Category: External TV (Page 200 of 419)

“Gossip Girl” prequel finds its star

February 27, 2009 / John Paulsen

It looks like Brittany Snow, best known for her role as Meg Pryor in “American Dreams,” will star as Lily van der Woodsen in the “Gossip Girl” spinoff/prequel, which will focus on the future Ms. van der Woodsen as she grows up in the 1980’s.

The spinoff centers on then-Lily Rhodes (Snow), who, after a falling-out with her parents, is forced to move in with her sister, Carol (Krysten Ritter), the black sheep of the family.
Overnight, Lily has to transition from a life of luxury and education at a wealthy Montecito boarding school to living deep in the San Fernando Valley she once made fun of and going to public school. Caught between two worlds, Lily dives into the fast-paced Sunset Strip and the Hollywood lifestyle of the ’80s, journeying over the hill to a world of wealth and excess that used to be her own.

I’m embarrassed to admit that I’m looking forward to the prequel to “Gossip Girl,” but here I sit, looking forward to the prequel to “Gossip Girl.”

Actresses, External Entertainment, External TV, Gossip Girl, News, TV Dramas

Brittany Snow CW Gossip Girl Gossip Girl prequel

Hell’s Kitchen: No winning team

February 27, 2009 / Mike Farley

Last night on Fox’s “Hell’s Kitchen,” they recapped last week and Charlie getting the heave-ho. Giovanni was pissed at Seth and thought Seth should have been sent packing, but Seth argued that he was going to fight in the “game.” Yikes. Robert then did a hilarious Ramsay impersonation for his fellow chefs.

They then had a Hell’s Kitchen breakfast, where the teams had to feed a hungry group of kid football players and cheerleaders. Seth vowed that he could make great eggs Ramsay-style but he was horribly slow in the kitchen, slowing his whole team. The red team won by delivering more meals and were rewarded with a day at a posh Beverly Hills hotel pool. The guys, meanwhile, had to clean up the dining room and prep both teams’ food for the dinner service.

Ben and Danny were fighting because Danny had claimed he was the team’s best chef and the guys didn’t finish the prep work in time. That pissed off both the red team and Ramsay, but both teams performed horribly at the dinner service, especially Giovanni, Coi, Seth, and Ben. Oh, and J left a lettuce “butt” in someone’s salad..yuck. Ramsay was so pissed off he shut down the kitchen and declared no winners last night. He asked each team to nominate two chefs for elimination. The red team chose Colleen and Lacey, and Lacey was annoyed and said Coi should have been the other one on the chopping block. Seth and Ben were nominated from the men, and Ben was pissed about it.

In the end, it was Seth sent home, because Ramsay just couldn’t take his lack of experience anymore, and the guys breathed a sigh of relief. Meanwhile, Ramsay then sent Lacey to the blue team to even things out, which then made the ladies all breathe a sigh of relief as well. It should be interesting to see how that all works out. Lacey for Seth? Not a great trade-off.

See you all next week…

External TV, Hell's Kitchen, Reality TV, TV

Beverly Hills cooking competition Gordon Ramsay Hell's Kitchen Hell's Kitchen blog Hell's Kitchen recap Kitchen Nightmares Seth

American Idol: A warning shot fired to next round of semi-finalists

February 27, 2009 / Mike Farley

And that warning shot is “DON’T UNDERESTIMATE SONG CHOICE!” Last night on the results show on Fox’s “American Idol,” it was painfully clear to some contestants who chose the wrong song to sing Wednesday night, and as a result one or two made it through to the finals that may not have otherwise. The recurring theme on Wednesday was, “I hope America gives me another chance.” Well, you have to treat every chance like it’s your last, so let that be a warning to next week’s 12 semi-finalists.

So anyway, there were results last night after some banter between host Ryan Seacrest and judge Simon Cowell. Then there was a look back at the journey of the 12 that sang Wednesday as well as a ridiculous group performance. Then the first three were brought out…Allison, Jessie and Matt B. Matt was asked if he regrets disagreeing with Simon disagreeing with his song choice, and he said he didn’t. Yeah, okay. Allison made it, Jessie and Matt didn’t.

The next group was Megan, Kris, Matt G and Jeannine. Matt G and Jeannine were sent packing, and it was between Megan and Kris. Megan I thought might have a shot but she really didn’t do very welll Wednesday, while Kris did a nice job with Michael Jackson’s “Man in the Mirror,” and odd choice but a good job nonetheless. Kris made it through, Megan did not.

Then there was a retrospective of the 7 previous seasons….good lord, they really can cut this to 30 minutes if they wanted to. Then last season’s finalist Brooke White sang her new single, and I have to say, it really wasn’t very good. Sorry Brooke, I like you but I didn’t like what I heard last night.

Then the remaining five came out…Mishavonna, Kai, Nick (Norman), Adam and Jasmine. Mishavonna, Kai and Jasmine all sent home, and may I add all a victim of poor song choice.
So it was down to Nick and Adam. The showman or the dude with the theater background and heavy metal voice. Adam made it and Simon breathed a sigh of relief. As they did last week, each new finalist sang their way onto the thrones set up for them and there was no Tatiana-like melting down of those who didn’t make it, some of them still hopeful they will be wild cards.

So there are now six finalists, half the field….Danny, Alexis, Michael, Adam, Allison and Kris. No real surprises last week, but you might say all of last night’s winners were borderline choices. We’ll see you all next week….and I hope you semi-finalists are studying carefully that you need to pick the absolute right song. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

American Idol, External TV, Reality TV, TV

Adam Lambert Alexis Grace Allison Iraheta American Idol American Idol blog American Idol recap American Idol results Brooke White Danny Gokey Kara DioGuardi Kris Allen Michael Sarver Paula Abdul Randy Jackson Ryan Seacrest Season 8 Simon Cowell singing competition song choice Tatiana Del Toro

The Biggest Loser: Is this about the game or not?

February 26, 2009 / Mike Farley

Now that last season of NBC’s “The Biggest Loser” has set the tone for future seasons as far as gameplay, the contestants on this season’s “Biggest Loser: Couples” are clearly not in it for the game. For the most part, these are all good people with good hearts who just want to lose weight and try and support each other in the process.

This week’s episode began on Tuesday night with a challenge that would determine new teams with new trainers. It would be from here on out blue vs. black, but some contestants would have to switch trainers. The challenge was to do 100 up-downs, football training camp-style, but in mud. The first to 100 would get to choose their trainer, and the rest would deal with a flip of Alison Sweeney’s coin. As it turned out, Tara won the challenge (of course) and they were able to stay with Jillian. Filipe and Sione had to switch to Jillian and Mandi and Aubrey had to switch to Bob. In all, I think 6 or 7 of them had a different trainer. But I didn’t expect them to act like it was the end of the world, and they did. What’s worse, Bob Harper started crying. I mean, come on!

External TV, Reality TV, The Biggest Loser, TV

Alison Sweeney Biggest Loser blog Biggest Loser recap Biggest Loser: Couples black team blue team Bob Harper Dane Filipe and Sione gameplay Helen Jillian Michaels Kristin and Cathy Mandi and Aubrey marathon Mike and Ron nutrition Prevention Magazine Tara and Laura The Biggest Loser weight loss

American Idol: Did you have to pick that song?

February 26, 2009 / Mike Farley

Okay, before we get to the recap of last night’s performances on “American Idol,” can I just say, WHAT ARE THESE CONTESTANTS THINKING? It seems like they are choosing the wrong songs with regularity, not understanding the urgency of giving it their best shot while they have the opportunity. It just makes me crazy and I think it makes the judges crazy as well. Last night the performances were less than stellar. In fact, many of them were flat-out awful. But it wasn’t always that maybe the judges mis-calculated and sent the wrong singers through to this round. It was mostly about poor song choice. With that, here were the good, the in-between and the bad from last night, with a prediction for tonight’s results show.

THE GOOD

Alison Iraheta is only 16 and as Simon Cowell correctly pointed out, she looked out of her element when Ryan Seacrest was interviewing her, and then when she took the stage she was a completely different person. This girl has unbelievable vocal ability at such a young age, and last night she sang Heart’s “Alone.” Randy said she “blew it out of the box,” Kara said Alison doesn’t know how good she is, Paula said she was the best so far (she went fifth), and Simon said she was the best so far by a mile. Alison would not have advanced last week, but with the way last night’s semi-finalists performed, she has a great shot now.

Kris Allen is a 23 year old dude from Arkansas, so you wouldn’t expect him to sing Michael Jackson’s “Man in the Mirror,” would you? I was scared, but dude pulled it off nicely. It was rough at the start but he really nailed it as a whole and could be a dark horse. Kara said she thought it was the wrong song, Paula disagreed and so did Simon, saying Kris showed confidence, and Randy said he did a nice job without his guitar, as he had done before in Hollywood.