Martha Stewart: You Know You Love Her. (It's OK, You Can Tell Me.)

A new television show can be like a new restaurant. As fun as it is to be at the big premiere, sometimes it’s better to wait a while as it settles in and finds its rhythm. I thought this might be the case with Martha Stewart’s new daytime show, “Martha” (hmm, she’s down to her first name…Oprah better watch her back).

What’s surprising about Martha is that, even with all her experience, she is not a natural in front of the camera. Her first show, Martha Stewart Living, premiered in 1993, and, by 1997, she also had shows on the Food Network and the Home and Garden channel. What always struck me as odd about these shows was how uncomfortable she seemed. Her speech was stilted, her physicality awkward (even now, she doesn’t know what to do with her hands when there isn’t a decoupaged tea cozy in them) and, most importantly, she appeared to hate talking to, you know, people – a major handicap for daytime television.

So imagine my surprise when I turn on my TV and find Martha entering her enormous studio stage with 90’s teenage duo Kris Kross’ rap anthem “Jump” blaring over her white, female, middle-aged audience. Then, without warning, she leaps between two teenage girls holding jump ropes and proceeds to double-dutch. The show’s been on for barely over a week and here is Ms. Ice-Cold-Business-Queen genuinely enjoying herself. What the hell happened to her over there at Camp Cupcake?

At first glance, it was hard to tell what direction this show would go in. During the premiere week, she made numerous references about her time in prison and even joked about her newly detached ankle monitor. I was impressed with her ability to laugh at her own situation (the whole scandal was ridiculous to begin with). But then again, there she was, on the premiere show, teaching Marcia Cross of “Desperate Housewives” how to fold t-shirts. Yawn. However, later in the week, as they now show in every single commercial, even P. Diddy – or, sorry, is it just Diddy now? – stopped by to teach her how to rap (even better: watching him water her plants in the studio greenhouse). Who is this new Martha Stewart? Is she finally learning how to combine her strict, school-marm side with her next-door-neighbor-in-a-comfy-sweater side?

I found my answer in the aforementioned episode, where she coolly maneuvered between her playful entrance and a challenging yet lightweight interview with strikingly ADD-afflicted guests, Ben Vereen and Liza Minnelli. If they had had their way, their five-minute cooking segment would’ve turned into a half-hour song-and-dance advertisement for their upcoming Broadway hurricane charity show. So, luckily for us, Martha knew exactly when to keep her guests, and her show, on track. That segment, however, revealed the inconsistent results of forcing celebrities into uncomfortable how-to demonstrations. If Martha is going to have such legendary icons as Mr. Vereen and Ms. Minnelli on her show, why waste their time making them stand around while she boils crawfish?

My questions about Martha’s new, looser personality were slightly sated when I noticed who was producing her show: Mark Burnett, the man behind “Survivor” and both versions of “The Apprentice.” Maybe he hired the right people to bring it out of her. I can picture him and his crack PR team telling her, “No, seriously, Martha, trust us. Jumping rope to a dated rap song will make you look really fun. Here’s the catch: you have to smile.” Perhaps that’s not fair – maybe she really has changed, just like everyone has speculated.

Whatever it is – Burnett’s magic touch, Martha’s newfound amiability - it hasn’t worked for her other show (if ratings are to tell us anything). While the business setting of her “Apprentice” might appear to play to her strengths, the low ratings for the show’s debut might imply that people don’t want to see the business side of Martha without the domestic side to balance it out. Watching her criticize and fire people might make her reputation as an unrelatable, machine-like billionaire all too real. Or perhaps it just meant that people wanted to see the second-season premiere of “Lost” instead.

Either way, the real deal is her daytime show. You never know what’s going to happen. One day she might be teaching 50 Cent how to crochet, the next she might be breakdancing.