Idol, Lost, Survivor, Amazing Race, Conan, Oscars, & More

Three more sent on through to the top 12 on this week’s American Idol. The theme of the judges on Wednesday’s performance show was song choice. Either you picked the right song or you picked the wrong one. Not much in between from the judges on that one. Ones that got criticized for picking the wrong songs included Jasmine Murray, Matt Giraud, Jeanine Vailes, Matt Breitzke, Kai Lalama, and Mishavonna Henson. However there were some definite standouts that got praise from the judges. I felt that the star of this week was Allison Iraheta. She belted out a version of Alone. You know me and I say this every year. Tough to pull that song off when Carrie Underwood is so famous for doing such an incredible version of it. Allison did a very good version of Alone and definitely let people know who she is. Paula said that it was a very Kelly Clarkson type performance. I immediately agreed with that comparison with the style of it. Allison jumped immediately into one of my favorites this season with this performance. If there was another star for the week, that would probably go to Adam Lambert. He had a very strong performance overall as he performed “Satisfaction”. What can be said about Nick Mitchell’s performance? The judges thought it was very fun and entertaining. Simon’s reaction to him was funny including him asking why Nick’s parents were looking at him like they were. I liked Megan Corkrey’s performance and Kara called her a “package artist” meaning that she had everything and just needed the right song to break her out on radio. Tonight’s results show had the announcement of three more people moving on to the top 12. Going through are: Allison Iraheta, Kris Allen, and Adam Lambert. Those that competed but did not make it include: Matt Giraud, Jasmine Murray, Mishavonna Henson, Kai Kalama, Jesse Langseth, Matt Breitzke, Megan Corkrey, Jeanine Vailes, and Nick Mitchell. Next week’s shows are going to be the best for me as far as talent that I’ve liked. It contains more of the singers that I’ve been interested in and it’s a bummer that only three of them are going to get to go through. There is always the wild card though.

The CW announced several renewals for next season and I am breathing a sigh of relief with a couple of them. The CW has renewed Smallville, 90210, One Tree Hill, Supernatural, Gossip Girl, and America's Next Top Model Tom Welling appears to be on board for season nine so that is great news!! News also came out this week that The CW has given the go ahead for the Melrose Place revival along with the Gossip Girl spinoff. It sounds like The CW's lineup for the fall is just about fully formed.

Another episode of Lost and yet another round of applause from me and my friends watching the episode when it concluded. Lots of information was given about John Locke’s journey after leaving the island. Oh yeah, he’s alive by the way!! Locke ended up off the island and three years into the future time frame meeting with some of the Oceanic Six about coming back to the island. It didn’t go over at all. Interesting stuff with him meeting up with Whidmore. Their meeting left me very confused on just who is fighting the right battle here. How sad was it to learn of Helen passing away? How about the writing detail of having that guy from Locke’s past from the hospital returning to play a much bigger role? Oh, that Ben. That character has to be one of the more complicated characters that I’ve ever watched on TV cause you just can’t figure out what he is up to. Which side is less evil? I think that is the question now. Ben or Whidmore? The other question is what was it that turned Ben on Locke or was he ever working with him in the first place?

Last week’s Dollhouse gave us more background of the overall plot. I saw someone comment that they liked this episode better than the pilot. I have to agree. The ex-cop, Langdon is the one that is watching over Echo after things got really bad at the dollhouse. One of the former dolls did a lot of rage inside the dollhouse but spared Echo for some reason. This episode had our first bonding moment between Echo and Langdon when he helped save her from one of the dollhouse clients. Although, she can’t remember Langdon completely due to her memory getting wiped. However, she does seem to be remembering him a bit. I won’t go into everything that occurred in this episode but I felt like I learned more in this episode than I did last week. Both episodes were good obviously but I did enjoy this one more.

Moving on to tonight’s Survivor. New alliances and momentum were the theme of this episode. The target remained on Erinn after Candice was voted off last week. Erinn and her had hung out together so Erinn was now a target especially by Coach. However, Jerry became another story for the Timbira tribe when he started feeling sick. The momentum remained with the Jalapao tribe as they won the reward challenge and later the immunity challenge. Brendan was picked to go to exile island once again and he was able to choose someone to go with him just like last time. He picked Taj again and they got another clue on the whereabouts of the hidden immunity idol. Brendan found his later on which was attached to the tree mail box. Brendan and Taj made an agreement with each other on who to take the next time to exile island if their names were picked. They didn’t want to make it obvious that an alliance might be happening. Taj said she would tell Steve about the idol while Brendan would talk to Sierra. This would mean a possible four person secret alliance at the merge. After losing the immunity challenge, Coach tried to get a plan going to vote out Erinn. Coach’s final straw with Erinn was her face of possibly being safe when she learned of Jerry being sick. However, the tribe decided to vote out Jerry on a 5-1 vote cause of him continuing to battle being sick. Bummer as I liked Jerry. Seemed like a really nice guy.

Speaking of Survivor, Fancast hosts a live chat with the voted off Survivor cast member every week on Friday afternoons. Here is a link to check it out. http://www.fancast.com/blogs/live-chat/live-chat-with-the-latest-booted-survivor-tocantins-castaway/

Get ready for the duo of Conan O'Brien and Andy Richter to be returning to a TV near you soon. NBC has announced that Richter will be the announcer for The Tonight Show when Conan takes over in June. Richter is also going to be taking part in some comedy stuff for the show as well. That will be fun having the two of them back together. I also have to say how much that I have enjoyed watching the classic clips of Conan that he showed during his last week of shows. Some of the stuff I had seen but I hadn't seen a lot of it.

Heroes and Chuck continue to fall in the ratings. I can understand Heroes cause I haven't even really liked this current season that much. The show just seems to confuse me this year with the storylines but I still enjoy watching it. Now, Chuck on the other hand makes me wonder what is up with that? Chuck has been REALLY good this season and I think it has been better than season one. Nice story progression and lots of fun stories to follow. Chuck is a show that you really need to watch. I laugh at it quite a bit.

A couple of TV renewals announced as Survivor has been renewed by CBS for two more seasons. The same goes for The Simpsons on Fox as it has been renewed for two more seasons.

The Oscars were held on Sunday night and Slumdog Millionaire did some major winning on the show. Here are some of the award winners:
Best Picture: Slumdog Millionaire
Actor In A Leading Role: Sean Penn - MILK
Actress In A Leading Role: Kate Winslet - The Reader
Actor In A Supporting Role: Heath Ledger - The Dark Knight
Actress In A Supporting Role: Penelope Cruz - Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Directing: Slumdog Millionaire
Music (Song): Slumdog Millionaire
Music (Score): Slumdog Millionaire
Film Editing: Slumdog Millionaire
Sound Mixing: Slumdog Millionaire
Sound Editing: The Dark Knight
Visual Effects: The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button
Documentary Feature: Man On Wire
Cinematography: Slumdog Millionaire
Animated Feature Film: WALL-E
Writing: (Adapted Screenplay): Slumdog Millionaire
Writing (Original Screenplay): MILK

Movie box office numbers for last weekend. 1. Tyler Perry's Madea Goes To Jail - $41 million. 2. Coraline - $11.4 million. 3. Taken - $11.2 million. 4. He's Just Not That Into You - $8.5 million. 5. Slumdog Millionaire - $8.3 million. 6. Friday The 13th - $7.9 million. 7. Paul Blart: Mall Cop - $6.8 million. 8. Confessions Of A Shopaholic - $6.7 million. 9. Fired Up - $5.4 million. 10. The International - $4.4 million.

There is news of Jerry Seinfeld working with NBC once again. He is producing a comedy show about marriages called The Marriage Ref. Basically, couples will talk about their marital problems and then comics and celebrities will then decide which of the two is in the right of the problem. The show is going to be very light hearted and is meant to just have fun with some of the comedy that happens in marriages. This has potential to be a fun show for sure.

Moving on to The Amazing Race. Not really any surprise happenings this week. Tammy and Victor continued to finish high in the standings with their first place finish this week. Going home were Steve and Linda who had a tough time. Linda took a wrong turn on the hike and they fought hard to try to get back in it but just couldn’t. Mel’s injury had him having to take a major gamble at the road block. The road block was to parasail down the hill but you had to wait on wind changes possibly keeping you from going. All the other teams went with the option of taking the 60 minute hike instead while he had no choice but to wait. The gamble paid off and they were able to finish in second place. Standings are: 1. Tammy and Victor. 2. Mel and Mike. 3. Amanda and Kris. 4. Margie and Luke. 5. Brad and Victoria. 6. Jaime and Cara. 7. Kisha and Jen. 8. Christie and Jodi. 9. Steve and Linda (Eliminated).

If you're a fan of The Hills, People.com reported some major news about the show's future so here is the link to check it out: http://tvwatch.people.com/2009/02/25/lauren-conrad-season-5-of-the-hills-will-be-the-last/

TV on DVD releases for Tuesday, March 3rd. 7th Heaven (Season Eight), ER (Season Ten), The Hills (Season Four), Hotel Babylon (Season Three), My Two Dads (Season One), Nash Bridges (Season Two), Wildfire (Season Three).

TV Line Of The Week: From American Idol.
"At least we remember you. You do your own thing, your own spin. You wear the same shirt like Simon every week." – Kara talking to Nick Mitchell and comparing him to Simon.

Video Of The Week: Conan signs off.


Hope all of you are doing great and I wish you a great weekend!! Take care and God bless!!