Stop The Madness! Oh, They Already Did.

Well, reality tv season is coming to an end but we always know more's on the horizone.

I love Skating With the Stars. These people are tough. They get run over, get dropped, go splat, fall flat and contract stomach flu and just keep going. I'm impressed. Last week, it was revealed that even though the disney guy didn't even compete, he still won the most call-in votes from the last week. He tried to do the practices but looked like death warmed over the whole time. He finally bowed out and we're left w/ 3: Johnny Mosely, Rebecca Buddig and that dumb New York housewife. I miss Vince Neal. For a rock star, he was really humble and low key and really did try his hardest. I'm also impressed that the pro ladies let the guys pick them up while on skates. I could really do w/out Tanith Belbin promoting her stuff all of the time. I still love Dick Button and will be sorry to see the show end so soon. As for Johnny Weir-d, he makes the show...colorful.

On The Fashion Show, the teams had to make gowns for the Housewives. Ugh. I really didn't need to see these bimbos on another show. I loved the designers gawking at the women, like kids at a zoo watching monkeys groom each other. There's a combination of interest and disgust. Anyway, the House of Emerald got to choose their housewives first. They chose the Orange County and the House of Nami got the one's from New Jersey. Oh boy! The looks were interesting. One housewife didn't like her high neckline and the designer finally cut it so low it was scandalous and no longer fashionable. The Jersey women bickered. Calvin gave everybody hell. After 10 minutes w/ the women, he was totally over them. Anyway, the judges proved the women had no taste because they hated the dresses the women loved and the one woman who let her designer do his thing; that designer won. The House of Nami won. Unfortunately, the House of Emerald chose really drab colors. Yes, champagne is a drab color. Finally, Golnessa was sent home. She hasn't put out a good dress yet and I doubt she ever will. Maybe she can't see with those fish eyes she has.

Survivor had it's final week and just went all out w/ the last 6 contestants. You can't have a season w/out bringing family members. The survivors had a luxury challenge that involved them retrieving bags of puzzle pieces then their family members had to put the puzzle together. Chase's mother won. Once again, Chase had promised to take someone on the prize and he didn't. Whatever. The prize was to eat lunch on a boat. Nobody really cared where it went. The family members didn't seem to eat. Actually, they didn't even sit at the lunch table but when the other people at the table look and smell like cave people. Can you blame them? Back at camp, Judd (aka Fabio), Jane and Dan commiserated w/ Judd actually crying. Jane didn't say much, but you could see the steam rising off of her head. Surprisingly, Judd wins the immunity challenge that involves putting a puzzle together. Afterward, it seems Chase is in the kowtowing mood and goes to Judd. He asks who he wants to vote out and Judd wants Jane out. Now I'm seeing that Judd's not as dumb as he looks. Chase at least tells Jane she's under the gun. Before heading off to tribal council, Jane pours water on the fire which makes me LOL for a full 5 minutes. At tribal, Jane lets everybody (verbally) have it right between the eyes. Good thing she wasn't packing heat. Unfortunately, words won't save you and she was booted out. On Sunday, they did the finale. The final 5 don't get luxury challenges anymore. Judd wins the immunity again and this time, Dan's voted out. We all saw that coming. Nobody knows how to strategize to split the votes. Jeez. Finally, down to the final four and the final immunity challenge is balancing wonky coins on the end of a sword. Can they get any more hokey than that? Judd wins once more. Finally, a redeeming character and I don't hate him as much as I used to. All the other 3 are scrambling. Sash (what a gay name) lies through his chiclet teeth. Chase does his dimbulb redneck act and Holly's peeing her pants. It becomes an all male showdown when Holly is voted out. Finally the Jury gets to speak and the only one worth listening to was Jane. She let'em all have it. I like old women w/ spunk and she's got a lot of it. All I'm really grateful for is, I don't have to listen to Probst. Then they vote and Probst says some dumb thing and makes a big show about carrying off the vote jar to L.A. Whatever! In the studio, at least they don't try to fool us into thinking it's the same time by having the people wear similar clothes. Everybody looks healthier. Probst reads the votes and Judd wins. Yay! All I'm glad of is, Sash didn't get any. Then the rest of the survivors come in and I don't know why. They wasted all kinds of time letting honker speak and Chase strum his dumb gee-tar and spent exactly 3 minutes asking a couple questions of just a couple of the other booted survivors? Really? If I were one of those people, I'd say, "You dragged me all the way here for this?" At least we don't have to see them again. Next season promises to have a new twist to the game. I'm intrigued.

Top Chef: Allstars had a new twist on the mis en place relay. 4 teams of 4 had to prep 3 items. The first team to finish the prep hit a button that started the 15 minute clock and then had to make a dish with the prepped ingredients. As the clock ticked, the other teams had to keep working to finish their prep and then make their dish in the remaining time. I loved the reminiscing of past relay races. Remember Casey taking all day to chop her onions? Wow! I was impressed that even though the team of Angelo, Fabio, Mike I and Spike won the relay, they still didn't win the best dish and the prize of 5K each. Richard Blaise's team won. I really do think he's the one to beat this season as long as he can hold it together to the end. For the elimination, the teams each ate at a cool restaurant and then each chef had to make a dish inspired by that restaurant that would be deemed good enough to be put on the menu. Marcel's team ate at Wylie Dufresne's restaurant and I thought he'd be a shoe in to win but he didn't. Stephen ate at that high end Italian restaurant and I thought he'd be a shoe in to win but he didn't. Angelo's team ate at an Asian fusion restaurant and I thought he'd be a shoe in to win, but he didn't. Hmmm...are we seeing a pattern here? In the end, Hot head Asian Dale won over Wylie Dufresne with his egg dumpling dish that looked like a real sunny side up egg. The judges also said the broth tasted like buttered toast. Wow! This was a double elimination week. I think the producers figured somebody would either quit, get sick or punch someone by now but that didn't happen so they had to get rid of 2 people this week. Unfortunately, it was gay Dale and even gayer Stephen. Bye guys! See you at the reunion.

The Challenge: Cutthroat showed the last gulag and unfortunately, Derek lost. The bright side? Paula lost too. Whoo hoo! Bye bye horseface girl. The final challenge was of course the teams having to complete different tasks. Someone poisoned the grey team because all of a sudden Abe and Sara were puking their guts out. Abe was so dehydrated and electrolyte depleted, he babbled nonsense and couldn't sit up. Both ended up being driven away in ambulances. I'm sure if the grey team had been ahead of everybody, the producers would've made a big deal of not having the whole team together. The red team stayed in the lead the whole time. It was great to see Tori and Brad finally win a challenge for once. I was also glad to see Jenn didn't win and actually came in last. Sigh, there is justice in the world. See you guys next season!

The Cake Boss's baking contest is fun to watch. For the mini challenge, the bakers had to make cupcakes. I wasn't surprised the 2 ladies won who made cupcakes last week. I learned there's more to carrot cake than just putting carrots in the cake. Hmmm... For the elimination, the bakers had to work in teams. There were 3 teams. The theme was the Monopoly board game. The cake had to be at least 3 feet high and they had 11 hours to make it. That's really nice since on the Food Network Challenge, there's only 2 people and 8 hours. On the Ultimate Cake Off, there are teams of 4 but the cakes have to be 5 feet high and they get 8 hours. So anyway, I loved that feisty italian girl cuz that fat brooklyn guy was getting on my nerves too and I didn't have to work w/ him. I hate people who want to make up by just hugging it out. I'm usually thinking, get away from me before I poke your eyes out. The one team made a great cake but hit a snag when it wouldn't fit through the door. How funny is that? I was impressed that they could totally tip their cake and have it stay together. It was a bit creepy w/ the head coming out of the money bag. Anyway, they won and that fat annoying Brooklyn guy was given the option to quit and he did. I think he was going to get the boot anyway and he knew it.

One thing I love about Sarah Palin's Alaska is, she does the things that Alaskans do. They fish, eat off the land, camp out, row boats and generally love nature. Unfortunately, Kate Gosselin and her brood showed up. The bratty bunch was supposed to go camping with the Palins. I have to say, Mrs. Palin is always positive and upbeat. I kind of like that because really, if you try, you can accomplish anything. I hate Kate Gosselin more than ever. She was the biggest sourpuss party pooper I've ever seen. I didn't know if she was on the rag or showing her true colors. I've never thought of her as much fun but man, she was a total Debbie downer. She bitched about everything and anything the whole time she was in Alaska. I'll be surprised if her kids end up as normal adults. The kids took things really well eating the moose sausages, gathering firewood and making smores. The only one not enjoying the outdoorsy activities was Kate and actually, nobody enjoys her anyway. Earlier in the show, they were learning to shoot guns to scare bears away. She said she's shoot a bear to protect her children. I think the kids would be better off shooting her and going off with the bear. The best thing Kate did? She made Sarah Palin seem even cooler than ever. Maybe that's the lesson. It doesn't matter how cool you are. You just have to be cooler than the guy next to you.

Well, that's it for this week. Merry Christmas, Happy Hannukah, Happy Quanzah or whatever you're celebrating. Have a great one! See you next time!

Thank God It's Almost Xmas!

The shows are pretty much wrapping up their season because they know that they'll have to take a long break due to Xmas shows and New Year's shows and stuff. They're afraid viewers won't remember them.

The Fashion Show missed this week. I'm not sure why cuz there's no sports on Bravo unless you count the pulling of hair and flipping of tables done by those stupid housewives.

Survivor players were in shock after the girls quit the game. There was a huge boring scene w/ the people sitting around their campfire contemplating their next stupid move. God I hate these people. So now Sash knows he's the swing vote. I don't know why he's smiling so much. Most of the time the swing vote guy is voted out since nobody trusts him. For the luxury challenge, the players had to do a series of rehashed things. Long story short; Chase won. He had previously promised Sash he'd take him on the prize if he won. So who did he pick? Holly and Jane; Doh! Something tells me Sash made some stupid promise like, "I'll never write your name down." to Chase. The luxury prize was a shower, food and pampering. Not necessarily in that order. For some odd reason, I always hate to see people eat when they're all muddy and dirty. I guess I'd better never go to a 3rd world country. Back at camp, the guys are trying to make a game plan and doing a poor job of it. The immunity challenge consists of unwrapping a rope from a giant log while being tied to the rope at the same time. Then the top 3 finishers had to do a coins in piles puzzle. Y'know, like those connected bricks. When the 3 were Benry, Fabio and Sash, I expected it to take all day but w/ some clever editing, Sash won. Just once, I'd like the players to yell, "Shut the F___ up!" to Probst giving play by play on the sidelines. Who can think w/ that dumbass shouting every second? Okay, so back at camp, everybody is congregating in different small groups. It's obvious, the guys, except for Chase, are willing to vote for anybody. Confucious say, "Those who try to stay in the middle of the road eventually get run over." At tribal council, I totally LOL when Probst announced nayhonker and kelly as "the quitters". Way to shove it in their faces Probst. For once, I like you this season. There was a lot of stupid blah blah blah at tribal and Benry was booted. And another dumb survivor bites the dust.

Top Chef: All Stars had a Museum of Natural History theme. First the chefs had to make a paper bag midnight snack for kids who were going to do an overnighter at the museum. Joe Jonas appeared to lend some cuteness to the show. The chefs pretty much used up all the sugar for their snacks. I don't understand why nobody made party mix or popcorn balls or something crunchy like that. Not all kids like sugar. Anyway, it was determined Tiffany F. and Spike made the best snacks but the job wasn't done. Then they did a schoolyard pick to choose teams to make their snacks so the kids could decide which they liked between the 2. I still don't understand how you cook marshmallow w/ liquid nitrogen. Hmmmm... At the museum, the kids went berzerk w/ all the sugar but they were still able to decide that Tiffany's snack ruled the day. Then for the elimination challenge, Chef Colicchio told Tiff and Spike that the teams would cook dishes w/ ingredients that a brontosaurus or a tyrranosaurus would eat. In other words, either all vegetarian or all carnivorous. Tiffany got first choice and chose tyrannosaurus. I thought that was a bad decision because only meat, eggs and cheese is very limiting but it was to be breakfast so maybe not that bad. Whereas, w/ vegetarian, you can make hot cereals, cold cereals, pancakes, biscuits, nutbutters, compotes and salads. Anyway, obviously, Tiffany didn't know the meaning of carnivore nor what a tyrannosaurus ate. Geez. I thought for sure someone would fry up pigskin for a crunchy crust thing. But then again, the chefs only got 45 minutes of sleep so probably weren't thinking so well. It was interesting that Tiffany's team consisted of all women except one guy (Dale the nice one) and Spike's was all male except one woman (Carla). Jamie cut her finger a little bit and went to hospital to get 2 stitches. Whatever. In the end, Tiff's team had only 1 good dish out of 4 and Spike's had only 1 bad dish out of 4. I found it really interesting that Marcel, Richard and Angelo did one dish together. Wow! Talk about too many cooks, and the best ones too. In the end Spike's team won and Marcel, Angelo and Richard's fruit salad thing was deemed the best. In front of the judges, Jennifer came out fighting but no matter how much she loved her dish and thought it was seasoned perfectly, the judges begged to differ and she was booted. Personally, I thought Jamie should've been booted since she didn't hardly do anything. Jen didn't take it well. I guess when you're called an allstar, your ego gets wayyyyy bigger.

Hell's Kitchen had a double elimination. First the chefs had to do a fusion dish. They started by choosing 2 flags randomly. One pairing didn't sound so bad together: Greek and Italian. But the other's were hilarious: French and Indian, Thai and something white and Mexican and Chinese. Jillian pulled her finger out and won the taste test by fusion cuisine judges. She was treated to dinner at Spago w/ her family. Oh boy! What kind of putz faced idiots are these people who are satisfied w/ that? Like she can't have dinner w/ her family everyday of the week. Not only that, I hate eating w/ children at the table. May as well have monkeys flinging poop. So at dinner service, it was the time for the chefs to work the pass. They got their opportunity to yell at their fellow chefs and for Ramsey to try to pull a fast one on them. Russell was the only chef to notice the intentional mistake. I loved Chef Scott saying, "Really? Those aren't walnuts?" Oh puh-leeze. I LOL at that one. You're no actor Scott. Trevor did notice the fish wasn't right but not until Ramsay pointed it out first. So on to the ending. Trevor was booted and Jillian was sent home to eat dinner w/ her family for the rest of her life. But she did get to keep her coat. I hope Nona wins the show.

The Challenge: Cutthroat had it's last challenge. We saw that nobody really beat CT last week but that blonde gay guy from the red team lasted longer than Johnny bananas so bananas skidded home. Both girls beat Tina but Tori won in a shorter time so Teresa was sent home. So on to the challenge. Blue team of 3 approached Sara and Laurel to throw the challenge so they would win and not have to go to the gulag. The challenge turned out to be a king of the hill kind of game w/ the girls going first. Laurel was being a little obvious in trying to be lame. She's like an amazon towering over everybody and just standing back shifting her weight from side to side. Meanwhile, Tori was mobbed first and the beauty queen ended up off the hill and w/ a bloody nose. hee hee hee. Anyway, Laurel couldn't seem lame to her team because she knows she doesn't have the majority on her side. Sara seems to be the coattail rider this season. In the end, the grey girls won. Then the guys went up and poor Derek had no chance but boy he gave it a good try. In the end, Brad won. Then one person from the grey team and one from the red team had to go against each other. Abe tromped Brad so Grey won the day. There was a lot of drama from Paula when Dumbar voted her into the gulag. Your turn girl. Suck it up! That blonde gay guy was voted in again. On the blue team Derek was the shoe in since he's the only guy left and Emily was voted in. I guess Jen is the coattail rider on that team. Gee, and I thought lezbos were supposed to be tough. So we'll see who wins their gulag and which team will win the whole thing.

The Apprentice final 2 finished their tasks. I though Brandy's golf tournament was kind of disorganized and they had really dumb prizes that the winners didn't even take w/ them. Instead of a whole set of golf clubs valued at $500, why not have one club worth $500? Anyway, I wasn't too impressed w/ the celeb dinner being a buffet thing. Really? Rich people like to be served and not stand in line for food. Poor Kathy Griffin truly seemed like a D list celebrity. I wondered how long Liza Minelli's hip would hold out. So anyway, I have to say, this was the most anticlimactic boring ending I've ever seen in the history of the Apprentice. Usually, when the winner is announced, the lights come up and the wall comes down to show the boardroom is a podium set, all the contestants are there and friends and family w/ a large audience are there to congratulate the winner. Then the winner gets to choose their job and then drive off in a new car. Was there any of that? Nope, not a bit. Trump said, "Clint you're fired and Brandy you're hired." Then Clint went off on the elevator while Brandy skipped to the apartment to be greeted by the 6 people from the 2 teams. Wow! Boring! But then again, it's as much as Brandy deserved. Boring ending for a boring person. Hello world! Trump just added a blonde bimbo to his employee list.

The Cake Boss has a baking competition he's putting on. It's kind of fun. I swear, I've seen these people somewhere before. So the first task was to make a signature dessert. I learned baking takes a long time so in the time crunch, they didn't do too well. I also learned when a person says, "I could really use a glass of milk." while tasting a cake; it's not a good thing. So that mafioso guy won and that gay guy was in tears. For the elimination, the chefs had to make a cake for any kind of celebration. The chinese lady made one hot mess of a gold and red cake. Her fortune cookie looked like a placenta. Ew. This time the gay guy had enough time and won w/ his sweet 16 cake. The mafioso guy made the worst cake but had immunity. I love Buddy's sister. She's blunt and doesn't smile. The black lady who made the sheet cake was sent home. Yeah, if you're going to try to be impressive as a cake maker, don't do a sheet cake.

The Amazing Race had it's finale and it was terrific! The teams went back to the USA. I love when you're not really rooting for someone to win but for someone not to win. I didn't care who won, I just didn't want Jill and Thomas to win. They're snobby and think they're all that. He's an ass and she's as boring as Kansas. When the teams landed in Long Beach, California, Jill and Thomas happened to get a cabbie who didn't speak very good english. Let the hilarity ensue. First the teams had to do a bunjee jump off of a pier crane. Then they had to ID the pitstop greeters on a huge screen. I loved Bob Eubanks greeting everyone. He really does have a ton of charisma. Nat and Kat hit all the tasks first. Brook and Clair just about turned themselves inside out w/ excitement when they met Eubanks and when they said, "We're your biggest fans!" he replied, "And I'm your's." Yeah, right. I could tell he didn't know those girls from Eve. Way to give a pat answer Bob! Anyway, while Jill and Thomas tried to find a computer to do a google search, Nat and Kat hit the finish mat followed by Brook and Clair. Yay! It was the first all girl team to win! Then they showed a preview of next season. OMG, I saw the globetrotters and Jet and Cord. I also saw a lot of this season's ousted teams. Oh yay. Really? We have to endure another season w/ that deaf dude and his hot headed mother? Yeesh. Well, I guess I'll tune in.

So that's it. I'd like to know why nobody has come up w/ an original Christmas tv show. They're just re-running all the old classics. Oh well. Next week should be really short. C U then people!!!

Did That Just Happen?

WEll, we're back from Thanksgiving all fat and happy.

I Love Money had it's finale. Obviously, 6 Gauge was booted by Punisher last week. Boy, I'll bet he loved that. The final 4 money lovers had their last elimination challenge. It consisted of one person running to get an item and get it back into a basket while the others swung money bags at them. Brooklyn used the throwing technique and hit the others really good in the noggin. Hotwings was hit so hard she was knocked off of course completely. Punisher always thinks he's the best at everything and was surprised to find Brooklyn ran the gauntlet faster than he did. Hee hee hee. Go Brooklyn. Then they had their last dinner. Everybody pleaded their case to Brooklyn since Brooklyn was Paymaster and everybody else was up for elimination. Mindy was matter of fact. Hotwings literally told a sob story and openly wept while everybody else remained dry eyed. Punisher tried to make a case for himself but had no leg to stand on. He's wealthy and a good competitor. I recall last week, Punisher telling everyone he could beat them all at anything. Mmmm...probably not a good thing to say if you're not sure you're going to be Paymaster the next week. I'm sure it was in the back of Brooklyn's mind too. We did see Brooklyn in thoughtful moments but hey, it's still an elimination game. He ended up booting Punisher and needless to say, Punisher wasn't good w/ it. This time, they didn't bring back the other players to whittle the group to the final 2. Good thing because most left mean and angry. On to the final challenge to determine the winner of the money. The final 3 had to do tasks which ended in putting a puzzle together. The maple syrup and feathers obstacle was very disappointing because nobody got covered in feathers. Darn it. Mindy had the best luck and won. Yay! Cuz I really think she deserved it. Of the 3, she was the least duplicitous.

Skating with the Stars is great. In the first place, the people are not beginner skaters. The pros are recognizable. There are only 6 stars: Rebecca Buddig, Johnny Moseley, Sean Young, Bethanny Frankel, Vince Neil and some young black dancer/DJ. Granted one is not that well known and a couple we'd rather not know. It's totally hilarious. There are hard falls and harsh critiques. The judges are totally legit: Dick Button, Johnny Weird errr...I mean Weir and a choreographer. Button worries about technique and lines, Weir looks for stardom and the choreographer looks for grace and musicality. I'm surprised at the things that are required so soon. Footwork and lifts and it's only the 2nd episode. Vince Neil fell once and Young fell twice but they both got up quickly with smiles on their faces and finished their numbers. Poor Vince, he's old and rickety. The pros consist of 2 national champs and Canadians. I think the guys are Canadians because they're pairs skaters but not well known. Most guy pros in good shape are on that Stars On Ice tour. Anyway, even though Sean Young didn't do the worst, America voted (I think) and she was booted. She took it well.

The Fashion Show's theme was retro inspired. The designers met Iman in front of a big metal vagina. Ew. They all got a box that had items from a style era: 60's, 80's, 40's, etc. Also, the boxes all had a swatch of plaid. Iman comes back to tell the designers that not only do they have to do a look inspired by the year they're given but they have to use plaid and get only 1 day. I started to laugh cuz 1 minute prior, one designer said how much he hated plaid. For some odd reason, the producers focused on the only straight guy flirting with his female teammate. That was way boring and stupid. What are we, in 8th grade? Cesar decided that 4 looks in his group was an unbalanced line-up so he made 2 looks. One looked kind of normal and the other looked like an elephant had lost a lot of weight and had a lot of extra skin. I was impressed that some designers made their own plaid. Coooool. That long haired young toker guy couldn't pull off his design and made one fugly potato sack looking dress. This time, House of Emerald pulled out the win. I'd like to know, what was with all the grey and blah colors? Oh well. Anyway, the gay black guy won and the young long haired toker was booted. Bye! Personally, I think Mizrahi is being too kind to the designers because they're starting to not take him seriously. They should because if he says he kind of doesn't like it, Iman comes right out and says she hates it.

Survivor had a really surprising episode. Nahonker and purple Kelly decided they couldn't take anymore of the living in the elements, hunger and fatigue and decided to quit the game. Nobody was sorry to hear this from honker but they were, from Kelly. The producers never showed her complaining about the Survivor life so we had no clue. Not only that, we hardly knew her. She was like Maris on Frasier. The other survivors talked about her but we never saw her. I didn't even really know what she looked like until this episode. They didn't declare the intent to quit until just before the luxury challenge. So they took the producers by surprise. I don't know why cuz Honker had it in her head that morning. She talked it over with Chase and gave him her hidden immunity idol. Anyway, I know there was some editing done cuz Probst came right back w/ advice to think about the decision. They'd do the challenge and have a tribal council that night. The challenge consisted of splitting into 2 teams. Then the teams had to each drag a huge dummy (not Probst or a fellow player) through a obstacle course. Useless Dan was odd man out and chose a team to support. I'm thinking they did a playground choosing for teams thing, because each team consisted of 2 men and 2 women. Honker's team (Benry, Chase and Holly) won. After dragging the mannequin across the finish line, honker collapsed on top of it. I'm thinking that was the softest and dryest thing she's laid on for a long time. Probst then offered rice and a new tarp to anyone on the winning team who was willing to give up their prize. The rice and the tarp was for the whole survivor camp. Everyone looked to honker. She continued to lounge on the mannequin. I would've looked at Dan, since he didn't do anything to win the prize anyway. Finally, Holly volunteered. I groaned out loud. One reason I liked the show was the glee I felt watching these stupid people starve and freeze. Oh well. So then there was a huge push for the new Jack Black movie. In fact, they pushed it so much, I'm turned off to it and won't see it until it's free on TV. The luxury prize was to see the movie and eat cinema food. Back at camp, Holly is trying to get purple Kelly to stay by cheering, cajoling and bolstering which just makes Kelly do that turtle thing where you pull your head in so your neck's shorter. Tribal council is nice and rainy. I'm thinking, Hee hee hee. Anyway, honker and Kelly bow out. Probst shows his disdain and snuffs their torches. Bye losers! Never wanna see you later.

The Challenge: Cutthroat is down to about 5 people per team. The teams had to split into couples. The teams of 2 had to balance a ball and transport it on top of a big martini glass shaped frame. Unfortunately it was uphill and the frames were very tall. Nobody got it done except Abe and Laurel. The grey team won and Laurel verbally pushed Abe's face in for putting her in the last gulag. The grey team victory dinner was a little tense to say the least. I love Sarah. She states the obvious. "We're a team but face it, nobody really likes each other." So the blue and red teams had to do their choosing and it turned out to be Tori and that blonde gay guy for the red team and Dumbar and that one girl for the red team. Tori was resigned to go in but was mad that her young teammate had voted for her hubby Brad. Jeez, talk about a female wolf. So at the gulag, there was a new surprise. It was that wrestling kind of challenge to drag your opponent to your side to knock over your barrel. The real surprise was, they wouldn't be going against each other but against new people. OMG! It was Tina and CT. Two people who had previously been thrown off challenges for punching people. So did we get to see it? No, it's to be continued but I can guarantee. Tori and Dumbar are crapping their pants.

Top Chef has brought out it's Allstars. Each season is represented but not necessarily by the best people. There are a lot of runner-ups: Tiffany F., Richard, Marcel, Angelo, and Carla. There are some crappy ones: Mike Isabella, the dumb hat wearing guy who tried to sandbag his fellow chefs (Spike), the snooty sommelier (Steven), the dumb girl who shaved her head and kept being saved by fellow quitter chefs (Elia), that tattooed lesbian who loved scallops (Jamie)and that hot head Asian guy who made crostini into melba toast (Dale). Some we're happy to see though: Jen, Tiffany D., Antonia & Fabio. So anyway, they all get their minute to do a quick intro of themselves and say why they should've won their season. Whatever. For the quickfire, they worked in teams. Each season had to made a dish that represented the city where they had their competition. Some teams did one dish w/ all the chefs working together and other teams put individual stuff together. Chicago had the right idea for each chef to work on one thing but put it all together in one big dish. They won. For the elimination each chef had to redo the dish they were booted for in their season. I thought Steven had the biggest disadvantage. He was eliminated after restaurant wars and was front of the house. he didn't actually do any dishes so the dishes were somewhat unfamiliar. Also, his latest job is host. He called it hospitality something or other. Anyway, he's coming into the cooking competition quite rusty. The group was split into 2 and one group would cook while the other group would taste the dishes along w/ the judges. Just like in a past season, the chefs in the kitchen were able to see the tasting and critiquing via live television. Hee hee. I have to say, they weren't shy. I laughed out loud when Anthony Bourdain said Fabio's pasta dish looked like an inside out animal. It really did. We found Richard was DQ'd for not stopping his plating when the time was up. Rules are rules dude. If they let him get by with it, everybody will start doing it. In the end, Angelo was declared the winner (of 10K too) and Elia was sent home. For her inintentional raw fish, I think they should've just had the other chefs come out and laugh in her face. She was from that lame bunch from season 2. The cheftestants seem more outspoken and less cowed by the judges this season. It should be a good one. I love Bourdain too w/ his snarky but very true comments. Too funny!

Hell's Kitchen had it's final 4. They first had to make an original dish to present to Ramsay. He was impressive; correctly indentifying the ingredients in each dish. He proved it can be done. Yeah, my Grandma could do it too. That just means he's wayyyy older than the cheftestants. Then the 4 competitors had to taste his dish and try to recreate it. I like that Chef Scott was actually doing the cooking while Ramsay told him what to do. So blah blah blah, Jillian got nothing right and Nona proved she does have the best palate and won. Trev was kind of impressive. He did get most of the stuff right but didn't get it on the plate. Maybe cuz he made twice the stuff. When he couldn't make up his mind between one ingredient or another, he made both. The prize was a spa day. She chose Russell to go w/ her. Huh? He's a total douchebag. After hearing him flirt w/ the massage therapists, I wanted to wash down w/ lysol. Double ick. Meanwhile, Jillian and Trev plotted Russell and Nona's death while cleaning and prepping the kitchen. That night at dinner service, everybody seemed to have their own problems except for Trev. Maybe that's because Ramsay kept taking over his station and telling him to take a breather. They did get the dinner service done but it wouldn't be Hell's Kitchen w/out Ramsay cursing and yelling a lot. Afterward, the 4 young chefs had to figure out 2 people up for elimination. Poor Trev, he never gets any love. Nona seemed to suffer amnesia and said, "I did nothing wrong." Ummm... I seem to remember one oversalted risotto and one raw risotto coming out of her apps area. Jillian seemed to be the only one who didn't make a mistake. So Trev and Russell were put up. As it turned out, nobody was eliminated. What? We have to endure another show? They'd better do a double elimination next week cuz I'm sick of these people already. It'll probably be a girl winning this season since a guy won last season. We'll see.

America's Next Top Model had it's finale too. Ann and Chelsey first had to do a couture photo shoot, then they had to do their commercial with the beauty shots after that and then the final runway show. Wow! That's a lot! Somewhere in that the families were brought in for a lot of crying and hugging. Ann wasn't too bad in the commercial but they made it more advantageous for her by doing a voice-over thing. She looked like a frightened deer in headlights in both photoshoots and her Runway walk looked like an emaciated Frankenstein's monster with heavy shoes. They also brought back the girls who had made it to Italy but were eliminated, to walk in the Cavalli show. I'm thinking, they just didn't want to have to pay that much. I always wonder if Tyra regrets eliminating someone once she sees them walking in the final runway show. So then the 2 girls are in front of the judges. They raved about Chelsey but Ann won. Huh???? I always suspect that Tyra chooses the winner during the first face to face auditions because most of the time, the final choice makes no sense. The only reason Adrienne won over that blond chick was because the blonde chick didn't do the nude photo shoot. Tyra liked Naima's funky spunk. She liked Eva's strong black image. Nicole was considered more couture. She wanted a plus sized girl to win one. Nicole was the tallest of the short girls. She liked that skinny long forehead look (like her as a kid) and she wanted a really dark girl to win once. I would say, Ann was the worst of all the winners but she did look high fashion cuz she's a walking clothes hanger. Well, so ends another season. She'd better never get rid of the Jays because they're the only reason some people watch the show.

The Apprentice is having it's finale. They started out with an immediate elimination where everybody got to diss everybody else but they didn't. Both Brandy (god what a ditzy name) and Lisa said their praises of Clint. We found Brandy has an impressive collegiate record. Lisa was fired for not working well w/ people. Then Clint and Brandy were given their tasks. Then their teams were brought in. The teams were already designated: Masa, Anan and Lisa on one and Stuart, Stephanie and Poppy on another. Poor Clint, he got stuck w/ Masa and Anan but he was clever by saying, "That's the team I wanted." At least he doesn't have to deal w/ Stephanie's ego. Unfortunately, he does have to deal w/ Masa's ego. I'm surprised they let cheater Anan back on the show. So Clint then got first choice of tasks and he chose the celeb charity dinner while Brandy got the celeb golf tournament. We learned Lisa was a member of the Kenyan Olympic golf team. Um...there's no golf in the olympics. I'm not sure if someone played a cruel joke on her or if she's stupidly lying. She did show some good golf game though. Trump was impressed. We got to see who the special celebs were. Liza Minelli and Kathy Griffin? That's not too impressive. Poor Trump is losing his shine with celebs. That's what he gets for calling one fat and stupid. Nobody respects name-calling. The real hilarity ensued at the end of the show. Trump asked that Lisa play in the tournament therefore basically taking her away from the task. Then we found Clint misspelled Minelli's name on everything from the posters to the napkins. Oh boy! I laughed so much I missed the teaser for the final show. It oughtta be good!

The New Iron Chef is doing a good job in his new role. I'm thinking the other iron chefs gave him some pointers because he did the iron chef thing of using the secret ingredient 3 different ways in the same dish.

The Amazing Race went to South Korea. The goth couple were so behind, they didn't catch the same flight as the other 3 teams and never were able to catch up. The teams had to drive north and then go whitewater rafting. The roadblock consisted of hunting for a matching headband on a bunch of soldiers going through exercises. For the Detour, they had to either speed skate or deliver ginseng roots. They all chose to speed skate. I love the way Brook somehow cajoles Clair into doing things she really can't do very well at all. It proves a person can do anything they really want to. We also realize Clair is the steady headed one of the couple. Unfortunately, Brook didn't give Clair a chance to think cuz they were supposed to walk or take the subway to the detour. Even though Brook and Clair hit the finish mat first, they got a 30 minute penalty for taking a cab. Jill and Thomas got first instead. They did pretty good since they seemed to get the cabbies and people who didn't speak any english. It wasn't a surprise at all that the goth couple came in last and were eliminated. Bye. I'm sick of hearing him promise not to be mean but still is. What an ass and she's dumber for taking it.

Well, that's all for this week. See you next time.

Too Much Turkey!

Well, Thanksgiving is over. Some of the shows went along as usual and others took a break. It did give me a chance to catch up on The Big Bang Theory and it was soooo funny. I found, some shows are funny over and over even in re-runs. Others, not so much.

The Fashion Show had a challenge to make looks for femme fatales. Calvin is now in House of Iman and seems to get along w/ the people much better. Sometimes there's a chemistry that just doesn't work. You don't notice his bad accent when he doesn't speak so much. Cesar is in House of Emerald and they seem to be leaning on him a lot. House of Iman has a knack of choosing good material so even if their looks are kind of cheap, it doesn't show. The House of Emerald seemed to think femme fatale meant hooker look. Golnessa made the ugliest dress I've ever seen. In the end, House of Iman won again. The black girl in House of Emerald made a pants outfit that I thought was cute and looked like a modern femme fatale. The judges disagreed and sent her home. What do I know? I thought, at least, the judges would give her credit for making so many pieces in such a short time and the outfit fit the model like a glove. Oh well.

Hell's Kitchen is down to 5 chefs. For the luxury challenge, the chefs had to serve a dish out of lunch trucks to business people. Typical Californians. They chose the salad as the best dish for lunch. Russell made Octopus. Really? Most Americans only really like it if it's hidden under breading. So that oriental girl won and was treated to a makeover and she needed it. At dinner, the chefs seemed to regress. Jillian didn't know how to make scallops and asked, "How hard can they be?" Well, obviously, they're a little tricky because it took her at least 5 tries before she got it right. Then she didn't seem to know how to cook the fish right. Um...what week are we in? The 10th or so? The chefs were so discombobulated, they drove Chef Ramsey crazy and he had to leave the restaurant to decompress. Russell and Nona tried to run the pass but found, if your chefs aren't turning out adequate food, it's kind of tough. I admire them for keeping the standard high while Ramsey was AWOL. When Ramsey came back, the chefs had pulled their finger out and finished dinner service. That oriental girl had been kicked out for doing a sucky job at garnishes. In the end, she was also sent home. That shows. Just because you win the luxury challenge doesn't mean you're safe.

I quit watching the Biggest Loser after the season where the fatties became really cutthroat. The season w/ the father who kept saving himself and his son when they didn't really deserve it ticked me off. Then the next season, the butter-body bitches just really turned me off. Also, I'm so sick and tired of Bob and Jillian I can't take them anymore. I will, however, tell you how the show is going. The people are losing amazing amounts of weight. There's a lot of obvious advertisement going on and the person who's lost the least weight is probably still there cuz they're in an alliance. I guess they got makeovers last week. BFD, they do that every year and drag out all the sobbing. Ick.

On Dancing w/ the non-Stars, it was the finals and I'm guessing Jennifer Grey won. There it is. End of story.

Skating with the Stars is now on ABC and I can't wait to see it. I guess some of the stars are Bethenny Frankel (she's a star?), Vince Neil and others. I can't wait to see it because there's a lot more falling in this show and it's just so funny to watch the wobbling too.

Survivor had it's deleted scenes and recap show. Booooooring! The one thing I wanted to see was the reaction of the people who had won their picnic prize to come home and see all the burnt stuff. They didn't show that. Instead, they seemed to want to make Nyonka not seem so bad. Too late now. They also seemed to want to make people appear smarter and nicer. Too late! Instead, we now think the producers and director are dumber than a box of rocks.

America's Next Top Model was down to the final four. The girls and had a go see w/ the head of Vogue Italia. First the girls were given tips from Andre Leon Talley to make themselves better since they didn't do so well on their previous go sees. Ann tried to be more interesting but didn't quite pull it off but the lady loved her look. Yeah, cuz she's a walking hanger. Chelsea won. This girl really looks like a young Lauren Hutton. For the photo shoot, the girls had to do a weird moving thing that Tyra made into a fashion old world montage. I don't know why it was so much fashion when there were so many close ups. Whatever. Chelsea won that too. 2 girls were eliminated leaving Ann and Chelsea to fight it out in the finale. It oughtta be good. We'll see if Ann can keep from walking like Frankenstein.

The Apprentice was also down to the last 4. This week, Brandy was sent to work w/ Lisa so it's boys against girls again. I'm not so sure that was fair. The teams then had to sell Mizrahi products on QVC. None of the items were men's line either. That was not fair at all. I thought Clint did a really good job as PM but in the end, the economy bit them hard. People aren't impulse buying things over $100 anymore like they used to. I did love the scene at the negotiating table because they had to hammer out what products they'd get and who would go first. I hope Trump saw that and was as impressed as I was. They pretended they wanted 2 items (that they didn't really want) and one was wanted by the women. The watch seemed to be the thing in common. The guys then said, they'd give up the watch if they could have their choice of going 2nd. In the end, the men got exactly what they wanted and the women never really knew they had been duped. Unfortunately, even being brilliant won't always win the task and the men lost. I mean, come on. Who are you going to buy from? A woman who knows her stuff or a straight guy trying to sell a woman's item? I liked that Trump asked what education creds the guys had. Clint was really impressive. He has 2 degrees and one is law. You could see Trump sit up higher and look at Clint w/ more respect. So Stuart w/ his accounting degree was sent home. I'd like to know. How come Stuart's hair looks like Ace Ventura's? It was very distracting. I recently found out the show's not pulling in ratings. How come? These candidates are desperate for this job and are scrappers. I think people got tired of Trump and his previous 2 hour shows.

I've been watching the very short season of the auditions of The Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders. Kelly and her co-owner are even tougher this year. I was getting tired of the same girls trying out and making it into camp. So far, those girls' hopes were dashed forever w/ Kelly telling them they'd never make it even if they tried out again. Good! Everytime they make it, they take the place of someone who's really good and could make it. The younger people are more nervous and so probably aren't very good at the initial audition. So bye bye to Rachel Buckmaster and Meagan Flaherty forever! I also like to see that there are no shoe-ins.

The Amazing Race went to Hong Kong. Even though Jill and Thomas had a huge lead, everybody ended up on the same flight. I don't know why Brooke and Claire had to ask them why they u-turned them. Well, duh. It's because they're afraid of how good you are. In Hong Kong, the roadblock involved trying to find a fake food on a huge buffet table of chinese food. There seemed to be a lot of sushi on the table. Really? I thought that was Japanese. Anyway, any food they touched that was real, they had to eat. Let the hilarity ensue. There were pulled faces and lots of puking. The clue asked, "Who's feeling peckish?" Now why would you think that had anything to do with Karaoke? I thought Claire was the smart one of that pair but I was wrong. The detour was interesting because the teams all had to hunt for specific things in the dark. In the end, the goth couple came in last, very late and with a 6 hour penalty. But...this was a non-elimination leg. Oh boy! Oh BTW, Nat and Kat came in first. These girl teams are rockin' this year.

I Love Money is down to 6 people. Punisher is acting like he's totally in control and well...he is. He has the dumbass majority on his side and he's the strongest and smartest of that group too. I loved the challenge. First the contestants were weighed, then they had to stuff as much food and liquid in themselves and see who gained the most percentage of their weight. Punisher was right to drink a lot of water. Not only does it weigh a lot but it goes through the stomach faster. The funny part was the money lovers jumping on the scale to weigh before they puked. OMG, some barely made it and then when one puked, it made the others want to puke. I thought it was totally funny. I think Brooklyn puked more than he ate, so he probably lost weight in the end ha ha ha. The other thing I loved was, the dead last loser was immediately sent home and it was Britannia. Yay! She was hiding behind Punisher long enough and sucks at everything. Punisher really milked his paymaster role too. Mindy stood up for herself in the vault and Punisher said he respected that. I did too. He got to choose who's checks went into the box and was gracious enough to give Mindy a break for once. At the outing, the group was supposed to be treated to massages but the guys and Hotwings ended up pampering Punisher. What a brat he was too; smacking his lips at Hotwings for food and holding his hands out to the guys to be massaged. In the end, I think Hotwings got the boot.

Okay, well, Top Chef Allstars will be here this week and I can't wait to see it. The holiday movies are in full swing and I'm loving that too. So keep watching and stay tuned. See ya next time people!

What a week!

Okay, it's been another week of TV and it's been real.

The Fashion Show proved it's always got it's load of nuts. The 2 teams had to base their clothes on the human body. The House of Nami worked like a well oiled machine except for one guy who went completely bonkers. First he can't execute what he wants to do. Then he makes a dress so small it won't fit on his stick thin model. Then finally, he cuts up his dress and walks out the door, never to be seen again. Meanwhile, Cesar rounds up the troops and they make the guy's dress and it is spectacular. I find, last minute dresses actually turn out pretty good cuz the designers don't have time to overwork it. The House of Emerald Six dropped the six since they keep losing members. They work like a Vegas buffet. Lots of stuff that's good enough but not great and doesn't really go together. They were also supposed to make their clothes reversible. Now, I don't know what they think reversible means but turning a piece inside out and having it look the same isn't reversible. It's just inside out. Also, making a cape become a purse isn't reversible either. Anyway, The House of Nami were declared the winners again. This time, nobody was sent home because of the guy who quit. Unfortunately for the House of Nami, that loudmouthed philipino guy w/ poor taste has been sent to their team and Cesar went to the House of Emerald. Oh boy! I can't wait to see what happens next.

Dancing With the non-Stars had it's last episode before the finals. Bristol Palin proved horses and Frankenstein dance better than she does. So was she booted? No. Okay people, you're not supposed to be voting for the pros. Are the Mormons of Utah the only people voting? The rest of America is so sick and tired of this show, nobody really gives a crap about which star wins anyway. Yeah, I'll wait to see who wins, through the grapevine. Yo, producers. Just because you got a million votes doesn't mean that many people are watching. It's 1000 people using different phones and computers voting 10 times each and telling their friends who to vote for.

I love Money is down to a small group too. Unfortunately, Punisher's group is largest by one. The challenge consisted of the contestants making guesses as to how much the remaining players weigh all together, how many cases of beer fit into the hot tub, how many ounces of tequila are in a giant drink, etc. Punisher's luck is still holding and he won. The smaller loser group's worst scenario played out when Mindy was dead last loser in the game and they didn't get paymaster. Oh boy! The whole show became pretty predictable after that. The power outing was really boring to the players and the audience w/ some chick trying to teach the people how to braid. I love Hotwings saying, "This white lady is trying to teach a black girl how to braid?" Also, how come none of the outings takes place in an airconditioned place? So the whole small alliance landed in the box and I think Hotwings was sent home but it could be Cisco. VH1 can't seem to be on time and the end keeps getting cut off. We'll see who's left next week.

On Survivor, the players proved they're pretty brain dead at this point. It must be the lack of nutrition. Before the first challenge, it started to rain so they surrounded the fire with the wood crate and other wood to protect it. Really? The Luxury challenge consisted of 2 teams playing a game. The winners got to go on a helicopter, slide down a volcano on boards and then eat a picnic. Meanwhile, the real fun was watching the losing team return to camp to find it burnt down. I rolled on the floor laughing for a good 5 minutes. Not one of these dumb people said, "I was afraid that would happen." They didn't show the reaction of the winners seeing the burnt stuff. I really wanted to see that too. Boo to the director and producers. The elimination challenge was another stamina thing where the people had to hold themselves above water w/ a rope. Jane proved she's a tough old bird and won. Back at camp, somehow Nayonka had it out for Brenda who's been nothing but nice and loyal to her. The whole group is a dumb bunch of sheep and everyone except purple Kelly voted for Brenda to go. Wow! I was so surprised the 2 guys in Brenda's alliance voted for her too. I think she scared everybody in the previous immunity challenge, proving how intelligent she really was. Well, bye.

Top Chef: Just Desserts had it's finale. The chefs got to work with great pastry chefs as their soux chefs. I don't know why Yigit was surprised Danielle had Sherry Yard shelling pistachios. Those are the jobs soux chefs do. Morgan had the oldest chef assisting him which didn't work too well when he was using modern techniques. One blurb they showed was Yigit complaining about Morgan turning up the A/C when his bed is beneath the large vent. Um...Yigit. Why didn't you just move to another bed? It's not like there's no room. I love when people can't solve their small problems. The next day, previously booted players were brought out to be the assistants and did the chefs get their choice? No. I felt so bad for Morgan. He got stuck with oriental girl Heather who did nothing but bitch and bad mouth him all season. She is no honorable grasshopper. The tasting menus were set before the judges and what beautiful food it was. Morgan made modern elegant desserts. Danielle made yummy looking confections. Yigit played up his talent for making ice creams and won the whole shebang. I kind of thought he would if he was able to hold it together to the end.

The Apprentice is down to the final 5. I thought this was going to be an interesting week cuz Steph and Lisa can't stand each other and they're the only 2 left on their team. The task was to make a commercial for AT&T and Go TV. I think. Anyway, it's a mobile app to watch TV shows on your phone. I have to say, I adore Clint. He's a good old boy but he's smart and he doesn't beat around the bush. He's also not blowing smoke up people's asses to impress or coddle them either. Stuart was wise to shut up and let Clint run the show. Steph, meanwhile, was the PM on her team and relegated Lisa to gopher. Steph is as creative as a drunken frat brother. She thinks she's all that and she is proving to Trump she isn't. Well, needless to say, Stuart's team won and Steph was sent home. Yay! Ding dong the witch is dead. Then we got the treat of Steph saying she was hired by Trump for something else. Really? You couldn't leave us with the high of seeing the bimbo go? Ugh.

Those wild young people from Road Rules and Real World are back on another Challenge. This time, it's called Cutthroat. Yep, they ran it all together. Oh yeah, and because they keep changing the name of the show, my TiVo didn't recognize it and I've had to catch up on-line. Anyway, it seems to be some really old vets throwing the newbies to the wolves every week. There are 3 teams this time and one guy and one girl from the losing teams of the challenge are voted into the Gulag to fight each other. I like that the voting is a secret ballot so people can actually lie about their vote. For some odd reason, I find Chet and his thick glasses really cute and hot. Derek, Abe, Katy, Paula and Eric are really looking old. Paula has an ugly eruption happening on her face. Eric's face is blotchy and red and my HD tv is not doing them any favors. Katy proves that law school has not tamed her cursing, drunkenness or fighting. I love that. What a great Irish girl. I can't wait to see which team wins. I hope for once, it's Brad and Tori. I guess Paula deserves to win once and they're all on the red team.

Hell's Kitchen only had one episode. It's one big team and they don't seem to be working well together. The chefs had to make an amuse bouche. Russell won. I couldn't believe the professional chefs they had in to do the judging. Wow! Impressive! Note to Trevor: when your food is large enough it needs to be in a bowl, it's not an amuse bouche. Anyway, the prize was to eat lunch in Carey Simon's restaurant. What the heck happened to him? He looked like meat that a dog chewed, swallowed and puked up. I guess I don't like long hair on old guys either. At dinner service Trevor and that blonde loud mouthy bimbo couldn't seem to get it together. I think Trevor was still half drunk from the night before. In the end, Sabrina, the blonde mouthy chick I just referred to, was booted. Yay! I was so sick of her screechy voice.

The Next Iron Chef also had it's finale. Chefs Canora and Forgione were in Kitchen Stadium and challenged to use Thanksgiving ingredients. Personally, I wasn't impressed with any of the dishes finding them all done by someone before. They didn't do very good at doubling or tripling down on the ingredients. The judges weren't exactly that exuberant either declaring each dish, "Good." I'm sure all the food was good but it needed to be really cool, new and impressive. In the end, my wish came true and Forgione was declared the New Iron Chef. Yay! Bye Canora. Hope to never see you ever again you pompous ponytailed poop face. Let's see if your ego fits through the door, now that it's been deflated a little. I'm also so sick of buck toothed Arpaia. I hope to never see her on another show again but somehow, I don't think that will happen. I also hope Alton Brown takes the time to eat a good meal too. He's so thin, he's looking like a piece of beef jerky.

The Amazing Race went to...some overcrowded Asian country. Somehow Jill and Thomas found a flight that gave them a 7 hour jump on everyone else. This episode also had a double U-turn at the detour. I thought this meant the teams were going to have to do both tasks again but no, it meant 2 teams were able to be turned. Really? I didn't know only one team, before, could be u-turned. I just thought people just didn't use it. First the teams had to make juice from sugar cane. At the detour, they could either deliver bricks by balancing them on their heads or deliver meals to a ship. Then one person had to put together a rickshaw. None of the tasks were anything a tourist would want to do. Jill and Thomas hit the mat before the other teams even landed in the country so the real drama of the show was who was going to end up last. The HSN women, Chad and Steph and the Doctors were on the last plane together. Chad and Steph have the worst sense of direction. Brooke and Claire and Chad and Steph were u-turned but it wasn't a contest because by the time Chad and Steph found the detour, Brooke and Claire were already done w/ their first task and halfway done w/ the 2nd. I don't know who long it took to find the pitstop mat but through all the teams doing the tasks, there was bright daylight and when the last 2 teams got to the mat, it was dark. Wow! Anyway, Chad and Steph came in last. I have to say, I'm so proud of the strong chick teams this year. They can drive, navigate, figure out puzzles and do physical tasks too.

Dateline had a special on Prince Charles followed up by his documentary on earth conservation. I'm not sure which was more boring. I have a feeling Brian Williams was not able to ask everything we wanted to know. Not much was said about horseface Camilla. Not much was said about the engagement of William and Kate, not much was said about Harry's bad boy history and not much was said about the late Princess Diana. They basically went from place to place around the castle grounds with Charles saying, "Ooh, I love this place too." The servants were all in hiding too. Oh, we did get a good look at Charlie's big manure pile. It was quite a metaphor for the whole show. Just like Charles, his documentary was 20 years late. Really? We're running out of resources? Really? We're ruining our atmosphere and earth? At least his British accent made him a little more interesting than Gore the bore. I would like to point out that organic farming is old fashioned farming. It's the same thing farmers did 100 years ago before chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Why are people claiming it's new? So far, nobody has really suggested planting marigolds around the perimeter of the fields and letting ladybugs loose in the fields but they're probably waiting to unveil that as new next year. Whatever!

Okay, well, that's it for now. Hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving and enjoys the holiday shows that go with it.

What the Heck? Oh yeah. It's Reality.

I'm back and blogging a little late but oh well. Here we go.

Yay! Fox decided to let Hell's Kitchen continue. I like this show. Yeah there's a lot of drama, yelling and whining but it's all really well done. There's solid cooking and Gordon Ramsay stays tough with his high standards. This week Trevor was bounced back to the men's team and for some odd reason, the men didn't appreciate it. Hello, when you have more people on your team, you have better odds of staying. So first, the chefs had their test of taste buds. First, Ramsay proved they had the palates of peasants by listening to them ooh and ah over packaged foods. Note to future contestants: learn to shut up or say, "I don't hate it." Then the chefs had to ID food items. The chefs once again proved pork tastes like chicken and truffles aren't that impressive. I love when the person who brags the most does the worst. In the past, this test held a lot of weight with Ramsay and the same can be said this time. Nona ID'd the most items. The prize was shopping and lunch. Whatever! At dinner service Nona and the men had total meltdowns. The law firm chef couldn't turn out decent scallops until his 10th try. The Italian guy looks totally exhausted and his cooking became sloppy and the cocky guy made the ultimate mistake taking underdone chicken to the pass. Ramsay's fuse is short these days and he kicked all the offenders out of the kitchens. Poor Trevor was left to finish dinner service by himself. I doubt he was all by himself. Chef Scott and Ramsay probably lent a hand but it wasn't shown. Well, duh. The women's red team won. Trevor made wise elimination choices but in the end, the law firm chef was booted. The next day, the chefs did their cooking relay. The women were doing really well until Jillian dropped the fish on the floor. Of course she blamed it on someone else. The men won kind of by default. The prize was shopping in a cookery store and dinner. Okay. Sounds quite redundant. I think it's more about not getting punishment. At dinner service, there was only one thing that Ramsay had to shout about. Of course, it was the guy's team. This time, the Italian guy's luck ran out and he was booted but they made the elimination about winning the apron for the single cooking group called the final 6. Whoopee. So if you go home next, you're still a big loser. Now it's mostly women and Nona has pulled her finger out.

Survivor is getting sickening. I can't seem to stop watching these despicable people. Marty spent his time running off at the mouth. Some chess master. Who the heck tells his game plans to everyone? They finally start having luxury challenges which of course, all involve eating in the prize. The group splits into 2 for the challenge and as luck would have it, it's men against women. Chase is the odd man out and doesn't have to participate but does have to choose a group to stick with. He chooses the women. I'm not sure if this was a strategy move or not because no matter what happened, he'd know what the women were up to. I think it was just a way for him to spend some time with Brenda, who he clearly has the hots for. The challenge involved breaking through stick and brick walls and of course the men won. The men tried to connive together during the prize but it was really all about the food. The elimination challenge involved memory. These people don't know how to use mnemonics. Brenda won even though Marty gave it a really good try. At tribal council, I notice these people just let everything spill out of their mouths. Nayonka really put her foot in her mouth and people let it be known they want to go the end with her evil highness. In the end, Jane got her wish and Marty was voted out. I'm sure he was sorry he hadn't kept his hidden immunity idol.

Top Chef Masters is getting to the last chefs. The quickfire involved making chocolates inspired by their lives. Zach's were about the people in his life. Okay...Zzzzz. Morgan gave a nice heart string tugger and won. I do have to say, his chocolates did look the most professional. The chefs then met the oldest man on earth and were told they were to make a cake for an anniversary celebration. His spouse turned out to be the cake lady with the huge glasses. Once again, Morgan made things look easy while everyone else scrambled and ran around. Zach made what he deemed, a cake disaster. Here's a hint. When you already have a pile of crap, don't add more crap. His cake looked like the party version of the iceberg that took down the Titanic. Danielle made a grey cake but it was kind of cool with the piano keyboard running around it and it was judged to be delicious. Morgan said piping was easy but he didn't do it well. Yigit was too ambitious and couldn't finish what he started. Danielle finally won her pot of money and Zach was sent home.

The Fashion Show is back and way better than last year. This time the teams are 2 houses and the people can actually sew. The designers had to be inspired by Iman. The teams were Emerald Six and Nami (Iman backwards). That Philipino guy with terrible english but a big ego tried to walk all over his team and fighting ensued. In the end, the House of Nami had beautiful clothes and were declared the winners with Cesar the ultimate winner. The boring girl from Emerald Six made it 5 by being booted. I'm loving Iman. She's right out there with her opinions and I wish she'd just say, "I'd die before I wore that." Mizrahi seems to be the good cop this year but does give good advice. Think if Tim Gunn were a judge on Project Runway.

America's Next Top Model went to Italy again. First stop, Venice. I'm glad to see the girls have to share beds and a small living space. It's more real and they'd better get used to it. For the photo shoot, the girls worked in groups of 3's posing with a guy in a gondola while dressed in Italian hooker garb. Once again, Ann laid there like a sack of potatoes and the judges loved it. This time though, Chelsea, the girl who looks like a young Lauren Hutton, won. I said Liz was sent home last week, but I was mistaken. She was sent home this week. Tyra hates people who make excuses all of the time.

On The Apprentice, they started out with a firing. Stupid Anan was called out for cheating and totally lied to the Don. First he cheats and then lies about it? That was double stupid. Trump fired him so fast, it made his head spin and for once, the contestants were speechless. So now it's basically girls against boys because that one girl on the men's team hardly stands out. The task is to make a display for Perfumania advertising Kim Kardashian's new perfume. I about fell on the floor laughing when Trump told Kim what a great girl her sister Chloe was. Really? Was that the same girl you berated harshly for drunk driving and then fired on the spot? Okay, anyway, the women's team went way too blingy cheap on their display. It looked like a bad prom prop and Kardashian was not impressed. Lisa tried to nix all the stupid sequins and stuff but was over run by the BFF blondes. The men made a tasteful, cool and modern looking display. When advertising a perfume, you might want to actually show the bottle girls. Otherwise, how do you know which perfume it is? The men won of course and Poppy was sent home and...nobody noticed.

I Love Money had their stripper pole hang in there challenge. Women are good at this for one reason. Skimpy bathing suits. Bare thighs hang onto a pole much better than long shorts and clenching arms. In the end I think Hotwings won. Ya gotta love the names these people choose for themselves. Garth, the gorilla of the group dropped off his pole first and his check was voided right there. Well, it was a way to get him out, from under the wing of Punisher. The women tried to band together but it didn't work and one of the dumb girls was sent home. Bye! I feel sorry for the contestants. It seems all they get is Mexican food. I'll bet they're dying for a cheeseburger. They also aren't impressed by the stupid touristy prizes the get on the dates. If you've ever been to Ensanada, you know the best prize is to go home. The place is a total armpit.

The Next Iron Chef had it's last challenge before Kitchen Stadium finale. First, the had to make a cocktail with an hors deourve to go with it. I thought Ming Tsai would do really well at this one since he does this all the time on his show. When the chefs find they have a problem? Why don't they change the game plan? I think there's a ego problem. Canora won again. The chefs were then, each given a luxury main ingredient like wagyu beef, a rich pork, lobster and a rich fish to work with. Canora was able to choose his. Then the chefs were let loose with their item to make 3 of the best dishes with it. Do these chefs know the show? I expected the item to be used at least 2 or 3 different ways in each dish. You know. Like beef in beef sauce with beef chips on a bed of beef noodles. I think the chefs are tired and getting somewhat sloppy. This time, Canora won again and Tsai and the lone woman, chef Teo were sent home. Now it's down to Canora and Forgione. All I can say is, Canora's ego is so unappealing, I'll never watch his episodes if he becomes an Iron Chef. He doesn't seem pleasant at all from the small screen but then again, it would be the first iron chef we'd root against.

The Amazing Race went to Oman. I felt sorry for the contestants. It's the middle of summer (no snow in Russia) and they have to run around the desert. Even though Chad and Steph overslept, it didn't seem to hurt them at all. The challenges involved hunting for stuff. First they had to drive themselves to a certain area that looked like the Grand Canyon. The teams that had maps seemed to do the worst. Nat & Kat and Gary and Mallory thought they didn't need to ask for directions. They should've known that things in the Middle East are renamed every week depending on who's in charge and who's living there at the time. So the teams had to rappel down a mountain and then the one person had to hunt in the heat for a ring in one of many Aladdin's lamps. Ugh. Then they drove to a tourist spot and then had a choice of gathering wedding soup ingredients or hunting for a house that needed a water delivery. None of the teams chose the wedding soup. I think it was a subconscious choice. It's 120 degrees. Do you want to think about soup or cool water? Even though Jill and Thomas hit the mat first, they made the mistake of hiring a cab to lead them to a destination. During their 30 minute penalty wait, Chad and Steph (newly engaged by the way) were given the top prize. Now they have a honeymoon to go on. Yay! Gary and Mallory never did recover from their navigation mistake and got to the finish mat wayyyyy behind everyone else. You can tell because they were the only ones with no daylight when they checked in. Where the heck did they drive to? Egypt?

Sarah Palin has a reality show of her own called Sarah Palin's Alaska. Y'know what? It's really cool. Due to their long summer days, they can film a lot of stuff and therefore, cut out a lot of boring crap. Mrs. Palin is enthusiastic about her state and if you've ever been there, you know it's really incredible. I love that her kids aren't that impressed with the cameras. I noticed there are a lot of weird names in the peripheral family too. Was that kid's name really Happy? They showed a day of salmon fishing with the youngest daughter, Willow's boyfriend sneaking up to her room when he was told not to and a painful to watch mountain climbing day. I'm thinking Sarah learned her lesson with Bristol and got that boyfriend out of her daughter's bedroom pretty quick. He really thought he could sneak up with Sarah sitting right below the stairs? Not too bright. They have a paparazzi like neighbor who watches them from his balcony. I would suggest throwing bits of raw meat up on his balcony. He'd be bombarded by bald eagles and up to his neck in bird crap. These people don't know college pranking? The word crevasse was used way too much during the mountain climbing. It think it was just a way to say ass a lot on camera. Todd Palin's most pithy comment seemed to be, "Yeah." Still waters run deep? I do have to say, it was quite good cuz they did show Alaskan life. It wasn't meeting with friends, drinking, shopping and arguing which I can't stand of the Housewives. Go Sarah. But don't think it'll make me vote for you in the next presidential election.

Well, that's about it. I still recommend The Big Bang Theory, Outsourced, The Middle, Modern Family, Raising Hope, The Simpsons, Law & Order: UK, Psyche, Mike and Molly, Three and a Half Men, No Ordinary Family, Smallville and Law & Order: Los Angeles. My friends recommend Glee, NCIS (all of them), Boardwalk Empire, Vampire Diaries and Gossip Girl.

Happy watching people. The Holidays are coming and we should see a lot more warm and fuzzy stuff coming soon.

Deja View

Okay, another week has gone by.

Hell's Kitchen missed another week and I'm not sure why. We do watch it. I miss the cursing while cooking.

Dancing w/ the non-Stars did it's thing and the voters did their thing. I hear Bristol Palin wasn't all that good but was saved yet again. Who's voting for her? The basketball star w/ his partner Cheryl was voted out. All I care is, Karina is gone. I'm guessing the voters are actually voting for the pros again. That's another reason why I quit watching. I do watch Jimmy Kimmel on Tuesday nights to see who's been booted but some stars refuse to do his show too. Yeah, I'm referring to Doherty and Bolton.

I did watch one episode of the crying fatties aka Biggest Loser. They had one challenge, they're not in pairs and they're working out. This time, they went to Camp Pendleton and lived w/ the Marines for a few days. Most times, living as a Marine really kicks peoples' butts and they can't help but get in shape. I'm thinking the Sargeants were a little easy on the fatties cuz they all came back either not having lost much weight or gaining. Really? I loved the excuses. We couldn't watch our diet, we couldn't rest well, blah blah blah. Okay. First, you don't have to eat everything that's on your plate and if you weren't sleeping, then you should've been running in place. No wonder the fatties always get fat again. They have no self discipline. I wonder if that might be their basic fatty problem. It's biggest loser alright, emphasis on loser. This show needs to get rid of Bob and Jillian. I'm sick to death of them and I can't be the only one. Anyway, once again, someone who thought they were safe was booted right out. Bye!

Survivor is getting downright sickening. There is absolutely no redeeming quality in anybody including Jeff Probst. The teams merged into one big fat tribe and they called themselves Libertad. They should've named themselves Muy Malas. Anyway, life isn't that sweet w/ everybody conniving w/ each other. Nyonkas helping herself to the tribe's food crate and thinks nobody knows but what's her face sees her. Everyone is out to get Elina but she thinks everybody from Espada is one big happy family and tries to rally them. How very naive of her. Nyonka's trying to win a final vote by befriending Elina and shows her the loot from the food crate and we get to watch the 2 chow down on the fruit together. The immunity challenge is a stamina challenge to see who can hold a stick between to hinge links the longest. Tough old Jane wins over everybody even though there was going to be a woman and a man winning. Fabio wins his immunity and actually makes it look like a day at the park. Finally, Nyonka is brought forth to admit her sins to the tribe and she tries to explain away her stealing and proves how dumb the tribe is. They believe she took the stuff to preserve it. Really? She's probably smart enough to just do her spouting in front of the camera only. She does realize she has to return to the real world who's been watching her, doesn't she? Anyway, Marty acts desperate. Skinny guy who made the deal w/ Marty to get the HII wants to stay in his good graces and convinces his group to preserve Marty this one time. I love the way everybody plans for the final tribal by being conniving. At tribal, Marty rails on Jane again. Probst, as usual, asks and says the dumbest inane stuff. Elina is voted out. It's obvious Nyonka voted for her so that was a wasted fake friendship. God, I hate these people.

Top Chef: Just Desserts had a challenge made for pastry chefs. The chefs had to make an edible bouquet. I thought someone would do a fruit bouquet since they're so popular these days but nobody did. What? They don't know how to make roses out of beets and radishes or tulips out of carrots? I'm guessing these people have never been on a cruise ship before. Yigit tried to make vases out of isomalt. I don't know why he was surprised they broke when Morgan breathed on them. In the end, Morgan did some amazing sugar work and won. I agree with Johnny Iuzzini. I liked Eric's giant cupcake covered with buttercream flowers. It looked like a fat bride's bouquet. Not fat bride; fat bouquet. The elimination challenge was to make tea pastries w/ celeb couples as inspiration. These chefs were all of one track mind. They never said the couples had to be real or alive. You never heard of Romeo and Juliet or Adam and Eve? Anyway, I was waiting for one of the gay guys to come up w/ a gay couple but it didn't happen. So they go to the store to shop for ingredients and when they return to the kitchen, they find all the chocolate is missing from the pantry. Never assume! 3 of the guys were counting on using the chocolate and it really messed up their game. Eric couldn't recover and Yigit kind of went into la la land. I loved that Danielle used Conan Obrien and Andy Richter as her couple. They never said the couples had to be sexual based. Zach won w/ his Julie Andrews and Blake Edwards dainty pastries. Eric came up short w/ his shortbread and I was kind of glad cuz he used Oprah as his couple and I can't stand her. I was, however, sorry to see Eric go home.

On The Apprentice, the teams were mixed up. First they showed Stephanie fighting it out w/ one of the guys. I think Anan. Whatta ya know? They end up on the same team. The teams were to make a print ad for Trump's clothing line. Boy! This show really is all about him huh? David and that blonde quiet chick take the managing jobs. David decides he's the only one who knows fashion. He takes an instant liking to one of the male models and goes blind and deaf. The rest of the team gives up and gives in to David. On the other team, they get stuck with irresponsible models who don't show up. Instead of calling the agency and telling them nobody's getting paid, they decide to do the modeling themselves. I have to say, Stuart looks good in the bedroom shot. In the end, David's team loses and David is sent home. Yay! What a freakin' nutball. The most boring part of the show is the meeting of the winning project manager w/ the CEO of a company. It might be a great prize for the contestants but for the audience, it's a real snoozer and we're glad we have DVRs.

The Next Iron Chef contestants are in Las Vegas. Their assignment is to cook a Vegas buffet. Really? All by themselves? I felt sorry for them as they ran like crazy around an unfamiliar kitchen. Everybody thinks Canora is on the bottom including Canora but he wins. The chefs are told there will be 2 people going home but as it turned out, Caswell was the only chef to have a sucky buffet. I still can't stand Arpaia as a judge. She's nobody and she's kind of stupid. Who eats an obvious banana peel anyway? That English guy has a weird palate and looks like he's been eating lemons all day. Alton Brown needs to eat a meal. He looks like he's been vacationing in Somalia.

Finally, America's Next Top Model did their commercial. OMG, what a disaster. In the first place, you don't put tall people on roller skates. They have a high center of gravity and tend to fall over easily. Poor Ann, when she hit the pavement, I almost heard bones crunching. She took it well but was very awkward and dead in front of the camera. Surprisingly, she didn't go home. Liz, last week's winner was sent home. I have always felt Tyra picks the winner the first day of meeting the models. I think it's going to be Ann and the rest of the girls are just on for the drama. We'll see.

Well, that's all for now. I'd comment on I Love Money, but I'm not sure I'm keeping up w/ the episodes. See you all next time!

Hoes, Hums and Hohums

Well, I'm back.

Let's talk about that Housewives franchise. Usually, I can't stand these media hogging shallow women w/ more time and money than brain cells. I do have to say, there's always a smart one in the group who makes the show a little less aggravating. The newest installment is Beverley Hills. This should be called the Real Desperate Housewives. Camille Grammar seems to think everything is all about her including all insults and compliments. I now have a whole new level of respect for the man who could put up w/ this bimbo for that long. Run Kelsey,run!!! And may the divorce be with you. The funny part of the show is the 2 sisters and one is actually a former star w/ real cred to her name (Kim Richards). The smart woman of the group is unfortunately, the lady with the English accent. Great, now all American women seem like boors to the whole world. The only really respectable person seems to be Adrienne with the shallow meathead husband. She actually is the wealthiest but is the least snooty and most down to earth. She's also the only really likeable one. All of the others are kind of sickening after about a half hour.

Hell's Kitchen was once again pre-empted for something else. They can't put MLB on one of the sports channels?

On America's Next Top Model, Ann seems to have shown her achilles heel. She's terrible when relating to real people. Ok, so remember,I'm having to watch webcasts to keep up with this series. The girls first had to win a spot as a grammy girl by dressing each other. Really Ann? You thought the skinny girl next to you would wear a size 12? Kayla, w/ the fire engine red hair, won. Oh boy! I hope she changes her hair back to a more natural color before the Grammys. Then the girls and to portray designers w/ another model in the shot. I didn't think Ann's picture was that great but what do I know. This time that hispanic short haired single mother w/ the bad complexion won. The prettiest girl in the competition proved it takes more than just stunning looks to stay. That black girl with the beautiful but somber face was told to go home.

On Survivor, the show is lacking any likeable people. Just when you think they may be nice, they turn out to be major snakes. The editors and producers are usually pretty good at toning down someone's unlikeableness but there must be too much footage. They're probably saying, "Gee if we cut out all the mean stuff, we'll only have a 10 minute show." Anyway, Nyonka seemed okay cuz they kept her off camera the whole time. This time, they had a reward challenge and a separate immunity challenge. The reward challenge involved one team launching a ball into a net mid-jump while the other team's person did blocking of the shot. Team not-La Flor seemed like they should've won but they didn't and the reward was to milk a cow and eat a rustic dinner including that milk. Ummm...I guess when you're starving, you will eat anything. I don't know how good the food was cuz a few people were crying. The immunity challenge involved aiming a chute to make a ball hit tables. It's amazing what a good meal will do for a team cuz team not-La Flor won again. On La Flor, the guy with the HII was dumb enough to let that skinny guy talk him into handing it over. At tribal council, the skinny guy made it kind of clear that he thought the HII was his and his alone. Hmmm...that'll make for an interesting next episode. Meanwhile, Marty tries to be the suck up to the people who seem to want to boot him out but someone sticks to their word. It wasn't Fabio. The ER doctor from the older team was booted out. Nobody really cares cuz at this point, we just want to see them all starve to death.

On Top Chef: Just Desserts, the chefs were split into 2 teams. Heather deemed them, Team Diva and Team Loser. Hmmm...how very catty of her. How is it these Asians lose their respectability when they're American? So they start with the mis en place relay. Team Loser kept up until the spreading of the strudel dough. When doing a meticulous task, it's not good to shout at your teammates, Morgan. The funny moment was watching Zack make whipping egg whites look really hard while Morgan made it look really easy. So Team Diva won the relay race. The teams were then told they were to run a pastry shop. Cool! I wondered how they were going to do the business challenge. So we had Team Diva and Whisk Me Away. I love that name and you can tell it made a good impression because I can't remember the name of Diva's place. You can tell Eric has had business experience. He let Morgan and Danielle just hash things out while he worked and made sure the display case looked really yummy. All in all, Team Loser won! The celebration was great. Even better? Heather was told to pack her stuff and go! Yay! I'm glad to see that the judges recognize that a simple thing like a chocolate chunk cookie can be a great thing.

Project Runway had it's finale. They did fit in a small reunion show that seemed to be mostly about the 3 finalists. If I were one of the returning booted contestants, I would've been really mad. That girl who was booted the very first episode didn't even get to say anything and they never did address how bitchy Ivy was to everybody. Wretched Gretchen was called fakey bitch by her friends and cried about it. She should've owned up to it and said, "Yeah, I was exhausted, stressed and living on coffee and energy drinks. You'd be bitchy too." Really? We had to see that whole montage of the meeting of the relatives? Anyway, they rushed the final designers to the workroom and the cameras followed. We see a lot of talking and wondering and not a lot of sewing to justify a better reunion show. This time, we get to see the backstage frenzy with Mondo missing models and having line-up mix-ups. Andy's still making new clothes and Gretchen is wearing granny lipstick. On the runway, Andy's clothes are a lot of black and grey but avante garde. Mondo has a lot of mixed prints and color and seems fun. Gretchen's granola collection is half hidden under her models' big shaggy hair. Jessica Simpson is deemed fashionable enough to be a guest judge. Oh-kay... Jessica's looking somewhat bloated after her travels. The judges argue with the younger one's liking Mondo's fresh and young looks and the older ones liking Gretchen's futuristic stuff. Really? Clothes from the 60's and 70's with cut out backs are futuristic? Whatever. To the dismay of all of America, Gretch the wretch wins. I puked and turned the channel at that point but I would guess the family was brought it, everybody cries, the winning model is brought out and Gretch gets to gloat. Ick.

On the Apprentice, the teams had to sell a musical to backers. Surprisingly (is his name Dave?) is not so annoying to the team and actually shows he can be intelligent. Stuart stumbles during his part of the presentation but it still goes well and the booklet to go w/ it is well done. Meanwhile, the black girl who everyone disses volunteers to be the project manager but admits she has no musical experience. Meanwhile, the bombastic blonde seems to be an authority on everything. Why didn't she volunteer to be project manager? She also complained that she had too much responsibility on the past tasks and was tired of it. So she was put on the single task of making the promo booklet and...it sucked. These people have never heard of a teaser. The presentation was very choppy with narration cutting in to try to tell the whole musical. You don't do that. You make a teaser and make the backers want to be a part of the production. Anyway, the women lost but it came out that Masa revealed to the men how much was made the week before on the pedi-cab task. Masa talked herself right out of a job. I wondered when Trump would fire her for her disloyalty but when it was mixed with betrayal, it was the straw that broke the camel's back. Bye Masa! Evil has left the building.

The Amazing Race went to Russia. It's so nice to see summer. There was no snow in sight and the day was very long. The teams all started out even getting onto a train. When off the train, the dating couple guy blamed the inability to get a cab on the fact that she took too long to get ready. Yeah, who you trying to impress? The cameras? So the first task was to either look for a film clip in a huge pile of film or try to identify piano pieces in a room full of different piano players. I knew the music one would be hard because concertos can be very long and different depending on where the person is in the music and when you're in a room full of other people banging on pianos, it's hard to distinguish music at all. Then at the next task, one person had to dress as a babushka and plant potatoes in the traditional Russian way. Once again, these are not things tourists would want to do. This time that other dating couple came in first and the goth couple got to the finish mat last. But... it's a non-elimination leg so...ho hum. Whatever. You know this show has been on too long when it's full of likeable people and we just want to see everybody just go.

On The Next Iron Chef, the chefs had to show respect to ingredients. What does that mean? Does that mean keep the ingredient identifiable, or make it more spectacular than it is? The chefs first had to work with potatoes. According to the fellow chefs, respecting the ingredient means to make a potatoe dish where the potatoes are potatoes. Oh-kay... Chef Canora was given the win and was none too gracious about it. For the elimination task, the chefs had to make dishes from the 4 main regions of the USA: South, East, West and North and they didn't mean Alaska. Somehow East meant southern states to some chefs. To others North meant New England or the midwest. Hmmm... This time, Ming Tsai was declared the winner with solid flavor with his own unique twist. Chef Chauhan, along with her pierced nose, was sent home.

Hero to Zero in one show

Hello folks. I seem to be in an every other week pattern here. Sorry about that.

Hell's Kitchen missed a week so we're off the hook there.

On the Apprentice, the schlub who said he could handle the wild guy found he couldn't. Actually, the wild guy wasn't the problem. The teams had to do fashion shows for shoes. Wow! It was a total plug show where they not only said the name of the shoes for the whole show but showed every style they had. I'm not going to say what they are cuz I'm not getting paid ha ha ha. I did notice the biggest star to attend the fashion shows was Ivanka Trump. What? No Andre Leon Talley? Anyway, it was literally a shoe-in when the women won this task. Duh. In the end, the most boring guy on the men's team was made the MC and he sucked so hard, he was gladly fired by Trump and then to put the icing on the cake, the project manager was fired too. Hee hee hee! (giddy laughter). The next week, the teams had to sell pedi-cab rides. The women made a bad choice to try to sell them to locals. Okay, in the first place, New Yorkers aren't taking slow pedi cabs cuz they have a real life and not all day to get things done. In the 2nd place, New Yorkers don't need to have the fun of seeing the city. They see it everyday and it's not that much of a novelty and it's not like there's not a thousand and one pedi cabs every day of the year. So the men won this task and there was much finger pointing. Just like on Survivor, all of a sudden there's people I never noticed before. In the end, that girl who didn't seem to be on the show before, was fired for being...not there. Hmmm...

On Dancing With the non-Stars, the Situation from Jersey Shore was sent back to Jersey. Yeah, dude, we're sick and tired of your face on our TV screens. Oh, and he couldn't dance. On the 2nd week, the producers are scraping the bottom of the barrel for ideas and dug up a used one. The dancers did a TV theme. Florence Henderson used the Brady Bunch theme and it didn't go over too well w/ the judges. Bristol Palin used a Monkees theme and just looked dumb. In the end, the whole world was surprised when Flo Henderson got the boot. The judges are still raving about Jennifer Grey and Carrie Ann Inaba finally said what we were all thinking from the beginning, "This is your show, girl." Uh huh.

I wanna comment on Chuck. It's become another Remington Steele. Chuck's hiding who he is from the real world but has become cool with a sleek haircut, a hot girlfriend and better clothes. Somehow, they've fallen in the pit of mundane-ness. Casey has now become the cool part of the show. Too bad. All of us geeks lived vicariously through Chuck but now he's out of our league.

I finally saw the ending of Money Hungry on-line and it wasn't a surprise at all. Mission Slimpossible won and not much weight was lost. There wasn't any amazing body transformations like you see on Biggest Loser, so when they showed before ande after pictures, it was hard to tell. They needed to consult Celebrity Fit Club producers. The families were brought in and there seemed to be fake crying. Really stupid.

Survivor mixed up the teams. I kind of saw this coming. Nyonka is separated from her buddies and the young people have the majority on the tribes. The young people proved they don't like bossy older people and voted off the black guy who had the brains in the tribe and he was the most fit of the older people. The second week, they had double elimination with each team voting someone out. The challenge involved digging up a ring and getting it into a butt basket. I loved that older women from each tribe won because they got individual immunity. Then they tossed the rings to determine who would get the luxury prize of a feast. La Flor won that one. So the older people are trying to scramble and connive to stay alive but aren't very good at it. Marty stupidly told everyone he has the HII so the tribe is trying to flush it out. On the former older tribe, Eve was the odd girl out and was voted out. That was dumb since she was the youngest of the older tribe and more fit than everybody else. On La Flor, Marty convinced Fabio he was a chessmaster. Har har. So Fabio wants to align with someone to make up for his lack of a brain. The vote was split and Kelly B. (the amputee) was blind sided and on the chopping block. There has been no pity or love for the amputee girl from tribemates or the producers. After the re-vote, Kelly B. was voted out and boy did she give her teammates a dirty look. Meanwhile, the other team was eating their feast. Whatever. It was beef and chicken kabobs and the highlight seemed to be the ice cubes in the iced tea.

On Top Chef: Just Desserts, the chefs have split into one cool group and outsiders. It's so weird that the best looking guy on the show is an outsider. Anyway, the teams had to make a dessert/food dress. 2 girls landed in the bottom because they made their dresses out of vegetables. Hello, remember the name of the show? They used mannequins so I wondered why they didn't just use fondant and icing and pipe the darn things on. Morgan, the straight guy, won with a chocolate dress that was really cute and he made a purse to go with it too. Anyway, Heather's return didn't last and she was booted again. Last week, the chefs had to make black and white desserts to go with a newspaper theme. I've made black food but not intentionally and it was never edible cuz it was burnt. The chefs had a hard time finding black foods and did a lot of chocolate. The skinny outsider girl made some weak petitfors but they must've been good. The black girl made an ice cream that was neither white nor delicious and was given the boot. This time, Zack won and he didn't even use disco dust.

The Next Iron Chef had the chefs making dishes out of their catch of the day. It was cool to see the women were better at fishing than the men. The men didn't look happy about it either. I'm thinking Ming Tsai must go to the end because they hardly show him at all. There were a lot of scorpion fish caught. Chef Forgione won the quick challenge and took Tio's snapper. I saw that one coming. In the end, he won the elimination challenge too and... I can't remember who was told to go. Last week, the chefs had to transform dishes. The chefs are too critical of Chef Tsai which makes me think they really think he's the one to beat. They didn't think making a sauce into meat wasn't transforming? Then Chef Tio was deemed the winner of the quick challenge by her fellow chefs. The chefs went to the fair to transform fair food into cuisine. In the end, Chef Tio won again, although I thought Chef Tsai's food looked and sounded amazing. Chef Estes made caramel apples badly and was told to go. Donatella Arpaia confirmed what I always thought. She's not too smart and ate the peel on Chef Tsai's banana in his dessert. Duh! BTW, that small amount won't kill her so NBD. We also found the judges don't like being served something they've already had before.

On the Amazing Race, the teams first helped build the school in Ghana. I tell ya, those African people can't seem to do anything for themselves. The teams finally got out of the heat and went to Iceland. It was summer so the snow was sparse. The Glee team thought they were athletic and couldn't get down the sledding track w/out half killing themselves. The teams had to drive themselves a lot and it seems the ER docs had luck, athletic skills and good navigation cuz they came in first. The Glee team came in last and took it well. Last week, the teams went to Norway and I have to say, the Norwegians don't look like they love Americans. The ER docs decided to do the fast forward. How is it that the vegetarian people always seem to end up eating huge amounts of meat? So they had to eat a sheep's head. Ew! I about barfed when the one girl ate the eyeball and deemed it crunchy. Meanwhile, her vegetarian friend is gagging the whole time, but they did it and I loved the comments when the Norwegian guy wouldn't even crack a smile at them, "You're very inspirational." If that's a treat at Christmas, I don't even wanna know what they eat the rest of the year. The other teams had to do that ascender thing. I was very surprised that the women did it so well, especially that goth chick. The Korean team is doing well due to the fact that the son is very considerate of what his father can and cannot do. I have to say, the challenges aren't exactly tourist traps. So the ER docs came in first, one team got to the fastforward and didn't understand what the "taken" sign meant and the volleyball team was so behind, they had no hope of catching up. You can tell it's not even close when the shadows of the day aren't the same, but the producers like to make it seem like it's close. I like the women's teams this year. They're admirable and not bitchy to each other or other teams.

Okay, so I'll close with a real show. $#!& My Dad Says is good but not for the right reason. I was all geared up to enjoy a salty old veteran who doesn't give a crap what other people think. The problem is, there's absolutely no chemistry that says these people are related. Shatner just seems like that quiet guy next door. He's not quick or loud enough and his face doesn't show his crotchety-ness like it should. The son is a wuss bag that we all want to beat up. The show's really funny part is Sullivan and Sasso. These 2 were on Mad TV together and have not only great chemistry but comedy chops to go with it. They way overshadow everyone else and are the really funny part of the show. I think it would be better if the crotchety old father lived with them and they played off of each other more. Just because you base a show on a real life concept, doesn't mean you have to stick to it. It's all about what the audience likes.

Well, that's all for now. See you next time.