Fox has renewed The Simpsons for an additional two years, extending it through seasons 21 and 22. This will set a new record for the longest running scripted show in television history. It will also put it just shy of 500 episodes.
Month: February 2009
American Idol Season 8 Wild Card Round
The American Idol season 8 wild card round will air as a special 1 hour episode on Thursday March 5 at 8/7c on Fox. During that episode, we will also find out live who the top 12 contestants are, so apparently it will be the judges picking the three people who America did not select. MTV has revealed how the selection process for the wild card round will work.
“Quite simply, each judge can pick two contestants from the top 36 — from which everyone is eligible — and those eight (or possibly nine) singers will perform a song on the one-hour March 5 show, with three advancing into the top 12.”
“The same rules apply as during the audition phases, with majority picks winning the day and judge Simon Cowell casting the tie-breaking vote should there be a 2-2 deadlock, the spokesperson explained.”
The eight people who will appear in the wild card round were chosen during American Idol Season 8 Episode 17. The wild card results were revealed in American Idol Season 8 Episode 18.
American Idol Season 8 Episode 15
American Idol 8 Episode 14 proved pretty lackluster, but there were some bright spots. Tonight, three more people will make the top 12.
Allison, Jesse, and Matt are up first. Randy thinks it’s a girl who will advance, hopefully Allison. Unsurprisingly, Allison Iraheta advances to the next round.
Megan and Kris, two of the top performers last night, step forward next. Then Matt and Jeanine join them. Out of the four, one will advance. Paula is torn between everybody other than Jeanine. Narrowing it down, Jeanine Vailes has been eliminated. Matt Giraud can also have a seat. It’s between Megan Joy Corkrey and Kris Allen, who were the two I was expecting to be in the running. Kara thinks Kris is talented, but she still doesn’t like his song choice (she’s wrong). Kris is the second person to join the top 12 tonight.
Brooke White is back and singing her first single, which she co-wrote, Hold up My Heart.
It’s time for the five remaining contestants Mishavonna, Kai, Nick/Norman, Adam, and Jasmine to get the news. We’ve finally seen the last of Nick Mitchell/Norman Gentle. That much is sure. Mishavonna Henson, Kai Kalama, and Jasmine Murray can all have a seat. Adam Lambert is the sixth member of the top 12.
Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another recap of American Idol Season 8 episode 16, which airs Tuesday at 8/7c on Fox.
Hell’s Kitchen 5 Episode 4
Ramsay kept Seth around because, well, I guess because he finds him more entertaining, instead choosing to eliminate Charlie in Hell’s Kitchen 5 Episode 3.
Giovanni’s pissed off at Seth for suggesting him as a nominee.
Chef Ramsay asks Carol who the strongest chef on the red team is. She responds that it’s herself or Andrea. For the boys, Danny volunteers to answer and says it’s him. The lesson here? Both teams are missing teamwork. Hell’s Kitchen will open in 30 minutes for breakfast.
Paula hates breakfast. Lacey wants pancakes because she doesn’t know anything else. Seth volunteers to do eggs because he’s got Ramsay’s recipe.
Their customers? A team of kids and their cheerleaders. Whoever can feed all their kids wins the challenge.
Colleen becomes more interested in cheering than her hash browns. She thinks she’s a cheerleader.
Coi is having trouble with her eggs.
Meanwhile, Seth is struggling to keep up with the demand for scrambled eggs, which costs them their early lead. Both teams are at 40 out of 50 each. The women manage to finish first, marking their first challenge win.
For their punishment, the men will have to clean up the dining area and both kitchens, then they’ll have to prep both kitchens for dinner service later that day.
The women will be going camping Beverly Hills style.
Danny takes some heat from Ben after the challenge, largely because he jumped forward to say he’s the best cook.
Robert has just one request: Lacey, don’t wear a bikini.
The girls head to a hotel for some pampering, while the guys stay behind and clean, attempting to forget about their earlier explosion.
Robert wants Ben to go because of the fighting. He blames Ben more for it than Danny.
Although they’ve been in the kitchen all day, the men have not yet finished prepping by the time the well rested women get back.
Giovanni gets the men off to a slow start, not checking to make sure his equipment was ready so his water could boil.
Coi attempts to get ahead. Ramsay’s not having that.
Andrea comes into the blue kitchen to get the tomato butter sauce that the guys didn’t make for them. It’s not ready yet, so Ben will have to drop everything and work on it. He puts it together but fails to taste it before bringing it out. Ramsay is not happy.
More than an hour in, no food is leaving the kitchen.
Andrea takes control of the red kitchen to try to get some leadership in there.
Danny makes the tomato butter sauce that Ben botched, and he does a good job.
J is making salad for the blue team, which is finally making its way out to the customers. Unfortunately, it’s not all entirely edible.
Ben’s ready to impress Ramsay, or so he believes. His lamb chops are too thin.
LA and Colleen are struggling to work together on the meat station. LA doesn’t want to talk all the time, but Colleen can’t shut up.
Danny is struggling on the garnish station.
Seth wipes his face with a cloth, then wipes a pan. This comes after him not listening to Chef Ramsay calling out the orders.
After all the chaos and limited success with the night’s meal, both teams have lost.
Coi says she’s done because of her poor performance. Some of the others say that if Lacey tried to do what Coi did, it would have been worse. Nonetheless, Coi nominates herself. Giovanni picks Seth and Ben. Danny obviously wants Ben as well, and vice versa. Robert suggests Ben and J.
Seth and Ben have been nominated for the blue team. Colleen is the first nominee for the red team based on her overall performance. Lacey is the second nominee, despite Coi’s performance. Coi thinks it was her worst performance so far.
Lacey believes she’s getting stronger, despite her rough start. Colleen says she works hard and is not yet done learning. Seth goes on and on again. Ben believes he’s a motivator for his team.
Ben is safe. Seth is finally going home. Should have happened before now.
Lacey is safe… but on the men’s team. Dropped some dead weight for some more dead weight. The women are pleased, though they still keep Colleen.
Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of Hell’s Kitchen Season 5 Episode 5, which airs Thursday at 9/8c on Fox.
Survivor: Tocantins Episode 3
After she expressed her desire to get rid of Coach in Survivor: Tocantins Episode 2, Candace found herself on the wrong end of him changing his strategy of keeping the strong, and she was the first person eliminated from the Timbira tribe.
Erinn, having voted the opposite way of the rest of the tribe, tries to pretend she didn’t trust Candace at all. Just admit the truth. Everybody already knows it.
Jerry, who we saw for all of about 15 seconds so far, is having trouble with his stomach. He thinks it might be the beans.
Jalapao may have won fishing gear, but they don’t seem to know what to do with it. They do start catching something eventually, though.
Six members of each tribe will be blindfolded and tied together. The remaining tribe member will guide them through a maze to fill their containers with water and corn. Reward is comfort (tarp, umbrella, chairs, pillows, blankets, and a hammock). Joe guides Jalapao; Debra is the caller for Timbira. Timbira gets pretty well lost, while Debra squeals at them. Spencer and Stephen get some water for Jalapao. Taj and Sandy also get water for them. Then JT and Sydney bring back some more water. Timbira as a group finally gets water, and they’ve almost got enough. Stephen and Spencer raise their water flag. Jeff has told Timbira they only need a little more water, but apparently Debbie didn’t hear him because she says she doesn’t know what they should do, so they should just fill all their buckets with water and come back. It doesn’t matter, though, since Jalapao’s got all their corn and raises the second flag to win the challenge. Brendan goes to Exile, and as promised, he picks Taj to go with him again.
Coach begs everybody to not go off in groups and talk about who screwed up. So he goes off with Tyson to talk about Sierra and Erinn. Tyson thinks Coach wants his point to be known, whether he really knows anything or not. Tyson is now Coach’s assistant coach.
Taj and Brendan pick urns again, and this time she gets the clue. They know it’s at camp and surrounded by wood. Not a lot to go on, but it’s something. Just in case they don’t get sent back, they plot to each bring one person in. Brendan will go to Sierra, and Taj will go to Stephen. This is brilliant.
With their reward, Jalapao slept well. Sandy believes she’s a sex kitten this morning, which… scares me.
At the immunity challenge, two members of each tribe will roll a large crate back to the mat. When they gather all 6 crates, they must stack them to build a staircase spelling out their name. Jalapao and Taj go first against Brendan and Debra. Brendan and Debbie get off to a slight lead, but JT and Taj return first. Stephen and Sydney are next for Jalapao against Sierra and Tyson. Sierra and Tyson make up time and take the lead by a good margin. Erinn and Coach go against Joe and Sandy. Erinn and Coach retain the lead. Brendan and Jerry go against JT and Spencer. Brendan and Jerry retain the lead, but Jerry gets hit by the other team’s crate in the process. JT and Spencer go against Joe and Stephen. Timbira’s still in the lead. Tyson and Brendan go for their last crate against Spencer and Taj. Timbira’s got a good lead when it comes time to build the staircase. Jalapao does a good job of catching up on the stair building, and they come from behind to win immunity. It appears that Jerry’s stomach problems finished off his tribe, which is good news for the poorly performing Stephen and Sydney.
Coach doesn’t like the look on Erinn’s face, which makes him hate her more. Despite the fact that Jerry blew the challenge, his plan is still to get rid of Erinn. Way to keep the strong around. Sierra doesn’t want to be stupid and go along with this plan.
Brendan begins his hunt for the hidden idol. It’s inside the treemail post.
Erinn expresses her frustration because she knew the answer to the staircase puzzle, but nobody wanted to listen to her until it was too late. Jerry doesn’t believe the tribe communicates very well, and he wants somebody to be a leader. He suggests Brendan. Coach suggests himself. Erinn responds Brendan is better. He says this is just because of a personality clash, which she denies being aware of. He has great ideas but is unable to own them. Probst says Coach’s ego may be getting in the way.
Votes
Jerry
Jerry
Erinn
Jerry
Jerry
Unlike last week when everybody blindly followed Coach’s poor plan, this time the tables have been turned, although Coach was among the unanimous vote against Jerry. Jerry’s elimination is not overly surprising since he went from invisible to a key character this episode.
Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of Survivor: Tocantins episode 4 The Strongest Man Alive, which airs Thursday at 8/7c on CBS.
Survivor Renewed for Seasons 19, 20
CBS announced today that Survivor, now in its 18th season, will be back for season 19 and 20 for the 2009-2010 season. Despite the all too often talked about ratings decline it has seen, Survivor continues to be one of the top 20 shows on TV every year.
“SURVIVOR is one of CBS’s signature series and a symbol of enduring quality and entertainment on prime time television,” said Nina Tassler, President, CBS Entertainment. “Every season delivers a fresh new adventure for viewers and a time period-winning performance on the network. We’re excited to deliver audiences two more editions of outstanding production values, exotic scenery, new castaways and, of course, our Emmy Award-winning host.”
“I am happy to be able produce two more editions of survivor for our loyal fans,” said Mark Burnett, Executive Producer of SURVIVOR. “Our show stands for high quality family entertainment and all of us on this team will continue to deliver on this promise.”
“We have a unique relationship with our audience,” said Jeff Probst, host of SURVIVOR. “They tell us what they like and we listen. It’s worked for 18 editions and we’re looking forward to delivering two more satisfying seasons!”
Jeff Probst will continue to host the show at least through next year. Whether he will be back beyond that is anybody’s guess, including his own, as his answers on the subject have ranged from denying he would be back to just saying he doesn’t know. The quality of the show, which had a few very dry seasons before rebounding in China, seems to have convinced him that the show is still worthwhile, though.
The Celebrity Apprentice 2 Preview
The Celebrity Apprentice 2 premieres this Sunday March 1 at 9/8c on NBC (this season, the episodes will be 2 hours long). A new cast of celebrities (or people who think they’re celebrities) will hopefully be able to return with something on par with last season, which salvaged the show by reducing the emphasis on Trump. Here are some preview clips of the premiere from NBC.
Season Preview
American Idol Season 8 Episode 14
The first three members of the top 12 were decided in American Idol 8 Episode 13: Danny Gokey, Alexis Grace, and Michael Sarver.
Tonight, an additional 12 contestants compete for America’s votes. They will be singing more songs from the Billboard Hot 100.
Jasmine Murray
Song: Love Song by Sara Bareilles
Randy: Some good moments, some bad moments. Pitchy throughout.
Kara: Kinda lost it in the beginning. Moments but…
Paula: Agree with the others. Off pitch. Not the right song.
Simon: Disappointed. Great look, attitude, and confidence. Just not a great voice. A couple years too early.
Number: 1-866-IDOLS-01
Matt Giraud
Song: Viva la Vida by Coldplay
Kara: Song doesn’t lend itself to that type of performance.
Paula: Hope you are here next week.
Simon: Verging on a horrible performance. Bad song, wannabe pop star, uncomfortable.
Randy: Still pulling for you, but stay away from songs like this.
Number: 1-866-IDOLS-02
Jeanine Vailes
Song: This Love by Maroon 5
Paula: Great legs. It’s season 8. Simon, I’m looking forward to what you have to say.
Simon: Terrible. Painful at times. Completely wrong song, but you do have very good legs.
Randy: Wrong song. Best part was the end, that it was over.
Kara: So overdone.
Number: 1-866-IDOLS-03
Nick Mitchell / Norman Gentle
Song: And I Am Telling You by Jennifer Holliday
Simon: On behalf of America, I pray you do not go through to the next round. One of the most atrocious performances at this stage ever.
Randy: One of the most entertaining performances ever. Vocals were not happening.
Kara: Memorable. Not a terrible singer.
Paula: True performer. There are plenty of stages in LA (just not this one).
Seacrest: Do I think you deserve a spot? Probably not.
Number: 1-866-IDOLS-04
If it’s possible, this night keeps getting worse and worse, but I think we’ve hit rock bottom. I’ll ask it again. How did this guy get to this stage?
Allison Iraheta
Song: Alone by Heart
Randy: Blew it out the box. Real singing.
Kara: Serious. Don’t even know how good you are. Could have a big hit with the right song.
Paula: Could sing the telephone book. Seasoned for someone so young.
Simon: The best tonight by a clear mile. The competition just started.
Number: 1-866-IDOLS-05
Kris Allen
Song: Man in the Mirror by Michael Jackson
Kara: The back half was way better than the front, but still not close to Hollywood week. Wrong song.
Paula: Disagree completely. Showed personality. Nailed it.
Simon: Not the best singer in the competition but showed confidence and personality. May have put yourself back in the running.
Randy: You did it even without the guitar.
Number: 1-866-IDOLS-06
Megan Joy Corkrey
Song: Put Your Records on by Corinne Bailey Rae
Paula: Right song. Camera is in love with you. Interesting, relevant.
Simon: Started off really well but oversang at the end. Hopefully America votes for you.
Randy: Big fan. Nice job.
Kara: Package artist. Breakout hit artist with the right song.
Number: 1-866-IDOLS-07
Matt Breitzke
Song: If You Could Only See by Tonic
Simon: Really like you but absolutely hated that song. Boring. Uncomfortable. Frustrated.
Randy: Boring performance. Just okay.
Kara: Didn’t show any side of you. Really flat.
Paula: In key but wrong song.
Number: 1-866-IDOLS-08
Jesse Langseth
Song: Betty Davis Eyes by Kim Carnes
Randy: Okay performance. Not really exciting.
Kara: Best look. Interesting to watch. Some moments.
Paula: Memorable person but not the best song to sing.
Simon: Forgettable.
Number: 1-866-IDOLS-09
Kai Kalama
Song: What Becomes of the Broken Hearted by Jimmy Ruffin
Kara: A little old fashioned.
Paula: Really good on the song except when it was off pitch.
Simon: Old fashioned. Corny. Wedding or hotel performance. Nothing distinct, original, or memorable. Good backup singer.
Randy: Too safe.
Number: 1-866-IDOLS-10
Mishavonna Henson
Song: Drops of Jupiter by Train
Paula: Wouldn’t have been her choice of song.
Simon: Very serious. Left cold. Act like a 50 year old.
Randy: Feels so much older.
Kara: Loosen up a bit. Good singer, but where do you fit?
Number: 1-866-IDOLS-11
Adam Lambert
Song: Satisfaction by the Rolling Stones
Paula: Watching an Adam Lambert concert rather than American Idol.
Simon: Difficult. Parts excruciatingly bad, parts brilliant. Gonna get through regardless.
Randy: Loved it. Most current artist ever. A little manic. Don’t overdo it.
Kara: Outrageous vocal technique and ability.
Number: 1-866-IDOLS-12
Presumably we’re going to see Allison and Adam advance (though the latter was quite over the top). Third’s a bit of a toss up probably between Kris and Megan (I’d opt for Kris), although Matt Breitzke as a likeable family guy may have an outside chance, while Matt Giraud may have enough of a previous following to pull through.
Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another recap of American Idol Season 8 episode 15, which airs Thursday at 8/7c on Fox.