Ellen Gray: On 3 new TV series, 'Breakthrough with Tony Robbins,' 'MasterChef' and 'Plain Jane,' change is the goal

BREAKTHROUGH WITH TONY ROBBINS. 8 tonight, Channel 10.

MASTERCHEF. 9 tonight, Channel 29.

PLAIN JANE. 9 p.m. tomorrow, Channel 57.

TRANSFORMATION'S THE name of the game for three new "reality" shows that feature people who won't be singing, dancing or - we can only hope - turning over tables in their quest to become happier, more successful human beings.

What could possibly be wrong with that?

Let's just say there are two kinds of people in the world: Those willing to pay to be inspired by motivational speakers and those who'd rather cross hot coals barefoot than spend even one minute trapped in a crowded ballroom listening to one.

Falling as I do in the latter camp, I'm probably not the best judge of NBC's "Breakthrough with Tony Robbins," which struck me as way more Tony Robbins than breakthrough.

Certainly it's hardly one for NBC, whose increasing reliance on "The Biggest Loser" - and its annoying offspring, "Losing It with Jillian" - suggests an ambition to transform itself into a basic-cable channel.

In the two episodes I've seen, "Breakthrough" features couples with problems even bigger than the 6-foot-7 Robbins being subjected to a series of high-adrenaline "challenges" meant to show them they're capable of more than they think.

Whether they're visiting Robbins at his home in Fiji - yes, he has a home in Fiji - or at some setting in Malibu, Calif., they're taken out of their day-to-day lives for these exercises, each of which are meant to illustrate some maxim of Robbins'.

While none of what he's saying feels particularly original, I wouldn't call it terrible advice - more like common sense, forcefully delivered.

But like "Loser," "Breakthrough" comes with made-for-TV drama (including the use of some expensive-looking airplanes) that may not be so easily translated into change for most of the people watching, especially in next week's episode, which features an unemployed couple whose happy ending requires a certain amount of string-pulling on Robbins' part.

Happy endings come in all flavors, and in Fox's "MasterChef," the opportunity for an amateur cook to be declared a "master chef" by judges Gordon Ramsay ("Hell's Kitchen"), Joe Bastianich and Graham Elliott comes with a $250,000 prize and the publication of a cookbook.

So look for anyone whose friends or family ever told them they were good in the kitchen to show up and try to prove it.

In truth, the field's already been whittled to 50 (and on the Aug. 10 show we'll meet the Top 14), but until then "American Idol"-style auditions will give us a glimpse of some of the no-hopers and give Ramsay an opportunity to veer between his trademark venom and some reactions so treacly they'll make your teeth hurt.

Fortunately for Fox, the smartest contestants know what's expected of them, and it isn't just good knife skills.

Becoming a chef "seems like a fairy tale," says one tearful husband and father who'd put his cooking school dreams on hold to support his family. "Once upon a time starts right now."

Perhaps.

But in a country that doesn't need one more great chef as much as it needs millions to know how to produce a dinner that doesn't come out of a take-out container, I'm not sure why there's another cooking show focused on restaurant-quality presentations those of us at home can't smell, much less taste.

If the transformation provided by "MasterChef" isn't exactly one size fits all, neither is the one promised by the CW's "Plain Jane," a makeover show whose limits become clear in the opening credits, where the examples cited of "plain" include characters played in movies by Molly Ringwald, Taylor Swift, Jennifer Connelly, Drew Barrymore and Katherine Heigl.

Honk if you'd happily settle for their "before" pictures as your "after."

When I'd first heard about the show, I'd queasily imagined the flip side of NBC's "Average Joe," where not overwhelmingly attractive men had vied for the attention of some shallow beauty queen who thought she was on a show like "The Bachelorette."

The truth is a bit kinder: In return for confessing to a longtime crush that she's had feelings for him, an ordinary looking woman - the "Plain Jane" - is treated to a makeover by British fashion journalist Louise Roe, whose bag of tricks doesn't extend much past what you'd see on "What Not to Wear" or a host of other shows.

Though there's a hokey challenge involving some creepy-crawly critters in the first episode, Roe's butterfly-to-be, a 24-year-old music business assistant, is far from a caterpillar.

And if, after she's been through hair and wardrobe, she's maybe a little less interesting-looking than when she started, that's not, I'm sure, going to matter much to a network that believes its viewers want nothing more than to look like extras on "Gossip Girl." *

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