American Idol Season 9 Episode 10

The start of Hollywood in American Idol Season 9 Episode 9 marked the start of Ellen DeGeneres’ judging on the show. She turned out to not be too bad. Not that she had a lot to live up to. Tonight is group day, which has proved to be the downfall of many people, particularly those who are just there to have fun.

85 people have been cut so far. 96 remain.

The first challenge is to find a group and agree on a song. I can tell already this is going to be a completely chaotic episode jumping from one place to another without much focus.

The Dreamers starts off as a threesome of Mary Powers, Alex Lambert, and Margo May. They invite Hope Johnson and Erin Hunley to join them.

The Mighty Rangers all auditioned in Denver: Maddie Penrose, Danny Jones, Mark Labriola, Tori Kelly, and Kim Kerbo.

Phoenix includes Jermaine Sellers, Kat, Ben Honeycutt, Jeff Goldford, and Moorea Masa, who made it to Hollywood last year and was in Danny Gokey’s group.

The original Dreamers aren’t too happy with their new group members, and they’re considering dropping them.

Paige Miles and Thaddeus Johnson join Jessica Cunningham and Liz Rooney to form the quartet Neopolitan.

Destiny’s Wild keeps getting tossed out of every room because they’re obnoxiously loud. Their group consists of Siobhan Magnus, Jereb Leaver, Theri (no last name), and Todrick Hall. They park themselves right next to Neopolitan, who are then forced to start shouting as well.

The Dreamers have decided to work together now. Having dragged their feet, now they have to play catch up.

Big Mike Lynche’s wife is about to deliver their first child. She’s gonna have to go it alone, and wants him to be there singing.

Back to the drama with The Dreamers. Mary wants to take control of everything. She’s even getting on the nerves of keyboard player Michael Orland.

Big Mike gets a call from his wife, and he goes through labor over the phone with her. It’s a girl.

Some people are missing something: the words.

Charity Vance, Ashley Rodriguez, and Michelle Delamor are the first group to perform. They’re all through.

Big Mike’s group Team Awesome also consists of Seth Rollins, Tim Urban, and Michael Castro. Michael Lynche and Tim Urban step forward and will advance to the next round.

Neopolitan is next. They sing the same song as Destiny’s Wild, who claim that they stole their apparently original idea of singing a cappella. Simon thought that was very good. All of Neopolitan advances.

Destiny’s Wild is up next. Ellen tells them their performance was weird. Nonetheless, they, too, all advance.

Denver’s Mighty Rangers get off to a good start. Until Mark and Kimberly forget the words. Tori Kelly and Maddie Penrose advance. The people who stayed up to rehearse continue, while those who went to bed earlier got booted.

Phoenix loses one of their group members, who decided to bail at the last minute, afraid they will humiliate themselves. Simon tells Moorea it’s rubbish that they went through anything hard up there. Jeff Goldford and Jermaine Sellers advance to the last day.

Big Dreams includes Matt Lawrence, Amanda Shechtman, and two other people who Simon doesn’t want to hear. It’s the end of the line.

Leah Lorenti, Carmen Turner, Kimberly Carver, and Dave Pittman have been cut.

Janell Wheeler, Jermaine Purifory, and Casey James all advance.

Andrew Garcia, Katie Stevens, and JB Ahfua follow suit.

The Dreamers have been arguing all night and day. Margo May very quickly bombs. Mary Powers, Hope Johnson, and Alex Lambert advance.

71 people have survived the day.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of American Idol 9 Episode 11, which airs Tuesday at 8/7c on Fox.

The Amazing Race Asia 4 Casting

The Amazing Race Asia season 3 ended at the end of 2008, and the delay since that time has left people wondering whether the fourth season would actually happen.

Wonder no more. AXN Asia has posted an application for The Amazing Race Asia 4. The application process runs through March 22, 2010.

Filming is set for some time between May and July. With that timeline, I’m assuming that it will air around the same time as the last one (September-November), but no details will be released until later this year.

Jeff Probst Returning for Survivor 21, 22

What’s Survivor like without Jeff Probst? We won’t need to answer that question for at least another year, although I’ve found Survivor ultimately entertaining television regardless of who’s the host, but there’s no doubt Probst brings a lot to the table.

Jeff Probst confirmed on Twitter that he has renewed his contract for another year, which will take him through the midseason 2011 season.

“Survivor fans: I’m jazzed and wanted to share with you guys first -I’ll be back snuffing torches for two more seasons (21&22) of Survivor,” he tweeted.

Lost Season 6 Episode 3

Juliet died, but Sayid and Locke were still walking around despite their own demises in Lost Season 6 Episode 2.

Sayid says he’s feeling a little light headed. Well, that could be because he died. Sawyer is not happy that this Iraqi torturer gets another shot, but Juliet did not.

Kate gets the taxi driver to step on the gas thanks to the gun she stole. As they’re driving, a pedestrian gets in the way. Gun or no gun, he doesn’t plan to run him over. Claire would like to make a run for it, but that’s not happening. Kate wants the driver to go left on red, at which point he decides he’s had enough and makes a run for it. After taking Claire’s purse, Kate tells her to get out of the car. Claire would like to get her suitcase first, but Kate denies the request.

Sawyer plots a successful escape from the others. He doesn’t have to stay, even if he maybe should consider it. Kate offers to track him and bring him back. If they let her go, too.

Arriving at a body shop, Kate asks for a tire hammer. At gunpoint. First of all, that will just cut off her wrist. Second of all, if she asks nicely and pays, the guy might just be willing to help her out. Once she’s gotten rid of the handcffs, she opens up Claire’s suitcase, finding assorted baby products inside.

Sayid is brought inside and strapped down before having wires attached to him. Then it’s time for the hot poker. His wounds had almost healed, but that’s pretty well changed now. He’s told he passed the test, whatever that means, although we later learn that was just a lie.

Feeling guilty, Kate returns to see Claire, who reluctantly agrees to chat with her, accepting a ride to go meet the couple who are going to adopt her baby.

In Kate’s trek through the jungle, she’s getting attitude from one of the others. His problem: she staged her prison break by knocking the guard (him) out with her rifle three years ago. So she knocks him out again because she wants to escape again.

After finding out that Sayid’s been tortured, Jack makes his way back to confront them. They tell him he’s infected, so he needs to take a pill, which he must take willingly in order for it to work. Their pitch to Jack is that this is his chance to redeem himself, seeing as others around him keep dying.

Sayid realizes he didn’t pass the test after all. Jack pulls out the medicine, or at least that’s what it is according to them. Since Sayid trusts Jack, he’ll take the pill if that’s what he wants.

Kate bids Jin farewell and will be heading to find Sawyer on her own.

Claire arrives to see the couple, or at least one of them, whose husband left her. She’s no longer able to adopt the baby. Maybe she could have called this woman who just came half way around the world and informed her of this change of heart. That would have prevented Claire from having to go into labor on her doorstep.

Kate finds Sawyer as planned.

Claire’s made her way to the hospital, where she’s told by Dr. Ethan she can have her baby now if she chooses. Unlike when she was on the island, he gives her the option of whether to start sticking her with needles. She’s not ready yet.

Kate’s mission is to find Claire and bring her back to Aaron. She apologizes for Juliet, although Sawyer takes the blame on himself, since he convinced her to stay when she was trying to leave. He guesses some people are meant to be alone, and his planned proposal for marriage is dashed.

Jack has decided to not give Sayid the pill because he does not know what’s in it. If he doesn’t give it to him, he’ll die. Yeah, that already happened. Jack decides to swallow it himself, which leads to him being pummeled to spit it out. What’s in it? Poison.

Claire gets a visit from a Detective Rasmussen, but she chases her off by claiming Kate was just the cab driver who helped her out. Before she leaves, Kate suggests keeping the baby, whose name Claire has already blurted out.

Why do they want to kill Sayid? They believe he’s been claimed by the darkness growing inside him, and they can be sure of that because it happened to Jack’s sister.

In his attempt to flee from the guys who have awakened and now want to kill him, Jin falls in a trap. Before he can be shot, the threat is eliminated by a gun toting Claire.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another recap of Lost Season 6 Episode 4 The Substitute, which airs Tuesday at 9/8c on ABC.

American Idol Season 9 Episode 9

The audition rounds concluded in American Idol Season 9 Episode 8 with a final sweep through the various cities. We got a look at Lacey Brown and Aaron Kelly. Tonight, Hollywood week begins. American Idol’s newest judge Ellen DeGeneres joins the cast. Now past the audition rounds, the contestants will be allowed to sing with an instrument, should they choose to do so.

Katie Stevens sings For Once in My Life by Stevie Wonder. Simon says she’s quite good.

Skii Bo Ski has yet to drop his stupid nickname. He sings Ain’t Too Proud to Beg by The Temptations. Ellen warns him there’s a fine line between sexy and scary, no doubt an indication of the type of input we can expect. Still better than Paula, though.

Katie is in, but Skii Bo Ski is out.

Andrew Garcia sings Straight Up by Paula Abdul while playing guitar. You’re one season too late for that, dude. This very unique rendition goes over well with the audience. Kara calls that genius.

Vanessa Wolfe has made her journey to the fancy big city from her small town of 1100. Ellen tells her that her nerves are gonna kill her.

Andrew is through to the next round. Vanessa and Tasha Layton have been eliminated.

Cornelius Edwards, Maegan Wright, and Amadeo DiRocco are also eliminated. Guitar playing Janell Wheeler, however, advances.

Haeley Vaughn has seen a lot of people struggling with their instruments, but she proceeds with her guitar. Rocker mom Mary Powers comes to the stage next. Both of them advance to the next round.

The judges tell Jay Stone he’s ridiculous. They should have listened to Simon in the first place in Orlando. This half singing thing isn’t working.

Lilly Scott is the first new face of the night. She sings Lullaby of Birdland by Ella Fitzgerald while playing guitar. Kara finds her to be refreshing.

Michael Lynche’s wife’s water just broke, and she will not be happy if he doesn’t come home successfully. He sings Waiting on the World to Change by John Mayer while playing guitar. He advances to the next round.

Tim Urban got off to a bit of a rocky start in his first audition but was given one more chance. He sings Come Back to Me by David Cook to somewhat mixed reviews.

Justin Williams sings and plays keyboard. Randy just calls him interesting. He is sent packing. Really? That was not good enough to at least go again?

Tim, however, goes through to the next round.

Paige Dechausse and Erica Rhodes have been cut, as have Jersey sisters Amanda and Bernadette Desimone.

Maddy Curtis sings, well, I’m not sure what she sang, but Simon says it’s the wrong song whatever it was.

Casey James is the guy who got through because he took his shirt off. He plays blues guitar. Much more impressive than without the instrument.

Casey advances, but Maddy does not.

Didi Benami sings Terrified by Kara DioGuardi. At least she’s not crying this time. Simon hates to admit he really likes that song.

Crystal Bowersox sings A Natural Woman by Aretha Franklin. Any time somebody does this song on this show, I think back to Kelly Clarkson’s breakthrough performance (and how it pales in comparison by contrast). Nonetheless, she does well.

Both Crystal and Didi advance.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of American Idol 9 Episode 10, which airs Wednesday at 8/7c on Fox.

The Biggest Loser Season 9 Episode 6

John fell below the yellow line and was eliminated in The Biggest Loser Season 9 Episode 5.

They go to the Olympic Training Center, where they’re informed that they will be competing as individuals. Oh, and two players will be eliminated at the end of the week. The person with the lowest percentage will be eliminated automatically, and two more will go below the yellow line.

Everything there is healthy and has a purpose. The food for each sport is designed with the specific requirements of that sport in mind, not just calories in and calories out.

They’re not just meeting with Olympic athletes… they’re going to be working out with them. Jeret “Speedy” Peterson eventually asks Bob if these guys need a break. No, no break for them.

Koli is struggling, a fact not lost on Bob. He doesn’t think he deserves to be there, whereas John should be there instead.

The pop challenge is to slide back and forth on a slide board 500 times. The first three finishers will get advantages in the main challenge, although Ali will not be revealing any more just yet. Darrell, Miggy, and O’Neal sit out due to medical reasons. Daris is the first person to fall, but he will not be the last. Melissa is the first one to 100. Sam is behind her. Daris, Lance, and Sunshine are battling for third. Melissa is the first to reach 250, with Sam about 7 behind her. As they go toward 500, it’s a tie between Melissa and Sam. Melissa stumbles at 490, allowing Sam to win the challenge. Sunshine is up by 5 over Lance in the battle for the bronze, and she ends up taking third place by 3.

From the pop challenge, we head right into the main challenge at the Garden of the Gods. The challenge is based on the biathlon. They will run around the field, and every time around, they will be able to take a shot. Once their target is hit 5 times, they’re out. Sunshine will receive the opportunity to hit one target right away, Melissa will be able to hit two targets, and Sam will hit three targets. Sunshine assigns her point to Sam. Melissa, likewise, assigns both of her points to Sam. Sam opts to return the favor, giving one to Sunshine and two to Melissa. Ironically, they’ve all three screwed each other over. So much for an advantage. With that out of the way, the prize for the challenge is announced: immunity.

Sam’s the first to shoot and hit Lance. Daris also hits Lance. Lance targets Andrea. Everybody else aims for Lance, and he is out quickly. Ashley strikes Miggy. Sherry hits Koli. Melissa’s the next target on the chopping block, and she is the next one out. Miggy is next, followed by Daris. Andrea has taken the final shot against three people in a row. Realizing he’s about to be eliminated, Michael asks Stephanie to let him get one more shot. Nope, she eliminates him. Andrea is the next one out, and then Sunshine and Koli. Then O’Neal finishes off Sam. Darrell eliminates Stephanie. Cheryl eliminates Sherry, then Ashley eliminates Cheryl. Darrell has a choice between O’Neal and Ashley. He chooses to eliminate Ashley. In the end, Darrell and O’Neal line up their final shots at the same time. O’Neal wins immunity.

During the last chance workout, Bob has a moment with O’Neal that he lives for. He has him stand on a bosu ball and do squats.

Tonight they will weigh in as individuals.

O’Neal: 325 pounds (-8, 2.40%, immune)

Michael: 432 pounds (-11, 2.48%)

Stephanie: 221 pounds (-4, 1.78%)

Sunshine: 239 pounds (-6, 2.45%)

Koli: 326 pounds (-9, 2.69%)

Andrea: 255 pounds (-7, 2.67%)

Darrell: 338 pounds (-5, 1.46%)

Sam: 298 pounds (-12, 3.87%)

Sherry: 177 pounds (-3, 1.67%)

Ashley: 311 pounds (-6, 1.89%)

Daris: 274 pounds (-9, 3.18%)

Cheryl: 191 pounds (-3, 1.55%)

Miggy: 199 pounds (-7, 3.40%)

Lance: 305 pounds (-9, 2.87%)

Melissa: 199 pounds (+1, 0.51%)

Hard to chalk that one up to gameplay. Having gained a pound, Melissa has fallen below the red line and is eliminated. In parting, she asks for the others not to send Lance home before he hits 250.

That leaves Darrell and Cheryl below the yellow line. Since this is Olympics week, there is no vote. Instead, they will go head to head in an elimination challenge. They will each balance a torch stem on their heads. First one out goes home.

To be continued…

The Olympics will run on each of the next three Tuesday nights, which means we have to wait until March to find out how this challenge turns out. Really, NBC?

Melissa has dropped from her starting weight of 233 pounds to 175 pounds today. She says Lance is still out there, which I take to mean he’ll last at least a few more weeks.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of The Biggest Loser Season 9 Episode 7, which airs Tuesday at 8/7c on NBC.

Heroes Season 4 Episode 19

Claire and her father were sunk below ground by Samuel in Heroes Season 4 Episode 18, while Peter and Sylar escaped from years of solitude in Sylar’s mind.

Parkman gets a visit from Eli, who came alone this time, so to speak. He’s there to make sure he and the other heroes in his house are not a problem for Samuel.

Samuel wants Emma to play her cello, but she’s worried about her dream and the thousands of people who will die. He does not deny that the dream is true, so Doyle will mind control her into playing.

Hiro hops out of his hospital bed, brain healed and powers intact.

Peter goes inside Eli’s head, where he finds out that Samuel plans to open up the ground in Central Park. Regardless, Parkman has no plans to let Sylar out of his house.

Claire’s got a plan to dig her way out. HRG has given up. He figures Samuel put them down there so she can watch him die. Since her lungs will regenerate, she should be fine.

Hiro has received an origami crane, which he assumes must have come from Charlie. He goes down to the hall to see her. She’s aged a little. 65 years to be exact.

Sylar invites Parkman inside his head to see what he finds and make the call whether to let him leave or not. After doing so, he reluctantly agrees to trust them to leave.

Playing in the park, Emma is packing in the crowd. Along with the onlookers are news cameras, which Samuel has made sure show up so that the world can know.

Charlie was taken back to 1944, and she has lived all this time.

Claire’s dad wants a promise from her before he dies: that she’ll hide. As he collapses, she digs and sees water pouring in. It’s Tracy. Good thing he can swim. Lauren has lined up a chopper to take them to the carnival’s new location.

Charlie’s dying. So Hiro tells her he can fix this. Oh no. His plan is to go back to 1944 and take her back to the diner.

Sylar arrives at the carnival and finds Emma playing. He’s come to save her. First, he’ll need to overcome Doyle’s mind control.

Claire reveals Samuel’s plans to his people. They don’t much seem to care. Edgar, however, has decided that he does want to stop Samuel, so he wants to know what HRG’s plan is.

When Hiro tells Charlie his plan, she’s not interested. She already had a long happy life, and she wouldn’t want to see her children and grandchildren impacted by changing the past (again). Hiro has realized the story has come to an end.

Now that that’s settled, destiny calls. Noah needs help in New York.

Seems Doyle has underestimated Sylar’s power. It’s not long before he breaks free and gets Emma to stop playing. He’s not like Doyle. He’s a hero.

Undeterred by the room’s lack of concern, Claire tells them that Samuel draws his power from them, and that he killed his brother so that he could gain greater power. Edgar believes her. Eli then reveals that he killed Lydia to make it look like an outsider did it. With everybody sufficiently wigged, they bail and leave Samuel on his own in an attempt to make him just an ordinary guy.

They might consider running if they’re going to prevent a massacre. Samuel gets on stage and begins to make the earth quake. He’s not going to hurt anyone, not if Peter can help it.

Hiro arrives just in time. He needs to teleport everyone out of there. Maybe if Ando supercharges him and everybody holds hands. It works, and Samuel is powerless.

Volume 5 ends, and Volume 6 Brave New World begins.

Claire intends to show the press what really happened there tonight. Rather, she intends to show them by climbing the ferris wheel. Then leaping off.

With its continued ratings slide and expensive production values, there is a lot of speculation that Heroes season 5 will not happen. At this time, however, no decision has been made regarding either renewal or cancellation. Working in its favor is the fact that NBC does not have very much else to turn to, and with Leno having been cancelled, there are 5 hours a week to fill.

The Bachelor Season 14 Episode 6

Only the required number of girls went home in The Bachelor Season 14 Episode 5, as Jake sent Corrie home. Tonight, Jake will be going to all of the girls’ homes.

First up is Gia’s hometown of New York. They go on a boat and take pictures of various landmarks of the city. Jake brings up that Gia never talks about her previous relationships. Her one serious boyfriend did bad things like cheating on her with all of her friends. I sure hope she’s gotten a new set of friends. They go to dinner with her mother, stepfather, stepbrother, and half brother. The family is full of paraonia that she’ll get hurt again. Her mom thinks he’s got love for her, although Gia remains worried that he’s just doing the same things with everyone else as he is with her.

From the big city we head to Ali and the quaint little town of Williamstown, MA. There’s not much to do there but hang out on the street. So they go to her dead grandmother’s house. For dinner, they go to meet her mom, sister, and brother. Last time she brought a guy home, her mom did not approve, and that was the end of that. Ali’s family does not seem overly skeptical about Jake, and he does not end up getting the third degree. If he asked her today, she would say yes. We normally don’t hear that for at least one more week.

Tenley’s hometown of Newberg, OR is next. As they chat by the lake, she brings up her ex-husband, who she says let someone else plan most of his life. Jake runs most everything past his parents. She brings him to the dance studio she grew up in, and she has choreographed a dance for him, something her ex was never interested in (yeah, I get the feeling we’re going to hear about that guy a lot). Jake expects cautiousness when he meets her dad, mom, and sister. The last time she was there, she told her parents that her ex was not coming back. Watching last season, her father said he wished she’d meet that guy. Jake’s got a question for her mom: is Tenley ready to go down that road again, having just gotten divorced in the last year. Her warning for him: she’ll have emotional spill overs for a while. His last question is for her father: can he marry his daughter?

Vienna gets the last hometown date in Sanford, FL. They also get a boat ride on the river she grew up on. She wishes him luck with her father, who hasn’t liked either of the guys she brought home in the past. They meet her father, mother, and apparently sister. Vienna and her dad are in tears the second she walks in the door. She’s fallen for Jake, something she hasn’t done before. Her father expects her to be treated like a princess.

Jake gets a knock on the door when he’s relaxing in his room. A tearful Ali is at the door. Either she stays there, or she goes back to work. I saw this twist last season. His advice to her is to weigh which decision would be the bigger regret. He can’t guarantee her she’ll get the ring. She guesses she’ll let him know at the rose ceremony.

As the rose ceremony begins, Ali asks to talk to Chris. She still doesn’t know what to do. Basically, she doesn’t want to give an answer until Jake lets her know she will survive the axe. After listening to her whine for a while, he finally breaks his stance and tells her he doesn’t want her to go because he will not send her packing. That said, she just wants a little bit more time. Oh, can we find a way to draw this out any more? After some more consideration, she says she has to go. Surely she already knew that before putting him and herself through this.

This begs the question: which of the other three girls was going to get cut?

Oh, and next week, Jake gets a call from Ali. Oh geez.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of The Bachelor Season 14 Episode 7, which airs Monday at 8/7c on ABC.