‘Diet’ Feeds on Infotainment

NEW YORK — “Diet America Challenge” is the show. Hosted by Cheryl Tiegs, it concerns dieting and fitness, has serious and silly bits, and chats with such celebrity dieters as Oprah Winfrey and Tommy Lasorda.

It’s also executive producer Steve Friedman’s first network effort since he left NBC’s “Today” show in 1987 to start life anew with former NBC chairman Grant Tinker’s new company, GTG Entertainment.

Critics may say “Diet,” airing at 10 tonight on CBS, is not weighty, merely infotainment that differs from NBC’s high-rated “Life in the Fat Lane” last year only in that it’s not made by a network news division.

Yet Friedman professes not to be concerned, nor does he consider infotainment a bad word.

“I’m looking to try to do a form where you can use information and entertainment together in a way people can have some fun watching it, and learn something, too,” he says.

Although he won’t discuss details, he says he has a variety of such projects on the drawing boards and , for prime-time, daytime and late-night, and “we’re pitching” them to the networks “just like everybody else.”