Welcome to Something for Nothing

Check out this brief interview of Nigel Lythgoe where he talks about his new project. Nigel describes his new dance show as basically a dance Olympics with dancers from all over the world and judges from all over the world also. Judges would only get to score those dancers that weren’t from their country. Sounds like it could be really interesting or really lame depending on how well the show is produced. Plus, I hope Nigel spends enough time telling the back stories of the dancers since that’s just as interesting or more interesting than the judges talking about the scores. He’s mentioned something similar on So You Think You Can Dance before and I hope he sticks with that thought.

Check out the interview:
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Mark Burnett is jumping into the Shark Tank. Burnett has signed a deal with Sony Pictures Television to bring the wildly successful Dragons Den to the American market. Think American Inventor meets American Idol (auditions). The US version will be titled The Shark Tank, ABC has ordered the show and they are currently in production. Check out this website dedicated to The Shark Tank for more information.

After covering the first season of America’s Best Dance Crew, it was really fun when one of the boys I taught in church sent me the following video of some North Shore boys doing a dance in the style of JabbaWockeez!!

Nice work. I wonder when America’s Best Dance Crew will be on the air again. My guess is that we’ll have to wait for summer.

I hope everyone was able to see both halves of the show. I almost forgot that the second half of the show was playing last night. Good thing my husband reminded me. I was sad that I missed last weeks episode. Why doesn’t NBC stream it? Annoying. Any how, my husband filled me in on what I missed and I didn’t feel like I was lost at all.

I was surprised that the teams were just now cashing in the awards they won the first episode. I totally forgot about them. I was happy that the red team could go see their kids. I may have let a few tears fall. What a wonderful family they seem to have. I am glad they got the kids out and went hiking. It is things like trips home and calls home that let me get even more attached to the people I am watching. They are real. They have loved ones who are cheering them on and loving them. They are more human and more real.

I haven’t decided if I like it that one team member stays and one team member goes. It makes it much more emotional. I was impressed with the brown team’s decision. If they wanted to win the competition they should have kept Ed there. However, they were there to lose weight, to get healthy enough so they can have children. In the end Heba stayed and Ed went home.

I love that each week we get to see the progress of those kicked off. Ed looked great. I think he will be a strong contender for the at home prize money.

My wife has been doing a great job covering this season’s Biggest Loser Families. Last night she was all ready to do a post about the third episode of Biggest Loser season 6 when she got a phone call from a neighbor friend asking her if she wanted to go walking (ie. exercise). I think everyone can appreciate the irony of the situation. Does she stay and watch Biggest Loser Families or does she decide to do like people on the show and exercise?

I’m proud of my wife. She really didn’t even seem to blink an eye. She got up and ready and went out walking with the neighbor. Sure she missed an episode of one of her favorite TV shows, but it would have been kind of sad if she had watched Biggest Loser families and not tried to avoid some of the health problems the people on the show have experienced.

Luckily, I have a wonderful wife that will never let herself reach that point. Great choice honey and all of your rabid readers will welcome you with open arms next week.

I should mention that I’m certain if my wife had watched the show she’d have been crying through half of it. I may have had a tear reached the corner or my eye myself. Although, I’ll disavow any knowledge of such a thing happening. I’m glad Biggest Loser Families only kicked off one team member though.

Tonight was the premiere of Dirty Sexy Money. This is a crazy show with little intricacies that really show how well written it is. Unfortunately, if you don’t watch carefully you’ll miss a lot of the connections they’re making. It’s not a show that you can really watch casually. This show also really makes you wonder about what is going on with rich people in the world. It begs the question: how much (if any) of this is true and real.

Here’s a good video of Dirty Sexy Money actors on the red carpet talking about this season of the show:

Tonight’s episode was pretty good, but I think a bunch of it is just setting stuff up for the future. The cool part of the show is that nothing is unreal in this show. They could make up almost anything and have it seem feasible. Quite interesting.

My allergies really made my eyes water during this episode. It couldn’t be I was crying over how cute and tender the conversations home were. I mean who would cry over Charlie Brown?

My one major gripe about this show is shameless advertising. They throw in adversing through out the whole show but do it in the most tacky way.

I was excited to see Rocco on the show and to have a little segment on healthy yet affordable meals. I found some of Rocco’s recipes online, however they weren’t the ones featured in this weeks show. I am hoping that NBC will put those recipes up on their website soon. I want to try the winning meatball and chick pea soup.

The average weight loss for week two is only 2%. I think I heard this a thousand times during this episode. I just wanted to scream “okay we got it” Stop repeating it over and over”. The show could be a normal one hour show if they stopped with their shameless advertising, their endless repeating and the stretched out weigh-ins.

I always have thought that the first weeks weight loss is overly exaggerated. Of course they are going to lose a lot of weight. When you teach them how to eliminate all the extra water from their bodies combined with healthy eating for the first time in their lives they are bound to lose a lot. A friend of mine who isn’t overweight gave up soda for a week and lost 5 lbs. These contestants on this show have given up more than a daily soda soda so it didn’t surprise me to see big numbers.

Now week two is more realistic. The numbers are a lot smaller but heck they are normal. All of them did so good. One week is not a lot of time to even lose one pound. My poor yellow team did so well but because they took the bait of money they missed there goal and were placed in the bottom. The problem is they showed they were a threat. They showed the other teams how much they want to win.

This is good but at the beginning it is dangerous. You want to fly under the radar the first couple of weeks so others won’t vote you off. They got lucky that the grey team fell below the line. They are huge guys and could be a huge threat since they have more weight to lose and we all know guys lose weight faster than girls too.

I was sad to see the grey team go but was happy to see yellow still in the game. Coleen worked hard and she and her dad deserve to be there. I felt sad for L.T. because he gained weight this week but as watched the after the show re-cap he looked great (as did his dad) and there are no worries that he will continue to do well at home. Both Tom and L.T. are going to good contenders for the at home winner.

After last weeks post NBC sent me some links to some unseen footage. I don’t know if they will do this every week or not. However, they did tell me if you go to their official website each week you can find unseen footage from that week.
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Below is a list of the Reality Show Emmy winners. The complete list of 2008 Emmy Winners here.

OUTSTANDING CHOREOGRAPHY
So You Think You Can Dance (Hummingbird and Flower)

OUTSTANDING REALITY-COMPETITION PROGRAM
The Amazing Race

OUTSTANDING REALITY PROGRAM
Kathy Griffin: My Life On The D-List

OUTSTANDING HOST FOR A REALITY OR REALITY-COMPETITION PROGRAM
Jeff Probst, Survivor

OUTSTANDING TECHNICAL DIRECTION, CAMERAWORK, VIDEO CONTROL FOR A SERIES
Dancing With The Stars

OUTSTANDING MAKEUP FOR A MULTI-CAMERA SERIES OR A SPECIAL (NON-PROSTHETIC)
Dancing With The Stars

OUTSTANDING PICTURE EDITING FOR REALITY PROGRAMMING
Top Chef

OUTSTANDING PICTURE EDITING OF CLIP PACKAGES FOR TALK, PERFORMANCE, AWARD, OR A REALITY-COMPETITION PROGRAM
American Idol

OUTSTANDING CINEMATOGRAPHY FOR REALITY PROGRAMMING
Carrier

OUTSTANDING CINEMATOGRAPHY FOR NONFICTION PROGRAMMING
Deadliest Catch

This seasons Biggest Loser theme is families. My favorite quote from this first episode was “they were born into it or sworn into it”. Jillian is going to pummel the parent/children into healthy lifestyles while Bob takes on the married couples. Let me just say the married couples should be happy they have Bob because Jillian is mean. I am not hating on Jillian. If I were on the show she would be the trainer I would want. I am just saying she is rough. But like Ed from the orange team said, “all this suckiness is worth every minute of it”.

As I was watching the show my prediction was that the brown team would lose. I didn’t want them to lose I just thought they would. In fact I thought they were one of the teams who needed the most help. When we first met the brown team I thought I heard their little boy order 4 donuts. Can he really eat 4 donuts? I can’t imagine letting my child eat 4 donuts in one sitting. No wonder their other child weighs 64 pounds at 4 years old. She weighs as much as my 4 year and one year old combined. I don’t mean to be harsh but this almost seems like child abuse. They are slowly killing their children. But on a positive note they know they need help and are trying to learn healthy living habits so they can return home and help their children. And I couldn’t have been more wrong. Not only weren’t they up for elimination they placed first! Go Brown! I love you.

I was happy to see green go. I think they were great. They were strong competitors. I just think they can go home and do well. From the update at the end of the show it looks like they have done just that. They look great!

And now my own predictions for who I want to make it to the end.
After the first hour I knew I wanted Jerry and his daughter, Coleen to make it far in the competition. I am always a sucker for the weakest link. I felt bad for Jerry and his bad health. I also found him to be quite humble and teachable which I think will help him a lot in this competition

By the end of the show I was a brown team fan.. I hope they make it all the way to the end too.

What are your predictions? And if you were on the show which trainer would you want?