Adam Richman transitioned from 'Man v. Food' to 'Man v. Food Nation' (Wednesdays, 9PM on Travel) at least partly so he wouldn't have to keep facing America's food challenges by himself. He got more help than usual when he recruited some of the Harlem Globetrotters to face a challenge called "The Squealer" at the Rack & Soul in Harlem.

The Squealer is, as Richman put it, "an ultra-spicy sandwich." The spicy part comes not from hot sauce, but from a liquefied pure pepper extract, which gave all three Globetrotters a reason to pause after just one bite. As they went on, the Squealer burnt their lips and throats, and one Globetrotter said it felt "like hell."

As with many of the challenges on 'Man v. Food Nation' (Wednesdays, 9PM on Travel), the Elote Café & Catering Puffy Taco Challenge doesn't sound too crazy on paper. All you have to do is eat 23 puffy tacos in 90 minutes. That's a lot of time, you'd think, except the previous record was 22 tacos. And then host Adam Richman shows the puffy tacos being made, topped with free-range chicken breast, caramelized onions, romaine lettuce, cheddar and Monterey Jack cheese, and crema fresca.

Then it starts to look pretty tough, maybe even for US Navy Second Class officer Manny Groll, who took the challenge. "You have 90 minutes to take down 23 puffy tacos in order to be crowned the new Puffy Taco Master," said Richman. Groll had a fighting spirit. "I wanna be on that wall as number one," he said.

For years, Adam Richman put his reputation and stomach on the line accepting outrageous food challenges at local restaurants around the country on 'Man v. Food.' These days, he gets a little help with the culinary challenges on 'Man v. Food Nation' (Wednesdays, 9PM on Travel). On Wednesday's episode, he recruited a Rhode Island rugby player named Connor McQuade to take the Hot Wiener Challenge at Olneyville NY System in Providence.

The Hot Wiener Challenge meant eating fifteen hot dogs, fully-loaded with mustard, onions, and meat sauce, in 45 minutes. McQuade got off to a fast start, and had 39 minutes left to eat ten hot dogs. If he could do it, Richman said, he would "achieve eternal Providence food glory." If he lost, he'd have to face his disappointed teammates.

The Travel Channel introduced the next evolution with 'Man v. Food Nation' (Wed., 9PM ET on Travel). This time Adam Richman is on the sidelines providing support to others as they tackle some of the craziest food-based challenges across the nation.

First up was Jerry Sags, one half of pro-wrestling tag team The Nasty Boys.

Sags' challenge was The Davy Jones, or "ten wings covered in pure pepper extract," at the pirate-themed Rapscallions in Tampa, Florida. With a crowd cheering him on, Sags powered through as sweat poured down his face and he turned bright red.

Even though the Travel Channel's 'Man v. Food' has just started its third season, the show's host, Adam Richman, is still blown away by how much attention it's gotten. "The fact that I'm doing interviews right now with my one time Internet service provider is pretty remarkable," he told me when I spoke to him last week.

In the show, Richman travels to a different locale each week, chowing down at long-time comfort food hangouts. In every episode, he takes on a different eating challenge, usually involving some sort of tremendous volume (a five-pound burrito, a 12-patty burger, two gallons of milkshake) or extreme heat.

The current season of the show continues tonight at 9PM ET, with Adam traveling to Cleveland to take on a five-pound grilled cheese sandwich (urp). Read on about the current season, how Richman prepares for mowing down all that food, and where he thinks the best sushi in the country is (hint: it's nowhere near where you'd expect).

For 'Man vs. Food' host Adam Richman, eating is a sport, so with the Super Bowl coming up this weekend, he naturally had to set the highest bar possible. So he decided Wednesday night to put the bite on a 48-ounce streak at the Don Shula Streakhouse in Miami during a special 'Man v. Food Live' broadcast on the Travel Channel.

And he kept biting and biting. Richman devoured the streak in less than the allotted 20 minutes to win the evening's challenge, the first in the show's run to be broadcast live.

The idea of a guy traveling around America and making a glutton of himself in a different city every week doesn't sound, at first blush, very appealing to me. No one needs another over-eating American stereotype gorging themselves for our amusement every week. Did we learn nothing from Morgan Spurlock?

That said, I love Man v. Food, which begins its second season tonight at 10PM on the Travel Channel. I love the show mainly because I like the host, Adam Richman. Richman is amiable and a bit shlubby, and I identify with that. And as unpleasant as that stereotype of the gluttonous American might be, I love comfort food, and that's what Man v. Food is all about.

The new season of Man vs. Food starts tomorrow on Travel Channel. If you've never seen it, host Adam Richman goes around to various eating establishments across the country and eats stuff. Not just anything on a menu, we're talking about giant hamburgers, a 13-pound pizza, 12 egg omelets, stuff like that. In tomorrow's episode he eats a burger so hot he has to wear gloves.

Howdy from Pasadena! Anyone who's been following either TV Squad's or my personal Twitter feed has noticed that I've been busy at the first day of the TCA press tour. Cable is up first; today was a relatively light day, with the Travel Channel, Fox Reality, and Turner making presentations. AMC will have a cocktail party later today, where I'm sure Matthew Weiner is going to be bombarded by reporters with Mad Men questions before he even reaches the shrimp spread.

The first panel was for the Travel Channel's ode to regional food and gluttony, Man v. Food. Host Adam Richman and executive producer Charlie Parsons took questions from the critics about their upcoming second season and about why they pick the cities they pick. I love the show, but I always wondered how Richman was able to withstand the quantity challenges he puts himself through in many of the episodes. Richman's answer? A workout regimen that makes him sound more like a GNC employee than a guy scarfing seven pound cheeseburgers.