We start this time by congratulating Dan and Jordan, the team of
brothers who are now $1M richer by winning the 16th edition of the
Amazing Race. The final three teams ended the race in San Francisco.
Some of the cool challenges included a stop at LucasArts, where they
competed in a motion capture/video game challenge that was
geektastic! And Dan and Jordan took very good notes and planned for
the final memory challenge at the Great American Music Hall, which
they completed with ease.
But the drama didn’t end at the finish line at Candlestick Park.
Brent and Caite finished third. The lesbian couple, Carol & Brandy,
still didn’t forgive Brent and Caite for U-Turning them in Leg 9 of
the Race stating, “You purposely whacked us.” Caite was defiant and
said, “I said I was going to be the last woman standing. And I am.”
While this season wasn’t the greatest in a while, let’s hope they
can regain the momentum next season.
Over at the karaoke bar, American is down to the Final Three as
Lee Dewyze, Crystal Bowersox and Casey James will be going back home
this week. Michael Lynche is staying home as he was eliminated. This
week was “Movie Week” and it was a horror show. It was painful to
watch, and even more painful to hear the judges try to strain to say
something nice to the contestants. Let’s just put this season out of
its misery. It is getting harder and harder to care each week.
Speaking of caring, you know your show is in trouble when a fan
survey is placed on your webpage. They did it with GSN and the Price
is Right and Fremantle now has a fan survey at americanidol.com. The
immediate link is here:
http://vovici.com/wsb.dll/s/51b2g44657 The survey has over 30
questions including "Tell us why you are watching 'American Idol'
less this year?”. It will be very interesting if they listen to the
fans or not. Take the survey and make your voice heard.
Daytime Emmy Nominations are out: And they are: For Best Game
Show Host: Wayne Brady, “Let’s Make a Deal.” Pat Sajak, “Wheel Of
Fortune”; Alex Trebek, “Jeopardy!”; Ben Bailey, “Cash Cab”; and
Carnie Wilson, “The Newlywed Game.”
For Best Game Show: “Wheel of Fortune", "Jeopardy!", "Cash Cab",
"The Price Is Right", and "Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?"
Ok, this one got to me in a big way. I am not only a writer and
recapper for Game Show News Net, I am also a reader. So as I was
reading the recap of Deal or No Deal for Monday May 10, I saw this
note at the end of the recap from Gordon Pepper: “By the way, do
these people look familiar? Well they are the same people that were
on January 25th...and February 20th...and April 26th. But none of
these are repeats, which means that instead of getting a new set of
22 people each week, they just used the same people, which means
that hundreds of people lost the opportunity to get on the show. I
know it's not coming back for season 3, but that's a very lame way
to be ending the show. Fortunately for the people who have been on
the show for a month, they get 4 more chances this week.”
I am FUMING now. I went on two auditions to try out for the show.
Friends of mine went to audition. When I was in New Jersey, there
were 5,000 people who showed up at a car dealership to audition. And
how could these producers be SO lazy? I could have found 78 extra
players at a drop of a hat. Shame on the Deal Production staff for
this boneheaded move.
Block Party Quick Hits Time:
--The 25 Man Ho’s, I mean “suitors” for Ali Fedotowsky are
introduced for the new season of the Bachelorette.
--Niecy Nash is out of Dancing With the Stars.
--Betty White’s Appearance on SNL was the highest rated episode of
SNL in 18 months.
--Monty Hall lends his face to a consumer protection program in
Winnipeg.
--Family Feud will be taping Season 12 in Orlando. Tape dates start
July 10th.
--Iman will co host with Isaac Mizrahi on Season 2 of “The Fashion
Show” on Bravo.
--This coming week will be the Fall Upfronts for all the major
networks.
--Wayne Brady may have cost himself the Daytime Emmy we spoke about
earlier with this quote he made in a recent interview: “To be
honest, I have no desire to turn into the king of game shows. I
consider myself an actor foremost, and a writer and singer, and I
still tour and do Broadway shows” He was rumored to have had the
gigs for Price is Right and Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader, but
turned them both down.
--Trifecta Entertainment and Mark Burnett are teaming up for a
daytime syndicated strip version of American Idol called “One in A
Million” for fall 2011. The concept: Each day, the half-hour strip
will pit four contestants against each other in a singing
competition. Each day's winner, which will be decided by three
judges, will go on to a Friday competition where a weekly winner
will be determined. Each month, the weekly winners will go on to a
semifinal competition. One winner from that group will go on to the
finals, which will air the last week of the 33-week season. The
show's overall winner, which will be determined on the season's
final Friday, will take home $1 million. But the quote of the story
is from Hank Cohen, CEO of Trifecta Entertainment: "We're not
necessarily looking for the next great recording star. We're looking
for the next great story."
--Controversy in Australia on Masterchef. It erupted after viewers
felt that the 'flawless' caramel parfait glace dessert one of the
contestant's Callum Hann, 20, had created and presented to the
judges looked different to the version seen by viewers' just moments
earlier - that one being cracked and broken on the edges. What
viewers didn't know was that Hann was allowed to re-plate the
dessert off screen.
Australian newspaper The Sunday Telegraph noticed the difference and
questioned the show's producers, who were adamant Hann used the
original mixture to create the dish, despite there being colour
differences on screen.
The producers did though admit that TV trickery was sometimes used
in the series and that dishes were sometimes re-plated, but insisted
it was rare and used mainly when the contestants had dishes that had
ice cream, sorbets and sauces as their main ingredients, which they
said deteriorated under studio lighting.
--Season 4 of Catch 21 is casting.
--Ladies Home Journal is partnering with the Newlywed Game with a
“Can This Marriage Be Saved” week of questions during May.
--CBS orders a pilot with Emeril Lagasse for a cooking game show.
--The cheftestants for Hell’s Kitchen are announced.
--In the Life Imitates Art department, Nadya Suleman, a/k/a the
Octomom, plays a woman giving birth on MTV’s Silent Library.
Jason Block's the wingman in our broomball team. E-mail him at jiblock@yahoo.com.