Survivor, Idol Five, Save Chuck, ABC & Millionaire, Amazing Race, 90210, & More - April 23, 2009

Down to the final five on American Idol after this week’s double elimination. Disco week provided no surprises on eliminations. Lil Rounds has taken a lot of criticism from the judges on her song choices and them wanting her to show what kind of artist that she can be. It almost became a broken record of criticism where you just expected it each week. So, she was eliminated this week. The other person came down to Anoop Desai and Allison Iraheta with Anoop going home. Whew again!! These close calls with Allison going home are annoying cause I really think she is good. She is the last female standing as well against four guys. The guys? Well, it sounded like a broken record from the judges as well with the comments for them. This is a tough top five with there not really being a clear cut favorite. I think it is between Danny and Adam though for the win. Like I said, I like Allison though.

Very good episode of Survivor tonight. The blindside was on again and the obvious one that looked to be going home got a reprieve while not even knowing it. Sierra was having to fight for her life in this episode with everyone aligned against her after Brendan’s departure last week. She pleaded her case to everyone trying to pull herself out of harm’s way of being the next to go home but nothing was working. Coach did show sympathy with her for how sad that she was but told her to own up to what she did and accept her fate. The reward challenge was won by Tyson, JT, Erinn, and Debbie. Stephen was sent to exile island to keep Sierra from possibly getting a chance at a new hidden immunity idol. Stephen arrived at exile and received clue number seven meaning that there was no new hidden idol to be had. The immunity challenge had them sliding discs to a spot in the middle of the table. The one that got it to the closest in the middle won. Jeff gave them another option. Play or eat. Coach, JT, and Stephen chose to eat. Tyson wasn’t happy about this saying in his interview that he was the one doing all the winning yet everyone else took the challenge off to eat. Things got very interesting in the last couple of shots. Sierra took out Tyson to take the lead. The last shot went to Debbie who knocked Sierra’s disc out to win immunity. So close!! That seemingly sealed Sierra’s fate. Things went very different though when Erinn, Taj, and Stephen discussed taking this opportunity to vote out an immunity-less Tyson. Stephen talked to JT about it and JT was back and forth on whether to break up that alliance of the group with Coach. One thing was clear from JT and that was that he didn’t want Sierra to know this plan was in the works. Tribal council occurred with Tyson and Sierra clashing once again. The plan as far as Coach, Tyson, and Debbie knew was that Sierra was the next to go. The blindside went into effect and Tyson got voted out on a 5-3 vote. The looks on faces was hilarious especially Tyson, Sierra, and Coach. Tyson’s face went from confidence to uh oh. Sierra’s face lit up in shock that she was staying in the game. Coach looked stunned that a blindside had just hit him. Brendan was blindsided last week and this week it went to Tyson. Very nicely played blindside. Best one of the season so far. Very entertaining episode. I was thinking tonight on trying to figure out who my favorites are this season. I have Erinn and Sierra as mine. I just really think Erinn is going to stir things up and change the game.

Who Wants To Be A Millionaire is returning in prime time on ABC for a summer run with Regis Philbin returning as the host. The show will return for two weeks beginning on Sunday, August 9 and will have a run of eleven episodes. Great to see the show returning after ABC ruined the show several years ago. Millionaire did huge ratings for ABC when it debuted and launched the return of game shows into prime time. However, ABC loved the ratings a little too much and decided, hey, let’s put it on every night. Well, not every night but it was on a ton during the week. ABC oversaturated the show and people started tuning out. Eventually, the show was pulled out of prime time. I’ve always enjoyed Millionaire and I’m a big Regis fan so it will be great to have the original version back on the air. Hopefully, ABC has learned from their mistakes of the past. Has it really been 10 years since it debuted? That is unreal that it has been that long.

ABC renewed several shows this week for another season. One on the list is Lost which is a no duh kind of deal to start with. Of course it is coming back. The other shows that have been picked up include Desperate Housewives, Brother and Sisters, Dancing With The Stars, Wife Swap, The Bachelor, America’s Funniest Home Videos, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, Supernanny, Grey’s Anatomy, Private Practice, and Ugly Betty.

What about NBC and Heroes? That has been talked about quite a bit lately with the show expected to be coming back. The show is indeed coming back but has gotten a shorter episode order from the network. Season four will only be 18 episodes instead of the usual 22. Actually, this season has turned out to be 25 episodes. I don’t think this will be a bad thing with there only being 18 next season. Sometimes less is more. Monday night is the season three finale. I’ve been critical of the show lately but I’ve felt it has gotten better over the last five or so episodes. The finale will focus on a shapeshifting Sylar taking on Nathan.

The fight to save Chuck is underway by the fans. I am all for a good save a show campaign as I have taken part in several over the years. Plus, it’s Chuck so I’m in anyway cause it is one of my favorite shows. The fan effort involves buying a $5 footlong at Subway on April 27 which is the day of the season finale. The plan is for customers to leave a note in the comment box to let them know that you are participating in the Finale and Footlong campaign to save Chuck. Why Subway? It is one of the big sponsors of the show. You can also write to NBC and give your pleas to the powers that be as well. For more info on what you can do to save Chuck including the Subway campaign, head over to this link: http://zachary-levi.com/2009/04/10/footlong-campaign-to-save-chuck/

Movie box office numbers for last weekend. 1. 17 Again - $23.7 million. 2. State Of Play - $14 million. 3. Hannah Montana The Movie - $13.4 million. 4. Monsters vs. Aliens - $13.2 million. 5. Fast and Furious - $11.7 million. 6. Crank High Voltage - $6.9 million. 7. Observe and Report - $4.1 million. 8. Knowing - $3.5 million. 9. I Love You Man - $3.3 million. 10. The Haunting In Connecticut - $3.1 million.

The Amazing Race got a much needed boost this week with the battle between the teams of Jen & Kisha and Margie & Luke as the teams traveled through China. I have thought that this season has just been kind of there with not much excitement. Things got intense between them when they clashed multiple times at the clueboxes. The first time had Luke battling Jen to the cluebox. Luke got to it first and then Jen ran into the back of him. Luke then threw his elbow at her while she called him a name in response of the action. Both teams fumed over the moment until the two of them clashed again battling for the next cluebox. This time, Jen got there with Luke running into the back of her. She then threw an elbow at him. This got Margie and Kisha involved with shouting over what was going on. The two teams would battle again at the finish line as the top three all arrived at the same time. Jen & Kisha finished first followed by Tammy & Victor. Third was Margie & Luke. Phil then had to play referee between Jen & Kisha and Margie & Luke when the boiling point of that leg of the race had been reached. Lots of back and forth talk. Ok, here is my point of view on it. I think that this was a lot of tension that really wasn’t necessary. It boiled over from the previous leg when Jen & Kisha told Margie & Luke’s taxi driver the wrong directions on purpose. I think that was what really fueled the anger from Luke & Margie. I didn’t think Jen ran into Luke on purpose on the first cluebox deal but that it was a momentum thing. What escalated the incident was the elbow being thrown. The second cluebox was another momentum deal with Luke carrying his momentum into Jen. However, I realize that there was some anger at that point between the two. The elbows being thrown was what really took this to a different level. The heat of the moment of the race and the stress over it. Tammy & Victor had an advantage on this leg of the race being able to speak the language in China. It was funny to see all the teams following them cause they knew that Tammy & Victor knew where they were going. The elimination was no surprise at all as Mark & Michael were eliminated. There was just no way that they were going to overcome that deficit from their penalty. Here are the standings of the final four: 1. Jen & Kisha. 2. Tammy & Victor. 3. Margie & Luke. 4. Jaime & Cara.

No Lost this week. Well, as far as a new episode anyway. I’m sure the special was probably good but I didn’t watch it. Lost returns with its 100th episode on Wednesday night. I kind of did a second take when I saw that it was the 100th episode cause it just seems like it has been around longer than that. I do find myself watching reruns of Lost quite a bit on Sci-Fi when I catch them on. It really is a show that is fun to watch over and over.

You Tube now has complete shows up on its site. A definite variety of stuff to check out. I had to check out a little of Party Of Five as season three is up on there. I loved that show back in the day. Here is the link to the shows so you can see if there are ones that you might want to check out: http://www.youtube.com/shows

The news may not be good for that Veronica Mars movie but it was announced this week that Kristen Bell has a new movie role upcoming. She will appear in a new Disney movie called You Again. She will also be appearing in a movie later this year called Couples Retreat which has a fun storyline to it. She will play the role of a sister who finds out that her brother is marrying a girl that made her life miserable in high school. Yeah, I’m up for seeing both of these. Big Kristen Bell fan if you somehow didn’t know.

It is time for another live action movie comeback return. Variety is reporting that the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles will return for a live action movie in 2011. For more info including on the plans for it, head over to: http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118002745.html?categoryid=13&cs=1

90210 continued the Donna and Kelly reunion this week. Fun episode with them out on the town. Donna told of how she wanted to move back to Beverly Hills but David wanted to stay in Japan. She wanted to open up a shop and continued to look for signs of what to do on their night out. Funny scene with Donna seeing a psychic. Donna ended up seeing her sign which was “for lease” at an empty store which she said was just like she had imagined. She opened up her shop but David’s only talk was that they would have to figure out a schedule on sending their kid back and forth between Beverly Hills and Japan. Kelly and Ryan got back together. Naomi and Annie grew closer together with Annie giving Naomi the friend that she needed through a tough time. Naomi is staying at Annie’s house for the timebeing. Ethan continues to be going down the wrong path. Silver struggled with being out in public again including people teasing her from school. She decided that she couldn’t go back to West Beverly and enrolled at an all girls Catholic school. Adrianna and Navid talked to potential parents for her baby but they decided to get married at the end making it sound like Adrianna may keep the baby as well.

TV on DVD releases for Tuesday, April 28. American Dad (Volume Four), Mission Impossible (Season Six), Pulling (Season One), Rookies (Season One), Spin City (Season Two), UFO Hunters (Season Two), The Waltons (Season Nine).

TV Line Of The Week: From Survivor.
“I was like the little kid that eats pizza and ice cream and gets in the playland balls and jumps around a bunch and doesn’t understand why they threw up. It was terrible.” - Erinn commenting on her getting sick after eating a ton of food at the reward challenge and dancing after not being used to having that kind of food and activity.

Video Of The Week: If you’re a Lost fan, you’ll love Michael Emerson reading a children’s story in a way that is very Ben sounding. How creepy does this story sound!! LOL. He really is an incredible actor.


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