TIME FOR HALOWEEN WARS !!!!

My all time favorite thing on Earth is back…. That’s right people it’s time for Halloween Wars on Food Network!! This is such a uniqe and fun take on a “Halloween” special that I look forward to it every year. I LIVE for new episodes every Sunday. As I type this up I’m watching a replay of last years Halloween Wars cause I missed it that much. Incase you haven’t heard of this amazing wonderful thing Halloween Wars consists of a Pumpkin Carver, Candy Craftsman and a Master Cake Artist (AKA rice Cereal Treat Artist) who team together to create a cohesive show piece that wows the judges and keeps them in the game. It’s a 4 part series and this will be the 5^th season of the show. I truly hope it NEVER ends. Each episode, each year is so different because the competitors are different, even when contestants come back for a 2^nd time they have a different team which changes everything. Did I mention the winning team gets $50,000?

http://www.foodnetwork.com/shows/halloween-wars.html

The 2015 Teams:

Maroon–Spell Binders (Kristen Lovulla, Joseph Yakovetic and Charity George)
Orange– Scream Team (Robert Teddy, Adam Bierton and Darci Rochau)
Purple – Morbid Morticians (Renay Zamora, Rebecca Wortman and Doug Goodreau)
Green– Gore Mayhem (Heidi Trelstad, Rocio Varela and Dean Murray)
Yellow– 2 Ghouls and a Guy (Diane Fehder, Jeff Munchel and Bridget McCarty)

Learn more about the teams here…

http://blog.foodnetwork.com/fn-dish/tag/halloween-wars-interview/

The setup of an episode:

Each episode has 2 rounds…. Round 1 is the Small scare challenge (45 minutes) in which the winner gets an advantage going into round 2 known as the Spine Chiller challenge (5 hours) which includes a tasting element for the judges and could be the difference in staying or going home. Each round has a specific theme that the teams have to focus their displays on. At the end of each episode a team is sent home.


L-R Brian Kimney, Shinmin Li, and your new host Rossi Morreale

Judges:

The series is judged by 2 main judges who remain through all the competitions and a guest judge who is a fresh pair of eyes every week. The main judges, who return for another season, include Shinmin Li, a pastry chef, and Brian Kinney a make-up artist known for the movie Dark Skies. 

Guest judges for this season include: Episode 1: Robin Atkin Downes (The Strain). Episode 2: Benjamin Papac (Walking Dead). Episode 3: Bex Taylor-Klaus (MTV’s Scream). Episode 4: Elvira (if you don’t know Google or Bing her & you'll fall in love with her).

NEW HOST!!!!

I’m sad to report that my buddy Justin Willman will NOT be the host for this year’s War as he has gone back to his day job. He’s a comedian/magician if you didn’t know. Check him out cause he’s awesome but that’s a post for another day.  

However, I digress….. as I said the new host is Rossi Morreale a former college football player at the University of Arkansas and is now an actor/producer/TV host. He appeared on the 2^nd season of “Temptation Island” and was the host of Junkyard Wars on TLC. He’s was listed in People Magazine's "Sexiest Man Alive" edition. He’s also hosted shows on G4, TBS, Extra, and On Air with Ryan Seacrest. I look forward to getting to know him better as this series progresses.

Follow Rossi on twitter @rossimorreale and welcome him to the War :D

Weekly Themes for the Spine Chiller Round include:

Week 1 – Infestation
Week 2 – Hybrid Horror
Week 3 – Grave Robber
Week 4 – Undead Dinner Party

Each team has a “leader” but all 4 have to come together to make it from week to week. There is a ton of chatter on Twitter each week so join the conversation by Tweeting #HalloweenWars and also hit @FoodNetwork so they will continue this event next year and for years to come.

It’s fascinating seeing these guys take these highly different mediums and get them to all work together to create a fantastic show piece. I love how each showpiece is so different even though they all have the same theme. The creativity of it is just awesome! Sometimes there are EPIC wins and other times epic fails but watching the steps it took to get there is great getting to see their creativity come to life and how working as a team affects the end result. One wrong move from one of them could ruin them all and send the team home.

This awesome show is on every Sunday with a new episode 9/8c. It’s only 4 weeks so jump on the bandwagon now and hopefully we’ll be back next year and for many years to come.

-Marcy (@beaslma)