FOOD NETWORK HAUNTS OCTOBER WITH NEW SERIES "HALLOWEEN WARS"

Series Premiere Sunday, October 2nd at 9pm ET/PT on Food Network

NEW YORK - September 7, 2011 - Food Network puts viewers in the Halloween spirit serving up a deliciously scary new primetime series, Halloween Wars premiering Sunday, October 2nd at 9pm ET/PT. The four episode competition series places five teams, comprised of cake decorators, candy makers and pumpkin carvers, working in unison to create the ultimate Halloween themed display. One team is eliminated each week, with the winner taking home $50,000. Hosted by Justin Willman (Cupcake Wars), and including renowned cake decorator Shinmin Li and Hollywood conceptual artist Miles Teves on the judging panel, the competitors must battle it out to prove who is the best, all the while scaring viewers pants off with some of the most amazing horror tales through their cake, candy and pumpkins. Each episode will see a celebrity guest judge join the panel including, Rob Zombie (musician/film director, Halloween), Jaime King (actress, Sin City), Scout Taylor-Compton (actress, The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement), and R.L. Stine (author, Goosebumps).

Episodes include:

Premiering Sunday, October 2nd at 9pm ET/PT - SEASON PREMIERE!

"Witches and Scary Places"

Five teams go to battle to create mind-blowing Halloween-themed displays of a creepy witch and a scary haunted house. At the end of the battle, one team's creation won't be enough to impress the judges forcing them to go home with tricks and no treats.

Premiering Sunday, October 9th at 9pm ET/PT

"Scary Tales"

The four remaining teams battle to create Halloween-themed displays of a twisted version of a fairy tale.

Premiering Sunday, October 16th at 9pm ET/PT

"Zombies vs. Vampires"

Three remaining teams create an epic, sugary sweet battle between zombies and vampires.

Premiering Sunday, October 23rd at 9pm ET/PT

"Underworld"

In the finale, the last teams standing create mind-blowing displays of the unknown underworld. In the end, one team creates the scariest and most impressive display and wins the title of Halloween Wars champion and a $50,000 grand prize.

ABOUT JUSTIN WILLMAN:

Justin is well known as the witty correspondent on The Rachael Ray Show with more than 20 appearances. He also tours nationally with a hugely popular one-man comedy/magic live show, Justin's Tricked Out Tour. For that, he was voted Entertainer of the Year 2010 by Campus Activities Magazine for a record-breaking fourth year in a row. He has guest-starred on Disney Channel's The Suite Life on Deck and the CBS show The Defenders, co-starred in the hit MTV show Room 401, appeared in the Showtime documentary Make Believe, and toured with musician Jason Mraz. Justin also created and executive produced the video-on-demand TV series, Turning Tricks, on the DirecTV network. In addition, he stars in Hubworld and Scrabble Showdown on the recently launched Hub Network. He also serves as the host of the primetime competition series Cupcake Wars and Last Cake Standing on Food Network.

ABOUT MILES TEVES:

Miles is a character sculptor/conceptual artist, using various mediums of painting, sculpting and drawing to create hundreds of characters for film, television and video games. This wildly talented visual artist and Southern California native landed his first film job on the landmark fantasy film Legend. Some of Miles' more notable credits include: RoboCop's costume from RoboCop, the Crystal Skulls/Skeletons in Indiana Jones", Robin's suit in Batman & Robin, and the Dead Pirate walk undersea from Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl.

ABOUT SHINMIN LI:

Shinmin is a renowned cake decorator, who has appeared as a guest judge on Top Chef: Just Desserts, and eloquently put the contestants in their places. She studied graphic design at The School of Visual Arts in NYC before attending Le Cordon Bleu in Sydney, and she earned her degree in Grande Patisserie in 2003.

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FOOD NETWORK (www.foodnetwork.com) is a unique lifestyle network, website and magazine that connects viewers to the power and joy of food. The network strives to be viewers' best friend in food and is committed to leading by teaching, inspiring and empowering through its talent and expertise. Food Network is distributed to more than 100 million U.S. households and averages more than 9.9 million unique web users monthly. Since launching in 2009, Food Network Magazine has tripled its rate base and delivers a circulation of 1.3 million. Headquartered in New York, Food Network has a growing international presence with programming in more than 150 countries, including 24 hour networks in Great Britain, India, Asia and Africa. Scripps Networks Interactive (NYSE: SNI), which also owns and operates Cooking Channel (www.cookingchanneltv.com), DIY Network (www.diynetwork.com), Great American Country (www.gactv.com), HGTV (www.hgtv.com), and Travel Channel (www.travelchannel.com), is the manager and general partner.