Taeolas

I'm sure there will be a Deal or No Deal banker showdown with the Biggest Case ever! available as one of the cases. The rest of the high value ones will probably be scaled to be similar to it, but still significantly lower. (So if the Biggest Case is 10M, the second biggest will probably be 7M then 5M, 3, 2 and 1M, and then it drops down to the usual 'small value' cases). As long as you don't knock out the high value cases early, the banker offers should stay in the million range, making for a decent payout, even if your chances of actually winning the Biggest Case Ever! value are pretty slim. And yes, that means there is a chance that after all this buildup, someone could walk out with a penny case.

Love the Transformers, and damn those animatronics they've got nowadays are impressive. But the setup they would have had to do for all those tricks probably took forever. I wonder if Koala's song had a break to let him transition to the inside stage or if the path was short enough for him to actually make it? I suspect that's probably why we didn't have an elimination singoff this round too, since they had to have so much extra time set up for the robots. Maybe it's my age showing, but the song choices tonight were really bad IMO. I don't know what ones would have been better, but other than Ugly sweater and Koala, none of the songs felt real'y 'good' to me. The songs were good for their original bands with those band's sounds; but not so good to be covered by other singers (good or bad) IMO. Koala was 'robbed' IMO. Clearly just there for a one and done I guess, but much better than the other singers. Lovebird was a good singer, and probably should have been kept over Starfish, but it would have just been a short reprieve. I'm not sure if Ugly Sweater or Goldfish will be the ones to win this pool; but Starfish should be the easy elimination next time. All in all this pool feels weaker than Pool C. But I think I'd prefer Ugly Sweater to go through just so we have a guy in the finals at least.

It was a fun final, but I think Tia edged out the final lipsync for the crown rightfully so. They both seemed to have fun playing off eachother during the lipsync. Hannah's just such a fun queen in general, I'd have been fine with her winning, and I'm sure she's going to do great going forward in general. As for no Canadian queens, we were in Season 1, but there were no Aussies in Season 1, so I'm wondering if they were (unintentionally) balancing the Commonwealth queens a bit, or they're intending to keep alternating. Canada vs the World had a Kiwi queen, and hopefully if we get an Aussie vs the World competition, we'll have some Canuck queens going down.

Man this was a loaded group. I kept waiting for a Gong act at the end, and didn't get it. The guys were the weaker singers in the end, but any of them would be serious contenders through it all. In the end, I figured Spaghetti and Meatballs would be the one to go because his costume seemed the simplest. Clock seems to have the most ornate costume so it's a good chance she'll go to the end, probably with Poodle Moth. Lizard also had a somewhat simpler costume, so he may get eliminated next time or before the merger. Especially since the judges all seemed to recognize him in the end. But yeah, as mentioned in the live thread, the worst performance of hte night was Robin's. ouch that was painful. S&M and Lizard were 'weakest' only because you had to pick someone in the end. And yeah, Lizard pulled it out in the Showdown at the end which edged it out; he was obviously a stronger singer. As for the reveal:

Group C premier night. 4 new masked singers performing songs by Billy Joel.

Joe was a fantastic celebrity guest. I'm wondering if we should start tracking the A-list Password guests like we do on Pyramid. He was nailing clues all around. A shame the contestant lost out in the second game, but those last few clues were hard (and Jimmy's game seemed off). Jon even got the final clue but talked himself out of it in the end. As for the "ponytail" I don't think she said that, but it sounded like it. I think I heard "phony" (I can't recall for certain now); it was close but still a distinct different word.

For the Snatch game ep, La Grande Dame really dodged a bullet. Everyone on that team (aside from the boxer; sorry horrible with names) was in trouble. The two wives of Henry the 8th was risky, but it came off well; that team was on fire. Gothy should have been eliminated, it's obvious they've checked out. Sending Keta home obviously surprised everyone. (And just on Keta's runway looks, I probably would have swapped her with La Grande Dame to be honest)

Having a murder after the banishment before the final challenge is a mistake IMO, because it telegraphs that there IS still a Traitor in their midst, which is probably somewhat intentional but still. That said, the Traitors.Ca "trick" of not having a banished reveal themselves isn't really fair either. I think one variation I would like to see would be to set up another delayed death. So the traitors do their final 2 murders before the last round tables, so people know that even if they get the traitor, some one else is (or may) still be dying before the final challenge.

Don't have much to say about it, but I agree Alan should have hosted this. I assume logistics to get him to the States or something prevented it in the end. Another missed opportunity, is they should have called this Reunion show "Traitors: The Afterlife" since everyone would have been murdered (or banished)

Before Kevin showed up, I was waffling on Tattered Sweater or Starfish being the ones to go. They opened very strong with Goldfish; she's probably going to be the Group A finalist easily. Lovebird might be a darkhorse candidate, depending on the song choices in the future. But Starfish and Sweater, they both had decent singing voices, but not professional ones I'd say. (but fine for the show of course) I figured Sweater would get the auto-reveal in the end since he clearly needed on stage support (he came out on a float and the MIB's carried a stool when they escorted him off the stage. So despite being a good singer, I figured he'd be a one and done. Starfish also sounds older. She's got a good voice, but not a finalist voice, and her costume seems awkward since she seems to need to stand more spread eagled in it. The more awkward costumes tend to indicate early reveals. Kart/Book was an okay costume, but it wasn't all that fancy. (especially considering how easily he was able to ditch it). It was only a couple steps above a sandwich board.

Discovery Canada has just started airing LM:AU S4 and I'm loving it. Opening with a water challenge build was a great start and the builds looked good. Plus I love seeing Hamish and The Brickman back. They both seem so much better hosts than Will over on LM:US.

Yeah, answering fast is certainly the key. There are no penalties for wrong answers, so go 'stream of thought' and hope you get the answer out in some verbal diarrhea if it doesn't come right away. The other tactic would be to pass quickly. Don't fight for the answer on the tip of your tongue because you're bound to burn up more than 3 seconds trying to dredge it up. Basically for every question, allow yourself no more than 1 second of stream of thought babbling, then pass and eat the penalty. And if you have absolutely no clue, pass right away.

I agree, the challenges and the show format are good. The judges seem decent enough, they just need a bit more experience in the TV show formats. The main host, she seems okay but her personality is probably a bit too subdued. They may have picked her to be the straight host to Seth's wacky host, but Seth (laughing aside) is surprisingly restrained, probably because he's Zooming in some of the middle eps now. Thankfully he's not as distracting as Will is on Lego Masters. But yeah, this show could use a slightly more animated on-set host, someone with more comedic background would do I suspect. Canadian Baking Show's been lucky with their hosts, but lightning hasn't quite struck twice yet. And that said, she does have some potential, she may just need more practice and experience.

Not sure where best to toss this; but never one to miss the chance for stunt casting, Jimbo (and Family) were on Family Feud Canada last week. What's interesting is it wasn't a celebrity casting; Jimbo's family were legit (as far as I can tell) and against a normal family. Jimbo did call out appearing on the various Drag race shows. For Canadians, it's up on CBC Gem. (S5. 88) Jimbo's outfits were, (as you might expect) borderline acceptable for a dinner time CBC show. :)

There are Instructions, and then there are rules. I suspect that as long as the Torch card is revealed and a trade is eventually done, the producers are fine with whatever the players do to decide things, as long as it is reasonably fast and they get some good footage out of it. Technically speaking Jelinsky admitting he didn't have the vote broke that 'rule' since he was no longer trying to convince them to make the trade. But the spirit of the challenge (as a way to provide some inter-tribe links early on and to provide some seeds for drama both between the tribes and within the tribes) happened so it was good as far as production was concerned. Similarly, if I was there and I could make a show of NOT looking at my card (but letting the camera guys 'look' so Production can reveal it) and then I play a bluff of "I may or may not have it. Neither of us know. So do you trust the third person? They're the only one who knows for sure. So how lucky are you feeling? How much do you TRUST that other person after knowing them for an hour or so at best?" Of course I wouldn't breathe a word of my plans until after the game is on, and hopefully my co-players don't have similar ideas. :)

As for the Sweat challenge, I think it is intended to be quit and then it is up to the challengers to sell it to their tribe. Jelinski not only failed to sell it to the tribe, he didn't even sell it to his partner on the challenge. It probably IS doable if you take a few moments to plan and figure out ways to plug the buckets. Using shirts (I know they didn't have any on at that point)/buffs and/or leaves would be the obvious solutions to stem the water loss would be the obvious solution. (Sand would not work, since I suspect they couldn't let any/many foreign objects into the big containers and Sand would just pour in with the water). For the card challenge, I think I would play it by making a show of NOT looking at the card (maybe flashing it to the camera man over my shoulder but with my head turned). That way I could bluff and honestly say I don't know, through it back on the Torch card holder to decide if they believe me/want to take the risk. Of course if I had the torch card then when no one else showed, then I'd have to show. And if we all bluffed that way, then someone would have to look. (The rules probably technically say you have to look, since the torch holder has to reveal, but if one contestant decided to bluff that way, I suspect they would allow it)

He played correctly, but he really should have gone for International Foods, compared to a category he knew nothing about. As soon as he inherited Fashion Icons, he had to know he had to stay at the podium and he should have kept the tactic up to the end. Ultimately I am fine with how it ended, even if it means there was 1 dead category. The advantage to the person at the podium is to chose which of the final two they will take on which makes sense. Given how territory can change hands easily, basing anything on the amount of territory you control means nothing. (In this finale, if the Hobbies lady had won her round, she would have the most territory but only have done 1 face off) That all said, I'm calling foul on the Snack food category. She called out "chips" when they were looking for "potato chips" and IMO that should have been accepted. Sure there are other types of chips out there (French Fries, as well as Tortilla chips) but most Americans will hear "chips" and think Lays basically. I wonder if that might have been a slight cultural faux-pas. This was actually filmed in Ireland apparently, so maybe the judge would have accepted "crisps" but didn't think "chips" was exact enough.

IIRC, there were a number of painting images of famous people in that set, not just Confucius. Ben Franklin and Willy Shakespeare among others (including a few I didn't recognize even the name of). If someone showed me a drawing of an old-style Chinese man and said they were famous, Confuscius or Sun Tzu are probably the two I'd guess, and then be stumped after that.

It's a viable strategy, to hope you get to the end without being picked. if that's your strategy, I'd try to pick a somewhat obscure category that most wouldn't want to tackle, and hope the randomizer doesn't pick me. Of course the contestants do get study time between tapings, so as the category pool shrinks, they're going to be studying your subjects too. Then when it's down to you vs the 80-square Whale, then either they will have to do both categories, or the Whale will have to decide which topic to challenge on (and the other topic will be left unused). So it could come down to picking between a topic the Whale inherits or challenging someone's expert topic.

Both are international and probably have direct flights to DC (all 3 are major world capitals after all). So if Tony was going by way of Heathrow, I would expect it was either timing issues, or more likely he had some unavoidable business in the UK that necessitated the transfer there. Or maybe he was just milking the system to get more Air Miles or something.

So what sort of strategies would people be thinking of for this game? There are a lot of factors to consider, but I think this is what I'd often do. 1. If it's early in the night, and I'm picked and have to go on the attack, I'll pick some of the smaller categories around me that I know well. I wouldn't necessarily go for a whale unless I had to. If you get a big area too soon, then people later on will have an advantage. 2. If I'm defending a big territory, and I'm comfortable with the category, I'm going back to the floor to let someone come after me. 3. If I'm NOT comfortable with the category, then I might as well stay on the attack, going after the categories I am familiar with and going for the nightly prize. 4. Later on in the night, when there are only a round or two left, if I'm picked, I'm going after the whale if I can, even if I'm not strong in the category. That's the time to make the move to try and get the prize. But I would only go after a whale on the 6/7 or 8th round of the night so I don't have to defend as much hopefully. Any other tactics people might do?

Thought we had a thread dedicated to Canadian commercials but it seems to be gone now, so I assume this is where they go now. Saw a commercial with Peter Mansbridge (and co-staring Peter Mansbridge x infinity) over the weekend (most of the time I FF past them). As a commercial it was neat, since it basically mosaiced him through the years into a Press conference type setting where he 'interviewed' himself. On the flip side, I'm disappointed/annoyed that it was ultimately for Reverse Home Mortgages and I'm sad such a respected personality is doing that sort of thing now.

A beautiful episode, with a beautiful message; multiple beautiful messages. Good to see Tony again. I'd like to think that Gibbs and Abbey were there too (at least for the funeral and celebration; not for the case).

Some of the sizing seemed off, but overall they felt good. The bottom two were rightfully there with the right one going home. Compared to the others, those cylinders were just too plain, and needing to have the indicator dots on top was an obvious design failure. The birds and snails ones were beautiful in comparison, but ultimately not really playable; you couldn't really identify the roles as was pointed out. Granted some of the others had similar ambiguity but I think for the most part they were nicer or the roles were more clearly defined (even if you had to remind yourself that X was a bishop, at least X was distinctive).

Some real close rounds this week. And some challenging categories. Granted I don't know celebrities at all so I was stumped wiht a lot of them. (And I would've been stumped by Farrah Fawcett; but most of those hairstyles stumped me). I'm better with the more general categories; I named 90% of the Animal, BBQ and fruit categories for example. I think next week will be the ep they mistakenly aired earlier, and in 2 weeks we'll get the 2 hour finale.