Month: July 2009

The Bachelorette Season 5 Episode 9

Jillian finally woke up and realized that the soon to release a new CD guy who refused to kiss or otherwise come in much contact with her might be there for the wrong reasons, and she sent Wes on his long overdue trek back home in The Bachelorette Season 5 Episode 8. As for Wes, he insists he’s not really an asshat. No, that was all editing.

This week it’s time to go to Hawaii for overnight dates. Yeah, again. Maybe this time the fantasy suite cards will actually be used.

First up is Kiptyn. Their date has an element of adventure. With adventure comes trust, or so we’re told. They go on a ropes course. Okay, I’ve seen this before. It’s like summer camp. Kiptyn flies across. Jillian manages to make it across as well despite struggling. She’s happy that he’s not a serious super athlete while they’re doing this, as if there’s some sort of competitive ropes course event that he has previously participated in. Their final task is to climb a pole then jump to a trapeze. Jillian’s not so sure she likes this leap of faith. He encourages her to jump on top of the pole. He obviously successfully completes the task, and although she didn’t grab the bar, Jillian did at least make the jump. Kiptyn says he’s falling in love. Jillian, however, would like him to confirm that he’s not perfect. His response is that he has limited patience and has not completely committed to his past relationships. Although she trusts him the most out of anybody who’s left, she’s worried that he’ll run into that speed bump and then bail. After dinner, there’s another fantasy suite card, a second chance that tells us the last time really didn’t matter. Kiptyn wanted to do this last time, but this time Jillian wants to go back to the room with him as well. Jillian’s falling in love with the real Kiptyn, whoever that is.

Reid’s next. He consistently likes her, whereas sometimes his feelings come and go. They get picked up by helicopter. The pilot is also an ordained minister who could perform the wedding right now if they want. No takers. They land at the Hana Maui Resort. Although Reid has feelings for Jillian, it’s all been too rushed. Then there’s the fact that there are other guys. He realizes he’s not very good at voicing emotions. Jillian plans to give him as much time as she can. Whether that will be enough time remains to be seen. She is, however, head over heels for him. At dinner, it’s time to press him even further. Will he propose at the end of this? Maybe. Possibly. That’s about the best she’s going to get. As with before, they will be going to the fantasy suite. He won’t say the L word, but maybe at some point in the future he will be able to do so. He hopes she knows how he feels, even though he’s not prepared to say it.

Ed goes last. They will be going out on a catamaran on the ocean. Jillian won’t be getting to meet his family, which is a problem for her. One thing she probably would have learned is that his family calls him Richie. A little weird. Realizing what a disadvantage he’s at, he’s flown his family out out to meet her, or at least the producers have anyway. While Jillian and Ed’s mom are outside talking, he assures his dad that he’s there for the right reasons and his job is safe. If his job weren’t safe, he probably wouldn’t be there, a fair choice to make. He swears he’ll get engaged if he’s the last man standing. His mom sees a difference with Ed when he’s around Jillian as compared to prior girlfriends. His emotional father hasn’t seen Ed wear his emotions on his sleeve before. Since Ed got invited back to the fantasy suite last time, it’s pretty obvious he’s going to get an invite this time as well. Now that she’d met Ed’s family, Jillian wants to turn toward romance for the evening. Ed says he’s fallen in love, putting him a step ahead of the other guys. After some chatting, it’s time to heat things up. After the rubdown, which looks to be going pretty well, it comes to a screeching halt. Jillian doesn’t feel the passion.

Jillian thinks she’s falling in love with each of the guys, on different levels. Her date with Kiptyn was exactly what she needed to build trust with him, but she’s worried he has a wall up and will break her heart. Reid completely suits her first requirement of always making her laugh, but she’s not sure that he came into this ready to actually get married or at least ready for a committed relationship. Her alone time with Ed lacked chemistry, and they both just wanted to go to sleep. Either the chemistry is just not there, or there was too much going on in his mind.

Before the rose ceremony, the guys have left Jillian private video messages to watch. Kiptyn could see himself spending a lifetime with her. Reid is afraid his feelings are growing so quickly, but he’d like to see how far they can take things. Ed wants the opportunity to propose to her because he loves her.

It’s time for the rose ceremony. Or is it? Jillian needs some time to chat with Ed first. The lack of chemistry that she found when they got to Hawaii derailed her plans. She realizes there was a lot of pressure, which may be what caused him to be unable to… perform. He wants her to just trust him.

Roses
Kiptyn
Ed

With that, Reid has been cut. She’s just worried that they’re at different places in their lives. He realizes he should have opened up better/sooner, whether it would have changed anything or not. He can say he was falling in love with her, which she may well not have known. His parting thoughts are that he doesn’t see her being happy with either of those guys, but he realizes he screwed up.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of The Bachelorette 5 episode 10, where the men tell all, which airs Monday at 8/7c on ABC.

Ryan Seacrest Returning to American Idol

The first of the new American Idol contracts has the ink drying, as Variety confirms that Ryan Seacrest has signed a new deal with Fox, 19 Entertainment, and FremantleMedia worth $15 million per year for the next three years. As part of the deal, Seacrest is now exclusive to 19 Entertainment in primetime. So I’m guessing that means there was some concern he’d show up on America’s Got Talent or something.

“Ryan is an essential ingredient to ‘American Idol’s’ success,” said “Idol” creator and 19 Ent. CEO Simon Fuller.

I don’t know. I’m fine if you bring back Brian Dunkleman. Just as long as Simon sticks around.

Speaking of which, Simon Cowell, Paula Abdul, Randy Jackson, and Kara DioGuardi are all in the process of renegotiating their contracts, and at least two of them are pretending like they may actually leave the show.

Richard Hatch Won’t Be in Survivor 20

Richard Hatch’s request to travel to Samoa for the filming of Survivor 20 has been denied by a federal judge according to Providence Journal. Hatch is serving out the final months of his sentence for tax evasion in a halfway house in Pennsylvania. Unless it’s a season of all winners, Hatch being there is quite pointless anyway, like his return in All Stars was. Granted, he did serve as the catalyst for Sue Hawk’s meltdown, but I think we all know that was coming regardless.

But with that all said, I guess we can assume that season 20 will be another all stars, or at least a half stars like Micronesia, which turned into an awesome season that almost redeemed the producers for the near series killing Exile, Cook Islands, and Fiji.

Big Brother 11 Episode 2

The first lame twist of the season was unveiled in Big Brother 11 Episode 1. The house was forced to create alliances off the bat when they were all divided into cliques: offbeats, brains, athletes, and popular. Adding insult to injury, the clique that won the first HOH competitition would be granted 4 members instead of just 3. In the physical challenge, the athletes were obviously the last ones standing, allowing Jessie from Big Brother 10 to return to the house and become the first HOH of the season.

Kevin already hates Jessie. Lydia knows it’s going to be difficult to mix with him. Chima would like to see some more power on her team because she think the brains suck.

The athletes obviously are happy to see the entrance of Jessie. Natalie believes Jessie knows the ropes of the game. Did she watch last year?

Unlike the others in the cliques who oppose him, Ronnie is happy to see Jessie in the house. He knows his weaknesses, and he knows that one key factor is to stroke his ego.

Jessie would like some assistance from his clique. Jeff doesn’t care. Nominations are Jessie’s problem.

Although Jordan’s part of the popular clique, she says that she’s not going to be stuck up about it and plans to treat everybody equally.

Ronnie would like to make a deal with Jessie. Athletes and brains together. Nobody would suspect that pair.

Jeff was no help, but Russell says that he thinks Lydia is the threat.

Everybody’s sitting around playing chess, and Laura makes it a point to ask who the hottest guy there is. Natalie declines to comment. Kevin says Jeff. Laura says Jessie first then Jeff. Jessie views this as BS.

Natalie thinks that maybe Ronnie’s alliance proposal is a good idea. There’s a catch. Somebody has to be a pawn. Ronnie doesn’t want to be a pawn, but he’s got no problems if one of the girls goes up as a pawn.

Remember before how people used to just compete to see who’s on PB&J? Well, that wasn’t enough. This year, in addition to the slop nonsense, which sent two people to the hospital, the losing clique will also be put into have not living conditions. I’ve got bad news for the producers. This twist has already been done (and failed) on both The Apprentice and Survivor years ago. After doing it, both shows decided never to do it again because it sucked so badly. Because Jessie is HOH, the athletes are safe. When the juice starts flowing, the cliques will need to connect pipes to pump their juice through the letters HAVE. Under Casey’s guidance, the offbeats are off to the lead and easily win the challenge. The other two teams are in a pretty disastrous state. They’re just getting juice everywhere. Braden believes the challenge is based on physics. If you say so, dude. But the popular crowd does prove that intelligence really didn’t have a great deal to do with this challenge, unless the downfall of the brains was merely that they tried to overthink this.

As punishment for their loss, the brains are the have nots, which means they are stuck on slop, without hot water, and they’ll be sleeping in the most uncomfortable room ever. Chima’s already whining. Once she manages to somewhat pull herself together, they take her to her sleeping quarters, which she believes looks like an insane asylum. Ronnie and Michele say it’s not that bad. She doesn’t care. She’s ready to quit. Good. Quit.

Whatever Laura’s trying to sell in using her assets to stay inside the house, Jessie says he’s not buying. She asks him if he can tell people are kissing his ass already. He just lets her sit there and hold this conversation by herself because he ain’t talking. The fact that he’s ignoring her is annoying her. She’s not used to guys not paying attention to her apparently. If she can’t get the guys on her side, she’s in trouble because that’s her only strategy.

Lydia doesn’t know how to talk to Jessie, so she gives him a massage.

The athletes (well, the athletes excluding Jeff, who seems to be absent in all this strategy talk) already know one of the brains will go up as a pawn. Now they need to decide who else to put up. It’s either Laura or Lydia. They all agree Lydia is the bigger threat, but if she stays, she’s a bigger threat, whereas Laura staying wouldn’t make a difference. Both Natalie and Russell want Lydia to go up, but Jessie’s not so sure.

Laura figures she’s a target. Lydia thinks she’s safe. Braden thinks the universe will decide his fate, whatever that means.

Nominations
The athletes (Natalie, Jeff, and Russell) are safe.
Michele is safe.
Braden is safe.
Kevin is safe.
Ronnie is safe.
Jordan is safe.
Laura is safe.
Casey is safe.

Lydia and Chima have been nominated for eviction. Chima is the pawn, and Lydia is the target. I don’t know how good a pawn Chima is unless she drops the princess attitude. Ronnie is thrilled with the nominations. Either way, he’s safe. Lydia’s not happy, and she looks like she will seek revenge if she sticks around. The good news for the alliance is that, as long as that they remain on the same side, they control the vote because 5 is enough to send it to a tie.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of Big Brother 11 Episode 3, which airs Tuesday at 9/8c on CBS.

BB11 Spoilers

Survivor: Africa Episode 5

Samburu continued to implode, and Linda was the next to go because she was acting like a fruitcake in Survivor: Africa Episode 4.

The younger people want to know the logic in voting for Silas, thus making both himself and Lindsey vulnerable in the event of a future tie instead of just Lindsey. There really isn’t any logic. It’s a screw the tribe mentality, since the older people figure they won’t be the last ones left standing, so neither should their tribe.

They get treemail, and it’s strange. Three people from each tribe will be chosen to go on a quest. Frank, Teresa, and Silas will be going from Samburu; Lex, Tom, and Kelly will be going from Boran. It’s the twist. Probsts wants the buffs. Silas, Teresa, and Frank are now members of Boran; Kelly, Lex, and Tom are now members of Samburu. The new members of Boran, Silas notwithstanding, have no loyalties to their former tribe, but everybody who is ex-Boran still sees themselves as members of that tribe.

Lex, Kelly, and Tom are not happy, but they plan to spy on the other team and figure out who has votes against them so that they can vote someone off. Frank and Teresa are quite thrilled because their odds just increased, but now’s the time for Silas to panic.

The new members of Samburu find out that nothing’s been done with the camp. No firewood, broken pots, and a foot of ash around the fire. They’re told there’s just not much wood around. So then there’s a wood montage showing the pile getting higher as the new tribe members go find some mysteriously. They don’t like their new tribe members any better than Frank did.

Boran now has both Silas and Clarence, and they’ve also got the soccer player Ethan. If it’s a physical challenge, Samburu might as well not bother playing.

The very bitter Frank spills the beans. They don’t have to even work at finding out who has votes. Now they know that Lindsey’s got votes against her. It’s just a matter of passing that information on. On top of the fact that she’s got votes against her, the new Samburu members find her to be really annoying.

The reward challenge is to gather up goats and herd them into a pen at the finish line. The gatekeeper will stay in the pen and keep their goats in and the other goats out. Reward is three egg laying chickens and a rooster, either of which may well attract predators at night. Figuring out that merely letting the goats run isn’t working out very well, Boran begins to pick them up. It’s a good thing they’ve got all the strong guys. Boran wins reward.

After the challenge, Lindsey’s crying. Again. Brandon wants her to calm down so that he can get the others to vote for him. He’s getting tired of those girls and just happy he’s gay.

Boran is considering throwing the challenge at Teresa’s suggestion. Their plan is to get rid of either Silas or Clarence, either a big threat that’s also a big asset.

The immunity challenge is to grab a bunch of large puzzle pieces and return them to the puzzle board to create their puzzle. Samburu appears to have the edge the whole time, and they win immunity. Boran didn’t even have to throw this challenge, but they’re probably not overly disappointed with the loss.

Silas hopes to get rid of Frank, but Ethan doesn’t want to. He hasn’t liked Clarence since day three, and Clarence is a threat. Silas, who has been trying to bond with Clarence, is open to voting against him.

Kim J was already skeptical about Silas, and now that he admits to her that he’s in an alliance with the three who are left behind on the other side, he can kiss his game goodbye. This is certainly a lucky break for Kim, who if not for the shuffle would have been the next logical choice to go. Granted, the way these guys are talking, I’m not sure how high a priority logic is.

As much as they play up how much they want to vote against Clarence, throwing away an advantage and giving the three people from the other tribe, no matter how much they hate each other, the advantage would just be stupid.

Votes
Silas
Silas
Silas
Silas

With 4 votes, Silas has been voted off the island. He probably wouldn’t have won, but the game was going his way until the twist.

Probst leaves them with a final jab. They’re making a lot of assumptions in this game, including that there will be a merge in three days. Okay, he’s got their attention.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another recap of Survivor: Africa Episode 6 I’d Never Do It to You.

Survivor: Africa Episode 4

As the Samburu tribe became more and more divided by age and unable to work as a tribe, their winning streak went away in Survivor: Africa Episode 3, forcing them to go to tribal council where they voted off Dr. Carl in a tiebreaker because he didn’t need the money.

Although she’s safe, Lindsey is returning to camp with 4 votes against her. She’s also returning with a chip on her shoulder and a message for the rest of the tribe to not piss her off any more because she’s a raving lunatic.

Big Tom believes he’s going to climb a 50 foot palm tree. After he realizes that’s a stupid idea, he and Clarence knock a couple palms out of the tree using rocks. Once they get them down, they have to then waste their energy chopping the palms open, which ends up taking about an hour for very little food that doesn’t taste good anyway. Not worth the effort. Have to stick with the mush.

Frank has, once again, decided he’s not really that concerned about getting stuff done. Let the others worry about it. This is a stupid idea because the only value he adds to the tribe is his work ethic. Take that away, and he may as well be voted out.

Linda and Frank go to get mail and find out there’s a challenge in 30 minutes. She is obnoxiously thrilled about it and looking forward to waking up those who are sleeping in late. Then, as they’re discussing the challenge and coming together as a team, Linda makes a solid effort to prove she’s a few fries short of a Happy Meal, and no toy either.

Food reward is things like olive oil and sun dried tomatoes. Tribes will go back and forth across the rope net and grab their items, 12 in all. The first tribe to get all the items wins. Brandon takes the lead over Big Tom. What happens next is anyone’s guess as the challenge becomes a blur, but apparently the tribes are tied or something. Finally we get a glimpse at the challenge and see that Brandon has a slight lead over Tom as they head into their second run. Teresa and Kelly are dead even. In the battle of the Kims, Kim J’s fall gives Samburu a big lead. With her subsequent slowness in getting the basket, Boran gets lapped. What had been a tied contest all the way through becomes a no brainer, and Samburu wins reward.

This is the second challenge in which Kim has been directly responsible for the loss, and the tribe may be waking up to it.

Upon their return from the challenge, it’s time for Samburu to go on a water run because they’re almost out of water and dehydrated from the challenge. This is what made Linda so happy before. It was an opportunity to prove a point to the younger group. When they get back with the water, their trouble is going to be boiling it since they’ve broken all their pots.

Boran’s walking around and doing their thing when they spot a buffalo. Their homework suggests that’s the most dangerous animal out there. It ain’t very pretty either. They’re not real sure what to do, so they just decide to wait it out while making a bunch of noise.

First thing in the morning before the sun is up, Frank wakes everybody up to go for a water run. His plan to ignore the water is now backfiring, and since it’s getting worse, he’s got no choice but to pay attention to it.

Despite the fact that Kim has been a liability, Ethan still wants to save her as they head to the immunity challenge, but he’s realizing that if they don’t win, it’s her neck on the line. The challenge is to relocate a camp including a hut, animal pen, flag pole, and various supplies. They will bring it up the hill and recreate it exactly as it was at the bottom of the hill. Two members from each tribe will be architects, and they are responsible for remembering how it looked before. They will not do any lifting, a blessing for Kim J and Boran. Teresa sits out for Samburu. Brandon & Linda and Kelly & Kim J will be the architects. Everybody else will be responsible for physically lifting and moving the camp. After struggling to get most of their camps to the top, Boran’s down to their roof and flag, while Samburu is down to the walls to their hut, the heaviest thing there. It’s close, but Boran wins immunity.

Boran’s very happy and united as a tribe. It’s like night and day, though, because Samburu is still on opposite sides of the divide.

Silas is planning post-merge strategy. He tells the older group to go ahead and vote for Lindsey. Nobody else has any votes against them, so there’s no need to bring the whole ship down.

Probst tells Silas one thing’s for sure. If Samburu goes into a merge with 4 people solid and 1 not so solid against Boran with 5 people solid, Samburu’s in trouble. Linda completely agrees with this and nods her head as noticeably as possible. So why is it that she planned to sabotage Silas’ plan unless there’s something in it for her?

Lindsey acknowledges she’s bringing a lot of negative energy into the game due to her paranoia and easily hurt feelings.

Votes
Silas
Silas
Silas
Linda
Linda
Linda
Linda

Good riddance to Linda for just being an oddball, and congrats to the older people in the group for totally screwing over their entire tribe on purpose.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another recap of Survivor: Africa Episode 5 The Twist.

Survivor: Africa Episode 3

For the second time in a row, Boran had to vote out the sick person, as Jessie was sent home in Survivor: Africa Episode 2.

At night, the animals come out to play, so two people have to stay up and stand guard. Boran can hear their stalker lions breathing, and before long the whole tribe is awake. There’s nowhere to run, but they know better than to run even if they could.

The older crowd on Samburu goes to get water before anybody else is out of bed. They’re mad that the sleeping people won’t go with them. Granted, Lindsey’s quite happy with this arrangement. She doesn’t want to go get the water anyway. Brandon’s happy to stay behind and cook in Teresa’s absence. He offers his friends food that he’s not making for the other half of the tribe. His plan goes from not leaving much to not leaving anything. He’ll boil some water so they can make their own food. Gee, what a nice guy.

Teresa’s worried that Silas may end up playing both sides.

Lindsey has made bead necklaces for each of her three new friends in an effort to rub it in the other people’s faces that those four are together and not breaking up. Carl and Frank are not happy, not that they usually are happy. Silas has now decided he’s no longer straddling the fence because the older will pick him off when they’re done with his buddies.

Silas says that all he wants is $20,000. With that he could get a vehicle. While they’re on the subject, the question comes up what doc Carl drives. He’s got a Mercedes. He’s also got a Porsche.

Reward is 100 gallons of fresh clean water. That’s enough for each tribe member to have a gallon of water a day until the merge. They’ll also get some organic shampoo if they want to use it to take a shower. Kim and Brandon sit out for Samburu. The challenge is simple. Push a rock and don’t get crushed by it. Boran has a lead the whole time, and they’re not looking back, no matter whether Kelly and Kim J didn’t get the whole don’t get crushed part. Samburu, meanwhile, is a complete mess, and unsurprisingly they’re not working together very well. Boran wins reward, their first taste of victory.

The good thing about the water is that they don’t have to worry about expending all that energy to get and boil water. It’s just sitting there for the taking.

The immunity challenge is to build a distress signal for a plane flying over to see them. Frank plans to contribute, somewhat, but he does not plan to do too much. If they lose, they lose. He really doesn’t care. Their plan is to create the letters SOS based around their camp as the central O. On the other tribe, Kim J has brought paint with her as her luxury item, and they’re going to dip the mosquito nets in it. They’re also going to be stripping down as far as they can, with Kim J putting on a thong at age 56. Back to Samburu, unlike Frank, Lindsey’s going all out, and she eventually falls to the ground crying. Kim P is there to comfort her, but she doesn’t want any part of Linda. Samburu’s signal looks just like every other community out there. Boran, however, is very noticeable due to the bright colors and the letters SOS in a wide open area with few trees. Boran wins immunity.

Linda believes the idol goddess has abandoned them to go live in a home without conflict. Yeah, in Linda’s mind, everything is a lesson from the land.

Despite the loss, the older people view it as a victory because it was one of the younger people who went down due to dehydration.

The lines are very clearly drawn right down the middle, and they’re all looking forward to going to tribal council to get rid of someone from the other side.

Probst says it would be hard in this environment being there with buddies. These guys don’t know each other. He’s not sure they even like each other. You got that right. The necklaces do not go unnoticed to him either. The split is pretty obvious.

Lindsey realizes she’s vulnerable due to her dehydration issue yesterday. Other than that, she thinks she gets along with everybody pretty well. Really?

Frank knows he’s not the friendliest person out there.

Votes
Lindsey
Lindsey
Carl
Carl
Carl
Carl
Lindsey
Lindsey

We have a tie. Wow. Shocker. Well, it’s completely pointless, but they will revote.

Votes
Carl
Lindsey
Carl
Lindsey
Carl
Lindsey

Yeah, it’s another tie. In the event of a tie, previous votes count against them. Since nobody has any previous votes, it will come down to a challenge.

The Q&A is based on the bush survival guide. The first time one of them misses and the other doesn’t, that person who misses is out.

Smoke from burning elephant dung will keep mosquitoes at bay. True or false?
True. Both are correct.

The fruit pulp from the dune palm can be helpful in curing what?
Worm infestation. Both are wrong.

The African rock python has been known to fully digest a gazelle. True or false?
True. Both are wrong again.

If bitten by a tick, pouring hot water on the tick will force it to retract. True or false?
True. Lindsey is correct.

Carl has been voted off the island because he doesn’t need the money. In his departure, Carl continues to whine about how he’s worried about generation X.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another recap of Survivor: Africa Episode 4 The Young and Untrusted.

So You Think You Can Dance Season 5 Episode 15

The top 12 danced in So You Think You Can Dance Season 5 Episode 14, and tonight two more will be sent home to reveal the top 10.

It’s Nigel’s 60th birthday. So this is why Simon Cowell wants to get off TV as he nears 50.

They thought they were going to put together a Michael Jackson tribute. Sorry, not allowed. Sony or the family? They don’t know.

Janette & Brandon are safe, which leaves Jason & Caitlin in the bottom three for the third time. Mary’s not particularly surprised.

Randi & Evan are safe, leaving Jeanine & Phillip in the bottom three. Expected after that somewhat creepy folk dancing. Nigel gives a lengthy explanation of the whole process of people being cut, and how the judges have already pretty much made up their minds. Why right after these two get bottom three and not at some other point?

Kayla & Kupono are safe, putting Melissa & Ade in the bottom three for the first time. Tyce felt Ade dropped the ball.

Caitlin, Jason, Jeanine, Phillip, Melissa, and Ade will now dance for their lives.

The judges are unanimous with the girls. They have picked the two girls they want to stay, and Caitlin is not one of them.

They are also unanimous with the boys. Phillip is unique in what he does, but his performance in other genres has been disappointing. Nigel’s earlier speech turns out to be foreshadowing, as Phillip has been cut.

Despite the fact they have been eliminated, Caitlin and Phillip will both be on the tour, alongside the So You Think You Can Dance Season 5 top 10.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of So You Think You Can Dance Season 5 Episode 16, which airs Wednesday at 8/7c on Fox.