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It was marketed around her. That doesn't mean she had a major say in things. This discussion brings up a good point about voice and tone of the show. While we may not truly know if she had a major say in production choices, the show changed the way the host spoke about everything going on. The entire script of the show was changed. As Cheyanne11 points out. Previously, Clinton would announce challenges using using this style of language (I think it's called imperative): "Each of you will have a different graduation theme... Create two special dessert items for..." That's the way it's been for years. 2nd person. We/You This season it's "I would like you to create a palette knife cake about MY farm." 1st person. Me/You If I'm a host and the writers are putting "me" and "I" words in my mouth, I sure as heck need approval of those words. I'm sure she had script approval. Even for meh influencers script approval is pretty standard for video work, even more so when it's 1st person. Seemingly little things like this actually make a huge impact. Especially over the course of 10+ hours of TV. Sticking with the old way probably wouldn't have solved all the issues this season had for sure, but it might've made it a little less bad. Like a percent or two less bad.

What a steaming pile that was. Congrats to Jaleesa. I guess? Ugh. This sucks. I did like HER. It sucks that a Black woman can’t just have a “clean win” on this show, that it’s now tainted by this BS. It’s not her fault she’s the chosen one. But now any presumed benefit she might have from winning is obscured by the favoritism. Whatever the reason behind it was. I wish I could say that she managed to pull it together at just the right times, but that’s not really true. You can tell she’s a good baker but she messed up a LOT. Too much for us not to notice. Other random stuff: - I wasn’t spoiled but I knew something was up when Romy was wearing a coconut shirt during his ITM interviews and a comic book shirt during the competition. - Dennis made an apple pie potsticker. Potstickers are not deep fried, Duff. (You can I guess but then it’s a deep fried potsticker. Not the same thing.) They are also not wontons, Nancy. Wonton wrapper yes, wonton, no. - Good for Romy. The timing of the family recipe challenge was emotionally manipulative. And then! To be followed up by a face-off with sprinkles. To someone like Romy that is stab and twist of the knife. I don’t blame him one bit. - Hey Molly maybe when delivering tough news, like say, about a contestants mental health/stress don’t smile and grin. Even if the content is lies.

I don’t hate Tom as much as you all do, but it was definitely his time to go home. His cake was baffling. first the decoration. People know you can blend food coloring colors right? You don’t have to use all the bright green all at once. A tiny drop of yellow or even just LESS GREEN… would’ve been much more pretty. There’s a phrase they use on project runway a lot, and that’s “taste level”. His visual taste is not elevated. I think the edit of his actual taste critique was kind. You could see the layers fell apart on the plate which is going to make the textures very odd. A crunchy layer with a jelly layer, the cheese and then that weird sticky mirror glaze and then buttercream noodles? WTF. Kardea wanted to spread it on crackers, which to me means it was too savory. That’s what I heard. Jaleesa makes errors, a lot of them, but her ideas and flavors are good. All things being equal that counts for something. Looking forward to seeing what Romi and Carolyn do in the finale.

I came back to hear just this. Totally agree. Molly screwed up by touching Carolyns timer and effected the game. Her return was a fix for that. Plus Carolyn works for Disney (Resorts) and you don’t wanna piss them off if you’re FN. The fakey judges ask was slice and stitch b-roll. I like all the bakers. The only ones I didn’t like was that replacement guy who lasted a day and little miss ageist first eliminated. Most of the challenges I have liked but the others have been baaaaaaaad. I was ok with the palette knife cake challenge. It’s a look that’s popular now. I just wish it was more open subject matter than Molly’s farm. That make it boring for us, as viewers and makes it lean more juvenile in nature. How many adults that aren’t farmers want a farm-themed cake? BM (before Molly) I think overall the challenges were worse but this version has high highs and low lows.

I’m watching this show now mostly to see Edgar squirm. I’m not proud of it. But he’s a kid and I think it’s dumb to go on this show with your first love. Especially if you cheated on her. They should’ve broken up then. What did he expect from this? I think he thought it would make him feel less guilty of his past behavior or something? Eh. Hania’s logic about being with one girl in the house helping him prove to Ash that he can be with one woman is so deeply deeply flawed. I think he actually believes it, too. I…. Just… um….No.

GBBO is much more civilized. They actually want bakers to do well. The gall! I think the production is a bit different on these shows. FN has that huge studio and pantry. They feel vastly different to me. I don't know. On one hand, if they knew ahead of time wouldn't they do better? And if they don't know ahead of time, like you said, how on earth could someone just make a Japanese cheesecake for the first time without at least a basic ratio and instructions? Fer damn sure none of these people has made cookie salad. It's cookies in pudding and whipped cream? Diplomat cream? I'm mildly embarassed for Diego and the French guy that they will have to make it. But as the saying goes, This is America.

"Facially disadvantaged" - ha! The OG version of the show, the men were really attractive. Hot. It was why I chose to watch it over all of the other buckets of trash on tv. The reboot has less eye candy for sure. Ash is dramatic, I agree. But I like her. She's well spoken. Using words in a very considered way which I appreciate. It's a change of pace from the like, like, like that we suffer through of Love Island and Bach. If she ever says "Taylor and my's relationship..." I will retract my statement. Great Value Lance Bass. Now with more paste.

She ate her cake, too! I've never seen a baker ask to taste their stuff and I would wanna know, too! Loved this. They should do this more often. Let the bakers taste what they made! Have a discussion about it! They're coming up with these creations on the fly and while they might have basic recipes they're working from that is very different than the challenge final product. There aren't many ways to taste in progress while baking. I wonder if they have historically gotten to taste it but the show didn't show that. Not to generalize, but bakers tend to be perfectionists and critical of their own work. I've certainly made things where everyone loved it but I thought it was dry and too sweet.

If they would’ve let the bakers know before the preheat challenge, that the lowest would get an advantage, that could’ve been interesting game play. Do you screw up just to pick? I doubt any would do that on purpose. The advantages are helpful sometimes but other times, eh. Clinton has been my favorite host of this show. I was not a fan of Jesse his first season but he got better and loosened up. I could’ve done without the feeding by Nancy but that’s more on them and the Food Network HR department. If they were my coworkers I’d be like, do I have to watch this? Really? (Fwiw I also watch Bachelor. Jesse did ok. His tone sometimes doesn’t match the appropriate emotion. But I think that’s just nerves. ) I remember Jesse being kinda robotic and weird the first season of SBC too.

The first challenge this week seemed more like cookie cakes than giant stuffed cookies. Nothing wrong with either but it wasn’t what I was expecting to see. Challenging creativity is the show, but when your challenge and ingredients are brown on brown on tan, like the coffee challenge, Nancy needs to stop with the Springy requirement. I don’t want buttercream frosting on a cookie just to bring in pastel colors. Ick. I liked the tea challenge. The Hawaiian set was great. I would eat all of those passion fruit cups. I love passion fruit so much.

Me too. Alexis starts out by saying she’s the youngest so she has more energy? Eyeroll. No one this season is old by any stretch so she can just shut it. Experience in pastry is usually a plus. Then she makes the rookie mistake of using the attached cake cans. Everyone can have a bad day and that sucks but I won’t miss her. Molly’s FN persona is hyper-perky. It’s a lot. Too much. She’s a good home baker and knows a lot but after the first season of her show she became this other thing. My opinion is they dumbed her down into perky Midwest mom. On her show almost all the sweet thing have sprinkles or food coloring. You occasionally get a glimmer of her more sarcastic personality when she’s joking with her husband. I haven’t lost all hope with her but I hope she tones it down. Not loving the new graphics. The challenges have been good so far, not contrived.

Yeah, I still don't get who that family was. Halfway through the date I thought Clayton was going to say, this is my family and I was testing you around them. The family, well at least the guys cooking the meat, are the chefs/owners of Blood Bros BBQ in Houston area. (Two of them are brothers.) Which I don’t think they ever mentioned. I wouldn’t know this except they were JUST on an episode of Samantha Brown’s Places to Love on PBS that aired this weekend.

I’m bored too. Actually fell asleep during the runway show. It’s funny that many of us are bored but Nina isn’t. “Don’t bore Nina!” -Tim Gunn How is that possible?

Even before the remodel, that “Tudor” house was mid century with Tudor decoration on the exterior. Really, if the inside doesn’t make you think of a Renn Faire, goblets and Queen Elizabeth’s forehead, is it really a Tudor? I think the Marrs’s used that same white/gold floor tile (in the family closet) in another design last year. As a back splash? Maybe was on a different show but I recognize it. The new design was fine. Not a favorite but fine. Not to get too OT but to clean fixed wood or cutting boards, you scape it / scrub it / clean it with soap THEN you sanitize with a kitchen sanitizer (chemical or homemade solution using vinegar or bleach etc). Generally letting the sanitzer air dry completely or dry for at least 10-15 min. I worked in a few professional kitchens that had butcher blocks and that was the cleaning protocol. It’s also on the food safety certificate test FWIW. But to your point, if I’m working with meat at home, I would use a smaller cutting board on top so I could sanitize with heat in a dishwasher. Life’s too short!

Ha! I was going to say something similar. The 200k might have been a surplus from Katie’s lame season. It sure wasn’t spent on Katie’s wardrobe or dates. I mean, it’s totally a thing that companies try to spend a full budget by EOY so they get the same amount the next year. It’s just a very public way to do this! The end of year surplus might actually be possible. Hard to know. I also wonder/worry if there are strings attached. (Like TPTB own 30% of your home, lol.) Depending on Michelle’s formal relationship with them it could be considered income or a bonus? Interesting. Regardless, I’m really happy for them, Michelle is a class act. I can’t remember liking a Bachelorette this much since Meredith.

He could’ve said “staunch”. But I’m pretty sure he got the reference.

Totally. I can be both be glad PR is trying to chip away at stereotypes but also pretty irritated that beyond their inclusion there hasn't been a lot of thought to how this effects the show, judging and casting. Each week I get more annoyed. But there's no one culprit I can blame. The show did it without being thoughtful about all the ways a plus model affects design and construction (time, materials etc.), the judges don't seem to see their implicit bias in designs on thin models, and the designers have mixed abilities on dressing plus models. That said, the show has plus models for a few seasons now so I had hoped for some improvement in the results (who wins, who goes home) but there hasn't really seen to be much at all. Maayyybe better designers. I dunno. It's just really frustrating and clearly there people here who see what I see, so I am not a part of one opinion. All of the above. This is my body type and I have been familiar with it since I was a teenager. Decades later I am just beginning to find a style groove I like that works with my personality and my figure. If you're going for the curves that Nina loves SOOOOO much, empire waistlines work pretty well to give that effect. That said, I am not in agreement with Nina that everything a woman wears needs to accentuate her curves in order to be "flattering" or even be fashionable. WHY? Otherwise women are hideous blobs taking up space? Why does she need to know where my waist is? Does she think I'm an alien and this calms her? Yes there are times when people want to wear something that is flattering to their figure, of course, but I would argue that's not 100% of my life. It's not a required component of fashion or even the clothes I wear. Fashion can be a form of expression. And in the case of this unconventional challenge in particular, is it really about it being "flattering"? Was the avant garde challenge about every day clothes? I say no. Unconventional is about creativity and material manipulation/construction. Fashion has begun to make room for non-gender specific fashion and androgeny (which before IMO has been more of a Trend) and that's great. I wish that sentiment would seep into this show a bit more. I honestly don't like picking apart this show. I watch it to see the challenges and what the designers come up with. The judging is a necessary evil. Lastly, even with all of my rant above, I will say that overall this was definitely one of the best overall groups for the unconventional challenge the show has had. Remember Wendy Pepper's candy string thing? (RIP Wendy). Or the recycling center where it was also a team challenge?

Thank you! How could I forget? That look is still so chic. RIP Chris March. Looking at pics from that challenge, they also had to do an everyday look inspired by their Avant Garde look. If they had more time, that could've been cool this season. http://bloggingprojectrunway.blogspot.com/2008/02/project-runway-in-elle-magazine.html 😊 Blushing! I try my best!

Didn't LOVE any of the looks but I liked the patchwork fur coat/quilted dress and the winning look was ok. They both felt avant garde to me, the other looks didn't. The patchwork coat reminded me of a popular bomber-style jacket I saw a lot in the 80s. It was real fur, likely rabbit. They were not expensive. They even made kid versions because a girl in my grade school had one. You also saw them on TV "hookers". So that association for me was strong, and then having the inside be a pink quilted vulvic extravaganza, was amusing. I don't think that was the intent of the design but it made me laugh. Gaba the Hutt indeed! Return of the Jedi was 1983. Winning look? Prajje's painted skirt godet things were cool. But as you all have said, the pink dress has been seen before many times on this show. It always looks like a Dyson upright vacuum cleaner to me! And with the rug-like pink fur it felt very Spill in Housewares, Aisle 10. I didn't hate it but I was kind of expecting to see something like it and we did. Has the Avant Garde challenge ever been a group challenge before? I've watched every season of this darn show but they're not all that memorable. I prefer when this challenge and the unconventional materials challenges are individual. Let me see their creativity! Do the judges really care how they work together? I don't think so. Does it cause drama production can film? Yes. I think collaborations are great in the real world, when you get to choose or when it's a good match. The team challenges on this show usually just end up being a mess.

Rodney really grew on me in both personality and attractiveness. I was concerned about his intelligence at the beginning due to his lack of knowledge about apples but once that all got sorted out I really started to like him! Re: Nayte. I read somewhere that when he decided to go to college at EWU his Mom and step dad lived in Omaha Nebraska. But then she had the Canadian candy for Michelle, so it seems like they're in Canada now? The Mom sounded Canadian. But the stepdad might be American? Anyway, I'm sure Nayte is aware of his citizenship, whatever it may be, but they certainly haven't mentioned it much on the show. Clayton as bachelor. Ugh. The more boring the bachelor the more dramatic the bachelorettes are so next season will be the Most Dramatic, I'm sure.

On the podcast he didn't say it was the 100% reason he left. But it was a part of it. Thanks to KaveDweller I looked on the Internet Archive and saw the first pages of the 2 part interview on TWOP but wasn't able to read them in full. I'd totally forgotten about those! She was the recapper though, and he specifically said "the forums". He also said he only worked a couple days a week (season 2 wasn't on the show that much) and had too much extra time. Others advised him to stay on the show because it was a stable network TV show and as an actor those don't come along every day etc. Now that you both have confirmed we weren't THAT harsh I think maybe it's one of those hindsight situations where you want to leave but are looking for external reasons to? Also possible I'm reading too much into his story as told to Dax.

Speaking of TWOP. Bradley Cooper was on Armchair Expert podcast and mentioned how he read the internet forums about Alias, specifically he said TWOP. He recalled that people hated him/his character. That his slow internet connection would make reading the comments about him an even a more slow and agonizing process as he would wait for the page to load. Said it really messed with his head. This contributed to him asking to leave the show after Season 2 (Very paraphrased but that was the gist.) Not that he's going to read this (but if you are Hi Bradley!) but I seem to recall that the consensus on his character Will was less about the actor and more that the character was pretty dull. Like a Ben from Felicity 2.0. Both him and Francie were these tacked-on characters to show Sydney had friends but it didn't really fit. He was running around trying to be this crime-solving reporter with no clue that Sydney had so many resources. So the audience knew he was wasting his time. Then they just became exposition tools. Anyone else remember what the conversation was on Will or remember this as true or not?

I think this is giving Martin too much credit. But I see your point. The Pick up Artist (PUA) community using a Neg to attract women is (in my understanding) more about finding hot women for sex and not about finding a lasting relationship. The idea being that hot women are always hit on with corny/flattering pickup lines and a PUA differentiates himself and becomes memorable by using negative (insults) techniques. I do see parallels in context on Night 1. The bachelorette men are literally competing vs in a bar competing for attention among other men. But weeks into the process it requires different techniques. Sort of a short con vs. long con situation. Martin, and likewise Jamie (and going back seasons, there have been others such as Luke P and Yosef) to me have a very narrow minded view of what a woman should be. I think he sees women as being in service of him. There to cater to him, raise his children etc. Call it classic misogyny. Call it Madonna/Whore complex. Call it Machismo. The thing with Martin is that he's very blunt (self-admittedly) so he doesn't hide it. But my take is that he's What you see is what you get. Misogynist asshole with bad hair.

I just need to vent about this awful, stupid show because no one I know IRL watches it. I could quote everyone here. The writing was so bad. Nothing felt real in the slightest. Is it that the big names wanted the majority of the lines? I just don't understand why they abandoned other character storylines, because in my opinion that is what was successful about the show last year, the Hannah storyline. It gave some heart to the show. A whisper of humanity. Last year the TMS top talent / exec producers horrible behavior and shenanigans were juxtaposed with how it effected those without power. That's why it barely worked. I don't know what this season was. Well, maybe we do. This season was a wealthy white privilege-fest. Keeping just enough lip service for the POC characters like Mia but without any substance at all. Setting what seems like the most boring show ever, against a timeline that is still fresh in our memories? Living through the beginning of March 2020 was like watching a slow moving car crash you might end up being in. And as much as I wish it wasn't the case, the POTUS at the time had some influence on that tone. He's nowhere to be found in this show. I see why it didn't' want to get political but all those punches were pulled by him not even existing. Oh and then the stupid Cancel Culture storyline. I find it hard to believe any of these people are worried about being cancelled by the public. Maybe there's small worry that public pressure could effect the decision of their employers or brands they work with but eh, it's not actually the cancelling, it's how it effects their jobs and lifestyle. And for Mitch that would be... an upgrade? Not working, eating Gelato and living on Lake Como? Sounds good to me. They're all in their own bubbles with yes people left and right. Do they actually care about their reputations from some random on the street? I'm not convinced. Not all but most notable people that have been "cancelled", are ones that didn't feel they did anything wrong when they did it. That's the whole problem! That's why it exists! To hold people accountable. (Not saying it always works that way but the original intent I understand). The long list of #metoo men, the Canadian dog lady in central park, even the hand sanitizer guy. I remember a time in the early-mid 2000s when public figures screwing up was followed by public admissions, apologies, claims they were addicted to XYZ and that they were going into rehab. Ahhh, I miss those pre-Social Media days. Sometimes. Last bits: When Bradley is texting her brother it's green message bubbles. Which means he has a non-Apple phone. Because of course. Eyeroll. Way to dig your Android competition Apple. Drug addicts are Android users. Neener! Neener! He doesn't have find my phone. Blah blah blah. Barf. When Alex said on her streaming show (paraphrase) "Who is your tailor having sex with?" OMG. Are you kidding me? I don't know if it's worse that they wrote that trying to show how out of touch she is because she presumes everyone has a tailor or if they're really that dumb that they think people have a tailor. Either way. If she was truly America's sweetheart like they keep trying to beat us over the head with, as a journalist, she would have some connection with the lives of everyday people to know that most people don't get their clothes tailored. I watched this season like a fool waiting for it to get better. If it gets renewed, and I dearly hope it is not, it's only because Apple is paying the leads boatloads of money. They can't actually believe this is a good show.

Yes it’s ugly. But for an original design by an independent designer, with original prints, and Made in the USA I think it’s an appropriate price. I won’t knock her for that.