Reality Check #3 by Kate Jones

It’s been a while, people, and for that I am truly sorry. When I thought to myself I could be a reality TV blogger, I forgot the many other necessary but significantly less fun obligations in my life… like work and school. Alas, my time is limited, but I have decided that I would come in here for those of you who care and give you a quick recap of some of the things going on over in reality land.




The Biggest Loser

So far this season has been extremely satisfying on the weight front. All of the men have been losing massive amounts of weight. Sam and Koli (Samoan cousins) are barely even overweight anymore, In fact, Sam is kind of hot! The girls are starting to lose like crazy too, though at a significantly slower rate then the men. My heart is with Stephanie that seemed to plateau around 208, but then lost 9 lbs to finally go below the 200 lb mark. As someone who has struggled with my weight for my entire adult life (thanks a lot beer and fried stuff), I know the frustration of working hard and not seeing results. For me, though, that means eating a brownie and laying on my couch to catch up on The Rock of Love Bus. It inspires me to see these girls not give up!

Next week, the eliminated players are coming back and I am guessing that one of them will return to the show. Previews seem to be hinting at Melissa, this season’s sad excuse for a villain. Ironically, this past week, the blue team eliminated her husband Lance, because he was feeling doubt and guilt over the fact that he was on the ranch and she wasn’t. Won’t it be ironic if she comes back?

The Amazing Race

Bye, Jeff and Jordan! I will miss you guys! My Big Brother favorites finally said good-bye this week on Race. They are so completely adorably dumb, that all I wanted to do was reach into the TV and help them. Unlike Brent and Catie (dating models) who are just mean and dumb. The remaining teams are the Middle Age Detectives, the Dating Lipstick Lesbians, the Baseball Coach Father and his Daughter, the Gay Brothers, The Cowboys (!!), and the dumb, but attractive Dating Models. I have no idea how this race is going to wind up. Honestly, I hope the Cowboys or Detectives take this thing. With Jeff and Jordan gone, I am now left to root for people to lose. I’m sorry, Dating Lesbians, but I just think you are catty and mean. I hope you lose and can’t spend all your money on Louis Vuitton bags.

Undercover Boss

If you need a good cry, watch this show. It’s nice to think that somewhere in this world, a corporate big wig cares about what his employees think. The Churchill Downs episode was great, as was the Hooters one. As a lover of all things Buffalo Wings (where is my application for Biggest Loser again?), I really loved watching what goes on behind the scenes at a Hooters. I also loved it when CEO Coby Brooks saw one of his managers, Jimbo, make the girls have a mouths only bean-eating contest. A man in power should never be able to treat any woman like those girls were treated. It was humiliating for them. Unfortunately, Coby was a little too easy on Jimbo and let him keep his job. I would have had him on dumpster, dishes and toilet duty from now until he dies! I also would have allowed each of those girls to kick him in the balls, once a day until each of them got a shot!

Who Do You Think You Are?

I didn’t get the chance to watch the whole show, but everything I have seen so far has been extremely interesting. I am a history geek, so seeing these people track their way through history is very interesting to me. Give it a shot if you are home on a Friday night!

Frank the Entertainer’s In a Basement Affair

I need to catch up on this show as soon as humanly possible. I can’t get me enough, Frank! Or Dyker Heights!

…..and last, but certainly not least…

SURVIVOR: HEROES VS. VILLAINS

All I have to say is, thank you, Mark Burnett! Thank you, Jeff Probst! Thank you, Survivor Big Shots and CBS executives! Thank you for putting Boston Rob and Russell together on the same island to fight for $1,000,000!

So much has happened! The Great Cirie Blindside of 2010 was a sad but necessary move for the Heroes to make. The girl is dangerous, and has friends on the other side! Smart move, country boy JT! I didn’t think you had it in you. This week also had the most amazing “pep talks” between Coach and Tyson and Coach and Rob.

Coach was feeling a little down on himself after Sandra called him out for not doing as much work around the camp. He went off to sulk and asked Tyson why people don’t like him. Tyson said I’ll help you out, buddy, just stop wearing feathers in your hair, stop telling your stories that no one believes and do your tai chi in private. This seems a little too hard for Coach to handle until Boston Rob told him that he is completely safe in their alliance and to stop crying and act like a man. This made Coach happy. He just wanted the cool kid’s acceptance.

A short aside about Boston Rob- I LOVE HIM! Thank you, Jaime Palazzi, for getting me to watch Survivor All Stars way back in 2004! My life has never been the same. Anyway, I think marriage and parenthood has done well by Rob. Everyone on that tribe wants his love and acceptance… except Russell, Danielle and Parvati. Back to that later.

Anyway, the week after Cirie left, James, the biggest, must muscley Survivor ever, went down hard and hurt his knee. What would this mean for the floundering Heroes? Certainly they would have to send James home! Nope, not so much. They got rid of Tom, the fireman from Brooklyn and my second most favorite survivor ever. It made sense for the Alliance of James, Amanda and Rupert, but made no sense for Candice and JT who had switched their votes the week before to save the Tom and Colby alliance. The decision to send Tom home seems even more stupid after watching the latest episode. Also, this week, Russell found the Hidden Immunity Idol, and his entire tribe knows it! This guy loves his idols!

So going in to this week’s episode, the heroes were slowly dying, and their strongest competitor has a bum knee. The villains are storming ahead, but Russell and Rob are waiting for the first opportunity to get rid of the other.

So, the tribes go to their challenge and Jeff announces that both tribes are going to tribal council and that only one person from each tribe will be immune. The heroes do their challenge first and Candice wins immunity. Good for you, Candice. Amanda was gunning for you this week, so you probably needed it. The Villains go next and, of course, the puzzle master, Rob, wins immunity! No matter what Russell tried, there is no getting rid of Rob this week. Rob and Candice face off against each other for a food reward and Rob wins that as well. The Villains now get to eat hot dogs and drink soda while watching the Heroes at Tribal Council.

The Heroes go back to their camp and Colby says that he knows that he is going to be sent packing, so he is not going to scramble around for votes. He just wants to enjoy his last day on the island. The tribe talks over whether they should send Colby or James… because James’s big muscley ass just can’t pull his own weight around camp with a bad knee… and he’s eating all the bananas! Well, it seems pretty cut and dry, right? JT and Candice got rid of a perfectly good competitor in Tom last week to keep the bum knee banana eater there. They would certainly keep him again and get rid of Colby, right? Wrong, the entire tribe got rid of James and it didn’t even seem to be a blind side. Amanda wouldn’t be able to do that to James. Not only that, but he was joking about getting drunk when he was leaving, instead of wanting to kill somebody. Good editing, Survivor editors!

Now back to the Villains and the much more interesting portion of the show. This was without question the most interesting strategic moving I have ever seen. The genius of Russell and Rob is incredible to watch. They out maneuvered each other constantly and Rob came with a 99% foolproof plan to get rid of either Russell or Parvati.

Rob and his crew (everyone besides Russell, Parvati and Danielle) decide to vote out Parvati, but make Russell believe that it will be him, so he uses the idol. Russell can see that Rob is playing him a bit and decides that he would give Parvati the idol and they would get rid of Tyson, who they think is Rob’s strongest ally (physically they are probably right). Rob, though, was not born yesterday. He knew that it would be possible for Russell to give Parvati the idol, so he came up with a perfect plan. I call it perfect, because if the six people in Rob’s alliance followed the plan, Parvati or Russell would definitely be going home. Rob said that three of them, Sandra, Tyson and himself, would be voting for Russell and three of them, Courtney, Coach and Jerri, would vote for Parvati. Then, if Russell, Danielle and Parvati vote for ANYBODY, it forces a three-way tie. Here are the possibilities of what could have and should have happened had there been a three-way tie:

1. No idol is played. There is a revote. Rob’s crew votes out Russell.
2. Parvati plays the idol. There is a revote. Rob’s crew votes out Russell.
3. Russell plays the idol. There is a revote. Rob’s crew votes out Parvati.

Do you see what I was saying? Foolproof. Foolproof but not Tysonproof. Right before they go to Tribal Council, Russell tells Tyson that he knows that he can’t save Parvati, so he is going to vote for her as to not upset the people he needs to go back to camp with. By saying this to Tyson…

1. Russell got some confirmation that Parvati was the target, making it easier to give her the idol.
2. It made Tyson think that if he switched his vote to Parvati, there would be no chance of his own alliance turning on him and getting rid of him. He was PETRIFIED of the planned tie.

So they get to Tribal Council, and Russell, while eye-humping her, gives his idol to Parvati, because he wants to play a loyal game. Rob and Co. still looked confident. They show the votes. Parvati gets 4 votes, but is immune. Russell gets 2 votes and Tyson gets 3 votes, sending him home in what was, in my opinion, the dumbest move in Survivor history. Rob looked astounded! He also looked like he was going to kill somebody. Well played, Russell! You went after the weak link and it worked, but now… there is no idol to save you from the wrath of team Rob. Unless Survivor puts one into play next week and completely breaks my heart.

So that’s all for now, reality lovers. Do you have a show that you want me to check out? Let me know here on C-C-D or follow me on twitter @kcjones501.Make sure you take the time to click the FOLLOW button in the right hand margin and become a Follower of C-C-D by signing in using Gmail, AOL, Etc. Enjoy your week!!!