melissa d arabian:next food network star winner

The title of `The Next Food Network Star` was last night won by Melissa d`Arabian.

Melissa D’Arabian beat the “ingredient smuggler” Jeffrey Saad in tonight’s incredibly boring season finale of Next Food Network Star.

Melissa deArabian, the mother of four from Texas and the absolute underdog heading into Season 5 of "The Next Food Network Star," won the competition tonight, beating Los Angeles' Jeffrey Saad, the front-runner in this race literally from Day 1. Melissa now stars in her own cooking show, and it starts in just one week.

She flew under the radar every week, and pretty much bored us to tears the entire time. At least Debbie Lee got people talking, and Michael Proietti got people laughing. Melissa D’Arabian just had us reaching for our No-Doz.

For their final challenge, both Melissa and Jeffrey delivered mock pilots of their shows, and both excelled. No surprise there. Food Network's Alton Brown helped them put the pilots together, and he warned Food Network execs that they would have their work cut out for them. It was deemed the hardest decision in five seasons of the show.

In the end, it's hard to say why the selection panel chose Melissa -- they didn't really say. But Melissa clearly has a bigger potential audience -- that would be anyone, man or woman, looking into a bare pantry and trying to slam dinner on the table. That said, it's hard to believe that Jeffrey won't be rewarded in some way for his outstanding talents. Perhaps a show melding travel and food?

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