Lingo

Cindy reminds me more than a little bit of Moon Bloodgood. Which is a very good thing. These two are cute.

My strategy (such as it is) is simply to click each one, and if it starts playing music I know it's a clip from the show and I close it immediately. So tiresome! And I tried the playlist today, but it said that all of the videos are private!!! Why can't they get their act together? And I wonder why they don't put the exclusive clips on the CBS website anymore; that seems like an odd decision. Anyway, I did finally watch the clips. And my favorite clip involved the Track Stars ("It's Seeping Into My Pores!"). It was just after the Water Bikes and one of them was really upset about getting wet and especially getting her hair wet, and the other was really tickled by this and couldn't stop laughing, and the first was really upset that she was laughing and further complained that the water was "itchy" and that maybe she was allergic to salt water, and her partner could just not contain her giggles at all. It's a really funny clip. ETA: Found it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pycejp_JaAw

Well, they had the videos on youtube last year too, but I remember having issues with those as well. Like in S25 they were fine, but in S26 they added a bunch of ads? Oh, and I don't like the random order they're in. I'd like to be able to just hit play and watch all of the web-exclusive videos in a row, but half of the videos are just clips straight out of the show and I don't want to waste time watching those again. Oh well, maybe I'm just being too picky!

Thanks for the answers about the name! FWIW, I knew the premise of the show (I read the PTV review, of course); it's just the name that puzzles me. It's reassuring to hear that it wasn't chosen randomly, but it still sounds like a bad name for a TV show.

I can't get over the name. "The Grinder" -- what does that even mean? I suppose it's explained on the show (I didn't watch) but it sure doesn't tell me anything about what the show's supposed to be about, and meanwhile it just fills my mind with unpleasant images.

Hopefully their relationship doesn't end up like Chuck and Jimmy McGill's....

Maybe CSM is just a disembodied hand and a disembodied voice. Like Thing from the Addams Family, except he talks! (Maybe disembodied lips too, so he can still smoke.)

I rewound and paused the footage from the starting line multiple times, and that really looked like Kim standing right next to Rob and Brennan. And I suppose the woman in the sunglasses jumping up and down next to her was Alli, though she wasn't as recognizable in the sunglasses.

I think Ratings & Scheduling are the team to beat this year! Top 3 finishers guaranteed.

On "paper" (uh, pixels?) this team gives me a Tara and Wil vibe -- like, the designated bickering couple possibly cast as token "villains" (being paparazzi). They're dating, and their bios say they're stubborn and tend to clash a lot. Not looking forward to that.

You guys remember the stuntmen brothers from back in the day, right? I think they were on the same season as Luke and Mom. I always wondered whether they had some form of dwarfism that they just didn't want to talk about, or if they were just unusually short.

Ha ha, is that a shout-out to me?! I appreciate being remembered! I haven't watched the online videos yet because I watched the episode live and I've been busy, plus I groaned at the thought of having to go online and endure CBS's dumb video player with all the auto-playing ads. Last year I always watched the episode online so it wasn't a big deal to watch the vids afterwards, but this year my living situation is different so it's a lot easier to watch live. So I dunno if I'll watch all the vids this year. Anyway, enough about me...you guys, I think Justin's just a big sweetheart, and it kind of melts mine a little bit! If you haven't seen the actual "viral" video, you should check it out -- he's bawling his eyes out at the end of that too when he's proposing to Diana. I mean just crying like a baby, and I found it really endearing. I was worried when I read about this team and read that he's a radio personality that he'd be some big media whore douche, like a "shock jock" or something, but that's not how he comes across to me. He's definitely the outgoing one in the pair (Diana seems like a quiet cypher) but I don't find him obnoxious or cocky. If I were in that position of being an hour behind all the other teams I'd probably be crying too! And did they actually know they'd be hang-gliding when they got the FF clue? I bet not. Reminds me of the Biker Chicks heading to the Surfing FF in Singapore last year! Hey, speaking of the Biker Chicks, did you notice that they were standing right next to Rob and Brennan at the starting line? I had to rewind and pause several times to figure out it was them. Hey hey, is nobody else really curious about the background of the brothers Ernest and Jin Lao? Like, what's up with those names? And did you notice that Ernest was dressed up in stereotypical American clothes (red, white and blue) while Jin Lao was dressed in something that looked Asian? When I first saw them, I figured, okay, their story for the show is going to be about how different they are because of their backgrounds, like maybe they're half-brothers, and Ernest was raised in the US, while Jin Lao was raised in China perhaps. But no, even after dressing them like that (cuz you know production made them dress like that), it wasn't even addressed on the show. What's up with that?!

Yeah but do you watch hours and hours of any one of those sports? If you do -- if you're a fan of any sport -- then you probably know a lot about the backgrounds of the players, or at least their records in the sport, which drives a lot of the drama. (For me, it's tennis.) In more established sports the personalities are blended together with the narrative of team and their season and their particular background with today's opponent, etc. With ANW there's not a deep record of stats to chew on, so they go on more about their personal backgrounds, but either way there's a focus on the individuals and their "stories." Anyway, I don't think there's nearly so many hours of TV of track/field or marathons in a year as there are of ANW in a single season, and even if there is they're not getting the same ratings. Golf...is inexplicable to me. I don't know how anyone watches that for more than half an hour. It must be, again, the individuals involved, that would be my guess. Blah, I'm rambling. Time for dinner.

I ... I still have a flip phone. :hides under desk:

"This time, Witherspoon ends up getting the call to oppose Harris in some kind of climbing/ziplining BS that's a not-especially-clever commercial for NBC's own American Ninja Warrior." A show that had its season finale the night before. Great timing!

I was surprised so many ninjas (like Ryan Stratis) went out on the Salmon Ladder, considering that's a classic obstacle that they all had to complete in the city finals course. Are the rungs wider in the Vegas course? Is the pole perhaps of a different weight? I was also surprised that so many competitors finished Stage 2 with so much time left on the clock -- I remember Joe only had like 2 seconds to finish last year. Did they have more time on the clock this year? Or was it because the Roulette Wheels actually took a lot less time than the spinning thing they had before? Or was it just because these ninjas were so familiar with this minimally tweaked course and trained so hard for it? And again I was surprised by the changes made to Stage 3, particularly the absence of the Spider Flip, which seemed like a classic obstacle. Overall Stage 3 seemed easier than previous years, though again maybe it just seems that way because the ninjas prepared so much for it.

I'm sure the outcome would have been the same had Isaac gone first. They pointed out how he was using his legs to grab the rope while Geoff seemed to just let his legs dangle. I'm no rope climber but I think that gave Isaac an advantage.

My favorite part of this episode was Maggie rounding the corner into the room where Emma had ALLLL those pictures of men on the walls and squawking "WHAT WHAT WHAT." I replayed that over and over. "By the way, we're out of toner."

https://www.yahoo.com/tv/playing-house-usa-season-2-finale-jessica-st-128665212840.html Thought this was an interesting interview with Lennon and Jessica. According to them, the binge viewers are more important than the live viewers.

Well I was gonna go all NUH UH YUR WRONG so I went to Wikipedia and it says ... 5 cities last year. Huh. So the only logical conclusion is that you went and edited wikipedia in the last 24 hours to make me look bad. You're a bad person and should be ashamed of yourself. Kidding. I stand corrected on multiple counts. Damn this old memory.

Kudos to Caldero for winning, and kudos to Geoff for being the only guy to hit all 6 buttons (metaphorically anyway -- there was no button at the end of Stage 3). Boy, the end of Geoff's Stage 3 run was a real nail-biter! I watched the whole last hour over again after it finished. Joe Joe Joe, what were you thinking?!? Oh well, you're still my favorite. And hey, more kudos to Ian Dory and Drew Dreschl for their 3rd and 4th place finishes. Those guys should get some of the spotlight too.

But they had 6 cities last year too, and 15 contestants from each city. So the number of remaining wild card slots (10) is the same as before. As for the number of Stage 1 finishers, wasn't 18 a record last year? (I don't know where the wiki is.) I'm shocked so many made it through this year. I think only the fastest Stage 4 finisher gets the money. I think that's how they do it in Japan -- the fastest finisher is the official winner. Though I do hope that anyone who finishes gets SOME sort of payoff. Is it perhaps the last obstacle? In previous year they'd have to swing to the cargo net on a rope that would put them much farther down on the net, and the net takes a lot of time to climb. That was my first thought. Then again swinging across those bars also takes some time.

I disagree. I bet this show wouldn't get ratings so high if it's just people running the same course, over and over. I think it's the same with every sport. You show me some high-level athleticism, and I'll watch for a little while, but if it just keeps repeating I'll eventually tune out. But if you tell me the stories underlying the competitions then I'll get hooked.

Kacy deserves the "hype" that she gets. I agree that her status as the "first" up the wall is kind of artificial, but she's still the only woman to complete a city finals course. And because of that she became a viral video star, so of course they're going to hype her. She's practically a household name. That's show business. Jessie Graf is the only other woman to qualify for Vegas and has equalled Meghan's Vegas record. Meghan is of course a Vegas pioneer. And Michelle gets my love too because she's also gotten up the wall and she never gives up. Anyway, I don't think Kacy was overhyped or that Jessie or Meghan were relegated to the background. In fact, Jessie and Meghan were both saved for last women in their respective episodes, before Kacy and Michelle. We saw reaction shots from the other women as each made their Vegas attempt, so I don't even think Kacy got more screen time in that regard. Maybe she did, but I still think she deserves it. In any case, I think she'll always fall behind Meghan and Jessie in Vegas as long as there are trampolines and warped walls, and soon, if not next year, the attention will be split more evenly among them (assuming the show isn't cancelled first). Anyway, I missed this episode TWICE on NBC and my basic cable doesn't get Esquire. Besides Elet Hall, were there any other shocking exits on the men's side?

I feel like they saved the best for last, because that episode felt like the funniest one since the premiere -- especially the puns! And I love Bocephus as long as "he" isn't overused -- once a season is just right. I wish this show had a bigger budget for the supporting cast -- only about 3 episodes apiece for Bruce, Zach, Gwen, and Birdbones? Boo! But most of all I do hope to see this show again next year! Yes I edited this post 5 days later because I'm embarrassed I called Emma's mom "Maggie"!