Taeolas

I was a bit of an astronomy buff growing up, but I could never find the constellations in the sky, even when my eyes were better (despite growing up in hte country with almost pristine skys for skywatching). I did recognize some of the star patterns, since there are two I readily recognize. Orion (Orion's belt) and the Big Dipper/Ursa Major. If I try really hard I can find the Little Dipper/Ursa Minor. Beyond that, I'd be lost. That said, you would probably be good if you just started rattling off the signs of the Zodiac as guesses. Libra was pretty obvious to me I think. But yeah, beyond that I'd be lost.

I had expected Chess Piece to go further, but I was wrong. She did a good showing so it was a harder choice. Really, none of the songs appealed to me that much so picking "good" and "bad" ones was a challenge. Goo and Bluebell both gave a strong performances and I think that edged them out. My initial take on her was somewhat right, though I hadn't realized she was actually transgender. Her clue having a barbie facing away from the camera, and her statements that "I have a Barbie made jsut for me" made me assume they were using her actual Barbie for the clue, and I was right. I still think Wasp will take this one, but don't think the DingDongBell will be used now. Which would put 2 men in the finals this season. I think they really want a male singer to win this year, since they've had s streak of female winners lately.

This show does raise some interesting strategy thinking. You know what your category is. You know the categories around it. You also know what the whale categories are. You know who has time boosts, who has won money. You also know how many duels are per episode. (Usually 8, sometimes 9), so you know how many attempts there are to get the episode prize. * At the end of the episode, you have a day to cram up on the categories around you. (Something that is much more obvious this season than last. Like the constellation guy saying "Surely they'll give us cute pictures, not just points in the sky... Nope!) Strategically, whether I stay or go would depend on a variety of things: * How well I know my category. * How confident am I in winning the categories around me. * Can I reach a whale and if I do, can I take their category? Getting the Time boost is a goal, especially if you already have one in hand. Getting the most territory probably isn't a goal early in an episode (first 4 duels) but should probably be a goal later on (later 2-3 duels) If you have 2 duels in hand, you certainly should go for a time boost. Pick a strong category and grab it. Especially early in the episode. Early in the season, you're better off not being noticed/picked. So winning a duel and dropping back with only 2-3 squares is a valid strategy. Especially if you can snag a pair on the edge or in a corner. People will generally focus on going for the centre so you're less likely to be picked on the edge (and if you have more than 1 square you won't be picked by the Randomizer). If you become a whale, stay up there long enough for a Time boost. It's basically a shield you'll want/need to discourage people from challenging you. If you inherit a category you don't know and you aren't a whale, stay on the offensive, at least until the end of the episode, so you can get cram time later. But try not to become a whale, otherwise you might be put on the spot before you can cram. I'm sure there are other strategies; but that's my general thoughts on how I would play it out. A lot depends on the territory, when in the episode I'm active, and when in the season I'm active. So a lot of factors to consider and evaluate.

My thoughts as I'm watching the ep a few days later. Wasp was good. I can see him going far. He's got the moves and the range for the show and his costume is quite good. I suspect he'll make it to the end or get the ding dong bell save. He seems to be youngerish, maybe in his 30's. Chess Piece, I'm not even sure if she's a woman. I got falsetto vibes from her singing, so it might be a male in drag again. But it could also be a woman. She seems older too in any case, both in her movements and her singing voice. (Speaking of Falsetto singing, Robin's singing of Rock you like a Hurricane was horrendous. He should've pitched it an octave lower and just belted it out) Considering her ambassador was present for the episode, I expected her to be the one to be first out, but she sung quite well. BlueBell is certainly a woman. She also seems a bit on the older side, but not as old as Chess Piece; maybe in her 40's. She sung well but probably not as good as the first two. Dust Bunny feels like it's the easy elimination one. Probably someone famous, but swinging a crowd pleasing song like Sweet Caroline is a giveaway. He does sing well, but I think he's only in for a one and done. His costume is decent but also pretty basic. Definitly an older guy, probably the oldest of the season I'd say. (once again see the Van Dyke ambassador and who he's costarred with). Great humour and showmanship though. First impressions, Goo seems to have a more awkward costume, more like a one and done as well. I expect the first two elims from this group will be Goo and Dustbunny in some order. Once he starts singing though, wow... I think he'll make it to the next ep or two, but not till the end. But he's got a good voice that should be good for 2-3 eps. An older performer likely, 40's or 50's maybe, but the bulkiness of the costume may make him seem older than he actually is. The Voting is always rigged of course. But Chess Piece and Wasp are absolutely safe. BlueBell and Goo are probably safe, and I'd say DustBunny will be the first to unmask. Predictions going forward: Goo and BlueBell will have the Battle Royale next week, and it will be Chess Piece and Wasp for the finale, probably with the Ding Dong Bell used. And while Joel's in everything; I'd still prefer him to Ken as usual. Though he also seems to be making a career out of riffing on Ken every time he guest hosts on anything Ken's involved with too.

You know, instead of the Ding Dong Keep It On Bell, I wish they would just add another episode (or replace the recap episode). Each group's First Runner ups will come back and challenge each other for the 4th spot in the finals. As it is, it feels wrong that they "have to chose" who the 4th finalist is before hearing any of the other groups, and we get a situation where a singer like Ship gets booted when she probably should have been saved. It's just a hard call to make without knowing the others. Anyways, as the ep went on, while Woodpecker was good, I knew she'd be the first to be gone. But between Bison and Ship, I didn't know who was going to go, and would have been happy with either saying around. At least with Bison going forward we have at least 1 guy (well 3 guys) in the finals this time.

I think most series don't do a banishment in the first episode any moer. Or at least they don't reveal the banishment right away; so I didn't mind that. But introducing 22 people in 60 TV minutes is rough, especially when you put in the Traitor picking and a challenge. They really should have bumped this to at least 90 minutes.

New season starts tonight. Looking forward for my traitors twist. I do hope they try to come up with a new twist or two we haven't seen in UK or US; but I doubt it. We'll be lucky if they're 'just' mixing in challenges from the other shows as opposed to making a CA Unique challenge.

Yeah, Judy Justice (and the Tribunal show that came out of Hot Bench) were only available in the States on the Streaming services; Canadians couldn't get them normally. But this fall, Judy Justice entered a syndication deal so we can now get the first seasons of it over the air (on the US syndicated networks we can get in Canada at least). So it's finally available on basic TV without needing a streamer (especially not without needing a streamer you can only get in certain regions)

(Caught up over the weekend so I was a bit behind) I had to laugh at the team getting lost and ending up in Nova Scotia. There's wrong and then there's being THAT wrong. Sure they're self navigating, but you'd think you'd have some idea of where you're going (like by looking at the map and realizing you have to go north and Nova Scotia is south of where you are). Plus, knowing the "Greater Moncton Romeo Leblanc International Airport/Aeroport International Romeo-Leblanc du Grand Moncton", to go north, you get on the highway outside the airport and stay on it. It eventually hits the coast and goes north. The exit onto the TransCanada is the first major exit from the airport, one direction going to Nova Scotia, the other going to Fredericton. Looking at the maps, you might think that if you go on the TCH to the other end of the city and then take the 126 up to Miramichi it is similar/faster... but all in all, you're better off staying on NB-15 to NB-11 (Especially that time of year, when you don't have to worry about Parlee Beach traffic at Shediac), especially if you aren't familiar with the province. (Google says the 126 route is 15 minutes slower too) I'm a little disappointed that they bailed on the task like that; but at that point in the race, race fatigue is certainly a factor, combined with another strange word memorization task. I almost wonder if the penalty should have been longer, but I guess the thinking is most teams will attempt before bailing at least. Jumping out right at the start was a smart move in that case. (And yeah I have absolutely NO ear for languages, so all the language tasks in this race in general, I'd have been screwed on. For this one I might have been a bit better because I've probably heard the words or syllables a lot growing up around here, but it wasn't a huge help). It's a bit funny for such a small province, we had two navigation faults. First one team drove entirely the wrong way and added an extra province to the race. (At least they didn't make it to PEI too). And then the other team lost because they didn't get directions and obviously figured it was a small enough town they could figure things out on their own.

I didn't mind the Transformers tie in too bad. I'm just glad that the race track task wasn't JUST assemble the puzzle; they had to do a tire change as well which fits the location better. (I also worried/wondered if the weather changed the challenge they were going to do as well; but I suspect it was always going to be a tire change). They really missed a proper episode name, not calling it "Cirque de Newfie". That line had me laughing. :) All in all, a good race it seemed so I'm happy with the results.

I don't follow celebrity news much, but when Michael Bolton appeared on Masked Singer a few years back (a couple seasons I think wasn't it?), I rememeber mentioning at the time that he didn't look well. Then he only had a picture instead of a video for the reveal here, which confused me a bit, because I know I would have heard if he'd passed away. I'm glad the show clarified that he was just getting (some scary!) brain surgery done! Glad he seems to be recovering fine at least. As for the ep itself, I agree there were too many clues in play, but I suspect they want the final challenge to be the main decider and not the final guessing (unless you're REALLY bad at names). I wonder if Adam's injury was another factor as well. It seems wrong to me that they let MacKenzie and Hud socialize so much while Adam was in the hospital. They should have kept the active players separate for the afternoon until Adam could return and then do the group socializing when all three were together.

This was Lemon's season to lose; she was getting the winners edit from the beginning. Putting the two strongest lip synchers at the start almost feels arranged too, but it is what it is. Loved Cheryl's exit. At this point I expect her to show up (and lose) Aussie vs the World, before winning a US vs the World season. Or maybe they'll hold her win for a future Global All Stars season. Still, I do like her as a fun contestant; I think her humour and snarkiness matches mine as well. Not familiar with Party game. It might work. Bumper Stumpers (and Definition) would be two other classic Canadian Game Shows, but I feel like they would both need too much preparation ahead of time, and don't really have enough "chatter room" for the queens to improv banter in character. For Snatch Game variants, you want to make sure the setup gives the Queens time and opportunities to improvise and to chatter amongst each other. That's why Match Game works well, as does Love Connection. Front Page Challenge could do well. Hollywood Squares would probably work well too (but would need a bigger set than most DR shows would want to set up). Pictionary/Charades would work well too since it's team vs team with one being a clue giver.

It feels like it would be an ideal Canadian variant of Snatch Game that would be perfect for CDR. Brand it as "Snatch Page Challenge" or something like that. :) For those not familiar with it, the set up is you have a panel of "celebrities" (journalists technically but it's trivial to bend for the show), who try to guess the story represented by the guest. I can't remember if they ever hid the guest's identity, but I'm sure that would be an acceptable variant for a Snatch version as well, to 'increase' the challenge and the fun. Would also be a great way to invite surprise guests for just the challenge and not for judging.

Combining Snatch Game and the Rusical is a cheat IMO. Those are probably the two most expected challenges in a season now; to do them both in the same week means we barely get much of either (or both). in this case, most of the Snatch Game ended up on the cutting room floor, to make sure we had time for the 5-7 Rusical songs. The Rusical part and theme wasn't too bad all in all, but damnit, I want my Snatch game to have more than one question! Really they could've done the "Snatch Game Rusical" as it was, maybe with predetermined "celebrities" for the Queens. But then do a proper Snatch Game (Maybe the Love Connection variant for some differences). if this were a pure Canadian season, I'd argue they should do a Canadian Snatch game variant on something like Front Page Challenge.

I think it was a couple eps back, but putting "We didn't start the fire" up as a choice, especially a choice that late in the game, is cruel and unusual punishment. I'm sure everyone was expecting the needed lyrics to be one of the freeform style segments of hte song. I was surprised when the lyrics came up and they were actually the chorus and surprisingly easy (but maybe had one or two gotcha words). Now I want to see someone have to pick between "We Didn't Start the Fire" and BNL's "One Week". I could probably get either song, but man, that would be fun to see. :)