I'm disappointed in Ian Wright and his new show on the Travel Channel. I've watched him for years on Globe Trekker and have been incredibly impressed by him. In the past, he seemed to have a deeper sense of appreciation and discovery for the new places he visited. He was an outsider, but had a connection to the place and somehow translated a sense of reverence for it. But this new show is a joke! Why is he suddenly so "over the top" in his on camera presentations? It's Ian on steroids! He's mugging for the camera, something that he rarely (if ever) did on Globe Trekker. Is Ian on steroids? That silly piece behind the scenes with the Las Vegas showgirls was ridiculous. Ian, that was beneath you! Did a producer or agent tell you to suddenly become a caricature of a TV travel show host? I hope not and I hope you can right the ship here. Otherwise, you're going to let down your legion of fans and travel buffs. Don't throw away a career of traveling the globe and feeling a sense of appreciation and understanding for your destination! Please. You can do so much better.

Well, the disappointment continues in Chicago.

Ian shows off his "over the top" antics with all the "gangster" crap. Plus, he practically insults Tim Samualson, the City's historian, on the river boat ride.

Way, way, way too much time spent on Ian playing - or attempting - to play the Blues. In fact the whole segment on Chicago blues and Bronzeville was totally lacking in anything real.

While I'm sure that there are time limitations and that no program can do proper justice to a place in under an hour, Ian and the producers missed a lot.

I give them credit for pointing out the lakefront beaches; credit for trying to do something about Chicago blues music; credit for doing something about hot dogs, Italian beef sandwiches and Italian ice.

However, cut the crap on gangsters - it's a dead subject. While it's nice to point out how hot dogs are made, and it's nice to show the rooftop garden on City Hall, the problem is that those places are off-limits to the general public, let alone tourists.

I'd also like to see one travel program about Chicago - on The Travel Channel, Food Network, the History Channel, Discovery, etc. - come to the city and NOT show friggin' Wrigley Field.... just once, once show some OTHER sports venue.

Sorry for venting so much....

Poguemahone22,

I recorded the Chicago show and had to stop watching it after about ten minutes. It was so bad, that was what prompted me to post my initial message last night. Ian acted like he didn't know anything at all about Chicago history. Fire? What fire? Your less-than-glowing review of the rest of the program makes me wonder if I have the stomach to sit through the rest of it. Let's hope that this is just a rough start to his new show. Otherwise, I don't have much hope for it.

Global Trekker… I knew I saw this guy before last night. And yes, he was tamer and actually down to earth. Now he’s not tame but lame! I actually felt embarrassed for him as he was on stage with his harp at the Blues club or even more so when he was telling Americans what’s wrong with America and how tea solves everything. I was actually cringing as I was watching this show as he was trying to be funny. Although the Chicago show was pretty good, it would have been much better if he wasn’t that wiry. I almost felt like he did not deserve to be in my City, eating those Italian beefs, swimming in the Lake, etc. when he put his arms around those bug guys in the Italian neighborhood and talked gangster, I literally changed the channel.

I just caught that show, because I was hoping for Anthony Bourdain’s show in China to be rebroadcast from the hour before (which it wasn’t).

Well, I TRIED to watch the whole show but gave up after 35 minutes in the middle of the meat packing segment. Too corny. This stupid program has no nuance at all and Ian Wright, I'm sorry to say, has completely lost any sense of subtlety he may have once had. The "debate" bit in front of the microphone was painful to watch. His "look at me" antics in front of Wrigley Field: excruciatingly bad. I'll give the producers some credit for trying to dig a little deeper into the roots of the Chicago Blues scene, but Ian butchering the harmonica was dreadful. Ouch!!! Let's hope the producers of this god-awful show read some of our criticism and reel this guy in, or this show is quickly destined to sit atop TV's trash heap. You want a "real" travel show these days? Try Anthony Bourdain's "No Reservations." No tourist stuff, behind the scenes with biting sarcasm that comes across as perfectly reasonable. It is everything you could ask for in a travel show, and is everything that Ian Wright is not.

I just came back from 3 days in Chicago and there were things I didn't have time to see such as the Shedd Aquarium,Museum of Science & Industry,German U-Boat, Field Museum. Ian's show was terrible. He didn't have much of value to see..There are great old theaters such as the "Chicago" & the "Oriental" that are lovely inside.There was none of this..The Navy Pier,Sears Tower, Hancock building all were missing but we went to the packing plant and learned about hotdogs.. How about the great "Chicago Pizza"? None of that either.. What a disappointment ! To think I stayed up late to see that !

Nice to see that I wasn't the only one put off by this segment on Chicago. Everyone here makes some great points on why the show was so bad.

There seems to be a definite problem with TV/cable show producers from outside Chicago who come here to do programs on the city - they don't seem to really want to "discover" the real Chicago. They come in with pre-conceived notions of what Chicago is, based on stereotypes, myths and misinformation, and they stick to a pre-planned shooting schedule of the same old crap - Wrigley Field, hot dogs, the Blues, and Al Capone.

Even with the best try by City officials, local cultural institutions and citizens to get these national and international production companies to see the real Chicago, they all do the same bad job of showcasing Chicago.

They very rarely get anything new (or accurate).

I know this because I was the PR/Media Relations guy for the Chicago Historical Soeity for 5 years and every TV/Cable crew coming to Chicago would ask for the same old crap - Al Capone, Wrigley Field, an old Blues performer, SuperDawg, "Devil in the White City", gangsters, gangsters, gangsters... blah, blah, blah.....

And, I agree, Ian is a pain. He's lost any appeal he had when he was on Globe Trekker.

I also agree that Anthony Bourdain and "No Reservations" is the perfect travel show.

"America the Wright Way" is a joke.

As for Ian's performance on the Chicago show - especially him calling Italians "gangsters" - I'm writing the Travel Channel management and asking them for an apology.

I know I'm a bit late in posting, but I only saw my recording of the Chicago episode a short while ago. I'm very glad to see others were disappointed with the episode (that it wasn't just me).

But what did I find so disappointing? All the focus on Italian food. Good or bad, Italian food is rather easy to find in this country and commonly televised. If anything, I was expecting Mr. Wright to encourage tourists to try some tasty Polish or Bulgarian food. I can't speak for too many cities, but the Polish culture and influence seems rather like a trademark of Chicago to me.