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The Olympics have been over for a week now, but Michael Phelps is still in the news. If we can have “It Girls,” it follows that we can have “It Boys.” If that’s the case,  Phelps is definitely the current “It Boy.”

Everyone is still wondering about Phelps’ romantic life. He’s been linked to many different women, the latest being a former Miss California USA, Nicole Johnson. When asked, he refuses to comment, saying he likes to keep his private and public lives separate. Johnson spoke to People recently and would only confirm that they’re “good friends.”

Maybe that’s because he can’t fit a woman into his public life. He’s popping up all over on the television, or at least is scheduled to. It seemed like he was constantly on during the Olympics, even after the swimming portion of the games was completed. The first appearance will be as a presenter at the Video Music Awards on MTV. Apparently he’s just doing face time, as he takes the stage among Miley Cyrus, Scarlett Johansson, and the kids from High School Musical.

One day later, Phelps will be appearing on Oprah Winfrey’s season opener. She plans to have on 150 Olympic team members, and Phelps would have to be a headliner if not “the” headliner. After, Phelps will be to host the season premiere of Saturday Night Live on September 13th. They like to use non-actors quite often, but being a live show, they can sometimes make it quite obvious when they read the cue cards. I picture him being in that group. He also filmed a guest-starring role in an upcoming role on HBO’s Entourage, which happens to be his favorite show. He won’t have the opportunity for cue cards here, but will get the benefit of being able to have several takes.

After he’s done appearing all over the on TV, Phelps has been signed to write a book about his life story that’s due out by the holidays. This is just a guess, but I’m figuring he’ll have a ghost writer for that project. When would this guy ever have had the time to develop writing skills? He probably won’t be the “It Boy” by that time, but I bet the book will sell well no matter how well it’s written.

Is it just me, or does the longer this season of Big Brother goes on, the more it seems the writers are taking a season off? It’s a non-scripted show, so they already have that going for them. All they have to do is write the direction of the show, questions for challenges, etc. Their challenges and so-called “twists” just either seem lame or redone from a past season.

Don’t get me wrong. I love this season. It was sorely needed after the train wreck that last season became. There was only so many naked bodies I could witness on my live feeds. Trust me on this, those of you without the live feeds were definitely spared. We really didn’t get down to any really good strategizing until the past few weeks.

With this cast, though, we had enough to give us some real meat. They were such a strategic set that there was more of that in the first week than there was all last season. The problem is Big Brother didn’t give them the right tools to work with. Had they come up with some really inventive twists and challenges, we’d all be turning off the set Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday nights in complete awe. Continue Reading »

Tuesday’s America’s Got Talent was an entertaining show, and by the time we got to the end with Neal E. Boyd, it was just flat out amazing. Jerry Springer asks Piers Morgan his thoughts on the overall standard of the night, and he believes it was terrific with one or two exceptions, and calls the ending with Neal just incredible. Sharon Osbourne says there were a lot of surprises for her, but jokes they were good ones, eliciting boos. We don’t want Sharon to joke apparently. David Hasselhoff knows it must have been a tough decision for America to place the vote and gets tongue-tied trying to explain how tough it was for him as a judge.

After the votes came in last night, they are sending the top four vote getters on to the top twenty, and the judges will decide who will stay and who will leave between the acts that received votes placing them in fifth and sixth place. Extreme Dance FM and Ronny B. are brought up with one leaving and one stay. This one’s obvious. Don’t let the door hit you on the way out, Ronny. The next pair is nearly just as obvious, Shimshi and Jessica Price, and indeed the young singer stays. Between DC Cowboys and Cadence, it isn’t as obvious. The percussionists end up staying. I’m certainly hoping the choice between Derrick Barry and Neal E. Boyd is as obvious as it looks, and it is. Neal stays. Continue Reading »

After a two week break to air the Olympics, NBC is finally getting to the semi-finals of America’s Got Talent. It’ll be interesting to see how that pans out for them ratings-wise. Then again, there’s nothing else on TV yet, so I’m guessing they didn’t lose too many viewers during this quick hiatus. Tonight we’ll see ten of the top forty acts, and we’ll vote on them, finding out tomorrow night which five will stay, just before we see the next ten.

Piers Morgan explains he has itchy fingers tonight hovering over his X button, and Sharon Osbourne warns everyone they need to step it up tonight and show a huge improvement from last time. David Hasselhoff explains his good and bad news. The bad is that one contestant had to pull out because of injury, and that would be the Russian bar act. They are being replaced in the top forty, and America got to vote on this online, just before we went on hiatus. At the end of the night tonight, we’ll find out which act was voted back in.

Extreme Dance FX is a better act than they sound. They are what host Jerry Springer explains as traditional clog dancing meeting the 21st century. I didn’t get to hear too much else of their intro package, as the sound edit is off and all I can hear is the cheering crowd. They are going for a faster, tighter, new look. Their clogging hip hop routine is really interesting, and I like them much better than before. So, whatever they did, it worked. Piers admits he wasn’t their biggest fan before, but he has to say tonight they’re terrific. Sharon enjoyed their smoking on fire energy, saying you can just feel it in the room. David gets an age check, from 14 to 26 for this group, and he agrees with Piers that they proved them wrong tonight. He now finds them inspirational. Continue Reading »

For once when perusing the cast list for the upcoming season of Dancing With the Stars, I’m not reading through the names asking, “Who?” Usually there’s a few names that are easily recognizable, but many of the others having me scratching my head. Not this time, as there were only a couple I wasn’t quite sure who they were, and a quick google and IMDB check gave me all the answers I needed to know. We also have some interesting new professionals joining the show as well.

The one name that has been often rumored about the upcoming season is Lance Bass, and he is now confirmed as being in the cast. The former member of *NSYNC had been rumored to be dancing with a same sex partner for the first time ever on the show, but it turns out he’ll be dancing with Lacey Schwimmer. Now that’s an exciting surprise for me. Lacey was last seen in the finale of last summer’s So You Think You Can Dance and is the sister of Benji Schwimmer, winner of So You Think You Can Dance the season before. Apparently they’re brining in some new blood to give a real challenge to Julianna Hough. Continue Reading »

Don’t get excited all you longtime American Idol fans. Paula Abdul is not being replaced, and neither is Simon Cowell or Randy Jackson. The judging panel is simply being added to. I’m not exactly sure if their reasoning makes sense, but I would think it’s a simple case of them realizing it’s time for change after beginning to fall in the ratings the past few seasons.

Ryan Seacrest made the big announcement this morning on his radio show. Sitting alongside the others at the judges’ table this season will be Kara DioGuardi, a Grammy-Nominated songwriter. She has written songs for many of today’s top artists, including Natasha Bedingfield, Celine Dion, and Gwen Stefani. She’s also written for American Idol graduates Carrie Underwood, Clay Aiken, David Archuleta, and Kelly Clarkson, including one of the latter’s biggest hits Breakaway. She has also written songs for movies and TV such as Hannah Montana, Cheetah Girls 3, and Camp Rock. That’s just the beginning. In other words, she has a very impressive discography.

Series creator Simon Fuller explains, “we are turning the heat up on Idol this year.” He continues, saying that DioGuardi will “bring a new level of energy and excitement to the show.” In other words, he’s admitting the show is troubled and headed in a dangerous direction, and he’s trying to fix it just shy of jumping the shark. Mike Darnell, the president of alternative Programming at FOX, mentions that for the first seven seasons, Paula Abdul was the only woman at the judges’ table, and this move will add more “girl power.”

The question on everyone’s minds today after hearing this is will this really help the show? Is four judges the answer? Canadian Idol is very successful and they use the four judge system, so it’s not impossible for it to work well. I think they all recognized that the show needed something fresh and were afraid to disrupt the present balance of replacing a judge. Yet in some ways, Randy, Paula, and Simon aren’t exactly current. DioGuardi’s discography certainly is, but I wonder if this news will have contestants brown-nosing too much and singing all her songs to audition and further themselves in the competition..

Regardless, I think some type of a change was due on the show. And maybe that’s part of the reason Nigel Lythgoe left the series to concentrate on So You Think You Can Dance and other projects last month. DioGuardi may not be the answer, but I appreciate the attempt. This guarantees the show to run a little longer as well, so perhaps they’re considering running the show nearly always two hours on performance night, similar to what So You Think You Can Dance did this season (and speaking of this show … I like they’re successful formula of having two permanent judges and a rotating judges’ third spot.)

Our only choice is to wait it out until late January when the show returns. My best educated guess, after following this show for all of its seven seasons, and covering it with recaps, commentary, and interviews for the past four, is that fans will never totally embrace this. Not everyone appreciates change, yet another faction have been dying for some type of change, anything, for quite some time. I think it will bring more viewers either way, as people will tune in “just to see.”

For more information on American Idol, see SirLinksalot: American Idol.

What fascinates me watching certain reality shows like Big Brother, Survivor, and even The Amazing Race to a certain extent, is the interpersonal relationships that go on. I could go a long time and not get the desire to watch people eating bugs or seeing how long they can stand on a stump. What really makes me tune in is how these people treat each other and the ways they manipulate each other to earn the big cash in the end.

In those interpersonal relationships, the thing that seems to come up the most is their honesty. These are people they met just weeks or maybe even days before, so how they do they know they can trust each other not to lie? It becomes an odd way to relate, as in normal day to day happenings we don’t move about worrying if the other person is lying. Well, some might, but that’s their own personal hangup. It doesn’t become an overruling factor, worrying if our neighbor is lying about when he’s going to mow his lawn next, or worrying if our best friend is lying when she promises to invite us over for dinner soon.

On Big Brother, it seems to come into play even more than others, because when it gets down to it, the whole show is based on how people relate to each other and who they can manipulate. A certain paranoia seems to reach everyone at a certain point, as they wonder who they can trust to help them win a half million dollars.

The contestants in the house, and us as viewers as well, decide early on who we can trust. It’s more acceptable as the game goes on for some people to lie, but not others. Dan wasn’t supposed to be a trusted person in the household. From everything that he said in his pre-show interviews, he was a prejudiced person. Yet he grew on us, so now we want him to have integrity. He lied to Jerry about who he was going to vote for one week, and after originally trusting Dan, Jerry blew his top, and walked around calling Dan a Judas. Because he was a teacher and wore a cross, it became so wrong for him to lie, but we knew he was put in that position as America’s Player, so we were wiling to forgive him.

Now, the situation this week is all hinging on whether Dan will break his word again. He made a deal to win HoH, but gave all the power to someone else. He saw it as a good move, as he wasn’t going to be taking responsibility for anyone going home, but Ollie saw it much differently. Ollie realized he could be kept safe and keep his alliance intact, getting rid of his choice of people this week. Then after that, he could still play for HoH next week and possibly win HoH on his own, still retaining the power. It was a no lose situation … if Dan kept his word.

While Dan thought he wouldn’t have the responsibility of someone going home, he does, as everyone knows he made this deal. If someone from his own alliance goes home, they’ll blame him. It could prove to be the worst move in Big Brother history, even toppling Marcelas’ when he kept himself on the block and took someone else off, then ended up going home when they turned on him. Dan’s deal could prove to be worse if someone in his own alliance goes home and the others blame him for it. And next week he becomes the vulnerable one when he can’t play HoH.

But what if Dan goes back on his word? As he told his parents via a one-sided conversation with a picture, he has a choice of keeping his word or going back on it. We would have expected him to lie when we first met Dan, but now we’ve kind of grown to like him. Now we don’t want him to lie. We want him to have integrity and keep his word. If he ends up losing Renny, Keesha, or Memphis this week, the alliance will take a hit and may not recover.

It was a very chancy move to give all that power to Ollie, and Dan’s not going to be removed from blame as he had thought. Either way, he’ll have responsibility. Ollie and Michelle will blame him if he goes back on his word and puts one of them up, and the others will blame him if he keeps his word and lets Ollie decide who goes home. It was a risky move that is only going to spread doubt again among everyone about his character. It’s not what he needs this close to the end of the game.

Dan’s best bet is going to be to go back on his word to Ollie. He can possibly convince the others that he had this plan all along to lie, and Michelle will go home, since Dan will have the tiebreaker. He won’t be able to play for HoH next week, but if someone in his alliance wins it, he’ll probably be kept safe. If he keeps his word to Ollie, Ollie and Michelle certainly won’t keep him safe, and the others won’t either. He’ll go home.

No one can blame Dan completely for not thinking this out real clearly while he was hanging on that vine trying to win, yet it’s the name of the game. It’s all about being put in these pressurized situations, making deals, and keeping yourself safe. In the end, the person that gets others’ votes to win the game will have played it well. This week he didn’t play it well and needs to do something really quickly to save face with his alliance to earn their vote in the end. If, and and it’s a big if, he can make it come off as a smart move in the game, he can possibly still get the others’ votes in the end.

It will be interesting to see how he plays this out that will keep me watching Big Brother this week. No matter which way it goes, it will have given us a lot of entertainment this week, as we sit around the water cooler and debate this risky move of his.

Photos Courtesy of cbs.com

For more information on Big Brother 10, visit SirLinksALot: Big Brother 10 and Big Brother 10 News. See my other blog at Pursuing Martial Arts.

Originally I had thought In Plain Sight would be just another cop drama on cable, but what I have found after following it for several weeks now is while it’s a great cop drama, the story that revolves around the life of a Federal Marshall that works with the Witness Protection Program is even more compelling.

Mary McCormack, formerly of The West Wing, stars as Federal Marshall Mary Shannon based out of the Albuquerque office. Her boyfriend is a minor league baseball player, played by Cristian de la Fuente, last seen dancing through the pain of an injured shoulder on Dancing With the Stars. Yet the relationships that pull in the most drama are the ones Mary shares with her mother and younger sister (Leslie Ann Warren and Nichole Hiltz).

Mary’s sister, Brandy, can get herself in real trouble, lately by being involved with a drug dealer and doing his dirty work, definitely not a good idea when her sister is a Federal Marshall. Mary’s mother has her share of troubles as well, as an alcoholic who seems to be feeling like she missed out on a career on Broadway to raise her daughters. It’s the relationships between these three women that creates a really great story, helped along a great deal by the acting talents of McCormack and Warren. Hiltz seems to pale in comparison talent-wise, but I think most would next to Warren, other than McCormack.

Not that In Plain Sight is just straight drama, as there’s quite a bit of comedy to this as well. McCormack has a a great dry humor that plays off well against the goofiness of her family and boyfriend, as well as playing well against the sharp wit of her coworker, ironically named Marshall and played by Frederick Weller. Sometimes it all just makes you want to roll your eyes along with her.

The bad part of all this is just when I have found this show that I really like, one that doesn’t seem to be promoted nearly enough, it’s the end of the season. I just watched the season finale this week, a gripping episode that had Mary, her mother, and sister all at odds with each other, and the sisters both in trouble with the federal government. They didn’t completely close out the storyline and left a lot of holes, leaving room for a second season.

We now get the news that In Plain Sight has been picked up for a second season. It will start filming this fall and air next summer. I don’t know if I can wait a year to see this show again, but the only comfort I have is that all of the first season’s episodes are online at In Plain Sight , and I can rewatch them throughout the year whenever I’m craving some really good storied drama with a twinge of humor.

Check out my other today.com blog, Pursuing Martial Arts.

What happened to the fall TV previews? Am I the only one that remembers when the big three networks would break out the ads starting in June showing us previews of the upcoming new fall TV season? Around this time every year they’d even have a special night with the stars of those shows and more clips. Saturday morning cartoons used to do this as well.

At some point, I don’t know when, those special previews disappeared. We have a few previews to the shows that are being pimped by the networks, but that’s about it. We will still have the special Fall Preview edition of the TV Guide, and that’s always another thing to look forward too, as they handicap the good and bad. Not that I agree, but it’s always interesting, at least.

I didn’t want to wait for that special edition of the TV Guide to come out, though, so I did my own sleuthing, which at times was like pulling teeth. ABC doesn’t have a fall preview seemingly anywhere. NBC has a small fall preview set up, but they also have an even larger section on the same webpage of shows that are in development, as if that’s what we’re looking for right now. Instead, I want to know what will be on next month! So here’s a night by night preview of what you can look forward to and what to avoid. Many cable channels don’t follow fall previews, more or less setting their own season, so I’m not including those.

Mondays: ABC will have a return of Dancing With the Stars, but no confirmed cast list has been announced yet. CBS will feature one new show, Worst Week, a comedy that is supposed to be like Meet the Parents. I’ll be skipping it, as I can’t watch sitcoms anymore, as they’ll just never compare to the likes of Seinfeld, Friends, Cheers, etc.

NBC will feature two new shows, the first being America’s Toughest Jobs. Everyone wants to think their job is the absolute worst, and this will be like Dirty Jobs meets Survivor, with a person being kicked off each week that can’t handle it out there in the real world. The other new show is My Own Worst Enemy. Christian Slater’s star power alone makes this one worth it, but the show about a guy leading two separate lives actually looks interesting as well. Continue Reading »

Who needs All My Children, One Life to Live, and General Hospital? Who needs to lock themselves up one hour every day to follow these stories of Pine Valley, Llanview, and Port Charles? Why not watch only one episode a week for nine weeks four times a year? All we need to do for our dose of drama is follow The Bachelor and The Bachelorette.

Of course, we’re all tired of seeing the poster children for a happy relationship made in ABC heaven, Trista and Ryan Sutter. We get it. They’re deliriously happy. But so far, they’re the only ones out of The Bachelor/The Bachelorette franchise to remain so. We always have Mary Delgado and Byron Velvick that are still together, but I have a difficult time calling them happy, although they’re probably delirious, when they’re being arrested for abuse of each other which seems to come up whenever they discuss wedding dates. Perhaps we can count Bob Guiney in this equation, as while he didn’t stick with Estella Gardinier, he eventually married Rebecca Budig who hosts a show about The Bachelor.

The drama between Matt Grant and Shayne Lamas is enough for its own soap opera altogether. We knew that one was doomed, despite the fact that they claimed they were going to be together forever. It wasn’t long before she was spotted with another man, and then announcements were made that Matt and Shayne had broken up. Shortly after this there was the drama surrounding her engagement ring from Matt. She had wanted to keep it and put it in a glass cage to be admired, insisting he wanted to come visit the ring, while he wanted to sell it and split they money between their favorite charities.

The Deanna Pappas show could continue on as a separate show as well. She was one of the final two with Brad Womack, and after he said goodbye to Jenni Croft, Deanna, and the rest of us for that matter, expected him to choose her. Instead he said goodbye to her as well, breaking her heart. On a reunion show after the fact he had asked for her father to be there, prompting her to think he had changed his mind and was going to propose. Instead, he turned her down again.

We were all feeling very sorry for Deanna at this point. When she was made the next Bachelorette, we cheered. We wanted her to finally be happy. Yet, watching her go through the twenty-five men on the show, it was clear she didn’t seem to know what she wanted any more than Brad. The only thing she knew was she didn’t want any guy that was remotely reminiscent of Brad. Every guy that seemed a perfect match, she turned down, saying she couldn’t take a chance of getting hurt again.

In the final two, she was left with a choice of Jason Mesnick, a single dad she related well to that could give her the instant family she desired, and Jesse Csincsak, a guy that she made note of was the exact opposite of the type of guy she usually went for. They appeared to have nothing in common. She chose Jesse in the end, leaving Jason to remain as a single dad. Despite the fact that Deanna and Jesse have announced a 2009 wedding, fans are literally just biding time until it’s announced they have split up because of distance and/or that they have drifted apart and/or realized they are after different things.

What’s next for this drama? Single dad Jason will now be the next Bachelor. Are any of us surprised? We pretty much knew it would be someone Deanna shot down, didn’t we? They’re currently casting for females looking to be an instant mommy to begin filming the series that will air next January. This ensures that it will be too late for Deanna once she breaks up with Jesse and realizes her clock is ticking.

If Las Vegas doesn’t take part of this action, I think they’re missing out. Surely, if people can place odds on American Idols winning or losing, they could place odds on The Bachelor/Bachelorettes and how long they will last. I give Deanna and Jesse until next February, shortly after The Bachelor starts airing and once he has already announced on talk shows that he is deliriously happen and has found the love of his life.

For more information about The Bachelor and The Bachelorette, see SirLinksalot: The Bachelor and SirLinksalot: The Bachelorette , and check out my other today.com blog, Pursuing Martial Arts.