reality TV spoilers, recaps, news
American Idol Rewind season 2 starts this weekend. The original episodes will be reairing with new footage and behind-the-scenes interviews, narrated by Clay Aiken.
For the most part, it appears that the showings will be on Saturday afternoon/evening, but check your local listings for the times in your area.
Normally after being insulted by Simon, most contestants run off the stage and cry, or they lash back at him. The Mirror reports that one contestant took a different approach.
46-year-old Jacqui Gray’s performance on X Factor was greeted by Simon’s comments of:
“You have a very odd-sounding voice.
“Something happens to your throat when you sing. It is quite raspy.
“It sounds as if you have someone else in there, like you were choking on something.”
To which Sharon added she should “get it checked out.”
“I was diagnosed with bronchiectasis and told if I had not got it seen to, it could have killed me,” Gray said. “I want to thank them both. I may not have got through X Factor but they gave me something much more important than that… they really did save my life.”
The Race 2 is a production of ICTV that’s structured similarly to The Amazing Race. Watch The Race 2 online.
In episode 1, we were introduced to the teams. Dave & Matt are one of the better racing duos I’ve seen, and their ability to be funny in the process helps make them likeable even when they’re being cutthroat, though that won’t buy them many friends on the race. Kristiyan & Nick decided they hated Dave & Matt’s guts and other internal organs. Behind them, there were a few middle of the road teams, followed by two horrible teams, one of which was the first boot: Nick & Chris.
That sets up episode 2 with 7 teams left. Teams leave for their next destination, Gary’s U-Pull It in Kirkwood, in the order in which they arrived at the pitstop:
First: Dave & Matt
Second: Kristiyan & Nick
Third: Jon & Jenna
Fourth: Sadie & Ginalola
Fifth: Hal & Matilda
Sixth: Daniel & Jeff
Seventh: Drew & Vanessa
Dave & Matt pick up where they left off and are apparently the kind of drivers who consider the sidewalk to be a passing lane. Kristiyan and Nick also pick up where they left off, as Nick calls the police and inquires about the process of reporting a littering violation. Are these guys for real? The cops refuse to help because it’s a frivolous complaint.
When Dave & Matt get to the challenge, they grab some paint and hair and proceed to stick it to the other people’s clues, a move that will surely draw more animosity from the others. Teams must find three car parts in a junkyard. Sadie & Ginalola show up about 1 part behind, followed by Jon & Jenna an additional part behind. Hal & Matilda show up in fourth as Dave & Matt are leaving, followed by Daniel & Jeff. Kristiyan & Nick got a bit lost and show up as Dave & Matt are driving away, and Drew & Vanessa are right behind. So it’s a pretty tight race at this point. About half the teams are able to get assistance from a young kid eager to help, which may put the teams that got there after at a disadvantage. Hal & Matilda lose the most time on this task and leave in last place.
From there, teams must return to Binghamton. The challenge there is to go to shops on Antiques Row and identify the most valuable items in display cases at each store, then visit a historian to verify their selections. They must keep going until they pick the correct items. On the way to the store, Kristiyan realizes that worrying about the other team is silly and hindering them. When they get to one of the shops, they block someone in intentionally, a smart move, but exactly the type of move they’ve been complaining about.
Jon & Jenna are correct on their second visit to the historian and take the lead. Dave & Matt are immediately behind on their third visit. Sadie & Ginalola finally get it on their fourth try. Daniel & Jeff are correct on their second try, as are Drew & Vanessa and Hal & Matilda. Kristiyan & Nick are bringing up the rear and get it on their third visit.
Teams must then go to the Court St bridge, where they’re given the task of convincing three strangers on the street to trade shoelaces with them. Dave & Matt come up with the idea of paying people a couple bucks to get them to cooperate. Probably not necessary, but it will save them a bit of time. Though they then realize they don’t actually have the money to pay, so they take off. Once the first two teams are done, it starts raining. The rain doesn’t last long but does have the potential to make it more difficult since everything’s wet.
The pitstop is Park Diner in Binghamton.
First: Jon & Jenna
Second: Dave & Matt
Third: Ginalola & Sadie
Fourth: Drew & Vanessa
Fifth: Daniel & Jeff
Sixth: Hal & Matilda
Seventh: Kristiyan & Nick (eliminated)
Kristiyan & Nick went from second to last. I do think they expended way too much energy worrying about Dave & Matt that necessary. Drew & Vanessa pulled it together and performed a lot better than I’d expected. It still looks like a three horse race between the frontrunners, though.
Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another recap of The Race 2 episode 3, which airs Wednesday at 9:30/8:30c on ICTV and via live webstream, with the video on demand version available on Thursday.
In Survivor: China episode 1, Todd started scheming already, James didn’t say much but pushed over some trees, and Chicken overplayed the ignorant card (or was he just being himself?) and earned a quick boot because of it. Will this week’s elimination be that easy to choose? Stick around for another live blog to find out.
Dave jumps right into his leadership role when they get back to camp. His problem is he takes it a bit too aggressively, which is when it becomes problematic. Peih-Gee wanting to be the leader doesn’t help matters any.
Todd and Amanda make an alliance… at least until the merge she says. They decide to pull Aaron in because he’s strong and a leader so they have a target to deflect off if anyone starts blaming someone.
While everybody else is working, Jean-Robert is sleeping, and sleeping some more. He believes he can act lazy and get away with it so that people are impressed when he starts working later. Alienating the whole tribe this early is a bad idea no matter how you justify it.
Jaime tries to get Dave to let her build a small fire to cook some rice. He says no. The rest of the girls quickly rally behind her. Jaime was polite and just walked away, but Ashley gives him a piece of her mind.
Heading into the reward challenge, Jeff tells them to prepare to get dirty. Giant balls will be released into a mud pit and must be pushed across a goal. The reward will be fishing gear, a fishing boat, and one other twist to be revealed later. Fei Long must sit out one guy, and Todd is the pick. Aaron has a free run to the goal, until Probst mentions it. Aaron’s got no problem wrestling with the women. Eventually, the strategy evolves to pulling people’s clothes off. A dirty and topless Amanda ends up scoring the first point for Fei Long. James and Jean-Robert do a great job of being a team in the second matchup and take the win 2-0.
Then the twist is revealed. No more Exile Island (finally). Instead, the winner gets to kidnap a member of the other tribe until the next immunity challenge. Fei Long wants Jaime. She gets something that she must open and read in private when she gets to their beach.
When Zhan Hu gets back to camp, they find it under water. Dave takes this as a sign that his idea to build a pit instead of a fire was good.
Fei Long picked Jaime in an effort to demoralize the other tribe because she seems like a happy person. When she opens the note, it forces her to give the clue to a hidden immunity idol (which she can’t read) to a member of the Fei Long tribe. Interesting. Could either be dangerous or really good. But I’ve gotta say this. The damn hidden immunity idol twist isn’t dead? Oh c’mon. This is another stupid twist that’s gotta go. Let’s not ruin another season by giving someone a free pass to the final three, at the expense of better players.
She decides to give it to who she thinks is the weakest link, Leslie. I think this is a smart move because Leslie’s the type of person who will remember it, should she happen to get to the merge. She wants to use it to gain someone’s trust, someone who’s smart. She picks Todd. He’s a little too smart, though. He hopes she gets booted so he’s the only one who knows about it. I think he’d be better off forming a group of 5 rather than plucking off people who obviously trust him.
Ashley and Dave continue their catfight. She’s tired of him being patronizing.
At the immunity challenge, they must use a puzzle log to bash through walls. The puzzle of that log must then be solved. To get down to 6-on-6, Zhan Hu sits out Jaime, and Fei Long sits out Courtney and Leslie. Fei Long gets off to an early lead with the strength of James and Jean-Robert, plus overall good teamwork. Dave falls apart on the other tribe. Fei Long pretty easily wins, as they continue to work together well at the puzzle.
Dave takes full responsibility for the challenge loss. Never a good idea. He thinks he’s safe, but it’s between him and Ashley. Ashley decides to wait until tribal council before strategizing, also never a good idea.
At tribal council, people take issue with Dave’s over the top leadership style. Dave pretends he’s not doing anything wrong, though he keeps snapping at people, and 6 days in Sherea doesn’t even know half the tribe’s last names. The main concern is just that one of them needs to go to break the tension. When asked what the criteria is for her vote, Ashley just says she’s voting for Dave.
Votes:
Ashley
Dave
Ashley
Ashley
Ashley
Ashley has been voted off. Can’t say I agree with the choice, as she’s a lot better than some others on the tribe, but hopefully at least Dave’s been given a wakeup call. Unfortunately, the previews suggest he gets even worse next week.
Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live blog of Survivor: China episode 3, which airs Thursday at 8/7c on CBS.
Jeff Probst takes a look at Survivor: China episode 2. He says it’s full of a lot of drama.
After the jump, also check out the CBS promo for the episode.
As always, stay tuned to dingoRUE for a live recap from the east coast.
NBC has set a premiere date of Wednesday October 24th at 8/7c for Phenomenon, a series in which Criss Angel and Uri Geller will try to find “the next great mentalist,” reports Broadcast Newsroom.
The series will run for 5 Wednesdays, including a special live 2 hour episode on Halloween. It will take the time slot currently held by Deal or No Deal during that time.
I don’t know about this one. I think NBC’s better off just going with Deal or No Deal reruns.
Reuters reports that NBC has picked up the newest project from Mark Burnett of Survivor fame, My Dad Is Better Than Your Dad. Burnett is teaming up with Reveille, which also produces The Biggest Loser.
The show will begin in midseason and feature fathers and their families competing in various challenges. NBC has ordered 8 episodes of the series.
This show “combines the family fun and kid empowerment of ‘Fifth Grader’ with the universally relatable concept of bragging that your dad is the best,” Mark Burnett said in a statement issued by NBC.
Episode 1 was mostly about discovering the rules and getting to know the kids somewhat as they started building their town. Jimmy, 8, became the first to go home, which left us with 39 kids.
The book suggests that the chickens are good for more than eggs, a rather controversial suggestion to make to a bunch of kids. The other kids are starting to get sick of not having fresh food and having to eat canned stuff. Laurel decides that they have to take a vote to decide what to do.
There’s a lot of concern over lack of protein. Greg says he’s worked with a butcher and knows how to do this. After the vote, the kids decide to kill the chicken. Emilie, 9, who we haven’t seen before tonight, says she’s going home if they kill a chicken. She then locks herself in the chicken coup with some others in protest. Eventually, though, she realizes they need to think about what’s best for the town. Everybody’s grossed out, but they all insist on watching.
Greg’s primary motivation in helping out seems to be that he wants to be nominated for a gold star. This is definitely a big change from last week when he mostly just wanted to goof off.
The next major dilemma is the cold, which freezes their clothes and water. Some of the boys from the green district figure out that if they poor some boiling water on the pumps, it may thaw them out, and it works.
Zach, 10, tries to get Taylor to go to the kitchen because she’s the leader of the yellow district, the cooks. She doesn’t care. Sophia’s a trooper. She’s a laborer and not even supposed to be cooking, but she’s still heading it up while shivering.
It’s time for a showdown to redetermine the job classes. Nobody likes blue team still, and a lot of people are tired of yellow’s laziness. Reward choices: a 45 foot heated water slide or what’s under a barrel (to be revealed after the challenge). They must connect pipes with running water to get water wheels spinning. All teams must finish in under an hour. Blue team gets off to an early lead, with red close behind. Red loses it at the water wall, and blue never looks back. Blue is the upper class. Red are the merchants. Yellow are still the cooks. Green can’t get it together in time, so they’re the laborers, and the group misses out on the prize, including the mystery prize of water pumps designed not to freeze. Everybody is supportive of their effort, though.
Green’s irritated that yellow refuses to do any work.
Emilie wants to work with the animals, but since she’s not upper class or a cook, the kids kick her out. One of them suggests she should go home if she wants to be with the animals.
Greg is pitching in, but Mike gets suspicious that it’s just for the gold star. Michael has been working well all along and has a lot of spirit. It’s a 2-2 tie with the council between them. Mike and Laurel vote for Michael; Anjay and Taylor vote for Greg.
Last time, only Sophia didn’t approve of the council. This time, it’s Sophia again, along with one other girl. Taylor’s response is “I’m sorry. You’re just gonna have to starve.”
Nobody wants to go home. Emilie decides to stay and tough it out.
The decision is to give the gold star to Michael. Well deserved. He says he thinks his parents deserve to get the money and is mostly just happy to be able to talk to them. Greg’s angry he didn’t get the star and believes it was disrespectful. Instead of just containing himself and trying for it next time, it looks like he’s planning to flip out.
Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live blog of Kid Nation episode 3, which airs Wednesday at 8/7c on CBS.