The Entertainment Wrap Up - July 17, 2008 - Big Brother 10 Week One Thoughts, Late Night TV, Cable Ratings, and More

Big Brother 10 is underway. I've said that my hopes would be that the show could go back to what it used to be after the horrible Big Brother 9 season. Based on first impressions, I'm feeling better about this season already. The first week saw one of the cast members get a reality check very early. One of the rules of Big Brother is to not play the game too hard from the beginning and that is what happened to Brian. Brian made a quick alliance with the HOH and did all he could to make sure that he was running the HOH instead of Jerry. Another rule in Big Brother is never make quick alliances. They rarely work with Kail's alliance as one example and the other being the Horsemen in season five. It was funny to watch Brian and Dan being all cheerful and then seeing their reaction turn quickly when Jerry gave his speech. I'm jumping ahead though so let's get right into it.

Here are the happenings in the first week of Big Brother 10. For the first time since Big Brother 3, all the houseguests are complete strangers with no opening twist. The houseguests were immediately forced to choose a HOH before even entering the house and vote on it just going by looks. The votes were cast and the results would be revealed later. The houseguests went into the house in groups. We went through the introductions in the living room. The houseguests then learned that their first competition was set to take place. It appeared to be a luxury competition until Julie Chen revealed that it was also a food challenge. The house was split into two teams. With an odd number, someone had to sit out and Jessie volunteered quickly so he sat out. However, he didn't know what the challenge would consist of when he volunteered to sit out. The teams would get inside of cars wheeling themselves across the backyard hanging upside down. When you made your way across, one person from your team had to jump out. So, you had to agree on who was going to jump out or you're stuck until a decision is made. Also, if you jump out, you give up on the winning point of the competition which was winning one of two classic cars there in the backyard. The red team won pretty easily but it had to be decided between Memphis and Steven on who would be the winner of the car cause they both wanted it. Steven jumped out last leaving Memphis the winner of the car and their team getting to eat food for the week while the others were on slop. Memphis chose the '69 Camaro for his winning. Even though Jessie sat out, it was revealed that he would get to eat with the winning team for the week. The results of the HOH were revealed to the house and the voting was between the two oldest players in the house, Jerry and Renny. Jerry got four votes while Renny got three votes. So, the first HOH is Jerry and he had to make his nominations for eviction in 24 hours. We had an immediate alliance between Brian and Dan. Dan then went to Ollie and pulled him into their alliance. We had the first issue of the season between Renny and Jessie. Renny stumbled into the bedroom where some of the house was trying to sleep and woke Jessie up. He confronted her on it saying how rude it was that people were trying to sleep, well, actually just him it seemed. She apologized (which he would later say that she hadn't apologized when their confrontation was brought up later) but Brian saw that as a target. He went to Jerry and talked to him about putting up Renny and Jessie to get the conflict out of the house. Jerry agreed and he ended up putting Renny and Jessie up for eviction. Brian also got himself an alliance with Jerry in the process of their talking. Brian was feeling VERY good at this point along with his alliance. Things then started going bad for Brian. The veto competition was held and it ended up being won by Jessie so that guaranteed that Jerry had to put someone else up on the block. Brian, Ollie, and Dan decided to target Memphis as Brian saw him as a big threat in the game and also used the "he won a car" as a negotiation tactic. Ollie was talking to April, Libra, and Keesha in the bedroom and he talked to them about targeting Memphis. Brian then came in and got it rolling even more. It was all about Ollie setting it up and Brian hammering it home. However, the girls started talking and realized what was going on with there being an alliance and how they played that bedroom talk to perfection. It should be pointed out that April and Ollie have been romantically interested in each other already. April and Libra talked to Ollie and flat asked him about an alliance and he looked like a deer in headlights when asked. The girls had figured out that Brian had been making an alliance with, well, everyone. ha ha. A revolution was set up by Ollie and the girls where they went to the rest of the house to see what Brian had said to them. Sure enough, alliance with everyone and the decision was made to go to the HOH to make an ultimatum. Nine people headed up to the HOH room to talk to Jerry. They promised him safety for the next week but pointed out how Brian had been playing the game. Jerry made the tough decision to go back on his word. Brian and Dan thought everything was great and that Memphis would go up in replacement of Jessie. However, the look on their faces was priceless when Jerry put up Brian in Jessie's place. Brian took it in good fun saying that he thought he had things all lined up and got blindsided pointing out how good everyone had played the situation to get him. Jerry did tell Brian that Ollie was the ringleader in getting the tables turned. Ollie explained his turn saying that he had no choice but to turn cause he had been exposed and had to go with the majority. Brian's strategy to stay in the house turned out to be just him having fun with the house showing how fun he is to have around. They did a very funny puppet show which had an imitation of him being evicted where he said that he "made 8,000 alliances". ha ha. The plan worked with the ones doing the puppet show as they talked of how disappointed that they were in him having to go home. Well, I say that it worked but I thought the show made it look better with his chances of staying than it actually played out on the feeds. Angie did try to sway some votes. We had a blowup between April and Keesha which resulted in some heated words being exchanged. On the live eviction episode, a live audience (the first for a weekly eviction since Big Brother 1) saw Brian get evicted on a 9-1 vote with Dan being the only vote for him to stay. Brian was interviewed afterwards and he had a great line saying that he was "building an army but no one was on the other side". The HOH competition came down between Ollie, Libra, Steven, and Jessie with a tiebreaker. Jessie ends up winning the HOH.

Other thoughts on the Big Brother week. I'm loving the new opening for the show. The new graphics are cool too that they are using during the show. House Calls got a lot of Chilltown calls this week. Will held a contest for the best prank caller to call into House Calls and mention Chilltown. Thoughts on the houseguests so far. I like Jerry but I just don't know about how his first HOH week went cause he sure wasn't running his own HOH as others were in his ear. Libra is definitely a game player in that house. She is stirring up a lot of things over the beginning of this game. I can see Renny sticking around for a while cause many don't see her as a real threat. Not sure what to make of Ollie just yet. His first week went all over the place and he looked like a kid getting caught with his hand in the cookie jar when he got confronted by the girls on his alliance. I'll have to see some more game play out of him to see on how I think he'll do. Dan is really in a bad spot now being the left over from the alliance with Brian. He is going to have to scramble to stay in the game. I have yet to see a whole lot out of Steven and Memphis to really make my mind up on their chances to go far. The same goes with April and Michelle on the girls side. Angie is an interesting one. From what I've seen and heard so far, it sounds like she is playing the game hard but not really showing that she is playing hard. She's playing a quieter game that could pay off.

Brian was on House Calls today being interviewed by Gretchen and Dick. He was a lot of fun on there. He definitely has a good idea of the personalities in the house and learned about each one of them. He had a good attitude about things realizing that he played the game too hard too quick. He said that he had only seen two seasons of Big Brother and they were All Stars and a little bit of Big Brother 2. When asked who he would like to see exit the game next, he said Libra saying that she fuels the fire in that house. He said that of all the girls that could do well in the game, he said that Angie could do very well if she can keep her morals and conscious out of it. He pointed out that Angie has been making a lot of plays in the game that he has found out about after leaving the house. She is making plays that are being kept low at this point and that she only reveals what she wants to reveal about herself.

What You Missed On The Live Feeds: The live feeds started at 11pm central time on Sunday night after the west coast show had aired. The feeds went live and the houseguests were running and screaming around the house. Pretty funny and a really fun light mood. It sure beat the beginning of the BB9 feeds with them all yelling at each other and this really tense situation. That should have been a sign of things to come. ha ha. The BB10 cast was seen waving at the cameras as they ran around so it was pretty obvious that the cast was told that the feeds and Big Brother After Dark were going live. I should point out something that was left out of the argument between Keesha and April. Keesha at one point threw water across the yard and some of it landed on Michelle. That was the main reason that Michelle was over there talking to Keesha after Keesha and April were separated. Michelle was also trying to calm the situation but was questioning about what was up with the water landing on her. She did apologize to Michelle about it though. We had a sock puppet show from Dan, Brian, Angie, Memphis, and Steven where they acted out the first eviction ceremony. Ok, SPOILER TIME. I'm going to tell who Jessie has nominated for eviction. If you don't want to know who it is, you need to move on down to the next paragraph. Jessie won HOH on Wednesday night and has made his nominations. Jessie nominated Dan and Steven for eviction which isn't really a surprise. He was naming names right after the live show ended.

Movie box office numbers for last weekend. 1. Hellboy II - $34.5 million. 2. Hancock - $32 million. 3. Journey To The Center Of The Earth - $21 million. 4. WALL-E - $18.7 million. 5. Wanted - $11.9 million. 6. Get Smart - $7.2 million. 7. Meet Dave - $5.2 million. 8. Kung Fu Panda - $4.4 million. 9. The Incredible Hulk - $2.32 million. 10. Kit Kittredge - $2.30 million.

More late night TV buzz this week that was stirred up at the Television Critics Association session on Wednesday. ABC Entertainment president, Stephen McPherson, talked about the possibility of bringing Jay Leno over to the network. The way that the question was asked to him was funny as they had Jimmy Kimmel looking like a reporter asking the question of pairing up Leno and Kimmel. Leno has talked for a while now that he isn't ready to retire but is going to follow through on his agreement with NBC to hand The Tonight Show over to Conan next year. The speculation has been flying since then on what would Leno decide to do. There is really no telling what might happen but I do think that Leno will end up somewhere. He loves what he does and isn't ready to quit but understands the position that he, NBC, and Conan are in. ABC definitely seems ready to make a move in late night TV as McPherson even mentioned the chances of moving Kimmel to 10:35pm (central time) were a "huge possibility". Leno and Kimmel would be a strong late night lineup for ABC that would be fun to watch with seeing the three of them (Leno, Conan, and Letterman) battle it out at 10:35. That would bring the question of what about Nightline if ABC did decide to go this route. Nightline does very strong ratings against Leno and Letterman. McPherson didn't talk much about Nightline though when questioned about it. This is all talk for right now but the speculation talk sure is exciting.

How did some of the big cable shows perform with their season premieres? Burn Notice had its second season premiere on USA last week getting 5.4 million viewers which was up 35% from the series premiere a year ago. TNT had season premieres of their own with The Closer getting an average of 7.8 million viewers making it the most watched episode of scripted TV on cable this year. Following that, Saving Grace opened up its season with an average of 5.2 million viewers.

The Joss Whedon fans have spoken again. Whedon launched his new internet only show, Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog, and the fans crashed the site due to the popularity of it. The site is back up and running and you can check out the site at: drhorrible.com and the show is also up on iTunes.

Speaking of Joss Whedon, I'll have my latest thoughts on the season six Angel comics next week.

Amy Poehler told the Associated Press today that she will be joining The Office spinoff. She didn't know any details but confirmed that she would be joining the show. This obviously sounds like her exit from Saturday Night Live may be upcoming in the next little while. Amy is definitely one of the bright spots for SNL so her leaving is a big loss for the show and a gain for the spinoff of The Office.

A DVD release of Robot Chicken's Star Wars stuff is being released in stores this Tuesday. I saw this a while back and actually talked about it in the Wrap Up a long time ago. It is hilarious!! I laughed all through it and thought the writing was very funny for it. I've seen a few episodes of Robot Chicken but the Star Wars stuff is definitely my favorite of what I've seen.

I really am going to have to watch more episodes of Burn Notice. Fun show. I was raving last week about the great promo for Burn Notice to the song "Everybody Wants You" and here is the link if you haven 't seen it. I love it.
http://video.usanetwork.com/player/?id=259895

Michael J. Fox is set to return to TV. He will have a four episode role on the FX show Rescue Me coming up next year.

Any predictions on the big box office that The Dark Knight does this weekend? Hmm, I wonder if it will open up at number one? ha ha.

TIME Magazine's Richard Corliss has made his picks on his favorite baseball movies of all time. It is a fun video slideshow that you watch at this link:
http://www.time.com/time/video/?bcpid=1214055407&bclid=1342094282&bctid=1668060481
My favorites that are featured on the slideshow are A League Of Their Own, Major League, and The Bad News Bears. If I see any of these three movies on, I'll usually watch them. Who can forget Randy Quaid playing one of the Cleveland fans who just rips on the team when they are losing? His ranting tirade against Rick Vaughn in the second movie is great!! "Just a bit outside" was a line from Bob Uecker that still lives on in pop culture. The movie also brought the song "wild thing" to another level as Vaughn's entrance at the end of the movie is one of my favorite sports movie moments. A League Of Their Own was a major favorite of mine. It immortalized the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League and gave it the recognition that it deserved. One of the original players in the league was actually here in the local area giving a speech recently. The movie itself was a good mix of drama, sports, and comedy. The Bad News Bears is a classic. That is about all that can be said there. Speaking of the movie, I'd love to see the old TV series pop up somewhere to watch as I loved it.

I got an email wanting to let you know about a new comedy show involving Martin Lawrence. Martin Lawrence Presents 1st Amendment Stand-up is currently airing on Starz. The show airs Wednesdays at 9pm central time. Martin Lawrence is the executive producer of the show and it features up and coming comics performing for the live audience. Comedians performing on the next new episode include MoZan, Joe Torry, and Lavell Crawford. For more info on the show including previews of episodes, schedules, downloads, and more, head over to: http://starz.com/1stamendment

If you're a fan of the TV show, Reba, you'll probably like the tie in with the show and Reba McEntire's new video with Kenny Chesney. The video is for "Every Other Weekend" and the story of the video is played by Joanna Garcia and Steve Howey who played the roles of Cheyenne and Van on the show. Here is a link to the video if you want to check it out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHO79ET2T24

TV on DVD releases for Tuesday, July 22nd. LA Ink (Season One), Las Vegas (Season Five), Robot Chicken (Star Wars), Spaced (Full Series), Transformers: Cybertron (Ultimate Collection), and TV Funhouse.

You Tube Video Of The Week: Facebook Anthem. Some strong language in this one.



Have a great weekend!! Take care and God bless!!