for those who have reality tv as their guilty pleasure

The Biggest Loser had more twists and turns then a Hitchcock thriller last night. First of all Shane from the black team “selected” the one box in three that would allow Selena back in the game.

I suspect him picking that box were the same odds as Excess Baggage contestants finding a parcel with their name on as they stumbled around the outback.

Also I am not sure the prize of getting Selena back into the game is the advantage they thought they were winning in the physical challenge the episode before. She also gets immunity from the next elimination.

Margie was predictably not happy about the news and said it was pathetic. Lydia was also displeased.

After a run on the beach where Tiffiny revealed her philosophy on training saying “that’s the way it should be every workout, feeling sick from it.”

We also found out the lovely Michelle suffers from anxiety, and Hamish’s father had raced in the Tour De France. I think Hamish’s parents have to take responsibility for some of his obesity.

Also it was sad that Belinda had been unable to lose weight to do IVF and her inaction on this important meant her husband went and had a family with someone else. Something I don’t think he should be vilified for.

Then it was in to the Sydney town hall for temptation. The person eating the most calories would win $30,000 in gold bullion. James was smart and ate his daily calorie intake, as did Lisa who thought 70 calories might just get her over the line. It was a good strategy.

Not sure why Luke was so peeved at James, if he does not eat for the rest of the day he won’t put on weight, nor will Lisa. Clearly they must be meant to starve themselves.

However any of them would know from last year that there is a twist with this, which I think is underhand. After after James is told he won he is told there are conditions now attached to him taking the prize. If he takes it he must leave the house and it the $30,000 will also be subtracted from the $250,000. I am surprised he didn’t have to sit through a time-share presentation either….

The viewer has to wait for the decision. I doubt he will take it.

I have to give props to Princess Jennifer tonight in the kitchen she held it together, even when things were going slightly pear-shaped she did not lose her cool. However she must have passed the tiara to Leigh who did a dramatic near faint at judging time.

The theme for tonight’s instant kitchen was Burlesque unfortunately for the male contingent there was no entertainment on the menu….

Apparent the theme of burlesque was picked because it is rich, lush and bold – a bit like them!

I also thought Angela from WA had a point that the menu was thai inspired and it did not really go with the theme. The way the WA pair were talking they were wanting to be as brutal as a thai-boxing match in their judging.

The menu was an entree was fish floss with green mango and pork belly salad, main was crispy skin mulloway with  micro herbs and daikon salad, and chilli tamarind sauce, and dessert was Custard Pandan Chiffon with Sago.

I thought there was some dodgy time keeping. The girls arrived back at the house at the three hour 15 minute mark, but managed to unpack groceries and set up the table in 15 minutes to be filmed putting their aprons as the clock ticked over to 3 hours left.

However what did they actually do in the three hour prep? Shred the barramundi,  prep the dessert, and make the cocktails everything else appeared to be done after the guests arrived.

Again we had  contestant say they had never seen/made a dish before If you got on My Kitchen Rules wouldn’t you practice you menu in the three hour time frame.

Leigh says “I am nervous I have never done this [the mousse] before.”

Jennifer was not very impressed when Pete came into the kitchen and questioned why the only flavour she was using for the fish floss was salt. Embarrassing for her however the fried fish clumped up first time ever however she did not freak out and did another batch.

She did have a point, if Pete knew about fish floss he should have known the salad and the floss go together, however maybe they should have plated it with the floss on top of the salad.

Not sure what the cutsie act Jennifer put on when she was getting judged was about. The eyelids were batting, the body was swaying, and the breasts were pushed out.  However it worked as both judges liked the entree even though they would have liked a bit more chilli.

All the other contestants liked it as well. Scott who has a thai wife said that this was exactly how it was meant to be.

The main was just as successful Peter thought the main was nearly perfect whereas Manu was critical of the sauce softening the crispy skin.

However then came dessert. It was served on a tile. Is it safe to eat off tiles? Manu thought the whole thing looked a little bit crazy, and Pete was not a fan of the pandan custard.

Also Scott, who I am starting to like, made a point that the scraping sound was not make the dish enjoyable to eat.

NZ scored them a 7, Vic gave scored a 7, Qld scored a 7, NSW scored a 7, and WA decided to be harsh and gave them a 6.

Manu scored the entree a 9, for main he gave a 8, and dessert a 4.

Pete scored the entree a 9, for main he gave a 9, and dessert a 3.

Jennifer was not happy with the score as she felt it was unfair that the  Western Australian pair got a nine for a brownie – a one dish dessert.

This meant their total score was 76, which meant they were in second place with the Western Australian pair Angela and Justine still in the lead.

By the way special mention must go to New Zealander Meg’s dress it was amazing.

If home and design renovations reality shows are your thing, you will be pleased to know Selling Houses Australia is starting its fifth season tonight at 8.30pm on the Lifestyle Channel.

Selling Houses Australia was The LifeStyle Channel’s highest rating program for 2011, the team take on houses that have some glitch that is making them very difficult to sell.

This season the show will be trying to sell a hoarder house and a heritage listed cottage with railway tracks three metres from the house to a DIY disaster and a flood effected home in Queensland.

 Residential property expert Andrew Winter, and the thinking woman’s hottie is at the helm,  joined by interior designer, the lovely Shaynna Blaze, and landscape designer, Charlie Albone.

I have only seen a few episodes of this show, but when I do watch it is always entertaining.

Selling Houses Australia commences tonight, Wednesday 1st February at 8.30pm on Lifestyle Channel.

Arena TV are looking very slick with their line up this year. The ad above outlines the fashion shows for 2012.

These include Project Runway Australia, The Rachel Zoe Project, Mad Fashion and Wag Nation. I would not have thought Wag Nation was fashion show but I suppose the clothes the WAG’s are going to be wearing will be nice.

Tonight Western Australian team of Angela and Justine created a Garden of Eden themed restaurant, however they missed an important element of it and that was the sin. Ok so some of the questions on the tree were a little bit saucy. But girls you have Manu and Pete sitting at the end of the table, at least try playing Truth, Dare or Promise.

One question you could ask Princess Jennifer was is she quite as vacuous as she appears.

In this Adelaide Now article Leigh says of her cooking partner that her friend Jennifer was intelligent, however quite frankly I have not seen any sign of this.

The cutsie act will get tedious if it keeps going on in the up coming episodes. “I’m excited” and the sighing “yeah” is grating. At least she can’t annoy her work colleagues as she works with her husband who allegedly has an online gambling business. So that is how she can get treated like a princess….

Tom and Carla are not going to be the nice team either with a few of their clangers and they definitely playing the game, I suspect by tonight’s episode their masks will well and truly have slipped.

On arrival Carla said “Justine is attractive… for a truck driver.”

Expectations were high for Angela and Justine. As Angela teaches hospitality and once worked in the kitchen of a vietnamese restaurant.

Their menu was Duck salad, Pork chops roasted with proscuitto, apple and gorgonzola, and Brownie and Semi-Freddo for dessert.

There were no real disasters in the kitchen apart from leaving the onion from the stock.

They were very generous with their plating. The duck salad was huge. The flavours were good, but they had not let the duck rest. Other then that Pete Evans loved the taste.

Jennifer thought her “duck was a bit tough….Yeah”

For the main course Manu thought the risotto was boring but the thought the pork and the companion flavours was good. Whereas Pete liked the risotto.

However Tom disagreed and said “Don’t let the fact that my plate is almost empty undermine what I am about to tell you, as I was peckish. Thought the gorgonzola detracted from the flavour of the pork”.

Jennifer thought “apple was to crunchy for me… it still tastes like an apple.. Yeah.” What did she think an apple was going to taste like a banana?

For dessert Manu loved the flavour of the semi-freddo, however Pete thought there were too many things on the plate.

Qld scored a 6, SA scored a 7, NSW a 7, NZ gave an 8, and Vic scored a 6.

Manu scored them seven for entree, six for main and nine for dessert.

Pete scored them seven for entree, seven for main and eight for dessert.

They got a total of 78 which puts them on top on the leader board.

Tonight the South Australian princesses are cooking it will be interesting to see if the standards are high. The theme is burlesque. Yeah.

Is The Biggest Loser still a four night a week show? Monday’s elimination show episode was fast paced, but last night it was back to being more drawn out.

Also I have noticed the big difference between the two fat busting shows is the over acting of the trainers on The Biggest Loser. And they do it so badly. Tiffiny trout pout is making her looked permanently shocked. Because Michelle’s forehead does not move because of the botox she has to use has mouth to express what she is feeling so always a lot of jaw on the floor looks.

The first new scene of the episode was the teams sitting on the couches and the four trainers walk in to do the mock shock of who has been eliminated. This week it was 20 year-old Selena.

However the hack acting job continued when it was revealed that there was no need for Selena to have been eliminated.

This was the cue for all the trainers to have a crack at Margie who was the culprit of this dastardly deed. Margie tried to defend her decision that Selena wasn’t taking it seriously or trying hard enough so she basically this was the consequence of her actions.

Obviously Margie finally had it imprinted into her brain that maybe she had done the wrong thing.

Actually for the first time in a few seasons I thought Shannon Ponton said something that made sense, saying that the he knows that the contestants on the show and his outside clients are untruthful to him about what they have been up to, but he does not give up  on them.

Margie in the end stormed out after a tongue-lashing (no double entendre) from Commando.

And then it was onto the individual challenge and hallelujah it was completed in the one episode.

One person from each team was to go head to head in an elimination type scenario. Does anyone else think that the girls are at a disadvantage in these challenges. Do they get a lighter medicine ball to carry?

Michelle, Lydia, Shane and Luke represented their teams. Michelle was serene in the medicine ball challenge, but was eliminated in the balancing the egg challenge. Lydia was the first to go and collapsed on the floor crying because she felt she had failed. She also ran out of the shed, with Margie close behind.

In the end Shane won, and he will get some sort of advantage for his team. Shane also revealed that his sister had died of morbid obesity at the age of 32, and that was one of his motivators for being on the show, as well as getting healthy for his 2 year old son who suffers from autism.

The Biggest Loser continues tonight at 7.00pm.

It is all very well to not have any weigh-ins but to flick three numbers up for each person ended up getting a bit confusing. They were measured on body fat, waist measurement and fitness level.

I know the idea is a noble one about it being seen as getting healthy is not just  about losing weight. However the simplicity and the impact of just having one number on the scales as seen on The Biggest Loser  may make it easier for the audience to comprehend who is losing weight.

And of course what the audience does want to see is transformations on their TV screen particularly if they are going to spend hours each week watching the show.

The highlight of the episode was getting to delve into the lives of the people on the show and the stories behind them.

Having said that I was sceptical of Darren Lyon’s claim of the prime motivation of being there was to get healthy. I suspect it is more about the money and raising his profile in Australia.

I suspect  a lot of people will resonate to Ajay Rochesters story and struggles as a yo-yo dieter. Her weight has bounced up and down, probably related to what is going on in her life. Gabby Milgate revealed her emotional eating particularly related to battling periods of depression, and career struggles.

Christine Anu talks about how her career and kids had come first and she had not prioritised herself, and Kate Dearaugo revealed she did not perform anymore because of her weight. They may be “celebrities” but their day to day struggles are no different to a lot of other peoples.

Also it was great to get some back stories to the ‘real life’ contestants. Lana is going to turn into a swan once she stars losing weight, she is an attractive girl, and like some of the contestants on The Biggest Loser appears to not realise this. She has never had a boyfriend, and takes on some of the responsibility of caring for her disabled sister.

Sarah who is partnered with Kate is a wannabe singer songwriter is also going to blossom, however I am not sure they needed to get her to sing acapella on the show at this stage. It was sweet but I was not overwhelmed with her talent.

Matthew who has a cheeky personality talks about his addiction to everything,  should give good reality TV.

John is there because he has type 2 diabetes and he is only forty. What I did find disturbing in the home shots of him was how overweight one of his daughters was. So hopefully new habits might have a ripple effect at home.

However hopefully there will be a bit more humour injected into the episodes and that is what the celebrities are there for to entertain us.

Darren Lyon’s will fulfil that role. He says he is being supportive of his partner Lisa, and it cuts to a shot of him yelling at her as she is running. Also it was revealed in this week’s TV WEEK that him and Ajay cannot stand each other so hopefully there will be fireworks there.

Finally Christian the trainer received a lot of screen time, which was not a negative thing as he is very easy on the eye.

Excess Baggage is not on Wednesday night due to the cricket, however you can see the first two episodes again after the game has finished. A fresh episode will be shown Thursday at 7.00pm on Channel NINE.

Well clearly David Hasselhoff’s head was not turned by that kiss I gave him last week, as this morning he apparently proposed to his girlfriend Hayley on top of the Sydney Harbour Bridge this morning.

However after announcing it on Twitter and posting photos they were strangely reluctant to talk about it to the media later.

Chris Murphy has come out fighting for Matt Newton in court today saying there are hundreds of photos that will absolve him from the alleged assault of a taxi driver.

News.com.au writes:

Lawyer Chris Murphy says 867 photographs recording, second-by-second, the alleged incident show “there is no assault”.

He said his 35-year-old client was not in court today on the advice of his psychiatrist.

Newton, the son of showbusiness couple Bert and Patti Newton, caught a taxi on December 4 last year and allegedly punched the 66-year-old driver in the head.

Mr Murphy said two witnesses, one in a car and one on the footpath, say there was no assault.

The lawyer said while he would love to defend the case, he must put his client’s interest first.

He said due to Newton’s mental illness, it would not be fair for him to face a lengthy hearing.

He is therefore considering applying to have the case dealt with under mental health provisions.

The magistrate adjourned the case to March 27 to allow Mr Murphy to make representations to the police about not continuing the case.

Not sure Matthew Newton is ever going to recover from this. It must be tough on him, tough on his victims and tough on his family.

Spotted online today on The Australian, is this George Calombaris?  Has George Calombaris ditched the Masterchef Australia set to really protest about the industrial relations laws in Australia? Surely they are not THAT bad.

I suspect it is just a doppelganger but the resemblance is eerie.