Survivor: Blood Vs. Water Episode 1

With 26 seasons under its belt, Survivor has an impressive cast pool to choose from, but even still, most of the people they bring back leave me feeling underwhelmed. This season, with half the cast being returnees and the other half on the opposing tribe being their loved ones, is no exception. Six of these cast members could be found in just two seasons, and for four of them, it is at least their third shot (for the right people, like the women of Fans Vs. Favorites or Boston Rob, this works, but I’m not so sure Tyson, Candice, Tina, and Rupert fall into that same category). They even found someone willing to admit to being (almost) related to Colton. Hayden is at least an interesting choice. I wouldn’t mind seeing more crossovers like this, though the Big Brother/Amazing Race crossovers have largely fallen flat.

Galang
Aras Baskauskas (Panama)
Candice Cody (Cook Islands, Heroes Vs. Villains)
Colton Cumbie (One World)
Gervase Peterson (Borneo)
Kat Edorsson (One World)
Laura Morett (Samoa)
Monica Culpepper (One World)
Rupert Boneham (Pearl Islands, All-Stars, Heroes Vs. Villains)
Tina Wesson (Australian Outback, All-Stars)
Tyson Apostol (Tocantins, Heroes Vs. Villains)

Tadhana
Vytas Baskauskas (Aras’ brother)
John Cody (Candice’s husband)
Caleb Bankston (Colton’s fiance)
Marissa Peterson (Gervase’s niece)
Hayden Moss (Kat’s boyfriend and Big Brother 12 winner)
Ciera Eastin (Laura’s daughter)
Brad Culpepper (Monica’s husband)
Laura Boneham (Rupert’s wife)
Katie Collins (Tina’s daughter)
Rachel Foulger (Tyson’s girlfriend)

After the first night alone with their loved ones (which will extend the season to a longer than usual 40 days), Probst breaks the news that they are actually competing against each other. More than half of them are looking forward to the challenge.

As if that weren’t enough of a twist, each tribe will immediately vote someone out. Lame.

Tadhana: Laura, Laura, Laura, Marissa, Laura, Laura

In an early landslide, Rupert’s wife Laura is promptly voted out.

Galang: Laura, Laura, Candice, Candice, Candice, Laura, Candice, Gervase, Candice

Candice follows Laura’s exit. Did Candice really just get voted out over Colton? And who is this other Laura?

They will be heading to Redemption Island rather than being completely out of the game. It doesn’t end there. Probst has an offer. Are they willing to sacrifice themselves for their loved ones? Rupert agrees, and Laura joins the returning players, a big blow to his tribe both in terms of experience and physical contribution. John does not make that same sacrifice, as Candice thinks she can beat Rupert in a duel.

Within 15 minutes, Tyson starts a fire for Galang. They are pretty much off to the fastest start ever. Obviously the other tribe will not be so lucky.

Monica and Colton agree to work together, despite the fact that he stabbed her in the back when they played together in One World.

Brad put his foot in his mouth right when they hit the beach, saying without thinking that he might not go all the way in challenges to protect his wife. As a former NFL player, I doubt he’ll really throw anything, and he makes that point clear to his tribe. Then he starts building an all male alliance. They have five guys or, as he puts it, four guys and a gay guy. Granted, that gay guy does become the swing vote. Does he really want to be aligned with four alpha males, no matter how good they are in challenges?

Unlike his brother, golden child Aras, Vytas grew up addicted to drugs before finally being arrested. He has since been clean for 14 years and is now a yoga teacher.

Colton blames society for the fact that he’s an ass. They treated him badly for being gay, so now he must strike back. I get his point, but a few tears do not negate his own personal accountability.

Over on Redemption Island, Candice is already out for revenge against the tribe she was on for a few minutes. Meanwhile, she finds Rupert to be annoying because she’s doing all the work. He is wisely reserving his energy while she supports the both of them.

At the immunity challenge, their task is to race across a series of obstacles in the water, retrieve a boat with puzzle pieces, and return back to shore to make a puzzle. Tadhana is off to an early lead despite not having made fire. Gervase is hopelessly stumbling his way through the course, even with Aras dragging him. Galang can’t row their boat either as Colton threatens to hit his team with a paddle. Following a lackluster initial performance in the water, Galang pulls ahead as they dominate the puzzle against completely hopeless competition. Galang wins immunity and flint, leaving Tadhana fireless for now.

As the failed puzzle makers, Katie, Caleb, and Ciera are at the top of the chopping block. Lucky for Caleb, he’s not going anywhere because of Brad’s alliance, and they seem to have ruled Ciera out as well. The other possible target is Marissa because Gervase had an over the top celebration after his team won, a reaction from which she quickly tries to distance herself.

Votes
Katie
Marissa
Marissa
Marissa
Marissa
Marissa

With 5 votes, Marissa has been voted off the island. I don’t think they will particularly miss her, but voting her out because her uncle was gloating is one of the silliest excuses I have seen.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of Survivor: Blood Vs. Water Episode 2, which airs Wednesday at 8/7c on CBS.

Big Brother 15 Episode 34

Following Judd’s eviction in Big Brother 15 Episode 33, Andy won eviction. Tonight is another live show in which we will learn the players that form the lackluster final three.

Andy realizes that his nominations don’t really matter because the lone voter in the final four is the person who wins veto (unless that person is the HOH).

Nominations
GinaMarie is safe.
McCrae and Spencer have been nominated.

Despite fact that he’s the pawn, Spencer still does not trust these nominations and thinks something is going on between Andy and GinaMarie. Of course, considering the fact that he refused to even consider putting Andy on the block last week, he has recent experience in the thoughts of an HOH who is more loyal to certain members of the alliance than others.

When she enters the jury house, Aaryn again apologizes for her behavior, this time without mentioning the word Texas. Most people are happy to see Amanda because they don’t like her, but she does have some good information about Andy and his new alliance. Then Judd walks into the most lopsided jury house ever to find half a dozen bitter females.

There is much talk in the jury house about people who have or have not floated through the house, but to be fair, that describes everybody who remains. Two weeks ago, they were all coattail riders or a spare vote at best.

The final veto of the summer is up for grabs, and their challenge is to match up statements that match two houseguests. McCrae is the first to buzz in, but he’s not even close, forcing him to restart from the beginning when they drop all his pieces. I guess CBS got a good deal on some magnets this year. Andy wins the power of veto.

Despite the very loud celebration the other three are having, McCrae still thinks he has some life left. Better than rolling over and playing dead, but he’s done nonetheless.

Spencer wants to put some doubt into Andy’s mind. GinaMarie has a lot of support in the jury. He’s not wrong.

The three remaining Exterminators have decided to tell McCrae about their alliance just before going live.

Andy does not use the power of veto, keeping the nominations the same. By a vote of 1-0, McCrae has been evicted from the Big Brother house. He realizes now that he screwed himself over with his HOH nominations.

Whatever happens over the next few days, I’ll post to the Big Brother 15 spoilers, but I’m not going to bother watching on Sunday. It’s not like anybody really wants to watch a Spencer/Andy/GinaMarie recap episode anyway, but last year’s final Sunday episode was an insult to the intelligence of the viewers and a great big waste of time in which absolutely nothing happened.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of Big Brother 15 Episode 36, where we will find out who the Big Brother 15 winner is, which airs Wednesday at 9:30/8:30c on CBS.

Big Brother 15 Episode 33

Spencer won HOH and nominated McCrae and GinaMarie for eviction in Big Brother 15 Episode 32.

GinaMarie does some bad over the top acting post-nomination in her effort to pretend like McCrae is not the target. Nobody is going to believe her crying.

Spencer has already decided on the replacement nominee, Judd. At least wait until the veto has been won. Judd’s worried he must be the low man on the totem pole since Andy isn’t even being considered, and he should be worried.

The veto competition is hosted by Ian, who won Big Brother last season (even though Dan is better). They must make a puzzle but must fly back to the other side within 20 seconds to prevent the magnets from dropping all their pieces. Even if they almost win, if time runs out, they have to start back from the beginning. Judd ends up quitting and instead helps Andy by telling him when to hit the button. Spencer acts like Judd just did something wrong and should have helped him instead because he’s the one who makes the replacement nomination. Maybe if you didn’t tell him you were going to nominate him. This all doesn’t matter because McCrae wins the power of veto.

Judd asks Spencer to nominate Andy, and Spencer immediately answers no. He won’t even pretend he’s thinking about it. So Judd starts hitting things with his shirt. This is supposed to be a fit?

At the veto ceremony, McCrae removes himself from the block. In his place, Judd has been nominated. Not willing to leave well enough alone, Judd threatens McCrae. At best, he can now hope for a tie that Spencer will have to break.

With the end of this ill-fated season quickly approaching, tonight is a special Wednesday eviction night.

Votes
Andy: Judd
McCrae: Judd

By a vote of 2-0, Judd has been evicted from the house for a second time, but his reentry surely flipped the house and changed the game. The likeability factor of the cast remaining in this house just keeps dropping. Does anyone even care any more? As he departs, Judd says he’s voting for Spencer and Andy in the end. He secretly wishes McCrae good luck and tells Julie he wants GinaMarie to win. He does not regret turning on Elissa, despite it blowing up in his face. In his goodbye message, McCrae tells Judd that Andy and Spencer did not want to work with him, so he had to go with the house.

The final 4 HOH competition is the traditional Before or After. Everybody is correct on the first question. GinaMarie gets the second question right. Everybody is again correct on the third question. And the fourth. And fifth. McCrae is correct on the sixth question to tie GinaMarie for the lead. Andy is correct, leading to a three way tie. The tiebreaker question asks how long (in seconds) the latest veto competition lasted. Andy wants to change his answer, but it’s too late to do so. As far over as the other two were (more than 1000 seconds), I don’t think it matters. Andy wins HOH.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of Big Brother 15 Episode 34, which airs Thursday at 9/8c on CBS.

Big Brother 15 Episode 32

The double eviction night started with Amanda’s eviction in Big Brother 15 Episode 31. Then McCrae won HOH and continued to do the work of the alliance that got rid of her, and Elissa was evicted.

McCrae correctly believed that Andy was the one who flipped, but his goal as HOH was to create the fewest enemies. That meant getting rid of Elissa because nobody would mind her eviction. The problem with this is he just got rid of the only target bigger than himself and guaranteed that he will be the next target, and strangely, he realizes this but put himself in this position anyway.

Following the eviction, Andy and Spencer make a fake alliance with McCrae, who just lost the only two people who were actually on his side.

Their task for HOH is to piece together the faces of former houseguests based on blurry photos of past competitions that slowly come into focus. Andy is eliminated in the first round. A frustrated Judd is out next. Spencer finally wins something.

As part of his HOH victory, Spencer must now assign “gifts” to his fellow houseguests. GinaMarie and McCrae will be tied together for the next 24 hours. Andy will have the chance to win up to $5,000. Judd must perform exercises on command while being insulted by a drill sergeant.

Because he’s tied together with her, McCrae offers GinaMarie a final two deal by default. These end game deals are interesting. They are meaningless and made out of convenience and desperation, rather than trust or some useful building block for an alliance.

Unlike the other two gifts, which were really punishments, Andy can actually win some money. He chooses three pigs to smash and manages to win $94.83. Better than being punished I guess.

Despite being chained together, GinaMarie and McCrae both attempt to whisper their plans to Spencer while the other person sits on the other side of the door. Awkward. Spencer has already made up his mind that they are both being nominated and both are told they are pawns.

Nominations
Judd is safe.
Andy is safe.
GinaMarie and McCrae have been nominated for eviction.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of Big Brother 15 Episode 33, which airs Wednesday at 8/7c on CBS.

Big Brother 15 Episode 31

Amanda and McCrae ended up in the final round of the veto competition in Big Brother 15 Episode 30, and McCrae narrowly beat her to keep himself safe. That left Amanda on the block against Spencer, but there does not seem to be any miracle that could possibly save Amanda from eviction.

This marks the 500th episode of Big Brother. It’s not often that shows in primetime hit that mark. The only thing that comes to mind is The Simpsons.

Spencer volunteered to go on the block this week. He figured his alliance will keep him safe.

Amanda makes a deal with Elissa. Really? This is just pathetic. I can understand if you were just on opposite sides of the house, but when you go out of your way to make someone miserable, don’t expect them to want to be in the same room with you let alone be allies. That said, Elissa knows that keeping Amanda around would mean keeping a bigger target. If this deal happens, it would force Andy to pick a side, which would be different.

Another double eviction will be happening tonight. The last time, Spencer and Amanda were also on the block, but that was during the MVP twist with three people nominated (Candice ended up being evicted).

Votes
Judd: Amanda
McCrae: Spencer
Elissa: Spencer
Andy: Amanda

There is a 2-2 tie. In the event of a tie, the HOH must break the tie. GinaMarie votes to evict Amanda. Elissa’s now as alone as she was when Helen left. Despite the fact that Amanda has Elissa’s wedding ring in her suitcase as collateral, she still doesn’t believe Andy was the one who turned. Julie brings up her bullying, but she gives her a pass on her racist/homophobic/etc. comments. Now that the scapegoat has been evicted, I don’t think we’ll be getting back to that subject again until the finale, and if CBS isn’t guilted into airing it on TV, it didn’t happen. Then Andy drops the bomb. He reveals his vote and outs his entire current alliance. Stupid. What if someone else comes back from the jury?

The standard double eviction HOH competition is a hunt for two items from across the yard, this time dog bones. McCrae retrieves the first bone first and then wins HOH with the second bone.

His most obvious target is GinaMarie. She is not the best target, but 10 minutes after Amanda’s eviction, she’s the certain emotional target. If he’s smart, he’ll leave Elissa alone, but I suspect he won’t go near Andy either.

GinaMarie and Elissa have been nominated. There goes that theory. Elissa’s the outcast who nobody will miss, but if your goal is to get rid of GinaMarie, the wrong tree is being barked up.

For the veto competition, they must navigate their cars through the maze. This is one of those competitions where nobody has any idea what’s going on. Julie keeps telling us that Andy is in the lead (with the caveat that it’s a maze so you never know), but in the end Judd wins the power of veto.

Julie invites us to listen to last minute strategy. As with the last time, we can’t hear anything. We later find out that the argument is about whether Elissa did or did not know about Judd’s eviction.

Judd declines to use the power of veto. Usually nobody uses it, but this year everybody wants to save somebody. This marks only the second time out of 12 that the veto has not been used.

Votes
Spencer: Elissa
Judd: Elissa
Andy: Elissa

By a vote of 3-0, Elissa has been voted out of the Big Brother house. McCrae just did the Exterminators’ work for them, and now he can’t play for HOH, guaranteeing himself a place on the block. Julie tosses Elissa out of the house without her bag, and she doesn’t seem to have a desire to say goodbye. Oddly, she blames McCrae for Amanda’s eviction, rather than Andy. Even though Andy may not do much, it’s impressive how well he is fooling all of these people, in some cases even after stabbing them in the backs. Granted, now that he’s told Amanda everything, his deception will be the talk of the jury house.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of Big Brother 15 Episode 32, which airs Sunday at 8/7c on CBS.

The Biggest Loser Season 15 Cast

The Biggest Loser will be returning, more or less, next month. It will return a couple weeks late on Tuesday October 8 and be shrunk to just 1 hour from 8-9EST. Stupid The Voice. Bob, Jillian, and Dolvett will return as trainers, and each of them will be given the opportunity to save one of their contestants in this season dubbed Second Chances.

There are 15 new contestants who make up The Biggest Loser season 15 cast. The most noteworthy is American Idol season 2 winner Ruben Studdard. Unlike runner up Clay Aiken, he seems to have all but vanished since winning the show. Now weighing in at 462 pounds, he is the heaviest contestant on the show this season. The full cast includes:

Fernanda Abarca (3D Animation Artist/Cake Sugar Artist), 32, Montrose, Calif.

Craig Arrington (Warehouse Supervisor for Pharmaceutical Company), 30, Wilson, N.C.

Chelsea Arthurs (Clinical Research Professional/Event Planner), 28, Raleigh, N.C.

David Brown (Project Manager for Construction Company and Social Commerce Leader for Phone Company), 43, Edmond, Okla.

Rachel Frederickson (Voice-over Artist), 24, Los Angeles, Calif.

Hap Holmstead (Sales Consultant/Entrepreneur), 26, Pleasant Grove, Utah

Matt Hooper (Retail Manager), 38, Georgetown, Mass.

Holley Mangold (Olympic Weightlifter/Caterer), 24, Columbus, Ohio

Jennifer Messer (Clerk/Bookkeeper), 42, Abingdon, Va.

Tumi Oguntala (Brand Strategist), 41, Clifton Park, N.Y.

Marie Pearl (Senior Staff Accountant at a Community College), 30, Springfield, Mo.

Bobby Saleem (Attorney), 28, Chicago, Ill.

Jay Sheets (Marketing Associate for a Food Company), 38, Farmington, MO.

Ruben Studdard (Singer), 35, Birmingham, Ala.

Tanya Winfield (Chief Operating Officer of a Restaurant Franchise), 41, Plainfield, Ill.

Big Brother 15 Episode 30

GinaMarie won HOH in Big Brother 15 Episode 29, and finally someone had the balls (is this anatomically accurate?) to nominate Amanda and McCrae.

McCrae says Amanda’s important to his game, but in reality she’s the biggest hindrance to his game. If they can’t get rid of her, people will just as soon take him out instead.

Amanda suspects a new alliance. She has three out of the four names correct. The person she does not suspect is Andy. He may not have done very much, but he has successfully pulled the wool right over a lot of people’s eyes up until he votes them out.

GinaMarie defends her nominations to Amanda. Aaryn did a lot for them, and then they cut her loose when she needed them most. She’s not wrong.

After shouting throughout the house, Amanda seems to have accepted her lot in this game. She hopes McCrae can still win. An eavesdropping Elissa suspects that Andy is working with Amanda and McCrae. You sure missed the boat on that one, even if he is still someone who merely floats toward the power.

Elissa, Spencer (Amanda’s choice), and Andy join GinaMarie, Amanda, and McCrae in the veto competition. The object of the game is to spin around 15 times and then bowl (then spin some more and bowl some more). Amanda easily beats Elissa in the first round. Andy challenges Amanda, who just got done throwing up, hoping to appease everybody in the house (telling Amanda he threw it and telling the others he was trying to get rid of her). Amanda humiliates Andy, who did not even have a chance to throw the challenge. GinaMarie, too, picks Amanda. This is stupid. Why can they keep picking the same person over and over again? The good thing about being repeatedly chosen is that you can master the strategy, as Amanda wins again.

Finally a change of pace. McCrae picks Spencer, and McCrae ends up winning. That leaves Amanda and McCrae in the finals, ensuring that one of them is going to win. Is he allowed to beat her? For the first time in this competition, Amanda falls behind, but she pulls even and then ahead. McCrae comes from behind to win the power of veto by less than a second. Amanda knows her days are numbered. She even seems to be catching on to the fact that Andy has turned because his excuse that he wants to throw it to her is really weak.

GinaMarie is not willing to nominate Elissa, who did not nominate her last week. That means one of her alliance members will occupy the seat next to Amanda. If you’re going to be a pawn, there are few better people to be up against. The good thing about this is it throws people off the scent of the Exterminators.

McCrae takes himself off the block. In his place, GinaMarie nominates Spencer, who is now on the block for a 7th time.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of Big Brother 15 Episode 28, which airs Thursday at 9/8c on CBS.

Big Brother 15 Episode 29

Concluding Elissa’s run as HOH blowing up, Aaryn was evicted in Big Brother 15 Episode 28. This brought us to an endurance competition for HOH.

Their task is to get a dozen eggs out of the cage and hop them to the other side of the yard. GinaMarie starts off early in the lead. Andy is performing well and is in second place, but the lead she’s building does not seem like it can be beat. He doesn’t want to win anyway since that would mean picking a side, which he has struggled to do all summer. Everybody else is competing to not have to wear a chicken suit. GinaMarie wins the HOH. In a tie for last, Judd and Spencer must wear chicken suits. While Elissa celebrates GM’s win with her, Amanda is quick to show her claws.

GinaMarie says she’s no Aaryn. Try as they might, Amanda and McCrae can’t make her their puppet. And unlike last week when Elissa foolishly left one of them off the nomination block to save the other, she plans to nominate both of them so that at least one of them will go.

Amanda does make a very logical proposal. The nominations should be people who nobody would care if they left. That would pretty much be GinaMarie’s whole alliance plus Elissa. Of course, although Amanda or McCrae would be upset if the other left, everybody else would be thrilled.

We now return to our regularly scheduled program of Amanda being a bitch. Seriously, what is she trying to accomplish? Then she starts crying about how mean Elissa is. Really?

Hidden in a sea of balloons is $10,000. To win, they must retrieve a 1 chip, a 0 chip, and a K chip. With a whole lot of dumb luck, Spencer finds all three chips before most people even find one.

As we saw in her last nomination, GinaMarie does and says what she wants. These two should have been nominated weeks ago, but everybody was too afraid to do it.

Nominations
Andy is safe.
Spencer is safe.
Elissa is safe.
Judd is safe.
Amanda and McCrae have been nominated for eviction.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of Big Brother 15 Episode 30, which airs Wednesday at 8/7c on CBS.