The Celebrity Apprentice 5 Episode 1

Trump dropped his flirtation with the presidential race when NBC made it clear he is expendable, so he is back with a new cast of D listers, some of whom are recognizeable as celebrities, or at least were a couple decades ago. The Celebrity Apprentice 5 cast of 18 contestants is:

Adam Carolla (Comedian)
Arsenio Hall (Comedian/Host)
Aubrey O’Day (Singer/Reality Star)
Cheryl Tiegs (Supermodel)
Clay Aiken (Singer)
Dayana Mendoza (Miss Universe 2008)
Debbie Gibson (Singer)
Dee Snider (Singer)
George Takei (Actor)
Lisa Lampanelli (Comedian)
Lou Ferrigno (Bodybuilder)
Michael Andretti (IndyCar Driver)
Patricia Valasquez (Model/Actress)
Paul Teutul, Sr. (Reality Star)
Penn Jillette (Magician)
Teresa Giudice (Reality Star)
Tia Carrere (Actress)
Victoria Gotti (Writer/Reality Star)

For the sake of not having to make a decision, we start out very simply: men against women.

Clay is concerned about the number of frat boys on his team, foremost among them, Adam Carolla.

The men unanimously agree on their team name, Unanimous, after 45 minutes of really stupid names. The women agree on Forte, a name that apparently is supposed to show they are not loud and bitchy.

Patricia Valasquez volunteers to be the project manager for the women. As for the men, they are all silent for a change. Paul Teutul gets volunteered.

After that, they are invited into the boardroom for a Trump family reunion.

The men learn that Michael Andretti will be coming to join their team, after his son Marco dropped out following the death/investigation of a teammate.

Their first task is simply to sell sandwiches.

Dee Snider says he can get $5-10k. Paul thinks he can bring in half a million dollars. No need blowing through everything on day 1, but if he wants to, everybody else will just save their guns for later. With that in mind, they’re going to focus their theme on him and choppers.

Like the men, who were originally thinking about turning their store into a sideshow, the women were considering a carnival theme, but after Victoria Gotti’s comments about the cops and permits, they go with a red carpet theme instead.

Aubrey O’Day is upset that the other women don’t consider her recognizeable. Sorry, I don’t know who you are either. Then again, I wouldn’t recognize any of the women by looking at them, and only a couple by name.

Everybody is finding Paul rough around the edges, and elsewhere.

The women have more of a team effort going on, all going through their rolodexes and making calls, though it goes without saying that they will be saving their best for when it comes to their own necks. Victoria, however, is making calls about personal problems instead. If you can’t put stupid things like your son’s car insurance on hold for a few hours, don’t bother being on this show.

The next morning, Victoria’s not there when they head off to the shop. She strolls in later with claims of a doctor’s appointment.

When Lou takes off his shirt, George is more thrilled than anybody else.

Not afraid of the cops, the men stand on the sidewalk and make a spectacle, with Penn doing his magic show and shouting. The problem is there is so much going on outside that they are struggling to get anyone through the door.

Clay’s inside hustling for money and making some good progress, but he’s left with a question: where’s the big money? Meanwhile, the women continue to draw in a number of donors in the $10,000-25,000 range.

Don Jr. thinks that the women’s grilled cheese idea may not be good, as it takes too long to prepare, which may hurt them if volume is a concern.

In the middle of the task, they get a call from Trump. Each team is instructed to bring their best sandwich to the Rachel Ray show. The best sandwich will receive a bonus, theoretically enough to make a difference between winning and losing.

Patricia and the women seem to have cleaned up. However, Paul’s big donors are not showing up, and since the men put all their eggs in his basket, it would seem they are screwed.

Patricia says that her biggest star was Dayana. She thinks that Tia did well at her thankless job at the cash register. Trump asks whether she’ll bring her back if they lose, and she says no. Tia says that it’s okay if she wants to bring her back. Big mistake. Trump is the kind of person who will throw out all performance data and anything task related and fire you due to one comment. Completely pointless and stupid and against the grain of the whole show, but at least on that he is consistent.

As far as who needs to go if they lose, she reluctantly offers up Cheryl and Victoria. Cheryl did not bring any money, which she denies, though she personally said she had no plans to make a big effort at doing so. Her problem with Victoria is that they could not get a hold of her when she was missing.

Paul says his biggest star was Penn for the spectacle he was able to create. When pushed, he names George and Arsenio as his weak players. George does not have a strong enough personality. He just picked Arsenio at random.

Rachel Ray’s winning sandwich, worth $35,000, is the men’s big chopper sandwich. Better pretentation and better taste.

The women set a record for the first task of The Apprentice with $126,000 in earnings. The men, however, raised $332,000, for a total of $367,000. The money from both teams will go to Paul’s charity, Make a Wish Foundation. $305,000 of that came from one nameless person.

Debbie would bring Cheryl into the boardroom because she’s slow. Aubrey would fire Victoria, but she will not answer whether Diddy is a good guy. Tia would fire Victoria as well, maybe. Nobody would fire the project manager. Dayana can’t believe all these stars who are bigger than her could not raise any money. Lisa would fire Victoria due to her personal calls or Cheryl due to her lack of focus.

Cheryl and Victoria will be going back to the boardroom with Patricia. Tia would have been a smarter pick. Trump would be out for blood over that comment she made. At the end of the day, though, I don’t see Patricia going regardless.

Victoria acknowledges that everybody held back, including herself. Cheryl finally does as well.

Patricia would keep Victoria, if she will focus. Victoria would not fire the project manager. Cheryl, who has always been shy and quiet, does not know if this is right for her. No point delaying the inevitable. Cheryl is fired.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of The Celebrity Apprentice 5 Episode 1, which airs Sunday at 9/8c on NBC.

The Amazing Race 20 Episode 1

A cast of 11 teams returns to compete for $1 million. The Amazing Race 20 cast consists of 11 teams each with a preexisting relationship. Among them, a pair of familiar faces, Brendon & Rachel, winner of last year’s Big Brother plus her fiance, with this season marking the third stint in a CBS reality show for each. The teams are:

Art & JJ (Border Patrol Agents/Friends)
Brendon & Rachel (Engaged)
Dave & Cherie (Married Clowns)
David & Rachel (Married)
Elliott & Andrew (Twins)
Joey & Danny (Friends)
Kerri & Stacy (Cousins)
Mark & Bopper (Married)
Misa & Maiya (Sisters)
Nary & Jamie (Federal Agents/Friends)
Vanessa & Ralph (Dating Divorcees)

Thanks, by the way, for bringing us two people named Rachel, two people named Dave, a pair of twins, and multiple people whose names could be either male of remale. That should help simplify things as far as me trying to figure out who the hell is who.

And what would The Amazing Race be without an overrun from some sport or another? Football over, we pick up late as usual, this time with golf. (Yes, golf is a sport, sort of.) With Undercover Boss now on Fridays, I see I need to adjust my Tivo options to record this over by an hour instead.

Bopper & Mark are country boys from the wrong side of the tracks, who never had anything and never thought they would get anything. Misa & Maiya are athletes (or at least golfers), who promise no crying. Joey & Danny want to prove they have more going on than your typical Jersey Shore guys. Rachel & Dave hope to reconcile their marriage after his tour in Iraq. The twins don’t seem alike at all, as one’s a rocker dude and looks the part, while the other is a pro soccer player. What’s up with all the body art this season?

Their first clue is up in the air… in a balloon. 11 of the 100 balloons have a clue. It’s all just dumb luck, and the longer you’re there, the worse your odds get. A few teams no doubt have good luck, while the last team standing is there for 1 hour and 44 minutes.

Their first destination is Santa Barbara (Argentina), not to be confused with their current destination of Santa Barbara (California). The first 6 teams will get tickets on the fastest connecting flight. The trailing 5 teams will be 2.5 hours behind.

First flight: Elliott & Andrew, Brendon & Rachel, Nary & Jamie, Art & JJ, Rachel & Dave, Vanessa & Ralph
Second flight: Dave & Cherie, Joey & Danny, Mark & Bopper, Misa & Maiya, Kerri & Stacy

Upon arrival, they proceed to Aerodromo Gilberto Lavaque, an airport in the middle of nowhere. At the road block, one partner will jump out of the airplane, but that’s not the road block. The road block is for the other person to find the jumper, which for the most part seems pretty simple. Follow a map, look for the plane, and run to the X that marks the spot.

Road block (in order of arrival): Art, Brendon, Dave, Jamie, Ralph, Andrew, Danny, Bopper, Maiya, Kerri, Cherie

It’s here that the border patrol agents form an alliance of sorts with the military guy. Brendon, however, is half Mexican and hates border patrol.

Danny can’t drive stick. One thing with The Amazing Race is that somebody on the team has to be able to do that. Problem is typically both people don’t need to. He’s going to get a crash course during this road block. Maiya, meanwhile, gets stuck in the sand, having pulled off the road in the wrong location.

At Patios de Cafayate, they will make 120 empanadas, which must be approved by the empanada champion (really?). They will learn how to make them based on the ongoing demonstration, and they must notice that there’s a different technique to both the cheese and the meat empanadas.

Every damn year with this show. Tivo mishap out of the way, I hit a 10 minute gap. Hopefully nothing too important happens in that time. Like the first 6 teams checking in.

The pit stop for this leg of the race is down the road somewhere.

First: Dave & Rachel (win the express pass)
Second: Rachel & Brendon
Third: Art & JJ
Fourth: Nary & Jamie
Fifth: Vanessa & Ralph
Sixth: Elliott & Andrew
Seventh: Kerri & Stacy
Eighth: David & Cherie
Ninth: Bopper & Mark
Tenth: Joey & Danny
Eliminated: Misa & Maiya

Misa & Maiya finished the empanada task before the tenth place team and also arrived at the pit stop before them. However, they fail to spot Phil, and end up getting eliminated in the process of searching for him.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of The Amazing Race 20 Episode 2, which airs Sunday at 8/7cish on CBS.

American Idol Season 11 Episode 11

They started to narrow down the contestants in American Idol Season 11 Episode 10. Very little, very slowly. Tonight, more of the same, in Vegas.

I thought group week was over. Now enter group week, part 2. They are instructed to form groups of 3 or 4 and perform songs that were written 40 or 50 years before most of them were born.

Cari Quoyeser, Chase Likens, Skylar Laine, and Colton Dixon kick off the doo-wop music. In spite of the fact that it sounds good enough, I’m not sure what tonight’s theme is supposed to demonstrate if it continues like this. Colton, Skylar, and Chase are through to the next round.

David Leathers Jr., Jeremy Rosado, Ariel Sprague, and Gabi Carrubba sound better, perhaps because they got a better song, Rockin Robin. Gabi talks about wanting a standing ovation, but she knows it’s not happening tonight. They’re all through to the next round.

Adam Brock on piano, Erika van Pelt, Angie Zeiderman, and Shelby Tweten perform Great Balls of Fire. After a lame dragged out fake out that nobody’s buying, they are all through to the next round.

Schyler Dixon (Colton’s sister), Brielle von Hugel, and someone named Molly who’s about to be eliminated are up next.

Wayne Wilson, Ashley Robles, and Stephanie Renae join the list of the eliminated.

Reed Grimm, Elise Testone, Haley Johnson, and Eben Franckewitz decide to modernize their song, some. This earns the first standing ovation of the night, and they are all safe.

Jermaine Jones and Richie Law are the only duet of the night, as Richie’s old group decided to drop the cowboy. The deep voices and slow pace of the song aren’t going to wake anybody up, but they are both through to the next round.

Hallie Day, Baylie Brown, and Chelsea Sorrell join the list of those who make it.

Jessica Sanchez, Deandre Brackensick, and Candice Glover tell us they have updated their song. I’m going to take their word for it. This is the first arrangement where the voices are given a chance to shine, rather than the background music drowning them out.

Randy congratulates those who made it through, telling them that they may be cut tomorrow after the remaining groups perform.

Clayton Farhat, Scott Dangerfield, Adam Lee Decker, and Curtis Gray do some Jailhouse Rock to mixed reviews. Clayton, Scott, and Adam are safe.

Caleb Johnson, Joshua Sanders, and Joshua Ledet continue the Elvis theme with success.

Britnee Kellogg, Courtney williams, and Jessica Phillips were the only group that did not rehearse with the band. Dumb. They’re there for a reason. Their voices sound good enough, but the judges are not impressed with their arrangement. Britnee and Courtney advance. Jessica leaves with her head held low, telling the judges she’s a real artist, which they are not looking for.

Lauren Gray (who tells us she’s not on ritalin) and Wendy Taylor are through to the next round, but Mathenee Treco has been eliminated.

Heejun Han looked up vocal coach Peggy Blu on Youtube. He’s afraid. But then he keeps getting hugs. He is joined by Neco Starr, Jairon Jackson, and Phil Phillips. They are all through to the next round.

The final group of the night is Groovesauce, minus Reed Grimm: Jen Hirsh, Aaron Marcellus, Creighton Fraker, and Nick Boddington. Great harmonies, great individually. Except for Nick, who is told he was good, but not good enough.

Day 1 contestants are called back to the stage for more cuts (for some reason, none of the day 2s can be cut). Gabi Carrubba, Schyler Dixon, Angie Ziederman, Candice Glover, Johnny Keyser, Jairon Jackson, and Britnee Kellogg have been eliminated. That brings us down to a top 402.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of American Idol Season 11 Episode 12, which airs Wednesday at 8/7c on Fox.

American Idol Season 11 Episode 10

Hollywood week began in American Idol Season 11 Episode 9, complete without any actual singing. Preparations complete, they are ready to perform during a 2 hour episode. I’d be fine with 1 hour.

Jennifer Malsch, Cherie Tucker, Cari Quoyeser, Gabrielle Cavassa, and Brianna Bell take the stage first. Their performance is about as rough as their rehearsal was. Jennifer and Cari survive the cuts, as Cherie blames the Idol bug.

Reed Grimm, Nick Boddington, Creighton Fraker, Aaron Marcellus, and Jen Hirsh escaped both the drama and the sickness of the night before. Their reward is that they all advance, following a standing ovation.

Kyle Crews, Brielle von Hugel, Joshua Ledet, Shannon Magrane, and some fifth person named Amber get on stage in their group that Brielle and her mother think is all about them. Kyle is the only one of the lot to get cut.

Before they get on stage, Jacquie Cera faints, but she’ll be singing anyway, along with Dustin Cundiff, patient zero Amy Brumfield, and Mathenee Treco. They struggle in general, including some lyric forgetting. Mathenee is the sole survivor.

Crystal Duffield, Jasmine Antoine, and the rest of their group continue the trainwreck. They are not alone in being completely unable to remember the words.

Christian Lopez, Alisha Bernhardt, Samantha Novacek, and the other girls and that guy have the audience yawning. They are all eliminated. Perhaps they should have sung Joy to the World like the angry cop wanted.

Ariel Sprague, Eben Franckewitz, Gabi Carrubba, David Leathers Jr., and Jeremy Rosado deliver a solid performance, and they are all safe.

Imani Handy joins the growing chorus of fainters, but she crawls her way on stage to perform with Bryce Garcia, Johnny Keyser, and Kristi Krause. This rough performance concludes with an unsurprising collapse by somebody who’s already fallen twice. Johnny survives the carnage.

We now head to the not OK Corral with a battle of cowboy against everybody. Heejun Han, Jairon Jackson, Richie Law, and Phillip Phillips pull together in spite of their differences, and they live to fight another day, though it’s primarily based on their previous performances.

With group night over, those who survived will sing one last time before the results are revealed.

Joshua Ledet had to be badgered into sticking around. His oversinging of Christina Perri’s Jar of Hearts receives a good reaction. Colton Dixon, who also had to be badgered into auditioning let alone sticking around, and he sings Daughtry’s What about Now while playing keyboard. Phil Phillips continues the positive momentum.

Jen Hirsh follows with a standing ovation for her performance of Georgia on my Mind, her second of the episode. Creighton Fraker continues this with What a Wonderful World. Having been in Jen’s group earlier, he, too, sees his second standing ovation. Shannon Magrane also thinks it’s a wonderful world, receiving the same reaction.

Reed Grimm is informed 30 minutes before going on stage that he cannot sing a cappella as planned. This is stupid that they could not have told him this earlier. Thanks for the fake drama, Nigel. He spends most of his time dancing around his troubles rather than preparing, but he decides at the last minute to play the drums. Seemingly out of nowhere, he pulls together a strong performance.

Skylar Laine is out of the hospital. Wouldn’t know based on that she’s been sick. Steven says that’s one of the best performances of the day, and Jennifer is reminded of Reba. Fellow country singer Rachelle Lamb messes up, so she starts over, delivering a convincing performance on her second attempt.

New father Adam Brock says he brings white chocolate to the stage.

Performances done, they are divided into four rooms.

Room 1 gets their results first. They are through to the next round. This room includes Jermaine Jones, Lauren Gray, Adam Brock, Joshua Ledet, Creighton Fraker, Jen Hirsh, Erika van Pelt, Hallie Day, and Johnny Keyser.

Room 2 also makes it. In that room are Reed Grimm, Phil Phillips, Skylar Laine, Shannon Magrane, Eben Franckewitz, and Jessica Phillips.

A tense and fighting room 3 is up next. They have been eliminated, with casualties including Brittany Kerr, Jennifer Malsch, and Rachelle Lamb.

Lastly, room 4 is also advancing. Bailey Brown, Gabi Carrubba, Heejun Han, Angie Zeiderman, and Britnee Kellogg are among those heading to Vegas.

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

Survivor: One World Episode 1

18 new contestants form the Survivor: One World cast, without any recongizeable faces amongst them for a change (not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing). It’s a battle of men against women, all living on the same beach.

Kourtney doesn’t think she fits in just looking. Colton makes an extra effort to let the world know he’s gay. Greg wants to be called Tarzan. Tarzan, meet Troyzan.

They are divided into two tribes at the starting beach. The men are Manono (orange); the women are Salani (blue). Then they have 60 seconds to strip the truck and grab whatever items they can carry. Rather than work for anything, Michael just steals from the women, who are not paying attention to what they grab. Hidden immunity idols are in play. Because they beat it to death and completely ruined the twist last year with Ozzy, Redemption is dead. Finally.

Wanting to prove they’re big and macho, the men go nuts and try to carry half the truck back to camp with them. On the other hand, the division by sexes becomes apparent looking at what the women are carrying.

Alicia has already decided on her final 5 of herself, Kim, Kat, Sabrina, and Chelsea. So Kim just found out she’s in an alliance. Uh, yeah, I guess I’ll join you guys.

They spot some chickens when they get to camp, and they make a deal to each take one. After country girl Chelsea catches them with ease, now she wants to bargain. Attorney Matt is ready to sue someone.

There is much activity in shelter building. People from both tribes scurry about to get settled for the night. Then there’s Colton, sitting on the sidelines spectating. After doing that for a while, he decides to start openly playing the girl power game, making it blatantly obvious where his loyalties lie, or at least don’t lie.

Matt, Mike, Jay, and Bill have formed the game’s second alliance. This is the alliance of the young, fit guys. A threat to the other guys for sure, but is anyone really dumb enough to vote them out?

Memo to future Survivors: don’t wear jeans. Unless you enjoy chafing.

The men get a fire going quickly, a rarity in Survivor. Sabrina has been sent as the agent to make a deal. They can have their chicken back in exchange for fire. I don’t see anyone being dumb enough to fall that. Failing to charm their way into fire, the girls sneak over and steal some fire that the boys leave unguarded as they sleep. Nice plan. But the fire doesn’t last. The next morning, Kristina manages to make a deal to weave some palm fronds for them so they can have fire. Alicia’s response: she wants to punch her in her face.

Sabrina finds a hidden immunity idol in the second place she looks. I see they’re getting better at hiding things. However, this is a Manono tribe idol. That means that, as a non-Manono tribe member, she must give it to someone on the other tribe. She goes to the guy who’s been begging for his only possible saving grace, Colton.

At the immunity challenge, they jump off a tower and cross a balance beam and a rope bridge. We’re starting off just like the last girls against guys season (Amazon), where the men were humiliated in an early balancing challenge (before the women started to fall apart). The men take the lead on the tower diving, where the main concern seems to be the obvious threat of injury. Unsurprisingly, Kourtney has injured her wrist, which makes her a liability and an easy first target. As she sits down during the challenge, Probst calls for medical. They will be hauling her off for an X-ray. Without 9 people to cross the finish line, the women have lost. Do the men want to make a gesture of goodwill (aka stupidity) and keep going anyway? No.

The women act all shocked and surprised that the men didn’t take Jeff’s bait. As if they would have had the shoe been on the other foot. Their bone to pick: the guys should have been chivalrous and handed the game to them. Really? Woman up.

At tribal council, Alicia is whining about the fact that they have fire, and Kristina tells her to shut up. Hey, we were all thinking it. This brings us to a point. There is no structure, and everybody is just doing whatever comes into their minds.

Now an update on Kourtney. Her wrist is broken, and she is out of the game. Nobody else is going home tonight.

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

The Biggest Loser Season 13 Episode 7

In a predictable turn of events in The Biggest Loser Season 13 Episode 6, Adrian was eliminated.

Conda defends their actions. Percentagewise, Adrian was at the bottom. (Except for the 3 people who did worse than him.)

Bob and Dolvett will pick one person each to be sent home. That person’s weight is the only weight that will count this week, and Bob and Dolvett will be going with them. Dolvett chooses Conda; Bob chooses Daphne. Thus we get the Conda vs. Daphne showdown that the producers wanted at the top of the show when we got a cat fight. Let the obnoxiousness continue. Bob realizes that Daphne has a point to prove, which he hopes will push her to victory. Though their weights won’t count, the rest of the teams are competing for a 1 pound advantage for their teammates.

Chris is upset. She needed Bob. Apparently, that takes precedence over the other six people who also need him, which is his fault. So now, she has been betrayed.

Dolvett gets some insight into why Conda’s a bitch. She is angry with her father after her parents’ divorce.

Without a trainer to push them, Roy shows up late for the workout. His excuse is his age. The good news for the red team is that they already had to do this last week, and they proved they could put up decent numbers on their own. The black team, however, doesn’t seem capable of committing themselves to the concept of a Bob-free week. They reluctantly create a workout routine that they get through with a minimum of energy expended.

The prize for the challenge is Valentine’s letters from home. More importantly, they receive a 1 pound advantage, which for 1 person at this stage of the game can potentially be a big deal. They will have to dig under each of three logs so they can get everyone on their team (plus a dummy) to the finish line. Emily opts to sit out for the black team because nobody else (such as the biggest guy, Jeremy) wants to. Black team manages to shove Cassandra through the first log first. That lead quickly evaporates, and things won’t be getting any better when Jeremy and Chism have to get through. Red team starts on the second log first. They retain their lead through the third log. In a challenge that was over before it started, red team wins.

For her last chance workout, Conda will workout with a girls’ basketball team. Bob’s surprise for Daphne is stair climbing, 103 floors in under an hour.

Chris: 201 pounds (-5, 2.43%)
Jeremy: 320 pounds (-6, 1.84%)
Emily: 218 pounds (-5, 2.24%)
Megan: 219 pounds (-4, 1.79%)
Cassandra: 189 pounds (-6, 3.08%)
Chism: 298 pounds (-7, 2.30%)
Black Total: 1445 pounds (-33, 2.23%)

Kimmy: 184 pounds (-4, 2.13%)
Buddy: 329 pounds (-7, 2.08%)
Roy: 252 pounds (-9, 3.45%)
Kim: 200 pounds (-9, 4.31%)
Mark: 234 pounds (-10, 4.10%)
Red Total: 1199 pounds (-39, 3.15%)

With red team’s easy win, Conda adds a second pound to her existing advantage.

Daphne: 224 pounds (-12, 5.08%)
Conda: 245 pounds (-10, -2, 4.71%)

Both women put up big numbers, but in spite of the 2 pound weight advantage, Conda misses by 1 pound. Bob made a smart play, choosing the person who had a personal vendetta to settle. Removing the 2 pound advantage puts Kim at the top of the leaderboard for the losing team, giving her immunity for the week.

Votes
Kim: Roy
Mark: Roy
Kimmy: Roy
Roy: Kimmy
Conda: Roy

9 pounds is apparently not good enough. The team says he is not committed, and with 4 votes, Roy is not The Biggest Loser. From his starting weight of 306 pounds, he is down to 230 pounds today, and back at work at the North Pole.

Stay tuned to dinguRUE for another live recap of The Biggest Loser Season 13 Episode 8, which airs Tuesday at 8/7c on NBC.

American Idol Season 11 Episode 9

The first night of Hollywood in American Idol Season 11 Episode 8 had some good singing, some bad singing, and finally concluded with someone falling off the stage. So I’ve heard.

Wanting to preserve the drama for tonight, they opted to make last night’s fall a to be continued. We pick up with Symone Black regaining consciousness and receiving medical attention. After getting a bit of sugar, she stands up and heads off to the hospital.

From there, we pick up with the results. Jeremy Rosado advances to the next round, but Lauren Mink and Ethan Jones have been cut.

That brings us to group night with the 185 contestants who remain. They must combine into groups of 4 or 5 with a mixture from day 1 and day 2. People are shocked by this stunning turn of events (the one that happens every year).

Crying and ready to pass out, Amy Brumfield wonders why she is struggling to find a group. She finds a cop telling people to get their asses over there and form a group with her. Refusing to change songs, policewoman Alicia loses her group. She just wants to sing a damn song. Joy to the World. Eventually, she finds a girl whose father is a cop and forms a group with her and some guy who’s afraid of her.

Brielle von Hugel’s mom says she’s bossy. This could be bad. Not one to let her daughter steal the spotlight, her mom picks apart the others.

Returning from the hospital, Symone needs to find a group. Most groups have formed already, but she manages to find a foursome to join.

Heejun has decided that the cowboy he’s working with, whose name (Richie Law) he doesn’t know, is crazy. Well, it’s war then. Now he hates all cowboys, even Dallas Cowboys.

Meanwhile, people continue to drop like flies. Somebody arrived sick and has been spreading it to everybody else, in addition to the girl who fainted and the kid with kidney stones.

Following a night of practice and drama, they’re ready for the performances.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of American Idol Season 11 Episode 10, which airs Wednesday at 8/7c on Fox.

American Idol Season 11 Episode 8

Rounding out the auditions in American Idol Season 11 Episode 7 were Johnny Keyser and Lauren Gray. Now it’s time for the 309 contestants who survived to head to Hollywood.

They will all perform one more time, this time in front of an audience of their peers. In each group of 10, half of them will be cut today.

Johnny Keeser is full of confidence and not at all nervous. Heejun Han, however, is exactly the opposite, telling his mother to not bother packing much for the trip, and trying to figure out how he can stick around with these guys all being so pretty. They both survive.

Elise Testone, Baylie Brown, and Hallie Day make the cut.

Jen Hirsh overcomes her nerves with an excellent performance of Up to the Mountain. Lauren Gray follows with another good performance.

Heather Youmans, Sascha Julian, and Candice Russell, whoever they are, fail to impress.

Phil Phillips has never flown before, at least not on a real plane. This time he’ll have to perform without his guitar. Reed Grimm has been on stage since he was 2, so this is home to him. Travis Orlando was sent home in Hollywood last year after round 1. Phil and Reed make it, but Travis is cut again.

Travis is joined by Ramiro Garcia, Wolf Hamlin, and Jenni Schick. At the end of day 1, 68 people are gone.

Adam Brock has been told there is a large black woman trapped inside him. Jane Carrey lives in shadow of famous father Jim Carrey. Adam makes it, but Jane does not.

Shannon Magrane is the one who Steven commented, to her father, is hot, humid, and happening. David is the obnoxious guy who thinks he’s a player. Jessica Phillips has come to LA with her boyfriend, who recovers from a stroke he had last Easter. They all make it to the next round.

Angie Zeiderman and Brittany Kerr also advance, as do Erika Van Pelt, Creighton Fraker, and Aaron Marcellus.

Lauren Mink has a rough go at it, but Jennifer loves Jeremy Rosado. Jumping ahead from them, though, we head into the conclusion for the night, with a performance by Symone Black. From what I gather, she fell off the stage. Too bad Fox can’t properly program this show any more than they could before, as I for one did not see what happened. 1 hour means 1 hour, Fox. Not 68 minutes.

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