I think there’s a new form of addict inspired TV and it involves celebrities who’re addicted to a) food and b) diet shows.

Last night saw the first of two Tonight specials in which Cheryl Baker, Linda Robson, Darren Gough and Carole Malone embarked on a journey around the world’s cuisine hotspots to find out which is most likely to induce the most weight loss.

Cheryl and Carole – and possibly Linda though I couldn’t swear to it – have both been on Celebrity Fit Club in a bid to lose weight. Evidently, it didn’t work so maybe they’ll find dieting nirvana via this show and if not, I’m guessing they’ll turn up on another at some point.

Jonathan Maitland introduced the show and also took part in the global diet trial – though he got the short straw and had to try a traditional UK diet while his peers jetted off to exotic places – and we learned that rather than calling himself Jonathan, he likes to be known as Johnny.

Anyway, last night we followed Jonathan, Darren and Cheryl with the experiences of the others to follow in the next show. Darren got to go to Italy to sample their typical diet while Cheryl went off to India to do likewise. Darren was shown how to make pasta by Aldo Zilli while Cheryl wandered a street market where they killed chickens to order and ate their meals with their fingers from a banana leaf.

Cheryl struggled a bit with the lack of tableware and using her right hand to eat. She’s left handed but apparently it’s frowned upon in Indian society to use your left hand though the reason why wasn’t clear. However she also made a point of sharing with us that she suffers from flatulence and one had to wonder how the addition of vegetable curry and indeed curry of all kinds was going to help that, but the show’s dietician reckoned it would.

Darren found a whole new hobby in the form of cooking meals from scratch and happily invited some mates round to sample a fish and veg combo made with entirely authentic Italian ingredients and they seemed to enjoy it.

Meanwhile, Johnny Maitland went off on a rabbit hunt which was a bit grim to watch as the leedle bunnies were snared and then turned up on the butcher’s hook shortly afterward. But, we heard that rabbit has less fat and calories than chicken so it’s going to form part of Johnny’s diet trial for this show. He also sampled traditional hotpot though his portion size was cut down dramatically by his chef advisor Ed Baines.

In a nutshell, there wasn’t really anything terribly new in this show; celebs + weight loss is a format that seems to pull audiences without fail and even though it was a tad deja vous watching celebrities who’ve been there done that before, nonetheless it was quite an interesting watch.

Next week we’ll see how Linda and Carole fared eating a Japanese diet and a low carb LA type diet respectively, however it seems they aren’t going to find it easy. Linda’s going to be seen gagging on sushi and exclaiming, “I’m really embarrassed now. Maybe I should have started with the dumpling and worked my way up.”

Carole meanwhile is finding it hard to stick to the regime of no bread, no pasta, no booze and endless workout sessions. She’ll be heard recounting how parties have become “deathly dull” now she can’t drink…

“I’ve been invited to a few parties, dinner parties, drinks things and they’re all monstrously boring. I get there and we all start off the same and then people have a few glasses a wine and I have my fizzy water and within an hour I’m gagging to go home because everyone starts repeating themselves and you think they are terribly interesting and they’re not because I’ve heard it all before 10 minutes ago.

“And I know that’s what I’m like when I’ve had a few drinks. And it just makes your social life deathly, deathly dull.”

Bless. It’ll be interesting at the end of the show to see who lost the most weight though and if they’re able to stick to their new way of eating.