Spicing up restaurant reviews with web videos

"Check, Please!" has become a foodie's favorite in its seven years on public TV. However, the Emmy Award-winning show, which features a trio of ordinary people dishing about local Chicago restaurants, isn't doing much for its founder and chief executive, David Manilow. Indeed, with less than US$200,000 in annual revenue from fees, the program generates only a tenth of what an average McDonald's (NYSE: MCD) pulls in.

So Manilow is hitching his star to a medium with richer promise: the Internet. While continuing to produce "Check, Please!" for WTTW, where it airs three times a week, Manilow and President Tim Bahr are trying to drum up $2.5 million to develop Checkplease.tv.

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