Free-to-air channel e.tv has announced a new daily cooking talk show called The Rachael Ray Show, which is hosted by - you guessed it - Rachael Ray.
Ms Ray has made quite a name for herself in the US, largely through various cooking programmes she has hosted to great success on the Food Network.
The Rachael Ray Show is her first talk show and - much like Dr. Phil - is a spin-off of her appearances on the Oprah Winfrey Show. Oprah's production company - King World - produces the show.
The show features celebrity guests like Oprah, Dr Phil and many more who all cook up a storm with her. Going beyond the kitchen, Rachael gives her viewers practical advice on entertaining and tips on how to improve your life.
These include how to pack interesting and tasty lunches for the kids to making tasty meals in seven minutes.
Born in New York, Ray came from a family who knows how to cook. The Ray family owned several restaurants and Rachael worked her way up the food service industry.
She started out working for Macys, the world’s largest department store, where she worked as manager of the Fresh Foods Department. Here she received valuable information on preparing gourmet food.
Afterwards, she helped establish two gourmet marketplaces in New York called Agata and Valentina, where she was store manager.
Moving on, she moved upstate to Lake George in New York where she managed pubs and restaurants.
Catching the attention of a local CBS station they offered her a segment on the evening news. Rachael’s concept of creating a meal in 30 minutes became a success story and the show was nominated for two regional Emmys.
Cashing in on her success, Rachael wrote a cookbook which sold over 10,000 copies.
Her popularity grew so much she joined the Food Network and hosted shows such as Tasty Travels, Inside Dish and her 30-Minute Meals, which saw her nominated for two Daytime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Service Show Host and Outstanding Service Show in 2006.
Taking it a step further, Rachael launched her own magazine called Every Day with Rachael Ray. As Editor-In-Chief she offers her signature recipes for delicious and easy to prepare food and explores the country meeting people who, like herself love to cook.
She has won legions of fans for her fresh-faced, bouncy, "golly-gee" demeanour, which has seen her popularise phrases such as "yum-o", "so delish", "G.B." (garbage bowl), "Oh my gravy!", "stoup" (cross between a soup and stew), and "how good is THAT?"
She often refers to sandwiches as "sammies."
While this has endeared her to many, it has also spawned armies of detractors. One such band of renegades is a LiveJournal community called
Rachael Ray Sucks.
Posters in the community regularly discuss annoyance and disgust at topics such as Ray's constant spasmodic hand motions, her fixated smile, her overused catch phrases and the perceived inedibility and poor aesthetics of many of her recipes.
She's the one laughing though - in 2006 she was named as one of Time magazine's 100 most influential people and in the same year was ranked #71 in "FHM's 100 Sexiest Women 2006" issue.
Oh - and she also earned in excess of $6-million that year too, mostly from her books and television shows (excluding her new talk show).
The Rachael Ray Show averages about 2.6-million views daily in the US, making it one of the highest-viewed daytime shows. It was revealed, not long after it debuted, that it had been renewed until at least 2010.
The Rachael Ray Show premieres on e.tv on Thursday 4 October, at 13h30.