Nearing Finish Lines

Hello everybody, it's an exciting yet sad time too.  The season for reality shows is wrapping up but you know how that goes.  More are coming up for the summer.  Ok, well, we may as well get to it.

On the Amazing Race, the finale went to Hawaii.  I love the last leg because racers are so glad to be in the States w/ everybody driving on the right side of the road and speaking English.  I've been calling the wonder team the Airforce guy and and wife but actually he's an Army pilot and wife.  First, we start w/ the final four teams in Japan.  For the Roadblock, someone has to participate in a Japanese gameshow and it's hilarious as usual.  Since it's the end of the race, there's little choice as to who has to do the last roadblock.  The divorced couple team and the border patrol guys seems to have better luck w/ the transportation because the other teams take the subway.  The Japanese Gameshow challenge is called Bring That Chicken Home.  A person runs on a treadmill to retrieve rubber chickens hanging in the air and then finally runs and jumps on the end to finish.  It's hilarious because they have that treadmill going at a quick pace.  The border patrol guys get there first and finish in good time.  The divorced couple have a very hard time of it due to Vanessa's sprained ankle but what a gal.  She cries, falls, cries, the treadmill is slowed way down for her and she finally guts it out w/ Ralph yelling at her to just quit and take the penalty.  Even though she does finish, the other teams come and go.  The detour is a choice between matching sushi and eating it to taking funny tourist pictures.  The only team to do the pictures is the Army guy and wife.  The other teams are starving and I have to admit, that sushi does look good.  I loved Art stuffing as much sushi in his mouth as he could while running out the door.  Of course, the Army guy and wife hit the mat first.  Unfortunately for the divorced couple, they come in last and are eliminated.  Vanessa may as well have just skipped the roadblock and saved a lot of wear and tear on her painful ankle.  As they walked away, I said, "I feel for ya girl."  Okay so on to the very last leg.  All the teams are on the same plane and the first task is to use an ascender to get to the top of a skyscraper and then reverse rappel down it.  The border patrol find a taxi driver who's not familiar w/ his territory.  That's not good.  Of course, the Army guy and wife are done w/ the task first.  The border patrol guys seem way behind.  Then they have a roadblock type task that has them shaving a bucket of ice from an ice block.  Okay.  Somehow at this point, the Army guy and wife find the wrong arrows pointing to a marked path, surf paddle to an island and find themselves at the finish line.  Here's where it gets weird.  They're told by Phil, "You have not done the roadblock."  OMG!  How embarrassing is that?  They head back to the surfpaddle boards.  Meanwhile, the border patrol guys have found the correct marked path to the roadblock.  Art, who has the worst sense of balance ever, finds himself unable to slide down a hill on a skinny sled.  Army guy and wife arrive to the correct place and of course, finish before border patrol.  Big Brother team does the same.  Poor Art, he sucks so much and the other half of his team tries to be supportive but they see their lead slide away; literally.  So of course the Army guy and wife win the million to no one's surprise.  It seems the only thing people care about is that Big Brother team doesn't win.  I noticed Rachel didn't make any friends cuz she couldn't find anyone to hug at the end when everyone was giving out congrats.  I have to say, the finale of the race wasn't that exciting because it was so predictable and we were tired of seeing the same couple come in first all of the time.  I guess people can be too perfect in the race.

Chopped Champions also had it's finale.  The last 4 chefs were Jeffrey Saad, Marcus Samuellson, Fred Munster's daughter and Michael Symon.  My money is on Samuellson and guess what.  I'm not wrong.  The surprising part of the show was when Symon was eliminated first.  Yep, leaving a required ingredient off the plate is usually the kiss of death.  For the rest of the world, it seemed we just didn't want Fred Munster's daughter to win and she didn't.  Yay!  We don't care who you're trying to be or trying to fool, we still remember you from Next Food Network Star and we still hate you.  Really though;  did anybody doubt the Top Chef Master?  Of course he won and did it looking sexy the whole time.

The Celebrity Apprentice had it's last task before the finale.  The teams had to do a print ad and presentation for a new hairdryer.  It's Teresa and Lisa's turns to be project managers.  Teresa's so lame, she can't even do a negotiation for models w/ Lisa.  It was so funny to watch because Lisa really didn't care who she got and Teresa totally gave away her top preference right out of the gate.  Lisa sticks Unanimous w/ a model w/ hardly any hair.  Ironically, they didn't even use the model that Teresa fought so hard for.  Nobody was surprised to find Aubrey making herself a model.  It's so weird how she gets more and more skanky looking every week.  People working w/ the team can't figure out who's supposed to be in charge and Aubrey is trying hard not to be bossy.  Arsenio runs the photography and does a good job w/ what the girls want. Hint; people usually don't like their product at the bottom of the picture or in a person's crotch area.  Meanwhile, on Forte, Lisa and Clay are doing the task quite smoothly utilizing outside people well.  One thing I notice; Lisa is really good at getting the correct things in the ads she makes.  People want their product described and the advantages of having it spelled out.  In the end Lisa wins 100K for her charity and Teresa gets the boot.  Then everyone chats a bit in the suite before being called back into the boardroom.  It's announced that it's time for their interviews w/ last year's top 2.  It is so much fun to see Marley Matlin and John Rich again.  I've always loved his telling Trump, "Just give me the check!"  LOL.  The interviews are shown differently in a kind of flashback reminiscing thing while Marley and John talk to Trump.  It's kind of cool.  We end the show w/ a huge shocker; Lisa is fired.  OMG!  I hate to say it but the most intelligent person is out.  I guess Trump isn't looking for brains.  I can't wait for next week!

Survivor: One World is down to 5 women and one wild man.  Chelsea is nice enough to talk to Christina on the way to treemail.  I often think people just tell people they want to be friends w/ them just to be nice.  Christina proves herself to be the dumbest person on the island and proceeds to blab the whole conversation to the rest of the women.  This was a great test for Kim and Chelsea to see if Christina is savvy at all.  She isn't.  It's not good to prove your stupidity in this game because it make you very disposable.  Buck toothed Alicia is looking and seeming as nasty as ever and says she's running the game.  Really?  I'm betting, if they could, the tribe would club her like a baby seal.  The luxury challenge has the people running in circles and doing a puzzle.  Chelsea wins a night on a yacht w/ food, bed and hot shower.  She picks 2 buddies to go w/her:  Kim and Sabrina.  It's her whole alliance.  Back on the island, Tarzan comes out of his alzheimer's stupor and points out the tight threesome to Alicia and Christina.  Alicia talks up a plan and Christina does her best to not look like a moron.  When the 3 get back, Kim acts like her 3 are no big deal.  Kim's got the whole tribe trusting her like Mother Theresa.  For immunity, the survivors have to do that digging, hooking bags and putting fish bone puzzle together.  The new thing is, they have to do it w/ only 1 hand.  Oh BFD!  This time Alicia pulls out the win.  That puzzle looked so easy even Kat could've done it.  Back at camp Kim directs everybody's focus to Tarzan but it's easy cuz he's acting insane again.  At tribal, there really is no blindside.  Tarzan's the last man and he gets all the girls' votes.  Meanwhile, Kat's still crying.  The Ponderosa video shows Tarzan really is a kook but a loveable one.  What a character!  LOL!  I can't wait for the finale!

America's Next Top Model had the girls doing some kind of skit w/ martial arts.  Even though Ebony looked the best at it, the Chinese action star guy doing the judging has the hots for Laura and declares her the winner.  Whatever.  For the photoshoot, the girls had to model at the top of a skyscraper in high winds and rain.  I don't blame them a bit for being scared shitless.  They probably weigh 110 pounds soaking wet.  I'm surprised they aren't blown off the building.  OMG!  In the end, Alesha quits and Ebony is eliminated.  Wow!  That was quick cuz now they're down to 3 and they still haven't done their go-sees.  I can't wait for next week.  I wonder if it'll be the finale?

The new chef show on Bravo is Around the World In 80 Plates.  It's interesting.  Cat Cora's contract w/ the food network must be over cuz she's hosting w/ Curtis Stone.  It's 16 chefs who go to a city, do a challenge as a team and then take over a restaurant and cook the native dishes.  Someone gets eliminated each week.  How come Boston chefs always come off as kind of dirty, fat and gross?  They're in London.  The group is split into 2 teams and they do a pub crawl.  At each pub they eat a dish and drink a drink.  The red team made a really wise decision to take a cab to their first destination and they keep the lead to the end.  It's a quick start and they can ask people at that place for directions to the next place.  At the 2nd pub, the dish is steak and kidney pie or the team can drink a yard of ale instead.  Ick.  Black team opts to not eat the dish and drink instead.  By the time the teams get to the last pub they're all drunk and it's kind of funny.  You can tell the locals don't care for drunk tourists.  So the winning team gets an ingredient that the other team can't use and it's potatoes.  OMG!  One chef says, "How you supposed to make fish and chips w/out potatoes?"  I'm all, "No kidding!"  Even though the red team gets the advantage, they prove you also need smarts.  England is one of the countries where you eat the main course just to get to the dessert.  The red team decides not to do a dessert.  Really?  Also, they have the only vegetarian chef.  They lose and here's a new twist, the team decides by individual votes who gets sent home.  Somehow, even though the Boston chef made the ugliest looking and tasting dish, he convinces the rest of the team to vote out the vegetarian chef and back home she goes.  Bye!

Hmmm...I hope the shows starting up will be better.  Bravo showed a marathon of Top Chef Masters season 3.  It was fun to watch again.  I still admire Mary Sue Millikin so much.  She cuts off the top of her finger and says, "I'm just so annoyed."  and just keeps on cooking.  Wow!  What a woman!  I fell in love w/ Floyd again and I'm still convinced I went to school w/ Naomi Pomeroy's siblings or at least relatives.

Well, that's it for this week.  I'm on pins and needles for next week's finales.  See you round people.  Stay Tuned!