like being led around a city by someone charming enough to get you seats at all the best spots. Anthony Bourdain’s, meanwhile, could show you all the backstreet hole-in-the-wall places where local people actually eat.And then there’s Somebody Feed Phil, on Netflix. For four years – or more if you count its PBS precursor, I’ll Have What Phil’s Having – the show has operated on a simple premise: dropping the world’s most delighted man into some of the best food towns on earth, and watching as he struggles to comprehend that he actually gets to do this for a living. It’s deliberately lightweight and mainstream and, thanks to its host, Philip Rosenthal, incredibly popular. Not for nothing is his production company called Lucky Bastards. Continue reading...