February 19, 2007

Chico:  Today, we answer the age old question... "Why are math and music important in our schools today?" Answer... so we can have something to talk about on a Sunday morning. Oh yeah, and something about cash, glory, fame, etc. etc...
Gordon: We'll be dealing with that, as well as Politics and Love as from somewhere on Exile Island, WLTI...is...On!
Chico:  Alongside Professor Pepper, I'm Professor Alexander. And grab a #2 and a wireless notebook, because .... class is in session. Open your textbooks to page one.
Gordon: (flipping book)
Chico:  Here you will see.. Frank Firke completely buying it. Not exactly the best  picture of the Jeopardy!  tournament, but one of the most memorable. This is not a dig on any level. We're not into kicking people when they're down. But this is a reminder... that game shows, especially short-long-form ones like the last two weeks of Jeopardy! rival any championship sports game in the drama department. To explain... Wednesday's semifinal had Stephen Fritz against Frank Firke. It's a see-saw match. It could've gone either way. Frank led Stephen going into the Final...The score: 21,900 to 17,196. Stephen doubles up on the Final, and Frank makes a fatal miscalculation. Final score: Stephen Fritz: 34,389. Frank Firke, having to bet $12,493 and be correct to win... only bet $12,395 and wound up with $34,295. One split second after the final score is reveal... Frank just buries himself at his lectern. That's the kind of tournament this has been... Drama-packed from beginning to end.
Gordon: And for good reason. It's a heart-breaking loss, but that's why math is important. How did Stephen parlay this in the Championship games?
Chico:  He was outgunned almost from the get-go.
Gordon: What wound up happening?
Chico:  In the finals... Stephen... vs. David Walter and Ben Schenkel, two overwhelming favorites. Day 1: It was the Ben show, through and through. He commanded the board... and respect. Actually, he AND David commanded the board... and respect. It looked like David might have been the dominant player, but Ben made THREE big bets. First was to double up from third on a Daily Double in Double Jeopardy!. Second... a near-double up one clue afterwards on the SECOND Daily Double...Then at the Final, he made a wager that would have you saying... Holy crap. Ben ends up in the lead, $40,000 to David's $14,200 (David missed the Final Jeopardy!
Gordon: Excellently played so far.
Chico:  Day 2 was all David all the time, as he ended up with what would normally be a lock-game situation by leaps and bounds. All three get the Final right. The FINAL SCORE... Drumroll please.

(Drumroll)

Chico:  Ben Schenkel: $42,800.... David Walter... $42,900. By $100, David is your 2007 Teen Champion.
Gordon: Great matchup.
Chico:  Congrats to all the players for giving us one of the greatest tournaments in J! history.
Gordon: I hope they replay this one during the Summer. it was an excellent match and something that Jeopardy may want to think about releasing as a DVD.
Chico:  The fatal mistake was on Ben's part, as he was... for lack of a better word... slack... through game 2. Either that or David was roaring like a lion. I'm willing to bet the latter, due to the flow of the game as illustrated in line-chart from by our friends at j-arcive.com.
Gordon: In any sports - and trivia included - it's very hard to stop an opponent when they are on a roll.
Chico:  But the ending plays the same. David plays both days totals... ends up the winner.
Gordon: Yep.
Chico:  Closing thought, Gordon?
Gordon: This goes down as not only probably the best Teen Tournament ever, but maybe the one of the best Jeopardy Tournaments ever, because I can't remember any tournament with this much action all the way through. Even the 150 person Masters Tournament didn't have all of this drama
Chico:  And just when you think you know who's game is tops... oops. :)
Gordon: It was a great match-up.  And as one competition featuring teenagers ends, another one featuring teenagers is about to begin. Ladies and Gentlemen - Your Top 24 American Idols.
Chico:  The stage is set. My the new AT&T cell phone is ready. Let the torture commence!
Gordon: Yay Torture! Seriously, this is when Idol becomes good.
Chico:  So who do we have in the running for the coveted Sony BMG recording contract worth in upwards of $1 million?
Gordon: We have.. everyone and no one.
Chico:  That... doesn't make sense. =p
Gordon: Let me explain - with the 'BIG TWIST' coming up, Idol only had 2 episodes during Hollywood Week (instead of the normal 4). We had 1 episode of the Hollywood Auditions and 1 of the Final 24 being selected. We usually get 2 weeks of this. Because of the lack of one week, we got to have a little taste of everyone, yet we didn't get to see everyone in full action, leaving a major mystery. I mean sure, we already have favorites, but I think this year, over any other, will stress how important it is to get a good singing jump out of the gate.
Chico:  So we're completely flying blind here. So the final 24 better bring it.
Gordon: But...a few things to be noted on the Top 24. May I have a Big Board please?

Chico:  Damn that's a big board
Gordon: Topic - Early Idol Statistics. Lets start with age. Only 3 teenagers
this year, and most of the singers are 24 or over. In fact, 6 of them are 28
or over.
Chico:  Sounds like your standard bell curve to me.
Gordon: Next - Southern Connections. We know that every single Idol winner has been below the Mason-Dixon line. We only have a handful of people (around 9, if my geography is right)
Chico:  It's a decline.
Gordon: Major decline.
Chico:  And here's a bit of interesting news... NO one is from North Carolina.
Gordon: Or Alabama, for that matter
Chico:  Course, you don't care about that...do you?
Gordon: Where is North Carolina?
Chico:  My point exactly =p Next point?
Gordon: Next point...The days of Cinderella Idolists are just about over. Almost all of the finalists have some sort of background music training or experience.
Chico:  Not to discount the role of the Cinderella Idolist. After all, without the Cinderella... we'd just have "The One". and "Grease" and "Fame." And really, no one wants that. Again.
Gordon: But with nothing but Cinderella, we get...Fame and The One.
Chico:  And American Idol season 1. It's all about... achieving the balance.
Gordon: Speaking of balance - #4 - It seems like Idol is stacking the deck on a POP winner this year, as there is very limited country crooners and rockers in the bunch.
Chico:  And soul singers?
Gordon: We do have some soul, but quite frankly, we haven't had a pop winner since season #1. It may be time to go back to that standpoint. And the Soul singers that we do have seem to be more pop-oriented than R&B oriented.
Chico:  So you're basically talking Taylor Hicks-soul more than Fantasia-soul then.
Gordon: Right
Chico:  Ah. I can dig that.
Gordon: I am not going to nearly be stupid to give a Top 12 now without hearing the singers and how they have progressed - or regressed - but I will give my 3 singers to look out for in each catergory. I'll say Chris, Brandon and Sundance for the men, and Melinda, Lakisha and Stephani for the women - you?
Chico:  I actually had Chris and Lakisha as my faves.
Gordon: My Wild Cards go to Paul Kim and Jordin Sparks.
Chico:  I'm wondering if Jason may be right in saying that the next winner will come from NY.
Gordon: I think Chris can go a very long way in this format and could be a dark horse to win the whole thing. BUT it's great because then you won't hear people complain that certain people got more air time than others.
Chico:  That is true. Performances begin this week. My dialing finger's ready.
Gordon: Live show recaps start this week as well from us wacky American Idol recappers.
Chico: And if you have any minutes left on your cell plan after all that voting, you may consider the brand new and improved Playmania.
Gordon: New? Yes. Improved? Uh...jury's out.
Chico:  Well, improved, as in instead of one show... they have two and Jessica York's apparently a non-entity. So there you go. New ... AND improved. :)
Gordon: I'm not as down on Jessica as everyone else is. She's not as good as CJ from Midnight Money Madness, but she's not as awful as Natalie on MyGames Fever, either.
Chico:  I've never seen Natalie, so I can't judge. I can only judge based on what I've seen, and I judge that GSN would've been better off with the green ball guy. But anyway. Gone is the single Playmania show.
Gordon: Natalie needs a better writing crew. Actually, all of the hosts do, as they need to stop repeating themselves every 20 seconds.
Chico:  In its place, two new shows. Both under the heading of "Playmania" First is 100 Winners, in which Mel has to open up 100 safe deposit boxes before the show ends. Kind of like the Wall of Stuff from "What Would You Do"... You remember that?
Gordon: I liked the Wall of Stuff.
Chico:  Me too. That's Tuesday through Thursday. Friday through Sunday is quiznation... which is basically Playmania with a spiffy new title.
Gordon: So we have a 'New' show, which sounds sinisterly like the old show but with a new name. Then we have a second 'new' show, which sounds like we still get the same games but forced so that we have 100 people to call in and win. Quite honestly, though, unless there's a radical change of game play, it seems like 100 Winners is going to be Playmania with a Wall of Stuff, Quiznation is going to be Playmania with a new name, and this is just something that the creative powers that be came up with to make sure they have something to verify their self-worth and to not lose their jobs.
Chico:  Hard not to lose your job when you're responsible for the income of an entire network, but what the hey, right?
Gordon: Right. Besides, look at the money you can make with new T-Shirts! Oooh.
Chico:  I like t-shirts with stuff on 'em. :)
Gordon: What about Racers with Backpacks on them?
Chico:  EVEN BETTER! Looks like you're ready for the 11th running of the Amazing Race.
Gordon: I am. This should be an All-Stars show that could actually be FUN to watch! Who would have think it?
Chico:  *slaps own cheek in disbelief*
Gordon: We can actually look into the past of other All-Star shows to predict the future for this show. For example...Big Board please.

(Big Board the Second)

Gordon: Topic - Handicapping The All-Stars. So this is how they look like on a playing field...
Chico:  *brings out a chessboard*
Gordon: I'm shocked there are no teams in the Family Edition. SHOCKED!
Chico:  *slaps cheek again* Interesting thing to note: Eric & Danielle were not on the same team the last time around.
Gordon: Now, Let's start eliminating based on what we know. First of all - in previous shows, what are the chances of Top 3 people winning the Big one this time?
Chico:  Zero.
Gordon: Zero.
Chico: Yep.
Gordon: Survivor made a practice to target out the defending champions and Romber was 8th and 10th in their first seasons. Mike 'Boogie' Malin was also a middle of the Pack winner, and Will Kirby only got to 4th. Let's knock out those teams

Gordon: Rule #2. What's the most important thing on the race? Your relationships. Since the airing, John Vito and Jill split up, and Oswald/Danny and Kevin/Drew both had fall outs. That can't possibly help you patching things up during a race like this.
Chico:  Dating couples have a higher failure rate on the Race, don't they?
Gordon: Yes...and no. Amazing Races #3 and #6 were won by dating couples.
Chico:  Technically, #6 winners were engaged.
Gordon: It matters on the sturdiness of the relationship. Those 3 up there? Not so sturdy.
Chico:  But all semantics aside... a strong relationship forms the core of a strong team.
Gordon: Agreed. Getting rid of three, that leaves...

Gordon: #3. You still need brains.
Chico:  Intelligence is also a... wow, I was going to say that.
Gordon: 3 of these teams have brains. 1 Team was dragged by their coattails during their whole race.
Chico: So David and Mary... Gone.
Gordon: You are a mind reader, you know that?
Chico:  I'm on FIRE!

Gordon: So those are my final 3. Now who's going to win? Easy, if you remember the 4th rule.
Chico:  The underdog always wins?
Gordon: No.
Chico:  Well, I gave it a shot =p
Gordon: You must ALWAYS have a MALE on your Team! Always always always!
Chico:  So Eric/Danielle... checkmate.
Gordon: Exactly. I predict Eric and Danielle win this one.
Chico:  Although I will argue for Charla and Mirna. This is gonna be good. Okay, Rewind time!
Gordon: (rewind)
Chico:  Something TPIR and Wheel did in the same day... Give away $100,000.
Gordon: Yay!
Chico:  Of course, TPIR spread the love around on Tuesday... but on Wheel, it went to one person... and one person only (two if you count the celeb partner)

The puzzle: T A N _ _   _ L A _ _ R

Chico:  A thing. Peter Eusalado and partner Julie Roberts go with TANGY FLAVOR, and how tangy is $100,000.
Gordon: Nice
Chico:  Meanwhile, the first person back from Exile Island became the second person voted out of Fiji, as Erica hears the TPIR losing trumps.
Gordon: I'll take your $100,000, and multiply it by 4.
Chico:  You do that.
Gordon: Raul Torres gets $263,000... and gives it away to 5 people in the Mob.

What is the capital of the United States?
a) The city who's mayor is Richard Daley
b) The city who's mayor is Adrian Fenty
c) The city who's mayor is Gavin Newsome

Chico:  I think it's A. I remember hearing Richard Daley and Washington in the same breath.
Gordon: Raul trusts the Mob, who says A. The problem is that the answer is B
Chico:  Ay.
Gordon: And with that, Raul loses $263,000 and leaves with nothing.
Chico:  All this and Howie is visited by his cartoon creation and a big...orange...thing.
Gordon: This now is the biggest wipeout in TV where someone walks with
nothing. This even eclipses Dan Avila. As you remember, he only lost $200,000.
Chico:  We have a new chumpion :) And if Raul is reading... it's all in fun. Just remember that. We do this out of love and respect for the game and her players.
Gordon: There's been other wipeouts where people have lost more (Millionaire comes to mind), but at least they walked with either $25,000 or $32,000. This may be the biggest wipeout where someone takes nothing home. I am sure that Jason Wuthrich or someone will correct me if I'm wrong. He is. However, there was good news. Casey Smith gets through the
Hated Mob in America to the tune of $142,000. That's a total of $405,000...or $100,000 times 4.
Chico:  There you go. He beat IRS auditors. Good for him. But he still can't have the keys to the Choppler. Choppler is hot. Let's do the news!
Gordon: Roll that Beautiful Brain Footage

(Doug: Live, local, and latebreaking... From the four corners of the globe to your frontal lobe, this is WLTI Brainvision News, and now here's Gordon Pepper, Chico Alexander, and the award-winning Brainvision News Team)

Chico:  Thanks. First up...

Mark your calendars for March 16. The return of Identity follows the season finale of Deal or No Deal and 1 Vs. 100, which is the week before.

Chico:  Which begs the question... now how do we kill a Monday night?
Gordon: 90 minutes of The Bachelor?
Chico:  The question was "How to kill a Monday night," not "How to make Chico commit seppuku."
Gordon: Ok. How do we kill a Monday night?
Chico:  Bowling.. poker... Jeopardy!... Kid Icarus... How I Met Your Mother... Good times :)
Gordon: Here's what I don't get. Why would NBC only order enough episodes of DOND and 1 Vs. 100 to not extend it to May Sweeps?
Chico:  Because... they didn't learn a blessed thing from Millionaire. They saw a plug in the schedule. Quick! Put Deal on! Run Deal! Run Deal! They exhausted their order.
Gordon: In other words, I can only think that they had to put all those extra episodes in there to plug up the holes in their schedule. Silly Networks.
Chico:  And now they have nothing.  But I suppose that's why they get paid the big bucks and I'm still working a real job.
Gordon: So we either get an emergency order for new episodes, or we get Super-duper-sized episodes of Heroes for the next 2 months. By the way, Chico....
Chico:  Ya?

ABC's Monday shows have been dismal, so they have attached a 90 minute Dancing With the Stars to...90 minute Bachelor episodes...for the whole season. That's right, you can now get 90 minutes of Bachelor goodness every Monday. Please keep the Seppuku equipment away from The Chairman.

Chico:  ... I'll be in my room. No calls.
Gordon: Next article coming up...

This would be one of those reasons why DOND is ending in March. NBC, realizing that the Sunday schedule is not going as planned, is moving The Apprentice to 10pm from 9pm in March. Deal Or No Deal moves into the 9pm slot, and Grease stays at 8.

Chico:  That leaves Crossing Jordan... err... crossed.
Gordon: Crossing Jordan gets to hang out on Wednesdays, up against...American Idol. Have fun. Meanwhile, the judges have decided to keep the 'Our decisions are final, regardless of who you vote at the bottom' permanent, so your votes mean...absolutely nothing.
Chico:  Although they still maintain that America will get the final say-so. Bitter much?
Gordon: You think? After all that, I need to get fully loaded. HIC!
Chico:  Okay, let's get Loaded...This week.. this is hot. This week, viral videos.

Friends... do you have a game show that needs ANOTHER Daytime Emmy? Sony is going the viral video route to pimp Wheel and Jeopardy! for nods. The addresses for the videos are U-gottaseethis.com and U-gottaseethat.com.

Gordon: The videos are sweet.
Chico:  For those that don't want to go through the trouble of click, "this" is Wheel and "that" is Jeopardy!. Both are pretty nice pieces of kit.
Gordon: They are, but we go from nice, to nasty...
Chico:  I smell some Haterade brewing on you.
Gordon: Gee, you think?

There may be a reason why Kellie Pickler wants nothing to do with her father. Her dad gets arrested - again - this time for assaulting someone he was with. Listen, kids - female companions and steak knives do NOT mix.

Chico:  Have we learned NOTHING from Big Brother 2?
Gordon: Uh...no. This is just sad.
Chico:  Yeah.
Gordon: I need to get away from this for a while. Let's go global

Listen, if you want to get a high... just fly to Russia and take a cab. Russian TV  network TNT has reupped Cash Cab for another five years. Meanwhile, the US version is unceremoniously shipped to Discovery Times...No love, man... No love.

Gordon: See, learning facts about our country isn't nearly as important as to see who Miss New York is going to diss next on her show. Or which naughty girl is going to have Teeny Bikini Fever.
Chico:  And speaking of hoes....*Area Codes*

We start with ABC announcing audition for their new Impersonation singing show called 'The Next Big Thing'. Any problems here?

Chico:  "What is Performing As..." "What is ABC singing show?"
Gordon: That would be correct...and That would be correct. FOX already did a show like that - and it was a disaster. ABC's singing show record...well, THAT speaks for itself. So we're much having much love here. In other Ho news...

In this week's Hodometer, Jennifer Hudson lands on Vogue, American Idol is denying that Michael Jackson will show up on their show, Scooter and Megan win Beauty and the Geek 3...

Chico:  Yay Scooter and Megan.

...Donald Trump and Vincent McMahon have a Wrestlemania bet where the loser shaves his head, Mike Richards gets a shot at the Price is Right gig, and Bret Michaels may be getting his own Rock of Love show.

Gordon: But none of them...are your ho of the week...or should I say Hoes.
Chico:  Plural
Gordon: As it is Valentine's Day Week, We'll give it to Cheryl Burke...and Matthew Lawrence, who were seen dating. No word on what Joey, the brother who was actually ON the Dancing with the Stars show, feels about this.
Chico:  Well, if it means anything, they were never PAIRED together :)
Gordon: Yes, but dont you think he would be steamed, especially since he probably had first shot at her?
Chico:  True. Okay, That's Brainvision for this week.
Gordon: Boooooop. When we come back - we have a NEW game, but first, we do some in depth Idolling.
Chico:  Before we continue, a matter of last week's You Love...Turns out 40% of you were right. The champ did indeed come from Tuesday's match.
Gordon: Very nice. This week's Question...

[FrontPage Save Results Component] We have the Amazing Race debut this week. You know who we think will win. Who do YOU think? Eric/Danielle - Sure, we'll agree! Uchenna/Joyce - Defending champs will win! Romber - They'll find a way! Dustin/Kandice or Charla/Mirna - Woman power! Someone else entirely!

Chico:  Results next week. This is WLTI, celebrating five years of being wrong about nine percent of the time.

(Brainvision is brought to you by Dancing With the Party Girls. Forget the professionals. Britney, Paris, Lindsay and others get to dance with celebrities, where the question isn't how well can they dance, but whether or not they what they are wearing under the dresses - if anything.)

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