Watching Reality TV

So it was an interesting show last night. Apolo was fantastic as usual and despite Samantha flubbing the scores, requiring a quick commercial break to sort things out, his evening went more than smoothly as the judges made it clear he’s the clear favorite in this competition. Laila and Joey were both very good last night as well. They got good scores for good dancing and Joey is just as charismatic as usual, in case you were wondering. Ian danced better than his scores would lead you to believe, but even he could not out-bad Billy Ray Cyrus. Folks, he stunk up the joint. And I’m surprised it didn’t come to fisticuffs with Bruno after Bruno called his routine “crap”. Which, come on, it was. The man needs to go home. I’m sure he’s got some very loyal fans out there and that’s to be commended and all. But the time to stroke his ego is over and he needs to be going home tonight.

To put it in perspective, Apolo and Julianne earned an overall score of 58 for their tango and paso doble. Billy Ray and Karina got a pathetic combined score of 38 for their foxtrot and mambo. Gah! That’s a twenty point difference, which happens to be number of points Billy Ray got for his mambo, his highest score of the night. Jeezum crow. If he doesn’t go home tonight, I’ll eat my hat. Mark my words, people. I speak the truth.

Yep, you heard me right. I’m liveblogging the “Amazing Race: All Stars” finale. Woot! I know I may be three hours behind to some of you, but that’s living in the Pacific time zone for you. It’s new to me, that’s what matters.

8:00pm - We get the obligatory “catch up” on everything that has happened so far on the race. My distaste for Charla and Mirna is amplified tenfold. I’m reminded why I wish them harm on a weekly basis. I miss Uchenna and Joyce. And yes, Rob and Amber. BOO!

8:04pm - The Kay Jewelers commercial really annoys me. I hate those kids singing “Happy Mother’s Day”. Yes, you heard me. I hate kids. Stop showing that commercial, please.

8:05pm - It is a surprise to NO ONE that the teams are sent to Hawaii. Let’s see, they were at Guam and they’re going back to the States… hmm. I called that one last week, how about you?

8:07pm - Eric is wearing his retarded “COLEGE” shirt again. I want to punch him.

8:11pm - Wait, I’m a little confused. Please tell me that Charla and Mirna did not get on an EARLIER FLIGHT. Because I really don’t believe that God hates me that much.

8:15pm - OMG, they did. God hates me.

(more…)

It was bound to happen, after last week’s “bloodfest”. Mookie’s ousting saved Alex for the time being but he wasn’t near as fortunate this week. Okay, to be entirely honest, Alex’s plight was not helped by Boo winning immunity. Because, apparently, Boo is a twerp. And the rest of the castaways are realizing this. They wouldn’t have minded the chance to get rid of him, even before Alex, but no. The immunity has spoken. So homeward bound was Alex (actually, don’t they go on some vacation? or are they doing jury yet? Is it Friday yet??). They’re all getting pretty annoyed with one another, actually. I guess it’s just gotten to that point in the game already. You spend enough days on a boring island with a bunch of stinky, camera-whoring people and they’re gonna start getting under your skin in a big, big way. So “Bravo!” to them for sticking it out this far because with my tolerance for humanity, I’m not sure i would have lasted this long.

Anyhow. Where was I? Oh yes, Alex was sent home. Who is next? Who cares?

What a very satisfying end to a very satisfying week. If only all weeks of “American Idol” could be like this. Good music, great performances and deserving contestants being sent home. Those who were sent home were exactly who I thought should be sent home. And what we’re left with is the contestants whom I think have the most chance to win this competition and who are all fantastic singers. The next elimination is going to be a nailbiter. I’m going to make an early prediction however and predict that LaKisha leaves next. We’re really getting down to the wire though, and the next several weeks promise to be VERY exciting.

Yes, last night, Phil Stacey and Chris Richardson were sent home. Both were decent singers, but I don’t think either were in the same ballpark with any of the remaining contestants. Chris, in particular, was starting to really get on my nerves. There was just something way too “boy band” about him. A lot of people compared him to Justin Timberlake and I didn’t see that AT ALL. Phil was a sweet guy, but his performances were hit and miss and it was just time for him.

Next week, things promise to ramp up on the show and I, for one, am very interested to see what happens next.

Oh how I enjoy Tuesday night’s in Reality Land. They always seem to catch me by surprise too. I’ll be minding my own business, watching the evening news and our lovely satellite DVR will automatically switch over to “Deadliest Catch” at 6pm (gotta love the west coast). And last night was good, too. But heck, this is “Deadliest Catch”, it’s always good. Some of the boats had some rough luck last night, poor guys. Others seemed to be raking in the crab. I couldn’t help but root for the Maverick and it’s “newbie” skipper. I want him to do well on his first time out as a captain. Looks like we’re coming to the end, of king crab season at least. I wonder if they’ll do like last year and extend the show into snow crab season? Because as I recall, that’s when things got a little intense. If you still aren’t watching this show, even after my repeated urgings, then I have nothing to say to you. Nyah.

It was “rock week” on “American Idol” last night, headed by the fabulous Jon Bon Jovi. All the contestants had to sing Bon Jovi songs and I couldn’t have been happier. Of course, I wasn’t so happy when I heard what Chris Richardson did to “Wanted Dead or Alive”. I’m embarrassed that this guy is from San Jose, my hometown. Please tell me he’s leaving this week? I didn’t enjoy LaKisha too much this week either. She tended to yell her song and her outfit was especially distracting. But I enjoyed her “spicier” attitude and the kiss with Simon was TV gold. So I’ll forgive her. Jordin just needs to not ever do that to her hair ever, ever again. It was NOT her week. No, the best singers of the night were Blake, who with hair dyed black, sang a completely different and awesome rendition of “You Give Love a Bad Name”. I didn’t think that was a song you could beatbox, but apparently if you’re Blake it is. He rocked it and then some. And of course, Melinda was the bomb. I was half expecting her to end up like LaKisha but she really knocked it out of the park. She sang “Have a Nice Day” and she seriously ROCKED. I was very impressed with her performance. She and Blake are the clear front runners to me. I’m sure Jordin is up there too, but Blake and Melinda have a very bright future ahead of them, regardless. I thought last night was a great night on “Idol”.

I don’t have very long so let me quickly sum up the results for “Dancing with the Stars”: I was wrong. BOO. BOOOOOO!!!! I thought that Billy Ray so should have been the one to go home. Even BILLY RAY thought he should have been the one to go home, judging from the look on his face. Two more dances to learn? That’s got to be hell for him. No, poor Cliff Clavin was sent packing and I am all about BOOOing that. The results show didn’t seem overly padded for a change, and that was nice. It should be like that every week as far as I’m concerned. So yeah, John went home. BOOO!! (I’m still not over it).

I wrote up a long, and if I do say so myself, rather brilliant post recapping last night’s “Dancing with the Stars”. It was filled with lots of deep, insightful comments and witty, biting comments. And you know what happened? Just as I was typing the very last sentance of this brilliant recap, my youngest child (a 10 month old baby) banged on the keyboard and amazingly hit a series of keys that entirely deleted all that I had written. (weep) After having a small fit and cursing the 451Press Gods for not upgrading to WordPress 2.1 already (the autosave feature would have certainly saved me), I am back. But am I going to write out another long, brilliant and witty recap? NOPE. I’m suffering from a particularly nasty flu and am laid up and feeling more than a little awful today. I’m amazed I’m even alive this morning, after how I felt last night. So what I’m going to do instead is point you two very good recaps of last night’s show. I’ll give you the short and dirty though: Laila and Joey reign at the top of the leaderboard while Billy Ray did so awfully I’m surprised they didn’t just kick him out after his first dance last night. Now excuse me, I need to lay on the couch and moan for a few hours.