Author: Shane

So You Think You Can Dance 4 Episode 2

The producers have decided to stop by Salt Lake City, Utah for some reason. Guest judge Mandy Moore (not the one from Chasing Liberty) joins Nigel and Mary.

Chelsie Hightower has a sad story about how her family lost a house and several cars… but she could still dance. The judges find her hot. Mary loves her legs. She’s going to Vegas.

Michael Moore is from a Native American dancing family, though he himself prefers something more modern. Nigel wants him to switch to decaf. He admits he’s bad.

Figure skater Gev Manukyan, originally from Kazakhstan, breakdances on ice. With his unique style, they’re letting him go to the choreography.

Lindsey Judkins comes on immediately after Gev, and she receives a good response from the judges as well. Mary thinks she’s cute. Mandy is concerned she’s too one dimensional. Nonetheless, she’s going straight to Vegas.

Stay-at-home mom Nicole Downard shows up at the auditions with her four children. She’s got plans just in case she gets to Vegas, but we know within about two moves she doesn’t have to worry about finding a sitter.

Kelli Baker’s mom Bonnie Story was one of the choreographers in High School Musical. Kelli starred as Lea in High School Musical 2 (I’m assuming that’s an actual part). She’s able to live up to the build up. Nigel calls her one of the best dancers this season. Mary says wow. Mandy’s got goose bumps. She gets through to Vegas.

Naomie Christensen gets her two minutes of fame. That’s enough of that. She claims she was doing kind of a jazz thing and is unsure what planet she’s on. The judges want to know where Ashton Kutcher is while they’re being Punk’d.

Ryann Race is a strip club DJ. Whether he goes to Vegas or not, he’s gonna be having some fun. Nigel likes his unique comic book-like style. He’ll be going to the choreography, starting off by acting like he’s stretching.

Matt Dorame impresses the judges. If he loses his shorts, Nigel will give him a ticket to Vegas.

Kortney Pearson and Michelle Stringham are two blonde friends who got married and divorced about the same time. Kortney is finally back after 5 years off, but she’ll need to work on it if she wants another shot, though she gets through to the choreography regardless. Michelle likewise has given up dancing for 5 years, but they’re more impressed with her, despite the slipping in her socks. She’s also going through to choreography.

Michelle is going to Vegas. Kortney, likewise, gets through to the next round. Ryann knows he crashed and burned, but he doesn’t have to go back to the strip club because he’s made it through as well.

The next stop is Dallas. Adam Shankman is the guest judge in Dallas.

Brian Davidson doesn’t get nervous because it doesn’t matter since he knows he sucks. This isn’t even interesting.

Chad Agnor is a full contact fighter trainer and is also a ballroom dance instructor. He injures himself while warming up but will dance anyway. Nigel warns him not to continue because it’s dangerous. Despite the positive attitude, he’s been rejected, but he’ll be back next year.

Paige Jones believes she’s a real life Barbie doll. Her dance instructor has taught her how to walk and wave. Nigel likes her but doesn’t like the competition style of dance. The other judges fall in line but put her through to choreography.

Joshuah Allen turns out to be one of the better dancers. Nigel believes he could easily fight for his life. Mary’s in love. He goes to choreography.

Cassidy Corder says she can throw down. Nigel calls it one of the worst auditions they’ve seen. It wasn’t quite that bad, but I think they mostly want her to dance with a pole.

Arielle Coker managed to rope John Dix into dancing with her. He’s mostly just there so she has something to jump on, but she does a great job. Arielle goes straight through, but John will be going to choreography.

Steven Arner starts off chair dancing. Should have just stayed in the chair. Nigel tries to convince him he sucked, but he’s not buying. Adam wants him to not sleepwalk on stage again. Mary calls him delusional then throws him out.

John doesn’t get through to Vegas. Paige can keep smiling as she heads to Vegas, and Joshuah also goes through.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of So You Think You Can Dance 4 episode 3, which airs Thursday at 8/7c on Fox.

The CW Sunday Schedule

Rather than just give up (which, frankly, may be the best option here), The CW has outsourced its Sunday night lineup to Media Rights Capital. Here’s the lineup from Variety. If ratings don’t continue to tank, I’ll be impressed.

In Harm’s Way (6:30-7:30pm) – an hourlong reality skein that airs at 6:30 p.m., will follow the stories of people who work for the benefit of society in dangerous jobs: avalanche hunters, subway tunnel diggers and hurricane chasers, for example.

Surviving Suburbia (7:30-8pm) – Half-hour comedy, which scored a 13-episode pickup, was originally written several years ago by Abbott, who then tucked the project away and forgot about it. Abbott’s “Reba” exec producer partners Mindy Schultheis and Michael Hanel alerted Samples to the comedy. (It’s unclear whether Schultheis and Hanel will be further involved). “It was just a bolt from the blue,” Abbott said. “In this marketplace, with no comedy going on, to get a call like that.”

Valentine, Inc. (8-9pm) – is based on a feature spec script that Murphy (who’s no longer with “Reaper”) is adapting for the smallscreen.

Easy Money (9-10pm) – about a family of loan sharks, centers on the matriarch who runs the biz and her middle son, who’s great at it but ambivalent about this predatory line of work.

The Bachelorette 4 Episode 2

10 guys were sent packing in The Bachelorette 4 Episode 1. I must say, though, that DeAnna turned out to have made a much better first impression than she did in The Bachelor 11.

The guys find out that they won’t be living in the mansion. DeAnna will be living there. The guys will be living in the guest house behind them. Each week, three of them will be able to leave the guest house and live with DeAnna instead. Jeremy, Jesse, and Richard, those who got the first impression roses, will be moving into the mansion. Yeah, I saw this twist before. On both Survivor and The Apprentice. For one season… and only one season because they realized it was stupid. It is an interesting twist in that it does give them an idea of what it will be like to live with someone (well, with someone and their two roommates), although it’s a highly unfair twist for those who are living in bunkbeds with outdoor showers.

The first group date is Jason, Ryan, Twilley, Sean, Paul, Fred, and Richard. This is DeAnna’s first date since Brad. They go to a magic club where they have the whole place to themselves. DeAnna and Jason get in a box together, then they disappear, which gives them some time alone together. He continues to hide his secret about his son, but they do manage to get to chat about a bunch of different things nonetheless. He’s gonna have to spill this eventually, and the sooner the better.

Sean has a conversation with DeAnna, or at least he tries to. The magical piano won’t let him get a question out and mocks him.

Twilley doesn’t know any card tricks but does get up and do a play, which goes on and on and on. When the boys are all alone, he’s accused by Ryan of not being genuine since he’s too laid back.

Richard doesn’t have any flowers to give her, but he does make her one out of paper.

Ryan lets DeAnna know the order: faith, then family, then football.

Paul, at 23, has already previously been engaged.

The rose goes to Paul.

Graham gets the first one-on-one date. If he doesn’t get a rose, he’s gone. They go to the beach, which is a good thing since he plans on wearing shorts and a t-shirt. He just got out of a relationship, which was with his first true love. She expresses fear of being dumped yet again, and she tells us his lack of experience in love scares her.

DeAnna, who’s dating 15 guys, says she was worried that Graham just wants to be in love with someone, regardless of who it is. She ultimately decides that she will give him the rose, which is followed by the first kiss.

Boys will be boys. They get together to discuss sex. So up comes the subject of Ryan being a virgin.

When DeAnna and Graham get back, Twilley’s waiting for them so he can talk to her. He’s worried that she is thinking the same way Ryan is about him, and he wants to at least express this.

The next group date will be Chris, Robert, Brian, Jesse, Ron, Jeremy, and Eric. They’ll be going to Dodgers Stadium to play some baseball. Tommy Lasorda’s there to greet them, and he gives them some Dodgers shirts with their names on them. Then he gives them a pep talk about stepping up to win her over. They start off with the national anthem, sung (badly and without all the words in the right places) by one of the guys.

This is followed by a homerun derby. Whoever gets the most homeruns will get one-on-one time with DeAnna. Jeremy gets 6 homeruns and easily wins. Both of them have noticed that, even though he got the first impression rose (way too quickly), they haven’t really gotten to know each other. Like DeAnna, he has also lost his mother, though he also lost his father about a year and a half after that.

Lunch is hot dogs and wine. Somehow this makes sense I’m sure.

DeAnna’s getting tired of hearing about Greece from Eric.

Brian wants to make sure he just gets married once to his best friend.

Jeremy gets another rose, only this time he actually deserves to have received it. Their whole conversation is broadcast on the jumbotron for all the other guys to see.

Jason makes a call home to speak to his son. He finally decides to break the news to the guys at the house. Ryan hopes this may be a dealbreaker, but I doubt it.

The guys hope to bring Jeremy down a few pegs. DeAnna feels it’s fair that she gave Jerermy a rose without getting to know him (or anybody else) at all the first time and has now given him a second one as well. The others don’t hide the fact that they don’t like Jeremy.

They’re all trying to be macho, and DeAnna’s willing to see them be macho, so she turns into a drill sergeant. The boys start doing pushups. Jesse of all people ends up winning, and his prize is one-on-one time. He tells her he can’t be a professional snowboarder forever, so he’s definitely willing to leave Colorado.

Roses
Paul
Graham
Jeremy
Ron
Jesse
Robert
Brian
Jason
Fred
Sean
Richard
Twilley

Eric, Ryan, and Chris are sent home. Chris is mostly pissed that he doesn’t think DeAnna has figured out what she’s doing. Ryan’s over it because she’d rather be with guys like Twilley and Jeremy.

The Bachelorette 4 Episode 1

During The Bachelor 11, DeAnna Pappas didn’t care that all the other girls in the house hated her. Whether this helped her any or not, she managed to stick around until the final two. Many people thought she was going to win the show. Then some asshat dumped both her and Jenni for no apparent reason. A couple months later, she’s over it already. Now DeAnna’s back for a second chance, and this time she’s in control.

The 25 bachelors are:
Brian W (Indiana)
Brian W (Texas)
Chandler
Chris
Donato
Eric
Fred
Graham
Greg
Jason
Jeffrey
Jeremy
Jesse
Jon
Luke
Patrick C
Patrick D
Paul
Richard
Robert
Ron
Ryan
Sean
Spero
Twilley (aka Blaine)

Let’s get on with it so that 10 of them can get sent home and there’s a manageable cast of 15 to work with.

DeAnna’s convinced this season will turn out differently than last. It probably will, but ask her again in two years. In addition to being there for their 15 minutes of fame, some of these guys already know DeAnna from the past season.

Jason’s starting off by speaking Greek. We know he’s sticking around. Spero’s an actor… not a good sign on this show. Ryan tells DeAnna right away he’s very strong in his faith, though he leaves out the being a virgin bit for now. DeAnna wants to know something funny from Luke… he tells her she looks great. Eric also speaks some Greek. Robert’s already dancing with her.

DeAnna will be able to give away three first impression roses.

Apparently not one to waste any time, she’s already made her first decision. Within about three minutes of walking in the door, DeAnna gives Jeremy the first rose.

Jason’s the first one to get some one-on-one time. They discuss how they’ve travelled. Then they get into family, where she brings up how her mom died when she was 12 (great first date conversation). He doesn’t want to bring up his son just yet.

Ryan goes out and grabs a blanket but fails to offer a shivering DeAnna his jacket or share much of the blanket with her. Noticing this, Spero gives her his jacket right in the middle of their conversation.

In their first conversation, Ron’s quick to bring up his ex-wife, letting DeAnna know he’s not hiding anything.

Chris admits that he’s cheated once before but says he won’t do it again.

Chef Robert hopes to impress her by cooking. He’s pretty impressed with himself.

Oyster farmer Luke is concerned that he won’t stand out, but he does give DeAnna a pearl he found.

Chris comes in clinking his glass, but it’s not quite time for the decision. Instead, he’s got a guest with him: the other season 11 finalist, Jenni, who’s apparently also over Brad and engaged.

Science nerd Richard, whose friends call him the best looking geek ever, has brought DeAnna a herkimer diamond, which is really just a quartz crystal, but is something from where he grew up.

Donato wants Jenni to sit on his lap. He’s done.

Eric is Greek and has a family that lives in Greece, so he’s looking for someone who is also Greek.

Jesse’s hoping to stand out as being different. But once Sean shows up, he’s just hoping to not get kicked in the head. The lemon kicking stunt goes just fine, though, and Sean manages to kick it off Jesse’s head without causing any damage.

DeAnna asks Jenni for her three picks for first impression rose. She says Graham, Jesse, and Jason. Considering how catty things got during their show, it’s interesting to see these two being friends.

The second first impression rose goes to Jesse, who has certainly stood out because of his very loud jacket.

Chandler does some duck calls and tells DeAnna he’s a hometown kind of guy.

Brian hopes to stand out because of his abs of steel. Except half of these guys have better bodies regardless of how impressed he may be by himself, and DeAnna’s not impressed by him anyway.

Paul is from small town Canada. She warns him not to jump in the pool since he’ll probably get pneumonia. He’s from Canada. He can deal with a little California “cold”. So he jumps in fully clothed. Then he takes off his clothes and reveals his bathing suit, which shows he’s got her name on his butt.

Graham is an investor in several different bars. Kinda like Brad. But he hopes to be able to setup a charity.

The final first impression rose goes to Richard, much to his surprise.

It’s time for the first rose ceremony. She says she understands what it’s like to be in Brad’s shoes (minus the whole not being able to give any of 25 women even the slightest hint of a chance merely because he hasn’t yet fallen in love with any of them).

Roses
Jeremy
Jesse
Richard
Ron
Graham
Eric
Robert
Sean
Ryan
Chris
Paul
Fred
Twilley
Jason
Brian (Texas)

Eliminated:
Brian W (Indiana)
Chandler
Donato
Greg
Jason
Jon
Luke
Patrick C
Patrick D
Spero

Luke leaves with a positive attitude. He’s okay with going home, as he’s just a country boy not used to all this. Chandler thinks he blew the opportunity of a lifetime. Greg believes he’s on Wrestlemania and is hoping Vince McMahon or a pack of wolves take notice.

The Apprentice UK Series 4 Episode 9

Sara got fired in The Apprentice UK Series 4 Episode 8 for alienating customers and not really doing a whole lot more beyond that. Helene and Michael, however, despite sucking (again) are given yet another go at it.

The teams are mixed up. Yes, yes, again. I’m getting tired of saying this because it keeps happening every single week. It’s nice to see how different people work with different people, but this is to the point of silliness. Raef and Claire move to Renaissance. Alex moves to Alpha and is made project manager. Sir Alan doesn’t want to let Michael be project manager for Renaissance and instead appoints Raef.

The task is a tissue television and press campaign to be presented to one of Britain’s biggest ad agencies. The ads will be mini dramas. Raef has done some acting and is thrilled to be doing this.

Lee suggests the brand name Snot. After firing out some more ideas, he gets one that may actually work: Atishu.

Claire suggests I Love My Tissues for Renaissance, who have decided on a campaign featuring little children.

Opposed to a gay-themed ad due to the potential negative public reaction, Alex wants a conventional family.

Raef and Michael believe they’re actors and, therefore, will be directing their commercial.

Claire also likes the task because she’s been a brand manager.

Raef has made arrangements to book TV weatherwoman Sian Lloyd. I’m going to assume that’s an actual celebrity worth booking. He and Michael head to a kindergarten classroom where they will shoot the commercial.

Alex and Lee want to include a sick child in their conventional family commercial, though one of the ones they get will be difficult to get a good performance out of. Lucinda again raises concerns about the approach and isn’t happy about her lack of input.

Raef is pleased with the box design his team has come up with, which is basically just hearts. Lucinda’s still displeased with her team, this time about their decision to have a girl blow her nose on a box. She hates Alex’s management style and considers him useless. Lee asks them to get a grip and work together as her blood continues to boil.

Nick is confused why Sian Lloyd is there. Not only is he confused, but she doesn’t get it either, as she doesn’t consider her image as wholesome as they do. For that matter, after they’ve paid for her and had her act, Michael is unconvinced that her scene is even necessary and wants to cut it to meet the 30 second requirement. The girls are very pleased with the press ad but can’t stand the work the boys have done on the video. Claire doesn’t like that the boys have been playing director while they developed the brand.

Claire will be doing the pitch. The video is a lot better than they’d given it credit for, though I agree with Michael the first part was unnecessary.

Before he goes on, Lee’s practicing his pitch while the others throw ideas at him that probably aren’t helping him any. Not that it matters because this campaign is completely flat and boring as Lucinda suggested. There’s no emotion from the audience.

To make matters worse, Sir Alan didn’t like Lee’s presentation style, and Nick points out that Claire didn’t have any notes and knew what she was doing. Alex calls Lucinda abrasive and upsetting. The one compliment that Sir Alan does pay is to Lee for the product name.

Despite the fact that the other campaign sucks, though, Sir Alan is upset at Renaissance for exactly what Claire said he would be upset about: he can’t tell what their ad’s actually about. With that said, despite the fact that they did much better than the other team at virtually all other aspects of the task, they lost.

Raef tries to pin the lack of a close up shot on Michael, who believes they should both accept responsibility for that.

Sir Alan doesn’t understand the point of Sian Lloyd either, and he didn’t notice her anyway because her scene went by so fast.

Raef has decided to bring back Michael and Claire.

Michael takes full credit for all the things that are good about the commercial. He says he took the lead for it. Raef jumps in to defend himself on this and contradicts himself by claiming that he was the one who made all the decisions, except when they were bad.

Raef is fired for being full of hot air. Based on this task, I’d say this was the right decision, but Michael seriously has to be getting close to expending all of his 9 lives.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another recap of The Apprentice UK Series 4 episode 10.

American Idol 7 Winner

The finale we’ve all been expecting for several weeks now is upon us. You know what that means. 1 hour and 58 minutes of filler. After that, we will find out live whether the American Idol 7 winner is David Archuleta or David Cook.

David Archuleta from the early rounds was obviously going to be in the final two. It’s just been a question of who would be going up against him. I’d argue that he has shown to be the best, most consistent singer this season, and his performance last night once again proved he was in it to win it.

That said, David Cook eventually emerged as the clear second person to make the final two. He’s stood out as one of the more unique singers, able to present a new twist on an old song (even if, like Daughtry, the twist was at times merely a cover of someone else’s new twist).

Unlike Archuleta, who I’d be more skeptical about as far as making a modern day album, Cook has shown that he has a good contemporary sound. Either way, I’m expecting a good quality singer to take home the crown, much better than the winners of most previous seasons.

Simon says that, for the first time ever, he doesn’t really care who wins because both of them have done terrific.

The American Idol 7 winner by 12 million votes is David Cook, who received 56% of the 97.5 million votes cast.

As much as some may like to pretend that American Idol is fading since its ratings are declining, it remains by far the #1 show on TV, taking this season’s crown by about 7 million viewers. So obviously, American Idol will be back on Fox once again for season 8 next January.

Reaper Episode 18

Sarah robbed Ben blind and got him in trouble with the law, while Tony’s demon friend came to the conclusion that Sam must be the Devil’s son in Reaper Episode 17.

The Devil takes credit for the lottery as one of his greatest inventions, which he calls the idiot tax. Sam wants to know how he met his parents, to which he gets a response that people who make deals with the Devil generally aren’t big on integrity. Enough of that now, though, he’s got a soul for him. A fortune teller who was hung by a bunch of clods with pitchforks for conspiring with the Devil (after she made a deal with him).

Sock wants his relationship with Josie to be effortless. If it’s just another job, he quits. So she fires him.

Tony’s got a new plan. Capture the Devil in Solomon’s cage. Sam warns him of all the death and destruction from last time reapeating itself. Sam doesn’t have to be involved, but Tony just needs Sam’s employee discount for all the supplies.

Sock hits on a hot demon girl. She decides she really wants a kiss. He doesn’t care that he feels weird after they kiss the first time, so he kisses her again… and passes out. He feels totally pumped now and starts acting like he ate a bag of sugar sticks and a six pack of soda.

Sam believes he’s seen Steve appearing as a stain on the wall, and Andi suggests that perhaps he isn’t quite so crazy to believe that.

The Devil forces Sam to spill the beans on Tony’s plan. He’s not at all concerned. But Tony’s real plan is not to capture Satan. Rather, he hopes to capture his son.

Sock’s newfound energy boost is gone, but Andi’s on to new things and has spent hours finding the soul. The boys know it’s the hottest girl within a few seconds, though. When they arrive at demon central with some lumber, they find the girl who kissed Sock. She apologizes for kissing him. It turns out she’s a succubus and has shaved about a year off his life. His plan is to just kiss her once a year.

Sam asks Tony about Steve appearing to him, and Tony’s mad that Steve would appear to Sam and not him. He also claims that God’s goodwill is never going to extend to demons. Then Sam tells him that the Devil may possibly know about the plans, but Steve’s not upset because those aren’t his real plans anyway.

Sock’s got a new buzz. Sam wants to know if he ate 16 pixie sticks.

They head to the fortune teller. She pulls Sam’s cards. He’s recently come into contact with his father, who is deceiving him about his birth, the Devil obscures the truth between himself and his father… and that’s where they leave it because she’s not going back to Hell.

Lucky for him, Sock’s full of adrenaline and manages to save him. But he’s not on drugs, which means that Ben shouldn’t tell his mom. Now Ben wants a taste of her since he knows the effect, but she doesn’t want to share. As a consolation, Sock will probably be dead in three years.

Sam confronts his father again. He wants to know the truth because his life is at risk every day, but his father is forbidden from telling him the truth.

Tony invites Sam out to demon central. He tells him he knows the secret his father’s not telling him and tosses him in the cage and informs him that he is the son of Lucifer. Sam’s father comes to the rescue and offers to explain everything. So he goes in the cage, too. Steve wanted to know about Cancun, where they took their first vacation, which he called Heaven. The glowing angel that appears before them confirms Sam’s story, and with that, Tony rescues Sam but not his father.

Now that his father’s dead and buried, Sam wants to know whether that was his actual father. His mom answers that, of course, he was. The Devil’s giving him some time off to mourn and spend time with his girl and friends. He’s still unconvinced that he’s not Satan’s son, though. Tony may have saved him, but those other demons won’t stop.

With that, the boys blow stuff up to honor the passing of the man who may or may not have been Sam’s biological father.

That’s the last of the new episodes for now. Reaper Season 2 starts its first of 13 episodes in midseason, presumably in January. Meaning there’s still one reason to watch this network.

American Idol 7 Episode 41

It’s apparently time for the final two to rumble.

David Archuleta won the coin toss and has decided to go second.

David Cook
Song: I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking for by U2
Randy: Great way to start. Hot but don’t know if you did everything you could with it.
Paula: We have found what we’re looking for.
Simon: Phenomenal taking into account how tense you looked at the top of the show.

David Archuleta
Song: Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me by Elton John
Randy: One of the best performances of this whole season. Flawless. Unbelievably molten hot.
Paula: Heart still pounding. Chills up and down my arms.
Simon: Okay last week but arguably your best so far this week. Round one goes to Archuleta.

For the second song, the guys will pick the song they want to perform the most out of America’s 10 favorite entries from the songwriting contest. May be some indication of the type of music we can expect from them when they make their albums.

David Cook
Song: Dream Big
Randy: Song was just okay, but you were singing your face off.
Paula: Great way to take a song we don’t know and fall in love with it.
Simon: Bit of a lightweight. Made the most of what you had. Didn’t feel like a winning moment. 6.5 out of 10.

David Archuleta
Song: In This Moment
Randy: Wasn’t crazy about the song again, but you’re in the zone.
Paula: On fire tonight. Pure magic.
Simon: Chose the better song. Round two goes to David Archuleta.

David Cook
Song: The World I Know by Collective Soul
Randy: Showing people a lot of different sides of David Cook. Very nice sensitive side.
Paula: Integrity and originality. I truly applaud you.
Simon: One of the nicest, most sincere contestants. Beautiful song but completely and utterly the wrong song choice.

David Archuleta
Song: Imagine by John Lennon
Randy: So good tonight. Exactly what this show about. The best singer of season 7 is right there.
Paula: Left me speechless. Stunning.
Simon: You came out here to win, and what we have witnessed is a knockout.

David Cook’s numbers: 1-866-IDOLS-01, 1-866-IDOLS-03, 1-866-IDOLS-05
David Archuleta’s numbers: 1-866-IDOLS-02, 1-866-IDOLS-04, 1-866-IDOLS-06

That wraps up the final night of performances, and tomorrow night we will find out who the American Idol 7 winner is. Phone lines will be open for voting for the next four hours.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of American Idol 7 episode 42, where we will find out who the winner is.