America's Next Great Restaurant

It's a high-quality reality show about creating a mid-range dining experience.

America's Next Great Restaurant doesn't have the drama of a Gordon Ramsay show, but it does have a behind-the-scenes factor that is fresh enough--who knew coming up with a logo was so hard?--and the subject matter has universal appeal.

The show has its tense moments. But it's closer to comfort television than "Hell's Kitchen."

The newcomer is unlikely to provoke much dinner table conversation, but goes down easily enough while trying not to leave any really bitter aftertastes.

NBC is clearly aiming for a network companion to their successful "Top Chef" franchise here, but while the aesthetics and the challenges are decidedly Bravo-esque, the personalities don't ever come close.

America's Next Great Restaurant is quickly undone by the same mean-spiritedness that makes Survivor, American Idol and the rest of this genre such an unpleasant viewing experience. Winning depends at least as much (and probably much more) on impressing the producers with television skills as it does on winning over the judges with culinary expertise or business savvy. So taunting and backbiting among the contestants is a dreary constant.

Both Restaurant and "Millionaire" stir similar pots of self-pride, entrepreneurship and the psychic reward of sharing one's good fortune. But because the medium is television--reality television--each show collapses under the pressure of showing off its sense of nobility and higher purpose.