Anthony Bourdain vs. Rick Steves
The ultimate travel show host showdown. The squeaky clean Rick Steves vs. the hard-nosed Anthony Bourdain.
R1: they must win the heart of Samantha Brown- the darling of Travel Channel. Who would woo Samantha Brown successfully? Who would she end up with?
R2: they have a year to develop the greatest travel series ever- both funded by the Travel Channel. Who is more successful?
R3: they must fight hand to hand in a town square in Croatia. The fight is to the death. Who wins?
OPTIONAL ROUNDS
R4 (optional): they must team up against the Asian guy from Huang’s World and Zak Baganda from Ghost Adventures. Who wins? Bagans and Huang vs Steves and Bourdain?
R5 (optional): they must out-eat the douche from Man vs. Food. Bourdain and Steves must eat a 50 pounds hamburger before douche guy does. Who wins?
Posted Feb 19, 2019, 9:39 PM UTC
R1: Sorry, I don't know who Samantha Brown is or what would appeal to her. Subjectively, I perceive Bourdain as appealingly charismatic and Steves as disquieting and a little creepy (I feel a little guilty about this because I have huge respect for Steves while I think Bourdain has made some questionable decisions), but that probably doesn't mean much.
R2: I tried to find some hard numbers to back this up, and simply couldn't: But I really think Bourdain's shows and presence were much larger and much more successful than Steves'. He had a highly-rated show on CNN, and while Steves' travel shows are successful they're on PBS stations and it's hard to get numbers to compare.
I tried to gauge interest using Google trends and found that they were closer in this regard than I had thought (I chose the year 2017 since it happened before Bourdain's death, which would introduce a different kind of interest and skew the comparison).
Still, while Steves is the better actual traveler and has a successful guide business, Bourdain just seems like a more popular personality and host. I think he wins round 2.
R3: No idea. I don't think you can make a convincing argument against "whoever is luckier," so 50% Steves, 50% Bourdain.
R4: Probably Bourdain, who's had to choke some things down he'd rather not, and who actually eats hamburgers. I believe Steves subsists entirely on Laughing Cow wedges and local breads.