Is It Time To Bring ‘The Chew’ Back to Daytime?

With all that’s going on in the world, rebooting this seven-season wonder might be a breath of fresh air!

Photo by The Tampa Bay Times

For the past few years, daytime talk has taken a wrong turn. A smattering of talk show hosts seem to be tone-deaf when trying to relate to the American public.

I don’t want to dwell too much on the specific daytime hosts whom I personally view as toxic. Instead, I find myself basking in nostalgia from a fondly-remembered show that wasn’t given nearly enough time to make its mark on the daytime TV landscape.

The Chew was a one-hour hybrid cooking/talk show that ran for seven seasons — from 2011 until 2018 — on ABC. What I liked the most about it was how spending the hour with its five hosts felt like having lunch with good friends. You could really tell how they all genuinely liked one another and loved working together.

They made us laugh in casual, comfortable ways. But they also heightened our culinary awareness.

Hosted by What Not to Wear’s Clinton Kelly, former Top Chef contestant Carla Hall, Food Network “Iron Chefs” Michael Symon and Mario Batali, and health/lifestyle influencer Daphne Oz (yes, the daughter of Dr. Mehmet Oz!) — this one-hour chatfest/chowfest aired at 1:00 P.M…