Taeolas

I'm calling shenanigans on the Accessories category. Angie said Hajib and they didn't give it to her. They usually aren't that picking on pronounciation and it sounded pretty close to me. I do wonder what they do if the judges do mess up? Interrupting a challenge midway would be difficult, but something would have to be done. In any case, I'm glad it was a Best of 3 battle in the end. I suspect there is a 101st category everyone knows about, but it isn't mentioned until its needed. This time it wasn't needed. And that said, as a science nerd, I would've been all over Periodic Table long before the final challenge. I nailed most of them including some she passed on. Most of the rest of the categories I was FUBARed in of course. :)

I figure I recognize maybe a quarter of the people they have on the show; but that's mainly because I'm stuck in the 80's/90's and don't follow celebrities, sports nor influencers much. So I mainly recognize music artists from those eras and/or actors from t hat era but not much else. That said, I still enjoy the show even if I don't recognize most of the people under the mask because I usually have some idea where they are from even if I don't watch/listen to them. And I enjoy seeing people stretch their skills a bit and try new things which this show lets many do.

Wasp put in a strong showing, and any other season, he probably would have been the winner. But Buffalo's harmonies just could not be beat. And I think once he realized who they were, he was fine with losing to them. He obviously respected them a lot, both before and especially after the reveal. As I just mentioned in last week's ep thread, I think he was a bit disappointed he didn't get a real chance to do a duet with them in the end. (Other than the group intros they often did; but this ep didn't give them a chance to sing in it) All season long, Buffalo have been blowing us away. They did songs outside their genre, but their harmonizing was hard to hide. Later on, they somewhat went back to their roots and brought them out more, and were stronger for it. I (like many people) had their CD growing up. I'm Canadian, but I often listened to an American rock/pop station, so I was exposed to them that way and sought their disc out that time. I enjoyed their music, but didn't follow them much, so I don't know anything about their history after their time in the spotlight. For me, they just faded away like all the other boy bads and girl bands and other low-hit wonders through the years. But last night, their voices really came through and the memories came flooding back. So big gratz to BoysIIBuffalo; you did a great job (even if the show is rigged 10 ways from sunday, it was a solid competition and win this year)

Watched this ep and the finale back to back. It was clear Wasp and Buffalo were going to be the finals, but I did worry a little in the final showdown. Strawberry Shortcake was good; but the other two were a league above her. And the showdown wasn't really fair to her. Pitting her in a duet with a strong harmony group like Buffalo was bringing a knife to a tactical nuclear war. She held her own, but was obviously blown out of the water. I half wonder if everyone suspected who buffalo were behind the scenes, and Strawberry just wanted the chance to do a duet with them before leaving the show. I'm sure Wasp wanted a similar chance but the setup just didn't allow it. And yes, the Friendship Bracelet clue was so obvious that I was worried they were booting Buffalo early for some reason, which would have been a crime.

Agreed, the bouncing elf off the end of the tree IMO was the part that sold it. The other two were decent but didn't have the wow factor nor the polish like the tilting tree did.

Ultimately, the Faithful did themselves in. For whatever reasons, they could not clue in on who a Traitor was. Even when the Traitors were finally unmasked, it was mostly due to other Traitors calling them out. Not recruiting a new Traitor is a rarity for this format, but when the Faithful just can't find one, you don't get an opportunity to recruit. As a traitor, it does feel like Neda played a near perfect game. She kept a relatively low profile until the end, and made sure there were bigger targets than her around. She also maintained a strong ally among the faithful to shield her to the very end. I do wish they had an aftermath show for this season. I wonder how many clued in on the Brother-Sister relationship by the end? Neda knocking out Nick as her final official murder was probably the right call. I had a feeling he was probably one of the ones most suspicious of her on that final table, so without him pushing her case, the other Faithful fell on themselves.

Yeah, Neda came out strong in the clutch; but it may have burned her as the Traitor. I suspect there's a really good chance that this season will eliminate all the traitors in the final round table (which is impressive considering how long it took them to find the Traitors in the first place). Then again that too may have worked in their favour; there were only three Traitors this season, with no one getting a chance to flip. (Though the faithful may suspect something). I'd say there's a 50/50 chance that either Nick or Tranna will get murdered. I can see keeping Nick along for the disruption he could cause among the faithful; but he also seems to be vibing that Neda is the Traitor too. Tranna would be a good pick to try and deflect from Neda, but may also be too obvious. And yeah, there's only 1 more murder (happening now) and 1 more round table. I think last week or the week before would be the final time they could recruit and keep things fair. Right now, there's no point in recruiting another traitor because they would never get a chance to murder anyone. Right now there are 6 players left, with 1 murder and 1 round table left to go. After those happen, we're down to 4 players for the final Fire of Truth which would have up to 2 more rounds of deciding to take hte money or vote out, and voting. (When they're down to 2 players, it's an automatic "keep the money and Traitor wins all if they are there")

I think I realized why it's not going to FoodNetwork in the States, and it doesn't bode well for the show in the States in the future. The show is produced (I think) by Corus Entertainment, which owned (past tense) the rights to the WBDiscovery Speciality channels like HGTV and Food Network for Canada. Rogers bought those rights at the end of September for January 1st, 2025. That's why Food Network Canada and HGTV Canada are being rebranded in January. And Corus produced shows like Big Bake, Top Chef Canada, Holmes's shows, Baulmer's shows, etc.... are going to the new network and probably NOT going to go to their former US Channel Counterparts. https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/business/company-news/2024/09/18/corus-announces-two-new-lifestyle-networks-after-rogers-scoops-food-network-and-hgtv/

From their initial tastes of the dishes, I was pretty sure Shane was going home. They liked Lisa's dish, said they would even like having it for lunch daily. They just found it a bit 'plain' for a Top Chef dish. Shane on the other hand, missed the point of the challenge, which was sustainability. And they didn't seem overly thrilled wiht his dish either even after acounting for the tropical elements. So him going was basically writ in stone from the begining.

So the "Finale" is 4 hours split over 2 nights across 2 weeks.... Then wouldn't the actual "Finale" just be the 2 hours on the second week and the first 2 hours just an extra padded episode? Feels like they're playing semantics to try and drum up excitement or something. Or hiding that they trimmed the actual finale back to 2 hours.

Lots of swear beeping in tonight's ep. On a different note. Kyra's giving me really "Agatha all Along" vibes with how she acts and presents herself. Nothing major but man, the over gesturing really reminds me of how Agatha was in the series.

Just watched the ep. I think this is setting up the female finalist, both Shortcake and Knight are strong singers. The two men and Macaron were decent enough but not on the level of the other singers. Any of those three could probably have been eliminated; and I almost wish one of the men had gone instead. At least with Macaron gone, we won't have the misspeak between Macaron and Macaroon for the rest of the season. (And I'll admit, until maybe 10 years or so ago when Macaron's became more popular I never knew there was a difference; I love Macaroons and the frist few times I started hearing about Macarons I was confused/thought someone was misspeaking. Now I know the difference... but for some reason I don't think I've ever actually had a Macaron yet). Nick seemed to have been briefed on the difference in terms and made sure to always say Macaron. It was only Rita and Jenny that seemed to constantly say Macaroon. Now I want someone to be Macaroon next season just to really confuse the judges and people. :) As for Macaron herself, I recognize who she was but didn't really pick it up from the clues; just from the discussion. When they were talking about their guesses I remembered her story vaguely. And her costume makes more sense too, with her left arm being fake (on the costume); a nice subtle clue that is obvious in hindsight.

As I said in the Group A finals, the Ding Dong Bell should be removed, and all the round finalists should face off against each other for the 4th spot in the Quarterfinals. That would give them an extra episode (instead of a recap episode), and would let all three second place singers face off properly to 'decide' who deserves to move on. As is, the DIng Dong bell is obviously 'unfair' because the judges technically don't know who the other Group finalists are to judge who is worth keeping or not. So we now have 3 men in the quarterfinals. The fix is certainly in to have a male winner this time around. I think the Buffalo might be the leaders at the finals so far. We'll see how Group C goes this week.

Hehe my bad. I misread someone's comments and assumed novelty. I watch so many competition shows, I generally lose track of who's judging where and for how many seasons. (Other than the "big" judges like Ron-Ben Israel here, or Duff, Carla and Nancy on the Baking Championship shows, etc... I guess the first part of my comment still applies. Her volume is at about an 8 or 9 whereas everyone else is at a 6, so it's rather jarring when she was speaking. Guess it was just New Season Excitement. :)

True but the category was IIRC, "Pop STARS" not "Pop Music". "Pop Music" I would expect to be more akin to Name that Tune, possibly even an audio category like musical instruments was (that was a fun one. I got most of those ones). "Pop Stars" I'd avoid because I may recognize some of the songs and maybe artists, but I'd have no idea what they look like. So safer to leave them alone.