Reality TV Buzz

Gillian Larson, a retired nurse from California, was the second person voted off of Survivor Gabon during the season premiere on CBS. Gillian has been a huge fan of the show since the beginning and has tried out for Survivor fifteen times.

Although she is 61 years old, Gillian is extremely active and enjoys scuba diving, hiking and swimming and felt she would be a great fit for Survivor.

She says playing Surivor is much different than watching the game at home on the sofa. Things seemed much easier ‘watching.’ She feels she will be yelling at herself for many moves she made in the game and expects her family to do the same. She truly feels that most people will not recognize her when they see her on the show itself as she didn’t feel things worked out as she wanted them too. She had a game set and other things interfered. She did not enjoy being part of the Fang tribe and felt that there was no connection within the tribe at all. There was too much talking going on and a very strong lack of interest in what was going on around them regarding the game.

She says that the cheering and enthusiasm was part of her and part of her game. She usually does well with most people but found that no one on her tribe was connecting with her ‘cheerleading.’ She said she studied the Survivor game through the years and felt she could play it well. She appreciates the honor of being chosen to actually have had the chance to play her game out even though it didn’t go as planned.

Dancing with the Stars premiered this week and it was one of the most talked about premieres in reality tv mostly because of Chloris Leachman. At 82, Chloris is the oldest contestant on Dancing with the Stars this season and while dancing is not what she is good at–she keeps the live show on it’s toes. Tom Bergeron was on The View last week and said that he was worried somewhat about what to expect with Chloris during her judging because you ‘never’ know what to expect with Chloris. He was right! She kept us wondering every second what she would do next. Because of that, Chloris was not eliminated from the show this week. She will be back to keep things hopping during the next show.

The first couple eliminated from Dancing with the Stars was Jeffery Ross, a comedian. His partner, Edyta, was a fan favorite but that wasn’t enough to keep him in the competition. He didn’t seem to happy to be the first one leaving. Many times the first contestant to leave will show extreme relief because they truly did not want to be there to compete. Jeffery seemed genuinely disappointed.

Even more disappointed was Ted McGinley, who was the second person to be eliminated. Along with his partner, Inna, who was new to the show as a professional dancer. He probably would have done better had he been partnered with Edyta.

Stay tuned to see who will be eliminated next from Dancing with the Stars! Better yet, stay tuned to see what Chloris Leachman’s next trick is to stay in the competition.

Dancing with the Stars premiered it’s seventh season tonight on ABC and it was entertaining, but not only because of the dancing. This year’s contestants bring quite a variety of entertainment to the dance floor and to the judging panel.

The thirteen DWTS contestants and their dancing partners this season are:

Oldest competitor Cloris Leachman–partner: Corky Ballas
Master chef Rocco DiSpirito—partner: Karina Smirnoff
Actor Ted McGinley—-partner: Inna Brayer
TV personality Brooke Burke–partner:Derek Hough
Comedian Jeffrey Ross—-partner: Edyta Sliwinska
Reality star Kim Kardashian–partner:Mark Ballas
NFL champ Warren Sapp  —partner:Kym Johnson
All My Children’s Susan Lucci —Partner: Tony Dovolani
Olympic gold medalist volleyball player, Misty May-Treanor—partner: Maksim Chmerkovskiy
Singer Lance Bass—-partner: Lacey Schwimmer (from SYTYCD)
Olympian sprinter Maurice Greene–partner:Cheryl Burke
Hannah Montana star and youngest competitor Cody Linley—partner:Julianne Hough
Singer Toni Braxton–partner: Alec Mazo

Tonight’s stand out performers were Toni Braxton, Brooke Burke and Lance Bass. The obvious weakest dancer tonight was Jeff Ross, who is paired with Edyta, a fan favorite. Chloris Leachman was a riot during the judging and kept Tom Bergeron, the host, on his toes. I agreed with the judges for the most part, however, Lance and Lacey would have scored above Toni and Alec if I had been judging. (but I’m not a judge!) Misty May-Treanor also looks like she’ll do very well in this competition. I’m sure we’ll see a few gold medal performances from her as the show progresses.

For now, the judges scores have Brooke and Derek in the lead, with Jefferey and Kym lagging behind. The complete scores are as follow:

Brooke & Derek: 23 points
Toni & Alec: 22 points
Lance & Lacey: 21 points
Misty & Maks: 21 points
Warren & Kym: 21 points
Kim & Mark: 19 points
Cody & Julianne: 18 points
Ted & Inna: 18 points
Maurice & Cheryl: 18 points
Cloris & Corky: 16 points
Susan & Tony: 15 points
Rocco & Karina: 14 points
Jeffrey & Edyta: 12 points

One couple will be eliminated tomorrow night and another on Wednesday night. Dancing with the Stars airs on ABC.

Big Brother 10 winner, Dan joins Gretchen on Housecalls. Memphis is also on the couch for the interview. They talk about emotions of the game and how the emotions can sometimes be the downfall of a houseguest. One caller thanks Brian and Steven for shining the light on the ‘dark side’ of some of the houseguests. Other questions included:

How would Memphis teach people to play the big brother game? He says ‘play everything cool and don’t take anything personally.’ Don’t go into the house to make friends, he says.

Dan asks Memphis how he feels about Michelle but he doesn’t answer. He says at one time they were in an alliance and he thought he could trust her. He realized when she reacted to winning the Hawaii trip that she was too emotional and that he needed to distance himself from her.

They talk about a new line of clothing they intend to start called Renegade Wear. (good plug guys)

 Another caller asks if April is as crazy as she seems. Dan says no but Memphis laughs and says yes.

Dan talks about studying past seasons of Big Brother, especially “Chill Town” and says that he based his game quite a bit on the way Dr. Will and Boogie played the game. Memphis says he did not base his game on anyone’s previous play. Dan and Memphis point out that Chill Town didn’t make it to the final two but the Renegades did.

Was Memphis surprised at the vote? He wasn’t surprised about Dan winning, but he was surprised he didn’t get a vote at all. The one vote that he said he wanted was Jerry’s and it was the only one he was upset about. He said he gave Jerry a chance to win the game and he lost a friend (Keesha) over that decision but that he feels he should have voted for him for those reasons. Dan says Memphis probably didn’t get Jerry’s vote because Jerry offered him some shirts and he refused to take them. Memphis says he didn’t want to take ‘the old man’s’ clothes.

Lots of congratulations to the final two houseguests during this show.