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Survivor: Nicaragua Winner

Aware of what everybody else has realized, Jeff Probst tried to interject some strategy into the group of dumb-dumbs in Survivor: Nicaragua Episode 14, telling them that they could vote to a tie, which apparently nobody realized or considered. By that time, Jane had already torpedoed her chances of survival, in an over the top strategy of going out with a bang. However, she attempted to run with it, saying they should all vote for Holly. Then she voted for Sash, while everybody voted her out. Sadly, Sash is the only person remaining who has anything resembling a strategic mind, but don’t tell him that because he mistakenly believes himself to be the king of Survivor.

Jeff Probst’s recap is about improbable journies. Translation: how did five idiots make it so far? Sash was a dead man walking, but he offered himself up as the swing vote, which made him worth keeping around. Chase has voted out anybody who was stupid enough to align with him. Dan hasn’t done anything, but because he has not done anything, he has no enemies. I would certainly hope that’s not enough reason to vote for him, however. Fabio was a goofball, and still is, perhaps by design, but he has shown himself to be a threat in challenges, both physical and mental. Holly wanted to quit on day 5 but has since managed to warm up to the tribe following her childish display of destroying Dan’s personal property.

Notice they have a fire going already. Jane’s actions may have made her felt better, but they were moot. There’s no way to prevent people with torches from having fire.

Fabio realizes his neck’s on the chopping block. He never would have seen it coming if the three people on the other side weren’t so blatant as to flaunt their alliance.

Sash would like to go to the end with Chase. Or Fabio. Or any other person left on the island. He doesn’t care how he gets there, just as long as he gets there.

The challenge is to answer questions about Nicaragua. If they’re right, the bag will contain puzzle pieces. If they are wrong, the pieces will be black. Once they have answered all three questions and collected all three bags of pieces, they will use the pieces to solve the puzzle. We may as well count Dan out now. Last time, Fabio proved he could do puzzles blindfolded. Everybody gets the first question right. Honduras is north of Nicaragua. Fabio is incorrect on the second question. This gives Chase, Holly, and Sash the lead. Dan’s irrelevant as always. Fabio is correct on the second and third questions, but he’s allowed the leaders to open up a huge gap on him. Fabio’s just about caught up to Sash. Chase, who dropped a puzzle piece early on, still hasn’t noticed it on the ground. Fabio wins immunity. Then Chase realizes he’s missing a piece.

With Fabio having won immunity, the alliance can only remain intact in one way: vote out Dan. Do they really want to take out a guy who will never come in above last place in any challenge and who hasn’t done anything around camp?

Fabio’s plan is to get rid of Holly. He asks Chase if Dan is a bigger threat than Holly. Chase says yes. Realizing that talking to Chase is pointless, Fabio approaches Sash instead, who may be a bit more open to listening. His pitch is that, aside from the fact that Dan’s not a threat, Chase and Holly are too tight and need to be broken up. Holly knows something is up, but she will just keep faith that her alliance will save her.

Chase says that he thinks Brenda called him paranoid before. She agrees. He’s paranoid as hell.

Fabio warns the others. A lot of people on the jury think of Holly as a mother figure. That alone could score her some votes, whether it should or should not.

Votes
Dan
Dan
Chase
Dan

With 3 votes (4 counting Fabio, who realized it was futile), Dan, the least threatening person ever, has been voted out. Dan wishes everybody but Fabio the worst, but he ultimately voted for Chase in an effort to let him know how much he dislikes him, in spite of the fact that Holly is a crook.

Fabio still doesn’t get it. His plan remains the same: target Holly. Because that worked so well last time. I’m not sure that he really has much choice, though.

Holly’s already talking to Chase about what to do if Fabio wins again. Their plan is to take out Sash, which is exactly what Fabio warned him about. They’re afraid that Sash will get a lot of votes, but then again, so will Fabio. In either scenario, they’re worried they have screwed themselves.

Now it’s time for the walk. First, there was Wendy Jo. Yeah, apparently there was somebody named Wendy Jo this season. Shannon’s still bitter about his defeat, saying he didn’t want to babysit these people anyway. Marty was always thinking, but like Sash and Brenda, he got on my nerves by getting way too cocky before he earned it. NaOnka says that she was always smiling, friendly, and strategical, and that she was the smartest player in the game. Welcome to opposite world. Benry’s convinced he could have gone on an immunity run, unless there were some puzzles. Jane says she can go back to North Carolina with her head held high. Well, except for her tantrum on the final day.

For the final time, immunity is back up for grabs. Each person will have a sword. With one hand, they will balance the sword on a shield. With their other hand, they will stack coins on the handle of the sword. Every coin is slightly uneven, making them not so easy to balance. Holly drops a single coin, which is enough to eliminate her first. Chase is the next one out as his stack falls. That brings us down to Sash and Fabio, and whoever fails first is probably going to get voted out. Sash’s coins drop. Fabio wins immunity, which I would argue is a million dollar win.

Now Fabio can just relax and watch the fun.

Holly and Chase immediately go off together, while Sash remains behind to try to weasel his way into Fabio’s good graces, telling him he’s his best friend in the game. I’d vote him out just on the basis of that ridiculous lie, although having a very bad liar with you in the finals is not a bad thing. Fabio tells this to Chase, who says Sash is a snake. Chase and Holly try a different approach, the truth: Fabio was the next to go.

Fabio has now decided that Sash and Chase are both liars, and Holly is the only decent person there, although she may be a threat as a result.

At tribal council, Sash continues to talk circles around himself, still unable to give a straight answer, except to acknowledge that he had an alliance with everybody.

Votes
Sash
Holly
Holly
Holly

That was an interesting turn of events. With 3 votes, Holly has been voted off the island, as the guys ended up sticking to their fake alliance.

Sash feels he’s played the best strategic game. Being the only person with a strategic game does not mean it was the best. Rather, it’s all blown up in his face. His inability to choose a side is not lost on the jury.

Chase’s plan is to tell Fabio he just won the money, in hopes of getting him overconfident.

Brenda feels that Sash was smart for making alliances. If only he didn’t break all of them. She is shocked that Chase so easily accepted her getting voted out. Chase says he tried, but NaOnka and Fabio backed out. With that said, Sash shakes his head. He thinks he could have stepped up more.

Marty would like Chase to give a dumber than a bag of hammers award to somebody other than Marty. Chase’s response: this is a BS question because I can’t pick you. Therefore, he will not answer. Marty thinks Sash has been a solid strategist, and he thinks Fabio has changed the most as a person and a player.

Holly asks Chase his best move he made on his own. In the beginning, he chose to go with the minority he did trust, and voted out Shannon. She asks Fabio whether winning the immunities was too little, too late. That was the only option he had. Whether it’s enough to warrant a vote is another story. Did Sash ever lie to her? Yes, he put her name down, although he told her he would not do that.

Next up is Jane. Here comes the bitterness. Sash is a New York City river rat, who can go crawl back into the black hole he came from. Chase made her time out here the funnest event in her life, even though she’s still pissed at him. What would he do with the money? His promise is that $100,000 will go to help cancer, and he will take care of his mom. Fabio interjects that he wants to take care of his mom and dad as well.

Benry has heard everything from Chase he needs to hear. Congrats to Fabio for his immunity wins. The target here is Sash, who he could see right through. Sash’s response is right on point, but perhaps not the smartest thing to say. If Benry could really see through him, he probably should have mounted a strike against him.

Dan hates everybody (can’t imagine why because, regardless of how they voted, he had no chance), so back to the bitterness we go. He thinks Sash is a liar, a phony, and spineless. Chase is the most paranoid player, who backstabbed everybody. Beauty fades; dumb is forever.

Purple Kelly (so that’s who that blonde sitting in the jury is) gives Sash 60 seconds to explain how he outwitted everybody. Sash thinks he should have been voted out at the merge, but he wasn’t, as a result of all the alliances he created with every single player.

Now we come to NaOnka the nutjob, who threw away a career as a reality star by quitting. Chase was her brother, Fabio was the hippy friend, and Sash was the strategic player. An emotional Fabio tells her that seeing his mom and dreaming what he could do for his family got him to the end. He’s got multiple members of the jury crying with this response.

Alina would rather give the money to a man than the ultimate surfer boy dude, so can Sash prove he deserves to win? Sash’s defense of himself is that Fabio was clueless a lot of the time (he was), while Chase was a bit wishy washy. Fabio says that, unlike Chase, who merely tried to get through the game without pissing anybody off, he actually did it. Nobody on the jury holds ill will toward him. Of course, Chase’s defense is that Fabio didn’t do this strategically. He just did this by not knowing what the hell was going on.

Pointing out that the young vs. old twist failed pretty miserably, Probst makes note of the final three all being from the young tribe.

Votes
Fabio
Chase
Fabio
Chase
Chase
Chase
Fabio
Fabio
Fabio

With 5 votes, the Survivor: Nicaragua winner is Jud Birza (aka Fabio), the youngest winner ever at age 21. In a normal season I would have been irritated with Fabio winning because he really didn’t do much. In this rather lackluster season in which nobody really did much, however, I will say this was the right decision, certainly better than what the 4 idiots who voted for Chase intended. To Chase’s credit, he did make strong bonds with some of the people he ended up screwing over, but I’ll stop short of saying he did anything more. Meanwhile, Sash got no votes. While I would argue this is unfair because he was the most strategic, he made a key error. He set himself up to get to the end… without actually making sure he secured the votes along the way.

Jeff’s surprised that Sash even made it this far. He predicted Sash would be voted out at the first tribal council.

Jimmy Johnson has a story of his efforts at getting on the show. 6 or 7 years ago, he was rejected. So a couple years later, he tried again, and was told they’d love to have him, but he had two blocked arteries. He thanks Survivor for saving his life. So this season he got on as the most famous person ever to be on the show, only to be eliminated very early on, certainly not what the producers planned when they spent so much time hyping him.

As a peace offering for destroying his shoes, Holly gives Dan ostrich boots.

From this point forward, following the actions of quitters NaOnka and purple Kelly, the producers will reserve the right to remove people from the jury if they quit the show for reasons other than medical or other extenuating circumstances (I’m not sure what that’s supposed to mean… hopefully they’re not just trying to cover themselves with that wording to allow people like Jenna Morasca and Sue Hawk to be excused for being quitters).

The winner of the Sprint award and $100,000 richer is Jane, who won by the largest margin and with the most votes ever. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. Overrated.

Jeff had hoped to give Shannon a chance to redeem himself. Shannon wants no such chance, saying that Sash walks like a duck, so he called him a duck.

Rob and Amber have now had a second baby, Carina Rose Mariano, born on December 10.

Survivor will be back for season 22 with a new twist. When somebody is voted out, they will be forced to live alone, on Redemption Island. The next person to join them will duel with them. Whoever survives long enough will reenter the game.

The Amazing Race Asia 4 Winner

The elimination of Jess & Lani, who left smiling and with class, in spite of being hated by two of the three remaining teams for no apparent reason, brought us down to the final three teams. Richard & Richard have been at the top of the pack all season. This is theirs to lose, but stranger things have happened on the race. Natasha & Hussein have appeared moderately competent in the last two legs, but they are the luckiest team in the history of the race, having run most of the race in second to last place only to be saved by dumb luck every time, be it producer incompetence giving one team a broken car or an extra long leg with a fake pit stop so that even being quitters with a 4 hour penalty did not harm them. Michelle & Claire really impressed me early on, with their ability to eat 275 chicken balls when everybody else could barely eat 100. I really haven’t seen much out of them since then, however, although they have been very consistent, placing third in most of the legs.

Teams depart in the order in which they arrived.

First: Natasha & Hussein – 1:00PM
Second: Richard & Richard – 1:10PM
Third: Michelle & Claire – 1:13PM

Teams will now fly to Singapore, the home country for Michelle & Claire and also birthplace of Hussein. The Richards make a call from the cab to make travel arrangements, but as close as all the teams are, I don’t think it really matters. The first two teams to arrive get tickets on the first flight out, and the waitlisted Michelle & Claire later do as well, so all three teams depart on the same flight as expected, on their way to the international airport.

Natasha & Hussein have booked a flight directly to Singapore, which gives them half an hour to make their connection. That’s cutting it tight for any international flight, but at least they don’t have to deal with the TSA. The Richards had standby for this same flight but instead opted for the safe bet, which would put them in 4 hours later. Michelle & Claire hope that begging will get them on the first flight. It doesn’t.

First flight (arriving at midnight): Natasha & Hussein
Second flight (arriving at 4AM): Richard & Richard
Third flight (arriving at 10:25AM): Michelle & Claire

Their first destination is Cavenagh Bridge, where they will be greeted by traditional lion dancers. At some point we will hit an hours of operation. That point is not now.

From the bridge, they are going to Red House Seafood Restaurant, where they will have to extract 1kg of chilli crab. At least they don’t have to eat anything. The restaurant opens at 10AM. Based on the Richards taking 2.5 hours to get to the restaurant, we can surmise that Michelle & Claire will now be 3 hours behind the first two teams. They pretty much have no chance. Even if one team takes a 4 hour penalty at some point, that still puts them in second at best. This is why the Richards made the smart move of booking that sure flight 4 hours after the first one because they knew there was no way they were going to miss the flight and end up in dead last, while also realizing that there would be an hours of operation to make up the 4 hours.

I’ve been wondering where Caltex was. Teams will now go to one of four Caltex stations and get in the marked vintage car. If the car is no longer there, it has been taken by another team, so they must try another station. Obviously, this will as a result get more difficult for the trailing teams.

Although they finished the challenge first, the Richards failed to spot the closest taxi, which Natasha & Hussein managed to get as a result. This means that the closest service station car goes to them. Richard & Richard will have to try again. Of course, being in last, Michelle & Claire are probably going to see multiple attempts.

The detour is a choice between stay up and add up. In stay up, teams must ride a simulated wave for a total of 2 minutes. In add up, they will go on a reverse bungee, and while flying through the air, they will have 10 seconds to add up a series of numbers that have been provided to them just before launch.

Stay up: Natasha & Hussein, Michelle & Claire
Add up: Richard & Richard

With Natasha & Hussein racking up less than a second of time at a time, this detour may take them a while. Hussein would rather switch, but Natasha wants to stay put, not wanting to do the bungee. After a bunch of tries, they are finally getting the hang of things, with runs of 9 and 12 seconds, putting them at the halfway mark. Michelle & Claire are continuing to trail, and it doesn’t appear anything will stop that. Claire decides she sucks, so she just lets Michelle go for it because she seems to be getting it.

One of the Richards doesn’t like bungee jumping either, but this can’t be worse than what they went through in New Zealand (the bungee freefall that was actually slower than the far less scary swing on the other side). This task seems a lot easier if they can overcome it. Although the numbers are not overly simple, they do add up to less than 250. They get the first two numbers but forget the final one. Their second try, with different numbers, is correct, although they are shaken up by this rough ride. This was definitely the easier detour for teams with basic math skills who could stomach it.

Now’s their chance to perform some magic. At Saint James Powerstation, they will have 2 minutes to unlock their handcuffs, while performing an illusion taught by top Singapore illusionists. Richard & Richard fail once. Then twice. Natasha & Hussein arrive, so now the teams will rotate turns. Their first attempt is a failure. The Richards make it on their third try.

The road block is a tightrope walk 55 stories above the ground, from tower 1 to tower 2 of the Marina Bay Sands hotel and back.

Road block (in order of arrival): Richard, Hussein, Michelle

Richard really doesn’t seem to have any trouble with this. Earlier in the season, Hussein was unable to do a ropes course that was much lower and much shorter in distance, ultimately quitting and opting for the other detour instead. This time, he’s not even going to try. He’ll take the 4 hour penalty. Really? On the final leg of the race, you’re taking a 4 hour penalty? This is why this team should not be in the finals. His argument is simple: they’re going to finish second anyway, so why bother trying? Natasha begs him to at least try. Hearing this, he decides to at least hear the instructor out, but once he gets on the rope, it’s back to quitting again. As much grief as Natasha gives her father, he’s doing this road block because she wouldn’t. On their way to the road block, Michelle & Claire get very emotional about being so far behind everybody else, but they’re about to find out they are in second place. No possible way either team can catch the Richards, but at least there is now a battle for second. With a chance to overtake the second place position, Michelle’s able to get across without too much trouble.

The final challenge is a multiple choice quiz about the race, with questions such as the name of a church and the name of the rice war, plus race specific questions such as the fifth team to be eliminated.

The finish line is SkyPark Observation Deck at Marina Bay Sands. In one of the most predictable final standings ever, we already know how this is going to turn out, so the producers aren’t even going to try to edit it to fake us out. The Amazing Race 4 winners and $100,000 richer are Richard Hardin and Richard Herrera. After their airline struggles, Michelle & Claire recovered to place second. In third place, having quit a road block for the second time this race, are Natasha & Hussein. Jess & Lani so should have been there instead (or Ethan & Khairie or Su & Dimple).

Hell’s Kitchen Season 8 Winner

Trev and Jillian were eliminated in Hell’s Kitchen Season 8 Episode 14, which brings us down to a final two of Russell and Nona.

They take a helicopter ride to the JW Marriott for the final challenge. Ramsay tells them to jump, so they ask how high, but he’s just kidding. They take the stairs down, rather than using the parachutes he provided. Good thing he broke the news because Nona was practically off the roof already.

Each of them will have one hour to cook their dishes, and then they will be judged by people from LA who apparently know about food.

The first round is soup. Nona makes potato soup with bacon, cheddar, and chives. Russell has cooked cauliflower soup. Obviously, bacon beats cauliflower. Nona gets the point.

Salad is next. Nona has made beet salad. Doesn’t sound very appealing. Russell made burrata and prosciutto salad. Russell gets the point to make it a tie.

Next up is pasta. Nona’s made pan-seared chicken breast over orecchiette, while Russell has gargenelli with sea scallops. Nona takes a 2-1 lead.

Fish is the fourth dish. Russell serves pan-seared arctic char, while Nona has made pan-seared salmon. It’s tied at 2-2.

The tiebreaker is the meat, to be judged by Kerry Simon of LA Market. Nona cooked pan-seared ribeye; Russell cooked grilled veal tender. Russell wins the challenge.

Eight chefs have returned, some more competent than others. As the challenge winner, Russell picks first.

Russell: Jillian, Vinny, Sabrina, Rob
Nona: Gail, Melissa, Trev, Boris

Jillian’s happy to be picked first, the right choice seeing as she should be one of the final two. Vinny is sick to have been picked by Russell. Sabrina’s happy to have not been picked last, which she shouldn’t have been because she just had difficulty with other people being hostile, not her cooking. Trev is looking forward to being able to help knock Russell to the floor.

Nona considers Boris her biggest problem, which will lead her to keep her eye on him and talk down to him as needed. Russell gives Vinny attitude, telling him to go on the other team if he really wants to do so. Go ahead. Do it. This idiot apparently can’t realize he needs you, not the other way around. This is exactly why Russell should not be a finalist. He just can’t work with people, always believing he’s the only one that matters.

Unfortunately, Vinny doesn’t plan to screw over Russell, although his first dish gets rejected. Ramsay tells him if he talked to him like that, he’d be history. Okay. First, he already is history. Second, he doesn’t respect Russell, nor is Russell attempting to earn any respect. Anyway, Vinny’s next scallops are good.

Trev’s salad is overdressed, but his second attempt is also good.

Now they can move to entrees. But first, why is Sabrina stewing beef? Then her first dish is undercooked. That said, Russell switches Sabrina to fish and Vinny to beef. This switch was necessary, or so Russell tells us, although he doesn’t have much confidence in Vinny, who he says completely messed up the scallops (that one time). The switch works.

Boris is on fish. He doesn’t know how long to cook it, though. After being told how long to cook it, he still doesn’t know. Trev warns him that he’ll take over if it happens again. Raw for a third time. So Trev wants to take over, which just leads to an argument. Boris’ fourth attempt is acceptable.

Russell has set a new goal. He doesn’t just want to win. He wants to finish as quickly as possible, whether it’s smart to push his staff that much or not. This is working to get food pushed out rapidly… and then rapidly returned.

Nona’s next dish is a VIP, at least as far as she’s concerned. Melissa delivers raw meat for the meal that’s for Nona’s husband.

Rob runs out of tomato water, so Russell tells Jillian to come over here and cook because Rob can’t. This causes a shoving match between Rob and Russell.

After reviewing the customer comment cards, Ramsay has made his decision. The Hell’s Kitchen Season 8 winner is Nona Sivley. Not a big surprise. Although it could certainly be argued that Russell was the best chef, his inability to get over his own ego caused him to be this season’s biggest ass. Not one to accept defeat gracefully, he blames his team for the loss, warning them he will blackball them from working again.

Survivor: Nicaragua Episode 14

Being seen as a physical threat, Benry was voted out in Survivor: Nicaragua Episode 13.

Sash’s head continues to get bigger by the minute. As obnoxious and inept as he may be, he’s sadly the only person in this game who seems to be playing.

Leading up to the reward challenge, we get a Sprint commercial, with videos from home on a phone. Reward will be sailing and a meal with their loved ones. Their family members will participate in the challenge. The Survivors will run up a plank and jump in the water and retrieve two bags of letter tiles, then their loved ones will use the letters to solve a phrase. Fabio (aka Jud the stud) is leading, followed by Chase. Dan’s being lapped by everybody, even just having to swim. Chase’s mom solves the puzzle first to win reward. They will be bringing Sash and his mother with them. Also, they will be going with Holly and her husband. The others take this news badly. I never will understand this concept of how spending two weeks away from family is this difficult.

Back at camp, it’s trash talking time. Fabio thinks he got played by somebody who he would have picked if given the choice. Jane says he just threw away a million dollars, but her concern is that she’s positioned herself at #4 on the totem pole. Chase keeps being foolish with these choices, failing to realize the concept of strategy, instead just choosing the people he likes.

The three who go on reward promise each other final three, although they feel that Jane is still on their side. They get a clue to the hidden immunity idol, or so it seems.

Immediately upon getting back from reward, Chase gets a hard time from Fabio, who after venting decides that holding a grudge doesn’t work on the island.

For the immunity challenge, they will be blindfolded, work their way over and under the hitching rails, memorize symbols using their hands, grab the symbols, and head back to use their symbols and create a matching shield. It’s not overly relevant who’s the first person back since they could in theory screw up and have to go back or just simply go too slowly. It’s all just about who gets this puzzle solved first. Fabio thinks he has it, but he does not. He tries again, and Fabio wins immunity.

There goes the plan of the alliance of the three, who wanted to get rid of Fabio next. They can either take out Dan, who is the weakest link, or they can drop their numbers down to three and take out Jane, who is a likeable person that they really don’t want to face at the end.

Chase says that Dan is about done, but Fabio tells him it’s such a no brainer that Jane has to go. Not such a no brainer for Chase, who thinks it’s a “big risk” to send Jane home. Big risk because…? I really don’t understand what the risk is. If the choice is her or a guy who won’t get any votes and can’t place higher than last place in a challenge, I don’t get the drama. When asked by Jane, Chase tells her they need to discuss whether they’re getting rid of her or not. May as well just tell her she’s going then because she’s not going to believe anything else after hearing that. Chase tries to toss the blame back on the other two, saying he doesn’t want to do it, but he will if they’re dead set on it. They acknowledge that she’s too big a threat to them. Jane is angry and surprised by people stabbing others in the backs. Apparently, that’s not supposed to happen in Survivor.

Before they head off to tribal council, Jane dumps pots of water over the fire. I’m not sure what the heck that was supposed to achieve.

Aware she’s going and not wanting to give anyone a reason to either keep her around nor vote for her should she somehow survive this vote, Jane views tribal council as an opportunity to take shots at people.

Chase says that either Fabio or Dan is going next, whichever one doesn’t win immunity. Reluctantly, Sash and Holly agree. It seems to me that nobody realizes the concept of a tie, aside from Jeff Probst.

Jane has a suggestion: everybody else vote for Holly. Well, it’s nice to see her finally make an effort here, five minutes before they vote, rather than rolling over and throwing stones at people.

Chase and Sash both play their hidden immunity idols. Seems like a waste since the other three didn’t appear to have a clue how to vote, let alone being able to be unified enough for their votes to count.

Votes
Jane
Jane
Jane
Jane

Unable to make headway with her too little, too late plea, Jane has been voted off the island.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of Survivor: Nicaragua Episode 15, where we will find out who the Survivor: Nicaragua winner is, which airs Sunday at 8/7c on CBS.

The Biggest Loser Season 10 Winner

Frado and Patrick finished above the yellow line in The Biggest Loser Season 10 Episode 12. That leaves America to choose between Ada and Elizabeth to round out the final three.

It goes without saying who America chose. Although she had trouble embracing it, Ada was one of the strongest competitors of the season, whereas Elizabeth was below the yellow line week after week after week and never really seemed to be putting in the same effort as the others. By an overwhelming majority, Ada is the winner of America’s vote.

Now the contestants competing for the at home prize can start weighing in.

Elizabeth: 173 pounds (-71, 29.10%)
Adam: 220 pounds (-182, 45.27%)
Allie: 248 pounds (-74, 22.98%)
Tina: 191 pounds (-72, 27.38%)
Brendan: 245 pounds (-117, 32.32%)
Sophia: 207 pounds (-65, 23.90%)
Lisa: 191 pounds (-97, 33.68%)
Anna: 221 pounds (-109, 33.03%)
Jesse: 203 pounds (-166, 44.99%)
Burgandy: 167 pounds (-64, 27.71%)
Rick: 185 pounds (-165, 47.14%)
Jessica: 190 pounds (-92, 32.62%)
Aaron: 296 pounds (-172, 36.75%)
Mark: 208 pounds (-213, 50.59%)

The Biggest Loser at home winner of $100,000 is Mark. This comes as no surprise seeing as he’s had the lead all season long, having been eliminated the one time he fell below the yellow line.

That brings us down to the finalists battling for the big prize. As the biggest loser on the ranch, Frado picks the order.

Frado: 205 pounds (-162, 44.14%)
Ada: 159 pounds (-99, 38.37%)
Patrick: 219 pounds (-181, 45.25%)

The Biggest Loser Season 10 winner is Patrick House, now $250,000 richer.

Alison tells us we are in for a surprise for next season, which starts January 4th (3 weeks from now). For starters, there will be two new trainers joining the show next week, presumably as part of the departure of Jillian Michaels. This will mark the first time in The Biggest Loser history that Bob and Jillian are not alone. Well, except for the first two times in seasons 3 and 4. Contestants will be given the choice between training with Bob and Jillian on the ranch or training with the two unknown trainers in a secret location. For me, the choice is obvious.

The Amazing Race 17 Winner

In an anticlimactic conclusion, with Nick & Vicki several hours behind everybody the whole time, The Amazing Race 17 Episode 11 narrowed the teams down to the final three: Jill & Thomas, Brook & Claire, and Nat & Kat. Two of these teams are all female teams, leading to the belief that finally an female team can win the race (at least in the US version… Zabrina & Joe Jer won The Amazing Race Asia Season 1). For a change, we have strong female teams. I’d argue that both of these teams are better than Jill & Thomas, who don’t seem like much of a team, still seemingly unable to admit that Jill is actually part of the team after all this time.

Teams depart in the order in which they arrived.

First: Jill & Thomas – 3:57AM
Second: Brook & Claire – 4:23AM
Third: Nat & Kat – 4:27AM

As if the pink outfits Brook & Claire weren’t ridiculous enough, for the final leg of the race, they break out the cheetah pants. If nothing else, they will be remembered for their style, of sorts.

Teams will now fly more than 6000 miles to their final destination city, Los Angeles, CA. All three teams should be fairly familiar with the area, as they either live or at one point lived in CA. With everybody leaving at roughly the same time, they are all on the same direct flight. Once there, they will travel to the Port of Long Beach.

Upon arrival at the port, they are welcomed to the drop zone. They will be using this cargo port’s cranes for a 150 foot bungee jump. Nat already cried just from riding a gondola, so leaping toward the water attached to a rope is probably not going to set well with her. Neither Brook nor Jill are happy to see this either. Much ado about nothing. Unlike some of the quitters from previous seasons, everybody just sucks it up and jumps, in spite of the panic, crying, and very loud yelling.

They will now be taking a helicopter to a surprise destination, the Rose Bowl. The road block is to decorate three sections of a float, which is deceptively difficult, or so Phil tells us.

Road block (in order of arrival): Nat, Thomas, Brook

Jill & Thomas have been working the road blocks so that the last one was saved for him. They realize that, considering the task, that was probably not the best strategy. Nat doesn’t consider herself very crafty, but she does stuff like this on occasion. Brook, meanwhile, is jumping up and down at the opportunity to do this. This is all moot. Everybody finishes in the order in which they arrived.

Teams must now figure out the answers to the three questions provided, and then make their way to that location. The trick is going to be to find someone with a computer. For some reason, Thomas grabs the phone from Jill, not wanting her to talk. Apparently her asking these questions is too much for her to handle. Turns out that nobody at the dispatch office has a computer, and for that matter, their cab driver speaks less English than most of the foreign drivers they have dealt with. Nat & Kat figure out the riddle, but now they need an address. Brook & Claire just drive to a hotel. Seems like a better idea because they can do the work themselves. They are able to figure out the answers. Meanwhile, Jill & Thomas decided to ditch their cab driver, who thinks his GPS is a computer. After wandering around for a while, they hop back in the same cab, clueless what they’re supposed to be doing.

Connecting with a dispatcher with a clue, Nat & Kat figure it out first. The final task takes place at Quixote Studio, where they will look at TV screens of 48 people wearing hats. 11 of those people were the greeters who welcomed them into the pit stop. I’m not sure I would have been paying close enough attention. Not only must they remember the greeters, but then they must put them in the correct order. Nat & Kat wisely wrote down all the legs, so they pull out their notebooks. This will help them keeping the legs in the right order, although it won’t help with identifying the greeters.

On their first attempt, Nat & Kat correctly identify all the greeters. Since nobody else has even shown up yet, it’s pretty safe to say we are looking at the winners, whether they try to throw us off with traffic or not. Brook & Claire arrive and solve their puzzle, completely in love with Bob Eubanks.

Greystone Mansion is the finish line. The first female team to win The Amazing Race and The Amazing Race 17 winners are Nat Strand & Kat Chang. Well deserved victory. Nat is happy to have demonstrated that people with diabetes can be active. Brook & Claire finish in second place, having laughed their way around the world. That puts Jill & Thomas in third place.

The Amazing Race 18 will be back in February for an all star season, or at least a second chance season (hard to call some of these teams all stars). Joining the 21st century, the season will be the first to air in HD.

Jillian Michaels Quits The Biggest Loser (Again)

Jillian Michaels announced on Twitter her plans to leave The Biggest Loser after next season.

She said that “season 11 of Biggest Loser will be my last 🙂 have to finish out my contract.” As for her replacement, “they already hired her. Using my last season to help launch her in season 11.”

Her explanation for wanting to leave is that “Shooting Losing It also had big impact on me. Living with kids I saw first hand what I was missing.”

She added, “I want to take a year off TV and focus on becoming a mommy and doing more charity work.”

Michaels had previously left the show after season 2, only to come back as a surprise twist in season 4, where she led the underdog black team to the end.

The Apprentice Season 10 Winner

Liza’s firing in The Apprentice Season 10 Episode 12 brought us down to a final two of Clint Robertson and Brandy Kuentzel, one of whom will be The Apprentice Season 10 winner.

We finished off the evening last week with Poppy’s realization that Clint had misspelled the name of their concert performer, Liza Minnelli, on $4,000 worth of printed materials, a move of sheer stupidity. Over on the other side, their photographer went to a golf club 2 hours away, and Donald Trump unfairly handicapped them by taking away one of their members for the afternoon.

Clint says that the spelling looked good last night. He’s not sure what happened. For all the (fake) drama, the end result is that they do have enough money in their budget to get everything redone.

Brandy’s team plans to have Kathy Griffin greet the golfers. That plan doesn’t work since they don’t get her up there in time, and all the golfers leave, presumably without even knowing/caring they missed anything.

Trump has decided he does not like playing in a threesome. I’ve got an idea. Why not take one more person from Brandy’s team to just tilt the odds a little bit more? She finds them two more players from somewhere because Trump wants a big advantage.

Ivanka’s not sure Clint could lead as effectively without the assistance of Steuart, who seems to be doing everything.

As Clint enters a competition to see how many times he can say the word y’all in one sentence, Steuart is worried whether Clint’s Texasness will come back to bite him. While it may not exactly suit a golf club environment, I’m assuming Trump is comfortable enough with Clint and has considered this already.

Apparently, Liza Minnelli is still releasing albums, and even more apparently a very few people are still buying them. Trump couldn’t find a more contemporary artist, perhaps one who’s charted in the last couple decades?

Brandy tells Trump she chose the team because she likes them, but also that she doesn’t work well with Mahsa (who does?). Mahsa’s response is that Brandy brings personal things into the tasks, but she does not. Really, Mahsa? Delusional, party of one.

Trump never heard of the prizes Liza chose for the winners. The winners didn’t either because they just left the products behind.

Poppy was very impressed with Clint, and she thinks Brandy is phenomenal. In an unusual change from the norm where those who come back for the final task feel obliged to choose who they worked with, Poppy would pick Brandy.

Stephanie will not be so nice. Shocker. She was upset with Clint during the task because he was on the golf course, rather than in his own place doing his own thing. She thought this display was pathetic, and Brandy thought it was desperate.

Anand would back Brandy. Steuart is finally a vote for Clint. Mahsa doesn’t like either of them (or anyone else), but she, too, would pick Clint. Liza would choose Brandy.

Ivanka was impressed with the execution of the dinner and how Clint’s team engaged the golfers. Don Jr. thought Brandy’s team did a great job, but the prizes were not very good.

Brandy makes an interesting pitch. She’d like to learn alongside one of the Trump kids, rather than old man Trump.

In a move that’s been building throughout the hour and particularly the last 15 minutes, Clint is fired. The Apprentice season 10 winner is Brandy Kuentzel.

No matter what Trump may say, the ratings this season have been a joke, far lower than even the Martha Stewart version, which is a shame because this season was entertaining to watch. No chance we’ll end up seeing it again, though we should expect the D-listers make their return in The Celebrity Apprentice.