Watching The CW

This week’s Beauty and the Geek is a review special. I’m not sure why these reality shows think they have to stop all the action in the middle to make us re-live stuff we’ve already seen, but they do.

I’m not even sure I want to watch it, but apparently there are a couple of surprises. Like Tommy laying in bed with three of the beauties, and, maybe, actually having sex with Amber. Maybe.

Next, they showed some of the spats between the chicks. Bored now. Moving on, they are showing interaction with geeks. Let’s just keep moving, shall we?

After a commercial break, showing an ad for that new reality show, Farmer Wants a Wife (which I will definitely, probably not be watching), and an ad for a “shocking” TMZ report about American Idol treating some contestants unfairly (oh, really?), we get to back to more geeky shenanigans.

But before we get there, I had to go check out TMZ. They are talking about an article written by Carmen Rasmussen (a season 2 Idol), who complained that she lost out to contestants that had more time with the mentors than she did. I already saw that, and it wasn’t that interesting the first time, but I have some real issues with Idol. You can read my review of last night here. While I was on TMZ, I also saw something about Lorenzo Lamas’s ex-wives and how they all look like they’ve cornered the market on plastic surgery gone bad. I believe I already mentioned something about that as well.

So, back to beauties and geeks. Back to some montages of Joe being gross, geeks dancing around, beauties giggling, Greg crying, beauties being stupid, etc., etc.

They do show the one makeover I was hoping for, Jim’s, which is the only reason I’m glad I gave up an hour of my life to watch this special. He really needed it and I thought he might end up looking good. And wow, he wasn’t even recognizable. I’m really happy for him, cause he looks good and maybe that will give him more confidence.

The end the show with a little preview of the last three episodes. You don’t want to miss it. Or do you?

So here’s the deal, I was finally starting to keep the chicks straight on American Idol and America’s Next Top Model, and then I started watching Beauty and the Geek and The Bachelor. Not only was I completely confused as to who was who and which show they were on, I also found myself wondering something. Where do all these skinny brainless chicks come from anyway? Are they just churned out at a factory somewhere?

In any case, last night on The Bachelor was the part that starts to get interesting. They had home dates with the final four girls. Now, I’m finally willing to invest the time to learn their names. Last week, two women were eliminated, one was a psycho chick and the other thought she was America’s Next Top Model, so I was glad to lose them. So that left the four women who’s homes he visited. Don’t ask me where they all lived, though, cause I didn’t care enough to try to remember that. The chicks were Shayne, an “actress” who is the daughter of actor Lorenzo Lamas. I put the word actress in quotes, because I’m fairly certain her acting credits to this point have consisted of high school stage productions. In any case, Matt, this year’s British Bachelor, seems to really like her, even though I think she’s kinda young for him, 22 to his 27. Look, I’d be the first to admit that age is just a number, but trust me when I say that this kid is not the most emotionally mature person you’re ever gonna meet. But she is really, really hot. Plus, she has a family involved in acting, and my friend Sandy tells me that the word on the street is that this guy only agreed to do the show because he wants to be an actor. (Sandy is a great cyber researcher, and for “researcher,” you can read “stalker.”) So he may end up with Shayne. Personally, after the home visit, I would have run screaming, cause although Lorenzo has held up well over the years, and you can still just see the young boy who played the other love interest for Olivia Newton-John’s Sandy on Grease, Shayne’s mother has had one too many trips to the cutting table. Her face is just all weird and her mouth . . . it’s hard to describe . . . it sorta takes over half her face in an unnatural way, with a dark purply outline, but pale, pasty pink lips. I was scared.

Matt also visited the homes of the three other young ladies (I use that term pretty loosely here), Amanda, Chelsea and Noelle. Of those three, probably the most normal was Noelle, with nice parents, and two sisters, who all apparently live on a farm or somewhere with horses. Of course, he doesn’t choose her.

Chelsea, 25, to me is just sorta loud and obnoxious, and yet manages to hide any type of emotional connection. They both keep saying how great they are together, but I don’t see it. Her family did seem nice, though.

Finally, we have Amanda, 27. Amanda thought it would be a real hoot to hire actors to play her parents, and be as weird and annoying as possible. Her ersatz mother played a drunken slut who laughed inappropriately and made several passes at Matt. The father was just kinda rude. Finally, he walks in on Matt and the mother, who is all over Matt, and demands to know what’s going on. I was wondering the same thing. Why would Amanda waste so much of her time with Matt on something so silly. So, long after the rest of us have had enough, Amanda calls it quits and tells Matt she was pulling a practical joke on him. Ha ha. Yikes. Then he gets to meet her real family, but fortunately we really don’t have to sit through too much of that. If it was my choice, I’d have gotten rid of Amanda, just for that, but Matt clearly has a different sense of humor than me.

Next week, Matt takes the three remaining chicks for some fun in the sun in Barbados. I, for one, just can’t wait.

Lots of shows that I’ve been waiting for start up again this week. Well, to be honest, a couple started last week, like Bones, which is airing on Mondays at 8 pm ET on Fox, and Law & Order: SVU on NBC at 10 pm ET. There were 6 new eps of Bones and 5 of SVU. Actually, last week’s ep of SVU was one of the most disturbing I’ve seen in a long time.

So here is my TV schedule for this week (all times are ET):

Monday
Big Bang Theory - CBS - 8 pm
Bones - Fox - 8 pm
House - Fox - 9 pm (4 new eps start 4/28)
The Bachelor - ABC - 10 pm

Tuesday
American Idol - Fox - 8 pm
Beauty and the Geek - CW - 8 pm
Hell’s Kitchen - Fox - 9 pm
Reaper - CW - 9 pm (5 new eps)
Law and Order: SVU - NBC - 10 pm

Wednesday
America’s Next Top Model - CW - 8 pm
Back To You - Fox - 8:30 pm
American Idol - Fox - 9 pm

Thursday
Supernatural - CW - 9 pm (4 new eps)
Lost - ABC - 10 pm (5 new eps)

Friday
Sarah Jane Adventures - SciFi - 8 pm (new eps to air in US)
Doctor Who - SciFi - 9 pm (new eps to air in US)
Moonlight - CBS - 9 pm (4 new episodes)

Obviously, I’m gonna be pretty busy this week. Thank goodness for DVR.

On America’s Next Top Model we’re up to the last 7 girls. Which puts them in the same week as American Idol who also went from 7 to 6 last night. I wonder why I never made that connection in all these weeks.

Whitney pointed out that as a plus sized model, she’s still there. It makes me wonder how long any other plus sized model lasted in other cycles of the show. I may have to check that out.

So Fatima isn’t an American? How do these people get on these shows? This is America’s Next Top Model. I’m sorry, shouldn’t only people who are American get to compete? I’m not saying they have to have been born here, I just mean they should be actual citizens at the point in time they try out.

This week Paula teaches the girls to make conversation. Or she tries to. Some of them are so awkward. I know, they are young.

So then the girls decide to cook. And, of course, Lauren cuts her thumb. She’ll live. Meanwhile, Fatima may not be able to leave the country with the rest of girls and so maybe forfeited out of the competition. OK, didn’t she ever see this show before? Didn’t she know they always go overseas? And what about the producers, didn’t they know?

Then the chicks get to go to a “green” carpet event hosted by 7-up. The girls wear Jay Godfrey dresses (really pretty!) and get to talk to a reporter from The Insider. The best part for me was when Dominique said “Jay Giorgio” when they asked her what she was wearing. I love it when she does something stupid, because she’s so arrogant. Also a plus was when Lauren said she could “kick the ___ out of those girls anytime” (that’s how they showed it, so use your imagination) cause it was fun. And for the first time, Stacy Ann got to show that she thinks a heck of a lot of herself as well.

Anya won the competition, which surprised me, cause she’s not one of girls I like that much. She’s OK, I just don’t really get her. She got paid $10,000 for doing a shoot for 7-up. So that was cool.

Then there was a commercial where Saleisha talks about voting. She tells us she’s never voted before, but now that she’s a role model, she has to vote and tell people about voting. I don’t get that. But I’m someone who has voted, since the age of 18, in every single election she could, including primaries. I mean, why wouldn’t someone vote? Especially, since women had to fight so hard to get that right.

The photo shoot this week is them all running to catch their plane. Fatima, in the meantime, had to leave to go deal with her travel documents, so she’s missing the shoot. She does get the papers she needs, but doesn’t get back to the shoot in time. Watching the girls in the shoot, it does seem like they are all trying too hard. They come right from the shoot into panel and an elimination. From here, they are actually leaving to go abroad.

I think this is the first cycle they don’t all go overseas and then send someone right back home from there. I guess it saves money.

Tyra does tell Fatima that as a result of missing the photo shoot, she could get eliminated. But I thought they were also pretty hard on Stacy Ann and Whitney. I’m also wondering if they are really going overseas? Since they keep talking about going away sort of tongue in cheek, it makes me think something might be up.

Into eliminations. The first person called was Anya, which is no surprise. Then, Lauren, Dominique, Katarzyna, Whitney (yes!! I was worried). The bottom 2 are Fatima and Stacy Ann.

In the end, the judges felt that Fatima had a better body of work than Stacy Ann, and that Stacy Ann had grown as much as she was going to, so Fatima goes on and Stacy Ann goes home.

Oh, and I guess I was wrong, cause they are going overseas, to Rome.

This week, on Beauty and the Geek, they quickly resolved the issue, left over from last week, of who was staying and who was going, starting out with Tara’s agonized decision of choosing Joe over Jonathan. Personally, I would have kept Jonathan, but that’s just me. Jonathan did seem fairly comfortable with the idea of going back home to his mommy, though, so I guess it was all OK. Question: Who cares if someone has a huge heart anyway? They all kept talking about it, and I wonder if its just the only way stupid chicks feel they can relate to ugly guys. Whatever.

So the Beauties and Geeks, now in teams of two, have their first challenge as couples. For the girls, its a science project, and for the guys, its having to give love advice on Dr. Drew’s radio call in show. Now, I’m gonna be honest with you. Although I did watch this show, it was late. I had just finished watching American Idol and Hell’s Kitchen and was reviewing my AI blog, so I wasn’t maybe paying as close attention as I should have been to the action on the screen. But the show seemed kinda boring to me.

However, watching them trying to be comfortable outside of their own spheres, I was proud of them. And a little frightened. I did find myself wishing Cara would go soon, cause her little baby voice is making me want to puke. But still, the way some of those girls were able to learn and explain about volcanoes, earthquakes and electricity, and the guys give love advice, it made me think people can change and learn. Even Cara, who had to ask Chris if we live on the outside of the Earth, and Tom, who didn’t know what “sexually active” meant. Not that all of them really got it, but some of them did pretty well. Joe, however, still talks too much.

The Beauty challenge winner was Cara and the Geek winner was Tom, which made Chris and Cara and Tom and Amanda safe. The couples that went into elimination were Jim and Tiffany and Matt and Leticia. I felt a little sorry for Jim, who put out there on national TV that he had never kissed a girl, and then when he asked Tiffany, she said “no.” In a way, she got paid back when she was completely unable to answer even one question before Leticia. But still, with everyone crying all over the place, it was hard to dislike either girl enough to want to see them go home. In the end, Leticia pulled Matt through with her, by answering all three of her questions correctly, when he never even buzzed in to answer at all, letting Jim get two right in a row. So Jim and Tiffany go home. But I couldn’t help wondering what kind of unbeatable team Leticia and Jim would make if instead of letting a couple go, they just let go the two people who didn’t answer any questions. But I guess the world will never know.

I hope Tiffany kissed Jim goodbye.

I have some exciting news for everyone. Well, especially for me. You can now pre-order American Idol alum Chris Sligh’s new CD at his website. It comes out on Tuesday, May 6, 2008, and if you pre-order, for only $10, you can get an autographed copy!!! If you want to hear some of his music (provided you haven’t any of the many other times I’ve mentioned it), you can check him out at his myspace.com/chrissligh. There are six songs up there now that you can listen to including the first single, Empty Me, which is also available now at iTunes.

I realized that I’ve mentioned time and again how much I love Chris Sligh. He’s absolutely one of my very favorite artists ever to come out of American Idol. I’ve been watching this show since the second season and in all that time, I’ve really only liked about four people. Well, liked enough to buy their CDs anyway, and this is one CD I’ve really been looking forward to buying.

If you read my other blog, watchingsitcoms.com, you’ll see that I review American Idol each week, and I get way more excited and involved than someone my age really should over a TV show. That being said, you can begin to understand what it means that as much I love the show, I still haven’t liked that many people that I was willing to put my money where my mouth is, so to speak, and buy their CDs.

Just as a reminder, you can also buy Chris’s previous CD, Take A Chance on Something Beautiful, with his band, Half Past Forever, on Amazon.

In my Internet travels today, I came across an article detailing the shows that the CW is renewing for next season.

The show I’m most excited about is Supernatural. I was nervous and so was the show’s creator, Eric Kripke. But luckily for all of us, the CW has renewed Supernatural for a fourth season!! And there’s still new eps to air this year, so as far as I’m concerned, its all good.

The CW also renewed Smallville for it’s 8th (and probably last) season. I’ve read elsewhere that they are probably gonna use this season to tie up all the ends and bring Superman up to true Clark Kent adulthood. I’m just not sure how they plan to make him a nerd with glasses.

Other shows renewed by the CW are Gossip Girl for its 2nd full season, One Tree Hill for a Season 6, and sitcom, Everybody Hates Chris. Also, America’s Next Top Model was renewed for both an 11th and 12th cycle. No word yet on new shows Reaper and Aliens in America. I’d like to see Reaper renewed cause I think the show has potential. Don’t forget that there are still three new eps of Reaper to watch starting this week on Thursday, March 13 at 9:00 pm. You should check it out and see what you think if you haven’t seen it yet.

Finally, don’t forget Beauty and the Geek. The fifth season premieres tonight, Tuesday, March 11 at 8 pm. It’s worrisome that it would premiere opposite the Top 12 singing from the Lennon/McCartney songbook on American Idol, but that’s why we have DVRs, right?

Supernatural has been pretty good the last couple of weeks. I do like all the Dean action. I love Dean. He’s the reason I started watching the show in the first place.

According to Ausiello’s strike chart (his list of when shows will return now that the strike is over - which is awesome by the way and continually updated), Supernatural’s final pre-strike episode airs on February 21 and they are expected to shoot 4 additional episodes which will begin airing on April 24. Which means 8 weeks without Supernatural. It makes me wonder, since April 24 is a Thursday, and I thought Reaper was moving into the spot. According to Ausiello, Reaper has three pre-strike episodes remaining, the last of which airs on March 27 (which is also a Thursday), and they expect to shoot 5 additional episodes to begin airing on April 22, which puts us back on Tuesday.

Maybe I was wrong about the CW. Maybe they are just moving Reaper away from American Idol and using it to fill in the time between new Supernatural eps. Then they are using Smallville as a lead in to bring a wider audience to Reaper. Here’s the story for Smallville, per Ausiello. Three remaining pre-strike episodes will air March 13, 20 and 27 (most likely lining up with the three new eps of Reaper), and they are expected to shoot 5 additional episodes to begin airing on April 17.

Apparently, the CW did actually have a plan. That makes me a little happier about the fate of Supernatural.

Reaper is back in repeats. But it’s opposite American Idol and I don’t get that. Does the CW want the show to die? I’m not saying everybody watches American Idol, but everybody watches American Idol. Reaper is definitely a niche show, so I just don’t see how anyone, just because they don’t watch AI, is just gonna stumble on it by mistake or anything. It should be somewhere more better.

I realize its just repeats, but this is the perfect opportunity for them to find the people out there who would like the show and want to watch it, but missed it the first time around. Most of them are watching American Idol. I’d bet on it. Then the plan, as of February 28, is to move Reaper to Thursdays, right into Supernatural’s spot, which I like even less. Plus, I don’t see how that will help. I guess Smallville is a good lead in show, but it obviously hasn’t helped Supernatural, since it’s disappearing from the schedule altogether. I don’t want them messing with Supernatural.

As far as what else is happening on the CW, America’s Next Top Model is starting up cycle 10 on February 20 at 8 pm, which is good. But also, they starting a new season of Pussycat Dolls Present: Girlicious on February 18 at 9 pm. Yuck! I mean, what is that??

Anyway, they have moved a few other things around, too, so here is the schedule for The CW’s midseason:

Monday
8:00 pm - Gossip Girl (Beginning January 28)
9:00 pm - Pussycat Dolls Present: Girlicious (Beginning February 18)

Tuesday
8:00 pm - Reaper (From January 15 - January 28)
8:00 pm - Beauty and the Geek (Beginning March 11)
9:00 pm - One Tree Hill

Wednesday (Beginning February 20)
8:00 pm - America’s Next Top Model
9:00 pm - Pussycat Dolls Present: Girlicious - Encore

Thursday
8:00 pm - Smallville
9:00 pm - Reaper (Beginning February 28)

Sunday (Beginning February 10)
7:00 pm - CW Now
7:30 pm - Everybody Hates Chris -Encores
8:00 pm - Everybody Hates Chris
8:30 pm - Aliens in America
9:00 pm - Girlfriends
9:30 pm - The Game

So there you have it. The new line up. Tell me, where is Supernatural?

Alright, I’m open for ideas. What shows on the CW are you all interested in? I’ve gotta just give in and start watching some of them, cause I have no idea when Supernatural, Reaper or Smallville will be back on in new eps and I can’t keep talking about random stuff. Can I?

There seems to be a lot of interest in Gossip Girl, but I just don’t think that’s for me. I saw a bit of it once and it just seems . . . how can I say this without offending people? . . . stupid. OK, I didn’t mean that the way it sounded. It’s just not for me. I miss the days of Veronica Mars.

I also caught of glimpse of Crowned and I’d rather have a root canal.

I think the big issue for me is that I’m not a huge reality TV fan and most of what’s on these days is reality. Only not so real, if you know what I mean. Don’t get me wrong, I watch some reality TV, like America’s Next Top Model (which will be back on Feburary 20, btw), American Idol, Hell’s Kitchen . . . stuff like that. (Apparently, it must either have the word “America” in the title or feature a British guy. Or both.)

But I’m serious. I’m open to whatever interests those of you out there who are actually reading this blog and have an opinion.

Obviously, it must fit some criteria: 1) it should be on the CW; 2) it shouldn’t suck. I think that’s pretty easy going as far as criteria go. (Is criteria already plural? I mean, should that last sentence have read “as far as criteria goes?”)

Anyway, what do you think?

The CW, Supernatural, Reaper, Smallville, American Idol, America’s Next Top Model, Gossip Girl, Crowned, Hell’s Kitchen, Veronica Mars

I wasn’t at all surprised to see Jenah leave first last night on America’s Next Top Model. I believe I’ve called for her to come in third at least a couple of times over the last few weeks. (It’s OK, you don’t have to congratulate me or anything.) Although, I was sorry when she cried and was talking about having to raise her little sisters by herself. I didn’t know that and it was a bit surprising.

In any case, I wasn’t really surprised to see Saleisha and Chantal as the top two, even though I had some worry a while back that they were grooming Heather for the top spot. I have to say that Saleisha has always been one of my favorites and I thought she and Chantal were among the best.

Which, as it turns out, they were. I thought it was interesting to see that little clip where Saleisha says to Chantal at the very beginning, “Let’s be the last two standing.” It does make you wonder a bit if this whole thing is rigged. I don’t know that I think it is and it doesn’t really matter to me that much. I’ve pretty much always thought American Idol was rigged, and I love that show. I don’t watch reality tv cause I’m truly expecting reality, I watch it cause it’s entertaining. Sometimes. Now that I come to think of it, I do believe that ANTM and AI are the only two reality-type shows that I actually watch. Oh, wait, and Hell’s Kitchen.

Anyway, back to the subject at hand. In watching the runway walk, I did think that Saleisha was much stronger than Chantal - although, I really felt sorry for Chantal when that guy fell on her dress. You could just see that she wanted to turn around and help him back up, but realized that she couldn’t do that. Then, when the judges were telling them how they did, even though most of the positive comments went to Saleisha, you could almost see a look in Chantal’s eye that said she was confident she had won. Saleisha, on the other hand, looked hopeful, but unsure, like she didn’t think she really deserved it. I thought that was interesting, cause it does seem like the most confident person should win and, also, I thought maybe they were faking us out by only showing the negative criticism of Chantal. Apparently not.

Overall, even though I didn’t call it, I’m glad Saleisha won, cause I think she’s adorable and I think that she really was one of the best there, especially role model-wise. Good luck, Saleisha!!

America’s Next Top Model, Tyra Banks, Saleisha, American Idol, Hell’s Kitchen

I’m gonna miss Reaper over the next few weeks and I’m gonna hope it will be back after the New Year. They didn’t actually say it would, but I have hope. Although, Tuesday night, traditionally a full night for me with TV, will be even more full with the addition of American Idol, so I don’t know how much I can watch.

We will have our DVR by then. I hope. When I called Time Warner cable they were all out of boxes and told me it might be a few weeks!! However, they tell me a DVR can only tape two shows at a time, when I have been known to tape anywhere up to five shows at one time. Plus, I keep the tapes. I really need someone who understands how this all works to explain it to me. I mean, can I tape on the DVR and then somehow save the show to a video tape or DVD so I can watch it again later like I do with my tapes now? I’ve been known to tape an entire season of a show and then re-watch it at a later date. I suppose that the season DVDs come out so soon now that maybe that’s not necessary, but still, what if I wanna??

I’m completely serious. I need a lesson in what it means to DVR and what I can and can’t do with it. If I don’t know, how can I do what I’ve been doing all along. I’ve been taping shows and saving them since the early 80’s. Really. So please, if you’re our there, help me. Soon, like before Reaper comes back on.

Reaper, American Idol, DVR