Every season on NBC’s “The Biggest Loser,” the producers have a way of changing things up to the point of having us all scratch our heads. Last night there was more of that, though some of the curves came from natural causes. The first of those was at the start of the episode when Miggy had to call 911 in the middle of the night due to abdominal pain, and was rushed to the hospital.
Then came the return of the blue and yellow teams, who would weigh in to determine which team was coming back to the ranch. The other contestants had no idea that one team would return after 30 days, so they were all surprised and kind of nervous. Host Allison Sweeney instructed the blue and yellow teams to go and weigh in, but instead they were met in the gym by Bob and Jillian, who put them through a last chance workout.
I might know something about the music scene in Denver since I do PR for musical acts, and I feel like I’ve represented more artists from that city than from anywhere else to date. The talent there is just amazing, but I’m not sure why. Do the mountains and beautiful scenery inspire people to write great music? But it’s not just that…it’s the singers, too. Anyway, last night on “American Idol” that Rocky Mountain talent was on display for all the world to see, and 26 contestants in all made it to Hollywood. What I’m saying is, I’m not surprised by that count.
This time around, Victoria Beckham, aka Posh Spice, was the fourth judge again, and Ryan Seacrest went on for a few minutes about this being the city where Chris Daughtry auditioned in 2005. They sure do like to milk that stuff. Anyway, here were the best and worst from Denver that they showed…
When I first heard that A&E was offering up a reality series which focused on Steven Seagal’s heretofore-unknown life as a Reserve Deputy Chief of the Sheriff’s Office in Jefferson Parish, LA, I thought, “Okay, this is either going to be really awesome or really terrible.” In the end, it flew right down the middle, proving to be so terrible that it was legitimately awesome, offering the opportunity to get rip-roaring drunk simply by taking a shot every time he references his movie career or anything relating to his knowledge of Zen or martial arts. Still, the first episode kicked ass in the ratings, and it’s become a staple of “The Soup,” with Joel McHale relishing the chance to incorporate a less-than-heartfelt plug for Seagal’s energy drink into the intro for that week’s clip, so I’m guessing that there’s a very real possibility that “Lawman” could well be back for a second season.
I’ve just gotten a clip of the first-season finale, so I thought I’d share it with you:
But, look, here’s the thing: as I read the summary for the first-season finale, it became clear to me just what a tightrope A&E must have to walk to promote this show as a serious reality series to the general public while still acknowledging to critics that they know how ridiculous the whole thing is. The description of the episode starts seriously enough…
The night starts off badly as Deputy Chief Steven Seagal and his team rush to the scene of a man killed in a drive-by. Minutes later they race to another shooting: a man found dead in his car. Two homicides in less than an hour puts the unit on high alert and when they catch four young men out late, Steven has some stern words, but he gets downright harsh the next night when he finds two of them carrying drugs.
…but dig this final line:
But Steven has to get back to Hollywood, it’s time to make his next movie.
Steven knew he’d get stuck taking the anger management class, but when your fellow officer eats the last doughnut…
Oh, well, clearly, a film like “Born to Raise Hell” is far more important that dealing with drive-by shootings and drugged-up punks, based on its IMDb description: “A hard core Interpol agent is assigned to an Eastern European task force to target gun trafficking and dope running throughout the Balkans. While investigating a Russian gun dealer, his team is caught in a bloody street war between a Gypsy gang and the Russians, leaving one task force member dead. Fueled with vengeance, he leads us on an action packed thrill ride while avenging his friend’s death.”
Steven Seagal: saving the world one straight-to-DVD action flick at a time.
If you blinked, you may have missed the inaugural season of Worst Cooks in America on Food Network. The show premiered January 3, and the two-part finale is set for this coming Sunday and Monday. With all of the other shows I’m covering at the moment, I couldn’t commit to watching every episode or blogging about the show regularly, but I did want to catch some of it because the premise is very intriguing.
Basically two professional chefs and Food Network personalities, Anne Burell and Beau MacMillan, have the daunting task of teaching a group of people who have zero cooking ability, to cook and to cook well. Each week a chef from each team is eliminated until there is one chef remaining under Anne and one under Beau. Those two chefs then have the task of cooking a gourmet meal for a group of restaurant critics–critics who believe that Burrell and MacMillan have cooked the meals themselves.
Not only is the reputation of each chef on the line, but the grand prize for the chef that wins is $25,000.
It’s truly incredible and at times horrifying to see the utter lack of ability in some of these folks, and I can’t even imagine what it must be like to try and teach them. But some of them learn quickly and keep advancing. So now they are down to the final four, two on each side, and that will be cut down to the final two, who will square off in the grand finale on Monday night at 10pm/9pm central.
Last night marked episode 6 of Season 9 of “American Idol” on Fox, and the auditions this time were held in Dallas, Texas. Of course, Ryan Seacrest kept saying they were returning to Dallas for the third time, the city where they had found so many previous hopefuls and talent. But all they did was show clips of Kelly Clarkson’s audition back in 2001 and a few other contestants nobody remembers. Seriously guys, that was a huge stretch, and there was no need to harp on it. So you found Kelly there, big freaking deal.
On to the auditions, and the guest judges this time were Neil Patrick Harris (NPH) and Joe Jonas. I’m yawning as I write this…give me more Katy Perry! Actually NPH was pretty funny, but Joe…I don’t think he said a word beyond “yeah” a few times. Way to go, kid.
