New TV food programming includes daytime talk show hosted by Mario Batali

(AFP PHOTO / Saul LOEB)

Two of America's longest running soap operas are being given the boot for food-related daytime TV shows featuring a rotating cast of hosts that will include chefs Mario Batali and Michael Symon, network ABC announced Thursday.

Gone are soaps All My Children, which has been on the air since 1970, and One Life to Live, which has been airing since 1968.

In place of torrid love affairs among perfectly coiffed and chiseled on-set actors and screen sirens like Susan Lucci - the ageless vixen who plays Erica Kane and has been with All My Children since the start - US daytime TV viewers will be offered The Chew, a program about food news and trends, and The Revolution, about health and lifestyle transformations.

The shows will debut this fall and winter.

The Chew aims to emulate the formula of ABC's The View, a talk show led by Barbara Walters and a panel of four other women of differing ages, backgrounds and beliefs that includes actress Whoopi Goldberg.

According to a network press release, the decision to cancel the soap operas and replace them with food-related lifestyle talk shows was "guided by extensive research into what today's daytime viewers want."

Food will be explored from every angle in The Chew, the networks says, from health, family rituals, friendship, breaking news, dating, fitness, weight loss, travel and life moments. The show will be produced by the same producer behind Paula Deen's Home Cooking and Down Home with the Neely's. The one-hour series will be hosted by Mario Batali, TLC's What Not to Wear co-host Clinton Kelly and Michael Symon, of Iron Chef America.

The Revolution, is described as a comprehensive lifestyle show that will cover relationships, family, food, style, home design and finance.

Meanwhile, Scripps Networks, which produces the Food Network, also announced their new lineup in food programming Thursday.

They include a competition show pitting two of the most colorful and bubbly Food Network personalities Guy Fieri and Rachael Ray in Guy vs. Rachael; a food show with country music star Trisha Yearwood; and seasonal shows like Halloween Wars in which people compete in pumpkin-carving contests.