Eolivet

Ohhhh. They needed to make that much, much clearer. I kept saying, "you're safe, you're not being called in, get over yourself!" An interesting side effect of editing Dee out is that it's cut Rogan's screen time down to nothing (yet has had little effect on Jenny). The rest of the contestants seem paired up off-screen (or at least not hooking up with anyone onscreen), so it's interesting to force an edit nearly devoid of hook-up drama. I like it better. I don't know how much of Dee and Rogan's crap got edited out, but these last few episodes have focused on other interpersonal relationships, past friendships, growing bonds. Even Kaycee and Nany were entwined in the pre-existing Kaycee and Bayleigh friendship/whatever that was. Memo to the Challenge: More of this, please. I don't need this to be a dating show. There's much more drama to be mined from alliances and friendships and, you know, the actual competition than Dee and Rogan-type "he screws me, he screws me not" antics. I'm biased, but I think this is a pretty impressive rookie class for an individual season. The first season I watched was 33, but seeing as they were partnered up, I thought it wasn't as good of an evaluation of their individual talent, since it was partnered eliminations for the first half.

This is a @Ms Blue Jay appreciation post! I've so enjoyed getting notifications on posts as you're clearly doing a rewatch of recent seasons. It's made my day in these "trying times." A nice reminder that our discussion threads are interesting enough to read years later. Thanks for spreading a little kindness around.

I can't believe I get to break this news.

"Linger!" The 90s throwback soundtrack continues. When Bayleigh was going around painting that picture of her and Kaycee on Big Brother, all I could think of was, "yeah ... and you're with Swaggy now, so ..." It's not like she's been sitting, pining away for Kaycee all this time. "You used to have a thing for me before I moved on with someone else" isn't the best argument I've ever heard. My biggest laugh of the night: stock footage of various empty rooms in the bunker. The (perpetual) Purgatory nominee was still Jay.

The next filming would've been in March, I think, so as far as I know, it's only Total Madness (filmed in October-December). Europe is banning Americans, and the virus is now hitting the developing world pretty hard. I'd have no idea who'd take them if they could film (Fiji? ha)

...Okay, I'll bite. Why was Adam crying? I think he and Nick were in similar situations in terms of their mothers, so I wonder if that had anything to do with it.

Check out the Survivor in the Media thread for more details. Some folks from Australia, a couple I recognized from New Zealand and a couple from South Africa. I won't be watching either, as I can almost guarantee (though I'm not entirely sure) Adam of U.S. Survivor fame, who thinks he's besties with all of them, got one of the South Africa contestants so he could justify his stupid podium idol move.

I'm bumping this up, because it may have a few people discussed in the upcoming Sequester edition. Also, Matt and Dave, international Survivor's best melodrama. I recommend watching the latest season of Survivor New Zealand so everyone can see for themselves (well, I think it's good!) In order for the whole Matt and Dave experience, you must also watch the jury villa scenes, as they are integral to the plot. I mean, Matt and Dave aren't on Sequester, but I think we should remember them at all times because of how much of a freaking trainwreck that storyline was.

Adam is close with Nick and Anneliese from Survivor AU (he met them both in Australia, and Anneliese came to LA and went to Cabo with Adam, Jay and Angelina back in summer 2018, true story). This cast has his fingerprints all over it. Lisa is the badass who won the latest edition of Survivor New Zealand. A super-fan who I believe was a librarian, and played the meek middle-aged woman role to a T. A stealth strategist who had good relationships with everyone and came to her finale wearing the Rob Has a Podcast bell shirt. LOVE her. Dylan was also on Survivor New Zealand and played the actual nerdy super-fan (who if I remember correctly, was sort of loathed by everyone). Hmm, I'm sensing a pattern here. (oh god, Matt and Dave! Where are they now? The biggest international Survivor scandal nobody cared about except for me. And that includes Anneliese's brother playing Survivor the year after her and not telling producers they were related. ::raises nachos in Benji's honor:: )

Swaggy was useless. He brought no drama, except that he's Bailey-adjacent, he wasn't a great individual competitor, it was clear he was there because Bayleigh (who brings drama and is a decent competitor) wanted him there. But she seems quite capable of starting drama herself (see: the bloody mouth incident) without Swaggy. And TJ's goodbye was brutal. "Hopefully, we'll see you in the future." Translation: "Don't wait by your phone."

Ha, the entire rookie class of Challenge 35, back on Big Brother. Throw Fessy in there! And Jennifer from Amazing Race (those shows have certainly cross-pollinated). And while we're at it, bring Da'Vonne back, too! Go watch Millennials vs Gen X right now! Right now. @IndyMischa can vouch for me, it's an amazing season and Jay has a fantastic character arc and I'm getting all emotional again, argh. Can't wait to find out who's actually on Big Brother 22!

I renew my objection that this is a "best recipe" challenge. It's like the oldschool Dancing with the Stars final, where the best pro choreographer generally won, as long as their star could follow the steps set out for them. I did notice Anne seemed to cater her menu to what she thought Wells could excel at versus Tyler, who just planned the meal he wanted. Anne's dominance reminds me of the days the Hough twins dominated on Dancing with the Stars -- no matter what celebrity partner they had, they were the superior choreographers and could figure out how to highlight their partner's strengths. In this case, Anne is the better menu planner. But if you wanted to show how much these "celebrities" have progressed, they should plan their own menus. The show is similar to a Masterchef challenge (your own spin on what you've just learned) for three-quarters of its run, but the final morphs into a garden variety episode of Hell's Kitchen (cook my menu to my standards!) and I don't get that at all.

And how can they do Big Brother when they're contracted with The Challenge? I thought BB20 was the birth of the stringent two-year non-compete clause. Because all three are literally on The Challenge. As in, tomorrow. Do MTV contracts expire the second the show finishes airing? Or can CBS overrule them? I've never seen people go back and forth from CBS to MTV that quickly, even though they're ostensibly owned by the same company. (Also: be right back, going to visit my prayer circle of one to get Jay back on Survivor).

Adam Klein sends his regards.

My elementary school-aged children thought this was the funniest game show either of them had ever seen. So, that explains the target audience.

Boy, this puts editors in a conundrum. I understood this was by design and also a good lesson to any future Challenge contestants who say racist things on social media, but this episode barely hung together. Rogan, who gets two seconds of screen time, gets some climactic "yes, throw her in" vote that means absolutely nothing other than the fact we don't like Dee. Jenny had maybe one throwaway confessional about "I want to throw Dee in," which we had to assume was related to their prior drama. We have no idea how Bananas and Josh got involved. Meanwhile, Mattie, she of the "Ashley is a slut" burn, gets the Brave Little Toaster edit ... and loses. To a faceless competitor with no confessionals who maybe almost suffocates, but maybe not. My question is since Dee was front and center with the drama, is this how the rest of the season is going to be edited? Because she's still there and Rogan and Jenny are still there, and I can assume she was all "no worries, guys!" afterwards, but you have to think this is going to come back up again at some point. I guess they'll ignore it. I hope Dee goes home soon, otherwise this is going to be a very confusing rest of the season. As I said, I don't envy the editors having to re-cut it.

So, how's this going to shake out? I've only seen a few of these, but I've never seen a Worst Cooks edition where Anne Burrell's contestant doesn't win. Yet, the only Celebrity Worst Cooks I ever saw was the one with Tonya Harding, so ostensibly the most "famous" person won. In this case, two reality competition(ish) stars at the end is like scraping the bottom of the barrel's bottom of the barrel. I'd never heard of Wes Adams before this, but I'd heard of Johnny Bananas, due to my reality TV viewing habits. So, I might be biased in saying Johnny Bananas is more "famous?" Still, Anne Burrell seems to hate him, and that seems like it plays a role. Who's going to triumph, long-time viewers: Johnny Bananas' "celebrity" or Anne Burrell and "who the eff is Wes Adams?"

Granted, I wasn't a huge fan of this back in the day, but the ending of round two was one of the best I've seen so far. All the back and forth, passing spins and ending on a whammy! The bonus round, however ...

Adding my voice to the chorus of "what was up with the editing?" Until we got to Judges Table, I was under the impression Stephanie's radicchio was so bitter, it brought down the dish. You even had a shot of Padma saying, "what is that?" after she took a bite. They all said the radicchio was bitter and bad-tasting, then suddenly at Judges Table, it's, "if I had to eat one dish again, it'd be Stephanie's." Meanwhile, you had the Italian chefs saying there was a lot of spices, and the truffle got lost in Kevin's dish, but they'd eat the meatball and the onions separately from the truffle (I remember them numbering the components they liked, independent of the truffle). Then suddenly at Judges Table, it was "the dish was really disjointed and a bad use of truffle" and it's between him and Gregory to go home. I never would've guessed in a million years Stephanie was not in the bottom 2 based on what the Italian chefs said when they were eating her food. I thought Kevin had the not-great-but-safe dish. Until Judges Table flipped it on its head.

Forgot my other favorite part of the episode, highlighting most contestants' lack of ... shall we say, intellectual prowess? TJ: You get $5,000. Wes: Apiece? Contestants: ::crickets:: ?????? TJ: Each. Contestants: WOOOOOO!!!!!

That elimination got me so hard, I don't know why. Maybe it was 90s nostalgia (why, Hootie, why?), maybe it was that these two players do have more years on them and as Wes said, "maturity," compared to the young(er) bucks. Realizing you probably have more in common with your greatest rival, and could've spent all those years being friends -- even if it was just a stupid made-for-TV moment .... in that moment, I believed it. You could just see the years, the history between them. It's why I've always loved reality TV: because the strategy and competitions are fun, but the personal connections that form when people are under stress can be so compelling. The history these people have with each other is like another subplot of this show. It was one of my favorite reality TV moments this year, not because of the outcome, but because the players sold what it meant, and I bought it. And on a show like this, with the fighting and the drama and the hook-ups, that seems rare. As an elimination it was kind of meh. But it did live up to the hype.

Had to catch this one on On-Demand, but it was worth it. I liked Emily, because she didn't play odds. She just seemed to bet on herself every time. And when she got whammies, she recovered. Maybe it's too much time in quarantine, but I found myself tearing up when she said something like, "I'm a Yinzer and we never quit." At the same time, I was fascinated by her marriage. Her husband seemed sweetly simple, not really caring about the prizes. She seems like the driving force there. And all the prizes were to be geared toward her and her family. The fact that she saw people driving around and LA in Teslas and appeared to want one based off of that is ... interesting. I hope she's happy with her life-changing money, especially as it doesn't come with an LA life.

First Survivor, then Top Chef, now Family Feud with the oldschoolers vs newschoolers. And as I have every time, I've been rooting for the OGs. It was cool to see them all together again. This was a highly entertaining hour, from "sleep suit" to "Alex Trebek" to "That's what I said! And then he said that [expletive] about the kids." And the Fab 10 energy, aww. Really enjoyed this one.

That was a near-perfect use of lifelines by Lauren Lapkus. Her husband knew the science question, Jimmy Kimmel knew the music question and her dad knew the history question (and she got a question herself without using any lifelines). I ended up really enjoying her (and her husband counting up the presidents on his fingers in the background was cute). This has completely reinforced the idea we don't need studio audiences for reality show tapings. I haven't missed it at all, the crew clapping is all the audience I need.

Three newschoolers, two oldschoolers in the final 5 is at least better than Survivor. Not that I expected Malarkey to make it to the finale, but still. I can't help it, I'm Team Oldschoolers, although I have come to really enjoy Melissa and Gregory (Stephanie is on borrowed time for me). The show going to Italy is bittersweet, especially knowing how hard that country got hit with COVID-19. I don't know why seeing LA is an escape, but going to Italy isn't. Maybe it's the whole getting on a plane and flying across the ocean that's become near impossible now.