Big Brother is back and better than ever--well at least better than last season--so far. Sunday was the season premiere of Big Brother 10 and there is definite potential there. CBS has been touting that it's the most diverse cast ever, and I'd have to agree. No early favorites yet, but I do have a couple players I'd love to see walk out the BB house door soon--Renny and Jessie. I wish they could've both stayed on the block together, and been evicted together too. Glad Brian got sent home. He was too cocky, too soon. Jessie won the HOH this week, so it will be interesting to see if he targets Jerry as payback for his own nomination, or if he's a little more strategic in who he puts up.The last couple of weeks of America's Got Talent have been pretty bland for me. No standout performances, and no new favorites to cheer for, despite NBC's determined effort to throw sob story, after sob story at us. For example, last week we had Donald Braswell (sang Josh Groban song) whose tragic back story was damaged vocal chords due to an accident. The week before that it was Kyle Rifkin, the wedding singer with a hard knocks life striving for a brighter future. I don't know if I've become slightly cynical or just numbed by the endless weeks of auditions, because normally I'm the biggest sucker for an underdog, but neither of these guys did anything for me. I think NBC is milking the audition rounds a little too long. When the call-in vote portion of the show arrives, people will have tuned out. It's a bit of a snoozefest. All I can say is wake me up when we get to Vegas.
So You Think You Can Dance has provided some standout entertainment lately and for the full 2-hours no less. Yup, no fillers, no ton of commercials, no extra long pieces letting us know what the dancers had for breakfast or how they like or dislike each other, nope, just two solid hours chock-full of dancing. As I predicted in my last SYTYCD post, Thayne and Comfort got the boot, though thanks to poor Jessica's injury, Comfort got a chance at redemption. This week the dancers got scrambled around and we got some pairings with a lot of potential, namely Will and Katee and Joshua and Courtney. I love Joshua and he did not disappoint this week. Josh and Courtney pulled off a great Bride of Frankenstein inspired hip-hop routine, and a sizzlin' hot rumba. The second best dance of the night was easily Twitch and Comfort's hip-hop routine. I correctly guessed the bottom dwellers for the week--Comfort and Kherington for the girls and Mark and Gev for the boys. Ultimately, Kherington and Gev were sent home, and while I agree with the audience's saving vote for Comfort (she earned another week with the great hip-hop routine), I was very disappointed that Gev got sent home. I knew he wouldn't win it all, but I was hoping he'd stick around a couple more weeks. This has been a great season so far, and I'm glad that we're now in the home stretch.
I've been watching Last Comic Standing the last couple of weeks (I skipped most of the auditions). From what I've seen so far of the finalist's material, right now I'd put my money on Louis Ramey to win it all, though there are a few which could put up a fight. This week in particular Carrot Top was a guest judge, and the immunity competition included performing a comedy bit with props that the finalists had to find at random in a store they were in. While I expected certain people to do well, Jeff Dye came out of left field for me and totally blew me away. I thought he was hilarious. He did this bit on Forrest Gump running that anybody that's seen the movie would totally crack up about. Carrot Top agreed with me, or I agreed with him, whichever, Jeff ended up winning immunity. So far four finalists have been sent home and all thanks to one person...Iliza Shlesinger. Argh! I don't like her. Actually I strongly dislike her. I wish I could root for her, if for no other reason than that she's the only woman left in the competition. But I can't. I cannot bring myself to do it. So, I'll just keep watching and rooting for everyone else.
For those of you who haven't seen Hopkins yet, what are you waiting for?! The show only has a six-week run, and they've already had four episodes including last night's. Last night the episode was gut wrenching. I find all the episodes tough to watch because you're watching someone's life or death play out on national TV, but last night was especially heartbreaking because it dealt with the health of a little two-year old boy. Peyton came into the hospital with totally unexpected heart problems. As far as the parents knew he'd been totally fine. A normal and healthy mischevious two-year old. Unfortunately, the parents are told that Peyton's heart is quickly deteriorating and they might lose him if they can't perform a heart transplant. The look on that poor mother's face just broke your heart. Thankfully the story has a happy ending, at least for this family, because Peyton was able to get his heart transplant. What tears you up inside as an unbiased viewer is the knowledge that for Peyton to live, it means that another family lost their child. Each episode has been truly riveting, and for those that haven't seen it I would highly recommend watching the remaining episodes (next Thursday) on TV or watching them all online at ABC.com.
