Alton Brown Joins THE WORST COOKS IN AMERICA

For the first time, Alton Brown is joining Anne Burrell to transform a roster of terrible cooks into culinary shape with challenges bigger and crazier than ever in a brand-new season of Worst Cooks in America. The fan-favorite series pits two teams of atrocious cooks, one led by Alton and the other by Anne, against each other in a rigorous kitchen boot camp designed to transform their food skills. In the end, only THE ONE recruit who makes the most impressive culinary improvement wins a $25,000 cash prize and bragging rights for their team leader. The ten-episode season premieres on Sunday, January 5th at 9pm (all times ET/PT) on Food Network.

"Our viewers know anything can, and does, happen on Worst Cooks and kicking off the New Year with a new season has become a tradition," said Courtney White, President, Food Network. "Having Alton join Anne at boot camp delivers more unexpected moments than ever."

This season's recruits are: Shannon Akins (Tempe, Arizona); Lulu Boykin (Pittsboro, North Carolina); Monica Colwell (Hazard, Kentucky); Joe Deese (Fulton, Alabama); Jefferson Goldie (Chicago, Illinois); Ryan Grovey (Seattle, Washington); Michael Jones-Better (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania); Dakota Klaes (New York, New York); Leo Lech (Washington, West Virginia); Curtis Long (Seneca, South Carolina); Kelly Ngoc Mac (Pasadena, California); Bridget Praytor (Colorado Springs, Colorado); Leslie Rivera-Silva (Washington D.C.); Jolynn Singh (Allen, Texas); Kevin So (Brooklyn, New York) and Alexandra Tiso (Eastchester, New York).

In the season premiere, sixteen of the country's worst cooks enter boot camp with dreams of putting their KITCHEN NIGHTMARES behind them. Mentors Anne Burrell and Alton Brown want to see what they're dealing with, so they ask the recruits to make their infamous signature dish and the results are truly disastrous. After being sorted into teams, Anne and Alton teach their recruits a chicken soup and sandwich dish and the competitors with the worst dishes are sent home. Upcoming episodes feature a Chinese New Year celebration, tailgate-themed challenge and the return of fan-favorite game Remote Control Chef. The season culminates on Sunday, March 8th at 9pm with the two most-improved recruits preparing a three-course restaurant quality meal for judges Kelly Choi, Brian Mazza and Jet Tila in a blind taste-test to determine the winner of $25,000 and bragging rights for their mentor.

Fans can meet the new recruits, relive the top moments from boot camp and get an exclusive, extended look at Anne and Alton's cooking demos at FoodNetwork.com/WorstCooks. Tell us about your biggest kitchen disaster and follow the competition on social and using #WorstCooks.

FOOD NETWORK (www.foodnetwork.com) is a unique lifestyle network, website and magazine that connects viewers to the power and joy of food. The network strives to be viewers' best friend in food and is committed to leading by teaching, inspiring, empowering and entertaining through its talent and expertise. Food Network is distributed to nearly 100 million U.S. households and draws over 46 million unique web users monthly. Since launching in 2009, Food Network Magazine's rate base has grown 13 times and is the No. 2 best-selling monthly magazine on the newsstand, with 13.5 million readers. Food Network is owned by Discovery, Inc., a global leader in real life entertainment spanning 220 countries and territories; the portfolio also includes Discovery Channel, HGTV, TLC, Investigation Discovery, and OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network.

To post a comment, you must register and login.