Tonight’s recap could have been one word – Yawn. This series has gotten tired, and extremely boring. It is more about emotionally damaged girls rather than ladettes. Where was any ladette behaviour tonight, it  was all about watching quail eggs being peeled, and seeing girls get into cars with their knees held together.

Brat Camp is so much more interesting  for seeing transformations of troubled teens. Mrs Schrager and Mrs Harboard indulging in pop psychology is irritating. They think that they can solve Kayla’s issues about her being in foster care since she was nine. Mrs Schrager gave us this insight “she is scared she will be asked to leave”. I think her issues are a bit more entrenched than that.

However on the plus side the girls do appear to be more motivated about making changes to their lives once they get home. How long this lasts would be interesting to know.

The aim this week is to start their social transformation – for the girls to rein themselves in.

What happened with the girls this week:

Samantha McCleod whose signature party trick is the wet pussy shot, and post party trick is puking thinks that by going on the show and holding herself better will get her a better quality guy. She has a little crush on a gentleman named Charlie. So when she misses out on going on the car rally with him she is not motivated to keep things on track in the kitchen.

21 year old Shari is a construction worker who does not like authority, and but does like flashing her boobs. She got in trouble for failing in her duties as a drink monitor. That is she over poured the gin, and then lied about it. Tear started rolling when she was caught out.

I quite like 23 year old Donelle mine worker, as she doesn’t like “dumb bitches”. Not that she gives us a definition of who they are. The other thing is she does not hold back from whacking a guy when he grabs her on the arse. Not a Mrs Harboard recommended way of handling this issue, but nonetheless extremely effective.

The main even of the episode was a car rally. Three girls were picked to participate in the rally and the rest had to prepare the picnic. The three that got to go on the rally were Donelle, Shari and Jessica.

At this stage the episode got extremely tedious. The girls were late in preparing the picnic. Considering they only had two hours to make meringues, bread, quiche, pork pies, and quails eggs I thought they did well to only run 1 and 1/2 hours late.

Anyway Samantha got in trouble for sitting down at a picnic blanket even though she was invited. I am not sure if it was that breach of etiqutte or the fact she did not run the kitchen properly which was the reason behind her elimination.  Personally I thought it was a bit unfair.

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In great news for the The Apprentice, and fans of the show will be happy again that the show is starting to gain traction with viewers. On Monday night The Apprentice again improved in ratings with 999,999 viewers  Australia wide. This is a huge improvement from their first episode, and the consensus is from fans that this show is really starting to hit its straps.

Also Nine will be pleased that Ladette To Lady had a good first episode with ratings of over 900,000. It appears Channel Nine are finally getting their reality TV formatting right.

Can we expect a MasterChef like rating figures for The Apprentice? Highly unlikely due to the late timeslot.

However regular commenter on this blog CG was spot on when she made these comments about The Apprentice:

One issue I think Ch9 needs to address if the availability of replays.

As I’ve said before, Monday at 9:30pm is not a great time for a reality show that is just getting off the ground. But what I really don’t understand is why the website for The Apprentice is so crappy.

Fremantle is behind both MC and The Apprentice, right? So you would think they would have some role or influence on the internet site supporting each show. MC was brilliant in that you could go to the website within an hour of each show and watch a replay without any problems. But I still can’t get The Apprentice replays to work. Just getting to the episode and trying to load it is really difficult. And once there, I’ve tried to watch the episode I missed last week several times but the video just won’t work. It spins and spins and spins and won’t play. And yes, I’ve got all the software and very high-speed BB.

They really need to think about changing the night of the week the show is played..or show it at a couple of alternative times.

I agree with all of the above. One thing I have noticed for sometime, with the exception of Channel Ten and sometimes Arena, is that the TV shows are not harnessing the potential of engaging their reality TV audience with an interactive website. Reality TV and the internet have a symbiotic relationship, and I am sure some smart person could put forward an arguement that the rise in reality TV coincided with the use of the internet.

The advent of twitter has also meant people are interacting about the show as it is on, something which must miff viewers in  different times zones. In fact Project Runway Australia judge Henry Roth tweeted throughout an episode under a Project Runway twitter account, and it was a great promotion for the show.

In fact I am considering applying for a research scholarship (Churchill Scholarship) to examine the relationship between Reality TV and other multimedia platforms, particularly examining how the US TV stations and production companies use these platforms to enhance the viewing experience, and how it attracts and retains viewers.  It would also be interesting to examine the role of reality TV bloggers and fansites in this context.

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The girls better be skanky this series, because in the first season the Australian girls were not as skanky as the ones in the UK version, they are just out of control.

I found the first episode to be a tad formulaic – the girls were the “worst the teachers had ever seen”, all the girls had drinking problems, and then to liven things up alcohol was introduced. I think some of these girls would do better on Celebrity Rehab or at least enter the twelve step program.

A lot of the show tonight felt set up particularly the opening scenes in the airport car park, and on the bus to the school.

However Letitia needing to go to the toilet did appear genuine. Letitia whose vices are drinking (naturally) and fighting, became justifiably agitated. It appears she did not wet her pants, but I would have thought it was lady like to stop the bus to allow someone to relieve themselves.

The week started off with a de-metalling of the girls, with some the girls taking out so many piercings I am surprised they got through the metal detectors. Piercings these days appears to have morphed into some sort of body mutilation.

There were the usual classes elocution, etiquette, and flower arranging given by post-menopausal women, who even though they are “ladies” appear to not very happy and extremely uptight.

After finding out the girls are going to be hosting a garden party, they then had a lesson in how to make a delicious punch. Yes you can see where this is going.

The lesson was hosted by a very hunky Viscount Harris. One thing I noticed this time was the lads were a bit better looking, I wondered if it was the economic times in the UK, and they needed to supplement their trust funds.

Needless to say Mrs Harboard then left the girls alone in the room after the lesson to clean up. Yes this was standard Ladette To Ladies fare. They skulled drinks, and hid booze. Letitia took the fall for one of the missing bottles and had to clean two bathrooms.

At the garden party Jessica a 19 year old who is a stripper with an exhibitionist streak managed to score a lad. In forty minutes of TV she managed to show her breasts, flash her butt, suggest lewd things with a phallic symbol to the Viscount, snog a guy, and cry twice. This girl will be on the show for awhile. NW last week stated that Jessica has changed her ways since she returned home. She is now living with her parents, has broken up with her girlfriend and has been in a movie. If she has gone from ladette to movie star those wannabe actresses in the Beauty and the Geek House will not be happy.

We were also introduced to Kaila who is a drinker as well as unemployed whose misdemenour was chatting back in cooking class.

Donelle is a super fit girl who likes drinking and getting aggressive she seemed to be not taking it too seriously and managed to get in trouble a few times.

Shari  a hard drinking construction worker who likes taking off her clothes, managed to latch onto a lad at the garden party, and was caught jokingly flashing her underwear at him. NW said that this former private school girl has dated two men at once without either of them finding out about it. Gosh if that is ladette behaviour, half of the girls in Sydney would be sent to Eggleston Hall.

She was another one who broke down in the elimination interview. Which are not really interviews but just the teachers telling you how awful you are.

We were not “introduced” to all the girls tonight so hopefully they will get more screen time next week.

Letitia was the one to be eliminated, and she was pretty non-plussed about it.

The first episode of the show was not enthralling however they did manage pique enough interest to ensure me tuning in again next week.

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Who Magazine has an interview with Nicole Mitchell who was crowned the winner of Ladette to Lady. In the interview she reveals how Ladette to Lady has changed her life. She says she will not be going back to her previous profession of stripping and is currently studying horticulture.

I liked Nicole she had a certain vulnerability about her and I was glad she won. But maybe to shed her ladette image she may need to dump her boyfriend who is currently in jail for armed robbery. (Rolls eyes).

TV Week also has an interview with her.

Here in TV Week is an interview with Skye where she says her english gent will be coming out in August. Also she says she said she was arrested the first night she was in England. Why did we not see that? Also she says that she would not pose for Zoo mag, I could swear she is on the cover this week. I will check it out.

Also Here is Kristyn’s who was the runner-up of the show. We did not really get to see much of her on the show, and really the interview is probably just as boring.

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I have to confess I teared up when it was announced that Nicole had won the first season of Ladette To Lady. It was obvious she was going to as her story was the best from foster child to lady.

Who cares if it was rigged it was lovely for her to obtain this achievement as she really wanted it.

On the round table discussion most of the judges thought Skye Laris had done a good job but they thought she was acting. This could be true as she is currently on the cover of Zoo magazine in her underwear. Hardly lady like behaviour.

Apparently Nicole wants to study horticulture now. We will find out what the others are up to in a reunion special to be screened next week.

I thought it was a bit weird the aussie families were dressed very casually for such an auspicious occasion, they looked exceedingly out of place.

Anyway the TV Week reveals the lady like behaviour stopped once the ceremony finished.

Skye wanted to get drunk once the ceremony was over. Nicole apparently did an impromptu strip on the bus on the way to where they were staying. Also she had to excuse herself half way through dinner to go to bed as she had too much to  drink.

Sky had better legs and stayed up with her beau leuan and her dad.

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Ladette to Lady will come to its conclusion next Tuesday and Sarah Brunton, one of the more mature and sensible Ladettes got punted this week.

Here is an exit interview in TV Week with Sarah where she said she had had enough of being in the house. Lucky for her she now knows  how to pluck and cook a guinea fowl.

She has also started a blog called Ladette Sparkette, I think once the show is finished we should get some great insights into life at Eggleston Hall.

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Well the Ladette To Lady producers procured a Prince for the masked ball. He is obviously an impoverished one ,as why else would be appear on the show.  Like our own Australian royalty, Prince Lorenzo, expect to see him serving chicken or beef on a Qantas flight soon.

The main sub-plot of the show was Skye burgeoning romance with rugby player and trainee doctor Lueane. I kind of got the feeling she was taking seriously what was being poked at her in fun. More information on this romance is here.

Sarah Brunton seemed to rebel all week, first by not wearing the posture brace, and then spending the night hanging out with the boys. What sort of mischief did she get up to? Anyway she dug her own grave by not helping the other girls with the breakfast for the boys after their sleepover and she was eliminated.

The last episode is next week Nicole, Kristen and Skye will be the ones making their “debut”.

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