Awwww, and I liked them. Well, I knew as soon as Aja & Ty had to take the last plane out of New Z that Amazing Race was going to auf one of my fave couples. A double shame since they actually raced well with a great attitude this leg. Where is a non-elimination leg when you need one?? I thought their committment to each other at the end was sweet. You go, Aja & Ty!

Elsewhere, love em or hate em (and there’s plenty to go around still) we have a lot of teams racing really well, with no clear front runner. At least not ones who couldn’t falter at any moment. A few weaker teams, which I think we’ll be saying buh bye to shortly. (Although it’s gonna burn if the Frats come in last next week and get the non elimination. Rrr.) Next week: Ken finally snaps at Tina-who-will-be-obeyed-and-never-shut-up. You go, Ken. First on the mat this week was Team Sib, Starr and Nick. Just glad it wasn’t Ken/Tina for a change, who came in 4th. There were a bunch of lead changes this episode, plus Cambodia!, which made it more exciting. Good episode, good leg, even if the ending wasn’t fun.

Tonight? We dance!

But right now? We can win free stuff. To enter this week’s contest, we’re gonna play Who Goes Home. There are two players going home on Survivor this Thursday night, and you only have to get one right to be in the running. One from each tribe goes, so you can vote for one on each tribe to win. So….there loss? Your gain! Woo hoo!

Just email your votes to donna@donnakauffman.com with “Survivor Go Home” in the subject line. If no one gets any of them right, everyone who votes will be in the running. So…guess! Watch the show or not, it’s all you can really do anyway. Votes accepted until 8pm EST Thursday. Winner announced Friday.

Here is a list of the remaining players on each tribe:

Fang: Kenny, Matty, Crystal, Ace, Sugar
Kota: Susie, Dan, Bob, Marcus, Charlie, Corinne,Randy

Good luck!

Tags: Writing // 2 Comments »

So, last night on Survivor, absolutely nothing interesting or new happened. Kota wins both challenges, Dan hogs the food, Randy is possibly the most miserable troll of a man I’ve ever laid eyes on and I can’t stand to eve look at him, Fang falls further apart, Sugar goes to exile, and Kelli, who can’t read a room to save her life…didn’t this time either, and goes home. Wow, this is possibly the least interesting season of all time. And Probst trying to stir things up isn’t helping. The elephant swimming was the highlight. A nature documentary would be far more interesting.

So, time to give away free stuff! All you had to do was email me this week, no guessing, no scavenger hunting. The winning Blog Babe is Nancy C! Woo hoo!!

Have a great weekend ~ See you Monday with another contest and some Amazing Race MAC!

Tags: Writing // 2 Comments »

Well, clearly the guys have it on Top Design. The five remaining designers had to design a room, any room, around an artistic, interesting Swarovski crystal chandelier. Everyone got a different piece - picked out by Eddie, who won the pop design. And, might I say, has gone from merely being a pretentious, egotistical, name-dropping ass to…well, fill in the blank with whatever word is worse than that.

He was particularly over the edge last night and has gone from someone I found amusing and fun in the first two episodes, to someone truly insecure and nasty. Wow. So, the smackdown he got for decorating his room last night was somewhat gratifying. Especially as he was using Martha stuff to decorate it. (In case you hadn’t heard, Eddie will be the first one to tell you all about his job at Martha Stewart Living.) So, doubly satisfying. Except, of course, he has decided he is so far above the judges that he’s not entirely certain why he must be subjected to their ridiculous opinions anyway.

Which leaves Nathan and Preston for me to love. And I enjoy them both, for entirely different reasons. Nathan I don’t so much love as simply find interesting. Just because he’s so talented and so out there, and an actually interesting acerbic person to listen to. I never know what he’s going to do, so I like having him on the show. But Preston I just adore. Period. I like his work, I like his work ethic, and I love how he hasn’t allowed the assiness of Eddie and Nathan excluding him from their little clique to get to him. He just goes about the work and gets it done. Oh yeah…and winning.

Now, on to the women. Ondine is trying, but her aesthetic is really wavery. You never really know what you’re going to get with her. And Andrea’s confidence is all over the place. In the end, Ondine was chosen as having the least put together room, but Andrea is the one who asks to go home. She is done. She cannot put herself through it any longer. She wants to have her family back. So….buh bye, Andrea. Reprieve Ondine! Who has to know she’s next, but that gets her to the final four. And she seems like a decent person. While I don’t so much get excited to see what she’ll come up with, it’s nice for Preston to have someone where who will actually talk to him and not treat him like he’s invisible.

Oh, and Preston won the challenge. That makes two in a row. Eddie.

Tags: Writing // 3 Comments »

Dancing With the Stars…had an unfortunately leather-clad, do-wopped do’d Brian Setzer singing Stray Cat Strut (would have rather seen him at his orchestra leading best) but it also had Louis! Louis and Karina danced like they were on fire. Literally.

The Macy’s 150th celebration left me a little unimpressed. Enjoyed the James Brown knock off, and the futuristic (if the future is, oh, now) was cool, but overall, it needed more Wade, or David Scott, or…somebody. But, good try.

That leaves the encore, which went to Julianne/Cody to the surprise of virtually no one, but a bottom two that did raise a few eyebrows. Cloris survives to clown again, but the surprise there is she wasn’t even in the bottom two. I predicted her and La Lucci, with Susan heading out. Well, Susan was in the Bottom Two…with Toni/Alec. And it was Toni (not Tony) taking leave this evening. So, a bit of a surprise there as I figured she had another few weeks, and wouldn’t go until after Susan and Cloris were gone, perhaps languishing a bit with possibly Lance and/or Maurice, depending. But my heart doesn’t need unbreaking, as, it’s agreed that she really hasn’t grown much. I just think she’s a better performer than Susan, so that part is a surprise. (Cloris staying will never be a surprise.)

So, next week Len is taking a break from judging and we get a special guest judge. And he’s definitely connected to the dance world, but I’d have never guessed, if I’d guessed all night. Yes, Lord of the Rings, Michael Flatley, will be the guest judge. Would you have guessed? I think not. So….that will be interesting. Wonder if they’ll put Carrie Ann between him and Bruno to keep a cat fight from exploding. Although…that could be entertaining. We’ll see!

We’ll also get to see Cloris do her madd hip hop skillz (and sadly, her impromptu hip hop moves, prodded by Sam, were about 1000 times better than Sam’s impromptu beat boxing. Which, don’t do that again, Sam. Ever. Cloris, on the other hand, wasn’t too shabby.)

Whatever the case, it won’t be boring. What did you think? Surprised? Shocked? Still trying to picture Flatley and Bruno together? DISH!

And don’t forget to enter this week’s contest. Details in Monday’s blog post. Good luck!

Tags: Uncategorized // 5 Comments »

So, last night on Dancing With the Stars, we get four dances never done before on this show. The hustle, jitterbug, west coast swing, and salsa.

Salsa and swing are probably the closest cousins, with jitterbug close to the jive and the hustle needing to be outlawed permanently from every televised dance show until the end of time. Just sayin. And remember how they used to show a clip of two of the pros doing any new dance that came along, so we would know what to look for? What happened to that? It would have been tremendously helpful in this case. Uncle Len’s blathering didn’t explain anything. Show me.

And then, one dance in, and the judges slammed like they could hardly wait to slam Lacey for not featuring her partner more in their west coast swing. She was the only pro who had any knowledge of the dance she was teaching this week, but did they give her ANY kudos for having taught dances for the past four weeks that she didn’t know? No. Oh, the poor pros this week….having to teach what they didn’t know (which begs the question of why on earth are we doing this?) and we’re supposed to feel all sorry for them. But apparently Lacey gets no props for doing that every week. The one week where she knows what she’s doing, and SLAP. Granted, she did feature herself too much, but WCS is a bitch to learn and Lance, frankly, ain’t all that and a bag of ballroom, so I thought she did what MANY of her pro coworkers have done in the past, and do the “potted plant” choreo, where the pro plants the celeb, more or less, and dances circles around them. Happens ALL the time. And a few have been called out for it (Edyta, probably, most notably) but to give L/L the same score as Cloris and Corky? Seriously? Why have her be a pro on the show if it’s all about the hate? It felt like they couldn’t wait to slap at her. Whatever. I enjoyed the edgy music, and wish it had been a better routine, but I otherwise enjoyed it. A hell of a lot more than some of the others, that’s for sure. At least they bring it, and really sell it, unlike a few others. (See: Toni. Susan.)

It was such a buzz kill for what should have been a fun new night, and you could see the whole audience (who LIKED L/L’s dance, btw and cheered like mad) had gone totally dormant with such a big smackdown. Then Toni was meh and Susan just eh, so by the time Big Poppa hit the floor, we were ready for some F-U-N. I think the judges got that, too.

So, most fun dance of the night for me? Warren/Kym’s hustle, hands down. (Yes, the dance should be banned from competition, but dang he’s having fun out there. I grinned the whole time.) First one where my finger wasn’t twitching all over the fast forward button the whole time.

Best choreo (that she totally deserved props for and didn’t get) Cheryl/Maurice’s salsa. Fantastic job.

Definitely entertaining: Derek/Brooke and Julianne/Cody’s jitterbug. While Derek’s was a better routine, the fact that Julianne somehow managed to get the slender Cody to toss her and flip her all over the place like a guy twice his size, deserved major props as well.

Just okay but failing to really bring the joy: Toni/Alec’s West Coast Swing. (and yet, better scores than L/L….) Susan/Tony. He does handle her like a fragile doll, because she basically is. I can’t see her ever just cutting loose and letting her hair down, so to speak. Not her style. Cloris and Corky had fun, and I appreciate that she is working her 82 year old ass off. I do. For her own personal journey, this has to be such a highlight, and she’s really giving it all she has, to get what she can get out of it. For that alone, I’d send Susan home first. (Not that Susan isn’t trying, but she’s got other work to do…)

And, seriously, the skanky ho comment by Cloris? I rolled. Actually, it’s Corky who bugs the crap out of me with all the mugging and trying to clown with Cloris. Leave Cloris alone. She’s funny. Not so much with you.

Going home: probably Cloris. Who should go home? If it was me, Susan this week. Encore performance? Cheryl/Maurice, just because it was such a solid, well performed routine by both. But I’d be perfectly happy to see Kym and Big Poppa hustle again. Just no jitterbug repeats, twice with those two was fun, and enough, although you know that’s where we’re headed since they got the biggest scores. Derek’s hair deserves a score all to itself. It was pretty funny.

So, tonight we supposedly get the most complex dance routine ever attempted on this show to celebrate Macy’s big birthday. Mostly I’m looking forward to the Brian Setzer orchestra, who is the musical guest. And we’d better get a pro performance! We haven’t had our own pros doing much on results night and I miss that a lot.

Then, next week, the remaining couples have to do a solo dance, and a group dance. And the group dance? Old school hip hop. So….have we completely abandoned this as a ballroom dancing show now? It’s official? Of course, that said….I cannot WAIT to see Cloris do hip hop. Just sayin.

What did you think? Who’d ya love, who didn’t float your boat? Dish already!

Tags: Writing // 4 Comments »

Amazing Race. So, that? Totally fun leg. Except that a happy Ken & Tina are kind of nauseating. I am glad they have each other. Saves the rest of us, you know? Also, Terrence? Yuck. Seriously. “I need some love, play with my hair.” What guy says that??? “Waaaaaaait for me!” “I have to open the envelope, you suck at it.” Terence, regarding sucking and what you can–never mind. But…wow.
And Sarah just happily kind of goes along with it. Also - saves them from the rest of us.

Phil is clearly relishing explaining every leg, every challenge. He’s home! New Zealand is beautiful.

Everyone else - good times, nothing much new. But Maori warriors? Totally rock. Phil’s Dad at the amazing bathmat? Even more rocking. Team Divorce must get the most brutal pedicures known to man if those rocks didn’t even register on their feet while stomping kiwis. I loved that Star and Bro couldn’t figure out why their nemeses never showed up at the blokarts. But dude, she thought she broke her arm - why did you make her drive the car? At all? What the hell was up with that? Dallas and Mom also rock. Loved them this leg. Team Long Distance find the love despite the bickering. Ken and Tina taking the fast forward when they totally didn’t need to? Yeah. I hope that comes back to bite them later when the second one presents itself. Hope they don’t actually need it then. Okay, yes, I totally do.

Unfortuntately, in the end the Belles can’t muster the win. (Did you notice the Maori warrior totally kissed her instead of rubbing noses? HA!) BUT! They do get a hug from Phil’s totally hot to trot dad. Double HA!

Next week: Let’s hope a team I actually like finishes in first.

This week’s Free Stuff Contest is an easy one: email me at donna@donnakauffman.com with “I could use a free book” in the subject line. Winner chosen from all the entries and announced on Friday. Good luck!

Tags: Writing // 3 Comments »

Last night on Surrivor, to the surprise of absolutely no one, Fang ended up in Tribal Council again, and rather than blindside the person with the idol, which last season’s tribes would have relished doing, Fang just boots out the person who wants to quit anyway: GC. I stay keep his whiny butt in there until you do the work you need to do, then send him home. But no…. I am really not loving this season, thus far. But Sugar might be my favorite player. And did that elephant look possessed with those demon yellow eyes? Sort of creeped me out. But very cool how much the tribe appreciated being in the wilds of Africa that much more.

The GC boot is good news to some Blog Babes, too, as some of you did vote for him. In the end, there can only be one winner, and that Blog Babe would be? Joyce! Woo hoo!!!

Tune in Monday for a new contest, and some Amazing Race MAC. Until then, have a wonderful fall weekend!

Tags: Writing // 2 Comments »

And it’s not Kenley! So all is right in my world. Leanne wins Project Runway, and it’s certainly a most deserving win. However, I have to admit, that, based on the runway collections, my favorite, hands down, was Korto’s collection. Loved the color, the styling. Yes, she can over do, but my god with Leanne and all those flaps. So…it was a toss up, and I hope they had a tough time deciding, but in the end, a deserved win. And Korto gets fan favorite! And Kenley gets squat. So, Yay!

Tonight is Survivor - don’t forget to enter this week’s contest. You have until 8pm EST to get your votes/guesses in. See Tuesday’s post for details. Winner announced tomorrow! Good luck!!

Tags: Uncategorized // 4 Comments »

Bare chested flamenco dancers! A whole flock of em! As it turns out, I am a lot more interested in flamenco than I thought I would be….. Hunh.

Also loved the smack “political” ads. One of the more inspired “filler” pieces they’ve ever done. The “Don’t You Just Hate Her?” ad was the best.

Lance n Lacey got the encore, which I was happy to see. I’m sure Wade Robson was grinning somewhere. If he grins. I’m not so sure…..

At some point, we had to get down to business. We’re told early on that we will find out, for sure, who is in the bottom two this week. So that makes it a little more exciting. And nervewracking for the dancers….which of course Samantha just grinds through, making it worse. I’m not sure you could be any worse at her job than she is. Why, why do we have to keep her on the show? We already have the tacky glitter ball trophy. We don’t need more kitsch. Neo, on the other hand, I didn’t even ff through. Go figure. Quite the smile on that guy.

As for the kids competition, I’m only going to say one thing. Kirill? A man trapped in a boy’s body. Scary.

Safe?
Susan/Tony, Lance/Lacey, Brooke/Derek, Cody/Julianne, Toni/Alec, Warren/Kym & Maurice/Cheryl

In the Bottom Two?
Rocco/Karina & Cloris/Corky

Going home?
No surprise - buh bye Chef Guy! Awwwww. Class act exit.

But it was good to see that Cloris is also where, comparitively as we get further into the competition, she should be. I am enjoying her, and she deserves this next week after working so hard on the tango, but once we get past this next week, the contest should go forward with the best dancers/performers.

And! Next week, four new dances never done in competition on this show. West Coast Swing, The Hustle, Jitterbug, and Salsa. That should be….interesting. I’m all excited about this, except for The Hustle. If it’s anything like disco on So You Think You Can Dance. Spare us. Please. The rest should be fun!

Tune in tomorrow for Project Runway Winner….and Loser MAC! (And we all know which designer we hope is which.) Also, enter this week’s SHaQ Attack contest - see Tuesday’s post for details!

DISH!! You know you want to!

Tags: Writing // 1 Comment »

You have to give it to the Top Chef, he reallllllllly tried. Really. He did. But Bruno is right. He can slice it and dice it, but he can’t dance it to save his life. Still, big brownie points for just flinging himself wholeheartedly into it. With Cloris coming out and truly working hard on that tango, there is no way she’s going home, so I fear tonight it’s bye bye, Rocco. And…to be fair, that would be appropriate this week. Also, Sam and her Half-Princess Leia look need to go home, too. Just sayin.

Okay….so, speaking strictly on merits of what dances brought me joy (not which ones were techinically the best…)

Dances I loved watching:
I thought the Derek/Brooke samba was the best dance of the season. Dang, that was smokin! Whew! What the hell dance was Len watching? It was my first time truly loving these two this year. I thought Derek was the best I’ve seen him. There was chemistry all over the damn place. Anyway - that? Was a 30 for me.

Lacey/Lance’s tango: If Wade Robson choreo’d a tango, it would look like this. Thank god. I thoroughly enjoy having them bring the edge to the dance floor, and this was done in the framework of a “proper” tango. It was what Toni/Alec tried to do last week and failed miserably. I hope these two keep striking this delicate balance. We don’t need another team just going through the motions. Their strength is the new feel they bring, and love it or hate it, I’m glad to have something different to look forward to. And I find myself always looking forward to their performances. And the judges finally Got It. Yay!

Kym/Warren’s samba wasn’t the best by a long shot but god, those two make me smile. Her choreo is always fun to watch and after a mostly good night (check out how many made the top group!), it was a great way to end the show. Loved. It.

Julianne/Cody’s tango: the cutie patootie channeled his inner matador, and was still cute. I like her choreo, which hides a multitude of sins, of which Cody has multitudes to hide. Still, they make me smile. So there.

Cloris/Corky’s tango: So maybe it wasn’t love, but I have to give her major mondo props for really doing the best and truly being sincere in wanting to compete. It wasn’t a half bad performance, either! At 82 with myriad health issues, she was more limber than Rocco.

Dances that were just okay:
Alec/Tony’s samba, which should, by all rights be in the top group, but they seemed really out of sync for me, and I kept thinking it was just me, until I watched Derek/Brooke and thought, no, they’d make me feel like that if it was working for me….so they land in the middle group.

Susan/Tony’s tango. She channeled Erica Kane perfectly, but she still dances like she’s afraid she’s going to pull something.

Cheryl/Maurice with the samba fro. Who gave them KC & The Sunshine Band, and everyone else who got samba appropriate latin themed music? Entertaining, but he was too all over the place to make it to the top group for me.

Dances I was tempted to FF through…(and sometimes did):
Karina/Rocco….he tries. So hard. The man cannot dance. Sorry, Rocco! Painful, really.

What did you think? Who would you send packing? And who’s sixpack would you like to see more of?

I’m not really wild about the entertainment on tonight’s results show - Neo, Flamenco dancers, the return of “Torture the Child Dancers” segment. And while I enjoy seeing the youngsters perform, I wish they’d take away the competition element to it. Just isn’t right, really. I don’t care if they get judged all the other times they dance. All the other times aren’t on live tv being watched by millions. They’re kids. Let them be kids. Seriously.

And also last night was the return of my favorite comedy, Samantha Who, made even more special to me because I’m thankful Christina Applegate is going to be around to keep making me laugh for a long time. A double mastectomy at her very young age is such a drastic thing and yet her courage is boundless and there aren’t kudos enough to thank her for being so vocal about her experience and her choice, in the hopes that it will make things easier on others facing the same difficult options. You go, Christina! You go.

Okay, so for the SHaQ Attack contest this week we’re going to play “Who’s Going Home?” This game is open to anyone. It’s a crap shoot anyway, so I’ll list the potential losers and you can just randomly pick a name, or use your amazing madd powers of observation skillz…..then randomly guess. Either way, you send your guess to donna@donnakauffman.com with “They’re toast!” in the subject line, and if you happened to be correct, you’re in the running for a free book. Now, we usually play this game when the list of remaining players is much smaller, so on the off chance no one gets it right, which could easily happen, then everyone who guessed has a shot. So…what have you got to lose, really?

So: This week, on Survivor: Who is going home? Pick one from each tribe (so you have a shot no matter which tribe heads to council.)

From Fang: Ace, Kelly, Ken, Crystal, Matty, GC, Sugar

From Kota: Dan, Bob, Charlie, Corrinne, Marcus, Randy, Susie

You have until 8pm EST, Thursday evening to get your vote in. One vote per Blog Babe. I’ll announce the winner, or the winning loser, in Friday’s blog, at the end of the Survivor MAC.

Tags: Writing // 2 Comments »