'The Bachelor' Blog Discussion Entry Updated

As per the request of blog readers/commenters, I've updated The Bachelor blog discussion meet-up entry to reflect the current season. I'm still not watching the show, but blog readers sure are! If you wish to discuss the current happenings, stop on by the entry -- it's a good group of folks in there.

Yes, I still have it tied in with Nip/Tuck, but now the image and link reflect the latest. And, as readers asked me to do, I've removed about 70 older comments about The Bachelor: Rome so that folks need not wade through them to get to the latest.

Enjoy!

'American Idol 6' - The Final Eight Go Latino... Kind Of, Sort Of

Oh, my gosh. Put a bunch of young non-Latinos singing to a Latin beat and Sanjaya comes up smelling like a rose out of Spanish Harlem?

Yikes.

Coached by Jennifer Lopez, the contestants had the chance to turn the beat around this week. And, for the most part, they reminded me of Billy Crystal doing the "white man's overbite" in When Harry Met Sally.

Melinda Doolittle was first up on the stage. In my opinion, her voice itself is impeccable, even incredible. She sang "Sway" by Pablo Beltran Ruiz. On key, professional, but it just didn't grasp me the way I know she can. The judges seemed to feel the same was as I did to some extent. Technically, it was very well done. Randy said it was a solid performance. Paula called it "smooth, subtle, and sexy." Simon didn't care for it much. He said it was lounge, cabaret, lazy, and wooden.

LaKisha Jones sang Gloria Estefan's "Conga." Again, she did fine. She hit the notes, she even danced to the beat. But, it wasn't a LaKisha bring-down-the-house kind of performance. Randy thought it was hot and she had a good time. Paula thought it was a safe performance. Simon agreed with Paula. I agree with the both of them.

Chris Richardson sang a song I actually own and enjoy -- "Smooth" by Carlos Santana and Rob Thomas. I wasn't impressed at all. I think he was a bit less nasal-sounding this week and it was a good performance for him. But if I heard his version of the song first, I never would have bought it. But the judges disagreed with me. Randy thought he did a good job, very cool. Paula thought it was a hot performance and sexy. Simon preferred it to the first two as it wasn't
"cabaret."

Then it was Haley Scarnato's turn. Yipes. Can her skirt get any shorter? And what's with that little sexy kick she keeps doing? She sang "Turn the Beat Around" by Gloria Estefan. I think she flirted more than sang it, but that may just be me. She's bugging me more each week. If her sex appeal to the guys doesn't rock the vote this week, she's a goner tomorrow night. Randy said the performance was karaoke. Paula said it was a fun song. (Say what?) Simon said her tactic is to wear the least amount of clothes. (Spot on!) Haley gave Simon the evil eye, but I agree with him.

Next up was Phil Stacey, wearing a hat this week. He doesn't creep me out as much when he wears a hat, but I wasn't in love with the performance, either. He sang "Maria, Maria" by Carlos Santana and The Product G&B. I think he, for the most part, sang it okay -- his voice cracked a bit twice. But I also think it's a boring song for a show like this. I personally would rate his performance better than Chris Richardson as he shows he can have a real voice where as Chris seems to be a nasal "package" of a pop singer. Randy said it lacked passion and he didn't quite connect with the song. Paula said it was a good vocal. Simon said it was a good song choice, but lifeless and his voice cracked. I say we'll see Phil in the bottom rankings again this week and he may go home.

Jordin "Can't Go Wrong" Sparks sang Gloria Estefan's "Rhythm is Gonna Get You." Are we sure she's only seventeen? Really? She has such a professional stage presence that belies her years. She also looked very pretty tonight -- I think I prefer the straighter hair look for her. Oh? Did she sing well? Why, yes she did! Although I'd be more likely to actually buy something like a Melinda Doolittle CD of old classics, I'm leaning more towards Jordin winning this each week. Randy said she had the "yo factor." Paula said she was adorable and had a great time. Simon wasn't stunned. He mentioned the lack of progression tonight (and I think he may have meant overall, not just Jordin).

Blake Lewis sang "I Need to Know" by Marc Anthony. That's a song I sort of enjoy, but Blake didn't rock my world with it this week. He did okay and I certainly think he's still the best of the remaining guys. If any of the guys make it in the final four, it should be him. But it wasn't my favorite performance of his this week. Randy said it was a good song choice and hot. Paula said it was an excellent choice. Simon called it the best song choice and best performance of the evening. Okay, they liked it more than I did. He's safe, anyway.

Then there was Sanjaya Malakar, the kid who couldn't get words in English straight actually sang in Spanish. Now, my Spanish isn't good enough to know if he screwed up lyrics. But if he did, he recovered without skipping a beat. He sang "Besame Mucho" by Consuelo Velazquez. I think it was his personal best so far this season and may have been one of the more believable and better performances of the night. Shoot me now. Randy called him the smartest contestant and said it was really good. Paula said it was nice. Simon said it wasn't horrible.

Tomorrow night's results show has been expanded to an hour. As usual, I'll be posting East Coast Spoilers on this blog as the show airs here in the NYC area.

Was it just me not moved tonight? Can I get a witness?

TV Newsy Bits - Monday, April 9, 2007

I hope everyone had a pleasant holiday weekend although it certainly feels more like a winter holiday in many areas! It was cold and snow squalls here, but the snow just came down fast and furious without sticking to the ground.

Here are today's TV Newsy Bits:

• Buddy TV has an interview with Uchenna and Joyce, the latest team eliminated from The Amazing Race 11: All Stars. What I found interesting is that they did have to do the Detour and Roadblock -- it just wasn't shown. They ended up 10 hours behind the last team and spoke highly of Dustin and Kandice.
• Finale dates have been announced for The Amazing Race 11: All Stars (Sunday, May 6) - an hour-long show and Survivor 14: Fiji (Sunday, May 13) - a two-hour finale followed by the reunion show. Crunching the numbers, it looks like Survivor will go for three finalists once again this season.
• The current ratings for American Idol are down 10%, Could it be the Sanjaya Universe?
• It seems that The Black Donnellys has been canceled. There are still five or six (dependent on what articles you read) un-aired episodes and rumors have it that they may end up being available on the NBC website. According to the article I linked here, other shows in danger include: Jericho and Friday Night Lights. The article provides addresses to write to in support of those shows. Men in Trees, Ugly Betty, and Brothers & Sisters have been renewed for another season.

'The Apprentice: L.A.' - East Coast Update - 4/08

The candidates were split into teams of two. Two were fired -- Heidi and Christine.

I can't believe Frank is still in the running.

'The Amazing Race 11: All Stars' - Ep. 9 -or- "Those dirty, dirty hookers..."

Although some interesting events happened during this leg of the race, I found my attention wandering a bit. Perhaps it's because there were no thrilling challenges. Perhaps it's because I so want Mirna gone.

Oh, yeah, Charla can stay, but Mirna has to go. I'll admit that it looked like Mirna either behaved better or was edited to seem like she wasn't as rude this week.

Five teams remain. Who will be eliminated next?

The teams were still in Krakow, Poland, where we last left them. That's probably a good thing. After all, we don't want them sneaking off to Tahiti when we're not looking, right? Because of the Fast Forward intermingled with the Intersection, Oswald/Danny and Joyce/Uchenna shared the first place early start time of 9:48 PM. The last team, Danielle and Eric, left at 3:22 AM. So we no longer have the sixteen-hour gap between first and last.

The lead time didn't make a huge difference as the teams had to arrange for a flight to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. There were no flights until morning, so the teams tried different approaches to obtaining tickets from online to at the airport. Mirna and Charla hogged the two computers at the hotel thus irking Danielle and Eric. Oh, well.

Uchenna and Joyce took a huge chance on the flight which would arrive the earliest if (and it's a big if) they could make a tight connection in Frankfurt, Germany. Charla and Mirna managed to get tickets on a flight before that one while the other three teams ended up on a flight which stopped in Paris.

Well, Uchenna and Joyce's flight was indeed delayed and they missed their connection in Frankfort. Then we didn't see them again until near the end of the show. So, it became a race of four teams for the most part of the show, two teams I especially don't care much for -- Charla/Mirna and Eric/Danielle. I don't like the former mainly due to Mirna and the fake accents both go into when talking to folks from other countries. As for Eric and Danielle, I think he's a jerk and treats her very poorly. He's a misogynist, too. Blech.

At least I have Oswald and Danny and the Beauty Queens (Dustin and Kandice) whom I'm finding more tolerable this season. Thankfully, they haven't crashed a car and saddled another team with it.

Once in Malaysia, the teams had to take a combination of buses and trains to get to the Batu Caves. The hitch was that they had to figure the best and quickest combination of the specified transport to get there. Yawn. However, once there, the Batu Caves were really an interesting place. I only wish they had gone up inside of them instead of just up the stairs to one.

The clue at the caves had teams taking a taxi to the Kampung Baru Jamek Mosque where they faced a Detour. They could choose between Artistic Expression or Cookie Confessional. In Artistic Expression, teams would have to use hand-iron sized stamps to stamp designs on a long banner of cloth, then dye it to match specifications. In Cookie Confessional, somewhere within 600 boxes of cookies, there was a cookie with a black licorice filled center. The key was finding it.

The clue for the Detour also contained a Yield, one of two this season. While Charla and Mirna chose not to use it, the second team through -- Dustin and Kandice -- did. They tossed around the idea of Yielding Danny and Oswald, but decided to Yield Eric and Danielle. Uh-oh... how to make friends and influence people, eh?

Charla and Mirna were leading the race when they decided to do the cookies. Not a good choice, I must say. It cost them time as Dustin and Kandice chose to do the Artistic Expression, not an easy task but those needle-in-a-haystack challenges have sunk many a team during the history of the show. (Who was it with the actual hay in rolls some seasons ago way past dark?)

Oswald and Danny chose to eat the cookies, then chose not to eat the cookies, then ate more cookies, then went off to be Artistic. And they had a spat, too. But their tempers were tame compared to when Eric and Danielle saw they had been Yielded!

"Those dirty, dirty hookers!," said Eric pre-commercial and repeated post-commercial for effect.

The Artistic Expression challenge was tricky. Charla couldn't reach high enough to do the stamping. Oswald and Danny didn't get the number of stamped prints right and they had to do it all over again.

Meanwhile, Eric and Danielle waited out their 30-minute Yield time like sand through the hourglass. They fussed, they vowed revenge on the Evil Beauty Queens. Actually, I think that it may have been a wiser choice to Yield Oswald and Danny although I'm glad they went for Eric and Danielle instead.

Once freed from the hourglass, Eric and Danielle chose the cookie task. Of course, with all the boxes that Charla/Mirna and the ChaChas had gone through, there weren't 600 boxes left. But it was still a formidable task. Danielle actually found the cookie! Now, that was sheer luck and it kept them in the game.

Oh, but it was pretty obvious that all four teams were still in the game because the fifth team had gone missing long ago and would remain missing through the next clue -- the Roadblock.

This Roadblock was as un-thrilling as a Roadblock could ever get. What happened to skydiving? Bungee-jumping? Wrasslin' alligators? One member of each team had to ride a bicycle with an attached platform to collect a stack of newspapers from the nearby neighborhood. The stack had to be eight hands high. (Stifle those yawns.) About the only interesting bits during this challenge were that Mirna actually had to do a challenge and Danielle pointed out that Eric's a woman. She did, too! She said it because she always ends up with the physical tasks.

The arrival order at the Pit Stop was:

1. Dustin and Kandice - Each won a retro-scooter (moped).
   
2. Charla and Mirna
3. Eric and Danielle, despite the Yield.
4. Oswald and Danny.

Hey, weren't there five teams at the start of the show? Why, yes, there were five teams. Uchenna and Joyce arrived late into the night. They followed the clue to the Batu Caves. But then, instead of the clue the others followed, their clue directed them right to the Pit Stop. Once there, they got the bad news from Phil.

Their elimination will make a lot of Rob/Amber fans happy. But there are folks like me out here, too. While I didn't care much for Rob or Amber on Survivor, I enjoyed them as a team on The Amazing Race. And, I liked Uchenna and Joyce, as well.

Mirna and Schmirna must go away!