[BlogEntry] Dancing with the Stars Oct 9, 2007 Week #3 Results : Who Got Kicked Off?

The results show has become such a pattern it's almost no fun to blog it anymore. They stretch it too far, and then just shove in a bunch of canned acts. This time we have Seal, who does "Kissed By A Rose" first while two professionals we don't know (I hate that, as I've mentioned) dance what is actually quite a nice number. Later he comes back, complete with backup dancers and playing his own guitar, to do the token song from his new album. Reminded me of Prince for some reason.

Then we have the obligatory ABC/Disney promotional segment, as Billy Ray Cyrus and his daughter come out to sing. Unlike a Drew Lachey who really seems to have embraced the show and makes regular appearances, Billy Ray pretty much never took his eyes off the microphone. He came, he sang, he left.

The only real suspense in the results show is who will be in the bottom two. Since the results are in no particular order, does it really matter at all who is safe first? Of course not. I would expect Wayne and Mark to be the lowest this week. Once you're down there, it's hard to fight out of it. But I'm surprised to see not Mark but Floyd the boxer. He's a classic case of not warming up to the audience. He thinks that if he concentrates hard enough and works on it and really puts everything he's got into it, he'll do well, and that's not how it works – at all. If you looked mad when you lose, the audience will drop off for you. Maybe his overhyping of his pay-per-view event had something to do with it? Who knows.

Doesn't matter, as Wayne goes home. His whole presence was entirely awkward, and I think Cheryl the two time champ knew it. She even had some comment in one of the segments about how during the complicated maneuvers she'd spin them so that she was closest to the judges. Nice. Even in the backstage segment Drew hit her with a question like "What character are you going to have Wayne in next week?" and she launched into what was clearly a pre-scripted speech about how wonderful of a guy he is. That made no sense.

Paso Doble next week, and I'll already make the prediction that Julianne (the champ) and Helio (race car man) get the highest score. Something about their style, combined with her choreography in what is a very character driven dance.

[BlogEntry] Biggest Loser 10/9/2007 : Jamaica

Last week they teased that the campus would be closing for a week, and I speculated that the contestants would have to live out in the real world and see what they've learned.

Almost. They actually all got a trip to a Jamaican resort, with their trainers. So it wasn't quite "real world", but the idea was still the same – deny the temptations, find some time to exercise, that sort of thing.

Jillian continued to beat on her team, taking them to a beach section to continue working in the sand (something they did during their first hidden weeks in the desert). Bob went the other way, and had some nice quality yoga time with his team. Kim may have had the best idea of all, getting her team in the pool. Nothing like working a large number of muscle groups while still giving the team the feeling that they get to relax.

The interesting philosophical question, though, came regarding the temptations. Jillian watched over her team like a hawk, telling them exactly what to eat and yelling at one of the players (Jez? is that how you spell it?) for even thinking about taking a drink. Her attitude was, "My goal is to keep all of my team here, you have the rest of your lives to drink. If you can't fight temptation for one week how are you ever going to do it in the real world?" Bob had a similar philosophy, though we did not see as much of it. Kim, however, went the opposite way – "You're adults, and if you want to drink, go ahead."

The challenge had the teams sitting out on a big raft and then one by one pulling themselves and each other back to shore. This one wasn't even close, as the black team made it all the way (on the shoulders of the little short twins with the low center of gravity), and the red and blue teams never even made it off the starting raft.

That's the only good news for black, however, as they come up the shortest in the weigh-in. This time it's actually red that wins the whole thing, so I think that pool strategy paid off. The team says that Jillian is visibly upset, but I think she's more upset at what she considers a personal defeat, rather than a sadness for whoever goes home. At this point the black team gets ugly, and the women immediately start scheming to break up the twins. "I don't want to go home, I can't do this by myself" one of them keeps saying. So Jim goes home. And in the "where are they now" segment he's lost so much weigh he looks like he might be sick, honestly. If I read the graphic right, he's lost a total of 123 pounds? And he did not start out as a big 400lb guy.

Next week…well, who cares. Blah blah, trainer goes over the line…they always sensationalize so we'll watch, but it's never really all that exciting.