Month: April 2008

The Biggest Loser 5 Episode 15

The girls stayed strong in The Biggest Loser Couples Episode 14, so the guys were forced to choose one of their own, as the two brothers fell below the yellow line. At Jay’s request, they voted him out, bringing us down to the final four: Ali Vincent, Mark Kruger, Kelly Fields, and Roger Shultz.

Because the trainers are too busy working on The Biggest Loser Australia, the contestants won’t have trainers for their last week.

Rocco DiSpirito of The Restaurant is back. He spoke to their loved ones to find out what their favorite dishes are. Rather than having them continue to eat these meals that are bad for them or just simply avoiding them forever, he’s going to show them how to make healthy alternatives. By making substitutions like chickpea flour instead of white flour and brown rice instead of white rice, he cuts Roger’s dish down from 1700 to 385 calories, Kelly’s from 1300-1500 to 500, Ali’s from 1500 to 511, and Mark’s (ice cream no less) from 810 to 270.

Allison’s got some fat suits for them, which are precise replicas of what their bodies weighed when they first started. They’ll run to the end of the beach, shed the weight, grab a flag, and run to the top of the mountain. The winner will receive specially prepared food every day until the finale, along with $10,000. Mark gets off to an early lead as usual. Roger arrives at the shedding station just as Mark’s done taking his fat suit off. Ali’s right behind him, with Kelly in last. This is how the order stays, and Mark wins the final challenge.

Jillian and Bob are back for the final day and a pep talk. Allison warns them she’s got a special surprise for each of them. They get to see videos of themselves from when they started and their journey throughout the season.

It’s time for the weigh-in.

Roger: 219 pounds (-15, 6.41%), down 39.66% from his starting weight of 363 pounds
Mark: 169 pounds (-12, 6.63%), down 40.70% from his starting weight of 285 pounds
Ali: 135 pounds (-11, 7.53%), down 42.30% from her starting weight of 234 pounds
Kelly: 178 pounds (-13, 6.81%), down 34.31% from her starting weight of 271 pounds.

Huge numbers all around and a new record for Roger with 144 pounds lost on campus. Ali has also set a record, with 99 pounds lost on campus, and she’s also unquestionably kicking ass when it comes to percentages. Two boys end up below the yellow line again.

Roger assumes he’s going home, but as we knew, there’s a twist. The girls don’t have the power here. America will decide whether it’s Roger or Mark who go forward. I don’t like America having a vote like this, but there are a lot of ways this can be played. Is it based on who was the best competitor? Nicest guy? Most weight lost? Who will be the most threatening to Ali’s quest to become the first female Biggest Loser?

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another recap of The Biggest Loser: Couples episode 16, where we will find out who the winner is, which airs Tuesday at 8/7c on NBC.

The Apprentice UK Series 4 Episode 3

In The Apprentice UK Series 4 Episode 2, Jenny was obnoxious. Then she was obnoxious some more. Then she added a side of obnoxiousness to this. Despite her miserable leadership skills, though, she survived the boardroom, and Shazia was fired for her mistake on the task.

The task is to boost pub business by putting on a food service. Unlike Donald Trump, who makes a “suggestion” in cases like this, Sir Alan comes right out and tells teams he’s picking the team leaders. Ian and Sara are the project managers.

Sara says she’ll be a strong leader but is worried that she may be too strong, so she tells her team to tell her if they’re having problems. The first thing she needs to do is switch to decaf and slow down a bit.

Now that they’ve won, the boys seem to be united as a group. Ian refuses to say the word that’s opposite of winners that begins with l. They agree on an Italian theme.

Sara decides to do a Bollywood night because “everyone loves a good curry.” I’m gonna have to take her word for that. They take a vote, and the traditional English food idea gets shot down. Claire, who came up with the English theme, is most vocal against the Bollywood theme because of the cost involved and the lack of a wide appeal. They head to an Indian restaurant to get an idea of how to set everything up.

Both teams get a kitchen advisor who won’t cook but is there “so they don’t poison anyone.”

Kevin’s the head chef for the boys but doesn’t really know what makes for an Italian menu. Once they figure it out, half the team heads to buy supplies. Lee expresses a concern about the pricing, but he can’t have an answer right now because they don’t really know.

The boys go for expensive printed menus; the girls make a deal and get them for free in exchange for advertising. Alex does manage to cut the price in half to £1 per menu, though.

Sara believes that Claire is creating drama because they ignored her English food idea.

Sir Alan’s given the teams a list of cut price wholesale dealers, but the guys opt instead to just buy vegetables locally. While they’re shopping, Michael calls to complain about the soup pricing, which they agree to lower to £2.95. Kevin says the £4.25 is what he would pay, and Lee doesn’t understand the reasoning behind the call.

The guys are giving away their pamphlets, but the girls have come up with the idea to sell theirs for £5, which will be given as a discount on the meal, a concept that will ensure that the people that are getting these are actually interested.

More bad news for the boys. They’ll have to pay supermarket prices since they were unable to get to the wholesalers. Despite the massive expenses, though, they forgot something and must stop food prep until they’re able to go shopping again. Kevin wants Ian to know that if they don’t have the food ready, it’s his fault for not insisting that the other group go and get what they need.

The girls have bought meat locally for less than 1/4th what the guys spent, but Sara bought the wrong spices and not enough to begin with. She’s unconcerned when the advisor tells her this.

Bollywood’s going about as well as could have been expected. Nobody knows how to cook Indian food, and they don’t have the right ingredients even if they did.

An hour into lunch, the boys are starting to run out of key ingredients, meaning another trip to the supermarket. Those who are eating already are unimpressed. Lee brings this information back to Kevin, who’s not happy with the feedback.

5 hours late, the girls finally have their food ready to go. Claire was concerned that lunch customers wouldn’t be interested in curry. The good news in that regard is that they were unable to get the lunch crowd anyway.

By this time, the boys have their act together better. Kevin wants to take the time for a pep talk. The others aren’t thrilled with this. Just get on with it already. They run low on supplies again, but Ian’s got the solution for this: cut the pizzas in half. That doesn’t go over well for one of the customers, who expects to receive a whole pizza.

This is an interesting one. The boys had trouble controlling their costs. The girls had trouble controlling… everything else. A win will come in spite of their performance, rather than because of it.

Nobody answers when asked how Ian was as a team leader. Sara gets more support from her team than he does.

Renaissance took £844.97 but spent £543, for a profit of £301.97. Alpha took £795 and spent only £170.93, for a profit of £624.07. They realize that they would have lost if the boys were better at controlling costs.

Sir Alan wants to know who was in charge of pricing. Ian points the finger at Kevin. His response is he never wanted the responsibility of being head chef. Margaret questions why they set the prices before they even knew what it was even going to cost. Ian also blames Simon’s difficult communication style, who says he didn’t stay positive because he had nothing to stay positive about.

In addition to buying too much food, they spent £272 on marketing, for margins that weren’t good enough to begin with. Michael steps in and says he made decisions on pricing because they had to get the menus done.

Ian brings back Kevin and Simon. Not sure why he wouldn’t bring back Michael, who’s a much better target than Simon. He explains that Simon’s too much about problems and not enough about solutions. Simon makes a point that the two people who are brought back are the two people under his direct control. Kevin blames the others who aren’t in the boardroom for railroading Ian into changing the pricing.

Ian is fired for losing control of the task. Kevin talks a good game but needs to do something more to survive. Sir Alan is disappointed that Simon seems to be nothing more than a physical worker.

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

Jericho Season 3?

CBS has cancelled Jericho. Twice. But that doesn’t mean the show’s done just yet. According to the New York Times, CBS Paramount Network Television has held talks with Comcast in an effort to find new life for the program.

The plan is to offer a Friday Night Lights-esque deal, as that show was saved for a third season when DirecTV obtained the rights to show it first in exchange for helping with production costs. DirecTV customers will be able to see the show four months earlier than regular CBS viewers.

Of course, even if this plan falls through, there are other avenues, including a move to cable. Either way we’re likely to see continued budget cuts if there is a season 3.

Survivor: Micronesia Episode 9

Ami tried to get the favorites on her side in Survivor: Micronesia Episode 8, but Ozzy kept his pet around instead, so Ami was voted off the island.

Eliza and Jason hope it was Erik, though both of them know they’re outcasts either way. He tells her he’s got the hidden immunity idol.

Treemail suggests it’s time to merge. Immediately means right now. Erik knows he’s allied with Ozzy now because he’s a monkey or something.

Parvati’s got an alliance with the favorites, as well as her girl power alliance of herself, Amanda, Natalie, and Alexis, the latter two I swear are actually on the island (somewhere).

Eliza’s upset to see that Ami’s gone because Ami is her closest ally/friend, odd considering how things went down in their season.

It’s officially time to merge, and everybody wants to go back to Malakal. They get some bats to eat. I hope they’re to eat anyway because James grabs it like it’s KFC. At Erik’s suggestion, the new tribe name is Dabu, which he claims means good, even though it’s just a made up word.

Ozzy’s hooking up with somebody new, Alexis. Amanda’s not happy. Bye bye girl power alliance.

Jason takes the first opportunity he can to hide his hidden immunity stick. He hopes he doesn’t forget where he hid it.

Eliza tries to get a commitment out of Parvati. She gets an “I don’t know.” Parvati doesn’t trust her at all, in which case I’d suggest lying to her. She tells Amanda she wants to target Eliza next, then she tells her she’s in an alliance with the two fan girls, one she never agreed to or knew about. Amanda’s now pissed off at Parvati.

Jason tells Eliza that if he wins immunity, he’ll give her his hidden idol.

The challenge is to take a spot under a grate in the water as the tide rises. Whoever stays there longest wins. At first it’s just a waiting game until the tide rises to start covering their heads. Amanda is first out. At 45 minutes, Parvati and Alexis are out. Cirie follows. Natalie is next, followed by Eliza. Erik is next. At 1 hour, James is out. Ozzy is out next, and Jason wins immunity.

Now he can give his hidden idol to Eliza. This won’t go over well.

Eliza’s still Parvati’s target, and she knows it. She asks Jason to give her the idol. Their plan hinges on the idol, and they plan to vote out Ozzy. He leaves the idol in her bag. Unlike him, she immediately knows it’s not the idol. It can’t be the idol. “Because it’s just a stick.”

Amanda and Cirie want to get rid of Alexis, and Cirie wants her to know that Ozzy’s playing her.

Alexis tells Jeff Probst Eliza played (past tense) a strong game but was not good socially. Ozzy and James know that it wouldn’t be a bad idea to take Eliza to the end. Parvati lets her know without question she wants her gone.

Eliza decides she’s got nothing to lose, so she plays the stick, primarily to reveal that Ozzy has the real one so people go after him next. He willingly admits this is true.

Votes
Eliza
Ozzy
Ozzy
Eliza
Eliza
Eliza
Eliza
Eliza

I think it’s safe to say they got rid of the biggest threat, although Ozzy with his hidden idol and as an immunity threat should probably be dealt with sooner than later. Jason’s revealed himself as even more of an outcast than previously thought. It’s no longer fans vs. favorites, so I might have to actually learn who all these fans are.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of Survivor: Micronesia Episode 10 I Promise…, which airs Thursday at 8/7c on CBS.

Watch Survivor: Micronesia Online

Big Brother 9 Episode 26

Adam’s boneheaded move turned out okay in Big Brother 9 Episode 25, as Ryan won the veto and removed Sheila from the block, allowing the house to get its way and have James nominated alongside Sharon.

Even though he’s a dead man walking, James isn’t giving up yet. His plan is not to campaign against Sharon. Rather, he will campaign against Natalie, a power player who isn’t even on the block. That’s… different. She tells him he’s just like Chelsia.

The boys are starting to turn on Natalie, but now the girls are trying to form their own alliance as well, though Sheila’s not buying it. Sheila and Sharon say they don’t trust Natalie. Natalie tells Adam he can’t trust the girls because they’ll get rid of him.

Sheila’s plan is still to go to the end with Adam, but she doesn’t want anybody to know. She tells him that Natalie’s targeting him and Ryan.

James hopes to get Ryan and Sheila’s votes. He presents an argument that doesn’t hold a great deal of logic or opportunity for either of them, but it’s worth a shot.

Even though she’s not on Team Christ, Sharon’s a big believer in God following her car wreck.

Matt’s hoping to see James or if not him a female of some type. He gets Chelsia if that’s close enough. She hopes to see Natalie but has a bad feeling, and she gets Joshuah. Matt thinks he’s just like a girl on her period.

Votes
Natalie-James
Ryan-James
Sheila-James

By a unanimous vote, James has been evicted from the Big Brother house. I give him credit for hanging in there for as long as he did (and for being one of the most hypocritical players ever), but the simple fact is that James overplayed and was unable to recover from his early aggressive decisions. Unlike his buddies Josh and Chelsia, James goes out in a nice way, saying goodbye to everybody. He’s happy to be out of there. Natalie tells him she’s happy he’s gone, but it doesn’t matter because he hates her anyway, along with Ryan “for what they stand for and who they are,” whatever that means.

The HOH competition is obviously an endurance competition. They’ll get in glass houses and must stay in there after the floor drops out from under them. Want to know who wins HOH before Sunday’s show? Head on over to the Big Brother 9 Spoilers page.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of Big Brother 9 Episode 27, which airs Sunday at 8/7c on CBS.

Big Brother 9 Episode 25

Adam followed up on his HOH win with some of the most ridiculous nominations ever in Big Brother 9 Episode 24, keeping his new buddy James safe while risking all of his allies.

Sheila can’t figure out why her partner nominated her. Yeah, me neither. Natalie’s not happy about it either, but she’s happy to be nice to James and Adam in hopes of being safe next week as well.

Sharon’s thrilled. She wants to sit back and watch everything fall on Adam’s head, making himself the biggest target in the house.

They know they have to win POV so James doesn’t screw them over. Granted, this is Adam we’re talking about here. He could always put whoever’s not safe on the block and keep James and Sharon on his side.

Adam’s now realizing he did the wrong thing. I could have told him that before Sheila blew up on him. Not only is he running the risk of passing the power over to the other side, but at best, he’s risking alienating the jury.

Sheila tells Adam she’ll forgive him but can’t promise him that about other people.

Natalie makes a deal with James guaranteeing him safety, and she wants to target Sharon. Of course, Sharon doesn’t want him to have any piece of this deal.

In the veto competition, they need to remember the day certain events happened in the house. Sheila knows she’s screwed as usual. Natalie loves numbers. James is the last one back with the first answer, and despite the fact that he gets it wrong, Natalie’s eliminated because she’s further away from the correct answer. Sharon is the last one back and incorrect, but James and Sheila are furthest away. Since James got back before her, Sheila is eliminated. James is incorrect and last back, so he is eliminated. Smiles all around him. Ryan is last back, but Sharon is the only one incorrect, so she is eliminated. Ryan is back first and correct, and he wins the power of veto against Adam.

Sharon tells Sheila that Natalie’s trying to work with James. Sheila realizes (again) that she’s all alone in this game, except she doesn’t even have Adam this time. She promises Ryan she won’t get rid of him. He’s got deals with everybody now, yet nobody seems to either notice or care. Ryan gets wind of this plotting as well.

Ryan decides to remove Sheila from the block. In her place, Adam nominates James. Sharon’s going to just keep her mouth shut like she usually does.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of Big Brother 9 Episode 26, which airs Wednesday at 8/7c on CBS.

Big Brother 9 Spoilers

Beauty and the Geek 5 Episode 5

Jim and Tiffany headed home in Beauty and the Geek 5 Episode 4. In addition to them, Jonathan had to leave the mansion because he was the last one standing after the girls all picked partners.

The girls would prefer to have Tiffany back over Leticia, who apologizes because she’s not good at being around girls.

It’s time for the geeks to get a makeover. Let’s figure out who’s actually a geek and who was geeked up for the show. Greg wants to be a piece of meat for once in his life. Tara wants to make sure Joe’s no longer a cowboy and less stinky. Just the basics: deodorant, daily showers, washed underwear. He doesn’t like hearing that everything about him is wrong. Randi wants Greg to have pants that actually fit. Tommy’s quick to notice he’s not a size 2 and that he must be looking at women’s clothing. Tom tells them to do whatever they feel like doing. Joe doesn’t want to wax, but the stylists don’t care.

Greg is a boy version of Randi, which he proves by saying “Shut up, bitch.” Tommy unsurprisingly looks good. They couldn’t do anything with Matt’s inch thick glasses, but they have managed to make his hair and clothes look good. Joe is unrecognizeable in a good way but not at all happy. He’s lost his safety blanket and talking like he’s throwing in the towel.

In this week’s team challenge, it’s winner take all. The winning team will hold all the power, as well as being able to attend the world premiere of Prom Night. They will be writing, rehearsing, and performing their own love themed show with the assistance of the stars of The Young and the Restless. Tara’s repulsed by the thought of kissing Joe, but at least they were warned no tongue. Jason wants a bunch of romance and perhaps a sex scene, but his partner Kristina wants to do a soap opera (what’s the difference?).

Jason and Kristina decide to just improv. She finds the whole thing comical. Tara finds it easy to play a golddigger who can’t stand Joe. Obviously, Randi and Greg aren’t a believeable couple, so they do a story where he confesses to her he’s gay. Chris & Cara are far fetched, which is apparently exactly what they’re looking for on The Young and the Restless. Tom kills his partner. Matt & Leticia actually like each other as people, and she’s not at all upset about kissing him. With this performance, it’s obvious they’re going to win.

Leticia is thinking about nominating Joe because of his attitude, while Matt’s thinking about Chris & Cara as a threat. They’re told that nobody’s going home tonight, but they still have the power: the power to choose who to take with them to the movie premiere. They pick Greg & Randi. The four remaining teams will decide who will be headed to the elimination room next week, which cannot be Matt & Leticia or Greg & Randi. They come up with a plan of having a challenge to put the decision into the person’s hands. Somehow, they come across the idea of a cross dressing fashion show competition. The girls pick Joe for being creepy as a woman, though they were gunning for him anyway.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of Beauty and the Geek 5 episode 6, which airs Tuesday at 8/7c on The CW.