Month: April 2008

Big Brother 9 Winner

Big Brother 10 winner
Big Brother 8 winner
Big Brother All Stars Winner

With less producer intervention, this season of Big Brother didn’t suck nearly as bad as last season did, and the final two actually played good games, which was a nice change of pace. Now the Big Brother 9 winner comes down to Adam Jasinski or Ryan Quicksall.

I’ve gotta give the nod to Ryan on this one, despite the horrible way in which he started the game (though being partners with someone like Allison didn’t help him any). He played the same game Natalie did, except unlike her when they (stupidly) targeted her for eviction, nobody seemed to realize that he was playing all sides. He doesn’t appear to have made any enemies, and whether he screwed people over, they often either didn’t notice or didn’t care.

Adam’s certainly been an interesting character. His partnership with one of the more hateful people in the house could very easily have screwed him over, but they eventually learned to like each other. Despite the lame and silly petitions to get Adam kicked off the show because he was evil, he turned out to be a nice guy under that exterior, which allowed him to make strong relationships in the house.

As with last year, America can vote for their favorite juror, and that person will win $25,000.

Natalie’s rooting for Adam.

Nobody is surprised to see Sheila there. It would have been smart to take her to the end, though, since she wouldn’t have gotten any votes. Sheila’s pissed off at Adam because she thinks he threw the last competition. Let’s face it. Both of them sucked at that last competition.

Because Ryan was HOH one more time than Adam, the jury is saying that Adam sucked at competitions and is not a competitor. As if that even matters, but I’m sure somebody will be stupid enough to vote based on competition wins.

It’s time for the jury to ask questions. We know some of these putzes are bitter.

Matt: What are you going to do with $500,000?
Adam: $100k will start an after school program.
Ryan: Help mom and do something nice for Jen and himself. (Josh hates this answer for some reason.)

Sharon: Why did you feed me all those things?
Ryan: Fought for you to stay all week.

Chelsia: I’m a bitter whiny bitch (still), and my question doesn’t matter.

Joshuah: Ryan won more competitions.
Adam: The game isn’t just about competitions. Lost fairly in the last competition.
Josh: By the way, I’m bitter, too.

James: Adam, what makes you a better competitor, and why do you belong there instead of Sheila?
Adam: Minimized risk and won when needed.

Natalie: Baller, why didn’t you take me to the final three?
Adam: Was just honoring the wishes of the HOH.

Natalie: Why didn’t you keep your word?
Ryan: No real answer, but it was a hard decision.

Sheila: Why did you lie to my face?
Adam: Again, didn’t throw the last competition.

Josh and Chelsia have had a month to get over themselves. Unfortunately, they still haven’t. It’s a good thing that BB10’s coming up soon because that means the last we’ll ever see of either of them will be within a couple months from now.

It’s time for the jury to vote. Hopefully they’re able to show more class than they have thus far.

Matt: You did a great job. One of you is taking me to Vegas after this.

Natalie: I love you even though you suckers voted me out. I’m gonna go with my gut instinct.

Joshuah: I’m going to vote for the person who played hard in every competition and has a backbone.

Sharon: I decided on who I felt was the most loyal.

Sheila: Very easy decision after the roundtable. Hope honesty, loyalty, and trust had something to do with this.

James: I hope you party away this money.

Chelsia: I want you to do what you said at the roundtable.

Only Josh was an asshat this time around. Nice restraint from the others.

Natalie tells us she was playing all sides but was loyal to the boys. Matt apologizes to her for everything she’s about to see.

Jen still hates Allison, though Allison decides to be the bigger person and doesn’t have any hard feelings. He’ll be none too pleased when he finds out the things Jen said about him during her brief stint in the house.

Ryan finds out that Adam ratted him out to Natalie.

Adam finds out that Josh hopes to be a really bad actor.

The jury now knows there’s $25,000 up for grabs. I think we can safely say that it won’t go to Chelsia, Josh, or Sheila. My money would be on James or Sharon.

It’s now time to reveal the votes for the BB9 winner.

Matt: Adam
Natalie: Adam
Joshuah: Ryan
Sharon: Adam
Sheila: Adam
James: Adam
Chelsia: Adam

And the Big Brother 9 winner is Adam. I still think Ryan played a better game, but I can’t say that Adam played a bad game, unlike last year’s winner.

Adam has agreed to give $100,000 to the United Autism Foundation. Wait until he finds out they fired him and joined in with the others in bashing him.

Sheila came in second place in the public vote. Huh? I can only assume this was about the fact that she seems to have actual need for the money, unlike most of these kids. The winner of America’s choice, however, is James. Now if he takes the $25k, dumps Chelsia, and goes back to gay porn instead, he should be all set.

Now that the first (and probably last) midseason show is done, Big Brother 10 is fast approaching. The CBS summer schedule is packed with Big Brother as per usual, and the network will be retaining the Sundays at 8, Tuesdays at 9, Wednesdays at 8 schedule starting on July 13th. As always, stay tuned to dingoRUE for live blogs and Big Brother 10 spoilers.

Beauty and the Geek 5 Episode 6

Rather than embracing his makeover like everybody else, Joe decided to whine about it, so the girls targeted him for elimination in Beauty and the Geek 5 Episode 5. That’s where we left off, without any elimination just yet.

Because they skipped the elimination for the night, the house decided to play a prank on Tara, who believes the house is haunted. Joe doesn’t want them to do this and throws them out. Of course, Randi’s the one to get all up in his face to protest this. His response is to try to spit on her after he gets tired of listening to her mouth, much to Cara’s surprise that this happens in real life (as real as Beauty and the Geek is anyway) rather than just Jerry Springer. Then she flips out (more) and keeps going on and on and on (as usual).

If Tara or Joe win a challenge this week, they will no longer be marked for elimination.

Geeks will become firefighters. Matt can’t compete in the challenge due to his football injury, but Leticia can take his place in the challenge. Greg is hoping that there are hot firefighters there. They head to the LA fire department training facility, where they will put on full gear, attach a line to a hydrant, carry a charged 40 foot hose to the building, extinguish a fire barrel, go up a fire escape, rescue their beauties, and leap two stories with them.

Joe – 4:40
Greg – 5:10
Jason – 7:25
Leticia – more than that
Chris – 3:29
Tommy – 3:22

Matt’s able to follow up on rule #74 from his book of 100 rules of life: be somebody’s hero.

The girls will be doing math. Leticia wants to sleep out in the sun because math is hard without sleep. Randi calls math stupid. Cara hates math. Tara seems serious, though. They go to a recycling and transfer station. They need to jump into a pile of trash and grab cans (worth 3 cents), plastic bottles (7 cents), and glass bottles (10 cents). They need to collect exactly $5. Most of the girls are big babies about the smell of the trash. Cara is first to think she has the right amount, but she’s only got $2.03. Randi knows for a fact she’s got $5 but may be off by a can. Her actual total is $6.95. Tara’s giving up. Apparently, this trash is going to make her die tomorrow, and it’s not worth the effort for quarter of a million dollars. Leticia thinks she has $5 but actually has $5.03, just one extra can. Kristina spoke up right after her. She actually has the right amount, and she wins the challenge.

Amanda wants to take out the threats, but the others would rather get rid of someone who isn’t growing (Randi obviously). Tara and Joe, who were nominated last week, will be going up against Greg and Randi. Randi believes it’s because she’s a threat. I’d argue it’s because she’s obnoxious. At least we both agree her personality is the problem. She seems to be confused that standing up for yourself means mowing other people down and being loud. The house is happy to be getting rid of the conflict between Randi and Joe (she’ll start with someone else if she survives), but they’re not happy to see Greg in danger.

Tara gets the first smarter than a third grader math question right. Joe gets the first hero question right. Randi gets the second math question right. Neither of the guys are able to answer the silly question about James Bond (who I guess is supposed to be a hero). Joe answers a question about The Sopranos, and Randi and Greg have been eliminated. Good riddance to Randi. Joe apologizes to her for what he’s done. Not only does she not apologize in return nor accept his apology, but she continues to rant and rave. And that’s why it’s good she’s getting kicked off the show. Randi doesn’t believe there’s anything wrong now or that there was anything wrong with her to begin with.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another recap of Beauty and the Geek 5 episode 8, which airs Tuesday at 8/7c on The CW.

The Tudors Renewed for Season 3

The Tudors season 2 just started, and Showtime hasn’t wasted any time in renewing it for a season 3.

“The Tudors is now a fixture for us at Showtime, and we’re on our way to completing the entire saga of all six wives of Henry VIII,” Robert Greenblatt of Showtime said. “We are enormously proud of this show, the extraordinary cast and the production team that recreates the grandeur of the Renaissance year in and year out. There is nothing like this anywhere on American television.”

The Apprentice UK Series 4 Episode 5

Simon told Sir Alan that he was more than just a physical worker but was unable to prove it in The Apprentice UK Series 4 Episode 4, resulting in his firing. In a pitiful victory, Helene proved she’s also not going to win the job, though she squeaked out another week. Letting Claire know she’s on thin ice, Sir Alan threw her out of the boardroom and told her he’s sick of looking at her.

Sir Alan rings the doorbell when everybody is sleeping. He wants Kevin to move (back) to Renaissance. As discussed last week, Renaissance’s project manager will be Claire. Since Lucinda has proven useless on more than one task (though in each case she had incompetent project managers), she will be the project manager for Alpha.

The task is to visit farms that make ice cream. They’ll develop flavors of ice cream to expand their business into London.

Claire’s first order of business is to tell people that she realizes she can be overpowering so they should reel her in. Jenny’s got an interesting but not particularly good concept of various liquor flavors.

Helene still hates Lucinda for proving last week that Helene isn’t a manager.

Renaissance will be making three flavors: berry mania (blueberries, strawberries, and cherries), chocolate orange, and cider/eldeflower. They’re warned they’ll need to buy and hand squeeze about 50 oranges for the chocolate orange flavor, which can be very laborious but will deliver a good flavor.

Alpha’s having difficulty coming up with their flavors. They go with cosmopolitan, toffee apple, and avocado.

Now that they’ve got their flavors, they must drum up business for a local taste testing before bringing the products to London to sell to stores and bars.

Margaret likes Lucinda, who lets her team know what she needs but isn’t a dictator. She even seems to be getting along with Helene.

After they set up the taste tests, the next job is to book appointments. Jennifer is focusing on independent cinemas and manages to score multiple bookings.

At 6:15pm, Claire’s team finally returns with their ingredients, which were necessary to complete any more than just the berry flavor. This gives them just two hours to prepare for the tasting session, which they haven’t invited anybody to yet.

Lucinda’s team is finishing up with their production at about 7:50. The cosmopolitan fails to make any impact. People like the avocado with a hint of a chili, the strangest ice cream flavor I’ve ever heard of. Toffee apple also gets the thumbs up. Good thing they only wanted to pick two.

Renaissance is still in the kitchen and 30 minutes late for their tasting. Michael decides to head into the local pub because they still don’t have anybody to taste their ice cream. The guy he gets isn’t so sure how discerning his pallette will be since he’s drunk.

Although alpha is booked with appointments, Renaissance only has two guaranteed appointments setup, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. Alex is particularly unimpressed by the sales team that’s only been able to get two appointments having worked on it all day.

Jennifer is reluctant to give away appointments she’s made to the other half of her team. One appointment she does give them is at an ice cream parlour, where the guy makes his own ice cream. Lindi’s response is that, even if they have their own ice cream maker, they’re still going to buy.

Renaissance believes they’ve gotten a break. One cinema house has 18 cinemas, and they have another meeting setup to see whether they can sell them across all of them.

The other team, however, has a meeting with the same cinema chain, but they were able to secure a meeting with the head buyer already. At this meeting, they agree to buy 100 liters. Afterwards, Alex gets a call breaking the bad news that they won’t be able to purchase any ice cream from them.

Their door-to-door strategy due to lack of appointments has only managed to move 30 liters. Claire’s last hope is her second pre-booked appointment. All they’re able to get there is an agreement to fill their fridge one time. Nick thinks the shop is perfect despite the small order, but it’s too bad they didn’t have one of those orders every hour.

Lucinda isn’t happy with her poor leads from the other half of the team, so she takes a different direction and gets an order from a specialty restaurant that was just about to change its menu. Lee thinks she’s been brilliant and that she is clearly a manager.

The other half of her team gets an order of 130 liters at the agreement that this will be a timed exclusive for their pub of three months.

It’s looking like this is going to be a blowout, but there’s one last glimmer of hope at a trendy bar and grill for Renaissance. This place makes their own food but is willing to buy ice cream if it’s at a discount. It’s a nice 200 liter deal.

Jennifer and Raef downplay Lucinda’s contribution.

Jenny and Michael are pleased with Claire’s performance. In the boardroom, Jennifer is happy that Lucinda was positive for a change, but she refuses to compliment her.

Sir Alan thinks it’s funny that half of the appointments that Alpha booked were with people who made their own ice cream. He’s not surprised that this was a waste of time.

Lucinda points out that she considered mixing up her teams. Sir Alan thinks this is a great idea. She didn’t do it, though, as she didn’t want to make people unhappy since their response was negative. Jennifer, with her guilty conscience, speaks up to say she wasn’t negative.

Alpha had total orders of £1,273.64. Renaissance had £1,455.45. Based on the editing, this is not what I was expecting at all, though when I heard Alpha’s flavors, I wasn’t expecting them to have much luck. The last deal, netting £800, was the difference.

Sir Alan and his advisors are happy that Claire seems to be a changed person. Renaissance is happy to see Jennifer, Raef, and Lindi’s bragging fall short of what they’d promised.

Lee doesn’t like that people didn’t complain about the team until the boardroom. Helene was impressed with Lucinda. Now she’s set her sights on a new target: Jennifer.

Sir Alan wants to know who was the main opposition to reassigning the teams. Lucinda starts to give an answer, but just decides to sum it up in one word. Jennifer. She follows that up by saying that Helene said some bad things about Jennifer. Helene interrupts and says Lucinda is lying and that she doesn’t need anyone to speak for her and that, if she was going to be uncomfortable working with anybody, it would have been Lucinda.

Jennifer offered exclusivity to the cinema chain, without being asked, which had not been discussed prior to the appointment. Jennifer’s response is that Lindi offered exclusivity for the pub, which was only for three months and only when asked, but Sir Alan considers even that to be too much. After these exclusivity appointments, they had to cancel others because of the agreements. Had Sir Alan known about this, he would have voided the exclusive sales, which would have brought them down to almost nothing.

Lucinda wants to bring back Jennifer and Lindi.

Sir Alan’s concerned about Lucinda’s lack of control over her marketing team. He’s also concerned about Lindi’s leadership of her marketing team. Nick feels a chill between Jennifer and everybody else but thinks she’s a good salesperson.

Lucinda and Jennifer want each other fired. After a long-winded response, Lindi wants Jennifer fired based on the task but Lucinda fired overall (well, at least I think that’s what she was going to say, but Jennifer didn’t let her finish).

Because she was second in command in and in charge of the sales team (and also less likely to cause drama than Jennifer), Lindi is fired. In her application, Jennifer says that one of her worst qualities is giving idiots a second chance. With that in mind, Sir Alan’s decided to give her a second chance.

In closing, we get some parting shots at Jennifer. Michael’s not a big fan at all. Alex thinks she’s a wannabe ice queen.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another recap of The Apprentice UK Series 4 episode 6.

Survivor: Micronesia Episode 11

Ozzy finally realized he wasn’t the genius he thought he was in Survivor: Micronesia Episode 10, as he was blindsided by his allies for being too big of a threat.

Parvati knows she needs to do some damage control since James and Amanda are pissed at her. She admits the girl power alliance to James, though. He tells her it’s gonna be awkward and that she’s selfish, not stupid. Unlike James, Amanda plays nice, to their faces anyway.

It’s time for the Survivor auction. Cirie spends $120 on a mystery dish: hot dog and french fries. Erik buys a covered item for $80 and is given the option for trading for another covered item. He passed up the octopus. He gets a huge tray of nachos. Natalie gets a bowl of bats. She doesn’t want it, but James does. Amanda bids $280 for peanutbutter & jelly and a glass of milk. Natalie bids $240 on a covered item, which is a bottle with a note: she picks someone to go to exile immediately and takes all the money they have left. A new idol has been hidden. Oh. Damnit. If the people are smart enough to get rid of it, don’t replant the damn thing. This is just wrong and stupid. Jason goes to exile. Natalie uses Jason’s cash to buy a chocolate cake and a note. She has to pick three people, and she picks the girls: Parvati, Cirie, and Alexis. They have 60 seconds to eat as much cake as they can. They’re going to regret this. Erik offers $40 to lick Cirie’s fingers.

Everybody wants Jason gone, but the problem is that now they’ve decided to send him to exile island, where he has a chance to find the new (and stupid) hidden immunity idol. Last time he managed to find the hidden immunity idol stick without much trouble. He believes he can trust Natalie, and if he finds the idol, he’d like to use it to help her. As expected, Jason finds the idol, one that’s not a stick with a happy face.

The girls have a plan to blindside Jason into not using his immunity, as they believe he trusts Natalie. Failing that, they hope to get rid of James instead.

The immunity challenge consists of multiple rounds. The first to finish move on to the next round. Natalie whispers to Jason that James is going home and that she sent him to exile for a reason. Jason, Erik, James, and Amanda are the first to break their tiles with rocks and move on to the second round. In this round, they must dig for a key, build a puzzle wheel, lower their planks, and cross them. James and Erik move on. In the final round, they’ll cross a rope bridge using planks. James falls and loses a lot of time. He manages to recover and gains a lot of ground, but it’s not enough to beat Erik across. Erik wins immunity.

When Jason leaves, they search his bag as planned and find out he’s got the idol. He admits to Natalie that he found it anyway. She calls herself a stone cold bitch and is loving it.

James wants to vote out Parvati, but Amanda doesn’t think Jason will play his idol just yet, though James can’t imagine anyone being voted out with an idol in their back pocket (or two).

Ozzy still doesn’t look happy. Jeff points out the obvious: James is a big physical threat. Jason does not play his idol.

Votes
James
Jason
James
Parvati
James
Jason
Jason
Jason

Jason is the second person in a row to be blindsided based at least in part on having the hidden idol. Don’t worry, though. Probst will probably hide another one. Or two. I’ve got an idea. Why not just give everybody a hidden idol and turn the show into Survivor: Forever Eden?

At the end of the day, I don’t think it really matters that Jason didn’t play the idol. If he didn’t go, James would have gone, then Jason would be gone next week. Based on the votes, though, had Amanda followed James’ advice and voted Parvati, it would have forced a tie.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of Survivor: Micronesia Episode 12 I’m Gonna Fix Her, which airs Thursday at 8/7c on CBS.

Watch Survivor: Micronesia Online

American Idol 7 Episode 34

Results will be posted live as they become available.

The Davids are up first. Both David Cook and David Archuleta are safe.

Syesha Mercado and Brooke White are next. Brooke is safe. Syesha is in the bottom two.

That brings us to Jason Castro and Carly Smithson. Jason is safe. Carly joins Syesha in the bottom two.

Carly has been eliminated. She’s one of the more talented singers to leave, but I do wonder about just how marketable she is considering her first record deal went down in flames.

Big Brother 9 Episode 32

Following some silly planning to keep Sharon in the house, Ryan and Adam struck a deal to keep Sheila safe in the last minutes, and Sharon was voted out in Big Brother 9 Episode 31. The first part of the three part HOH competition was an endurance competition, and that’s where we left off.

Adam’s happy his bond with Sheila is stronger. Ryan’s happy there’s no blood on his hands.

The boys decide they’re going to taunt Sheila in the HOH competition, but it’s not like it matters because what are the odds she’ll win anyway? Sheila is the first one eliminated from the first part of the HOH competition. Adam agrees to throw the competition and gives the win to Ryan. Adam believes that no matter what happens, one of them will take him to the end.

Part two of the HOH competition is a maze powered by a guinea pig wheel, where they will try to get the correct order of HOH winners. Sheila gets dizzy and keeps falling.

Sheila – 33:26
Adam – 14:55

Adam wins the second part of the HOH competition, and he will be going up against Ryan in the final round.

Sheila tells Adam he must win because if he doesn’t win, Ryan will take him and not her. Not sure how convincing an argument that’s supposed to be.

Ryan believes he may stand a slightly better chance up against Sheila in the end.

Adam’s well aware Sheila has buttered everyone up after they got kicked out of the house, whether they hated her or not.

Matt says he and Josh should have been friends in the house. Chelsia says Matt’s been miserable in the house since Natalie came, and Natalie tells us that Matt doesn’t spend much time with her any more. Matt is happy that his team wins no matter what, though. The jury realizes that Adam and Ryan worked together to get rid of Sharon, thanks to Adam not being able to keep anything to himself.

The final HOH competition is the typical jury questions HOH.

Matt: Houseguest I wish I was nicer to: Natalie or James.
Natalie is the right answer. Both get it right.

Chelsia: Most expects to read about giving up half a million dollars for a showmance or told everyone out on her way out the door.
Right answer is giving up the money for a showmance. Both get it wrong. I’d have gotten it wrong because I’ll remember her more for being an asshat as she was leaving.

Joshuah: Who most deserves to win the game: Josh or Sharon.
Joshuah is the correct answer. Ryan gets it right.

James: I think me and Chelsia will: Bike around the world or the relationship will sink.
Inevitably sink is right. Both are right.

Natalie: Best showmance: Natalie & Matt or James & Chelsia
Right answer is James & Chelsia. Both are wrong.

Sharon: Biggest lie she told: Back caused her to quit in the endurance competition or never told a lie
Right answer is her back caused her to quit. Both are wrong again.

Ryan wins the final HOH competition.

Either way, Ryan is probably sending a vote for the other person to the jury house, but I’d say his best bet is Sheila. She’s the kind of person you want to drag to the final two with you because she’ll have trouble getting votes.

Ryan votes to evict Sheila, telling Adam he’s more deserving as far as gameplay is concerned, which may score him some points with the jury.

So there we have our final two: Adam Jasinski and Ryan Quicksall. Not a bad final two. Certainly a vast improvement over the joke that was last year.

Sheila feels it’s a blessing to be in the final three, but the waterworks have been flowing for several minutes now. She says that Adam will be her lifelong friend.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of Big Brother 9 Episode 33, where we will find out who the BB9 winner is, which airs Sunday at 8/7c on CBS.