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Survivor: Blood Vs. Water Episode 10

With two eliminations in Survivor: Blood Vs. Water Episode 9, first Vytas followed his brother to Redemption Island, then Tina joined them.

Ciera has realized that her mom needs to go in order for her to have a chance. Her mom’s a good shield for her, though. Nobody really takes Ciera seriously enough to vote her out, but I suppose they would get rid of her if it’s the only way to break up a pair.

Tina will not even consider letting Katie swap spots with her.

Duels are back. Their task is to hook bags with grappling hooks and release the balls to complete a table maze. Considering the competitors, Tina would be the one I would have counted out early, but she jumps out to a quick lead ahead of Aras and Vytas. After making her way all the way to the end of the maze, Tina’s ball falls in the final hole. Aras dropped, too, but much earlier. This allows Vytas to win the duel. Tina returns quickly to finish second, and Aras is the first member of the jury.

Vytas gives the clue to the hidden immunity idol because she needs it the most. She has no intentions of throwing it in the fire.

Unlike when her mom went looking for the idol, they aren’t talking about babysitting Katie. They just consider hiding the sharp tools so she can’t dig.

I’m not sure they even really care about her anyway. Tyson certainly doesn’t. He wants to get rid of Laura instead, which would eliminate a threat and break up the last remaining pair. Ciera’s convinced that she’s a goner at six if her mom wins immunity. Rather than try to unite all the women for a new alliance to combat the men, she lets her know she’s open to getting rid of her just like the boys are. If these women are just going to roll over and let the men run with this, they deserve to go home.

At daybreak, Katie goes to look for the idol, which Tyson already has. Knowing she’s on the chopping block, too, Laura follows her and goes digging with her.

They will stand on a small platform while holding a rope, leaning over the water until they fall. Reward is burgers/hot dogs, fries, and soda. This seems more a balance/endurance challenge than a strength one, so I’d rule out the men. Hayden falls quickly, and Caleb is right behind him. They then move to the next knot, and Gervase drops, followed by Ciera. Katie is next, then Laura. Tyson lasts a long time, especially considering his injury, but he eventually falls. Monica wins immunity again. Rather than pick someone to share reward with her, she offers the food to the rest of the tribe and forgoes her own meal.

Tyson told Ciera that Laura is the target. Ciera is now telling this to Katie. They both lie to each other about having the idol, and Katie’s the one to buy the lie. This gives Ciera ammo to target Katie. Not that Tyson really believed that Katie might have the idol in the first place, but perhaps the others did.

Tyson realizes he was stupid for letting Ciera know the plan, but he still has the same target anyway. Though not everybody is onboard with his plan, one thing we’ve learned so far is that Tyson is in control of this game. He also makes a sensible point: break up the couple. Laura emphasizes his point for him at Tribal Council. They serve as two votes.

Votes
Laura
Katie
Laura
Laura
Laura
Laura

With 5 votes, Laura has been voted off the island. Even Ciera realized it was a lost cause. Hopefully we are finally done with this season’s twist influencing every aspect of the game as it has for too long, but I doubt it.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of Survivor: Blood Vs. Water Episode 11, which airs Wednesday at 8/7c on CBS.

The Biggest Loser Season 15 Episode 6

After falling below the red line again in The Biggest Loser Season 15 Episode 5, Craig was eliminated. That was not all, though. The producers threw all subtlety out the window and came up with some excuse, any excuse, no matter how lame, to bring Ruben back to the show, opting to call Jillian a cheater rather than just letting his time come as it should have. The manipulation was so ridiculous and blatant that I’m pretty sure NBC gave the reigns to the producers of Big Brother for the week.

The winners of tonight’s challenge will receive $1,000 each. Each team will have to take balls, race them 250 feet, and bounce them to a teammate on the other side of the bridge, who must then bounce them into baskets of varying points. First team to 30 will win. As David gets into a rhythm, the red team starts running away with the challenge, reaching 15 points by the time the others have 8. They easily end up retaining this lead and winning.

Bob’s team is dominating, while Dolvett’s team is newly rejuvenated. Then there’s Jillian team, which is slowly getting decimated.

Now that they’re about half way through the process, they get to watch their original videos, allowing themselves to see a clear amount of progress that has been made over the course of the past couple of months. Everybody has a sad story, including David, who in his early 40s has already gone through the death of a spouse.

Season 14 winner Danni comes to bring them lunch. From Subway, of course. Since leaving the show, she has become a Subway spokesperson and run a marathon.

Now we get to why they brought Ruben back. He meets with well known music producer David Foster to do some singing. No way they risk missing this opportunity like they did before.

Hap: 340 pounds (-8, 2.30%)
Holley: 291 pounds (-5, 1.69%)
Matt: 290 pounds (-4, 1.36%)
Chelsea: 197 pounds (-5, 2.48%)
Bobby: 293 pounds (-5, 1.68%)
Blue Total: 1411 pounds (-27, 1.88%)

Jay: 226 pounds (-5, 2.16%)
Marie: 207 pounds (-6, 2.82%)
Tumi: 256 pounds (-11, 4.12%)
White Total: 689 pounds (-22, 3.09%)

Ruben: 401 pounds (-8, 1.96%)
Rachel: 195 pounds (-3, 1.52%)
Tanya: 220 pounds (-4, 1.79%)
Jennifer: 220 pounds (-4, 1.79%)
David: 317 pounds (-17, 5.09%)
Red Total: 1353 pounds (-36, 2.59%)

Red team had a lackluster performance until one person hit a homerun. It took 6 weeks, but the blue team finally lost a weigh in. Bob says he wanted to save his save for Chelsea, but he has decided she does not need protection. Matt has been saved. Why bother with a save if all three trainers use it the first chance they get?

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of The Biggest Loser Season 15 Episode 7, which airs Tuesday at 8/7c on NBC.

The Amazing Race 23 Episode 8

After finishing the detour last, Nick & Kim were last to the mat in The Amazing Race 23 Episode 7 but were saved by non-elimination.

Teams depart in the order in which they arrived.

First: Leo & Jamal – 7:10AM
Second: Jason & Amy – 7:15AM
Third: Nicole & Travis – 7:23AM
Fourth: Tim & Marie – 7:44AM
Fifth: Ally & Ashley – 7:53AM
Sixth: Nicky & Kim- 8:02AM

Teams must now drive themselves to the sand dunes, and they are provided $1 for this leg of the race, which means they aren’t going anywhere.

Once they arrive at the sand dunes, they get on dune buggies and follow the flags into the desert. Easier said than done. Leo & Jamal do fine, but Nicole & Travis get stuck for a bit. Jason and Tim don’t have any problems, and then the ice girls do okay, too. Unlike Nicole & Travis, who managed to get out of the dirt with a little effort, Nicky & Kim end up needing a replacement vehicle.

The detour is a choice between wedding guests or beauty contest. In wedding guests, they must prepare a traditional ceremonial meal. In beauty contest, they must pick a champion among the beauty queens (camels).

Wedding guests: Nicky & Kim
Beauty contest: Tim & Marie, Jason & Amy, Ally & Ashley, Leo & Jamal (switched from wedding guests)

Most of the women opt for the beauty contest, assuming they will be dressing up other women. The concept of camels being beautiful and having nice little humps seems absurd, though I suppose no worse than people who put clothing on their dogs. Seeing Tim & Marie finished first convinces Leo & Jamal to join the group.

Having already decided to use their express pass before the leg began, Nicole & Travis bypass the detour before it starts. They U-turn Leo & Jamal because they lied about previously using the U-turn. Feeling as if they have been spared, Jason & Amy decline to U-turn anybody. Having used their U-turn before, Leo & Jamal can’t use it now. Despite being in a good position, Tim & Marie U-turn Nicky & Kim, saying it’s because of the little “stunt” they pulled at the airport, still upset they were smarter than them and pre-arranged standby.

Factor in already being in last, their speed bump, and having to do a second detour, and it’s a foregone conclusion how this leg will end. Don’t even bother trying to edit it like they have a chance because nobody is going to be fooled. I’m not buying how Ally & Ashley are lost.

Before the road block, Nicky & Kim must complete their speed bump, making their way across a wave generating pool, which creates a 6 foot wave every 90 seconds.

The road block requires teams to navigate the world’s largest man made rapids, collecting flags as they go.

Road block (in order of arrival): Nicole, Jason, Tim, Jamal, Ashley, Nicky

The pit stop for this leg of the race is Jebel Hafeet.

First: Nicole & Travis (win a Ford each)
Second: Jason & Amy
Third: Tim & Marie
Fourth: Leo & Jamal
Fifth: Ally & Ashley
Eliminated: Nicky & Kim

They might have made a good run at it if they weren’t U-turned, but the third time is a charm as Nicky & Kim have been eliminated. Marie felt good getting her “revenge” on them, but this seems to be the most pointless U-turn ever.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of The Amazing Race 23 Episode 9, which airs Sunday at 8/7c on CBS.

Survivor: Blood Vs. Water Episode 9

Following the merge, Tyson got his way in Survivor: Blood Vs. Water Episode 8, getting the tribe to vote out one of the former winners, Aras.

Tina warns Monica and Tyson that they won the battle but did not win the war. Tyson mocks how she plays the game, though she has won before, admittedly early on when the players were a lot less savvy.

It’s the gross food eating competition, which is anybody’s game, even the weakest of links, though I doubt either Ciera or Katie has a prayer. Tyson, Monica, and Vytas pass the test of eating slugs, and in the next group of five, Hayden, Gervase, and Caleb advance on the same task. The next food is pig intestines, which presumably are not prepared the same way chitlins are. Monica and Gervase move to the final round. Their last item is two live grubs, the food that Gervase failed to eat during season 1. Though Gervase puts up a good fight, Monica wins immunity.

The plan is to split the vote 4 for Vytas and 3 for Katie. Hayden tells Vytas the plan, though he does not seem particularly willing to change the outcome. Realizing that the girls may wise up and form an all female alliance, Tyson decides he would prefer to get rid of Katie instead, which also would break up another pair.

Tina realizes she probably should have just kept her big mouth shut when they got back last time. Vytas is not realizing this, though, and threatens everybody because they got rid of his brother. Then he turns hostile toward Monica. He also says the girls should align themselves and get rid of Tyson and Gervase, two votes that are potentially his savior tonight.

Votes
Vytas
Katie
Tyson
Vytas
Vytas
Vytas
Vytas

With 5 votes, Vytas has been voted off the island. I was initially rooting for him to save himself, but then he opened his mouth. At least one person (Monica) changed her vote after his speech. He will be joining his brother on Redemption Island and will have a chance to get back into the game, so perhaps all of his talk was not a complete waste.

Aras says he’s still in the game. Vytas just thinks he’s in purgatory. Typical of what we expect from each of their personalities.

For the next immunity challenge, they will balance a sword in one hand while stacking coins on it with the other. Monica drops almost immediately, and Ciera is right behind her. After about a dozen coins, Tina is out. Gervase is next, followed by Laura, now at about two dozen coins. Caleb is the next one to drop. Tyson and Hayden both fall. And Katie wins immunity. Huh? Perhaps they should have gotten rid of her last time.

With Katie being safe, that makes Tina public enemy number one. Knowing that, she quickly goes to look for the idol. So everybody follows her, including Tyson, the person who already has the idol.

They can’t split the votes this time because there is no second person to split the vote toward. Monica particularly worries that she’s the person who will be the target if they do split. Tyson’s apparently the only person concerned about a Monica exit. Tina bluntly tells her what she fears: she’s on the bottom.

Votes
Monica
Tina
Tyson
Tina
Tina
Tina
Tina

With 5 votes, Tina has been voted off the island.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of Survivor: Blood Vs. Water Episode 10, which airs Wednesday at 8/7c on CBS.

The Biggest Loser Season 15 Episode 5

Leading his team to a loss in The Biggest Loser Season 15 Episode 4, Ruben fell below the red line and was eliminated.

Their challenge is a half hour cooking challenge, and the prize is a year’s worth of groceries. They must cook healthy meals that taste good. Red team cooks tapas that have 380 calories. White team has cooked ranch quesadillas with 420 calories. The blue team has also cooked quesadillas, hiding the veggies so that Biingo is tricked into eating them. Because they are able to get Biingo to overeat a food he claims not to like, the blue team wins the challenge.

Jillian hops in the pool and helps Craig overcome his fear of water. The red team’s last chance workout is not so happy. Tanya, who has been dragging behind the rest of the house, is sick and will not be joining them, though she does eventually get out of bed and perform her workout on her own.

Before the weigh in, an absurd announcement is made. Jillian broke the rules last week and gave her team caffeine supplements, which she defends by saying that this is healthier than letting them drink a lot of coffee. Their punishment is that they are given a 4 pound penalty at this week’s weigh in, 1 pound per person.

It doesn’t end there, though. Last week’s weigh in has been invalidated. Therefore, the blue team has immunity again. Furthermore, the person who was eliminated last week because he consistently pulled low numbers, Ruben, will be returning to the game. Yeah, the most famous contestant of the season is coming back, coincidentally.

It has been two weeks since the last weigh in, which will inflate these numbers a lot higher than they normally are.

Bobby: 298 pounds (-19, 5.99%)
Holley: 296 pounds (-19, 6.03%)
Hap: 348 pounds (-15, 4.13%)
Chelsea: 202 pounds (-13, 6.05%)
Matt: 294 pounds (-21, 6.67%)
Blue Total: 1438 pounds (-87, 5.70%)

Craig: 336 pounds (-14, 4.00%)
Marie: 213 pounds (-12, 5.33%)
Jay: 231 pounds (-13, 5.33%)
Tumi: 267 pounds (-13, 4.64%)
White Total: 1047 pounds (-52, +4, 4.37%)

David: 334 pounds (-13, 3.75%)
Jennifer: 224 pounds (-12, 5.08%)
Tanya: 224 pounds (-15, 6.28%)
Rachel: 198 pounds (-18, 8.33%)
Red Total: 980 pounds (-58, 5.59%)

With or without the penalty, the white team has lost the weigh in. As the person with the lowest percentage of weight loss on the losing team, Craig has fallen below the red line for the second time, and this time he has been eliminated.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of The Biggest Loser Season 15 Episode 6, which airs Tuesday at 8/7c on NBC.

The Amazing Race 23 Episode 7

As the last team to depart from the singing road block in The Amazing Race 23 Episode 6, Tim & Danny were eliminated.

Teams depart in the order in which they arrived.

First: Nicole & Travis – 12:03PM
Second: Nicky & Kim – 12:09PM
Third: Leo & Jamal – 12:10PM
Fourth: Tim & Marie – 12:23PM
Fifth: Jason & Amy – 12:28PM
Sixth: Ally & Ashley – 1:00PM

Teams wil now fly to Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. All teams are bunched together already, as the last leg seemed pretty simple.

First flight (arrives 5:50AM): Leo & Jamal
Second flight (arrives 6:00AM): Nicole & Travis, Nicky & Kim, Tim & Marie, Jason & Amy, Ally & Ashley

As the only team smart enough to book their own tickets before heading to the counter, Leo & Jamal have a 10 minute lead over everyone else, in addition to the fact that they speak some Arabic. Plus their first destination is a mosque, so of course this presents an opportunity to pray to god to ask about coming in first.

While at the airport, Jason and Tim kiss and make up, or at least they are keeping up the pretenses of doing so. Tim explains that dudes don’t stay mad at each other for more than 10 minutes.

The detour is a choice between sort it out or sew it up. In sort it out, they have to search through a variety of dates and create an elaborate display. Sew it up requires them to assemble a traditional fishing net. Unlike last week, both detours sound potentially difficult. The fishing task is outside in the sweltering heat, though, and that alone makes it seem the worse choice. However, this risk of suffering in the sun for an hour or two may potentially pay off as far as being the quicker task.

Sew it up: Nicole & Travis, Jason & Amy
Sort it out: Leo & Jamal, Tim & Marie, Ally & Ashley, Nicky & Kim

Nicky & Kim find the “secret” stash of other dates that nobody else is smart enough to notice. Leo & Jamal spot this and ask for their help, but they refuse. The reason they give for this is because Leo & Jamal have big mouths and will tell everybody, which is exactly what happens when they finally figure it out. Then they keep yelling and not shutting up the entire rest of the leg. Now that everybody knows, Nicky & Kim are left eating their dust. They are far enough behind that the other teams bail on them about 30 seconds before they reach the boat, putting them in last place by 15 minutes.

The road block requires teams to rapel 200 feet and get into a race car with a professional driver, keeping their eyes peeled for the name and time of the record holder. If they are incorrect, they will have to take another lap.

Road block (in order of arrival): Leo, Jason, Travis, Marie, Ally, Kim

The pit stop for this leg of the race is the champions podium at the race track, and based on the difficulty (or lack thereof) of this task, it seems Nicky & Kim will come in last, even though Ally does keep it a little interesting by being seemingly unable to understand the task for multiple laps. The good news for them is we’re about due for non-elimination.

First: Leo & Jamal (win a trip to Paris)
Second: Jason & Amy
Third: Nicole & Travis
Fourth: Tim & Marie
Fifth: Ally & Ashley
Non-eliminated: Nicky & Kim

Unsurprisingly, Nicky & Kim place last but are saved by non-elimination.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of The Amazing Race 23 Episode 8, which airs Sunday at 8/7c on CBS.

Survivor: Blood Vs. Water Episode 8

Laura B told Vytas that she and her alliance were going to vote him out in Survivor: Blood Vs. Water Episode 7, which led to her getting voted out instead. Of course, word has it that much of her problem is that she was just an outcast from her tribe, a predictable scenario that is just one reason why Rupert should not have switched places like he did.

Tina’s informed Monica that she is number 5. That’s not a hard position to beat if someone on the other tribe wants to make an offer.

Laura B harps about how ridiculous it is that they got rid of her over Vytas. Though I can see the argument, the reality is that she has proved that she simply cannot be trusted.

Tonight’s duel will be the final one. Either John, Laura M, or Laura B will return to the game after winning it. Second place is no longer good enough.

It’s an endurance challenge. They will hang on to a pole for as long as they can. I think we can safely rule Laura B out of this or any challenge, but this seems like finally something John perhaps won’t easily run away with. Within seconds, Laura B is already sliding. After 20 minutes, John slips and decides to remove his shoes. Shortly thereafter, he slides all the way down, and he is out despite having won a number of duels. Laura B slides to about a foot above the ground, but Laura M has not budged this whole time. Laura M finally starts to slide. Having held strong for quite some time, though, she ends up winning when Laura B drops to the ground.

Before she officially reenters the game, Laura M and everybody else can drop their buffs. It’s a merge. In this merged tribe, there are three pairs: Aras & Vytas, Tina & Katie, and Laura & Ciera. I couldn’t have predicted any of these three pairs surviving this long. Aras & Vytas are just too dangerous, while Katie and Ciera have been the most dreadful competitors.

As we have seen for the last several episodes, Laura burns the clue to the hidden immunity idol.

Interestingly, though Ciera has been of no use this whole season, she may now be the key swing player. Either she can stick with her alliance (Ciera, Hayden, Caleb, Tyson, Gervase… the people without loved ones), or she can join the pairs alliance like her mom wants. Regardless, Aras doesn’t trust them at all, so his plan is to get rid of Laura in a pairs alliance plus two or three (Gervase, Hayden, and possibly Tyson). The twist with this is that, though Vytas does not think they need Tyson, Aras does. Too bad Tyson wants to get rid of Aras, and he’s hell bent on doing so, even if it means alienating Monica.

Hayden told Tyson all the information he knew about the idol, and Tyson uses that information to find the idol. He won’t be telling Hayden about this, however.

The first individual immunity challenge is a test of memory. They will have to repeat a series of symbols using a cube. Everybody is right on the first item. Monica is the first out on the next item. Caleb and Katie are out next. Tyson and Tina are out next. Hayden is the next to fall. After the first round, less than half the tribe has survived. Everybody is right on the first item. Laura is out next. Ciera follows her. Everybody is right on the next item. Gervase is out next, leaving the brothers to duke it out. They are both right on the next item. Vytas wins immunity.

Vytas was never in any real danger, and for that matter I’m not sure he will be in danger any time soon, making his immunity win largely irrelevant. He knows he doesn’t need immunity, but he wanted to beat his brother anyway. Of course, Aras feels equally as safe as Vytas does, completely sure he is in control of the game.

Where it gets interesting is that half the tribe has a plan of what needs to happen next, and few of them seem to be on the same page. Aras wants to split the votes between Laura and Ciera. Laura wants to split the votes 4-3 against Tina in case Aras has an idol. Then there’s Tyson’s plan to get rid of Aras, which does not involve a split vote.

Votes
Laura
Laura
Ciera
Ciera
Aras
Aras
Aras
Aras
Aras

Those votes didn’t quite play out how anyone anticipated, but the end result is exactly what Tyson wanted.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of Survivor: Blood Vs. Water Episode 9, which airs Wednesday at 8/7c on CBS.

The Biggest Loser Season 15 Episode 4

Tanya fell below the red line after not losing any weight in The Biggest Loser Season 15 Episode 3, but the second trainer’s save was used to spare her.

For the Halloween episode, it’s time for a temptation. The person who wins the temptation wins immunity for their entire team. There is a field of 100 pumpkins. In 99 of them, there are treats, which may be cash or food. In 1, there is immunity.

I’m not even going to try to keep track of this because clearly they aren’t trying very hard to let me. We’re up to round 10 in about 45 seconds, and they’re running through people who I mostly don’t recognize without bothering to say most of their names. In the end, the blue team, which consumed the fewest calories, wins immunity. The red and white teams ate over 2000 calories each in their loss.

Jillian usually flips out when someone on her team eats, but she is surprisingly tame this week, shrugging off most of what her team has eaten, particularly the girls who did not eat much since their strategy was to pile the calories on to the boys.

Over on Dolvett’s team, they are dropping like flies. Ruben (who lost 3 pounds) and Tanya (who lost nothing) seem to be falling apart. Regardless, the reality is that they lost so little last week that it seems entirely unlikely that they could lose to the white team this week.

Bob has brought in some 165 pound weight lifting females to show Holley she can be strong without being fat.

The blue team is immune as long as none of them gained any weight.

Holley: 315 pounds (-4, 1.25%)
Matt: 315 pounds (-4, 1.25%)
Bobby: 317 pounds (-4, 1.25%)
Hap: 363 pounds (-5, 1.36%)
Chelsea: 215 pounds (-5, 2.27%)
Blue Total: 1525 pounds (-22, 1.42%)

Marie: 225 pounds (-4, 1.75%)
Craig: 350 pounds (-7, 1.96%)
Tumi: 280 pounds (-7, 2.44%)
Jay: 244 pounds (-9, 3.56%)
White Total: 1099 pounds (-27, 2.40%)

Rachel: 216 pounds (-8, 3.57%)
David: 347 pounds (-7, 1.98%)
Jennifer: 236 pounds (-6, 2.48%)
Tanya: 239 pounds (-3, 1.24%)
Ruben: 423 pounds (-5, 1.17%)
Red Total: 1461 pounds (-29, 1.95%)

The red team’s weigh in started off on the right track, but Tanya and Ruben continue to struggle. As the person with the lowest percentage of weight loss, Ruben has fallen below the red line.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of The Biggest Loser Season 15 Episode 5, which airs Tuesday at 8/7c on NBC.