I got the press release from CBS earlier this morning. The upcoming season will feature home shopping channel hosts, Ivy League acapella singers, beach volleyball partners, and a birth mother / daughter who were recently reunited after the mother gave her newborn daughter up for adoption over 20 years ago. And of course there will be the usual pairings of newly dating, best friends, etc.
Amazing Race 17 will debut Sunday, September 26th with a 90-minute episode starting at 8:30pm.
This season’s cast of racers will travel over 32,000 miles, covering four continents and 30 cities, with first-time visits to Bangladesh, Ghana and the Arctic Circle. Additionally, for the first time in the history of the Race, the team to finish in first place during the premiere episode will be awarded a surprise, game-changing advantage.
The big entertainment scandal this week has been that the UK version of The X Factor (a show similar to American Idol) used Auto-Tune to manipulate the audio of one of the contestants on a performance show.
It’s kind of obvious Auto-Tune was used when watching Gamu’s aired performance…
The producers of The X Factor UK have admitted they did use sound filters to remove excess background noise, but stopped short of saying it was Auto-Tune. And it wasn’t just for this one contestant – others were manipulated as well.
They also went on to say that the process was done in editing after the show was taped to give the aired version of the show a better sound.
Even knowing there’s something extra being used there, it’s still obvious that Gamu is talented. Unfortunately, the producers must have decided her natural talent wasn’t good enough. That’s not fair to her or the other contestants, especially when people watching from home call in to vote for their favorites later in the season.
Gamu will continue on with the show. Her next performance will show off her real talent without anything extra being used.
The Hollywood Reporter has an article about Simon Cowell’s banning of Auto-Tune. He’s taking this very seriously and is making sure the US media knows it as his X Factor show (minus the manipulation) will be coming to Fox next fall.
Wondering about the US American Idol now? Well producers of that show responded to all this by telling the Associated Press they’ve never used Auto-Tune and never will.
In other reality show news, there was confusion last night on Big Brother when an evicted houseguest said a word that at first sounded inappropriate for network TV. Much like live radio, this is why live TV is so much fun – when disaster strikes (or in this case almost strikes). See the video of this and find out the definition of what turned out to be an okay word here.
You know the show – the short green-screen weird-looking series with a guy sitting on one of Saturn’s rings explaining the night sky.
I remember watching it growing up. It used to air just before the PBS station in Rochester would sign off for the night. And it’s continued to air all these years. This Labor Day Weekend’s episode will be the last though.
The show’s host, Jack Horkheimer, was the executive director of a Miami, FL planetarium. He passed away Friday of a respiratory ailment at the age of 72.
Star Gazer was geared to the general public and amateur astronomers and focused on things in the night sky you could see with your naked eye. You might remember it as Star Hustler, but the name was changed to Star Gazer when the show went online (done to avoid confusion with a magazine that has a very different theme).
Here’s the final episode of his series (which was produced for this coming Labor Day weekend)…
Visit Jack’s Horkheimer’s website for more video from the series (including a few from the 70’s & 80’s), the show scripts, Mars images, and more. And as Jack always said, keep looking up…
The original evil Visitor boss from the 80’s version of “V” will be featured as a recurring guest star in the upcoming season two of the revival.
Jane Badler played Diana in the original series. In the new series, she’ll be the mother of Anna (who’s now the Queen of the Visitors). Her character’s name will be Diana, although that’s just a nod to the original series. It wouldn’t make sense for her to play her original character since this series is a reboot and not a continuation of the 80’s version.
Season two of “V” begins in November on ABC. For now, here’s some awesome clips of Diana being super evil in the original series (Diana shows up 15 seconds into the first clip)…
Reality shows get slammed sometimes because of the worthless dredges of life they dig up and feature. “The Real Housewives…” series on Bravo is one of those shows that spotlights some of the worst the human race has to offer.
And the worst of the worst would have to be Michaele Salahi, featured in The Real Housewives Of D.C. – you might also remember her from when she and her husband made worldwide headlines when they supposedly crashed a White House dinner last fall.
Now she’s made headlines again. This time she’s accusing Whoopi Goldberg of assaulting her on yesterday’s episode of The View.
Unfortunately for her, it’s partially on tape. You can see the “assault” in the video below…
Obviously, Michaele is an attention-hungry loser for trying to play that up as assault. Her motives become a lot clearer when you learn that her season of “The Real Housewives…” debuts tonight.
Discovery Channel is going berserk with their advertising of Shark Week this year.
It’s worked on me though. And I’m sure they’ll be happy to know that in addition to watching the shark-themed programs, I’ve also been watching season two of The Colony on Discovery. Once again, a worldwide disaster is simulated and volunteers must attempt to exist despite all the odds against them.
It’s not a typical reality show like Big Brother or Survivor as there’s no cash prize for lasting – it’s more of an educational experiment that’s surprisingly entertaining to watch too. That’s on Tuesdays at 10pm.
But back to the sharks – here’s an amazing video of a guy putting a shark in a trance! Not something I’d ever even consider trying…
Finally, a sequel to one of the biggest movies of all time.
This one won’t be breaking any box office records though – it’s going straight to DVD on August 24th.
The preview doesn’t look bad. It kind of looks like one of those SyFy Channel movies..
I also talked on-air about the Survivor twist for season 21. Learn all about the twist here (I’m trying to avoid spoiling it for people who don’t want to know). You’ll also find details there on the upcoming season of Undercover Boss.
Last week, I went down to Pigeon Forge, TN with family and friends.
I’m not the best at taking video as I’m not a fan of carrying things around with me. So the camera never made it into Dollywood during any of the three days I was there.
But I did get video of the Seven Springs, PA alpine slide on the way down, the New River Gorge Bridge, a little from the Smoky Mountains National Park, and an apparently popular Pigeon Forge activity. Here’s my vacation in 90 seconds…
As for Dollywood, I love that park. The rides are always fun (especially Thunderhead & Mystery Mine). And the shows are incredible (coming from me who usually only wants to be on the rides or eating, this is a very big compliment).
As usual, Dreamland Drive-In was my favorite. The acting & singing in it is Hollywood-quality. If some of these actors tried out for American Idol, they would definitely win.
I’m not really a fan of 50’s & 60’s music, but this show makes me like the songs. There’s two in particular I absolutely love and they’re both back to back in part four of the video – Pony Time followed by Mashed Potatoes at the 0:53 mark.
Here’s the first few minutes of Dreamland Drive-In…
Sha-Kon-O-Hey was also excellent. The acrobatics, acting, and the set in this one was also impressive. Again, here’s the first few minutes…
In addition to Dollywood, there’s all the Pigeon Forge, Sevierville, and Gatlinburg attractions. Go-kart tracks, random amusement park rides, awesome diners, indoor skydiving, the Zorb, lots of outlet stores, and tons more. And that’s not even mentioning the surrounding areas including the Smoky Mountains National Park.
I’ll probably head back in November for the annual Christmas festival. The entire town (along with all of Dollywood) will be covered with Christmas lights – it looks amazing. So now I’m already looking forward to summer ending. Well, kind of – it’s more like I’m already set for my next vacation.
The destination isn’t always the highlight of a road trip. Sometimes it’s getting there that’s the best part.
There’s the unexpected places you stop at along the way and the roads themselves.
Favorite Road is a website for people who love road trips. And it’s completely free. If you’ve got a favorite road, contribute here. Here’s some recent entries…
I talked on-air with Nancy Griffin & Brian Clark from favoriteroad.com today. Here’s the full interview (including portions that didn’t air on Star 102.5).
And here’s one of my favorite roads. Click on the picture for more details about it…
Here’s a screencap from Thursday’s episode. Could this be the saboteur?
That’s either Andrew or Brendon I think. But I’m not sure. I really can’t tell a lot of the guys apart yet – they’re all like clones of each other (the casting for the show tends to rely on a certain look I guess).
But I’m leaning towards thinking it’s Brendon if this clip can be believed. As we all know though, the producers of reality shows have led us off course before. It’s possible the lock was put on the door shortly before the blackout and the cast just didn’t notice.
We’ll find out who the saboteur is for sure on Thursday’s episode.
As usual, Starry Night In The Garden was an amazing night of concerts. And despite the look of the sky, the night ended up being perfect just as Kevin O’Connell said it would be.
This year, I got to interview Alex Band and Collective Soul’s Ed Roland and Joel Kosche.
Here’s the links to the interviews I did (along with links to buy their latest CDs)…
I was at my desk working on some music stuff when I felt the floor shake – and continue to shake for about 10 seconds. I figured it was a minor tremor, so I left the office and sure enough, everyone was out in the hall wondering the same thing.
Here’s some of the links for the 5.5 earthquake which happened about 30 miles from Ottawa, Ontario…
