American Idol Top 13 Named, Survivor, Dollhouse, & More - March 5, 2009

Lots of American Idol this week with plenty of performances and results. This was the final week to determine the top 12….or was it only a top 12? Tuesday’s show of performances was the toughest as far as competition. That was my opinion anyway. I had several that I liked competing. Standouts from me on this night were Scott MacIntyre, Lil Rounds, Kristen McNamara, Kendall Beard, and Jorge Nunez. Those were my favorites but I also enjoyed others as well. My predictions on who would go through were Lil Rounds, Scott MacIntyre, and Kendall Beard. Well, I got two out of three right. Wednesdays results show announced the three that would move on to the top 12 which was Lil Rounds, Scott MacIntyre, and Jorge Nunez. Not surprised at all to see Jorge go on through and he was very good Tuesday night. Here is the list of those that competed but didn’t make the cut: Von Smith, Taylor Vaifanua, Alex Wagner-Trugman, Arianna Afsar, Ju’not Joyner, Kristen McNamara, Nathaniel Marshall, Felicia Barton, and Kendall Beard. Bummed about Arianna as I liked her as well. So, we then get the announcement of the people that would participate in tonight’s wild card show. Those competing would be Von Smith, Jasmine Murray, Ricky Braddy, Megan Joy Corkrey, Tatiana Del Toro, Matt Giraud, Jesse Langseth, and Anoop Desai. My first thought was no Kendall Beard??!! I was shocked over that. Her performance on Tuesday didn’t knock the judges out obviously but I thought it was good none the less. I thought she definitely deserved another shot in the wild card. Just shocked and kind of annoyed really that she was left off the wild card show. Anyway, on to the wild card show. Some really stepped their game up and it helped their cause big time. The judges made the picks on this night and their picks were Jasmine Murray, Megan Joy Corkrey, and then came a surprise. I actually had to read the rest of the results online cause my recording cut off. I should also point out that I even ran my recording three minutes over and STILL didn’t get the whole show. The plan changed to make it a top 13 so Matt Giraud and Anoop Desai are both in. It is now time to get to the main competition with the top 13 set and here is who will be competing beginning next week: Kris Allen, Danny Gokey, Alexis Grace, Allison Iraheta, Adam Lambert, Scott MacIntyre, Jorge Nunez, Lil Rounds, Michael Sarver, Anoop Desai, Jasmine Murray, Megan Joy Corkrey, and Matt Giraud. I definitely have some favorites in this group. Mine are Allison, Danny, Alexis, and Scott.

Tonight’s Survivor. Team Secret is in place. The secret four member alliance is intact. The plan was for Taj to talk to Stephen and then Brendan to talk to Sierra so they could get everyone in place. Taj talked to Stephen and he was definitely in. Funny comment from Stephen where he talked about accidentally backing into a major alliance. However, Brendan didn’t get the chance to talk to Sierra before the reward challenge. It did work out though. Jalapao won the reward challenge which involved being able to raid the losers camp and take two items. They also got to send someone to exile island. With the plan in place, Taj picked Sierra and then Sierra picked Taj for revenge in picking her. Taj talked to Sierra but got the feeling that Brendan hadn’t gotten to talk to her yet. So, Taj filled her in and Sierra was all in for it. She was very happy that she aligned with Brendan who was making such a big play. The secret alliance of four was made. The immunity challenge was won by Timbira. The targets were Sandy and Sydney. Talk at tribal council turned into how Sydney had been flirting with the guys as part of her strategy. Sandy however had been making some enemies at camp. The vote had Sandy going home with five votes and Sydney getting one while Joe also got one.

I said this last week but it holds true again. I liked last week's Dollhouse more than the previous week. This is obviously a good trend to have. Echo's job last week was to protect a pop singer who was being stalked by a fan. Echo was given the personality of a backup singer. Her dollhouse friend, Sierra, was also given a job in the plan as she was the "number one fan" that got to meet the singer. It all turned out that the singer was fine with the threats from the stalker and was actually hoping for harm for herself from him. Sierra ended up being caught in the mix when the stalker guy kidnapped her. How does Echo solve the problem? She takes the singer straight into the situation making the stalker care for the singer's safety and also giving the singer a new happiness for life. Ballard sure had a lousy time in this episode. The episodes are really well written as we are given a lot of the inside dollhouse story with Echo's job for the episode but the hunting down of the dollhouse is held back on what we know is going on. It was a really good episode.

Movie box office numbers for last weekend. 1. Tyler Perry's Madea Goes To Jail - $16.1 million. 2. Jonas Brothers: The 3D Concert Experience - $12.5 million. 3. Slumdog Millionaire - $12 million. 4. Taken - $9.8 million. 5. He's Just Not That Into You - $6 million. 6. Paul Blart: Mall Cop - $5.6 mi llion. 7. Coraline - $5.2 million. 8. Street Fighter - $4.7 million. 9. Confessions Of A Shopaholic - $4.6 million. 10. Fired Up! - $3.7 million.

The obvious big release for this weekend is The Watchmen. Lots of promotion and hype on it. I do plan on seeing it sometime.

I have watched a tiny bit of Jimmy Fallon's debut week on Late Night. Not enough to comment on how the shows are but the viewers definitely tuned in for his debut. Going head to head for the first time, Fallon was reportedly up 35% on Craig Ferguson's ratings on Monday night. More people did tune into Conan's exit than Fallon’s debut but that is to be expected. I did see the opening of the show with Conan making a cameo packing his stuff. Fallon asked Conan if he was going to watch and Conan gave a half hearted reaction of that he would TIVO it.

One team that has had little trouble so far on this season’s Amazing Race almost went from first to last. Tammy and Victor had major issues in this leg of the race whether it was flight issues, getting lost, or trouble in the challenges. They were able to overcome and stay in the race. The main reason for that was that Brad and Victoria had even bigger issues after a flight problem at the beginning put them at a huge deficit that they were unable to overcome. Standings at the pit stop: 1. Mel and Mike. 2. Amanda and Kris. 3. Kisha and Jen. 4. Margie and Luke. 5. Michael and Mark. 6. Christie and Jodi. 7. Jaime and Cara. 8. Tammy and Victor. 9. Brad and Victoria (Eliminated).

This week’s How I Met Your Mother introduced us to Barney’s family. Well, kind of. Barney’s mom had always wished for him to find someone so he wouldn’t be alone once she passed on. She was in bad health and he hired an actress to play his fiancee so his mom would think that he was going to be ok. Well, the actress blurted out that she was pregnant too. So, his mom recovered and Barney also had to hire a kid to play his son. It was funny stuff especially when the rest of the gang met Barney’s “family” as well.

I mentioned last week that Gloriana’s first music video had premiered. Well, it has performed very well on the CMT Power Picks this week. Get to voting Gloriana fans!!

Two competitors have already had to withdraw from Dancing With The Stars. Nancy O’Dell and Jewel are out of it due to injury.

ER is getting a dose of Gilmore. Alexis Bledel will be appearing in the series finale as an intern. Yeah, I'm an Alexis Bledel fan but ER stresses me out way too much to watch. ha ha.

People sure are fired up over The Bachelor finale. I don't watch the show but it has been entertaining watching talk show hosts venting over it.

I got this info to pass along to you about a new show that recently premiered on Animal Planet. It is called Jockey and here is the information about it: "Animal Planet brings viewers into a world dominated by ferocious rivalries, fierce bonds and extraordinary risk as it documents the behind-the-scenes lives of jockeys and their magnificent racehorses. It is a world ruled by 112 lb. men (or less) on 1,200 lb. Thoroughbreds - equipped with oversized personalities and big dreams. JOCKEYS follows numerous athletes as they compete amongst each other during the course of a 30- day racing season. This is the only pro sport where if you don‘t win, the pay is meager. The pressure is high. Months of preparation go into each one-to-two-minute race, and jockeys ride as many as 10 races a day with an ambulance traveling at high speeds right behind the field of horses. They risk life and limb knowing that virtually every year, an average of two jockeys die while riding races in North America. Meet the superstars whose success depends on knocking out the competition. Big winners, who have won horse racing‘s richest purses, live beside jockeys who have never won a race and struggle to make next month‘s rent. It is cut-throat competition, and cameras follow the action from pre-race jitters to the finish line - and everything in between."
The show airs on Fridays at 8pm central time on Animal Planet. For more info, head over to this link: http://animal.discovery.com/tv/jockeys/

I've been watching some old Family Ties reruns that have been airing at night. FamilyNet is the place to watch if you get the channel. I always loved that show and still love seeing the episodes over again. It is definitely one of my most favorite shows ever.

Speaking of sitcoms that I love, ALF is airing on WGN America. I've watched a few episodes of it too.

I was watching Twister on TBS as I typed this Wrap Up and I have to ask this. Can TBS get away with saying the “s” word in primetime??!! Wow, didn’t expect that.

TV on DVD releases for Tuesday, March 10. The Best Years (Season One), Caroline In The City (Season Two), Family Ties (Season Five), Get Smart (Season Two), The Starter Wife (Season One).

TV Line Of The Week: From How I Met Your Mother.
“Call me crazy but child actors were way better in the 80’s” – Neil Patrick Harris as Barney talking about the actor that he had playing his son.

You Tube Video Of The Week: Chad Vader has premiered season two and here is the first clip.


Wishing you a great weekend!! Take care and God bless!!