The Amazing Race 15 Episode 4

In the all too predictable The Amazing Race 15 Episode 3, Ron & Marcy were eliminated.

Football was 20 minutes behind, and that was before they went into overtime. A live blog will begin when 60 Minutes is over.

Teams depart in the order in which they arrived.

First: Herbert & Nathaniel – 6:53PM
Second: Meghan & Cheyne – 6:54PM
Third: Gary & Matt – 6:58PM
Fourth: Brian & Ericka – 6:59PM
Fifth: Sam & Dan – 7:06PM
Sixth: Maria & Tiffany – 7:16PM
Seventh: Mika & Canaan – 7:25PM
Eighth: Zev & Justin – 7:31PM
Ninth: Lance & Keri – 7:32PM

Teams will now fly to Phnom Penh (not to be confused with Sean Penn), Cambodia and stop at the Foreign Correspondents Club. All the teams are pretty well bunched together, although only Vietnam Airlines makes the flight, with none available until 12:25 the next afternoon. Strangely, although they were there about 16 hours before the flight is scheduled to depart, the last two teams are told the flight is full. They are put on standby but given tickets for the second flight at 2:15PM. After waiting overnight, in the last minutes leading up to departure, both teams are told they’re on the same flight as everybody else.

Upon arrival at the FCC, they must get their next assignment from the editor. They receive a photograph to figure out that their next destination is the Hotel Le Royal, which has a suite named after Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, who made one official visit to Cambodia in 1967. Canaan slips up asking for his next task, rather than his next assignment. The editors refuse to buckle until he rereads his clue. He also believes that the picture is of Queen Elizabeth, but he is not alone in his complete confusion over who he’s looking for. Not that it matters because they are not required to identify the photo, only figure out where it is hanging.

When they get to the hotel, Sam & Dan pretend that they didn’t find anything. The Globetrotters don’t believe them. It’s probably a little to early to be playing the game that hard.

The detour is a choice between cover or wrap. In cover, teams must choose and sell four motorcycle helmets to a family of four consisting of two adults and two children. In wrap, teams must take scarves and look through the market for a woman wearing an identical scarf. Typically, the searching tasks are the worst choice, although in this case, it does not look like there’s much difference between the two tasks.

Wrap: Zev & Justin, Sam & Dan, Herbert & Nathaniel, Mika & Canaan, Meghan & Chenyne, Maria & Tiffany, Gary & Matt, Brian & Ericka
Cover: Lance & Keri

From there, teams will travel on foot to Wat Toul Tom Pong. After about a 2k run, it’s time for the road block. There’s a royal monkey handler who trains dancers to act like monkeys. To complete this road block, one person must learn to be a monkey and go bananas. This turns out to be a fairly simple task, although it is a source of drama for some people (Zev and as usual Lance & Keri).

Road block (in order of arrival): Zev, Dan, Flight Time, Ericka, Meghan, Gary, Keri, Maria, Canaan

The pit stop for this leg of the race is Wat Phnom, the tallest religious structure in the city, a buddhist shrine built more than 600 years ago.

Zev & Justin arrive first, but there’s a catch. They can’t find their passports. If you can’t find your passports, you may as well just quit because you won’t be able to go much further. Phil won’t let them quit. Instead, if they can’t find their documents, they will be the ones eliminated. For some reason, they have not searched their backpacks yet. After searching them, they are only able to locate Justin’s. They must go back out on the course and need to return with Zev’s passport before the last team arrives.

First: Sam & Dan
Second: Herbert & Nathaniel
Third: Brian & Ericka
Fourth: Gary & Matt
Fifth: Meghan & Cheyne
Sixth: Lance & Keri
Seventh: Mika & Canaan
Eighth: Maria & Tiffany
Eliminated: Zev & Justin

Unable to find Zev’s passport, Zev & Justin have been eliminated from the race.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of The Amazing Race 15 Episode 5 I’m Like Ricky Bobby (Dubai), which airs Sunday at 8/7c CBS.

Southland Cancelled

Well, this is different. Cancellations are normally more predictable than this. Southland, which had been scheduled to premiere in two weeks, has now been cancelled.

The show, which had been a ratings success for NBC when it premiered earlier this year, fell quite noticeably as the season ticked on, but still finished on a positive note, particularly as compared to most NBC fare.

Regardless, it was renewed for a second season, although it was stuck in the Friday night deathslot. With Leno filling up 5 hours of the network’s schedule, there’s less need to keep as many shows alive, although it does leave me wondering what NBC’s going to do in a year when they have to cancel Leno.

The Vampire Diaries Season 1 Episode 5

The brothers went to the annual founders’ party, where Damon got drugged by Stefan in The Vampire Diaries Season 1 Episode 4. Although they have their identities mostly concealed, there are some in the town who are on to them and know that the vampires must be back.

Stefan knows exactly what will happen to his brother if he doesn’t feed on blood. He’ll become a living corpse. That’s just fine with Stefan. In 50 years, they can reevaluate.

Elena catches Vicki coming out of the bathroom. Aunt Jenna is unconcerned. Jeremy could be doing worse things. He normally is.

Caroline’s trying to recall what happened, but there are holes in her memory lately.

Stefan shows up at school. He tells Elena he was dealing with Damon. For 4 days.

Although Elena’s started to turn on Stefan, which I get the sense is going to be a recurring theme for quite some time, Matt’s come around and is reluctantly supporting him. Showing up an hour late because he’s dealing with Zach almost getting killed by Damon is not making a case for Stefan, nor is his continued vagueness. Their discussion is stopped by a guy who knows him and is amazed he hasn’t aged a day.

The sheriff is having no luck tracking down the vampires. They’re assuming that they’re looking for somebody who only comes out at night. That would be a bad assumption.

Stefan agrees to share some with Elena, starting with the history of Katherine.

Jeremy feels like he and Vicki are always getting high. Pretty much because they are. She’s enjoying it, so his protests fall on deaf ears.

When she slices her finger while cooking, Elena believes her paranoia has turned into hallucinations. What’s wrong with his face? Whatever it is, she’ll have to wait to find out, probably until the end of the season.

Damon’s only hope is that he will be able to control Caroline, presumably using the necklace he was going to give her, which she has since found and decided to wear. That crow will be following her around for a while.

At the car wash, Bonnie gets upset and proceeds to make a hose go out of control.

Jenna’s surprised to be having a good time with Logan, the guy who’s a news reporter by day and a vampire hunter by night.

Elena asks the guy from last night where he saw Stefan before. She wouldn’t know. It was years ago. When was this anyway? Early June. 1953.

Since they can’t hang out in his room all the time, Vicki takes Jeremy to her other favorite party place. The cemetery.

Elena wants a favor from Logan. She needs access to old news stories from the 1950s. It’s for a way past due report.

Caroline shows up at Damon’s cell. He’d like her to let him out, but she remembers that he bit her. Regardless, she’s gonna open the door. Zach shows up just in time get his neck snapped and have the door busted open. It’s good for Caroline that Damon does not have his ring because it means he cannot chase her out into the sun.

Bonnie’s powers are starting to get a little bit more impressive. When she gets upset, she starts a fire, one which lights a car in a blaze. Stefan saw, and he’s not having much difficulty believing it, but nobody else knows.

Elena shows up at the news station to look for an incident from 1953 at the old Salvatore boarding house. Logan’s happy to help, as long as he gets a good word in with Jenna. Matt warns Stefan that she won’t stop until she figures it out because she’s big on trust. Her search reveals a news clip with Stefan lurking in the background. If it’s not him, it probably should be.

Jeremy and Vicki’s visit to the cemetery turns out surprisingly less joyful than they had anticipated. He should go home instead of making her feel like crap by not letting her take prescription pills from his house.

When he gets his chance alone in Jeremy’s room, Logan does some searching and locates the watch.

Vicki’s wasting her life in the cemetery when she runs into a guy who doesn’t look good. He’ll be just fine when he bites her. She might want to look into getting used to that cemetery.

Elena has just one question for Stefan. What are you?

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of The Vampire Diaries Episode 6 Lost Girls, which airs Thursday at 8/7c on The CW.

Survivor: Samoa Episode 4

Because Jaison took issue with the Yasmin situation, Ben was voted off the island in Survivor: Samoa Episode 3.

Jaison could not handle people who use phrases meant to hurt people, like how he insinuated all southerners are racist.

Erik wants to find out all the information about the immunity idol. He think Shambo’s going to give everything away so that he can get the idol. Apparently, she will. John gets the info, too.

Mick chooses two people to go on a mission that may or may not get them more food. Russell H and Natalie will be going with him. Russell S must also choose two people, and he picks Natalie and Dave. When they arrive, they see some chickens. They’re not sure what to do. After waiting around for a while, they decide to jump to it and find some instructions. It’s bocce ball. Mick gets close and sticks close the whole time. Russell H looks like he’s got some experience, getting about as close as possible. On the last ball, Dave throws a ball almost touching the stick, and Galu wins reward.

Three people are off playing bocce, so Erik sends those who are awake to get fruit, while most of the tribe sleeps. He figures he’s got 10 minutes to find that idol. John wakes up and knows what’s going on. Erik ends up finding the idol, believing that everybody is stupid enough to believe there is no idol on their island, too.

Russell H is thinking he would prefer to get Natalie to the end rather than Jaison.

Shambo lets a chicken get away. Good luck catching that thing. Chickens can fly, kinda. Erik’s mad that nobody seems to care.

Some of the members of Galu are starting to get tired of Yasmin because she’s not contributing at camp.

The immunity challenge is to race across a net carrying wooden blocks, which they will stack. Then they will make their way across a rope bridge for more blocks to stack even higher. Shambo, Laura, Dave, and Russell S sit out for Galu. Galu is first to complete their first stack. Foa Foa is about 5 seconds behind them. Galu’s got a big lead, until Monica takes a long time to get across. It’s roughly even once she’s done. Galu is first across, but their lead remains just seconds. It comes down to the final stack. Foa Foa completes their last stack first. They win immunity. That’s different.

Russell S is angry because Monica fell apart in that challenge.

Dave has a couple suggestions. Yasmin has done nothing, while Shambo has screwed up (like when she lost the chicken). Russell gets wind of this, and he believes that since he’s a leader, these people better listen to him.

Votes
Yasmin
Yasmin
Monica
Monica
Yasmin
Yasmin
Yasmin
Yasmin

By a vote of 8-2, Yasmin has been voted off the island. Shambo was the only one to come to her aid. Russell eventually folded knowing he was not in the majority.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of Survivor: Samoa Episode 5, which airs Thursday at 8/7c on CBS.

So You Think You Can Dance Season 6 Episode 7

The auditions concluded in So You Think You Can Dance Season 6 Episode 6 with Hayley Cloud, Iveta Lukosiute, Ashleigh and Ryan Di Lello, and Leigh Asay. Now it’s Vegas week.

Nathan Trasoras first auditioned last year… when he was 17. He ended up with a ticket to Vegas then. Ellenore Scott follows him and keeps the judges in a good mood.

After the first 10 solos, the judges have some results. Nathan and Ellenore, along with Justin Kenney and Ivete Lukosiute, advance to the next round. Shelby “Skip” Skipper and Ashleigh and Ryan Di Lello also advance.

Thomas Hamilton and Allison Becker are in the next group. Neither will be advancing.

Willem de Vries and Jacob Jason are back same sex dancing. The judges have decided to split up the pair, eliminating Jacob but keeping Willem.

The first stage of the process has cut about 25% of the dancers, eliminating 41 out of 152. The next genre is hip hop.

Nobody believes that Teddy Tedholm is ghetto, but it doesn’t matter because he’s safe. B-Boy Jean Lloret, however, gets cut despite the style, unable to get the choreography.

Ryan Kasprzak, who has the most recognizeable name on the stage, is getting his shot again, after having made it so close last year when the judges supposedly had to pick between him and his brother Evan. The judges are split 3-3 on him, which is enough to keep him safe.

Cha cha is the next morning with Louis van Amstel and Anya.

The first casualty, Billy Bell, has been whacked upside his face by Christina Santana. He won’t be allowed back on stage until he stops bleeding.

Krumper Russell Ferguson is paired with Iveta Lukosiute. Both of them are moving forward, and they get a standing ovation from Adam Shankman.

Billy’s nose finally stops bleeding, but he’s missed almost all the rehearsal. Legacy is also in his group, but I have to wonder whether somebody with a stupid nickname can get to the top 20. He is dancing with Paula van Oppen. Legacy has been asked to fight for his life. Billy, Christina, and Paula, however, advance.

Ryan Kasprzak is in the final group of the day, hoping he can outdo what he did yesterday in hip hop, which he realizes is his worst genre. He’s told that the feel of his effort today was too strong, so it’s not happening again this season.

John Litzler is also dancing for his life. Nigel gives a no due to lack of emotion. Mary says yes. Adam also says yes, but he doesn’t feel his heart. The rest of the panel follows this up by saying no.

Legacy is the last remaining dancer to perform. His B-Boying is great, but he’s gonna have to do more than that. He gets a yes from all the judges.

Teddy Tedholm and Shelby Skipper have been eliminated.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of So You Think You Can Dance Season 6 Episode 8, which airs Tuesday at 9/8c on Fox.

The Biggest Loser Season 8 Episode 4

In a week full of gameplay, Tracey made plenty of enemies in The Biggest Loser 8 Episode 3, including Jillian, despite making what ultimately may have been game saving moves. In the end, Antoine & Sean were voted out.

Shay’s still playing the role of the victim. Her target now: Tracey.

Bob wants the contestants to consider that everybody needs to be there, not just certain people or one person any more than another. Sean at 405 pounds sure had a long ways to go.

Jillian wants to know why Julio’s there. He claims he doesn’t know. There’s no reason he ended up at 407 pounds. He eventually acknowledges the one thing he’s been great at is food.

Tracey goes to see Dr. H to see if he will clear her to exercise. Her enzyme levels have almost doubled from last week. She’s been shut down. Not only no exercise in the gym. None at all, not even walking around the ranch or going in the pool.

When the contestants walk into the kitchen, Allison’s there waiting for them, with padlocked cupboards. It’s all locked up and will stay that way all week long. For the next 7 days, they will have to order out every single meal.

The week will kick off with a pop challenge. They will be shown three food choices for dinner. The team that makes the healthiest choice will win a kitchen stocked with healty foods for one year.

Dinner A: 1/4 roasted chicken breast (without skin), 1/2 cup low fat creamed spinach, 2.75 oz sweet potatoes, 1/2 cup nonfat peach frozen yogurt, 2 cups unsweetened iced tea

Dinner B: 1/2 rotisserie chicken (with skin), 1/2 cup creamed spinach, 1/2 cup vanilla frozen yogurt, 1/2 cup blueberries, 2 cups green tea

Dinner C: 1/4 barbecue chicken (with skin), 1 cup peas and carrots, 1 cup mango slices, 1 cup skim milk

Dinner B was selected by nobody, which narrows it down to A and C. The healthiest meal is dinner A. Brown, pink, and orange are correct. Mango slices turned out to be one of the pitfalls on dinner C.

So how many calories were there in dinner A? The closest without going over will win. Brown team gueses 547, pink guesses 385, and orange guesses 475. The correct answer is 445, so Rebecca and Amanda win.

When they order out, everybody realizes how difficult it is. Not only are they not sure what’s going into the food or how it’s prepared, but they can’t even be sure the person on the other end has a clue and will be able to follow instructions like no cheese.

Bob and Jillian decide to take them out to dinner, and not at Subway. They take them to a Mexican restaurant. First thing to do is to skip the bread. The next thing to do is just stick with the water. Maybe club soda or unsweetened iced tea. Oh, and don’t leave your house without your calorie counter.

At the challenge, they’re gonna be playing for immunity. Each person will grab hold of a handlebar. Their job is straightforward: hang on as long as they can. The platform will continue getting steeper until it’s completely vertical. Abby and Tracey will sit out. Liz is the first one to hit the water. Danny follows her, and brown is out. Amanda is out. Rudy is next. Rebecca follows him, eliminating the pink team. Dina is the next one to fall, taking out the blue team. Mo is out, eliminating purple. Shay falls after 10 minutes. Julio falls, eliminating the black team. That leaves Allen up against Daniel. Allen drops, and Daniel wins immunity for himself and Shay.

Jillian’s getting tired of Rudy’s excuses. He either needs to drop dead or make it happen. She doesn’t have to be nice. She’s not Bob.

Coach Mo realizes he’s got all the weight of the purple team on himself because Tracey is unable to workout. He keeps pushing and pushing. Then he hurts his back. He’s definitely thought about going home. Bob suggests waiting until the scale and seeing if it’s working for him. No need to wait that long. He’s back in the gym and on the bike.

At the weigh-in, they discuss how tough this week’s been since they’ve had to eat out every meal.

Daniel: 287 pounds (no change)
Shay: 432 pounds (-5, 1.14%)
Orange Total: 719 pounds (-5 pounds, 0.69%, immune)

Allison says that’s not a bad strategy. Daniel denies any strategy was involved.

Allen: 285 pounds (-7, 2.40%)
Abby: 213 pounds (-3, 1.39%)
Green Total: 498 pounds (-10, 1.97%)

Rudy: 377 pounds (-11, 2.84%)
Dina: 229 pounds (-5, 2.14%)
Blue Total: 606 pounds (-16, 2.57%)

Liz: 240 pounds (-3, 1.24%)
Danny: 382 pounds (-8, 2.05%)
Brown Total: 622 pounds (-11, 1.74%)

Tracey: 213 pounds (-4, 1.84%)
Mo: 318 pounds (-8, 2.45%)
Purple Total: 531 pounds (-12, 2.21%)

Tracey and Mo are both pleasantly surprised to be safe. The other contestants at least fake as if they’re congratulating them this week. Then Shay complains because she doesn’t want healthy teams going home, whatever that means.

Julio: 364 pounds (-4, 1.09%)

Jillian doesn’t have a reason why that just happened. It should have been higher, even with the take out food.

Amanda: 230 pounds (-5, 2.13%)
Rebecca: 244 pounds (-4, 1.61%)
Pink Total: 474 pounds (-9, 1.86%)

That puts Julio and the brown team below the yellow line. All three of them will just leave it up to the house to decide rather than campaigning against each other. However, Liz and Danny say they’re not sure they can do it at home, whereas Julio’s ready to do it if that’s what he has to do. Purple team’s split because Tracey’s close to Liz and Mo’s close to Julio. Pink and orange teams are worried that Liz will send them home.

Votes
Shay & Daniel: Julio
Dina & Rudy: Liz & Danny
Allen & Abby: Julio
Tracey & Mo: Julio

With three votes, Julio is not The Biggest Loser. He’s down from his starting weight of 407 to 299 pounds today. He still loves food but is just changing how he does things.

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

So You Think You Can Dance Season 6 Episode 6

In So You Think You Can Dance Season 6 Episode 5, we saw Jonathan Litzler, Justin Keney, Kimalee Piedad, and Diana Drexler. Salt Lake City is the last stop on the audition tour.

Bryan Foyer looks like he quite possibly is going to injure himself. Mia calls him one of the strongest B-Boys. They give him a yes to choreography.

Tristy Mirci was in 25 car accidents (as a passenger) over 3 years. Memo to anyone who knows her: stop driving with her. Nigel suggests that these other drivers were dance critics. He can’t believe she’s danced for 3 years because somebody must be robbing her.

Hayley Cloud had a herniated disc following a bad landing during one of her routines. She says she’s recovered and ready to go again. Mary likes the confidence. Mia challenges her to do a handstand, which she can do for 5-8 minutes. Nigel likes that she’s a competitor and is sending her to Vegas.

Ariana Rowley is a local burleseque performer, whose goal is to bring a little bit of Vegas to Salt Lake City. She plans to show the judges something they’ve never seen before (and don’t want to see now). Well, Nigel’s at least entertained by this stripping. For whatever reason, Mia wants to see the choreography, which Nigel jumps right onboard with.

Ballroom dancer Iveta Lukosiute came from Lithuania, which was under Soviet control. Nigel doesn’t think he’s used this word very often: vivacious. Looked fantastic, danced brilliantly, and had of the more enjoyable couples auditions ever. Mary and Mia are trying to avoid crying as they send Iveta to Vegas.

After 15 minutes, Bryan has decided to stop choreography, planning to get some lessons and come back next year. Without the stripping, Ariana does not get as much love.

Pascal Nayigiziki quickly generates a look of “Why is this guy wasting my time?” from Nigel. Nobody knows what he’s doing up there, not even Pascal. Despite that, he gets what seemed to be the longest audition of the night. Where has he been training? Aw man, where hasn’t he trained?

Ashleigh and Ryan Di Lello used to be competitors, but now they’re married. Mary loved Ryan’s masculine leadership role, but Ashleigh’s a little bit fake. Mary’s wondering where the chemistry is from this married couple. Mia agrees. Nigel as well. Despite the negative comments, Ashleigh’s told she’s a good dancer, and both will be going to choreography.

Leigh Asay and Josh Murillo audition together, having partnered up about two weeks ago. She’s so involved in it that she loses a toenail. Oh, I did not need to see that. They’d like to see Josh do the choreography. As long as she can still walk, Leigh can come get a ticket to Vegas.

Josh will not be going to Vegas. Ryan will be. What about the wife? Yes, Ashleigh will be joining him.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of So You Think You Can Dance Season 6 Episode 7, which airs Wednesday at 9/8c on Fox.

Hell’s Kitchen Season 6 Episode 13

Suzanne finally got to the end of her rope in Hell’s Kitchen Season 6 Episode 12.

Kevin believes he knows everybody else’s weaknesses, which means that somebody better figure out his weakness or be screwed.

Little Gordon, the foul-mouthed young Gordan Ramsay from Caterer.com’s videos, is there to give the contestants a piece of his mind. The point of him being there is that they need to learn about catering… to vegetarians. They will have 1 hour to make 80 portions. Kevin is preparing asian style crepe with beet carpaccio. Tennille’s cooking vegetable stuffed eggplant. Ariel is making a vegetarian lasagne. Dave is cooking a polenta tower with goat cheese and roasted peppers. During the challenge, Dave is in pain. Yes, again. As the clock ticks down, none of the chefs have managed to complete their 80 portions. It might not matter anyway because it’s 80 kids, who don’t like vegetables. Dave hopes he can get these screaming kids to like him personally even if they don’t like his food.

40% of the kids agree they disliked Kevin’s dish the most. The top two dishes belong to Dave and Tennille. With 55% of the votes, the number 1 dish belongs to Tennille. The punishment will be to clean up the dining room, which the kids were allowed to trash. As for Tennille, she will enjoy a day of pampering in Beverly Hills so she can go eat sushi with Ramsay. The other three chefs try to justify their inability to please the kids: Tennille cooks elementary food.

Kevin’s on appetizers. His risotto is delicious. I’m guessing he didn’t cook the rice.

Tennille has cooked rubbery and bland (not to be confused with blonde when Ramsay says it) scallops. Her next attempt, however, is perfect.

All of the appetizers have been served half an hour into dinner service, so they’re moving on to entrees. Dave is on meat. And down he goes. Again. Limping in back due to another injury. This guy’s gonna do permanent damage at this rate. Ramsay wants him to get medical attention, but he insists he’s fine. Regardless, he’s still getting the job done on meat.

Tennille, however, is not getting the job done on fish. Ramsay can’t figure out what she’s done to her seabass. Aside from that, she’s got burnt pans and fish all over the place. She’d better hope somebody else screws up royally here. After Ramsay takes her into the back and yells at her, Tennille finally recovers from her disaster and cooks her halibut perfectly.

Once the service is over, Ramsay decides not to prolong this any further. Tennille has been eliminated.

That’s not it. After he sends them back upstairs, he calls them back down. He’s wondering whether he made the right decision about keeping Dave around with that injury, setting up the perfect opportunity for what’s likely to be a lame and misleading cliffhanger heading into the commercial break. After a lot of thought, his decision is… he knows he made the right decision.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another recap of Hell’s Kitchen Season 6 Episode 14, which airs Tuesday at 8/7c on Fox.