Author: Shane

The Bachelor 12 Episode 1

Following the debacle that was The Bachelor 11, in which Brad Womack was unable to even make enough of a connection with any of the 25 women to even want to pursue dating one of them, let alone proposing, The Bachelor is back for a 12th season. This time, London is calling, as this season’s bachelor is Britain’s Matt Grant. Apparently, Matt has been unable to find a mate in his home country of England, so he’s had to travel halfway across the world to America. He tells us a story of how his father was too old growing up, making him realize he doesn’t want to be that old when he does have kids.

As usual in the first episode of the season, there are more women than Matt can shake a stick at. The 25 bachelorettes are:

Alyssa
Amanda P
Amanda R
Amy
Ashlee
Carri
Chelsea
Denise
Devon
Erin H
Erin S
Holly
Kelly
Kristine
Lesley
Marshana
Michelle P
Michelle R
Noelle
Rebecca
Robin
Shayne
Stacey
Tamara
Tiffany

A very nervous Amanda R lived in England for 4 years, which should give them some common ground to start with. Chelsea wants to arm wrestle with Matt. Erin H has a placeholder ring on her finger until she puts the real thing on. A little bit creepy. Amanda P gives him a pink Vegas souvenir dice. Holly is a little more… enhanced than I would expect a children’s author to be.

It’s time to start partying so that 10 women can be sent home on the basis of a rash first impression decision alone.

Arm wrestling champion Chelsea wants to take on Matt, which certainly should be enough to make her stand out and safe for the night.

Denise is having a political conversation with Matt, as she worked for Bush. Carri’s getting tired of this seriousness, so she bites into an alluminum can and gives him a piece.

Singer/songwriter Ashlee brings out her guitar and sings a song she’s written for him. It’s not a good song, but it does stand out.

Amanda R has chronic hiccups when she’s stressed out. This could be a long season for her.

Michelle P also brought an instrument. She plays the clarinet.

Stacey was probably drunk when she showed up, and it ain’t getting any prettier. I can’t hear half of what she’s saying because it’s being bleeped out, and the snorting isn’t helping any. The other girls hate her already. Unlike the other girls who are not yet jumping his bones, she starts off right away stroking Matt’s knee and playing footsie. He’s uncomfortable with her but just keeps his mouth shut about it. She tells him and Erin H they’re really boring her with their conversation. Erin S comes to steal him away, and not being willing to just let it go, Stacey walks over and puts her underwear in his pocket, except he doesn’t have a pocket, so she’s just feeling around. The other girls begin gossiping about her then go looking for her, when they find out she’s passed out in the other room snoring.

Shayne’s whole family is actors, which is why she’s in the business as well, but she claims that’s irrelevant to why she’s there. Her father is Lorenzo Lamas. Can’t say as I’ve ever heard of him, but he has had some lengthy stints on Falcon Crest, Renegade (whatever that is), and The Bold and the Beautiful.

Noelle’s concerned that she tends to be shy and reserved. She seems like just a nice normal girl, a sharp contrast to a lot of these women.

Robin is another one who has spent some time in England.

Getting back to first impressions, it’s time for the first impression rose. He gives it to Amanda R because she’s really down to earth.

It’s now time for the first rose ceremony, in which 10 women will be sent home and narrow the field down to a more manageable 15.

Roses
Amanda R
Chelsea
Shayne
Michelle P
Marshana
Ashlee
Noelle
Erin S
Amy
Carri
Kristine
Robin
Kelly
Holly
Erin H

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another recap of The Bachelor 12 episode 2, which airs Monday at 10/9c on ABC.

Watch The Bachelor 12 Online

Reaper Episode 11

Reaper went on hiatus after the writers strike, but fresh episodes are back. We left off in December in Reaper Episode 10. Sam was dating Cady, who may or may not be the Devil’s daughter, and she was unknowingly killing things.

We start off with Sock shooting Ben. Not sure whether they’re warming up for demons or if Sock’s just having fun. Then his mom pulls up with an Asian cowboy and says she has wonderful news.

When Cady and Sam are making out, she finds a necklace on his dresser. She assumes it’s a gift for her, even if it was originally intended as a gift for Andi in Episode 8. Then Sock walks in to say he shot a cowboy and might have punched him, too. He sleeps over Sam’s house and sets his alarm for 4:30am so they can talk. He also talks to Sam’s father while he’s getting dressed and his mom while she’s in the shower.

When they arrive at work, Sam makes Sock go flying across the parking lot into some Christmas trees (I’m sure this story made more sense back in December when it was… actually Christmas). Andi hopes to use this to play a prank on Ted, who’s terrified of a lawsuit.

Sam shows up to meet the Devil and sees a body floating on the water, when he’s told about a cannibal who always finishes his meals and eats at night. While they’re talking, the Devil sees a really bad/angry at his ex wannabe rocker and wants to seize the opportunity to strike a deal. Sam basically calls the Devil a morally bankrupt evil being, so he pushes him off the dock, where he lands in a pile of presents with a new vessel.

Andi asks to meet Cady. She immediately notices the necklace and says Sam showed it to her once, which he did, but she refused to accept it. That ends the conversation pretty quickly. Sam tells Cady the truth about the necklace, but she doesn’t take the truth very well. So now they’re both upset at him.

Ben and Sock say it’s not Sam’s problem if some guy wants to sell his soul to the Devil. They find out that Ryan, the wannabe rocker, is playing at a huge venue. The vessel is a speargun… much better than usual. They head to the morgue so that they can get a dental match on a “certain Jonathan Deere.” The expired ID with Sock’s picture pasted on doesn’t go over well, and they get kicked out of the morgue. Except they don’t leave willingly. They stick around to find out it’s the guy who kicked them out who’s been chowing down on people.

They head to the cannibal’s mother’s house to talk to her. They pretend they actually like him, a new story she hasn’t heard before. She tells them of how she “imagines” she sees him sometimes right after the sun goes down.

Sam approaches Ryan to find out if he signed anything, and when he finds out he hasn’t, he tells him to just walk away. He has trouble buying the story about how he’s going to spend eternity in Hell, and even if it is true, he just wants to prove everybody wrong and doesn’t care anyway. The Devil is actually happy about this because when Sam says Devil, it sounds sorta cute, getting Ryan over the initial shock.

Josie comes to ask Ben why they were at the coroner’s office, since her old ID badge was that the scene (with the “i” crossed out to spell Jose instead). They’ve got their story down. “Uncle Hector. Nintendo. I look nothing like you. Booyah.” So she punches Sock and tells them she’ll find out what’s really happening.

Cady agrees to meet Sam at the bar. She doesn’t know that Sam can get over Andi, but he says he’s with her, not Andi.

They go back to Mrs. Carmona’s house to see the cannibal. Sock, who’s still arguing with his mother, decides to go inside and see if she has any more pie. It turns out the cannibal didn’t want pie, though, so he ate his mother instead. An angry Sock chases him outside, where the other guys are waiting to capture him with the vessel.

Sam and Andi both apologize to each other and decide again to all just be friends again.

They want to use the soul as bait to convince Ryan not to sell his soul to the Devil. The soul’s not tempted by Canadian bacon, but he is tempted by Ryan and bites his hand off. He runs off, but Sam follows him and captures him again. Sam goes to visit Ryan at the hospital. His hand is back on, but he doesn’t remember anything after the second encore. He thinks a bear probably bit his hand off. He’s upset that the Devil won’t return any of his calls. His ex stops by the hospital as well, but she’s just there to make sure he’s not going to die or anything. Without any feeling in 4 out of 5 fingers, he agrees to give up rock and roll for her, so she takes him back.

Sock returns home to talk to his mom and her Asian cowboy husband Morris. He accepts the marriage, but she throws him out, claiming he’s too old to be living at home. His room is now a pottery studio.

Cady tells Andi a story about a girl from high school who she hoped to stab but instead just slashed her tires. But she’s been through therapy and can control her emotions now pretty much.

The Devil goes to The Work Bench to confront Sam. He makes all the shelves collapse. This isn’t him mad, though, just disappointed.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another recap of Reaper episode 12 Unseen, which airs Thursday at 9/8c on The CW.

The Biggest Loser 5 Episode 12

The two biggest losers who had previously been eliminated (Ali and Mark) returned to campus with a second chance in The Biggest Loser: Couples Episode 11. After Bernie went home, his team completely fell apart, and the two girls who fell below the yellow line were the ones who threw in the towel. That’s where we left things because two hours is apparently not enough time to tell us who’s been eliminated.

Votes
Dan-Maggie
Dan (second vote)-Maggie
Kelly-Brittany
Mark-Maggie
Ali-Maggie

With 4 votes, Maggie has been eliminated from the game. Maggie is now down to 172 pounds from her original weight of 239 pounds for a total weight loss of 66 pounds to date.

Brittany is concerned because her clique, which she held on to for too long, has been destroyed.

The teams head to Macy’s. None of them liked going to the mall before because nothing fit. It’s makeover week, and they’re going to be doing a photo shoot for Prevention magazine. Tim Gunn from Project Runway is there to help them. It’s an emotional time for everybody as they realize they can look better and fit in clothes they typically had avoided. When they’re done shopping, they get to keep the clothes and a gift card for $1,000.

Then it’s time for a new hair style with Brandon Martinez of B the Product. Even Dan agrees to get his hair chopped off (welcome to the next millenium).

In addition to walking the runway, their families are there to greet them as per usual on makeover week.

As we saw last season with Kae, this season’s stand out female gets the cover shot, as Ali is appearing on the cover of the current edition of Prevention.

Jillian this week (again) wants to try to figure out why Brittany never loses much weight. She rolls the dice and adds some extra sodium to her diet to see what it does.

The challenge is to walk on treadmills suspended over water. The task is to stay on the treadmill the longest, and whoever doesn’t plunge into the pool wins. The prize is a vacation to a spa and resort in Utah. At 40 minutes, they finally get the hint and increase the speed enough so that it’s actually a challenge, and Kelly is the first one out, followed by Roger a few seconds later. Dan’s down about a minute later. Brittany drops at 45 minutes. Jay takes a dive at 56 minutes. Ali falls at an hour and five minutes, and Mark wins.

Roger gets upset because Mark isn’t yelling and pissing people off as much as he was the first time around. He confronts him about this because he loves when Mark does that kind of thing (since it makes Mark more of a target). All Roger’s strategy here does is run the risk of creating problems within the team, which on a team with two brothers is probably not a good idea. Unless he can manage to push Mark off his game, which he has managed to do here, but with the way the numbers line up, it’s too early for that to be a good idea.

It’s time to weigh-in.

Ali: 155 pounds (-5, 3.13%)
Mark: 185 pounds (-3, 1.60%)
Dan: 199 pounds (-8, 3.86%)
Brittany: 170 pounds (-2, 1.16%)
Roger: 242 pounds (-9, 3.59%)
Jay: 206 pounds (-3, 1.44%)
Kelly: 199 pounds (-3, 1.49%)

That puts Jay and Brittany below the yellow line. Three people hit milestones this week. Both Dan and Kelly are below 200 pounds, while Mark hit 100 pounds lost. Nice chance to take out a much bigger threat in Mark, but I don’t see the team buckling. Not that they particularly need to because Mark is very close to being at his peak.

Votes
Roger-Brittany
Dan-Brittany
Ali-Brittany

Brittany’s finally been eliminated. To celebrate her success on the show, she decides to go skydiving. Brittany is down 62 pounds from her starting weight of 221 pounds to 159 today.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another recap of The Biggest Loser: Couples episode 13, which airs Tuesday at 8/7c on NBC.

Jericho Cancelled

CBS has cancelled Jericho. Again. Last year’s cancellation left a sour taste in people’s mouths, and this year’s probably won’t be much better. While we will get some closure in Tuesday’s series finale, most Jericho fanatics thought from the beginning that CBS sent the series off to die so they’d have an excuse to get their way. The producers are shopping the show around to see if it can be picked up on cable, but if it were to get picked up elsewhere, expect even more budget cuts.

“The March 25th episode of Jericho will be the series finale,” the network said in a statement. “Without question, there are passionate viewers watching this program; we simply wish there were more. We thank an engaged and spirited fan base for keeping the show alive this long, and an outstanding team of producers, cast and crew that went through creative hoops to deliver a compelling, high quality second season. We have no regrets bringing the show back for a second try. We listened to our viewers, gave the series an opportunity to grow, and the producers put a great story on the screen. We’re proud of everyone’s efforts.”

The Celebrity Apprentice Episode 12

After Trace Adkins and Stephen Baldwin took Empresario’s final loss in The Celebrity Apprentice Episode 11, Stephen Baldwin was sent packing, leaving us with a final four of: Trace Adkins, Carol Alt, Piers Morgan, and Lennox Lewis. They were called back to the boardroom by Donald Trump at the end of the episode. So now it’s a question of who will be joining Piers in the finals.

Erin Burnett and Jim Kramer will be interviewing the four remaining contestants to help determine who will be the final two and who will be fired to start off the show.

Trace and Lennox want Piers to go, and he wants them to go. Carol wants Lennox to go.

Erin disliked Piers the most because he was too edgy. Jim Kramer also doesn’t care for Piers but admits he’s the best money raiser. Jim liked Carol the best and would pick Trace as his second. Erin would give money to Trace above all the rest if asked.

Piers acknowledges that he has played the game hard but has not broken any rules.

Carol tells Trump he should fire Lennox and Trace.

Lennox admits Piers is a great asset to the team. Taking that into account and the input from the interviewers that he’s too laid back, Lennox is fired.

Piers tells Trump he would beat Trace easier than he would beat Carol. Trace’s response is that Piers is merciless.

Trump says he loves the friction between the two guys and fires Carol. Right decision? I’m not sure. But at least he didn’t get rid of Piers.

Carol Alt, Stephen Baldwin, Marilu Henner, and Lennox Lewis return to help out for the final task, which is a charity auction/Backstreet Boys concert.

Trace wins the coin toss and picks Lennox, seeing him as Piers’ secret weapon. Piers picks Stephen, who he did work well together with despite the chaos that ensued. Trace takes Marilu, leaving Piers with Carol.

Piers takes the charity aucition and catering while Trace takes the show portion of the task because that’s what each of them would be most comfortable with.

Piers thinks it’s all about money, though Baldwin disagrees. Trace knows he has no prayer of winning in terms of money, so he instead hopes to beat him with celebrity power. He will charter two jets and fly up everybody he knows.

Lennox is having difficulty getting Marilu to understand that they have a deadline and can’t be unnecessarily fussy.

Stephen’s happy to be getting a free meal.

Piers goes to visit an old friend. Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York. Fergie agrees to royal tea with the duchess.

Trace isn’t getting a good feeling from the Backstreet Boys road manager. He hopes to be able to eliminate some of the things from their demands list but won’t know until the morning. When he does meet with them, he thinks he’s dealing with some spoiled kids. They’re okay with just the one dressing room but still want enough to stock two dressing rooms. They also want wheatgrass.

Piers is worried that Stephen’s not going to be able to get any celebrities, not even a brother, due to the short notice. He’s not overly concerned with whether Piers loses.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of The Celebrity Apprentice Episode 13 where we will find out who the winner is, which airs Thursday at 9/8c on NBC.

Big Brother 9 Episode 17

Last night, James went back on his promise to Natalie and nominated Matt as a replacement for Sheila, putting Matt and Ryan in danger of leaving tonight.

Natalie’s obviously upset over the possibility that Matt will leave the house, but in retrospect, she’s ultimately responsible for the outcome this week. All she can do is seek revenge against James.

Sheila assures Ryan: when she makes a decision, it’s a decision. Whatever that means.

Adam’s advice to Matt is to aggressively pursue the others for their votes. He doesn’t care whether it’s a sympathy vote or not. The approach doesn’t work. He gets a bunch of I don’t knows. So his next idea is to confront them and tell them he’s never done anything bad to any of them, whereas Ryan’s a rat who’s screwed over everybody who wants to vote for him to stay. At least it’s better than telling people he doesn’t want to be in sequester for his birthday. Matt does appear to have enough support for a tie, but James is still whining about people lying, so he hates them both.

Julie wants to know why James is a hypocrite. He doesn’t give an answer that makes sense.

Three people believed Allison was going to be in the box. They’re told that Alex was the actual choice. Four people say that if they knew it was Alex in the box, they would have voted to let him in.

It’s Dick and Danielle. How come these people are on my screen again? I may throw up in my mouth again. Danielle tells us she’s no longer dating Nick, though not surprisingly we’re not told that he dumped her for Jen, who Dick was also obsessed over.

Votes
Chelsia-Matt
Joshuah-Matt
Sharon-Matt
Natalie-Ryan
Adam-Ryan
Sheila-Ryan

It’s all tied up, which means James as HOH must decide who leaves.

Considering the way his entire alliance (of sorts) voted, it’s no surprise that James votes to evict Matt, who is the first member of the jury.

The HOH competition is a Q&A about things the evicted houseguests have said in the diary room. Two people will compete, and whoever proceeds chooses which two people go next. Joshuah and Chelsia are up first. Joshuah gets it wrong and is eliminated. Chelsia selects Natalie and Sheila to face off. Natalie gets it right, and Sheila is eliminated. Chelsia and Sharon are next. Chelsia is correct, and Sharon is eliminated. Adam and Natalie go next. Adam is correct, and Natalie is out. Ryan and Chelsia are next. Chelsia is correct, and Ryan is eliminated. Adam steps up for the final round. Adam is correct and wins HOH. The battle lines are pretty clear here, so I would expect Adam would go after the other side, but you never know with this guy. It was interesting that nobody decided to attack Ryan during this competition. It appears both sides believe they can swing him.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of Big Brother 9 Episode 18, which airs Sunday at 8/7c on CBS.

Big Brother 9 Spoilers

Survivor: Micronesia Episode 7

Chet had the opportunity to take control of the game for his allies in Survivor: Micronesia Episode 6, but he was too interested in whining and ended up being voted out himself. Following his injury at the poorly designed challenge, Jonathan was eliminated from the game for medical reasons.

Tracy wants to kill the chickens. For some reason, Ozzy is completely opposed to this and rules it out. Nonetheless, Ozzy remains the provider of his tribe, so she’ll just bite her tongue for now. Erik, meanwhile, wants to be Ozzy.

The reward challenge involves money stones, which were the currency in Micronesia at one time. Reward is a trip to an island for a spa and food. Natalie sits out for Airai. Tribes will guide their giant round stones through a course while blindfolded. Two people who are not blindfolded must guide them and recover the stones under tiles after they’re broken. Airai is the first to finish and move to the puzzle. Malakal passes them on the puzzle and wins reward, though. They send Jason to exile island, along with Tracy (at Ozzy’s request, meaning she misses out on the reward).

While Amanda and Ami strip and take showers with Ozzy in paradise, back at camp, the other tribe is suffering through a monsoon, as Kathy takes on the role of whiner. After about three minutes straight of this, I get the point already. I’m sensing our next quitter here.

The other girls try to talk her out of it, but Kathy has her mind set on leaving the game. Jeff Probst comes to pay her a visit. She says she can’t feel her family, but I’m not sure how heading off to a sequester house will change that.

Prior to the season starting, Probst had this to say about Kathy, “We almost put Kathy on Vanuatu and we didn’t. It’s one thing to have a positive attitude, it’s another to survive 39 days eating some rice, clams, and an occasional fish. I think Kathy’s going to be tested enormously, and the longer she lasts, the tougher it’s going to be unless she can embrace it. It’s not an easy season out there. It rained almost every night we were there, and if you get sent to Exile, it can be brutal.”

This puts the teams even at six and gives us yet another two elimination episode. This also follows on the heels of Jonathan’s exit last week, as he was on this same tribe, keeping things roughly even for the tribe that keeps losing.

Cirie’s getting people around to her way of thinking: that Ozzy’s just out for Ozzy.

The immunity challenge will again be collecting puzzle pieces then solving a puzzle. Tribes will run across a bridge and hook up puzzle pieces, then their teams will reel them back to shore with the rope they attach. Ozzy gets an early lead and is allowed to go a second time, giving Malakal a big lead. Ozzy takes a breather on the third go but goes again on the fourth, and Malakal laps Airai. Malakal is the first tribe to get all five pieces. Airai manages to get their pieces while Malakal is still untying theirs, but they still have a good amount of ground to make up. Despite being behind, Airai once again catch up on the puzzle part, as Eliza and Jason finish the puzzle to win immunity for Airai.

The girls apologize to Ozzy, but he doesn’t seem real concerned because he feels safe. Once again, there’s a plan to go against Ozzy. Ami approaches Tracy to take out Ozzy, who doesn’t want Erik gone unlike the other girls because Erik worships him. Ami’s thinking of a 3-2-1 vote.

Ozzy’s name is brought up a bunch at tribal council, but he again doesn’t appear overly worried.

Votes
Tracy
Ozzy
Tracy
Tracy
Tracy

Once again they didn’t have much choice, even if they’re probably going to regret it in the long run.

Unlike this week’s schedule change, it appears the next episode will be delayed a week and still air on Thursday.

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