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Survivor: China Episode 4

In Survivor: China episode 3, Jean-Robert made some enemies, but Leslie talked herself right out of the game.

Jean-Robert is discussing his “strategy” of doing nothing then trying to pretend he’s doing something so all of a sudden people are impressed with him. Courtney’s not buying it.

Yet another person gets upset with Dave, this time it’s Sherea. Even though I’m not a fan of Dave, she’s being unnecessarily aggressive (downright bitchy) for no reason here.

Reward is for a fisherman and his family to go to camp, cook a meal, and teach the tribe how to fish. Courtney sits out for Fei Long. Tribes must move a flaming ball in pairs of two using sticks like chopsticks. Fei Long wins 3-2. They decide to kidnap Dave. Hopefully he learned a lesson from Leslie.

Dave says he feels like he’s on vacation. He sees it as an opportunity to get on their good side because some people in his own tribe are causing him trouble. Todd thinks Dave’s a nutcase but is pretending to be nice. Dave foolishly thinks he can trust Todd, as does everybody else. He gives the hidden immunity idol clue to Todd.

Now Dave’s tribe is finding out what it’s like to actually work. Well, some members of his tribe are finding that out. Sherea, who hasn’t done anything all along, just stays in bed watching everybody else work. She’s trying to conserve energy for the challenges. Apparently it takes a lot of energy to suck at challenges or something.

The fisherman’s family comes with regurgitating fishing birds. Jean-Robert spent some time in Thailand a long time ago and is able to speak some Mandarin with the family, proving to be a valuable asset in translating. After they catch some fish, they teach the tribe how to use the nets.

At the immunity challenge, tribes are dressed in traditional Chinese armor. They will throw meteor hammers at their opponent’s vases and defend their vases with bamboo poles. Jean-Robert sits out for Fei Long. First round is Denise/Peih Gee against Courtney/Sherea. Peih Gee blocks one of Courtney’s shots, but Sherea still scores one. Todd and James dominate the next round to take a 3-1 lead. Amanda/Aaron go against Jaime/Eric in the third round. Jaime hits two at once to tie the game at 3, but Amanda retakes the lead 4-3. Fei Long wins immunity.

The boot choice is between Dave and Sherea, again the person who’s arguing with Dave. As far as I’m concerned, she needs to go. Her contribution in challenges isn’t worth a great deal, and that’s really all she’s willing to offer.

Votes:
Dave
Sherea
Dave
Dave
Dave

Dave has been voted off the island. Stupid tribe. No wonder they can’t win anything. If Sherea offered some value to the game, I’d be all for the vote, but she’s completely useless, making this pitiful.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live blog of Survivor: China Episode 5 Love Is in the Air, which airs Thursday at 8/7c on CBS.

Kid Nation Episode 4

In Kid Nation episode 3, the yellow district continued to do nothing (still), the kids flipped out because they got a microwave and cocoa that would last the whole time rather than pizzas that would have been gone later that night, Greg didn’t win a gold star, and Taylor practiced being a beauty queen.

As the kids start discussing how religion starts wars, the journal conveniently tells them that they need to address the concept of religion. Great, more pot stirring from the adults who are supposedly leaving the kids to their own devices.

The council comes up with the idea to have all religions in one room and have people from each religion talk, in an attempt to let people learn from each other. Sophia hangs her head dreading it, and then a bunch of people start shouting/arguing about how this idea is going to start arguments. Mike doesn’t care about the input he gets. He tells them to shut up.

Alex decides to do a survey to find out what religion everybody is, receiving responses of Christian, Jewish, Hindu, atheist, and other.

Nobody cares what the council says. Nobody bothers to show up.

Morgan takes a different approach. She invites people and tells them they can come and pray if they want. This gets a good response, unlike yelling at people and trying to force them. People of all different religions come to join together and have a good time.

Taylor and the rest of yellow district are thrilled being upper class because it means they can sleep in and do whatever they want. Just like they did before they were the yellow district. Zach is trying to separate himself from the yellow district because he doesn’t like how they’re behaving.

The showdown is a puzzle. The kids must create a steeple puzzle then raise it with pulleys. Reward is not yet revealed. Yellow starts strong but falls apart. Red manages to take the lead as yellow screams and tries to figure out where a piece is. Blue then overcomes red with a slight lead going into the final stage. Pretty obvious what’s going to happen here. The oldest kid in town, Greg, is able to raise the steeple faster. Blue is the upper class. Red finishes close behind to become the merchants. Yellow takes a slight lead over green, and everybody begins praying yellow finally gets where they belong. But it’s too late. Yellow are the cooks, which allows Taylor to say if people don’t like it, they can just starve themselves. Green finishes in time to win the reward.

The reward is a choice between mini golf or a library of holy books. The council turns the decision over to the town because everybody got pissed off last time. Good way to at least try to stay in power, but considering who’s making the decision, it’s not a good way to ensure that the right decision is made. Oddly enough, the town chooses the books over golf. That’ll upset some people, but the majority of the town will be happy.

Cody, 9, gets homesick because of a letter from his girlfriend, who he’s known ever since third grade. Not touching this one.

Yellow team is still not doing anything. Only two yellow people are in the kitchen. A couple of people go to confront Taylor about her attitude and tell her they’re getting pissed off. She just laughs and keeps doing what she’s doing. Zach gets fed up and goes around gathering everybody from the other districts to help him watch dishes. Overthrow Taylor and put him in her place.

The kids wake up to snow, which receives mixed reactions. It’ll be harder to keep those water pipes unfrozen now.

Zach is the first person mentioned when it comes to a gold star. Morgan is also mentioned again. As usual, Greg’s name comes up. I’d say let him sweat it out for a few more weeks. I am impressed with his improved attitude, though. Instead of thinking he’s the only one who deserves a gold star, he acknowledges that Zach has also worked hard.

When asked if they have a problem with the leadership, Taylor’s name comes up again.

Cody decides he wants to go home because he misses his family. This leads to a tearful goodbye. Campbell is upset his best friend is leaving.

Morgan is awarded the gold star for working hard, being nice to everyone, and not complaining.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live blog of Kid Nation Episode 5, which airs at 8/7c on CBS.

The Biggest Loser 4 Episode 5

On The Biggest Loser 4 episode 4, the blue team lost following red team’s highway robbery immunity that allowed them to get nowhere but still be safe. After that, Allison revealed that The Biggest Loser campus was shutting down for a week. Except they didn’t reveal what that actually meant. Welcome to another live blog.

It means they’re going to Jamaica. Not worth the drama or a cliffhanger. We know already at least one of them doesn’t want to wear a bathing suit.

Jillian wants it to be known this is not a vacation. She’ll be as tough as usual.

Kim had to send Bryan to the doctor due to chest pain. To him, this is another reason why he should be losing weight.

Jillian’s unimpressed with the massive (and unhealthy) foods that are at the buffet, and it doesn’t appear like too many of the people she’s with have a concept of what’s good to eat.

Kim has her team workout in the pool. Bob decides to do yoga. Jillian’s back to her desert training.

Bryan runs on to the beach at the challenge. The doctor says he’s okay. Hollie and Isabeau sit out for the black team. Reward is a day at the spa. The challenge is a balancing act on rafts. Teams must pull themselves to shore without falling. Black team wins without any drama whatsoever.

Jillian and Bob told their teams not to dare drink a drop. Kim took a more reasonable but perhaps riskier approach and said they could drink if they wanted to do so, as they’re all adults and know what they’re there for. Even still, a couple drinks is pretty much irrelevant to whether they lose weight or not.

It’s time for the weigh in.

Black Team:
Isabeau: 264 pounds (-8)
Bill: 279 pounds (-6)
Jez: 302 pounds (-6)
Julie: 199 pounds (-4)
Jim: 307 pounds (-7)
Hollie: 228 pounds (-8)
Total: -39 pounds (2.41%)

Red Team:
David: 328 pounds (-9)
Bryan: 308 pounds (-11)
Amy: 268 pounds (-10)
Phil: 346 pounds (-12)
Total: -42 pounds (3.25%)

Blue Team:
Ryan: 331 pounds (-10)
Nicole: 252 pounds (-6)
Kae: 184 pounds (-7)
Neil: 365 pounds (-10)
Total: -33 pounds (2.83%)

Red team wins; black team loses. Hollie is the biggest loser on the black team and is safe this week. The girls are afraid of being picked off one by one. They’re trying to convince Jez to vote with them to take out one of the twins, an alliance that will be tough to beat if they last too long. I don’t think the girls have to worry about whether it’s a tie or not. If they vote as a block, I suspect the winning team will see the twins as just as much a threat, in terms of both longer term strategy and also their ability to lose weight.

Despite the trip to Jamaica, or perhaps because of it, everybody had a great week. David had a drink but didn’t go crazy, and in the end, it didn’t make a difference, as the red team still won the weigh in this week. Kae put up great numbers as usual.

Votes
Bill: Isabeau
Isabeau: Jim
Jim: Isabeau
Hollie: Jim
Julie: Jim
Jez: Jim

By a vote of 4-2, Jim has been eliminated.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of The Biggest Loser 4 episode 6, which airs Tuesday at 8:30/7:30c on NBC.

Beauty and the Geek 4 Episode 3

In Beauty and the Geek 4 episode 2, Sam escaped the axe, which few people were happy about. Tony and Amanda ended up getting eliminated, which was pretty much expected since Tony was so shy and didn’t seem able to overcome it.

Everybody’s happy Natalie and John escaped elimination, or so it appears. Perhaps they’re just excited to have some alcohol.

Sam says the geeks have experience with knowledge, while he has experience with the stuff they don’t know anything about, namely girls, who for some reason aren’t creeped out by his eyes. He then starts up truth or dare. Rebecca is dared to do a sexy dance for John. She dares Sam to do a stripper dance for Nicole, but she says it’s uncomfortable, so he does it for the beauties. Nicole takes truth and says she’s attracted to someone in the house but doesn’t say who. She says in her confessional she wants to meet an “alphanerd.” Dave assumes it’s him. Rebecca and Sam are obviously attracted to each other. It’s not long before they’re kissing. She says she’s concerned because she’s there to find out who she is as a person, which apparently making out with a guy for three hours who she just met will assist with.

The beauties’ task is to learn about anatomy; the geeks’ task is to learn about courtship and romance.

The geeks go first, and they must pick out gift baskets to be judged by the beauties. Nicole’s happy because she believes she’s more in touch with what girls want than the guys are. Joshua gets a pie, which pretty quickly gets destroyed, and one of the beauties bets it’s his basket. Will seemingly just grabs a bunch of stuff without really thinking but manages to pull it together somehow. Jesse gets a pink hat and unicorn stickers.

The beauties are asked whether they studied hard. Of course they didn’t. The top two are Will and Jesse, and the winner is Will. After winning, Will decides to do storytime, reading The Tell Tale Heart to a bunch of people. Somehow, the editors managed to find a correlation between this and a makeout session with Rebecca and Sam. Odder still, some of the girls take offense to him telling them a story.

Next up is the beauties’ task, identifying and drawing body parts. The geeks must get in their underwear and let the beauties draw on them with fingerpaints. Everybody gets the heart right. When asked to identify the left earlobe, Sam and Shay get the earlobe part. Too bad it’s the right earlobe. Erin does the whole ear. Those three are eliminated. Then it’s the appendix. Katie is eliminated because it’s on the wrong side (she got her appendix taken out 4 years ago, though), Hollie and Natalie were too low, and Jasmine just guessed and went overboard. It’s between Rebecca and Jen, and they must locate the nasal septum. Jen tries the neck. Surely at least some of these girls had nosejobs.

Since Rebecca won, Sam thinks he’s safe until next time, but he’s forgetting about Will. Will’s between a rock and a hard place. If he doesn’t target Sam, he’s stuck with a partner whose attention is divided (even she knows it’s a distraction). If he does target Sam, he’s stuck with a partner who may hate him. It also means they have to pick both teams, so someone’s going to be coming back and may seek revenge. Beyond that, winning that challenge made him a big threat, which puts a big target on his back when he does lose. On the whole, nothing good came out of that win. If he were truly smart, he’d have thrown the challenge and let someone else do the dirty work.

Rebecca decides to send Hollie and Josh because she feels they don’t need much more improvement. Will sends Jesse and Erin because he hasn’t seen them interacting with anyone other than their partners. Erin starts crying and doesn’t feel the assessment is correct. She calls him a hypocrite since he hasn’t been making an effort with her either. Hollie, similarly, feels Rebecca is a hypocrite, since she’s not focused on her transformation and is more concerned with Sam. These are two pretty strong teams, so at least some good will come out of it since having one of them gone will help, though whichever girl survives will be out for blood, not just because they were sent but also because they were sent against a good friend.

The girls go first. Erin gets the first question correct, as does Hollie. Erin also gets the second question correct, and so does Hollie. Jesse gets his first question correct, as does Josh. Jesse gets his second question correct, but Josh misses his. Hollie and Josh are eliminated, but they have a very classy exit. I’m sure Erin and Jesse will be happy to seek revenge for them.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another recap of Beauty and the Geek 4 episode 3, which airs Tuesday at 8/7c on The CW.

Survivor South Africa: Malaysia Episode 7

In Survivor South Africa: Malaysia episode 6, Iban lost immunity, and instead of trying to keep the numbers advantage, ex-Bajau voted off one of their own, Rijesh, who’s been playing too hard the whole time and hasn’t kept it as secret as he’s hoped. Whether you like each other or not, at least pretend so you don’t get Pagonged. Oh, and in case you missed it, Lisa did nothing. Again.

As they mentioned in last episode, Iban’s out of food, which is bad news with Bajau having just eaten a goat. Dyke tells Irshaad that he may not necessarily vote him off. I wouldn’t completely trust the girls either if I were him, but I don’t think he can trust Irshaad for that matter.

They believe the communique is about a food eating challenge. Bajau is afraid because, beyond the fact that food challenges are always gross, they’re all completely full. Mandla doesn’t have a problem with Hein but continues to be frustrated by Angela being what Mandla considers Hein’s right hand woman. Hein and Angela come up with the concept of giving a gift of food to the other tribe. Makes more sense than throwing it away because the meat’s shelf life with no storage is quite limited. Then again, it may also give the other tribe a boost in the immunity challenge, which is most dangerous for Angela and Lisa.

Reward is a bunch of items to get clean (portable shower, soap, body lotion, etc.) or a wok and rice. As expected, it’s a gross eating challenge. Grant and Dyke are up first, who must eat a dried frog, fried cockroaches, and dried beetles. Dyke wins pretty easily. Angie and Hein must eat a raw baby squid, hardly a fair matchup. Hein obviously wins to tie it 1-1. Irshaad then goes against Angela, and they must eat fish eyes. Irshaad easily wins to retake the lead. Amanda and Lorette are up next, and they must eat live prawns. Amanda wins. Iban wins reward. They’ll take the food. After that, Angela goes up and gives them the goat meat they brought with them. Grant is displeased with this gift and lets it be known.

Angie’s slowly getting tired of her tribe, most notably Irshaad. If they lose immunity, it’s going to come down to a choice between the two.

While he’s out fishing, Hein catches a shark. Not the first shark we’ve seen in Survivor, but always a welcome sight.

The immunity challenge has runners on a balance beam trying to get torches past people throwing sandbags at them, light the torches, then run back with them still lit and without falling in the water. Lisa, who originally was supposedly being kept around because she was good at challenges, sits out again. Dyke takes a 1-0 lead over Mandla. Mandla ties it, but Dyke scores again for a 2-1 lead. Dyke’s strategy proves very effective, and he returns his third and final torch to give Iban the immunity win.

After the win, Angie seems unimpressed because she would have liked to be able to vote off Irshaad.

Grant, who’s been the reason Lisa’s made it this far, as he’s been dragging her instead of just dropping her when he should have, now says he feels like she’s joined up with Hein and Angela, leaving himself somewhere in the middle. When making his case, he refuses to give out a name and says he needs to be told who Hein and Angela want to vote for first.

The two names that keep coming up are Angela and Lisa. Everybody else is safe. Tribal council is mostly a debate over why Lisa’s sitting out of challenges, whether she’s volunteering or being forced.

Votes:
Lisa
Lisa
Hein
Lisa
Lisa

Lisa votes for Hein to be an asshat, but she finally gets voted out after hanging on for about 4 episodes too long. This makes the numbers 5-4 in favor of ex-Iban, but with loyalties being questioned and changed, it’s still anybody’s game.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another recap of Survivor South Africa: Malaysia Episode 8, and donâ€™t forget the live recaps of Survivor: China.

The Race 2 Episode 3

The Race 2 is a production of ICTV that’s structured similarly to The Amazing Race. Watch The Race 2 online.

In The Race 2 episode 2, Dave & Matt continued their dastardly ways but put up another strong performance, while Hal & Matilda and Daniel & Jeff continued to sink to the bottom. But in the end, obsessed with Dave & Matt, Kristiyan & Nick fell into last place and were eliminated.

Teams depart in the order in which they arrived:

First: Jon & Jenna
Second: Dave & Matt
Third: Ginalola & Sadie
Fourth: Drew & Vanessa
Fifth: Daniel & Jeff
Sixth: Hal & Matilda

In the first challenge, teams must find cans and bottles and bring them to The Can Man redemption center. Teams were able to utilize whatever means they could think of to obtain cans. Jon & Jenna as the first to depart have a big advantage. They just ask for cans at the Park Diner, the pitstop for the last leg of the race, and take everything they have, which is more than they need. Dave & Matt just buy their cans, and the clowns that they are, they empty them while driving (but do at least slow down, if that earns them any points). Sadie & Ginalola head to bars and restaurants. Drew & Vanessa dig through the trash, and Hal & Matilda follow their lead. Daniel & Jeff head to their dorms at the University of Binghamton after also digging through the trash. Having no luck with the trash, Hal & Matilda also happen upon the strategy of just buying the cans, after much debate over the subject. Drew & Vanessa are struggling coming up with either a strategy or how to get anywhere, but they eventually start visiting restaurants, then Drew eventually suggests looking through dumpsters again, then they switch to buying the cans, then back to dumpsters… make a decision already.

The next challenge is to drive to Ostiningo Park and look for a man named Gordy, based on the color zipper and shoes he’s wearing. Jon & Jenna are obviously first to arrive, even before Gordy does. Dave & Matt are in second and get pulled over by security for driving in an area clearly marked not to. But it’s just park security, so I can’t imagine anything too bad happens to them, even if it is just a big waste of time. Sadie & Ginalola arrive in third, after Jon & Jenna leave, but they’re able to leave before the boys because the security guy is stupid and pulls them over again because they supposedly fit the description of someone from last week. Once they’re done dealing with the security guy and making fun of him, Dave & Matt leave in third, and Hal & Matilda arrive within seconds of that to leave in fourth. Daniel & Jeff are fifth, and by the time Drew and Vanessa show up, he tells them “It took you long enough.”

The pitstop is the Oswego fire department.

First: Jon & Jenna
Second: Dave & Matt
Third: Sadie & Ginalola
Fourth: Hal & Matilda
Fifth: Daniel & Jeff
Sixth: Drew & Vanessa (eliminated)

Jon & Jenna had a pretty easy first place. Dave & Matt take second after cutting off Sadie & Ginalola, who get a bit lost anyway. Showing up in last are Drew & Vanessa, which I was expecting last time. With no real direction or plan, it was just a matter of how far behind the others they would finish this leg. I do like the concept of people who don’t know each other teaming up, even if it didn’t go so well in practice.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another recap of The Race 2 episode 4, which airs Wednesday at 9:30/8:30c on ICTV and via live webstream, with the video on demand version available on Thursday.

The Amazing Race Asia 2 Teams Revealed

Update: check out the Racers Revealed recap, which gets more in depth into the teams, and don’t forget to check out our weekly recaps.

Malaysia Star revealed the identities of the cast of The Amazing Race Asia 2. Season 2 follows on the heels of a highly successful run last year and will premiere November 22, 2007, meaning it will probably end shortly after The Amazing Race 12 begins in the US. The executive producer promised an expanded season, with visits to 4 continents. Allan Wu will return as host.

The 10 teams of 2 who will be running the race are:

Ann Tan & Diane Douglas
Dancing moms
Malaysia

Aurelia Chenat & Sophie Teng
Ex-roommates
Hong Kong

Colin Low & Adrian Yap
Gym buddies
Singapore

Daichi & Sawaka Kawashima
Siblings
Japan

Henry & Terri Reed
Married
Philippines

Kinaryosih & Brett Money
Dating
Indonesia

Monica Lo & Edwin Lo
Dating
Hong Kong

Paula Taylor & Natasha Monks
Friends
Thailand

Rovilson Fernandez & Marc Nelson
Best friends
Philippines

Vanessa & Pamela Chong
Sisters
Malaysia

Survivor South Africa: Malaysia Episode 6

In Survivor South Africa: Malaysia episode 5, lazy Lisa somehow avoided being eliminated. Again. She’s one of the luckier Survivors ever. Instead, they voted out Nichal. I don’t know how she’ll continue to hang in there, as the alternatives are getting fewer.

The next day, Lisa discusses what happened at tribal council. Her concern is working on alliances and agreements. She makes no mention of what’s been the sore spot since day one: the fact that she does nothing.

On the other tribe, Irshaad talking too much is starting to get on the girls’ nerves. He tries to not get into an argument with them for strategic reasons. He does have a potential ally in Rijesh, who’s getting tired of Amanda.

At the reward challenge, Dyke’s not happy to hear Nichal is gone. The challenge is a tug of war. Tribes must pull against each other to reach three sections of a totem pole. Reward is a live goat, giving them a choice between milk or meat. Right away, half the people are grossed out. I’d think milk would probably be better just for storage reasons, though having to watch the goat for a few weeks may be a pain. Iban does what one would expect in a tug of war, putting their strongest at the back. Bajau puts the strongest in the middle. Not that it matters since Bajau is overwhelmingly stronger, making the challenge nothing more than just for show. Toward the end of the complete blowout, Irshaad is disqualified for grabbing Hein rather than the rope, and Bajau wins as expected.

With ex-Iban now up in numbers 4-2 at Bajau, Grant continues to try to do whatever he can to make sure Lisa is safe. Lorette is (still) fed up with her, as is Mandla, though he’s concerned about Hein, who is untouchable no matter what Grant thinks unless they’re all just idiots, and his relationship with Angela. He also, however, says he’s concerned about Angela and Lisa getting close, but I don’t see why Hein would tolerate Lisa any more than anyone else wants to. Next time they go to tribal, the two targets will probably be Lisa (as usual) and Angela.

Iban’s concerned they’re running low on food. The potato source is only enough for one more meal.

When Bajau gets the communique about how to care for the goat, it makes the decision a lot easier. They decide it sounds like too much work, so they’re just going to use it for meat.

Immunity is a relay rope obstacle course. Since it’s more about speed and thought rather than just brute force, Iban actually has a prayer. Lorette gets off to an early lead. Grant extends this lead, finishing as Amanda finally completes the first obstacle for Iban. Hein retains a slight lead at the third obstacle, but Dyke quickly hooks the chest to almost catch up. It’s dead even heading into the fourth obstacle. It comes down to the final obstacle, where Mandla easily beats Rijesh, and Bajau wins immunity.

When they get back, the tribe prepares the goat to be cooked. Well, the tribe minus Lisa, who does nothing.

Despite her pitiful challenge performance, Amanda should be safe, though that doesn’t prevent Rijesh from trying to boot her. Likewise, she wants to get rid of him as well. Angie says they’re stupid if they don’t vote Angie off. Oddly enough, she’s the only person to mention voting out an ex-Iban member. One thing we know for sure is that Dyke’s not going anywhere any time soon.

Votes:
Rijesh
Amanda
Rijesh
Rijesh

Rijesh finally played himself out of the game by being stupid. By voting out one of their own, ex-Bajau has shifted the numbers in ex-Iban’s favor, 6-4. While I do believe there’s a lot of potential for voting across tribal lines post-merger, it’s still a foolish move to be eating their own this early.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another recap of Survivor South Africa: Malaysia Episode 7, and donâ€™t forget the live recaps of Survivor: China.