Whats Hot On TV

It’s not clear to me how anyone would fancy following in Miley Cyrus’ or Jamie Lyn Spears’ footsteps; however, that’s what’s happening. To be clear, though, I imagine every young girl probably does want to be the next Hannah Montana, but really, what parent would think that would be a good thing? What parent would covet having the press second guess every decision and situation of your teenage daughter?

But every young teenage starlet has a quick shelf life. They’re only followed around for so long before they’re quickly forgotten. Yet, apparently Nickeloden is already on damage control figuring their young star, Spears, has just produced a child out of wedlock. Their solution is to create a new musical comedy series around Victoria Justice, Spears’ costar on Zoey 101. Viacom is also planning on having her do soundtracks for movies and merchandising.

Cyrus is still very much in the public eye and doesn’t seem to be slowing down, but perhaps because of all the flack she has received in the past year, Disney is just figuring it’s better to be safe than sorry. Even though Brenda Song has already had her fill of Disney roles, they’re still planning on her being extremely successful for Disney, as if her time being a supporting player on The Suite Life of Zach and Cody and her starring role on Wendy Wu: Homecoming Warrior meant nothing.

Disney might want you to think Selena Gomez of Wizards of Waverly Place is their next big star, but instead, it appears to be Song. She’s not just sitting pretty in her position as London Tipton, she’s embellishing the role in The Suite Life On Deck, as well as furthering her role as Wendy Wu in Wendy Wu: Homecoming Warrior 2. Also rumored are CDs, fashion, and online entertainment. She was also in this year’s film College Road Trip with Raven-Symone.

Let’s just hope this Song doesn’t get played out before Miley’s, being that Song has already been around for some time, almost as long as Ashley Tisdale. Justice figures to be served up for awhile, as it’s definitely not a name we’re tired of hearing about. Unless you’re a tween girl, most people would probably have to Google her just to see what she looks like (I did), but I’ll go easy on you and provide the picture here to save you the trouble.

I hate to keep writing about Michael Phelps, but he’s truly what’s hot on TV right now. The guys is simply amazing. Every time he passes another milestone in his record-setting summer, you just can’t help but stop and say, “Wow.” Tonight, he somehow managed to even surpass that.

The race was the 100 meter butterfly, and if Phelps won it, it would be his thirteenth gold in his career, and his seventh for this Olympics, tying the record set by Mark Spitz in 1972. For a short while we began to think Superman wasn’t going to do it this race. It looked like Serbian Milorad Cavic was going to take it. He appeared to be already touching the wall, when in reality he was inches away. Somehow, miraculously, Phelps thrust his arms out in front of him, and managed to cover a couple feet in the space of time Cavic was covering a few inches. No matter how many times I watch it, I can’t figure out how Phelps managed to snatch the gold away from Cavic, leaving him with the silver.

I wasn’t the only one that was stunned. Phelps’ mom was standing up watching the end of the race, and dejectedly held up two fingers, figuring he’d just come up with the silver. She looked off to the side at the replay, and Phelps’ sister whispered in her ear, assumably, that Phelps had somehow pulled it off. Her jaw dropped, and she sank down into her chair in disbelief. As the TV announcers played the moment over and over, the Serbian challenged the results, to no avail, as the original decision stuck.

Later, Phelps was interviewed along with Spitz, who didn’t seem to mind at all that his thirty year plus record was finally falling. He called the event epic, saying he had thought for some time that when his record was met, it would be by Phelps. Asked by Bob Costas what he thought the result would be if all things were even and Phelps and Spitz were swimming together at the same age, etc., Spitz felt they’d be even. He also noted that they say you can judge a person’s character by the company they keep, and he was happy to keep company with Phelps. He knows he’ll wear the crown with pride. This was all said days after Spitz admitted to hurt feelings he hadn’t been invited to watch Phelps try and break his record.

Saturday night, Phelps will attempt to break the record of Spitz that he just tied. If he wins the next race, the 4 x 100 medley relay, Phelps will have fourteen career golds and eight in this Olympics, owning the record outright. With the heroics we have seen from him this past week, there is not much doubt that he’ll accomplish this as well.

When Renny won HoH tonight on Big Brother, it seemed like she was probably the last person left in there that’s pure of heart. By that I mean, you know where you stand with Renny. If she likes you, you know, and if she doesn’t, you probably know that as well. Not that she fires off at the people she doesn’t like; you know just know where you stand.

It makes it pretty obvious, then, who Renny will nominate to go up on the block. She and the Colonel (Jerry) have butted heads since the beginning, although she was honest with him lately, telling him she admires him for always giving his all, especially at his age. Yet, she’s disliked him for far too long; he’s an obvious choice for her first nominee. Her second chocie is obvious as well. It’s going to be April. Renny is so close with Keesha, and she knows that April wants Keesha out, making her a direct threat to her alliance. Read more

Is there any other story tonight on TV other than Michael Phelps? Tonight he became the greatest Olympian ever, and he’s making it look easy. He left the 2004 Olympics just shy of reaching or beating Mark Spitz record of the number of gold records from one athlete, but he’s making up for all of that in Beijing.

Coming into Beijing with six outstanding gold medals from Athens in 2004, it seems Phelps came in with a purpose, to do some damage on the record books, and he’s succeeding. Tonight, he won his fourth and fifth gold medal of this year. He has won every single race so far, and not even that, in every single one he has also set a new world’s record. It doesn’t even seem possible.

With his fourth win tonight, it gave Phelps ten Olympic golds in his career, the most ever for any Olympic athlete, no matter the sport. And he didn’t stop there. Phelps went on to win another, giving him eleven career Olympic golds. He’s not even done yet. He still has three more races to compete in. If he wins them all, it will be fourteen golds in his career, and will be eight in Beijing, breaking Spitz longtime record.

What’s really amazing about Phelps is the way he seems to take all this in stride. Not that he takes these wins for granted, he just takes it in accepting another win and another world record, unless he’s taking it for the team. The two relay races he’s been in, Phelps celebrates loudly with his team. He doesn’t take all the credit, as he easily could, He just celebrates along with his team, acting as one of four.

It’ll be a shame if Phelps doesn’t go on to win all of his final races, as it just puts a damper on this story he has going. As calm, cool, and collected as he has been so far, it doesn’t seem he’s likely to start losing at this point, aside from the fact it would ruin that wonderful story of his time in the Beijing Olympics. Even if he doesn’t go on to win another medal he’ll be remembered as a champion athlete, but it just doesn’t seem likely to stop here.

For me, the Cinderella Story of the Beijing Olympics isn’t Michael Phelps. Don’t get me wrong. I enjoy watching Phelps swim, racking up gold medal after gold medal, but that’s somewhat expected. What wasn’t expected, though, is the success of the United States Men’s Gymnastics Team.

In 2004, the Men’s Gymnastics Team won the Silver with the help of the Hamm brothers, Morgan and Paul. It looked like they were headed for more of the same in Beijing this year, but Paul Hamm broke his hand in May, requiring him to pull out, and Morgan Hamm had an ankle injury just last week, requiring him to pull out at the last minute. That left the team without any veterans, just a bunch of newbies. They weren’t given much chance to medal at all. Read more

If season 9’s Big Brother house seemed to be packed with people that were starved for sex, season 10’s Big Brother house seems to be packed with people that are starved for debates. I don’t ever recall seeing these many screaming matches in the Big Brother House. We haven’t even gotten to the point of sending anyone to the jury yet, and already there’s been fights between seemingly everyone.

Tonight’s episode featured fights among the houseguests after half the house had surprised the other by flipping the vote to oust Jessie. It didn’t take long. Words were already being exchanged before they even played for HoH, mostly with people being upset at Dan for going against his word. Jerry thinks that Dan swore on his cross and the Bible, but Dan swears he would never do such a thing, and in fact before he double-crossed (pardon the pun) the other side, he removed his necklace, something this Catholic school teacher has never done before.

Once Michelle won the HoH, the words were already flying by both Michelle and Jerry. Michelle was calling everyone out, as it seemed she felt a sudden freedom to do so. She called out Libra for swearing on her children and called out Renny for … I’m not even sure what she was calling Renny out for, and I don’t think Renny was clear on it either. Either way, both Renny and Libra are always ready to for a go-round with anyone that calls them out, so they were two very interesting choices.

Jerry continued to hurl as many insults as he could come up with at Dan, deciding not to call him anything else the rest of the time in the house other than Judas, and wanting to make a cross sign at him. April took it one step further, saying he was an insult to “her” religion. That was something they cut away from on the show tonight, but on the live feeds, she could be heard saying that in full. Even Memphis was disgusted by that comment, and when that guy is disgusted by comments, saying no amount of money is worth that, that explains a lot. Memphis is always ready to hurl insults out, but these comments made even him sick.

That’s what we saw on the show tonight, but watching the live feeds this week, the fights have only continued. At one point, Libra, Keesha, April, Renny, and Michelle, literally all the girls in the house, were screaming at each other. The guys just walked around not knowing what to think about it.

It’s like the floodgates have opened and there’s no way to stick a finger back in the dam. Now that everyone has been seen screaming at the top of their lungs, it’s that much easier to do it the next time. Kind of like the other houseguests getting naked and groping each other last season. Once you do it one time, it’s that much easier to do it the next. While it was surprising to see Chelsia and James have sex the first few times, after awhile it was old hat, so what. While it was eye-popping to hear Libra screaming at whoever disagreed with her at first, now it’s old hat, and pretty soon it will be so what as well.

It has to all be exciting to the Big Brother producers. They must feel like they’re really earning their paychecks when the house wakes up like that and becomes that exciting. They originally said about this cast that they were a group of opposites, but that hasn’t really panned out. Even the extremes to which we were told the personalities were hasn’t panned out. Yet, they do seem to be a volatile group, touched off easily, and it doesn’t seem like it’s going to be ending any time soon. This is just going to be our “thing” this summer.

Photos Courtesy of cbs.com

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When we heard the news this week that Bernie Mac was hospitalized with pneumonia, we didn’t really worry. He was too young. We thought he’d pull through, as such a vital guy. So even though we were given a few days warning that he was sick, when the news broke that he had died, it was just as shocking as if we hadn’t even heard he was sick.

When I think of Bernie Mac, I think of two things, comedy and family. While he had had a lengthy career as a standup comedian and actor in movies, most of us became acquainted with him fairly recently in his self-titled comedy series on Fox, The Bernie Mac Show. He starred as a comedian who becomes guardian to his sister’s three children. Not only was his comedy apparent here, but also how important family was to him.

It’s not surprising, then, that when others in the business remember him that they also reflect back on his comedy and family values. His costars from Ocean’s 11 and its sequels remember him very fondly. Brad Pitt says, “I lament the loss of a ferociously funny and hardcore family man,” George Clooney says the world just got a little less funny, but Don Cheadle knows Heaven just got a little funnier. Car Reiner called him a “vital, original human being,” and said his conversations were always family-oriented, as “he talked about his wife and children with such love.”

Chris Rock recalled that Bernie was one of the best and finest comedians to ever live, and also said, “Bernie was one of the greatest friends a person could have.” Fox Broadcasting Company made the statement that “Bernie Mac was a gifted talent whose comedy came from an authentic and highly personal place … Fox was proud to be the home of The Bernie Mac Show.” Samuel L. Jackson, who stars with Bernie in the upcoming film Soul Men stated “Bernie was one of the preeminent comedians of our generation. He was also an attentive husband, a great father and loving grandfather.”

Cedric the Entertainer who shared the marquee with Bernie on the Kings of Comedy tour felt they were bonded liked family. He perhaps summed it up best, saying, “As a husband and father, he was THE MAN and my thoughts and prayers are with his family. He will truly be missed, but so well remembered.”

With all final 20 dancers back again and being introduced by their original couples, poor Will Wingfield is all alone. Jessica King must not be well enough yet to dance. That and Courtney Galiano and Twitch being in the final four together left their original partners Kherington Payne and Gev Manoukian to be paired with each other. It made it kind of funny when tall Kherington picked up tiny Gev! I’ve been waiting too long for these results as it was, and then a football game pushed it back even further. So let’s get on with this.

Our judges tonight are Mia Michaels, Debbie Allen, Alan Shankman, Nigel Lythgoe, Mary Murphy, and Lil’ C. The top 20 took the stage together one last time in a group dance choreographed by Shane Sparks to Boom by Sin feat. T-Pain; it’s typical Sparks. Watching these people dancing up there it reminds me how difficult it was to decide who should leave this week. There is just a mess of talent on that stage.

We’ll get to see the judges’ favorite dances tonight, and Nigel’s first pick is Bollywood with Katee Shean and Joshua Allen. You can tell it’s finale night. They’re more smiley than usual. I thought it was really great they did this dance, but it was far from a favorite of mine. However I can’t seem to take my eyes off it. Mary Murphy talks about favorite partnerships, especially Courtney and Gev. She wants to see them doing the rumba again, as it was passionate, sexy, and the pefect blend of innocent and maturity. It’s passionate and sexy, I’ll give it that! Read more

I don’t know how they’re going to do it, but the America’s Got Talent judges are going to knock the field of 60 down to 40. Some of the cuts were already surprising, and I’m guessing the ensuing ones will be sometimes surprising as well. Hopefully those emotional favorites that I’ve become so tied to will stay. I don’t know if I could bear it.

Joseph Hall, the Elvis Presley impersonator, is the first up to learn his fate. He didn’t have too great of a performance the last time up, but the judges loved him the first time they saw him. Sharon Osbourne asks if he’s had voice lessons, and when she learns he hasn’t, she tells him he should invest in it. It was a tough call for them, but they eventually decide to put him through to the semi-finals. He’s warned he needs to work hard.

The Chippendale dancer, Brian Cheatham, steps up to hear his fate, saying he’s overwhelmed. Kyle Rifkin, the man that had to entertain others to support his family as a child, is also in front of the judges. Only one of them will make it. Brian makes it through, as they know he took their advice and stepped it up. Kyle doesn’t make it through. He’s hurt by it, but he wants us to know he’ll recover. Wow, that one was a tough one. The first emotional favorite to go home. Read more

Nigel called it right tonight when he said that Joshua Allen has set the standard for untrained dancers on So You Think You Can Dance. If an untrained dancer comes on the show, they will now say “Joshua didn’t get training, and look how brilliant he was.” Not only did Joshua set the bar for future dancers, I think they all did this season.

There have been other untrained dancers on the show in the past, and they always did well, but never did they last until final four. They would always do great in their solos and some dances here and here, but eventually they’d be exposed, as you just can’t be expected to perform well in every single one of these dances, choreographed by some of the best in the business, in all these different styles, with less than a week of practice, until now.

What Joshua did this season, and Twitch as well, is set an all new standard. They were both great in nearly every single dance they did. They were still amazing in their solos, but they didn’t suffer doing the Viennese Waltz or the Fox Trot. They told great stories with their dancing and were great fun to watch. But it’s now expected.

It’s like working at a job that someone really good did before you. Now you’re measured against them. Say you worked on a production line. If it was always expected that producing 75 items a day was top of the line, then a personcomes up and produces 100 items a day and does it without error and without incident, setting a new bar. They were an anomaly to get that many products out. But after them, it then becomes expected to do 100. It’s no longer good to just do 75.

We’re going to be watching these B boys doing the most awesome flips and spins and body contortions, and we’ll be saying, “Yeah, that’s great and all, but when Joshua and Twitch were here, they did stuff like that all the time, plus they pulled off ballroom, Latin, and Broadway like a pro.

All dancers after this season are going to fall to the same fate. The overall talent level this season has been amazing. Instead of just a few dancers that are really good, we had a final 20 that were all really good. They were eliminated not on big major screw-ups, but by not being perfect. If Will Wingfield could be eliminated, it wasn’t because he wasn’t good enough. He was amazing to watch. But he just didn’t have the same excitement level as the other guys. He did it after years of training with Debbie Allen. Joshua and Twitch are doing it with no training.

It has to be enough to scare and excite future dancers. While at some point they’re probably saying, “Gee, I don’t know,” they have to also be saying, “I can’t wait to do that too.” After Thursday night, we’ll have a new champion, but instead of talking for months on how great that person is, we’ll be counting down the months until next summer. If the talent doesn’t come next season the way it did this season, it’s going to be an extreme disappointment. But I for one am willing to take that risk.

Photos Courtesy of fox.com/dance

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