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The Amazing Race 23 Episode 6

Brandon & Adam switched detours in The Amazing Race 23 Episode 5, and it was all downhill from there, culminating in their elimination after a double U-turn.

Teams depart in the order on which they arrived.

First: Tim & Marie – 8:33AM
Second: Jason & Amy – 8:34AM
Third: Nicole & Travis – 8:35AM
Fourth: Nicky & Kim – 8:48AM
Fifth: Tim & Danny – 8:51AM
Sixth: Leo & Jamal – 10:10AM
Seventh: Ally & Ashley – 10:18AM

Teams will now travel by rail 640 miles to Vienna, Austria. The trailing two teams are on a later departing train, but all teams have the same connecting train in Warsaw.

Leo & Jamal pretend they didn’t U-turn anybody, a lie that nobody believes. It would have been dumb of them to not U-turn somebody, even if their race wives ended up placing behind them anyway.

The detour at the opera house is a choice between light brigade or masquerade. In light brigade, they will need to assemble a chandelier. In masquerade, they will need to match the masks they are wearing with those of a dancing couple.

Maquerade: Leo & Jamal, Ally & Ashley, Tim & Marie, Nicky & Kim, Tim & Danny, Nicole & Travis, Jason & Amy

Nicole & Travis and Jason & Amy go for the fast forward, but Nicole & Travis realize that Jason & Amy are ahead of them and change their minds en route. They are warned on the clue that this is weather dependent. Although it is pleasant outside, it’s too windy for their 500 foot bungee jump. They now have to decide whether they want to stick around until the winds die down. Jason agrees with what he calls a dumb decision by Amy to wait. Eventually, they accept that they will not be able to jump today, returning to the race in last place

Not a single team shows interest in assembling the chandelier. The mask detour seems simple enough and very fast, though they all make some mistakes due to similar looking masks.

The road block requires teams to join the Vienna Boys Choir and learn how to sing a song in German. They will be judged on musicality and pronunciation.

Road block (in order of arrival): Leo, Ally, Nicky, Tim, Travis, Tim, Amy

Some of these teams would have enough trouble singing in English, let alone having to learn a song in another language. The boys in the choir struggle to keep a straight face. Travis is the first to finish on his second attempt, and if his rough performance is any indication, the bar isn’t set terribly high. Nicky confirms this with her complete inability to carry a tune, getting by mostly on her pronunciation. Tim and Ally struggle the most with the language, which makes the last place fight between them. It takes each of them five attempts to skate by.

Jason & Amy kept their cab driver waiting, but he doesn’t want to wait any more. He decides to remove their bags so that Nicky & Kim can get in instead. They’re allowed to steal the cab if they have no part in the bag removal. They decline to take the cab anyway, but Tim & Marie are not so noble. Going a step further, Marie wants to blame Leo & Jamal, who finished just before them. The silly thing about this is it’s not like it’s hard to get a cab here, and Jason & Amy lose no ground as a result. Because they’re not far behind, they learn at the pit stop who stole their cab, and shouting ensues.

The pit stop for this leg of the race is The Gloriette.

First: Nicole & Travis (win a trip to Anguilla)
Second: Nicky & Kim
Third: Leo & Jamal
Fourth: Tim & Marie
Fifth: Jason & Amy
Sixth: Ally & Ashley
Eliminated: Tim & Danny

With the detour being so easy, it all came down to the road block. As the last team to leave that challenge, Tim & Danny have been eliminated.

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

Survivor: Blood Vs. Water Episode 7

After a tribe shuffle in Survivor: Blood Vs. Water Episode 6, Kat tried to go after one of her own tribe, who in turn got rid of her instead.

When she arrives on Redemption Island, Kat complains about and blames everybody other than herself. You were the one who got busted trying to get rid of a member of your alliance, remember? Overnight, denial/anger turns to depression, and she’s still crying when they get to the challenge.

Hayden is reluctant to switch, but Kat thinks she’ll lose the duel. She wants to switch, despite the fact that they both think he has the better chance to win the game, but she eventually agrees to let him play.

Their duel is to untie a machete to release bags of puzzle pieces. The knot untying is largely irrelevant, and the meat of the challenge is the puzzle, the fire puzzle Cochran won in the final immunity challenge. For Kat, even getting the bag open proves tricky. John runs away with it. Laura is trying to keep up with him by copying his puzzle but is still lagging well behind. Kat is starting to catch up, so the people who just voted her out tell her to look at Laura’s, which she thinks is cheating. Laura comes in second, and Kat has been eliminated. Monica gets the clue again, and she burns it again.

Aras is really happy that Gervase and Tyson came over to his tribe. Unbeknownst to him, Tyson continues plotting against him behind his back. While Aras meditates about his position of power, Tyson talks to the tribe about getting rid of Aras and/or Vytas.

For the challenge, four members of each tribe will be chained together. They will walk together to untie bags from underneath a platform. Reward is fried chicken. Ciera sits out for Tadhana. Because both tribes are crawling under the same platform, they just hold each other there until everybody has all their bags. Once they untie their bags, they have to toss balls that are chained together and land them on posts. The tossing comes down to Tyson against Tina. I think we know how this is going to go, though Tina does keep it interesting. Tadhana wins immunity and reward.

As with last week, Vytas is the target. What would really help here? If Laura B didn’t tell him in front of the whole tribe because she feels sorry for him and doesn’t think blindsides are acceptable. They don’t like that she made this decision on her own and clearly cannot be trusted to be part of the team and play the game.

Votes
Vytas
Laura B
Laura B
Laura B

As big of a threat as Vytas (or more specifically Aras and Vytas) is, Laura B is just not cut out for this game.

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

The Biggest Loser Season 15 Episode 3

Fernanda had the worst week on the ranch during The Biggest Loser Season 15 Episode 2, and since her weight was the only one to count for her team and there was a red line, she was eliminated.

They cannot use a single piece of equipment in the gym unless they pay for it first. Each team is given 500 Biggest Loser bucks. Blue team wins the dumbbells and kettlebells for $100. They also get jump ropes and rowers. White team wins treadmills for $250. Red team wins boxing equipment for $100. White team spends $180 on a mystery box, which contains large bags of flour and sugar. Wait, there’s more. They get a trade voucher, which they can use to trade their baking ingredients for anything else, and they pick the boxing equipment, leaving the red team with nothing.

Of course, at the end of the day, none of this ends up stopping anybody. Though having more equipment certainly helps, these trainers will be able to find a way around having little or nothing to workout with.

Then everybody starts crying for like 10 minutes about their past, families, and some other stuff probably.

And from there we jump right into the weigh in. I’m not sure anything actually happened this week.

Matt: 319 pounds (-6, 1.85%)
Hap: 368 pounds (-5, 1.34%)
Chelsea: 220 pounds (-3, 1.35%)
Holley: 319 pounds (-6, 1.85%)
Bobby: 321 pounds (-7, 2.13%)
Blue Total: 1547 pounds (-27, 1.72%)

Craig: 357 pounds (-4, 1.11%)
Marie: 229 pounds (-6, 2.55%)
Tumi: 287 pounds (-10, 3.37%)
Jay: 253 pounds (-10, 3.80%)
White Total: 1126 pounds (-30, 2.60%)

Jennifer: 242 pounds (-4, 1.63%)
Rachel: 224 pounds (-7, 3.03%)
David: 354 pounds (-6, 1.67%)
Ruben: 428 pounds (-3, 0.70%)
Tanya: 242 pounds (no change)
Red Total: 1490 pounds (-20, 1.32%)

Dolvett’s team had a disastrous week. With just two people to weigh in, they only needed to lose 9 pounds. It seemed like Ruben had it in the bag, but he only lost 3 pounds. Then Tanya lost nothing, putting herself below the red line. Dolvett uses his save to keep her in the game.

It seems like they’re all just going to use their save the first chance they get. Unlike singing competitions where they have to consider the person’s talent or popularity, here it’s pretty much set up where they’re just about forced to use the save right away.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of The Biggest Loser Season 15 Episode 4, which airs Tuesday at 8/7c on NBC.

The Amazing Race 23 Episode 5

It seemed like a lost cause for the baseball wives in The Amazing Race 23 Episode 4, though Tim & Marie’s stupid decision to ignore their clue was helping keep things somewhat interesting. Regardless, it was a to be continued leg.

Their next destination via boat and plane is Gdansk, Poland, more than 1500 miles away. The boat leaves that night at 8:30, more than 14 hours after the lead team departs, allowing all all teams, including last place Nicky & Kim, to be bunched together.

On the boat, Tim & Marie agree to quietly give the express pass to Nicole & Travis. They hope this subtle exchange still will allow them to trick other teams into helping.

Multiple teams are having the biggest taxi meltdown of the season, struggling to find multiple destinations. Three teams (Tim & Marie, Leo & Jamal, and Ally & Ashley) are all together, and none of them have a clue where they are.

The detour is a choice between pose and polka. In pose, teams must copy the stance of a historic statue to earn donations from spectators. Polka requires them to learn a dance routine, and the all male teams will have to determine which team member will wear a dress.

Polka: Tim & Danny, Nicole & Travis, Nicky & Kim, Brandon & Adam, Ally & Ashley, Leo & Jamal, Brandon & Adam (switched from pose)
Pose: Nicky & Kim, Tim & Marie

Being attractive is no use to Nicky & Kim because they’re covered almost entirely from head to toe. So they resort to begging instead in what seems to be the easier of the two challenges. Not willing (or smart enough) to use the same tactic, Brandon & Adam have to switch.

In hopes of avoiding the U-turn, Tim & Marie use their express pass, though they are in fifth place at the time they use it. Seems to be an unnecessary waste, but it makes sense to avoid a U-turn when you have made a habit out of making people your enemies.

Regardless of which task they choose, they must continue wearing their ridiculous costumes until the end of the leg.

After their first detour task, they run into a double U-Turn. Jason & Amy decline to use it. Making good time finding the U-Turn, Tim & Marie do as well, mostly because they’re unsure who may have passed them. Nicky & Kim don’t use it either. Tim & Danny U-turn Leo & Jamal, who they know for a fact are behind them. Seeing this, Nicole & Travis don’t need to follow suit. In turn, Leo & Jamal know Brandon & Adam, who stupidly switched detours, are behind them.

The road block requires them to visit the longest residential apartment building in Poland, which is over half a mile long and home to over 6000 residents. Their task is to go around and bite into pastries until they find a rose paczki, though by the end many of them are just tearing them apart with their hands, which apparently does not warrant a penalty.

Road block (in order of arrival): Marie, Amy, Kim, Travis, Danny, Ashley, Leo, Brandon

The pit stop for this leg of the race is Sopot Pier, the longest wooden pier in Europe.

First: Tim & Marie (win atrip to Hawaii)
Second: Jason & Amy
Third: Nicole & Travis
Fourth: Nicky & Kim
Fifth: Tim & Danny
Sixth: Leo & Jamal
Seventh: Ally & Ashley
Eliminated: Brandon & Adam

By switching detours on a double U-turn leg, Brandon & Adam all but guaranteed their own elimination.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of The Amazing Race 23 Episode 6, which airs Sunday at 8/7c on CBS.

Survivor: Blood Vs Water Episode 6

Redemption Island’s influence of the game only continued in Survivor: Blood Vs. Water Episode 5 as Laura M was voted off the island for being awesome at challenges.

Laura will not even entertain the possibility of taking her daughter Ciera’s place in the game. John, Brad, and Laura M compete in the duel. They cross a balance beam while untying bags of pieces then complete a puzzle (putting numbers in order) at the other end. Laura completes the first 10 numbers first, but there are a few bags to go. John and Brad are steadily falling further behind her. John manages to pull ahead of Brad on the third set of numbers. Laura wins the duel. John places second, and Brad has been eliminated.

Rather than giving it to her daughter, Laura gives the clue to Vytas. Following suit of the past couple times, he burns the clue because he doesn’t want that target.

Now they can drop their buffs. Time to reveal the new tribes.

Galang: Vytas, Katie, Monica, Tina, Laura B, Kat
Tadhana: Aras, Gervase, Tyson, Caleb, Hayden, Ciera

The new tribes split heavily down gender lines. Vytas is the only man on his new tribe; Ciera is the only woman on her new tribe. The family members now joined together are Katie & Tina, but otherwise everybody is still an individual. Tadhana is split 3-3, but Galang is split 4-2 in favor of old Galang members.

Hayden and Caleb quickly spill the beans about what was happening on their old tribe.

Tyson’s plan is not to maintain tribal lines. Rather, he wants to make sure that at least Aras is a bigger target than him. He already wanted to get rid of Aras before anyway.

If you thought the tribes were lopsided before, anything physical clearly favors one tribe over the other now. They will race out in pairs collecting fish traps from the water, returning them to shore to solve a puzzle. Reward is a picnic. I was thinking Gervase might give the women some hope, but he seems to have learned to swim. Tina and Laura B return without their fish trap and take forever to realize their mistake, which allows them to almost be lapped. Ciera’s the biggest (only) drag on her team, but they still have about half a lap lead as they head into the puzzle. After all that, it still may be possible for the puzzle to determine the challenge. Galang keeps completing the puzzle, and they keep getting it wrong because the patterns look more or less correct in different slots. Tadhana wins immunity and reward.

The outcome here seems obvious. You don’t keep a mother and daughter together on the same tribe. Rather than do that, though, they have two different options. First, all the women stick together and vote out their lone male castaway. Then there’s Kat’s plan: vote out Monica. This just serves to make Kat a target.

Votes
Vytas
Kat
Kat
Kat
Kat

With 4 votes, Kat has been voted off the island. She had an easy pass through presumably at least two weeks (surely they’ll split up Tina and Katie next, right?) but wanted to make a big move instead.

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

The Biggest Loser Season 15 Episode 2

In the super rushed The Biggest Loser Season 15 Episode 1, nothing of consequence happened because Jillian used her veto to save Craig after her fell below the red line.

Craig tells a story about how his father died when he was 32, just a couple years older than Craig is.

Dr. H has some news for Ruben. He has diabetes, which can be reversed, but he will have to put in the hard work to do so.

Bob’s facial hair is getting out of control. Somebody needs to participate in makeover week.

This week, only one person’s weight will count for the entire team. That person will be chosen by the roll of a die. The team that wins the challenge will get a second die so that they have two people to choose between.

At the challenge, they are tied together to run back and forth and roll dice dictating how many buckets of water they can use to fill a tank. Though speed has the potential to play a small role, the end result mostly comes down to dumb luck. The blue team ends up winning the challenge.

When he came to the ranch, Hap’s wife was 8.5 months pregnant. That makes today the first time he gets to see his new child by video chat.

The trainers roll dice prior to the weigh in. Dolvett hopes for Rachel or Jennifer, but he rolls Tanya, disappointing both himself and her. Jillian rolls Fernanda, the worst case scenario for both of them. Bob rolls Chelsea, who is not happy and Hap, which thrills both of them, so Hap will represent the blue team.

Chelsea: 223 pounds (-6, 2.62%)
Holley: 325 pounds (-10, 2.99%)
Matt: 325 pounds (-8, 2.40%)
Bobby: 328 pounds (-10, 2.96%)
Hap: 373 pounds (-13, 3.37%)
Blue Total: 1574 pounds (-47, 2.90%)

I will say this for these abridged episodes. It’s nice not to have to go to commercial 12 times during a weigh in.

Craig: 361 pounds (-11, 2.96%)
Marie: 235 pounds (-5, 2.08%)
Tumi: 305 pounds (-8, 2.62%)
Jay: 263 pounds (-11, 4.01%)
Fernanda: 236 pounds (-2, 0.84%)
White Total: 1392 pounds (-37, 2.59%)

Jennifer: 246 pounds (-9, 3.53%)
Ruben: 431 pounds (-10, 2.27%)
Rachel: 231 pounds (-8, 3.35%)
David: 360 pounds (-11, 2.96%)
Tanya: 242 pounds (-4, 1.63%)
Red Total: 1510 pounds (-42, 2.71%)

Tanya has a bad weak, but she gets lucky when Fernanda has a terrible week, though such a number is not overly surprising for week two. Even without the twist, the white team would have lost the weigh in. As the person with the lowest percentage of weight loss on the losing team, Fernanda has fallen below the red line.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of The Biggest Loser Season 15 Episode 3, which airs Tuesday at 8/7c on NBC.

The Amazing Race 23 Episode 4

After Chester & Ephraim had multiple flight delays, there was no amount of editing that could hide the fact that they were going to be eliminated in The Amaing Race 23 Episode 3.

Teams depart in the order in which they arrived.

First: Nicole & Travis – 11:08PM
Second: Jason & Amy – 11:14PM
Third: Nicky & Kim
Fourth: Tim & Danny
Fifth: Brandon & Adam
Sixth: Leo & Jamal
Seventh: Ally & Ashley
Eighth: Tim & Marie

Teams must now travel more than 2000 miles by train and ferry to Svolvaer, Norway. Unlike the drama of last week, there is only one flight, so everybody will be bunched together. They arrive at 11:05 the following night, and the sun still has not set, nor will it apparently. Unlike most locations, this allows them to participate in a challenge right away rather than spend the night waiting. Of course, the potential problem this is creates is that there are few cabs, and most of the teams don’t want to run 1 mile.

The detour is a choice between hang your heads or hammer of the cods. In hang your heads, they must tie fish heads together and hang them out to dry. In hammer of the cods, they must collect 15 pairs of cod then pound them with a giant hammer to make 1 kilo of fish jerky.

Hang your heads: Brandon & Adam, Tim & Marie, Jason & Amy, Nicole & Travis, Leo & Jamal, Ally & Ashley
Hammer of the cods: Tim & Danny, Nicky & Kim

These two very physical tasks leave the two all female teams bringing up the rear. But Leo & Jamal pick a wheelbarrow with a flat tire, pushing them back behind the ice girls. Ultimately, the hammer task, where they must carry their fish rather than having a wheelbarrow to push them in, is the deciding factor in position, and the two teams who chose that stumble into last.

Throughout the task, Marie is being her usual self to both her partner and the other teams. Her threats about having an express pass don’t encourage Brandon & Adam to help her since she’s promised it to every other team, too.

On the other hand, Amy keeps stopping to help everybody, including Marie.

The road block is to jump off a bridge on a rope then disconnect and take an arctic plunge.

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

Their next task is to do an advertisment for Ford trucks by using one to pull a boulder. Surprisingly, this task proves to be a problem for some of the teams. Tim & Marie just drive away, saying there is no clue for their next destination, even though they were told in the clue that there is one. Nicole offers to help them in exchange for the express pass, which Marie is reluctant to do. Then there’s Ally & Ashley, who can’t drive stick, which is just stupid on this race because it will be a requirement sooner or later. Lucky for them, Danny helps them out, despite being in second to last.

The pit stop for this leg of the race is Viking Longhouse.

First: Brandon & Adam (win $5,000 each)

Though the baseball wives are completely hopeless and Tim & Marie are wandering around aimlessly, none of that matters since it’s a to be continued leg.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of The Amazing Race 23 Episode 5, which airs Sunday at 8/7c on CBS.

Survivor: Blood Vs. Water Episode 5

Flipping at the last moment, Caleb forced his tribe into a position where they had to decide whether they wanted to draw for a purple rock in Survivor: Blood Vs. Water Episode 4. Not wanting to take the chance, Vytas switched his vote to avoid a tie and ended up making the tribe weaker (again) by getting rid of Brad instead of the girl who keeps losing challenges.

Ciera’s plan now is to join forces with Katie and convince Caleb to join them in forming the weakest alliance ever.

Brad hopes that Candice will get over herself and acknowledge it’s just a game. No such luck. Apparently, not only is she mad at him because he led the charge to get rid of John, but she blames his wife for being one of five people randomly getting rid of her on day 1. Probst points out the obvious: she’s doing an awful lot of whining for someone who hasn’t spent a single second at either camp.

Laura M has decided to start flirting with Aras. He says he’s not falling for it.

When she gets to the duel, Monica offers to take Brad’s spot without even being asked, but he declines just as quickly. Candice, John, and Brad will compete in a duel to make a bridge and then a puzzle out of the bridge. Candice takes an immediate lead before slowing down. John is the first to finish the bridge, followed by Brad and then Candice. With a puzzle consisting of 8 pieces, this should go pretty quickly. John wins the duel. Brad places second. Candice has finally been eliminated, and now she will finally stop complaining. John gives the clue to Monica again, and she burns it again.

The immunity challenge is a giant slide and ring toss. This is the kind of dumb luck challenge that Tadhana might actually be able to win. Reward is steaks or fishing gear. Monica, Laura, and Laura sit out for Galang. Caleb gets Tadhana off to an early lead. Tyson ties it. Despite missing her ring on the slide down, Katie retakes the lead against Kat. Vytas makes it 3-1 against Aras. Tina makes it 3-2 against Ciera. Caleb scores again, this time against Tyson, to make it 4-2. Gervase gets beat again, as Hayden scores to win immunity and reward. They choose the immediate gratification of steaks rather than gear to help them eat for the rest of the game.

Laura B has been the outcast since the beginning. Her attempt to save herself is to tell Kat that Laura M and Monica were complaining that they had to sit out instead of her. I’m not sure this is entirely true, though it does not seem entirely untrue either.

Aras proposes getting rid of Laura M instead because she’s awesome at challenges (huh?), which may make her a good person to beat Brad at Redemption Island. Not this again.

Votes
Laura B
Laura M
Laura M
Laura M
Laura M
Laura M

With 5 votes, Laura M has been voted off the island as Redemption Island continues to control the game. It almost seems pointless to bother voting anymore.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of Survivor: Blood Vs. Water Episode 6, which airs Wednesday at 8/7c on CBS.