Whats Hot On TV

It’s finale week, finally. We’ve been making predictions about it since the beginning of the season, and I think we have the same top three we would have even if the finale had been just a few weeks in, but I think we have a different possible winner. I thought for sure it was going to be Brooke Burke and Derek Hough taking the trophy, but now I have to give the edge to Lance Bass and Lacey Schwimmer.

Brooke Burke and Derek Hough show us their best ballroom dance of the season which was the quickstep. She recalls it started her season off with a lot of confidence. He thinks if they did it today, they’d get perfect 10s. Watching it again, it allows her good technique to show through, and doesn’t leave a lot of room for her to have to entertain, as the steps are that impressive. They also show their best Latin dance, which was the paso doble. He felt it was the first dance where she was able to show that fierce character she has. Again, it’s one where she was able to shine with her technique. Derek calls her the most consistent competitor, saying she has come out on top 80% of the time and has had the most 10s. Tom Bergeron asks Brooke how hard it was to come back this week after not getting good scores last week. She’s just glad it’s behind them and says they have only had positive thinking this week. Continue Reading »

For the past several weeks on Dancing With the Stars when it has come down to eliminations, the problem is that everyone left is so damn likable. There isn’t anyone I want to lose this week that I don’t want to see in the finals. However, when it comes down to who needs to be there and has a chance to win, it has to come down to Cody Linley leaving. He’s adorable and a great kid with admirable energy and honest emotions, but Brooke Burke’s technique, Warren Sapp’s entertainment value, and Lance Bass’ performance each have an honest shot at winning.

For the first round of dances, everyone will be dancing the one style they haven’t tackled yet, then they’ll do one of the new styles that were added this season that they haven’t tackled yet. Len Goodman will be offering some tips for those dances as well, and I hope he offers them personally to the dancers, as it’s always fun when he does that.

Brooke and Derek Hough will be tackling the jive and the salsa tonight, and it’s not her that’s getting frustrated, but him. He and sis Julianne tackled the jive last week, and Brooke wants him to show her how to do it, knowing she has to tackle the entertainment value of the three guys, as she wants to show she doesn’t just have technique. They dance their jive to The House Is A Rockin’, and they play it off like she’s some ogling fan of his. To try and match the entertainment value, I feel like she lacks a little in technique. At the beginning her footwork was missing just slightly. She doesn’t seem like she can get her feet going all that fast. Continue Reading »

I’m wondering who will be the one to leave Dancing With the Stars this week. Since the beginning, there have been calls for the removal of this person or that person, mostly Cloris Leachman and Susan Lucci. With them leaving the past two weeks, there is no one else to pick on. I can’t see it being Lance Bass, Brooke Burke, or Warren Sapp, so that means it’s going to have to be either Cody Linley or Maurice Greene. And with that, I just realized Brooke is the only female celebrity left. Welcome to the finals, Brooke.

Cody and substitute partner, Edyta Sliwinska, are up first. He’s feeling kind of badly after getting the lowest score for the first time in the competition. He has to do two partner dances with Edyta, with the second including a 15 second solo. His friends came in to give him some support, but I think they might have just wanted to ogle Edyta. Tonight they dance the fox trot to Call Me Irresponsible, and his frame looks pretty good. Not to mention this young guy is looking kind of suave. He even goes leg kick to leg kick with Edyta!

Len Goodman says even though everyone is doing two dances, their expectations aren’t lessened. He has to tell Cody he was pleasantly surprised. He added elegance and his footwork was pretty good. Bruno Tonioli calls Cody a “cool dude,” and says he never thought he would see this sophistication and elegance from Cody. It’s his most grown-up performance to date. Carrie Ann Inaba loved it as well, saying what’s so great about him is that not only is he nailing these numbers, but he’s also adapting to a new partner. However, Edyta’s foot came off the ground, so she is deducting a little bit for that. They get three 8s for a score. Continue Reading »

I’m ready to see some fantastic dancing tonight! I’m also ready to have a lot less fun now that Chloris Leachman left. Yes, I know she needed to go, but I just love that spirit of hers. Tonight they’re dancing in teams, whatever that is. I assume it means they’re dancing in their standard couple, then doing a few different group dances after.

Warren Sapp and Kym Johnston are up first, working on the fox trot, wanting to make a comeback in the judges’ eyes. Kym brings in a ballroom champion to show Warren how it should look. It only shows him how much more work he needs to do. They’re dancing tonight in a very old Hollywood 40s inspired fox trot to Is You Is Or Is You Ain’t My Baby. I think the big guy is looking pretty smooth. I was slow to come around with the rest of everyone being such a fan of his, but better late than never.

Len Goodman is back, mentioning that it’s not a classic fox trot, but Kym always puts an interesting touch on things that brings out personality, yet he still doesn’t think this is Warren’s best. Bruno Tonioli tells Warren and Kym that after the promising beginning, the technique went into a recession, as they missed a lot of things, and Warren was flat-footed. Carrie Ann Inaba asks what was going on, saying it wasn’t a normal Warren Sapp performance. He blames it on his shoes. Sure, just when I’m coming around, then no on else likes him. They gets three 7s for a score, but we’re told the team dances later will add to this score. Continue Reading »

Laurabelle is enjoying a little bit of a well deserved break from the daily grind, and she has asked me to come in and talk to everyone here a bit. We all know Laurabelle covers the latest news for you when it comes to reality television, but there are a number of exciting dramas out there. My name is Gina, and you might recognize me from my blog Celebrity Today. I cover a number of dramas over there with weekly recaps, and one of my favorite series this year is HBO’s True Blood. It airs Sunday nights on the cable network, and it is a series quickly growing in popularly. HBO gave the go ahead for a season two after only the second episode of the series aired. That is one vote of confidence to the series.

True Blood is based on a series of books that tell the life of Sookie Stackhouse. She lives in the town of Bon Temps, a small Louisiana town, and Bill moves back to the town after quite some time. Sookie and Bill are both different though. Sookie is a telepathic waitress, and Bill is a vampire. In the setting of True Blood, vampires are real and they have just come out of the coffin so to speak. They live and walk among the humans, and they have rights just like everyone else. Sookie and Bill get closer as time goes on, and they are now moving towards being a couple. They had sex for the first time a couple of episodes back. Sookie is drawn to the vampire because she cannot read him like she can others.

The little town of Bon Temps is exciting for a small town. There is a crazy cast of characters that make up the series. Everything from a gay cook, a strange bar owner that seems to have his own secret, Sookie’s sex crazed brother and a few others. The group mixed together makes for interesting television. I hadn’t originally planned to watch or review the series, but I watched the first episode and it pulled me in. The main characters aren’t the only ones that grabbed me either. Every character in this one has some importance. They are all closely connected. Continue Reading »

We’ve got four new dances tonight on Dancing With the Stars, and one of them is the hustle, which I don’t think I’ve seen since my last 8th grade dance. I have to admit I’m a little excited about that, as well as West Coast Swing, but only because I want to see if Lacey Schwimmer and Lance Bass get it and what they do with it because of her familial connection to that dance style.

Ending my curiosity I’ve had for the past week Lance and Lacey are up first. He talks first about when they first formed ‘n Sync, the record label didn’t want him to be part of the group, because of his dancing skills, leading to his success here giving him some needed confidence. As luck will have it, they do indeed give Lacey the style which made her a champion. She goes to the “king of swing,” her dad, the guy who taught her, and he helps Lance with this so that he feels the confidence he needs. They dance tonight to Breakin’ Dishes. She shows exactly why her entire family is champions of this style, and Lance is no slouch either. He even gets into it and totally lets go!

Len Goodman tells Lance he proved last week he can dance, but he wants Lacey to know she needs to slow up a little bit on her talent and let her partner shine a little bit more. I get what he’s saying. Bruno Tonioli feels despite a very promising beginning, it looked like Lance was window dressing for Lacey. “It’s Dancing With the Stars, not Dancing Around the Stars.” Carrie Ann Inaba feels for the first time of having West Coast Swing on the show, Lacey did a good job showcasing it. Yet, they know she’s a champion, but she’s on the show to make Lance look good, and she doesn’t feel Lacey paid enough attention to him. They get scores of 7, 7, and 7, and I think the dance was much better, but I think they’re grading Lacey’s attempts to show off here. Continue Reading »

Before the show even starts, I think it has to be Rocco diSpirito going home this week. He’s one of the lesser talented celebrities there and doesn’t seem to have the popularity to pull in the votes. We know he would have gone home last week, so he’ll really have to do well tonight to get everyone to vote for him and save him. I just don’t see it happening.

Maurice Green and Cheryl Burke are taking on the the samba, and a very enthusiastic crowd. Hearing the samba is a party dance, Maurice says partying has never been this hard. He’s not having a lot of fun with it, so Cheryl invites his daughter in to lighten it up a little for me. He joins in with her and her friends in a rousing game of Ring Around the Rosie. They dance to That’s the Way I Like It, and have the complete disco look going on with hair and outfits. His arms are still too stiff, but he does some really good spins on his knees.

Len Goodman recognizes that Maurice found the fun in the dance, but he’d like him to refine the dancing with his techniques. Bruno Tonioli refers to Cheryl and Maurice as Mr. and Mrs. Jackie Brown, looking oh so fabulous, but their samba is not looking fabulous. It’s getting too far in the competition to not have the refinement. Carrie Ann Inaba tells them last week she thought they were contenders, but this week, they fell too much back into free form, as they don’t seem to be growing as much. Maurice stays in character backstage, saying he just wanted to groove for everybody. The judges don’t fit in his groove too much, as they gets scores of 6, 7, and 7. Continue Reading »

Watching a review copy of tonight’s premiere of The Starter Wife, I liked it enough to not want to give it just a generic review. I wanted it to mean something, but really couldn’t figure out the angle I wanted to take with it. Last night when typing up my What’s Hot On TV Tonight list, I noticed a connection between The Starter Wife and tonight’s 20/20 episode, where Christie Brinkley’s ex will be on discussing why he chose to cheat on his supermodel wife with somebody who is not yet on Willard Scott’s birthday list, but does have an age that starts with a 1. I knew there was the beginning of an angle there.

I found my angle this morning while in a pilates/kickboxing class my friend runs. We don’t have any pretenses when we enter that floor for our workout. We show up in clothes that are baggy or hitting low enough to show all our back fat. Some don’t have a stitch of makeup on, even though they wouldn’t dream of going to the store this way, and another didn’t even brush her teeth before leaving the house (I offered her a piece of gum). We are comfortable there no matter our weight and/or ability level.

Yet, we’re all in our 30s and 40s and all have the same thing on our mind. If a supermodel can be ditched for a newer model, surely the rest of us could be as well. And what brings us into this particular class with a defensive edge, is that we want to be in control of our lives. We want to be the aggressor, and want to be the one to say, “No, sorry, ain’t gonna happen.” And that includes if our husband comes to us and tells us we were his starter wife, as he’s leaving us for a newer model. Continue Reading »

The news hit this weekend that Misty May-Treanor would have to pull out of Dancing With the Stars, but ABC seemed hesitant to confirm that, saying they would have to wait to see what the doctor said today. It’s been confirmed that the Olympic gold medalist volleyball player is done with an injury. Does this take a week off of the series, do they not eliminate anyone else this week, or do they bring Kim Kardashian back?

We hear that there is a problem with Misty, which we already knew, but they decline to update us right away. Up first are Susan Lucci and Tony Dovolani, and they’ll be working on the jive. She says dancing is much more complicated than she ever imagined in terms of what’s going on in her own mind. Tony thinks she just needs to listen to her heart and not her head. It’s yet another road trip for a couple as they get tips from the Rockettes. They dance to Why Do Fools Fall In Love, and she’s a little stiff like she usually is, but she seems to be improving.

Len Goodman thinks this show is the toughest show in television, week after week, but he thinks Susan has kept a constant standard throughout. Apparently she has an ankle injury of her own. Bruno Tovioli tells her she has the look right tonight, but her foot was a bit unsteady, even though she has an injury. Carrie Ann Inaba noticed the bandage on Susan’s ankle, didn’t notice the injury in her moves, but did notice that Susan seemed a little timid. Len doesn’t think Susan looked bashful at all when she looked at him. I’m sure he’d love to think that. They get three 7s for a score. Continue Reading »

The winner of this summer’s America’s Got Talent is just going to be too hard to call. Even after tonight I suspect it still will be. The talent is just so good and so different. I can’t even fathom being disappointed in one of the them winning. I like them all. You know what I like even more? NBC took out some of the fluff tonight to fit the show into the allotted time because of the presidential address. Instead of going over and screwing up our VCRs and DVRs, they did us a favor.

Getting down to it, first up is Nuttin By Stringz. They call being in the top five the greatest accomplishment of their lives. Tonight they’re performing one of the greatest songs they think they’ve ever composed. It represents the journey of their lives and is the first song they ever wrote when they were still playing in the subway. I can only say, “Wow,” watching them. They start out with a beautiful orchestral type of arrangement then kick it into gear with their violins going hip hop on us. Not only are they really good, but they’re also really unique. One them even does a backbend while playing.

After a complete judges’ standing ovation, Piers Morgan calls for order in the house, then hopes the president is still watching the show, as there might be a lot of stuff wrong in the country, but there’s not much wrong with a country that can take two guys from the subways in New York to a stage like that and do that. The winner of the show should be the act that has the most unique talent, the most creativity, and the most dynamism, and in case one of the singers comes up with something different, he’s looking at the winners of this season. Continue Reading »