On Television

Don’t even bother watching The Amazing Race Family Edition - it’s a crashing bore. First of all, they won’t be leaving North America, so basically one of the major draws goes right there. Second of all, the casting is hideous. I don’t know who came up with this idea at CBS (Phil intimates in his video diaries it was a CBS idea, and not a producers’ idea - and I don’t believe it for a second when he says “I think it’s great”), but whoever it was should be fired on the spot.

This diminishing of things Canadian, translating to diminishing of citizenship in this country, should not be taken lightly. My niece thinks American Idol is superior to Canadian Idol. She puts down her own fellow citizens in favour of citizens of a foreign country, yet both shows are franchises of the British Pop Idol. They have the same graphics, the same theme, similar staging, the same format. They differ only in the judges (predictable and cliched in the American Idol, more entertaining in the Canadian one) and talent (overall better talent in Canadian Idol, some of the Americans make you want to hide your ears) and attitude, all of which is a reflection of our cultures. Yet she thinks the entire American version is better than the Canadian one. She isn't tone deaf, so the only explanation is that she has already got the filters in place that says things Canadian are never as good as things American -- or in Conrad's case, things British. Those filters morph reality to meet this fantasy. The sad thing is that my niece is just reflecting many Canadians' views.

Apprentice-esque business methods are being imbued with reality television gossip, alliances and back-stabbing. Unfortunately when business and entertainment are merged in a context like this, ethics aren't sexy enough to make their way into the equation. Capital Edge should have known that their megaphone order could potentially be stolen, and Excel should have known better than to do it. However being in Trump's TV microcosom, anything goes - and this message that "anything goes" is the message that us young entrepreneurs and students are taking away from this show.

Oprah, Dave. Dave, Oprah. The cold war between television titans Oprah Winfrey and David Letterman has thawed to the point where Winfrey has accepted Letterman’s invitation to appear on the “Late Show” on Dec. 1.

We started up the membership four weeks ago after I saw the kind of serious exercise that was possible, even by the severely overweight contestants on “The Biggest Loser” reality TV show. If they could do it without keeling over or having a heart attack, so could I.

Yes fans, it’s a week off from the Amazing Race - I for one am feeling the pain of being cut off cold turkey… I mean they could give us at least three weeks warning to prepare - I just can’t take it. Regardless - you get the bonus of reading my all-time favourite Amazing Racers. They are in no particular order (unless you count #10 being the lowest and #1 the highest…):

It’s very hard to make me cry. Well, sometimes. I think it’s easy when it comes to happy things, and that’s what happened tonight. I was watching the last half hour of Extreme Makeover Home Edition where they remake people’s homes. This one was a two hour special where they redid a three-story house in a handicap accessible fashion for this one family. It was pretty amazing. I can’t really describe what they did, but there was an elevator, special refrigerators, tables, showers, bathtubs, a pool. Unbelievable. I think the kitchen had like four sinks alone with extra wide areas around the island so wheelchairs could fit.

Don’t believe it’s real? Check out The Apprentice 4 : Star Wars Special now! (Premieres this thursday, if I am not mistaken)

So, during the past few days, I’ve been doing nothing but watch reality shows in TV. The Apprentice (Donald Trump), The Apprentice: Martha Stewart, The Cut, So You Think You Can Dance, The Contender, Rockstar: INXS, Extreme Makeover Home Edition… am I forgetting something? I’m catching up on all the Rockstar: INXS shows I missed, and then some.

Last night, I heard Ellen Degeneres mention podcasting on her talk show. Wow!

Last night I had to really push myself to do my 4 mile walk. I let myself take a nap for 30 minutes then washed my bed sheets and knew that in order to be able to eat dinner and watch The Biggest Loser I would have to be walking by 7PM. By 6:40 I reluctantly put the DVD in and started walking. It was nice to sit and eat my dinner and watch The Biggest Loser. I cried a little bit during the weigh in. I find that show so inspirational.

OK - it may not be a fight but 4 great ads the for "The Apprentice". Gotta love the Chewbacca one. You need Quicktime to view these 4 clips:

Anyway on Monday November 8, 2005, we had to do something in World Studies to represent the things we just learned, our group Jean, Me, Eddy, and Kristine chose the Roman Catholic Counter-Reformation. We made up a hypnotik routine of sorts. It sucked too but it was funny. I was the Council of Trent and Jean was St. Vincent de Paul, Kristine was St. Francis Xavier and Eddy was St. Ignatius Loyola, or I to the Iggy. It was supposed to be like American Idol except with dance. Me and Jean danced. Here’s how it went:

I had the misfortune of flicking over to The Biggest Loser while I was sulking on the couch last night and ended up watching about fifteen minutes worth, wearing an expression that was probably very akin to horror. And then the anger came. I was specifically peeved about two points that were going down with the weigh-ins.

Little Leo DiCaprio went on the Oprah Winfrey show to talk about the dangers of global warming. Sources close to President Bush report that he apparently sat bolt upright in his chair and screamed, "Holy shit! It looks like this thing IS really important! I'd better do something about that!"

First, I finished off the first season of Desperate Housewives, which is usually not my kind of show, but it ended up much better than I expected. I am a little miffed that they killed off one of my favorite characters, but the show must go on, heh.

I wondered: Have any of you watched Amazing race families? I just wondered whether it was a world race or just through America (seeing as they didn’t go out of the country on the first episode). Take note that we are at the beginning not the ending (in other words don’t answer any more than that question or give me teasers please!)!

The Apprentice on Yahoo TV includes deleted scenes from each episode.

I stayed in Friday night and relaxed. I watched my shows from Thursday night that I missed. I didn’t realize that Joey and Will and Grace were reruns, so that kind of made me happy that I didn’t miss anything, but still sad that I didn’t get to see anything new. I was SHOCKED at The Apprentice. I wonder if they are going to rearrange the teams again, and how they are going to play out the full season with 3 less people to fire. I guess were going to get another one of those recap and extras shows.

Maybe if people these days did not rush to play house before they barely know one another, maybe there would be fewer disturbing incidents such as the one she spilled her innards about on Oprah Winfrey since studies indicate couples shacked up and living in sin are more likely to have disputes escalating to physical violence than couples that have solemnized their love for one another before God and man through the binding act of marriage. But in this day of escalating cohabitation and out of wedlock births setting new records, I will probably find many so-called Christians and Conservatives who probably have fewer problems with this sign of obvious social decay than letting their kids go Trick-Or-Treating.