Constantly encourage everyone to vote out the weakest player when you are in fact the weakest player. And then remind everyone that you're the weakest player at tribal council.
Today's workday started off in a kind of rotten way - I got a package addressed like this.
Seriously? My request show is confused with that show? Really?!
But then I saw an article on a very big reality show mistake and things picked up. This is such a massive mistake - and it aired live! It's always entertaining when things go wrong live.
It's similar to something that happened overseas a little over three years ago. A wrong winner was announced on a live reality show. More on that mistake here.
Well, now it's happened on Australia's Next Top Model. This one is almost painful to watch though and I feel really bad for the runner-up. But the mistake is so crazy, it is interesting to watch.
Keep in mind, the host of the show is Sarah Murdoch, who is media giant Rupert Murdoch's daughter-in-law. The show airs on FOX in Australia which Rupert is the CEO of, so Sarah's job is most likely safe after this nightmare. But it's obvious this wasn't her fault anyways...
Gotta give credit for finding out about this - I read about it on the Complete Sheet and at the awesome Reality Blurred, where you read more about this reality disaster.
It seems just about every TV show I watch lately has either the Macy's "Magic" commercial (which I posted the info on last week), the Samsung / Verizon Fascinate commercial, or both. They're all over the place. And that's okay, because I can't get enough of the songs they feature.
The Fascinate commercial song is The Human League's (Keep Feeling) Fascination. But not the original version and not a version that seems to be available now.
The closest I've been able to find to the version used in the commercial is the 2004 White Label Remix heard here...
While it's similar to what's in the commercial, it's definitely not the same version. Maybe the commercial music came from an additional remix of this White Label Remix. Or maybe there's a new remix out there and it just hasn't been released yet. The group or the advertiser probably never saw this remix as becoming so popular, but it has become one of the bigger searches online right now.
As for the group, The Human League has never had an official website. But as of this past summer, a page has gone up that looks like it might become an official website for them. And the group is still together and working on a project. I wonder if that project involves this remake?
If I hear of anything about this (including a release for this new version of Fascination), I'll post it here.
This season, the Amazing Race has gone back to being challenging!
It looks like this season the clues they're given are actually clues! In recent seasons it seems the clues have been dumbed down and say exactly where to go. I like how they had to guess what "the opposite of Noreaster" was to figure out where to go. And that was tough as my first guess would have been Southeaster (that sounds like something that would be in England). But asking was the smart choice for most.
Much like the clues, the challenges now live up to their name as well. There really wasn't any simple "ride a zipline" type challenge yet and I'm thrilled about that. While riding a zipline is fun, that is in no way a challenge - especially in a contest for one million dollars. That weird boat ride across the river was also definitely an incredible challenge!
And speaking of challenges, the watermelon smash roadblock was insane. No matter how many times I saw that scene, it was still shocking. Ouch. I'm definitely rooting for Brook and Claire this season. So many other teams would have just given up at that point or whined about it for hours. That was amazing.
While that was definitely a highlight of the episode, there were a bunch of other crazy moments like when Chad and Stephanie got lost on the castle grounds. Crazy mistakes like that are what cost teams the game - they got very lucky.
But the funniest part of the episode was from Nick & Vicki as they struggled through the last set of challenges. The challenges themselves weren't the problem - it was the little details in between like when they endlessly searched for the flag on the battlement. At one point, Vicki even touched it! Then just minutes later, the same exact thing happened with the boats! I love when the cameraperson with them focuses on the very thing they're searching for which is right near them. I can't make too much fun of them though, because that's exactly the type of thing that would trip me up if I was on the race.
I think Nick and Vicki might end up being the most entertaining team this season. Not only were they confused about the flag and boat, but they were also completely clueless about where they were. When they arrived at the pitstop, Phil was awesome asking Vicki if she knew what country she was in. She was pretty sure they were in the country of London. And that wasn't just a moment of confusion for her. Earlier that day, she had mentioned she had never heard of Stonehenge and was stunned when she learned it was just a bunch of rocks.
They're definitely going to add a lot of comedy to the race - although I imagine that won't be for too long if they continue like this. But I'm rooting for them because they seem like cool people. Especially since they didn't seem to complain during all of that.
Overall, it's looking like this season of the race is going to be harder than previous seasons which means it'll be more fun! And I like the addition of the Express Pass - it'll be interesting to see if it actually gets used right the first time.
Me and Shannon Steele were invited to a "freak-peek" of Darien Lake's FrightFest. We hung out with Mike Schuler (from Darien Lake), William, Haley, and Raphael. It was a great night.
FrightFest is even better than last year. The Fright Night Field Trip is unique to Darien Lake and remains a great time. The Manic Mansion is longer and cooler than last year.
And the pathway leading to the Manic Mansion is now called CarniVile - it's where amusement park rides go to die. The Crazy Quilt and the old kiddie Galaxian Ferris Wheel were spotted there along with some roller coaster cars that have seen better days.
There's also the Crazy Cliff's Twisted Nightmare illusion show, the Road Rage Bumper Cars, Corn Cannons, and the Laserblast Spooktacular. For the kids: BooVille with a Trick Or Treat Trail and pumpkin painting. And of course there's always a bunch of my favorite rides including Silver Bullet, Viper, Ride Of Steel, and a dark Giant Wheel.
The video I took only contains brief glimpses of the FrightFest stuff. If you want to see all of it, go to Darien Lake before October 17th.
Watching Tyana rip on Nicole was kind of weird knowing that after the filming of the show, they ended up as good friends.
David (the guys' project manager) is a real life version of Andy from The Office. He's even got the facial expressions down, most likely without even realizing it.
Thirty minutes of people yelling at everyone to buy ice cream on a major TV network. Wow. Network TV really is in trouble.
Maybe Nicole was right in her interview - Tyana is kind of awesome. Giving away ice cream to people who were just about to buy one from the guys is brilliant - anything to keep money from going to the other team!
What was wrong with Donald Trump last night? He was just being rude to the women's team before the winner of the task was announced.
The ending itself wasn't a surprise. But I was surprised that Donald Trump didn't set the fired contestant up for an interview somewhere. I figured he'd do that for everyone this season. That's not to say Nicole didn't deserve an interview - I still think it was a giant mistake that he fired her to begin with.
Next week's task involves picking up dog poop. Seriously. Again, this is a major network TV show. This has become so bad that it's good. I'll be watching - and I think I've stunned myself by that.
It's never good when you're the first one voted off or fired from a reality show. But it's so much worse when there's not a good reason for it - and that's the case here.
Nicole was the first person fired by Donald Trump on this season's The Apprentice. Mahsa and Tyana pretty much ganged up on her in the boardroom. Since Nicole didn't try to scream to be heard over them, she was sent packing.
I talked with Nicole earlier today and asked her if it's possible that Donald Trump fired her just so he could keep a potential villain (Mahsa) in the game.
Is Nicole still rooting for the women's team and has Donald Trump already set up the interview for her with the Miss USA Pageant committee? (This was mentioned at the end of the episode after Nicole had left.)
Find out in the full 7-minute interview (portions aired on Star 102.5). And watch the new season of The Apprentice - Thursdays at 10pm on NBC.
Katy Perry's duet with Elmo was supposed to happen New Year's Eve.
But thanks to some complaints from people who obviously still live in 1902, the show has now decided to pull the segment.
I had to watch to see what all the fuss was about - it was actually a cool segment.
Watch for yourself. Oh, and for those who might be offended by this, don't even think of turning on CBS tonight at 8:30pm. The title of that sitcom might throw you into an apoplectic rage.
The reason I love reality shows is because I like crazy. And there was a whole herd of crazy on last night's Survivor!
As I expected, the second episode of Survivor picked up. The first episode is always bogged down by getting to know the new castaways. The second episode is where the drama begins.
And drama there was. Sunken shoes & stolen socks (in two totally separate instances) caused the drama. And neither situation made much sense and didn't further the players (Holly & NaOnka) in any way. But it sure was funny.
And if you're thinking it was familiar - yes, it definitely is something similar to what Russell did during his two seasons on the show. And this season of Survivor was filmed after those two seasons aired, so these Survivors did have a chance to see them. But they also had a chance to see that even though Russell made it to the end both times, he also lost both times.
Anyways, things that make no sense started off the episode and it continued on right through the Tribal Council. That was insane. And it was mostly personal. The goal this early in the game should be to unite the tribe and get rid of the negativity so they can win every immunity challenge.
I knew there would be negativity - I just didn't expect it to come from where it did! And based on the previews for next week, there's still a lot of negative & a whole bunch of crazy left on that tribe. NaOnka should have been the target last night. As miserable as the booted contestant was, I think they're all going to regret keeping her around.
Survivor is back and better than ever! And on Wednesdays (don't forget that). If you missed last night's episode, check it out here.
The group Paper Tongues (four of the seven members) stopped by the station today.
If you're heard the song "Ride To California", you know that's a killer song to perform live. Acoustically, even more difficult. And with the lead singer (Aswan North) just getting over a cold - probably impossible.
But they did it and it sounded unbelievable! Here's the acoustic performance and an explanation of how the song came to be...
Permission to post this video was given by the band's representative.
This is one of the most anticipated new fall shows for me.
I miss sitcoms. There's really not many good ones left anymore. In fact, the only one I watch now is The Big Bang Theory.
That'll change tonight though. Mike & Molly is about a cop and a grade school teacher that meet at an Overeaters Anonymous meeting.
Chances are, I'll probably love this as it comes from the executive producer of The Big Bang Theory. It airs Monday nights at 9:30pm starting tonight on CBS.
Here's an extended preview...
UPDATE 9-21: I saw it last night - this is definitely a good sitcom.
The casting is nearly perfect. The only exception being Molly's sister - if she disappeared from the show, I could say the casting is perfect (her character is completely unfunny and unnecessary).
It's rare when this happens with a sitcom, but I actually laughed out loud a few times. And one of those times is when Mike's finger was broken. I saw that clip like a million times in the previews, but it was still funny when the scene came up. That's great writing!
I can see this sitcom lasting awhile. The Big Bang Theory made it and I like that one, so maybe I'm on a roll and everything I like won't get cancelled anymore. Well, maybe that's crazy, but I can hope.
The new commercials from Macy's features a remake of Olivia Newton-John's "Magic". The group doing the remake is Stimulator.
The song is actually from their 2003 self-titled album (which was re-released in 2006). This version was also featured on the Ella Enchanted soundtrack.
The video that Stimulator did for the remake was definitely inspired by Xanadu (which Olivia Newton-John's version came from). Check it out...
It seems Xanadu is suddenly making a bit of a comeback. The sound of Xanadu is also very apparent in a recent song from Goldfrapp called "Alive". And it's totally obvious that Xanadu was the inspiration when you see the video...
Now if someone does a remake of E.L.O.'s The Fall, then the Xanadu resurgence will officially be underway!
Three reality shows collided last night. Survivor began it's new season while Big Brother and America's Got Talent finished theirs.
I watched Survivor and Big Brother, then called my friend Mary who told me the winner of America's Got Talent.
I'm happy I didn't watch the two hours of America's Got Talent. A singer won?! Pathetic. Fighting Gravity was easily the best in my mind as they're completely unique and the best fit for a Vegas show. So naturally when America voted, they came in 3rd. I'm sure they'll end up with a Vegas show, just as I'm sure the two singers who came in 1st & 2nd will be forgotten by America within days.
On CBS, Survivor began it's old versus young experiment and it wasn't all that exciting. There are some fun / crazy people this season (it's a miracle Jud / Fabio survived the hour and I'm sure the Survivor medical staff will get to know him well as the season progresses), but one of the crazies has already been voted off. I thought she wasn't much of a people person throughout the episode. Then the end came and she interrupted Jeff at the Tribal Council with a loony speech that helped get her voted out. Have these people ever seen the show before?
I'm sure Survivor will pick up as the season progresses - the first episode of the season is usually one of the weak ones.
After that it was the two-hour finale for Big Brother 12. Two hours is usually way too much for Big Brother, but last night it worked. That was the best finale of the show ever.
The Zingbot was there in the beginning, which was promising. Sadly, that was the only appearance it made in the episode. That's okay though, as the rest of the episode provided plenty of entertainment.
One of the highlights was when the Brigade made it to the end of the game, wearing T-shirts they made for their alliance. Unfortunately, the final two didn't know how to spell the name of their alliance. Maybe it was an intentional misspelling, but I kind of doubt that.
Enzo provided a lot of comic relief throughout his appearance. Especially during his post-eviction interview where he proclaimed his love for CBS, thanked himself, thanked his parents for making him, thanked the audience, etc.
Another highlight - Britney being completely disgusted by Brendon & Rachel. Julie Chen called her on it when Britney mouthed "I am so disgusted" to the camera while they were talking. Julie Chen was at her absolute best last night calling people on a lot of things throughout the finale.
The live aspect of the show was evident when Julie was reading the votes for the winner and was putting the wrong names in the slots. Oops. She had fun with this though - and that's one of the things that makes live shows fun to watch.
As for the ultimate winner, I was happy that Hayden won. Lane already has a lot of money outside the house and recent things that he revealed on the live feeds made me not want him to win (let alone remain in the game). And Hayden did seem to be one of the nicer houseguests. At the end, I was rooting for either him or Enzo to win.
And Britney, who I originally wanted to win, at least got something out of this. She took home the America's Favorite Houseguest $25,000 prize. And the show ended with Rachel's complete disgust over this. Her eye-rolling was kind of funny over the end credits, although completely understandable from her point of view.
Overall, it was a good season of Big Brother, but not great. To be great, it needed a lot more drama. But to have that, they needed more annoying people and there really wasn't many of those this season. Nice people and big drama don't mix. But I'm happy to see another nice person win. And Julie Chen was incredible constantly calling people out for things and making them give better answers than they were giving.
As for the future of Big Brother, get ready for season 13 next summer! CBS announced the renewal of the show earlier this week.
CCH Pounder portrays Mrs. Frederic on the SyFy Channel's Warehouse 13.
You never know when or where Mrs. Frederic will pop up next. Until tonight. I know she'll be a big part of the two-part 2nd season finale.
I talked with her earlier today and found out her thoughts on the mysterious Mrs. Frederic. I also asked about Leena and if there's a possible family connection there, Mr. Frederic (who so far we know nothing about), and I brought up the possibility of Mrs. Frederic being killed off the show.
This happened on Simon Cowell's The X Factor Saturday (a US version of this show begins next fall on FOX).
Best friends Abby & Lisa started off talking with the judges - that went really bad to the point where they even offended a judge. Then they sang and things got much worse. But nothing can compare to how wrong things went after that (as you can see in the screenshot)!
Natalie Imbruglia (the popular singer from the 90's with hits like Torn and Wrong Impression) was a guest judge. She was also (through no fault of her own) the cause of the mess that this audition turned into.
The disaster truly begins at 4:30, but everything leading up to it is crazy as well.
The Basil car giveaway is this weekend at Darien Lake. That's always one of my favorite days of the year - I love the excitement of someone winning a car.
I almost always hang out at the back of the line rooting for them to get a shot at picking out the ice cream sandwich with the gold star (the car star I guess). Of course, I'll also be rooting for anyone who qualified with me on Star this summer. :)
On the way to the giveaway, I always have to make a quick stop at my favorite ride - the Silver Bullet / Enterprise. This weekend will be no exception.
The Viper is also one of my favorites - especially this year. This season, I've been the voice on the ride announcements for three of Darien Lake's roller coasters. The Viper is one of them - the Mind Eraser and Boomerang are the others.
So if you go on them - listen for me!
Here's the ride announcements I did for the Viper...
Today is a great day for the park. The Blue Streak roller coaster reopened today after being closed the past four years.
The Pennsylvania state inspectors approved the ride yesterday after an extensive summer of ride rehab. The main reason the Blue Streak was closed was money - the park itself was closed for two years, then when reopened the money to restore the ride was slow in coming.
Conneaut Lake Park is just south of Erie, PA (a little over two hours from Buffalo). It's one of my favorite parks as it reminds me of what amusement parks must have been like back in the early 1900's.
It's a small park, but there's quite a few great rides - The Flying Scooters, Devil's Den, Witch's Stew, Tumble Bug, and Skydiver being my favorites.
This is one of those small parks where you feel like they're open just for you and your group when you go. This is kind of like Crystal Beach Park in a way. But unlike that park, Conneaut Lake Park has managed to survive (although barely).
Here's video I took at the park this summer. It shows all the fun rides and some of the devastation brought about by a park fire over two years ago. Me and Mike, Heather, and Mikel Lynn even walked along the outside of the Blue Streak and took video of the first drop and the new track with permission from the park...
I got the press release from CBS earlier this morning. The upcoming season will feature home shopping channel hosts, Ivy League acapella singers, beach volleyball partners, and a birth mother / daughter who were recently reunited after the mother gave her newborn daughter up for adoption over 20 years ago. And of course there will be the usual pairings of newly dating, best friends, etc.
Amazing Race 17 will debut Sunday, September 26th with a 90-minute episode starting at 8:30pm.
This season's cast of racers will travel over 32,000 miles, covering four continents and 30 cities, with first-time visits to Bangladesh, Ghana and the Arctic Circle. Additionally, for the first time in the history of the Race, the team to finish in first place during the premiere episode will be awarded a surprise, game-changing advantage.
My Oh My - Tristan Prettyman Kiss You Inside Out - Hedley My Passion - Akcent Home - Phillip Phillips Get Out - Casey Abrams Titanium - David Guetta ft. Sia Move In The Right Direction - Gossip American Girlfriend - Youngblood Survival - Muse Dark Side - Kelly Clarkson Don't Wanna Lie - Cue Good Time - Owl City ft. Carly Rae Jepsen Falling - Donati & Amato Stay In This Moment - Alex Saidac I'm In Love - Ola Sound Of Our Hearts - Compact Disco Nobody Knows - Darin
How not to play survivor...
Today's workday started off in a kind of rotten way - I got a package addressed like this.
As for the group, The Human League has never had an official website. But as of this past summer, a page has gone up that looks like it might become an official website for them. And the group is still together and working on a project. I wonder if that project involves this remake?
This season, the Amazing Race has gone back to being challenging!
Nicole was the first person fired by Donald Trump on this season's The Apprentice. Mahsa and Tyana pretty much ganged up on her in the boardroom. Since Nicole didn't try to scream to be heard over them, she was sent packing.
The reason I love reality shows is because I like crazy. And there was a whole herd of crazy on last night's Survivor!
The group Paper Tongues (four of the seven members) stopped by the station today.
This is one of the most anticipated new fall shows for me.
The Zingbot was there in the beginning, which was promising. Sadly, that was the only appearance it made in the episode. That's okay though, as the rest of the episode provided plenty of entertainment.
Enzo provided a lot of comic relief throughout his appearance. Especially during his post-eviction interview where he proclaimed his love for CBS, thanked himself, thanked his parents for making him, thanked the audience, etc.
Another highlight - Britney being completely disgusted by Brendon & Rachel. Julie Chen called her on it when Britney mouthed "I am so disgusted" to the camera while they were talking. Julie Chen was at her absolute best last night calling people on a lot of things throughout the finale.
The live aspect of the show was evident when Julie was reading the votes for the winner and was putting the wrong names in the slots. Oops. She had fun with this though - and that's one of the things that makes live shows fun to watch.
And Britney, who I originally wanted to win, at least got something out of this. She took home the America's Favorite Houseguest $25,000 prize. And the show ended with Rachel's complete disgust over this. Her eye-rolling was kind of funny over the end credits, although completely understandable from her point of view.
CCH Pounder portrays Mrs. Frederic on the SyFy Channel's Warehouse 13.
On the way to the giveaway, I always have to make a quick stop at my favorite ride - the Silver Bullet / Enterprise. This weekend will be no exception.
It's a small park, but there's quite a few great rides - The Flying Scooters, Devil's Den, Witch's Stew, Tumble Bug, and Skydiver being my favorites.
