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.