Tag: Fox (Page 29 of 31)

American Idol: Only 9 Head South

January 21, 2009 /

Mercifully, the people at FOX only gave us one hour of “American Idol” last night, either because of the the inauguration coverage or because they realized that two hours was like stretching a piece of cheese as far as it could go. Or maybe it’s because only nine of last night’s auditions from San Francisco made it to Hollywood. Either way, I thank them, and here were some of the highlights and lowlights:

THE BAD

This dude named Dean-Anthony showed up in this weird, gigantic flannel coat, and he had both a weird smile and a weird vocal delivery….basically everything was way, way over the top. Dude sang a Simply Red song that I swear I could not recognize because of how he butchered it……Dalton, a smart guy who was shown solving a Rubik’s Cube in about 30 seconds, should go back to that left brain thing because the right brain which is the artistic side, not so good……Akilah was another strange bird, evidenced by the fact that she brought drawings of the human anatomy and taught herself to sing using this….she even made reference to the fact that in her first take, she did not bring her vocals up properly from the “rectum”….are you kidding me?…..Annie Murdock was cute and looked promising, but her emotive vocals were too much and just couldn’t cut it with the judges.

Speaking of the judges, you knew this was bound to happen…Simon Cowell and newcomer Kara DioGuardi butted heads a bit because Simon just wouldn’t let Kara speak her mind. Get used to it Kara. But it sure has been taking the attention off Paula this season, hasn’t it?

THE GOOD

Tatiana Del Toro kicked off the show and her confidence was bordering on egotistical bordering on extremely obnoxious. She sang Aretha, which Simon correctly pointed out was a mistake, and while she wasn’t awful, she was not as good as she thought, and she also had one of the most annoying laughs you’ll ever hear, one that the producers of the show had some fun with. Anyway, they let her through after some pleading…..Jesus Valenzuela also made it through with some pleading, because he was only an above average singer, but he brought his kids in with him, and the judges could not say no to the kids…..Adam Lambert, a 26 year old actor, sang “Bohemian Rhapsody” and let’s just say, wow…this kid is going far unless he trips over himself….finally, the heartwarming story of the night was Kai Kalama, a guy who was shown sacrificing many things to take care of his ailing mom. This guy sang “Smoke Gets In Your Eyes” and is a naturally gifted vocalist. Feel-good story aside, I want you all to keep an eye on Kai.

Tonight the auditions move to Louisville, Kentucky, and the show is only one hour again. Sweet! FOX, I thank you for those extra two hours, but I hope you don’t ask for them back any time soon. See you all tomorrow!

American Idol, External TV, Reality TV, TV

“Kitchen Nightmares” returns, sort of

January 16, 2009 /

Last night FOX aired a partial episode of “Kitchen Nightmares” that was a rerun (following President Bush’s farewell speech), and then the conclusion of Season 2 with a new episode. This was sort of odd because this show hasn’t aired since before the holidays, so it’s almost like they kept this show in the bank when they didn’t know what else to air. It was also a good way to promote the upcoming new season of Gordon Ramsay’s other show, “Hell’s Kitchen,” which kicks off on January 29.

With that, here is what happened in the new episode last night. The restaurant is Cafe 36 in Lagrange, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. Owners Terry and Carol are semi-retired and it was Terry’s dream to open an upscale, French-themed bistro. So this was it. But little did the owners know that their head chef, Pinto, was running their business into the ground by cutting huge corners and serving stale food that was still taking too long to come out of the kitchen.

Gordon Ramsay arrived and couldn’t believe that on some nights this place was turning over something like 6-8 dinners a night. Not tables, DINNERS Continue reading »

Kitchen Nightmares, Reality TV, TV

American Idol: Lots of Hollywood Tickets from KC

January 15, 2009 /

Last night, Day 2 of Season 8 of “American Idol” on FOX brought us many good performances, and golden tickets to Hollywood. Sure, there were lots of the usual horrendous auditions, but the producers chose to focus on the talented ones, and there were a higher percentage of them than there had been in Phoenix the night before. Here are the lowlights and highlights…..

THE BAD

Chelsea Marquardt kicked things off, and while she was a really pretty girl, she was an awful singer, like all-over-the-place awful. At least she can go be a model if she wants to….Brian, a 20 year old kid from KC, sang an ARETHA FRANKLIN tune, and that should be your first cue that he sucked. But dude had a hard time accepting his fate, and they showed him crying followed by a nice montage of other contestants who didn’t pass their audition bawling and/or screaming like they were in pain.

No, really….There was “banana boy,” a humorous one dressed in yellow who used a real banana as a prop….Jasmine, a 17 year old girl from Nebraska with a love for jazz and a very bad voice….Andrew, who came with two cheerleaders to help his cause, was not a bad singer, but while the judges were first considering sending him through, they decided in the end that Andrew was not ready…..

Continue reading »

American Idol, External TV, Reality TV, TV

Kitchen Nightmares: Sante La Brea

November 21, 2008 /

Thankfully, Fox is running out of “Kitchen Nightmares” episodes it has in the can, so they showed one repeat and one new episode last night. The new one was Sante La Brea, a “health food” restaurant in Los Angeles. Like some of the food Gordon Ramsay tastes at these places, the episode was a bit bland. But here is our recap….

Restaurant: Sante La Brea
Location: Los Angeles, California
Owner: Dean
Other Characters: Dean’s Two Sons Arthur and Sammy; manager/host Mark; and chef Aurelio
The Problem: The food sucks. Isn’t that a recurring theme here? But not only that, the chef is lazy and set in his ways, the menu is unimaginative and not really healthy, and the manager has a sweating problem as well as a desire to pay more attention to decorating the place than running it. Oh, and there is rotting food in the walk-in fridge. Yuck.
How Ramsay Gets Through To Owner: He brings him to a hilltop in the Hollywood hills, and has Dean shout out as if he is yelling at Aurelio and Mark. Dean wants to turn his restaurant around, because it’s been going downhill over the last ten years.
The Solution: Ramsay shortens the menu and re-designs the stale-looking decor. He puts more emphasis on fresh, healthy cuisine options such as grilled halibut and a green salad topped with fresh, locally caught shrimp. Ramsay also goes and buys Mark some deodorant.
The Result: It takes a while, including a meltdown from Aurelio, who drives off and then changes his mind, apologizing to Ramsay but not to Dean. The re-launch is a huge success, as customers love the food and Ramsay has turned things around. But they give no update at the end of the show, so we don’t know if Aurelio wound up staying or if Dean stayed assertive enough with his employees to keep Sante La Brea afloat.

External TV, Kitchen Nightmares, Reality TV, TV

Kitchen Nightmares: Two Much

November 15, 2008 /

Since the World Series ended a few weeks ago, Fox has been airing two new episodes of Gordon Ramsay’s “Kitchen Nightmares” lately back to back on Thursdays. Well, here is the problem….I love NFL football, and the NFL Network is now airing games on Thursday nights, at the same time Fox is running these episodes. So my apologies for these recaps running a couple of days behind, but folks, it’s football we’re talking about. And Fox execs, can’t you please do these one at a time instead of airing them all now and then showing me re-runs later? Okay, now on to business, and we’ll keep these two summaries brief…

Restaurant: Sabatiello’s
Location: Stamford, Connecticut
Owner: Sammy
Other Characters: Lauren (girlfriend and hostess), Jose (head chef)
The Problem: The food sucks, but Sammy’s ego and his cost-cutting ways Continue reading »

External TV, Kitchen Nightmares, Reality TV, TV

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