Let the Olympic withdrawal begin. The 2008 Summer Olympics from Beijing concluded this past Sunday night. Just as the Olympic Games opened, the Closing Ceremonies were just as impressive. Amazing seems like such an easy adjective to describe the Closing Ceremonies but I really find it hard to come up with an adjective that can better describe how breath taking that they were. As I watched it, I just thought that TV can’t do this justice for how it must be to see it in person. If you were there, how in the world do you take pictures or even get video of all of that so that you could come home and show these memories when it is impossible to capture it. I literally just watched in awe at the memory tower that was built right there on the stadium floor following the Olympic torch being extinguished. I’m a huge Olympics fan and am always looking forward to it. I stay glued to the coverage when it is ongoing. I’ve always dreamed of going to an Olympic Games in the future to take in the incredible experience. I have to say that overall, this is the most that I’ve enjoyed an Olympic Games since Atlanta in 1996. The TV coverage was amazing and gave us plenty of options on ways to watch including live coverage. I liked what we saw with the inclusion of London in the Closing Ceremonies. I have no doubt that they’ll do a great job with the Olympics in 2012. I’m ready for it already.
I did stay up until 4am the other night watching the men’s basketball gold medal game with the U.S. taking on Spain. What a game!!! This was well worth staying up for as it went right down to the wire. Both teams wanted to win it bad and Kobe Bryant stepped up huge hitting big shots to close it out. The Redeem Team brought the gold back to the United States. Kudos to both teams for a great game.
The ratings for the Olympics were very impressive. The Summer Olympics are now the most viewed event in American television history. Nielsen is reporting that 211 million people tuned into the Olympics during the 16 days of coverage over the NBC networks topping the Atlanta games by 2 million. That was just the number before Sunday night’s Closing Ceremonies which added to it. Sunday’s Closing Ceremonies drew 27.8 million viewers. The average nightly viewership over the two weeks ended up being 27.7 million.
Michael Phelps is set to host the season premiere of Saturday Night Live on September 13th.
I’ve had August 27th circled on my mental calendar all summer long ready and waiting for the launch of TheWB.com. TheWB.com is the return of the old network that signed off a couple of years ago before the union of The WB and UPN into The CW. If you didn’t know, I’m a huge WB fan and spent a lot of my time watching shows on that network years ago. So, I was excited to hear of the news that The WB was returning. No, it hasn’t returned on TV but instead online. TheWB.com launched yesterday and I gave it a very good test drive last night. I was also signed up as a beta tester so I’ve been roaming around the beta version of the site for a few months now. Yesterday had the full launch of the site to the public. The site has a mixture of old shows and their new original shows. Some of the classic shows had been available for the beta testing but there are more shows available now on the full launch. Shows that are currently available and the amount of episodes online include Angel (first five episodes), Babylon 5 (full season one), Buffy The Vampire Slayer (first five episodes), Everwood (first five episodes), Firefly (first five episodes), Friends (seven episodes from various seasons), Gilmore Girls (first five episodes), MADtv (full season twelve), The O.C. (first nine episodes), One Tree Hill (first nine episodes), Roswell (first five episodes), Smallville (first five episodes), and Veronica Mars (full season one). Other programming on the site includes Blue Water High, A Boy Wearing Make Up, Dangerous, The Jeannie Tate Show, The Loop, Sorority Forever, and Whatever Hollywood. Not everything has launched as far as the new original programming goes as Sorority Forever hasn’t debuted yet. The video quality looks not far off from the quality available on Hulu so that is a plus. You can go full screen with your episode viewing obviously. If you stay small screen, you can get some show facts to look at along with trivia questions which is fun. The site also has some games and also a thing called wblender. It is a deal where you can make your own videos as far as editing clips of WB shows that they offer you. You can mix and match clips from different shows and they also give you options of transitions and effects along with music. Several downloads available including buddy icons, logos, and wallpapers. The site also mixes in with Facebook where you can share videos with your friends. One thing with Angel, Firefly, and Roswell that is going to hurt them is the lack of episodes. The WB only put up the first five episodes of each while Hulu has the full first seasons of Angel and Roswell up and also have the full run of Firefly. I did find the video player to be a little glitchy at times but it was day one of the full launch. One thing to watch is your volume control. The promos during the breaks in the show are quite a bit louder than the episodes so you may want to keep track of that. Overall, I’m happy with what I see. Some issues that will be worked out over time as the site just launched. It’s nice to see the network back and I look forward to seeing more happening with the site. To check out the site, head over to: http://www.thewb.com/
Movie box office numbers for last weekend. 1. Tropic Thunder - $16.2 million. 2. The House Bunny - $14.5 million. 3. Death Race - $12.6 million. 4. The Dark Knight - $10.5 million. 5. Star Wars: The Clone Wars - $5.6 million. 6. Pineapple Express - $5.4 million. 7. Mirrors - $5 million. 8. Mamma Mia - $4.3 million. 9. The Mummy - $4.1 million. 10. The Longshots - $4 million.
This week in Big Brother showed another one of the rules to know when playing the Big Brother game. Be careful of endurance HOH deals. The only way to guarantee yourself safety is to win it yourself. How many of those deals have been kept over the years? I’d say that it is at least 50% on not being kept. That deal made for an interesting week in the BB10 house to say the least. To quote BB8’s Jessica, this house, these people, this game!!! How many times must people say it? It’s a game. People take this game of Big Brother so personally. Maybe it’s from the stress of being in the house. I don’t know but it’s a game. The show last week ended with the HOH endurance challenge underway. It came down to Dan and Ollie. Dan started trying to make deals with Ollie. A deal was made for Ollie to drop saying that Ollie was safe, a person of his choosing was safe, and that if the veto was used then Ollie got to pick the replacement nominee Basically, Ollie got to run Dan’s HOH. The first thought is obviously what is Dan thinking making a deal like that? Well, he did have an agenda. Dan asked who Ollie wanted on the block and Ollie said Memphis. So, Dan agreed to put up Jerry against Memphis. Dan’s alliance was furious with this decision especially Memphis. Memphis had good lines pondering what kind of an alliance member nominates you. Dan said that he was doing this to protect his alliance with Memphis to keep it a secret knowing that no one would normally nominate someone that they’re in an alliance with. Ollie was feeling really good at this point telling Dan that he wanted Keesha as the replacement. The veto competition takes place with it coming down to Memphis and Keesha battling it out. Memphis wins the veto putting the plan in place. Dan had not told anyone the third part of the deal with Ollie involving the veto but did reveal it to his alliance. Ollie had told Michelle and Jerry about it. Ollie says to Dan again that he wants Keesha up and Dan agrees saying that his hands are tied having to stick to the deal. Dan comes up with an idea to play a veto replacement game. He calls each houseguest into the HOH telling them of the game getting each one to say a name of who they wanted to go up. He had it all planned out with every name getting mentioned with the goal being to stir it all up and kind of smokescreen what he was about to do in the game. Veto ceremony takes place and the game is played which ends in Dan saying that people were gambling on others in the house saying “Ollie, you lost the bet. Michelle, get on the block”. It was a brutal veto meeting. It was now Jerry and Michelle on the nomination block. Ollie and Michelle went off with Ollie going around the house breaking stuff and yelling a ton of profanity. Tonight’s eviction episode had a lot of questions to be answered. Would Ollie get any kind of penalty for his actions in the house as that had been discussed big time from feed viewers. The question was no and there was not even any talk of it on the show. Ollie’s wildness after the veto ceremony was shown but not all of it of course. However, the big thing of the night was this was the return of Big Brother Fast Forward. A week’s worth of competitions in one night. First, Michelle was voted out on a 3-1 vote with Ollie being the only vote for Michelle to stay. Michelle talked to Julie Chen in her interview and Julie shot her down on her “plant” theory on Dan. Her and Ollie have been saying that Dan is a producer “plant” for a long time now. That leads us to the next HOH competition. The competition came down to Keesha and Jerry. They had to go to two tiebreakers with Keesha winning. Keesha had to make her nominations immediately and she nominated Ollie and Jerry. That takes us to the veto competition. It was a “veto in a haystack” with the houseguests having to search through hay to find two vetos and then have to return them to the starting line. Dan flew through it and won the veto. The nominees actually finished last with neither finding one veto. Dan did not use the veto leaving Keesha’s nominations the same. The episode finished with the second eviction of the night. Ollie was voted out on a 3-0 vote. He got up before his name was announced and then walked right out the door in the quickest exit in Big Brother history from what I can remember. Ollie was interviewed by Julie and his interview was better than I thought it would be. I figured that he might let it all fly with the way he has been in the house over the last few days. The HOH competition will be shown on Sunday night’s episode. The HOH competition has taken place and if you want to know who won, I’ll get to it in the “Since The Live Show Ended” section.
Other thoughts on the Big Brother week. Jerry got the vote from America to win the phone call from home. He was very touched getting to talk to his family. I listened to Sheila’s Blog Talk show last night and it was interesting to hear her thoughts on this season. I enjoyed it along with hearing what other fans are thinking of this season.
What You Missed On The Live Feeds: As expected, all eyes on the live feeds waited till Monday afternoon for the veto ceremony to take place knowing what was about to take place. Michelle was put up on the block and she was not happy about it at all. Ollie and Michelle were on a vengeance afterwards with Ollie wanting to call out Dan’s deal in front of everyone. The problem was that everyone knew about what Dan was doing except Ollie, Michelle, and Jerry. Ollie told everyone that he was supposed to be running HOH this week as part of the deal. He told Keesha that she was supposed to be on the block cause that was his call. Keesha had a funny comeback when she replied wondering if she was supposed to be mad that she wasn’t on the block. Ollie went around the house throwing and breaking stuff for a little while. He did quite a bit of damage. He had a lot of profanity being said as well directed at the other houseguests and also to Big Brother. Ollie and Michelle are also convinced that Dan is a “plant” on the show looking at every conspiracy theory possible. Renny was also very mad at Dan for her feeling that she was going to go up on the block. A couple of things not shown on the show tonight was Michelle’s rage after the veto ceremony as well. Her diary room stuff was shown but she was furious afterwards in the house yelling at Big Brother for putting cameras on her. Also, the exchange between Ollie and Memphis was not shown as well. After Memphis said “what did you say to me”, it did continue on with Ollie saying something to Memphis that I am not going to repeat. Memphis followed him into the house mad over the comment and the two exchanged words but then walked apart. It was very intense for a while in the house. That was why fans were wondering if there would be any penalties especially with the stuff that Ollie broke in the house. Ollie did make that comment to Dan saying that he had his manhood taken away by what happened in the veto ceremony on TV. One poster on Jokers had a comment that is the best one of the week saying that Ollie lost his manhood with the “lollipop tantrum”. I cracked up at that. Yeah, they got played pretty bad and I can understand them being upset. It is a game though and it is a game of lies. I don’t think it is possible to win Big Brother without telling some kind of lie. Saturday night saw a return of an old familiar Big Brother game. Big Brother 8 introduced the game but this season put a new twist on it with Soda Pop Pong. Dan’s drinks were sprite while Memphis’s were beer. It started with Dan against Memphis with Memphis winning both games. Then the girls stepped in making it two against two. Keesha teamed with Dan while Renny teamed with Memphis. Renny was hilarious during this. She took one of her drinks at one point and drank everything in it including the ball. She then spit the ball out across the table while Memphis said that he had never seen anyone do that in the game before. They picked on Keesha for taking too long to take the drinks as she was sipping them. Renny then decided that she didn’t have anything to lose and spit the ball out of her mouth to throw it. It missed but it was hilarious. Team Deesha defeated Team Menny. This definitely brought back memories of BB8 with how many hours I spent watching Eric and Jessica play that game. It really is nice to see the houseguests just have fun.
What Has Happened Since The Live Show: SPOILER ALERT!! Jerry has asked for the houseguests to not cut him off on talking to him. Memphis has stated that the veto competition had the houseguests picking lanes so they weren’t given lanes. Jerry has a completely different attitude being the lone person against the other four. Just lots of sitting around and talking about the night’s happenings for a while. The feeds went off just before 10:30 which led us to believe that the HOH was happening. Well, it did and the winner of the HOH was revealed when Big Brother After Dark came on (yeah, all of us live feed viewers are getting messed with for the second Thursday in a row) as Jerry is the new HOH. Well, let’s see who turns on who now. This was an absolute must win for Jerry and he’s still in the game. The other four look stunned over what has happened and no one knows what Jerry is going to do. I think that we’ll see Memphis and Dan on the block. What is up with the live feeds this year? We’re paying for these feeds while Big Brother After Dark is airing live stuff on Showtime. After Dark came on at 11:00 and the live feeds did not return until 11:15. You may remember that last week, the live feed viewers missed the last ten minutes or so of the HOH competition while After Dark got to watch it. It is just completely bizarre. The live feeds have been more frustrating this year than probably ever.
As I watched the last few scenes of season four of Lost, the thought going through my head was that I am about to get left on a cliffhanger that I am going to have wait on. Before this, I was just able to click on the next episode or click on to the next season. Not now though. I’m caught up to date on all of Lost. Very enjoyable show and it’s safe to say that I’m hooked. What a journey in the story from the beginning to now. It’s wild to say but I think that Sawyer is probably my favorite character which couldn’t be further from happening in the first couple of seasons. They really did an amazing job in evolving that character over the four seasons. That was clear when he was bound and determined to take care of Hurley and Claire as season four came to a close. Before, he wouldn’t have cared about what happened to them as long as he was safe but this time he was throwing out threats if anything happened to them. I thought for sure in that last scene of the season that we weren’t going to get the revelation on whose body it was. It definitely made sense on who it turned out to be. Ben told Jack that Locke told him that things got really bad after Jack left the island. So, I’m assuming that things got so bad that Locke ended up leaving like Ben did but through another route. Well, what am I talking about cause we never have actually seen how Ben get out of there except for a big light? I keep trying to figure out how Sawyer got out of there cause Kate was talking to him on the phone in the future scenes. With them talking about the Oceanic 6, I knew that Sawyer wasn’t going to be leaving with the rest based on what we had seen from the ones that left the island. How did he get off the island? Did he return with Locke? Is that really Jack’s dad that we are seeing or is the island playing tricks? Jack really makes me annoyed sometimes with his lack of belief in things that happen on that island. Funny moment when they’re all on the helicopter in the last episode going back to the island when it disappeared. Hurley mentioned that Locke must have succeeded in moving the island and Jack wouldn’t have it. Geez Jack, what is your explanation for the fact that the island just disappeared right in front of you??!! Hurley’s line of “do you have a better explanation” was the exact thing that I was thinking. Locke seemingly being trained to take Ben’s spot was interesting to follow. I was thrilled that we got to see the Desmond/Penny reunion. With the way things were going, I was thinking that we weren’t going to see it cause things weren’t looking good for Desmond. When Michael showed up as “Kevin Johnson” on the boat, my first thought was how long till Michael messes this up too? When watching the episode with Kate getting out of jail time and getting probation, we got the reveal of the son. All I could think was “nicely played” with the last scene. I had been trying to figure out through the episode if the son was either Sawyer’s or Jack’s. The son has blonde hair and my thinking was, well, I guess we know who the father is now. That was until they changed the baby all together and made it Aaron!! I spent the next five minutes trying to figure out how that could have played out. Speaking of babies, how about the episode with Jin and Sun’s daughter being born? That last five minutes was incredible with the reveal that the stuff with Jin that was shown of him getting the Panda was in the past while the delivery with Sun was in the future. Then, Sun and Hurley go to the cemetery to visit Jin to take the baby. Nicely played again!! So, do I have any theories on what is going on leading into this next season? Hmm, not really. I think I’ve maybe gotten a couple of things right on predictions over my viewing of the show but every time that I think I have something figured out, they blindside me with something else. I love every minute of it though. Ha ha. I’m very much looking forward to the season premiere.
There was some casting news from Lost this week that did surprise me. Michelle Rodriquez is set to appear on this season of the show. She played Ana Lucia in season two of the show. It was interesting to follow what fans had to say about the news. It looks like I’m not the only one that really wasn’t into that character.
A must see thing that you need to watch on the Heroes season two DVD is the alternate ending to the season finale and also the discussion among the producers about the changes. They go into detail about what was set to happen on the show before the writers strike. Lots of good stuff is discussed. On the season finale, the tube with the virus was caught before it hit the floor. In the alternate ending, the tube hits the floor and the virus is spread. They show footage that was to have been included if they went the original route and then discuss where the story was going in the next few episodes. They discuss what would have been the same in both versions of the finales and what would have been different. Also, there is “untold stories” on the box set as well where they show stuff that was shot for the future episodes that never got to air. I highly recommend checking these extras out. It is a lot of fun to watch and figure out what they might have done and hearing their explanations. The virus spreading would have been made for some good storytelling.
It was nice earlier in the week to chat with some Heroes fans when I bought the season two DVD. We were talking about last season while also giving them the news on how well received the season three premiere was at Comic Con. It’s always fun comparing notes with fans on shows.
Last week, CBS gave us the announcement of the cast of The Amazing Race. This week, we have the announcement of the cast of Survivor Gabon. Here is the cast:
Susie Smith: 47, hairdresser from Charles City, IA.
Randy Bailey: 49, wedding videographer from Eagle Rock, MO
Paloma Soto-Castillo: 24, student from Downey, CA
Michelle Chase: 24, music producer from Los Angeles, CA
Matty Whitmore: 29, personal trainer from Pacific Palisades, CA
Marcus Lehman: 28, doctor from Atlanta, GA
Ken Hoang: 22, professional gamer from Westminster, CA
Kelly Czarnecki: 22, retail sales from Buffalo Grove, IL
Jessica “Sugar” Kiper: 29, pin-up model from Brooklyn, NY
Jacquie Berg: 25, medical device sales rep from Santa Barbara, CA
Gillian Larson: 61, retired nurse from Temecula, CA
Danny “GC” Brown: 26, maintenance man from Portland, OR
Dan Kay: 32, lawyer from Boston, MA
Crystal Cox: 29, former Olympic athlete from Durham, NC
Corinne Kaplan: 29, pharmaceutical sales from Los Angeles, CA
Charlie Herschel: 29, lawyer from New York City
Robert “Bob” Crowley: 58, physics teacher from Portland, ME
Ace Gordon: 27, fashion photographer from Naples, FL
Survivor premieres on Thursday, September 25th with a two hour premiere. It was originally supposed to premiere a week earlier but CBS has moved it to the 25th. Don’t forget that the show will be airing in HD for the first time this season. Here is a video preview of the cast for this season. For more info on the cast, head over to: http://www.cbs.com/primetime/survivor/
Laura Vandervoort, who plays Smallville’s Kara Kent, is saying that she will appear on one episode for sure this season. She took part in a panel at the Fan Expo in Toronto. She mentioned that she will be shooting the episode in October to “tie up her storyline”. She appeared alongside Michael Rosenbaum on the panel. The season premiere of Smallville is on Thursday, September 18th on The CW.
Season one of The Big Bang Theory is released on DVD on Tuesday. I highly recommend this show if you haven’t seen it. This is now my favorite comedy on TV.
That isn’t the only show that I want to recommend on DVD. Little People Big World has another DVD box set of episodes released on Tuesday as well. Great show and great family TV to watch. I’ve got my recap of the Little People Big World event in Metropolis still on the site if you haven’t checked it out at:
http://entertainmentwrapup.blogspot.com/2008/07/entertainment-wrap-up-july-7-2008.html
Season four of The Office is set to hit stores this Tuesday, September 2nd. The DVD box set features two hours of extras including deleted scenes, bloopers, and more. Here are some clips from the DVD set to give you a taste of what is to come on the set.
Bloopers:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smMlC-78m1w
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40oQR4aFzJw
Fun Run – Deleted Scene
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGINB2WnxdY
Dunder Mifflin Infinity – Deleted Scene
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uShy7gCEzkY
Money - Deleted Scene
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIBaaMW2vVA
If you’d like a chance to win a season four DVD set, head over to The Onion where you can enter their contest at this link:
http://atomiccontest.com/contests/theOffice4/
Well, The CW is set to launch Beverly Hills 90210 on Tuesday night. We’ll see how it is. No shortage of hype and promotion on it. I loved the original 90210 and it’s one of my favorite shows of all time so I’ll be checking it out to see how the new show is. The CW has a lot riding on it for sure. 90210 premieres on Tuesday night at 7pm central time on The CW.
American Idol has added a fourth judge. Joining Simon, Randy, and Paula will be Kara DioGuardi. She is a Grammy nominated songwriter who has worked with many of the top names in the industry. My immediate question is what happens on tie votes now when the judges are making decisions on who gets to go through to Hollywood. We now have an even number of votes instead of an odd number.
Season two has yet to premiere but NBC has already decided to pick up Chuck for the entire season instead of just half of a season.
TV on DVD releases for Tuesday, September 2nd. Arthur (Season Eleven), The Big Bang Theory (Season One), Charlie Brown/Peanuts (It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown), Cheers (Season Ten), Desperate Housewives (Season Four), Eli Stone (Season One), Ghost Whisperer (Season Three), Life (Season One), Little People Big World (Season Two – Volume One), Living With Ed (Season Two), The Office (Season Four), Supernatural (Season Three), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Season Two – Part Two).
You Tube Video Of The Week: Wii Fit Parody
I want to wish everyone a safe Labor Day weekend!! Hope it’s a great one!! Take care and God bless!!
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