How’d we get here?
A few days ago, I’m driving down the street obsessing about some piece of pie or hamburger or restaurant as I tend to do, when something occurred to me. It’s so incredibly hard to believe that we have been at this for two years. I could tell you countless stories of how two years feel like twenty years. Similarly, and more accurately, I could share with you what a real blur it has been. Time most definitely flies when you are having fun.
Sometimes when you are obsessing about the results, it’s hard to get a good look at the process. Two years ago this week, Eat It and Like It first aired on Savannah television. The feedback from the community was almost instant. We thought we may have had something special on our hands pretty early in the process.
Within seven months of our premiere in September 2011, we were nominated for our first EMMY Award and had Paula Deen join me for an episode. We had bounced between Savannah, Richmond Hill, Augusta, Hilton Head Island, and even took the crew on the road to Florida. We were having a grand ol’ time…until I broke my arm.
Well, it technically wasn’t a broken arm, it was torn tendon in my wrist. I tore it shooting our “Man Cave” episode for the end of Season 2. That shoot put me on the shelf for six months. Eat It and Like It may have slowed to a crawl, but we never stopped moving forward.
In February of this year, we held our first of what will be many Iron Chef Competitions at the Southern Women’s Show. We had a great turnout and we had a lot of fun, but the focus was on getting my arm back and getting our television show back on the air.
A few months later, we made the move that we think will prove instrumental in the growth of our show. In July of 2013, we came to terms with WSAV-TV in Savannah to air our show year round. That fact, plus the opportunity to get our show on in other Media General (WSAVs Parent Company) markets like Charleston, Augusta and Mobile/Pensacola have given us everything we could have ever hoped for at this early point in our process. At the end of the day, as long as you are watching and liking and we have sponsors willing to help us foot the bill, then we are going to keep going. Keep going and keep growing.
There are a lot of long hours. There are a lot of hand wringing moments, there are a lot of four letter moments. There have been wine stains and growing pains, but I can’t honestly tell you one time where we thought we’d fizzle out. No, Eat It and Like It has been built to be around for a while. We have a brand new re-vamped gourmet foodie tour on tap, we have a line of t-shirts, and we have a bunch of new episodes to share along with a lot of miles to log to give you a different view of Southern food. It’s why we are here.
Thanks so much for taking the time to read this. We’re at the second year mark and are just really getting started.
See you on TV.
Jesse
