Survivor: China James the Gravedigger

dingoRUE RSSWant more Survivor? Subscribe to dingoRUE for continued coverage of Survivor.

James Clement, 30, a gravedigger from Lafayette, LA, is the strong, silent type, who acknowledges he’s a loner. Definitely not in any immediate danger, but will he be able to overcome being so quiet?

So far, he’s been pretty much as expected. A nice guy who likes to be left alone but will be a serious contributor to both camp life and also at challenges. It doesn’t look like CBS will have too much trouble making this guy likeable.

Check out this character clip from CBS.

Charisma Carpenter on The Apprentice 7?

TV Guide reports that Charisma Carpenter may be one of the contestants on the upcoming celebrity edition of The Apprentice. Charisma is most well known for her 7 year role as Cordelia Chase on Buffy The Vampire Slayer and later on Angel. She has also been featured in recurring roles Charmed and Veronica Mars.

I’d say this beats the three [bleep]ing messes previously reported as being possible candidates, although from a ratings standpoint, even a drunk out of shape Britney apparently brings in the viewers if the VMA’s are any indication.

Big Brother 8 Episode 30

In episode 29, Zach nominated both Dick and Danielle, Dick was delusional and believed he was the greatest player in the history of the show, and Danielle whined. Jameka was in there somewhere.

Looking back at Zach’s statement, I sure hope the jury’s not watching it. Telling people they’re dominant = not smart. Danielle’s upset that Zach went back on his word. Danielle. Who along with her father have screwed over every word they ever had. Dick still thinks they had the toughest game in the house. Yeah, with the combination of America, the banner plane, hidden code in letters from Dick’s son, nonstop support from the producers, and cheating in competitions… the deck was really stacked against them. Dick then makes fun of Zach not winning competitions, which was smart since he didn’t need to do anything to draw attention to himself. Because Dick won so many himself apparently.

We finally get to see the mystery jury house, which they used to show every week. Still doesn’t resolve the question of what they were trying to hide by not showing it before.

It’s time for the final power of veto. Whoever wins is safe and casts the only vote to evict whoever they want. If Zach wins, he can choose who is safe and who casts the vote. It’s the two clues matching one person challenge we normally see around this time in the game. Dick’s just putting up random nonsense as quickly as possible. But he’s ahead of Zach, who initially doesn’t even know what he’s supposed to be doing. Danielle wins veto, which means that, short of a miracle, Jameka’s a goner. As could be expected, Dick’s as bad a winner as he is a loser. He’s completely convinced either he or Danielle has won. Up against Zach, they have some chance, but at the end of the day, nobody on the jury likes either Dick or Danielle, not even a little. Zach’s about as oblivious to Dick’s attacks as Jen was.

Here’s the live veto meeting. Danielle uses the power of veto to save her father, surprisingly enough. If she were in danger, she never would have even considered it. Nonetheless, it was a nice gesture, despite the lack of risk. Jameka goes up in Dick’s place. Dick votes to evict Jameka.

Despite her initial hesitation about being surrounded by people of another race, Jameka was very happy with her experience. Watching these goodbye messages, I take back what I said about Zach being an idiot. In retrospect (considering Jameka didn’t win veto), he didn’t throw away a vote. He gained (or at least cemented) a vote from Jameka, which has the potential to also significantly impact all of Jameka’s friends in the jury (aka everybody). Well played. The part about him being an idiot for not evicting Danielle when he had the chance still stands, though.

The endurance part of the three part HOH competition starts tonight. A rabbit goes around in circles, and people must jump over him while keeping their hands on their keys. After the commercial break, here comes the rain. In season three, the end results were determined by rain, as it proved to be too cold for Danielle to continue.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live blog of Big Brother 8 episode 31, which airs Thursday at 8/7c on CBS.

Jonny Fairplay Expecting Child

On the things you don’t want to hear about list, this probably ranks pretty high, right near stories about Sanjaya. TMZ reports that Survivor’s Jonny Fairplay (Jon Dalton) is expecting his first child with Michelle Dreighton of America’s Next Top Model. She is currently in her 17th week.

“Michelle and I couldn’t be more happier [sic] and I wouldn’t LIE about that!” says Jonny. Fairplay is best known for his appearance on Survivor’s seventh season, in which he told a lie about his grandmother dying.

Big Brother 8 Episode 29

So apparently 60 minutes is an hour and a half tonight. BB8 should be underway around 8:30/7:30c. Don’t you just love CBS Sundays in the fall, where every single week they can never start on time? Tonight it was tennis. I’m sure football, golf, basketball, and professional Scrabble will have their day at some point. [/rant]

We left the hamsters in episode 28 after an extremely rushed hour and the boot of two of the season’s better players. Jameka was eliminated from veto, after what CBS later confirmed was indeed a bounced ball due to another poorly designed competition (yet still no redo?). At the end of the hour, Zach had the perfect opportunity to break up two relatives. He failed to do so. Did he not trust Eric to go along? Is he just an idiot? Was he hoping to be safe this week by sticking with them? Time will tell, but the decision has the potential to bite him. There wasn’t enough time for another HOH competition on Thursday, so we will find out the final four HOH and nominations tonight.

Danielle tells us she couldn’t care less about Eric and that it’s nothing personal. While I agree, this is the same chick who’s been whining for the last two months straight about some guy she knew for a couple weeks. She then proceeds to tell us that Zach, the guy who (foolishly) just saved her ass, is only still around because she dragged him there. She and Dick follow that up with plans to turn on Zach, again jumping ahead of themselves, as if the HOH competition has already happened. Granted, either way, it’s not like they haven’t pissed off every single jury member already, and both continue to play with the knowledge they’re hated enough that they’d make a good second place choice.

The HOH competition is a memory task based on new memory wall pictures taken throughout the season. At least it’s something somewhat different, even if it’s still largely dumb luck. Zach gets question 1 right. Everybody gets questions 2 and 3 right. Danielle and Zach get question 4 right. Danielle gets question 5 right, tying her with Zach for the lead. Everybody gets questions 6, 7, and 8 right, so it’s a tiebreaker question between Zach and Danielle. Zach guesses one higher than Danielle and is the new HOH. If he’s smart, he’ll nominate Jameka and Danielle or Dick. Based on his veto move last week, I’m not so sure he meets that qualification, though. On one of these questions, Dick whispered the answer to Danielle. Yeah, I’m still believing this game isn’t rigged.

Dick tries to remain upbeat and positive about the situation and the odds of winning veto. Danielle is her usual self (read: the exact opposite).

None of these people seem to get it. It doesn’t matter who goes up on the block in the final four. Whoever wins veto casts the lone vote, unless the HOH wins it, in which case that person decides who casts the lone vote.

Zach decides he wants Dick or Danielle to go. He also figures out that neither of them will take him to the final two with them. Hello?! Where was this logic on Thursday night when you had a surefire way of kicking her out? People always talk about Marcellas. We ain’t seen nothing yet until this season. This whole damn house is full of Marcellas’, with the exception of Jameka, who made the best move this year (5 weeks of no HOH meant 5 weeks of safety). Danielle tries to convince Zach people had his back, while they all treated him like an outcast for a month or more.

Danielle thinks it’s amusing Zach thinks he can win. Funny, I think it’s amusing she thinks she can win. Yeah, she won a bunch of competitions. And did what else? I’ve got a challenge for her: pick a mood that’s not either excessively smug or whiny.

Jameka is safe. Dick and Danielle have been nominated for eviction. Going back to my original series of questions, I’ve found the answer: Zach’s an idiot. He just threw away their votes for no reason. As much as I’m trying to like Zach and agree with much of what he’s saying, he just keeps making dumb decisions.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live blog of Big Brother 8 episode 30, which airs Tuesday at 9/8c on CBS.

Fall Shows We’re Covering

The fall television season is almost upon us. The majority of the shows will be starting this month, some as early as this week. While dingoRUE has historically been primarily a reality TV blog, this season is the time to kick things into high gear. Reality TV will still be a large focus, but scripted TV shows will also be appearing on the site. Here are the shows I expect will be covered:

American Band (Fox, Friday, 8PMEST, October 19)
America’s Next Top Model (CW, Wednesday, 8PMEST, September 19)
Beauty and the Geek (CW, Tuesday, 8PMEST, September 18)
Bionic Woman (NBC, Wednesday, 9PMEST, September 26)
CSI: New York (CBS, Wednesday, 10PMEST, September 26)
CSI: Vegas (CBS, Thursday, 9PMEST, September 27)
Extreme Makeover Home Edition (ABC, Sunday, 8PMEST, September 30)
Heroes (NBC, Monday, 9PMEST, September 24)
House (Fox, Tuesday, 9PMEST, September 25)
Kid Nation (CBS, Wednesday, 8PMEST, September 19)
Prison Break (Fox, Monday, 8PMEST, September 17)
Reaper (CW, Tuesday, 9PMEST, September 25)
Supernatural (CW, Thursday, 9PM, October 4)
Survivor: China (CBS, Thursday, 8PMEST, September 20)
The Biggest Loser (NBC, Tuesday, 8PMEST, September 11)
The Race (ICTV, Wednesday, 9:30PMEST, September 19)

Hopefully you will enjoy the mix of old and new. But is your favorite show missing from the list? If so, and you’d be interested in writing recaps on it, send an e-mail to webmaster [at] dingorue.com, or leave a comment to this story.