Whatever Will I Watch on TV Tonight? - Monday, Jan. 29, 2007

There's some sort of cold white stuff all over outside, so I'm staying inside where it's warm and cozy. Since I don't have a fireplace to watch (sigh), I'll bask in the warm glow of my television.

Whatever will I watch?

In the 8 PM ET/PT time slot, my usual shows (How I Met Your Mother and The Class) are both repeats. If you haven't seen the slap-bet episode on HIMYM, here's your chance. At least, that's the episode showing in promos. New episodes of Deal or No Deal (NBC) and Prison Break (FOX) are also airing. Over on the CW Network, there's a new episode of Everybody Hates Chris followed by a new All of Us. ABC has a repeat Wife Swap.

Any regular blog readers here know that my 9 PM ET/PT hour will be filled with the new Heroes episode on NBC. CBS has repeats of Two and a Half Men and The New Adventures of Old Christine. 24 is a new episode on FOX while Supernanny is new on ABC.

The 10 PM ET/PT sees a repeat of C.S.I.: Miami on CBS and new episodes Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip (NBC) and What About Brian (ABC). For a change of pace, VH1 has a new episode of The White Rapper Show. I may have to channel surf, eh?

What are your television plans for the evening?

'The Apprentice: L.A.' - Ep. 4 -or- "In New York, we call them Cheez Doodles"

Well, this episode was a bit better than the previous three, but the show has a whole lot of saving itself yet to do. I won't go over my issues with the season again, but they mostly remain the same. One thing I keep forgetting to mention that grates me about this season is the lack of the little business tips. I used to be able to figure out which team would lose simply by watching the tip. Now I figure out which team will lose because one always seems to screw up royally. It's not as much fun for me to do it that way.

One redeeming factor in tonight's episode was the lack of Trumpette and/or Trumpling -- Ivanka and Donald, Jr. Instead, last season's winner, Sean Yazbeck, visited the task and later joined in at the boardroom. Good. I'd rather see him than a Trump progeny any day. Well, they could use Baron, I guess. "Who should be fired?" "Googoo." That would be about as good as the elder Trumps and much cuter.

The show started off with Arrow celebrating the fact that since Michelle quit, they wouldn't face the boardroom and another firing. In the celebration somehow the topic of Cheez Doodles came up. Like Frank (and I never thought we'd have anything in common), I was shocked that someone doesn't know what Cheez Doodles are. I know them all too well.

Trump had a little conference call with both project managers, once again lecturing about how quitters are losers. Of course, Michelle would have lost anyway. I still give her kudos for quitting this fiasco of a season. Then he asked for a volunteer to give the constantly losing Arrow team. Heidi offered herself, Surya, and Amy. Trump decided only Surya would go. Frank mugged, er, hugged him very energetically under the glow of the night vision cameras. Poor Surya.

I think Surya was a bit off-putting to the Arrow team when he droned on and on from a list of business rules. Even though they've been losing, he's no expert. In my opinion, he's been a bit on the sidelines of Kinetic and didn't play a huge role in any of their wins so far.

The task was similar to ones they've done in the past. They had to create a bowl dish for two separate El Pollo Loco locations. I've only seen that fast food chain when I was last in California, so I checked the website for the location nearest to me. Oh, gee... up at Foxwoods (CT) is the closest, with Chicago next in line. Being near NYC, I don't think I'll order any for delivery.

As per the norm for this season, it was obvious which team would win the task. Arrow jumped right on things, came up with a chicken tortilla bowl, and worked together as a team. Frank was actually the MVP of the task, getting an order for 22 bowls from a local business. For once his energy and Excitable Boy attitude did some good. They set up a festival atmosphere with balloons and signs. Even Surya mixed in well with the team despite his "rules."

Meanwhile, Kinetic, which is a word derived from "kinesis" that means movement, was ironically stalled arguing over small details. "What should we name it?" "I don't like that name!" They had decided on a fruit and chicken bowl and some wanted to name it "Paradise Pollo Bowl." Um, okay. They wasted time bickering about the name and then wasted more time quibbling on cellphones with Marisa because she wanted to hire two people with chicken suits. In the end, they just walked along the drive-thru lane telling people about the dish.

Well, duh. I see the problems from the get-go. The name of the dish doesn't tell me anything about what's in the dish. And, with no real excitement or promotion, no one's even going to know anything special was going on. Heck, the chicken suits would have been an improvement.

Sure enough, in the initial boardroom with both teams gathered, Sean announced that Kinetic earned $313.54 while Arrow brought in $418. At least that's the amount I managed to hear as the Arrow team burst into shouts of joy. I'm surprised it wasn't a larger difference.

The reward was much more appropriate than last week's Playboy Mansion evening. (Phew!) Arrow headed off to Malibu Beach where noted singer Andrea Bocelli played piano and serenaded them. Oh, la la! After the performance, there was a fireworks display on a grand scale solely for their enjoyment. And, even more important, they would be able to move into the mansion and out of Tent City. They were beside themselves with glee.

Kinetic weren't happy tent campers, though. They inherited a "disgusting mess" as Muna put it. Plus, one would have to be fired. I noticed that Heidi, the reigning Project Manager all season so far, immediately took any firing focus off of herself. She is good, I'll say. She went through polling the rest of the team because she thought the cashiers and marketing were the weak areas. The whole team decided that Marisa should represent the marketing aspect in the boardroom.

Back in the boardroom, Marisa kept sinking her own ship. I guess she wanted to make sure it stayed sunken. She ticked off Trump some even though he's on a "he/she has good spirit" kick this season (he liked Frank's spirit, too). The entire rest of the team spoke up saying she should be fired. She kept trying to talk over them about the chicken suits, which when you consider that this is supposed to be a corporate situation... chicken suits? Yikes, that's just plain silliness-talk! Trump seemed to be a bit patient with her, but eventually told her to "shut up." I guess that was the big fuss in the promos? I felt let down. I wanted to see some hair-pulling or something!

In the end, sure enough...

"Marisa, your whole team wants you to go. You're fired."

Okay, the episode was better than the last few, but I'm still not enamored with this season. Bring it or give it up, Trump. No, you're not fired, but that is indeed a written warning I'll be putting in your Reality Television File.

Dollar bills, y'all...

Portable Pants - This Week on 'The Late Show with David Letterman' - Jan. 29 - Feb. 2. 2007

Dave is continuing his odd little vacation - a few days last week and into this week. The Monday through Wednesday shows are repeats this week with fresh pants on Thursday and Friday.

Don't ask me why. Perhaps he flew to Rio with his buddy Regis. Or, maybe he's having quality time with Richard Simmons. I just don't know.

Here's this week's guest line-up:

• Monday, Jan. 29: A recent repeat with Will Smith promoting the movie The Pursuit of Happyness and musical guest Evanescense. A good show - Will Smith is always very entertaining and mixes it up well with Dave. But, too recent for me to rewatch. (Grr.)
• Tuesday, Jan. 30: Matt Damon promoting The Departed, Barbara Walters. Again, a fairly recent repeat. The Barbara Walters segment is interesting as she discussed recent brouhahas. (And you know I love to say "brouhaha.")
• Wednesday, Jan. 31: A Holiday Toy Demo (can you guess when this show first aired?), Renee Zellweger promoting Mrs. Potter, musical guest Taking Back Sunday. The Holiday Toy Demo is a hoot! I think I'll rewatch this one just to see that again.
• Thursday, Feb. 1: Ah, new pants! Actor Bill Murray and Cleveland Cavaliers' LeBron James. Bill Murray can be um... interesting... on shows. I'm not always so sure what's going on with him. And, for this non-NBA-watching person, half of the players I know by name, I know from Letterman.
• Friday, Feb. 2: David Spade promoting his new show Rules of Engagement (which isn't hitting my "must watch" radar at this point), documentary filmmaker Alexandra Pelosi (Friends of God: A Road Trip with Alexandra), and musical guest Dustin Kensrue. Okay.

So, there you go. Plan your TV-watching accordingly.

Survivors Ready? Less Than Two Weeks to Fiji!

Yep, the new season is almost upon us. Graphics artist Zoetawny has made me a new logo - have I mentioned lately that she rocks?

Survivor 14: Fiji begins on Thursday, February 8th, at 8 PM ET/PT. As it always has been (and we always complain), the season premiere is an hour, not the 90 minutes or two hours we often see with other reality television shows.

Similar to last season's diverse cast, we're in for a heck of a lot of diversity this year ranging from age to color to culture and beyond. I personally support this kind of mix on the show because, to me, it's more like the real world in which I live. Perhaps other areas of the country are different, but I live in a huge mix of cultures and colors within the Greater NYC Metropolitan Area. I love the mix and would find it a boring world if everyone looked alike, held the same beliefs, etc. I outlined the cast with bio information and photos in four separate entries - Part One, Part Two, Part Three, and Part Four.

As I tend to do, I've been poking about the Internet in search of more information and any spoilers I can find regarding the upcoming season. The biggest spoilers I really know come from my Unknown Castaway contact, but I'm not at liberty to divulge all that I know about that castaway. I made a few corrections to that initial article here.

I found several sources which reveal the reason we're seeing the odd number of 19 castaways at the start of the season. There were actually 20 castaways as they flew off to Fiji, but one dropped out before they were placed on the island. In stead of replacing her with an alternate (Sundra, an alternate, made it to the Final Four last season), they decided to leave it be and work around it.

In my travels, I visited one of my favorite Survivor sites, Survivor Fever. They always have some great pre-show footage and photos, as well as a spoilers area and cool things like a peek at the Survivors Base Camp for the production staff. Of particular interest to me on my latest visit was an interview with Jeff Probst originally posted by The Slug.

An excerpt from the interview (go to The Slug for the whole interview):

The Slug: Now there was some criticism about your influence during "Cook Islands," specifically when you pointed out Yul brought Jonathan his hat to Tribal Council. When is too much, you know, too much?
Jeff Probst: It's a fine line I walk. The line is being a moderator on the show and being an instigator. That fine line is when you start influencing the game too much. It's always a judgment call. It's never really any formal discussion about it. We all know that line. There's a lot of trust in me to not step over it. I'm sure at times I do, and I have. I'm sure there are times when I've been too heavy handed or hard on somebody. I usually can justify it in my head.

There was a time in the Cook Islands when Yul had skated through Tribal Council after Tribal Council and never really got hammered on anything. There was a point where he had revealed he had the Idol, he had revealed he was in control of the game and after that.

At the next Tribal Council, I felt like there were certain questions the audience was gonna want to know, which was "Why would you let a guy rule the game like this, have the Idol, let him tell you he has the Idol, let him tell you he's in control of the game and not try to stop it? Are you just gonna let him waltz to the finish line?" And Yul got upset. He's like, "Jeff, why are you picking on me?" And I said, "Yul, you've had a free pass for the last several Tribal Councils. I'm saying everything that everybody's thinking." So that's how I look at it.

I know there was controversy here on this blog and elsewhere about Jeff's "interference" in that incident. I see his reasoning, but I still think he went a bit further than he should at the Tribal Council. What do you think?

There are mild show spoilers in regard to how the show starts out and the have/have not theme comes into play, but nothing within the article spoils beyond the premise of the season.

I think we're in for another great season. Survivors ready?

TV Newsy Bits - Saturday, January 27, 2007

As I walked to the corner store yesterday afternoon (in the freezing cold, I might add), there was a Comcast van stopped at the red light with its window down. That's odd enough when the windchill is around 0.

What's even odder (more odd?) is that I could hear the voice of Ian Bernardo (American Idol reject) blasting from the van. Thankfully, he was talking and not singing. Oh, he was on the van's radio, not in the driver's seat. Although, now that I think of it, he reminds me of the last time I dealt with a Comcast customer service representative!

In a related note, but much friendlier, I received an email from American Idol NYC Auditions male singer with the beautiful woman's voice, Christopher Henry. He seems to be a nice guy. He's a music theater major who has no desire to sing in drag, but that's a comfort point for his singing voice. He said that if he knew then what he knows now, he would have chosen another song. But he's doing well and has had positive reaction from show fans as well as in radio and television interviews. I missed his Larry King interview the other night. Now, he can't be compared to the likes of an Ian Bernardo. He wasn't right for the competition, perhaps. But he does have a music background and a true interest in the field. I wish him the best of luck!

In other TV Newsy Bits:

• I caught a bit of I Love New York on VH1 last night for the first time. Eep. Omarosa (The Apprentice) was on it. Yikes.
• Ohhh! There's an insider peek into Survivor 14: Fiji contestant Edgardo Rivera from his college sports coach. He has a temper, huh? I wonder how that will work out on the show. Earrings, a tongue ring, and a bad attitude? But, but... he's so good-looking and clean cut in the CBS promo photos!
• There's yet another interview with one of my newly-found favorite television actors. Masi Oka (Hiro on Heroes) was recently interviewed here. I find him a fascinating and entertaining guy. He makes me smile and, to me, is the hit of the show.
• Celebrity Spider has the goods on the American Idol schedule. The top 24 singers will be revealed on February 14 (Valentine's Day) and the top 12 finalists will perform for the first time on Tuesday, March 13. We have three more audition shows to go through - Birmingham, San Antonio, and Los Angeles. Then, on February 7th, there will be a special "Rest of the Best" auditions show. On February 13th, it's onto the Hollywood rounds. Check out the article I linked for more details.