‘The Taste,’ sip, nibble and move on

In the imitative world of reality TV, innovation proceeds at a glacial pace. A minor tweak is presented as a major twist, and if it works, it gradually spreads to other new shows.

ABC’s new series “The Taste,” the umpteenth cooking competition show to premiere since Bravo’s “Top Chef,” steals the blind-judging gimmick from NBC’s singing competition “The Voice” and tries to make it sound as if “The Taste” had reinvented sliced bread. The first episode is a two-hour trudge through numerous taste tests, a dull spectacle that, despite a colorful judging panel, leaves us with little hope that the show will improve later.

The series premiere, airing tonight at 8, reveals that the new show is stealing another “innovation” from “The Voice”: The four judges will be using the taste tests to select teams that they will coach for the rest of the season, until a single winner is picked.

In a departure from most cooking-competition shows, the judges don’t meet the contestants before sampling their dishes. Anthony Bourdain, the writer and TV host who is the biggest star among the judges, says, “We don’t know how important this competition is to them or how excited they are to be here. Quite frankly, we don’t give a damn.”

After more than a decade of competition shows, most viewers don’t give a damn either. But the producers still make us sit through introductory segments in which the auditioners tell us how important the competition is to them and how excited they are to be there.

Although they are a varied bunch, they nonetheless fall into predictable reality-show patterns. They tell hard-luck stories, or act absurdly cocky, or issue vapid clichés. Contestants aren’t here to make friends, because they’re in it to win it, so they’re going to bring it, and a real chef is in the house!

By the end of the two hours, they all start to seem the same, and it becomes increasingly harder to care if they get chosen or not. Unlike the hopefuls on “American Idol” and most talent shows, none of the auditioners is comically incompetent.

After we meet a contestant, he or she prepares the dish, then places a mouthful on each of four forks, which are presented to the judges while the contestant waits in an elevator-like booth, within earshot but out of sight. The judges taste the sample, comment on it and press a red or green button. Then they meet the contestant, who describes the dish, and the judges reveal their decisions.

In another steal from “The Voice,” if more than one judge has pressed the green button, the contestant gets to choose which judge’s team to join. Oddly, in the premiere, no contestant got more than two greens, and very few got even that many.

None of the judges provides any Simon Cowell-style sarcasm and disdain. Bourdain keeps saying that he regrets his negative decisions after meeting the contestants. Although he is known for his edgy personality, he’s generally kind to everyone, although sometimes he does one of those fake-out judgments in which he lists the dish’s good qualities but then says no.

The British TV presenter and cookbook author Nigella Lawson is the panel’s mother figure, consoling the rejected contestants. She keeps cheerleading for the home cooks as opposed to the professional chefs.

The chef-restaurateurs Brian Malarkey and Ludovic Lefebvre occasionally lock horns, but not particularly wittily or entertainingly.

Incredibly, next week’s episode will feature even more auditions. If the producers don’t realize that two hours of this is enough, one has little confidence they’ll know how to keep us entertained for the rest of the season.

That doesn’t mean that “The Taste” will remain dull once the teams are formed and the mentoring begins. But chances are, for many viewers, one taste will be enough.

Tags: abc, american idol, anthony bourdain, Bravo Top Chef, dish, green, nbc, premiere, the dish, tv, viewers