for those who have reality tv as their guilty pleasure

God it was a tsunami of tears tonight on My Kitchen Rules, the winners were crying, the loser’s were crying and even Pete Evans teared up. Obviously the producers were trying to tell the viewer just how much this competition means to the competitor now we are at the pointy end.

Um by the way what is the prize? On Masterchef Australia, they pimped it every night telling us about that cookbook, but Channel Seven have been strangely quiet about it. Is it $100,000? Or did they say previously that it was something amazing but they just had not announced it? Anyway we will find out next week. Maybe it will be a Mastermind trophy. By the way when is a TV channel going to bring back that show, I am sure they could coerce Huw Evans out of retirement.

I thought the food in the semi final, between Gen and Tanja, and Shadi and Veronica rocked, and is perhaps the first time apart from the Victorian boys meals, where I would have been happy to eat all of the dishes. Except maybe next time Shadi could wear a tennis headband so his sweat would not drip into the food.

Shadi and Veronica kept their menu firmly entrenched in the Italian comfort zone. I was a bit sceptical about the eggplant parmigana as I always find that a bit oily but the judges raved about it. Also I thought it was a ballsy move to make their own sausage. And yes I did notice the way Manu Feildel pronounced saus – sage.

 The producers appear to try and create drama over nothing – they were showing the girls stressing over the  undercooked pastry cases of the leek and gruyere tart, but they had plenty of time. The limencello chicken also looked delicious. It must have been a tough call for the judges.

Lucky for guest judge Karen Martini she does not live in New York as she would be pretty upset at the legislation that a politician has introduced saying restaurants that use salt should be fined. Most of her criticisms surrounded seasoning of dishes. For those foodies thinking of cancelling their trip to New York,  I doubt the legislation will be passed. Or  maybe you could just stick to desserts and hope they are past the salted caramel fad.

I really like how both teams, the players interact with each other, it is all very respectful. And I thought both teams plating up enhanced their food.

Shadi and Veronica pipped Gen and Tanja with Jacquie Gowan giving a low score of 6 to the Qld girls.

Then after the married couple made it through to the top three, they did not get to rest for long, as they were told only two were making it through to the finals. Clint and Noah were given a spot because they were the highest scorers in the semi’s. And then it was a cook off, where the teams had to cook their favourite dish for the judges.

Mossy and Gabe cooked Poisson De Coeur (Meaning fish from the heart for the three readers who have not be brushing up on their french, just in case Manu asked them out on a date)  – Ocean Trout confit, served with chive oil, and green vegetables. I have to confess I have never thought of marinating salmon with cointreau, but I am not adverse to it.

Shadi and Veronica bravely took on the MKR curse of making fresh pasta, serving this with a pancetta, silverbeet, ricotta and goats cheese sauce.

Both team came a bit unstuck, with Mossy cooking the fish on too high a temperature. Whilst Veronica was trying to get the pasta to the right texture.

In the end the pasta won out. The fish was thought to be overcooked, and the hollandaise sauce was not plated up as it had split, so Shadi and Veronica made it into the final.

So both teams in the final will have only cooked four times to have gotten there. Not bad, similar to the Masterchef show in England perhaps?

Then Mossy was in tears, and Gabby had to tell us how unlike Mossy that was, just to amp it up a bit more.  Did I tear up? No.

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What is it with South Australian’s and strawberries? Andre from Masterchef Australia cooked that appalling Strawberry Risotto, and tonight Mel and Paul cooked Kangaroo and Strawberry Sauce. I know the SA couple think fruit and game go together. But personally I don’t think strawberries should be anywhere but on a dessert, and definitely not slopped on kangaroo.

Props to Paul and Mel for taking risks with their menu of Beetroot Gnocchi with blue cheese, sage and macadamia nuts, but again it was a disaster for them with not enough time with some weird prep techniques. I don’t think I have ever seen potato put into a blender then a mixer.

Conversely I thought the Victorian’s boy’s entree was a tad predictable with the combination of scallops with cauliflower. But they did it well and it looked delicious. It must have been near perfect if judge Pete Evans was bitching about some of the nearly overdone leeks.

I thought their main of Trevally with harissa crust, tabouli, and tahini looked delicious, and was original. Also I thought the Victorian boy’s menu was more thematic and went together better with a Middle Eastern flavoured theme. Their dessert of cigar fingers, with figs and cardamon ice cream looked fantastic. I know the judges loved the gold decoration, personally I did not think it was required, and was a bit of an affectation.

Well what can you say about Mel and Paul’s dessert? The sticky date pudding was missing the stickiness, and looked dried out and were there strawberries on the plate as well? I would hope by this stage they were drinking the left over Rose’ from their main fiasco.

Clint and Noah were scored as follows:

Karen Martini scored – 8, Tobie Puttock – 8, Jacquie Gowan – 8, and Guy Grossi – 8. Manu Feidel and Pete Evans scored gave them eights. For a total score of 48 out of 60.

Karen Martini thought Mel and Paul was to far left field and gave them a three. Tobie also hit them with a  three, whereas Jacquie, and Guy were more generous with fours. Manu gave them a four, and Pete a three. With a total of 21.

So the competition front runners Mel and Paul were eliminated. I have mixed feelings about it, but they have no one to blame but themselves.

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There is no doubt that Lisa Mitchell is a talented songwriter and performer, anyone who watched Australian Idol the year she was on it could see here was a girl with a bright future.

She signed with an independent record label and went to London to learn her craft. In great news for her and women in the entertainment industry as well she won the Australian Music Prize. It is a $30,000 prize with artistic support, and it is the first time a woman has won the prize.

It is unfortunate that she is embarassed by her Australian Idol past, something that has given her a high profile and has made it easier for her to gain media stories.

The SMH article states:

An emcee at the Museum of Contemporary Art said Mitchell had ”thrown off the shackles of Australian Idol, which is no mean feat”. Indeed, the show is often pilloried as yielding overnight but fleeting fame and next to no credibility.

But English-born Mitchellwas not fazed by references to her past on the TV talent show – she placed sixth in 2006.

”I just hope that people can take my songs just for my songs, not for anything that has happened in the past,” she said.

Considering American Idol contestants tend to embrace their road to fame, it is something the Australian ones are still not particularly comfortable with. Matt Corby appears to be slightly embarassed by his time on the show as well.

This year on American Idol appears to be the year of the alternate girl with Crystal Bowerstox and Siobhan Magus looking to be front runners.

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Corey Haim who died last week apparently was dating Rock of Love star Daisy Del la Hoya. Well that is what Daisy is saying.

Corey Haim who was an ’80’s icon, was in The Lost Boys, but also he was in one of my favourite teen flicks Dream A Little Dream.

Anyway Dlisted says:

Daisy says “We just connected straight away, we had an automatic connection. I recognized he was a lost soul, we had the same behaviour patterns, we had a lot in common.

It’s such a tragedy, he was so talented and had so much offer. He was a sweet, caring, respectful person who just wanted to be loved. Corey was looking forward to the future, he was making plans. He had a movie coming up and he was talking about directing, I can’t believe he would have done this on purpose, it must have been an accident.”

Apparently Corey Feldham introduced them. Corey has neither confirmed or denied this. If you don’t know what Rock of Love is read Injera’s blog post on it she is addicted.

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Lily Allen has schleped her singing career and is now going to be in a reality TV. The show will be about her trying to become a fashion designer.

This Frisky article quite rightly points out wasn’t reality TV meant to be about unknowns getting their 15 minutes of fame? But more and more it is about people trying to extend or renew their profile.

It is interesting that Sarah Palin is schleping around a reality TV show – this could possibly make her the first reality TV star to become the President of the USA. Also American Idol judge Kara DioGuardi is also trying to get a show made where people who have been dumped by their record label compete to see who will get a second chance. I would probably watch that.

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These are a bit late but here are the exit interviews from the first four dancers eliminated.

Go Who Mag to see what Mikheala and Gaz have to say. Unfortunately Gaz picked Grace to win but she was eliminated the week after him.

And here is an interview with Ilona and Will who were first dancers to be eliminated. Will still won’t reveal who he is engaged to. Apparently they are a lead in another show, but not a dancer. Does anyone want to take a wild guess? I have no idea.

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Did Kelley Abbey get a leave pass from the judging panel tonight? Very unusual that a guest judge only on the panel for the performance show. Maybe she was caught up in Fame rehearsals. By the way are tickets on sale for the show yet?

Also have Natalie Bassingthwaighte’s boobs double in size since she has become pregnant? Wow.

It was no surprise that Don and Issi, and Phillipe and Renee were in the bottom three. I was slightly surprised by Matt and Jessie, as I thought their routine was pretty good. But as a reader (akris)  of this site noted under last night’s blog post, that jazz routines in weird costumes never do very good. Well they were spot on.

I think Phillipe’s solo was pretty underwhelming and in a stronger bottom three would have put him at risk of elimination. Matt’s was definitely the best. Don tried but I had seen a lot of those moves before.

The girls were much stronger. Jessie was amazing, Renee was great, and Issi’s was original but a bit too cutsie.

No surprise Issi and Don were eliminated. I feel sorry for Don, I got the feeling he never got started in the competition as he never really clicked with Issi and you knew an elimination was inevitable once they both hit the bottom three. Considering he auditioned three times, and was probably one of the strongest B Boys the competition has had his elimination was a bit sad.

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The Fug Girls in an article in NY Mag have rated their top ten greatest reality TV judges ever.

They include the obvious like Simon Cowell, but also put in Top Chef’s Gail Simmons, and Top Design’s Kelly Werstler.

Anyway it is a fun read.

If it was including Australian judges I would include:

•  Dicko (in his first few years on Australian Idol before he left), he was like a breath of fresh air, with his direct judging style and quick wit in the first few years of Idol;
• Matt Preston - Masterchef, who else can wear a cravat, be bulging out of white pants and still have the female population swooning over him, particularly when he was stroking paella;
• Alex Perry - Australia’s Next Top Model – who tells it how it is but in a witty way;
• Sarah Gale, and Jayson Brundson – Project Runway Australia some of the expressions on Sarah’s face as a ghastly outfits sashays down the runway is hilarious, she is not afraid to give a contestant a tongue lashing, and with Jayson there is a nice chemistry.
• Helen ‘The original cougar’  Richey from Dancing With The Stars - she refuses to be painted in the middle aged, nice judge corner. She looks sensational, perves openly and is direct in her comments; and
• Matt Moran I am sure he has been a judge on a show somewhere sometime…

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The producers and judges were not very happy with the Australia voters last week, as they have changed the format, you can now vote from the beginning of the show. Australian Idol tried that last year, I am not sure if it had an impact on who stayed and who went.

Just a few thoughts on the show:

• I think Issi is sucking the Mojo out Don, metaphorically speaking – I think it is time for them to go;
• Robbie was amazing in the routine even though with the moustache he reminded me of Prince, and Ivy was a little Sheila E.  Ivy now she has flicked Gaz and stopped gabbing so much is looking like a major threat;
• Jessica and Heath were good, but I am a bit over the the depressing plots of the contemporary routines;
• Keiran and Carly also did a good contemporary routine, but I think Carly over dances;
• I really loved Matt and Jessica’s routine, I guess Matt’s ankle must be getting better as he put a lot of weight through it;
• I thought Phillipe and Renee’s waltz was boring and looked  a little awkward;
• Jess outdanced Nick in their old school hip hop routine, but he looked low on energy compared to her;
• Again I thought Jason Coleman took a swipe at Adam Williams about the Chicago routine, is there some history there?

Bottom three predictions – Issi and Don, Heath and Jessica, and Renee and Phillipe.

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The interesting thing about the Survivor Heroes V Villains concept is that someone on the Heroes team is going to have to turn into a villain, at least until the merge, and at this stage it looks like JT maybe that guy.

 I cannot believe I am hoping Russell stays in the game awhile. He knows he playing in the A grade now, but he is using his same strategy. Yes the others have not seen the series he was on, as this was filmed just after his series and it had not been shown on TV at this stage. But it took Parvati all of three seconds to work out his strategy.

It was an interesting opening episode which showed it is going to be a great series, everyone was playing the game straight away. I think with all the alpha players around a good strategy maybe floating under the radar.

Here are a few comments on the first episode:

• I hate the wrestling challenges as I think they are too unregulated, seriously tackling people around the neck is just wrong.Props to Stephanie at just getting on with it after her shoulder popped out and was popped back in;
• I know the male viewers must have been frustrated by the pixelation in that challenge of Sugar’s boobs and Danielle’s crotch.
• Tom is playing smart but he has got to have a target on his back. I liked his line to JT another winner saying that if you make top two you need another winner with you, otherwise you don’t have a shot at the title;
• Boston Rob just made himself the alpha male of the villains by starting fire without flint, and he made Randy look and feel like a douche;
• Does Rupert have a stash of those rainbow coloured t-shirts that he just wears when he is on Survivor?
• Sugar obviously cannot not read body language as she chased Colby around camp, plus waking up the whole tribe;
• Are Shambo’s chooks still running around on Samoa?
• I wasn’t unhappy that the villains won the first challenge.
• Sugar is a moron – you put the knife in Amanda when Cirie is right there.
• Tom made another strategic move and said keep Sugar as she is a follower, and pointed out that Cirie’s got a strong strategic game and she should go. Cirie tried the throw it right back at you strategy and tried to get Tom or Stephanie eliminated, but at this stage that would be a dumb move as you need physical strength to win challenges;
• Due to Cirie’s absolute uselessness in challenges she will have a huge target on her back in the beginning, the fact she has gone so far in Survivor with this liability definitely makes her a hero.

However they made the right decision – it was no loss losing Sugar she was useless.

Just to show how dumb Sugar is apparently she tweeted that she had slept with JT pre game and he promised they would stick together – see the whole sorry tale on Blog Zap2It

Also here is an interview with no spoiler links where Sugar claims some contestants may have some inside knowledge on Russell as they have inside links on Survivor. Ok she named Parvati.

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