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TV: BIG BROTHER 12 - Summer of Sabotage
Written by US Townhall staff   
Sunday, 11 July 2010 21:00

Cast of Big Brother 12 (Photo Credit: CBS)Click here to check out our interviews with the evicted houseguests!

 

We're back once again with our exclusive coverage of the summer guilty pleasure series, Big Brother, where 52 cameras and 95 microphones follow and listen in on every move of the contestants who have voluntarily allowed themselves to be locked away from the outside world in a specially-designed house for the summer.  Each week one of the houseguests will be "evicted," and the last one remaining in the house will win the half-million dollar grand prize.  This twelfth installment is subtitled "The Summer of Sabotage" because, in a Big Brother first, one of the 13 houseguests is not playing to win the grand prize.  He or she is in the house for the sole purpose of wreaking as much havoc in the house and on the plans of his or her housemates as possible.  If the secret saboteur makes it to week 5 without being evicted, this person will win $50,000.  So far, we don't know two things: first, neither the home audience nor the Big Brother contestants have been told who the saboteur is or even been given any clues as to his or her identity.  Second, it hasn't been revealed if the houseguest gets to stay in the game after week 5.  The way it's been talked about so far, the houseguest will leave after week 5 on his or her own because host Julie Chen said that the saboteur isn't there to win the game.  However, this is Big Brother, and they make up rules and twists on the fly, so we can't be 100% certain about anything at this moment.

 

After watching the first two episodes, we are leaning toward Kristen as being the saboteur.  She's received very little screen time so far – to the point where we actually forgot she was in the house until everyone sat down at the round table for the first nomination ceremony on Sunday night's episode.  Every other contestant has had a "moment" to be noticed by the other houseguests and the home audience thus far, and the producers are editing the footage in order to convince us that either Andrew or Brendon is the saboteur, which automatically makes us believe it's not them at all.

 

Who is the secret saboteur?  It will be announced to the home audience on the Thursday, July 15 show, and the saboteur will essentially become this season's America's Player as he or she will perform tasks to disrupt the house that are voted on by the home audience.

 

Below you can meet our 13 incarcerated game show contestants, and keep checking back with us as we begin to post episode-by-episode summaries of this season's shennanigans.  If you want to relive the hijinks of last year's game, click on the "Television blog" menu link where our recaps from Season 11 are posted.  Want the scoop on all the stuff from the live feeds and past seasons?  Check out www.hamsterwatch.com or http://attwx.com/

 

These are the 13 houseguests for Big Brother season 12: 

 

Photo

HouseGuest

Photo

HouseGuest

andrew-bw

Andrew Gordon

Age: 39

Occupation: Doctor (Podiatrist)

Residence: Miami Beach, FL

Evicted 3rd: Day 27, July 29

annie-bw

Annie Whittington

Age: 27

Occupation: Bartender

Residence: Tampa, FL

Evicted 1st: Day 13, July 15

brendon-bw

Brendon Villegas

Age: 30

Occupation: High School swim coach

Residence: Riverside, CA

Evicted 8th: Day 55, August 26

britney-bw

Britney Hayes

Age: 22

Occupation: Hotel sales manager

Residence: Huntington, AZ

Evicted 10th: Day 67, September 7

(aired September 8)

Enzo Palumbo (Photo Credit: CBS)

Enzo Palumbo

Age: 32

Occupation: Insurance adjuster

Residence: Bayonne, NJ

Hayden Moss (Photo Credit: CBS)

Hayden Moss

Age: 24

Occupation: College student

Residence: Tempe, AZ

Kathy Hillis (Photo Credit: CBS)

Kathy Hillis

Age: 40

Occupation: Deputy Sheriff-Sergeant

Residence: Texarkana, Arkansas

Evicted 6th: Day 48, August 19

kristen-bw

Kristen Bitting

Age: 24

Occupation: Boutique Manager

Residence: Philadelphia, PA

Evicted 4th: Day 34, August 5

Lane Elenburg (Photo Credit: CBS)

Lane Elenburg

Age: 24

Occupation: Oil rig salesman

Residence: Decatur, TX

matt-bw

Matt Hoffman

Age: 32

Occupation: Web designer

Residence: Elgin, IL

Evicted 7th: Day 55, August 26

monet-bw

Monet Stunson

Age: 24

Occupation: Model

Residence: Glen Carbon, IL

Evicted 2nd: Day 20, July 22

rachel-bw

Rachel Reilly

Age: 26

Occupation: Chemistry graduate student

Residence: Las Vegas, NV

Evicted 5th: Day 41, August 12

Ragan Fox (Photo Credit: CBS)

Ragan Fox

Age: 34

Occupation: College professor

Residence: West Hollywood, CA

Evicted 9th: Day 62, September 2

 

Click to read the episode-by-episode recaps...
 
AMERICAN IDOL Season 9: Episode-by-Episode | Print |  E-mail
Written by US Townhall staff   
Thursday, 25 February 2010 17:46

 

CLICK HERE TO JUMP DIRECTLY TO MOST RECENT WEEK

 

American Idol begn in earnest this week, as the top 24 contestants took to the live Idol stage to perform for America's votes.  Last season's format for the semi-final rounds has been scuttled, and it has returned to the format more familiar to viewers of seasons 4 through 7.  Each week, the women and men perform on differnet nights with the bottom two going home each week for the next three rounds.  When the semi-finals are done, we'll have our top 12 that will go on to the big stage at the Kodak Theater.

Looking at the way the competition has shaped up so far, we don't think it's going too far out on a limb to predict that the winner of this season will be female.  Let's take a look at the performances from this week.

American Idol 9: Semi-Finals Round 1 Ladies' Performances, Tuesday 2/23/10

(1) Paige Miles sang "All Right Now" by Free (1970).  Good, but not great, performance.  Verses were fine, but Paige was swallowed up by the background singers and the band during the chorus (refrain).  We'd rate it a B+ and feel that Paige should be safe when the results are revealed.

(2) Ashley Rodriguez sang "Happy" by Leona Lewis (2009).  Subpar rendition that compares noticeably quite unfavorably to the original by Simon Cowell discovery Leona Lewis.  Simon felt that Ashley could be "in trouble" when the results are revealed, and we agree.  Grade: C

(3) Janell Wheeler sang "What About Love" by Heart (1985).  We liked Janell during Hollywood Week with her great, stripped down performance of Estelle's "American Boy" on acoustic guitar, but a Heart power ballad was way beyond the scope of her talent and her voice simply lacks the power necessary to sell that song.  Going off key several times did not help matters.  Grade: C

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TV FLASHBACK: Big Brother 11
Written by US Townhall staff   
Monday, 13 July 2009 00:38

Big Brother 11Another summer, another round of Big Brother, CBS's guilty-pleasure reality series.  For those not in the know, Big Brother features a dozen or more total strangers selected from around the country who move into a specially-constructed house filled with hidden cameras and microphones.  Each week one of the houseguests will be evicted by a majority vote from the other houseguests. 

We get to spy on them as they plot and scheme against each other to be the last houseguest remaining in the house.  That's all there is to it.  There is no special skill or knowledge required to be a contestant on the series.  It's all based on how well each houseguest can "work" the others -- either by forming alliances or by making threats -- to ensure that he or she is not one of the two nominated for the weekly eviction.

Now, the fun part of watching the show is seeing how the houseguests swear loyalty to each other, but before long, end up stabbing each other in the back in order to advance themselves in the game at the expense of everyone else in the house.  Big Brother is famous for its big personalities and flareups among the inmates, and we hope that this year will be no different.

At stake: $500,000 goes to the winner of Big Brother, and $50,000 goes to the runner up. 

Read more...
 
TV FLASHBACK: American Idol Season 8 Revisited
Written by US Townhall staff   
Tuesday, 26 January 2010 04:05

With the new season of American Idol (that's season nine for those counting) now upon us, we thought we'd repost our episode-by-episode rundown of the previous season that saw Kris Allen crowned as the new American Idol.  As expected, runner-up Adam Lambert quickly overshadowed the more understated Allen and has sold more than twice as many albums so far.  Still, Kris gave some memorable performances in his own right last season, so let's take another look at the triumphs and tragedies that collectively came to be known as American Idol Season 8.  We'll begin with semi-final round 2, which is the round that introduced Adam Lambert, Kris Allen, Allison Iraheta, Matt Giraud, Jasmine Murray, and Megan Corkrey -- all six of whom made the top 13.


 

American Idol 8: Semi-Finals Round 2 Performances, 2/25/09

Round 2 of the semi-finals was last night, and just like the week before, the performances were a mixed bag. Overall this year, the contestants are not as strong vocally as they were in years past, particularly in comparison to last year. Thus far, the new Clay Aiken, Kelly Clarkson, Chris Daughtry, or Carrie Underwood has yet to reveal him- or herself.

Let's take a look at each of last night's performances along with our predictions of who the next 3 contestants will be to make it into the top 12. Each contestant had to sing a song from Billboard magazine's Top 100 chart.

(1) Jasmine Murray sang "Love Song" by Sara Bareilles (2007). In general, this was a good, but not stellar, performance. A couple of notes fell out of key, but she worked the stage well and showed a lot of charisma. The judges all seemed disappointed, and she said she was surprised by their feedback. Given some of the dismal performances that followed, Jasmine still has a pretty good chance at getting into the top 12. Failing that, she would be a shoo-in to be brought back during the Wildcard show.

Read more...
 
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MORE FEATURES... 

 

Reviews & Previews:

Summer 2011 Movie Preview

Fall 2010 Television season

Fra Diavolo

Die Drei Pintos

Romeo and Juliet in Brooklyn

MPI Home Video

Timless Media Group

Boris Karloff's Thriller

Hunter: The Complete Series

Polly and Her Pals

Icons: The DC Comics and Wildstorm Art of Jim Lee

Adrianne Palicki as Wonder Woman

Ryan Reynolds as Green Lantern

Spider-Man musical delayed again

Frozen

Dead Space: Aftermath

Altitude

 

 

    

Events:

New York Comic Con

Apprentice 10 kickoff

Farewell to Guiding Light

Farewell to As the World Turns

The Broadway Directory

 

Award Show winners:

Academy Awards

Emmy Awards

Grammy Awards

Tony Awards

American Music Awards

Golden Globe Awards

Screen Actors Guild Awards

American Country Awards

 

    

Television blogs:

American Idol 10

American Idol 9

American Idol 8

Big Brother 12

Big Brother 11

ABC Cancels Both All My Children and One Life to Live

Guiding Light: A Look Back

 

Editorials & Issues:

Scam Alert: Have You Received This E-Mail Job Offer?

Meet the 112th Congress

Brooklyn politicians Kevin Peter Carroll vs. Ralph Perfetto

Before Rosa Parks There Was Lizzie Jennings

Understanding New York State Government

USTownhall RoundTable podcast: The Worlds of Entertainment and Current Events