reality tv – Page 125

Survivor: Redemption Island Cast

Two former castaways will once again return to do battle in Survivor: Redemption Island. Russell Hantz and Boston Rob Mariano will make their third and fourth attempts at the million dollar prize respectively. I’d put money on Rob, but unless Russell has come up with a different strategy, he’s nothing more than someone to drag along to the end in hopes people are bitter enough to not vote for him. In addition to these two returning castaways, the Survivor: Redemption Island cast consists of 16 additional contestants.

Ometepe Tribe

* Andrea Boehlke, 21, Random Lake, Wis.; student
* Matt Elrod, 22, Nashville; pre-med student
* Francesca Hogi, 36, Washington D.C.; attorney
* Kristina Kell, 46, Malibu; law student
* Grant Mattos, 29, West Hollywood; former NFLer, yoga instructor
* Phillip Sheppard, 52, Santa Monica; technology executive
* Natalie Tenerelli, 19, Acton, Calif.; professional dancer
* Ashley Underwood, 25, Benton, Maine; nurse

Zapatera Tribe

* Mike Chiesl, 31, Del Mar, Calif.; former Marine
* Ralph Kiser, 44, Lebanon, Va.; farmer
* Krista Klumpp, 25, Columbia, S.C.; pharmaceutical rep.
* David Murphy, 31, West Hollywood; defense attorney
* Stephanie Valencia, 25, Long Beach, Calif.; waitress
* Sarita White, 36, Santa Monica; visual effects producer
* Julie Wolfe, 50, Oceanside, Calif.; firefighter
* Steve Wright, 51, Huntington Beach, Calif.; former NFL player

American Idol Season 10 Episode 8

San Francisco turned out to be a lot better than LA in American Idol Season 10 Episode 7, and we met Stefano Langone, Clint Jun Gamboa, and James Durbin. Tonight we start Hollywood week.

Brett Loewenstern starts things off on a positive note. Half of the contestants will be sticking around today, and he is among them. Rachel Zevita follows suit, and so do Thia Megia and Casey Abrams.

Sugary Victoria Huggins sounds a little less sweet, and she’s sent home packing all 11 bags.

James Durbin is here to do this for his fiancee and son, and Paris Tassin is here for her daughter. They are in the same line with Lauren Alaina and Miss Teen USA Stormi Henley. Of the four, only Stormi has been cut.

Chris Medina, like James, is singing for his fiancee. He has made it to the next round.

The next group is all about the youth of the competition. Hollie Cavanagh barely composed herself enough to make it through the audition round, while Jacee Badeaux and Robbie Rosen proved to be contenders. All three advance to the next stage.

Steve Beghun is American Idol’s lone accountant, and this is the end of the line for him. Sarah Sellers and Jacquelyn Dupree are also going home, as is Heidi Khzam.

Ex couple Rob Bolin and Chelsee Oaks don’t like each other much better than before, but perhaps they can learn from the sickeningly in love couple Nick Fink and Jacqueline Dunford, who they are bunking with. Both Rob and Chelsee will be remaining in Hollywood. Nick and Jacqueline, however, are being split up, as only she advances. He asks for another shot, which he should know ain’t happening. Maybe next year. He still can’t get the hint after being told no a second time.

Scottie McCreery resings the same song as he did last time. Safe and boring. Jackie Wilson and Jerome Bell do the same. This tactic works for all of them.

Tiffany Rios says she’s tired of seeing people try to do what she knows she can. I’ve got bad news for you then. This is a popularity contest as much as it is a singing contest, and that attitude is not gonna fly with the public. Travis Orlando is in line with her. He has been cut, but she just squeaks by.

Clint Gamboa, Julie Zorrilla, Naima Adedapo, Mark and Aaron Gutierrez, Molly DeWolf Swensen, Emily Anne Reed, Stefano Langone, and Ashley Sullivan will all be moving to the next round.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of American Idol Season 10 Episode 9, which airs Wednesday at 8/7c on Fox.

American Idol Season 10 Episode 7

With the folks in LA hoping to go down the road a ways to Hollywood in American Idol Season 10 Episode 6, we met brothers Mark and Aaron Gutierrez and not much else. The final audition city is San Francisco because apparently people couldn’t be bothered to travel 400 miles to LA.

Inessa Lee is from Ukraine but moved to Hollywood because she has convinced herself she is a star. I have two words for her: adult movies.

Brittany Mazur, Lara Johnston, and Matthew Nuss are going to Hollywood.

Stefano Langone was in an accident a couple years ago that left him scarred but in the end okay. He sings Heard It Through the Grapevine by Marvin Gaye, and he’s one of the best we have seen yet.

Clint Jun Gamboa is a karaoke host. The judges say his singing is beautiful.

Drew Beaumier comes dressed up as a Transformer. He says this is how people are going to get around in the future. Perhaps he’ll be able to get somewhere in that field, then, since he’s not going to be a singer. Unfortunately, he doesn’t want to be a car for the rest of his life either.

Julie Zorrilla is from Colombia, where she and her family had to abandon their home in the 90s due to the war. The judges like her shoes, and they love her performance of Summertime. Randy says he hasn’t liked this song on this show since Fantasia, a performance I have since forgotten.

Dave Combs tells us real men have long hair. Good luck with that. In either case, the hair’s not enough to make Steven Tyler anything but hostile.

Emily Anne Reed’s house burned down last week. She’s got a unique old school voice, which is enough to get two votes.

The final contestant of the night, James Durbin, never really knew his father because he was a musician and always away, eventually overdosing on drugs. Following this, he was diagnosed with Tourette’s syndrome and Asperger’s, which led to a rough childhood, but his wife and child changed his life. The judges are blown away by his performance.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of American Idol Season 10 Episode 8, which airs Thursday at 8/7c on Fox.

The Biggest Loser Season 11 Episode 6

With some time to make up in The Biggest Loser Season 11 Episode 5, Don was eliminated after throwing another weigh in, then Larialmy was sent home as well.

This week, all of Brett & Cara’s players will be wearing red. Bob & Jillian’s players have a decision to make, and they quickly decide they want to wear black rather than blue.

We now head into the temptation. It’s Valentine’s Day. The winner will be given the option of trading two players on their own team for two players on the other team. Each person will receive three minutes alone. Whoever eats the most chocolates can do nothing, or they can make the swap. The winner will be kept a secret. Anybody who doesn’t want things to change might want to participate in this just as much as anybody who does want change, although at this time it does not seem as if anybody has the desire to change up the teams that have been in place for a month.

Sarah decided she does not want to participate in temptations. Jennifer is also not tempted. Hannah considers Valentine’s the worst day of the entire year, and she won’t be eating. Q is the first to take a bite. Then three more. Rulon swallows quickly, getting down 5 chocolates. Not wanting to be outdone, Marci eats one piece of candy for each teammate and two for herself, for a total of 10. Moses just gets ridiculous, eating 21. Speaking of ridiculous, Arthur shovels stuff in his mouth, eating 35, which makes 1 every 5 seconds.

As the winner of the temptation, Arthur now has a choice to make. His decision: say goodbye to your friends. Jen & Jay will be switching with Sarah & Deni. Huh? Shouldn’t you be taking the strongest team if you’re going to pull a stunt like this, or at least not the weakest? Meanwhile, shouldn’t you be getting rid of a weaker team?

Arthur would like to say something. He tells everybody he did it. He just doesn’t trust Jay & Jen. So why’d he pick weak links? Just to have someone to get rid of if they do fail. Nice way to welcome them. The problem for Arthur is he’s just made enemies on both sides, while giving the other side an even bigger advantage than they already had.

For the first time, both teams workout together. The red team’s goal is to make a lot of noise and drown out Bob and Jillian.

Jay & Jen are confident they have been accepted by their new team. Let’s see if they feel that confident if they lose the weigh in.

It’s the first red vs. black challenge. The winning team will get videos from home. The challenge will test five skills: endurance, speed, agility, strength, and knowledge. Each time someone finishes a section, they will receive a present. Once all presents are collected, they will move on to finish one final challenge. After they choose who does what, Alison reveals what they have actually been chosen for. For endurance, they will have to push a rock up a hill wearing a blindfold. Speed will be how fast they can stack a bunch of bricks. Yeah, they’ve been totally tricked. Agility means mental agility, putting five dishes in order of number of calories. Strength is a test of balance, walking across a telephone pole while holding a log. Knowledge is how well they know their way to the heart, shooting an arrow at a heart-shaped target. Lastly, the whole team will complete a final task.

Courtney & Olivia go against Kaylee & Jen on endurance (aka pushing a rock up a hill). Black team takes the lead here. Marci & Irene go against Austin & Rulon on the brick stacking, which must reach 6 feet. Black team retains the lead. Deni & Sarah go against Justin & Jay on the calorie counting. The black team extends their lead, building up one that looks unbeatable as the other team fails to identify the correct order. Arthur & Jesse do the balance beam, and they are finished while the other team is still struggling on the third station. Hannah has shot a ton of guns, so perhaps this bow hunting should come easy to her. She does it on the first try. They start on the final station, a puzzle, while the red team continues to struggle. Black team wins the challenge.

Red team is going to start off the weigh in.

Jay: 317 pounds (-14, 4.23%)
Jen: 218 pounds (-14, 6.03%)
Austin: 316 pounds (-10, 3.07%)
Ken: 307 pounds (-14, 4.36%)
Q: 378 pounds (-7, 1.82%)
Rulon: 382 pounds (-12, 3.05%)
Justin: 282 pounds (-10, 3.42%)
Kaylee: 190 pounds (-5, 2.56%)
Moses: 340 pounds (-11, 3.13%) – 100 pounds lost in 6 weeks, a new record

Q continues to bring up the rear, which Justin says is proof he’s not living up to the promise to his wife. Way to support your team members. Everybody else on the red team, except their lightest member, has put up double digit numbers, although Justin & Rulon are disapointed by their results. These numbers put the black team under the gun.

Deni: 201 pounds (-9, 4.29%)
Sarah: 212 pounds (-10, 4.50%)
Arthur: 435 pounds (-9, 2.03%)
Jesse: 246 pounds (-11, 4.28%)
Courtney: 265 pounds (-10, 3.64%)
Marci: 187 pounds (-13, 6.50%)
Olivia: 208 pounds (-16, 7.14%)
Irene: 204 pounds (-12, 5.56%)
Hannah: 201 pounds (-9, 4.29%)

It may have seemed like a hopeless task at first, but these girls put up huge numbers, easily winning the weigh in. They may perhaps struggle next week, but it’s the other team that has to worry for now. The red team will have to vote someone out. They can vote for anyone other than their Biggest Loser, Jen. Jay assumes he’s a goner, but Q knows they have wanted him gone for weeks.

Votes
Jen: Q
Jay: Q
Q: Jay
Ken: Q
Moses: Q
Justin: Q

Luckily for Jay, he had a buffer. With 5 votes, Q is not The Biggest Loser. It would have made far more sense for him to just accept his fate last week and let his wife stay instead. From his starting weight of 437 pounds, Q now weighs 345, a loss of 92 pounds.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of The Biggest Loser Season 11 Episode 7, which airs Tuesday at 8/7c on NBC.

American Idol Season 10 Episode 6

Austin brought us Corey Levoy, John Wayne Schulz, Jacqueline Dunford and Nick Fink, and Casey Abrams in American Idol Season 10 Episode 5. Tonight we go to Los Angeles, CA.

Victoria Garrett screeches and makes an effort to scare all cats away.

Tim Halperin has a crush on Jennifer, who won’t tell him how old she is because it’s probably too old for him. Although Randy thinks he needs some more work, the other two let him advance.

Friends Daniel Gomez and Isaac Rodriguez are there to support each other. That support is of no help to either of them. Randy instructs them to never sing again, but they don’t care.

Because News Corp has not yet managed to unload Myspace, they are forcing Idol to pretend it’s still relevant, so we move on to the Myspace auditions.

Karen Rodriguez is the first Myspacer to perform. This is not the first time Karen has run into J Lo, who she previously sang for on TRL.

Tynisha Roches believes she is sexy, talented, and other things which would be considered complimentary. She is alone in that belief. Rather than sit there and be subjected to this, Randy walks out of the room… so she follows him.

Matt “Big Stats” Frankel fancies himself a record producer. Whoever he intends to produce, it will not be himself.

Brothers Mark and Aaron Gutierrez ard there to audition together, which means a duet of Lean on Me. Finally a worthwhile performance tonight.

It seems that is all we’re going to get out of the evening, as the final act of the night, the Human Tornado Cooper Robinson, promises to be a great big waste of time. Is this supposed to be entertaining? Seriously?

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of American Idol Season 10 Episode 7, which airs Wednesday at 8/7c on Fox.

American Idol Season 10 Episode 5

In Nashville in American Idol Season 10 Episode 4, we saw Rob Bolin and Chelsee Oaks, Jackie Wilson (not that Jackie Wilson), and Lauren Alaina. Tonight we go to Austin, Texas.

Corey Levoy met his older sister when he was 14, in spite of the fact that they lived 15 minutes away, because his parents were selfish. He sings I Can’t Make You Love Me by Bonnie Raitt. The judges were not sure what to expect since his speaking voice is so high, but he gets three yeses, plus one from his sister.

Hollie Cavanagh sings At Last by Etta James. Randy responds that she’s not ready yet, but J Lo asks if this shaking, crying girl can collect herself to sing one more song, which she does and sings The Climb by Miley Cyrus. This is enough to convince them to give her another chance, and Randy decides to reverse his previous no vote.

Rodolfo Ochoa sings The Circle of Life, and it quickly becomes clear that he ain’t making it.

John Wayne Schulz comes from a long line of cowboys. His mom asked him to try out for American Idol after she was diagnosed with breast cancer. He sings Believe by Brooks & Dunn. This is probably what they were looking for when they came to Texas.

Courtney Penry thinks Ryan Seacrest the sexiest man alive, and she plans to marry him some day. Ryan might want to hire some extra security while in Austin. It’s not long after this revelation that she does an impression of a chicken, which follows telling Jennifer and Randy they are beautiful and making kissy faces at Steven. In spite of the high creepy factor, she’s got a good voice. She’s through with two votes.

Shantel Campos, Alex Carr, and Caleb Johnson will be going to Hollywood.

Dating couple Jacqueline Dunford and Nick Fink met in choir at college. Both are very good, with their goofiness only adding to it.

Janelle Arthur wants us to know that people from the country have teeth and shoes. The judges don’t even have to discuss it before letting her go to Hollywood.

Seacrest brings a 7 foot armadillo into the room. She’s surprised she doesn’t get through, so she’ll just be an armadillo the rest of her life.

Casey Abrams sings I Don’t Need No Doctor by Ray Charles. I’m quite surprised to find he’s got a good voice. Randy says that was sick good.

Apparently, Fox believes they have more going for themselves than AI, so tonight’s audition episode is just 1 hour.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of American Idol Season 10 Episode 6, which airs Thursday at 8/7c on Fox.

The Biggest Loser Season 11 Episode 5

The abridged one hour The Biggest Loser Season 11 Episode 4 wasn’t enough to squeeze in much. The green team went to the unknowns for a week, and then the on campus team beat them in the challenge.

The unknowns are in their last workout at Fitness Ridge. After a month of being invisible, we may get to see them more than 5 minutes a show now. It’s there we get to see some drama with Q, walking away from the boxing ring because he is concerned with himself, not any team functions that are happening.

Having suffered a back injury years ago, which she has used as her excuse for weight gain, Hannah has now finally managed to get the courage to fully arch her back in the last chance workout. She says this moment has changed her life.

Jen & Jay return for the weigh in. They say everything over there was totally different, but either way, they are happy with the choice they made on the first day.

Jen: 236 pounds (-6, 2.48%)
Jay: 341 pounds (-9, 2.57%)
Green Total: 577 pounds (-15, 2.53%)

Arthur: 450 pounds (-9, 1.96%)
Jesse: 266 pounds (-3, 1.12%)
Blue Total: 716 pounds (-12, 1.65%)

Courtney: 282 pounds (-10, 3.42%)
Marci: 208 pounds (-3, 1.42%)
Aqua Total: 490 pounds (-13, 2.58%)

Olivia: 228 pounds (-5, 2.15%)
Hannah: 217 pounds (-3, 1.36%)
Purple Total: 445 pounds (-8, 1.77%)

Irene: 230 pounds (+6, 2.68%)
Don: 286 pounds (+6, 2.14%)
Orange/Black Total: 516 pounds (+12, 2.38%)

In spite of their decidedly lackluster performance, Arthur & Jesse are once again saved by someone throwing the weigh in. At least this week Don isn’t playing dumb, pretending he didn’t gain the weight on purpose. He doesn’t have the chance to because Irene admits she did it because he wants to go home. Good riddance. Black team was a waste of space, but hopefully they have actually learned something.

Rather than wasting time deliberating, Alison asks for a show of hands. They agree to unanimously eliminate Don.

The free ride is over for the unknowns. Tonight they make their way to the ranch. They start off with a 10-9 advantage. We are given total weight lost to date for each contestant.

Yellow Team
Justin: 57 pounds (15.62%)
Rulon: 63 pounds (13.29%)

Brown Team
Ken: 42 pounds (11.14%)
Austin: 54 pounds (13.64%)

Pink Team
Deni: 35 pounds (13.67%)
Sarah: 30 pounds (11.49%)

Red Team
Q: 39 pounds (8.92%)
Larialmy: 31 pounds (10.30%)

Grey Team
Moses: 75 pounds (17.05%)
Kaylee: 29 pounds (12.45%)

It’s clear red team is the weak link of the lot. On the other hand, Moses has put up huge numbers, which was to be expected following his week 1 loss of 41 pounds. This is really the type of result that Arthur should be making more of an effort to achieve. 1-2% a week will get him there eventually, but it’ll be a slow process.

Alison has an offer that may even the playing field. If the on campus players can lose more than the 48 pounds that they lost last week as a group (the two gains are not counted in these figures), they’ll all win immunity. This should be achieveable, as a couple of people should easily be able to step up their games, and Irene has two weeks worth to lose.

Just in case we have forgotten (I have), we are reintroduced to the two new trainers: Brett Hoebel and Cara Castranova.

The challenge is for the unknowns. They may have been stripped of immunity as a group, but the team that wins the challenge will get it back. Each team has a scale. They will put weight on someone else’s scale. Once a team has 500 pounds on their scale, they are out. Grey team wants the weakest teams to fall, so they will target the red team. They are not alone because everybody is ganging up on the red team. Red team is the first out. Q’s response is that he should get immunity because he needs it the most (because he tries the least), so all this talk about being family is out the window. Brown is the next to be teamed up against. In response, brown targets pink. Brown team is eliminated next, but the damage to the pink team was already done, so they are next. Yellow saved all their big weights for last, so although they started off with more weight on their scale, the math just doesn’t work for the grey team, so yellow comes from behind and wins immunity… by 5 pounds.

With two weigh ins squeezed into one show (hopefully… I don’t want to see to be continued), we’re already up to the last chance workout.

We start the weigh in with Bob & Jillian’s players.

Irene: 216 pounds (-3.57%)

Jen: 232 pounds (-4, 1.69%)
Jay: 331 pounds (-10, 2.93%)
Green Total: 563 pounds (-14, 2.43%)

Olivia: 224 pounds (-4, 1.75%)
Hannah: 210 pounds (-7, 3.23%)
Purple Total: 434 pounds (-11, 2.47%)

Courtney: 275 pounds (-7, 2.48%)
Marci: 200 pounds (-8, 3.85%)
Aqua Total: 475 pounds (-15, 3.06%)

Arthur: 444 pounds (-6, 1.33%)
Jesse: 257 pounds (-9, 3.38%)
Blue Total: 701 pounds (-15, 2.09%)

Their 63 pounds lost easily beats last week’s 48 pounds, so the on campus teams are safe for this week.

Brett & Cara’s teams weigh in next.

Justin: 292 pounds (-16, 5.19%)
Rulon: 394 pounds (-17, 4.14%)
Yellow Total: 686 pounds (-33, 4.59%, immune)

Larialmy: 259 pounds (-11, 4.07%)
Q: 385 pounds (-13, 3.27%)
Red Team: 644 pounds (-24, 3.59%)

Ken: 321 pounds (-14, 4.18%)
Austin: 326 pounds (-16, 4.68%)
Brown Total: 647 pounds (-30, 4.43%)

Kaylee: 195 pounds (-9, 4.41%)
Moses: 351 pounds (-14, 3.84%)
Grey Total: 546 pounds (-23, 4.04%)

Sarah: 222 pounds (-9, 3.90%)
Demi: 210 pounds (-11, 4.98%)
Pink Total: 432 pounds (-20, 4.42%)

Whatever the unknowns are doing, it’s working. They blew away the numbers we saw earlier from the on campus teams. Even with a very solid performance, Q & Larialmy are nonetheless up for elimination. Q asks for his wife to be sent home. Justin wants his word that Q is actually going to learn and not cheat his wife out of this opportunity. They’re all tired of dragging Q and don’t want a weak team. For all this talk, it’s pretty apparent they are going to honor the red team’s wishes.

Votes
Pink Team: Larialmy
Grey Team: Larialmy
Yellow Team: Larialmy

With 3 votes, Larialmy is not The Biggest Loser. From her starting weight of 301 pounds, Larialmy is now down to 227 pounds, for a total of 74 pounds lost.

From his starting weight of 309 pounds, Don is now down to 222, for a total weight loss of 87 pounds. His son has decided to stop disowning him.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of The Biggest Loser Season 11 Episode 6, which airs Tuesday at 8/7c on NBC.

American Idol Season 10 Episode 4

A trip to Milwaukee in American Idol Season 10 Episode 3 brought us Scott McCreery, Thia Megia, Molly DeWolf Swensen, Scott Dangerfield, and Chris Medina. Tonight we head to Nashville, Tennessee.

Unless her singing voice is miraculously different than her speaking voice, Christine McCaffrey is probably going to sound like a cartoon character. Yeah, she does, just not a cartoon character than can sing. She’s pretty convinced she got one yes, though.

Exes Rob Bolin and Chelsee Oaks have been singing together since the day they met. They’re still singing together now, even if they don’t like each other any more. From their duet, it’s obvious they’re both going to be making it to Hollywood.

Allen Lewis is going to have to stick to his day job of being a tattoo artist.

Stormi Henley was Miss Teen USA 2009. She wants to see how far she can make it based on her “talent”. Jennifer’s not buying it, but the boys say yes.

Adopted farm girl Adrienne Beasley sings American Honey by Lady Antebellum. Steven hears something special, although he can’t quite put his finger on what it was.

Kameela Merricks gets told all the time that her voice is huge. Unfortunately, it’s not hugely good. Steven tells Randy not to tell people they’re not good.

Jackie Wilson is a bar manager/singer. That’s a slash I haven’t heard before. Randy gives her a million percent yes. Jennifer says they’ll have to remember this… that’s what they’re looking for.

Latoya “Younique” Moore lives in a fantasy world in which she’s a recording artist and star. That fantasy world quickly comes tumbling down when she starts singing. Not that she’s convinced by hearing no four times.

Matt Dillard comes from a family that has cared for 700 foster kids. He sings You Raise Me Up by Josh Groban. The judges agree to give him one more chance.

Heading into the final break, Seacrest teased us by talking about the best audition in Nashville. This is either going to be very good or very stupid. 15 year old Lauren Alaina was inspired to come sing by her cousin Holly. She sings Like We Never Loved at All by Faith Hill and I Don’t Wanna Miss a Thing by Aerosmith, receiving props for the best audition of the day. Steven thinks they’ve found the one.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of American Idol Season 10 Episode 5, which airs Wednesday at 8/7c on Fox.