Gossip

I’m not the only one who noticed this rather figure-hugging dress that Indi wore on Friday night’s episode of Home and Away, am I?

So Miles Copeland is about to return to Home and Away and I’ve read a few articles where actor Josh Quong Tart says he’s lost some weight over his break in filming, but looking at these sneak preview pics from Home and Away, he looks totally different!

Yes, it’s the same actor but he’s looking a lot older, thinner, has a new hair style and is sporting a dark beard!

Check out his new look below…

I’m a fan of Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and every time I see Damien Challenor on the show, I can’t help comparing him to Prostetnic Vogon Jeltz – the Vogon captain in charge of overseeing the destrcution of the planet Earth in the book and TV series The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

No offense intended! I wish Damien all the best in his Biggest Loser journey!

What do you think?

Apologies for not getting this blog out earlier.  Feel free read at the bottom of the page as to why I am late.

And then there were the final four.  It’s a funny thing to comprehend.  On one hand it is like “Oh my gosh! We are in the final” and then on the other hand it’s like “There were only eight couples to start with and I am in the top half.  There was a 50% chance of that happening anyway, so it’s not that impressive.” But still, it’s a great feeling , and I am not taking anything away from any of them.  By this stage the contestants will be completely sick of studying.  They will still be happy to be in the mansion and they will still be having fun, but a part of them will definitely thinking that it would be nice to be back home.  Not many people can say they have been completely cut-off from the rest of the world and not know what is happening.  Who won the footy grand finals? Who even made the final? OMG I can’t believe Kim Clijsters came out of retirement and won the US open (That was me last year being a tennis fan). Which famous person has tragically passed away? (Patrick Swayze last year).   Sorry… just reliving the experience.

I actually saw many parallels in this episode to last year.
 
1.  It was mentioned on camera that everyone thought that the only team that could take down Daniel and Donna was Time and Kara
( Everyone said the only team that could take down Toby and Jenna was Emma and I)
2. Two perceived strongest teams up for elimination just after the makeover (same last year)
3.  It was the third time Daniel and Donna were up for elimination (same for Toby and Jenna last year, although they lost)
 
Another awesome thing is that Daniel and Donna have survived 3 elimination quizzes? Emma and I did that last year as the most successful team in that horrible room.  But now there is a good chance for them to have a fourth shot in that room.  I do feel bad for them, because it is really stressful.  They must be perceived as a very strong team in the mansion because every time they have not won a challenge they have been sent to the elimination room.
 

 
Can’t wait for the finale

Tomorrow I will blog about my thoughts on the challenges of last week.  I promise!

** Reason for late blog.  Thursday night I went and saw Harry Potter.  I got home to find my TBOX broken so my BATG recording was last.  I could not watch it online at home because my computer speakers are broken.  Friday I had work golf day, so I watched the show at my parents house Saturday arvo.  Saturday evening was preparing for my triathlon, which took up the whole of Sunday (16 hours of racing).  Monday I spent all day in a zombie state with no physical or mental capabilities after my long race, which brings me to now, Tuesday lunchbreak at work, to blog.

I have to say that we learnt a LOT about some of the contestants this week.  Some good…some bad.  I have to say that both Kara and Tamika impressed me quite a lot this week.

 Starting with Tamika, picking up three (I think) Golden Orb Weaving Spiders in the challenge was a huge achievement.  I HATE spiders and she appeared to have no trouble with it.  I have just opened up Wikipedia to read about the Golden Orb Weaving Spider and even that is freaking me out.  Someone told me that they were highly poisonous, but according to the Australian Museum “Orb weavers are reluctant to bite. Symptoms are usually negligible or mild local pain, numbness and swelling. Occasionally nausea and dizziness can occur after a bite.”  So they aren’t that bad.  Tamika impressed me a lot when I met her to film the commercial, and the way she handled this challenge and the way she appears to be helping out Thomas, I think that they may now be my favourite couple.  Sometimes she appears quite ditsy on camera, but you can just tell her heart is in the right place.

Then we come to my old favourite, Ellynie-May.  I think that she was a little disappointing when she would not even attempt the challenge.  But for some reason, she appears to have her head on straight and it was more of a rational decision ‘why should I touch the bugs? There is no reason to’.  It was not an ‘I’m freaking out’ decision.  So I still have a soft spot for her.

Then we get to Kara.  Wow.  Holding the bugs when they called ‘time up’ and then eating the witchetty grub and then being nice to Tim and then standing up and calling Daniel out (in the next episode it appears) I think that she is coming across very well on the show.  She is attempting challenges which gross others out, making a great effort to get to know the geeks, and then standing up for herself and her beliefs.  So I think that Kara is coming off as a real winner on the show, and if anyone has a bad word to say about her, then they should have a long look at themselves.  It is often the case in reality TV shows that the producers want you to fall in love with the characters that win so that the audience is happy at the end of the series.  Are we looking at Tim/Kara potentially taking it out?

Then we come to the obvious ‘bad boy’ character, Daniel.  Whether or not what we are seeing from Daniel is what really went down, or just a condensed over emphasised reality, I don’t know.  But it appears like he is going to be the character that everyone loves to hate.  Corin, I mean Daniel, may have his eyes on a few Beauties this year.  But honestly, it is only episode 3 this week, so everyone is still getting to know each other.  Extremely strong feelings cannot happen in that short of a period (for example those with Kara in episode 1 – YES THE VERY FIRST EPISODE).  So maybe when we see him with another Beauty it is at a later stage where he has better understood his feelings.  There should be nothing wrong with that so he should not be judged.  Will we ever get the truth about what really went down or whether it is just clever editing? Probably not.  But it makes interesting TV and it gets everybody talking.

So there is my little recap on my thoughts regarding the character development from last week’s episode.  Should be an interesting night this Thursday.    

I did brag a little bit about my prediction of Stuart to be out first. Well…technically I did not make the prediction, but I just said that I was not sure how long he would last. So I thought that it was time I do a full rundown on what I think of the teams, who I reckon will win and who will be out next week. These are based solely on what I have seen on TV. Now I won’t necessarily include all of my justifications for my rankings, because unless you have watched the show in great detail, rewinding and replaying, those ‘justifications’ will be spoilers

Kara/Tim: They look to be a strong couple all around. They won’t be nominated early because everyone appears to love Kara, and Tim appears to be really sweet. Tipped as runner-up

Jessie/Michael. Appear to be a weaker couple. Probably won’t win many challenges. People will like them as they both appear to have big hearts, so they won’t get sent to the elimination room early on. But once they are there they are out.

Linette/David. Appear to be a weaker couple. Probably won’t win many challenges, people may feel like they need to be in the house and not nominate them. Once they get sent to the elimination room they are out.

Tamika/Thomas appear to be a weaker couple. Probably won’t win many challenges, may get on peoples nerves a little bit as they are both such outgoing/strong/different personalities. My tip to be the second couple eliminated.

Donna/Daniel. Probably the strongest couple. May be nominated whenever they do not win a challenge, but will probably win a number of challenges. My tip to win.

Ellynie/Marlon: Looks like they are already viewed as a big threat. Will probably get sent to the elimination room on multiple occasions, but I reckon they will fall in their third visit after cracking under the pressure.

George/Ellie/Brook: Really not certain about this couple. With three on a team, there are more possibilities to form strong relationships and avoid the elimination room. But people may nominate them regularly because of this advantage. Probably will fall just short of the final showdown.

What do other people think?

PS room allocations look like: 1. Stuart/Nicola-Kara/Tim, 2.Jessie/Michael-Linette/David, 3.Tamika/Thomas-George/Ellie/Brook and 4. Donna/Daniel-Ellynie/Marlon but I could be wrong

When I first decided to start blogging about Beauty and the Geek Australia I had a few blog topics in mind.  One in particular was how important room selection was going to be for the contestants.  Spending late nights chatting to the other couple in your bedroom really forces you to become closer to them than with any of the other couple in the house.  Even if you have a better friendship with another couple, the bedroom relationship probably trumps that every time.  Everyone always asked me ‘Why did you never nominate Corin when he was winning all of the challenges?’ Two words: Bedroom relationship. 

I had all of these awesome plans to study the first Beauty and the Geek episodes to figure out exactly which couples were sharing a room.  Knowing the house layout from last year and watching the little interviews with the cast I could be sneaky and figure it out.  I was then going to come up with all of these insightful views about who may be aligning with whom and then the likely chance of people being nominated.

Bu all of these meticulous plans got blown out of the water in episode 1. I thought that it was weird that they actually showed the scene when Ellynie-May/Marlon and Donna/Daniel became roomies.  It was not until the nomination announcement where the point of that scene became apparent. My jaw dropped when Donna/Daniel nominated Ellynie-May/Marlon. The sacred roommate relationship was broken! There must be something going on behind the scenes, and there must be some other strong alliances that have formed.  From the look on Ellynie-May’s face, she was not expecting it.  I do agree that they are a strong couple (they are one of my tips to win but more on that in a later post) and that they may have less growing to do on the show, but I thought the bedroom relationship was unbreakable.

So my tip to viewers is to try and see what has really been going on during this first week.  But all I can say is that I would not want to be living in that bedroom from then on.  It is no doubt going to be very awkward for the two couples.  And I can’t wait to see the look on Donna and Daniels face when Ellynie-May and Marlon return next week.

Does anyone have any predictions about what twists might be thrown at the new Beauty and the Geek contestants.  The US series ran for five seasons with, from memory, five different ways to choose partners at the start and five different ways to choose a winner.  Please share your thoughts on what you think will be done this season or what you would like to see happen.

Then there is the obvious twist with the twins.  Will they try and fool the Geeks to see whether the Geeks are really paying attention the the personality of the girl and not just her looks? Will it be a team of three or will one Beauty have to leave? Thoughts anyone? It has an almost ‘Big Brother’ feel to it (remember the Logan twins) but lets hope it is not an exact replication.

Controversial TV and radio personality Kyle Sandilands has separated from his wife of two years Tamara Jaber.

News Limited is reporting that the spilt is a result of ongoing financial disputes surrounding Jaber’s reported spending habits, and irreconcilable differences over their career pursuits.

Jaber is currently a contestant on Dancing with the Stars while Sandilands was a judge on the last season of Australia’s Got Talent after previously being dumped from the judging panel on Australian Idol.

UPDATED: Masterchef finale IS July 25!

Original post follows… now a bit out of date!

UPDATED: With the Thursday July 1 elimination round ending in a non-elimination, Ten contestants remain in Masterchef. At the rate of two eliminations per week, and assuming no more non-eliminations, then this would mean the Masterchef finale will now be Sunday August 1 – as they will need 4 full weeks to eliminate 8 to bring the comp down to the final two.

The Sunday after four full weeks is August 1. This, of course, assumes there are no other twists, non-elimination nights or other variations to the weekly format of the show.

Meanwhile – Hawke is now confirmd for Sunday July 18, at 8.30pm. The Good Wife is off that week and will either end in a double on July 25 or finish August 1 if the final two episodes are played one week at a time.

Question now would be – what will replace Merlin at 6.30pm from July 25? Maybe Talkin’ ‘Bout Your Generation – unless they hold that off for 7.30 Sundays from teh first Sunday after Masterchef finishes.

Original post (written June 29):

Channel Ten programming prediction.

The date of the finale of Masterchef is a big secret at this stage, but my guess is it will be Sunday July 25*.

With now ten contestants in the battle for 2010 Masterchef, they need at least three full weeks to eliminate the contestants down to the final few. Given the success of the show, it would not be a smart move to eliminate faster than they usually have in the series to date – so one must assume the rate of elimination will remain the same. Eliminations usually occur on the Monday and Thursday shows.

Sunday July 25 as a the night the Masterchef finale makes even more sense when you consider where other Ten shows on Sunday night are.

Merlin only has three more episodes to go in its second season, which means the season finale of Merlin will air at 6.30pm, Sunday July 18.

House only has two more episodes to go. As already reported and confirmed, the House season finale is at 9.30pm, Sunday July 11.

Then there is The Good Wife. The Good Wife has four episodes to go before its season finale. With House vacating the 9.30pm timeslot, The Good Wife could finish in a double on July 18.

Having Merlin, The Good Wife and House all finished, completely clears up Sunday programming on Ten for July 25, meaning a huge Masterchef finale event could dominate the night. A 6.30pm start could even be possible, with the result being announced after 8.30pm. Rumours suggest the final will be live, and it will most likely break all ratings records.

Then once Masterchef is over, Talkin’ ‘Bout Your Generation may return to Sunday nights at 7.30 from August 1, and possibly the Hawke telemovie at 8.30pm that night.

There are other possibilities with the way Ten’s Sunday night programming could pan out through July which include the chance Masterchef does not finish until Sunday August 1, The Good Wife finishes July 25 or even has a week off for Hawke – but then again, who ever said Hawke was going to be on a Sunday night anyway? Not to mention the option of Hawke after Masterchef finale to make one mega -huge night for Ten.

* All commentary in this post is my own opinion only and should not be taken in any way whatsoever as actual news about Ten’s programming over the next five weeks. Season finale dates (other than House) are based on knowledge of what episode shows are up to and the total number of episodes in each season. What happens with Masterchef is based only on the assumption that the show will continue much the same was it has this season so far with two eliminations each week, and does not break any embargoes imposed by Ten in terms of any actual detail about the show. Your thoughts are welcome – either by comment below or by email to andrewb@throng.com.au.