Bear Grylls and Andrew Zimmern Star in The Vomit Show

First, National Geographic Channel nauseated a number of critics by screening clips from the upcoming season of its shocking series Taboo during a luncheon. Taboo is about the deeply disturbing things people do to themselves in our culture and others. The video clips included scenes of mutilation, body modification and extreme physical challenges.

The following day the Travel Channel hosted a lunch with Andrew Zimmern, the host of Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern. As critics entered the room they were offered a selection of tantalizing taste treats including dried larvae and crickets, glazed chicken feet and lollipops with little scorpions inside. (Mercifully, traditional lunch foods were also offered.)

During the lunch, critics were shown clips from Zimmern's show, which included images of people preparing brains and eyeballs for consumption. (I think they were eyeballs. They may have been balls of another kind.) Don't ask me what creatures the brains and eyeballs came from. It really doesn't matter. When I reached the point at which I could no longer stand to look at the screen, I turned to the critic seated to my left and commented that I was sickened by the fact that otherwise well-fed humans will eat almost any part of any living thing and that I was giving serious thought to becoming a vegetarian because of some of the things I had been made to look at during the tour.

"I would eat the bones of my enemies," she calmly replied.

As I began to fear for the well-being of any critics with whom she might have a disagreement, she added, "but not their eyes. I would never eat eyes."

"I imagine the consistency would be somewhat egg-like," I offered.

It was at that point that Roger Catlin, the well-regarded television critic for the Hartford Courant and a dedicated vegetarian for several decades, dubbed this TCA tour The Vomit Show.

The revulsion didn't end there. Later that afternoon, Discovery Channel presented a session with Bear Grylls, the star of its red-hot new series Man vs. Wild. In introducing Grylls, who has become one of the most popular personalities on television because of the outrageous things he does on the show as he struggles to survive in wilderness settings with no equipment or food, Discovery Channel president and general manager Jane Root noted that Grylls has even resorted to "squeezing water from elephant dung."

Grylls later described in disgusting detail a recent dining disaster. "Two days ago I was filming in the Sahara for the next season and I came across a nomad in the middle of the desert, and he took me back to his family," Grylls said. "He wanted to kill a goat in honor of having a guest for dinner. The honor is to then give the goat's testicles - raw - to the guest of honor. And this goat had sensible-sized testicles!"

"The guy skinned it and gave me this huge testicle," Grylls continued. "I ate it, and it was like an explosion of everything horrible in your mouth. About five minutes later I threw up everywhere!"

On a more savory note, the veggie wraps and pastel-colored cupcakes served at yesterday's GSN luncheon were attractive to look at and very delicious.