Since Sunday Night Football is over, have you watched NBC on Sunday night in the interim? If not, here is a reason to tune in, the Microsoft Surface is on America's Next Great Restaurant. I watched my first full episode last night and it turned out to be an interesting –in a good way– twist on the reality-contest genre. The show is looking for the next big, yet healthy, fast food chain fast casual restaurant. To my surprise, towards the end of the episode, I saw the judges, known as investors on this show, using a bit of technology that that was also interesting in a good way. To be sure I saw what I saw, I asked Twitter. Fortunately, I received a response, from the Microsoft Surface team. Thanks!

Microsoft’s Surface (v1.0), the multi-touch table that set the bar for multi-touch tables, is the centerpiece of the judging table. The PC appeared briefly towards the end of episode I watched. One of the judges investors appeared to be using it to sort through some of his notes. In earlier episodes, the Surface is present, as it is built into the judges’ table, however it is not being used in its primary role as a touchable PC table. This is unfortunate, as there was an episode that featured the budding restaurateurs branding their restaurant ideas. To me, that episode had a lot of potential to give the food/PC/graphics exposition a natural tie-in with the Surface but the show did not flow towards that type of cohesion.

Featuring Surface on TV is cool. However, letting it sit there and not be used is an issue. I wonder if NBC, can find a way to integrate more use of the Microsoft Surface into future episodes -perhaps looking at the menus of the contestants or pictures and videos of the the food that was prepared. Though lack of post production for a given contest might prevent it, I think video or slideshows, with playback controlled by the Surface touchscreen, could be used as a learning tool for the contestant restaurateurs. Having a giant touch screen seems it would provide the investors with a number of opportunities to –literally- circle something that appears wrong, for example giving better feedback on a menu layout, logo, or uniform design. As it stands the use of the Surface shines in web exclusive clips on Hulu (sorry mobile users). These clips feature the investors talking more about the happenings of a particular show with the Surface being used as a visual aid in their conversation. Below is one of these clips that shows the Surface in action. Here the investors use it to show some of the restaurant proposals that did not make it into the show.

If you watch America’s Next Great Restaurant, it is on NBC at 8pm ET on Sundays. It features the creator of the Chipotle chain! Full episodes are availabe on Hulu as well. Apart from wishing you could sample what they were cooking for the first forty-five minutes you will be able to see the Surface during the judging portions of the show. Perhaps a Windows laptop will make an appearance down the line.