So You Think You Can Dance Canada at the movies

(Romina D'Ugo, centre, Miles Faber and Natalli Reznik, left, in Turn the Beat Around in a CTV photo.)

If you missed it the first time around, CTV is rerunning Turn the Beat Around on Saturday night. The movie stars So You Think You Can Dance Canada alumna Romina D'Ugo and was choreographed by SYTYCDC judge Tre Armstrong. 

Other familiar faces include Season 1 top four finalists Natalli Reznik and Miles Faber, plus top 20 members Tamina Pollack-Paris, Caroline Torti and Bre Wong.

The movie, which was shot in Toronto, is about a struggling young dancer in L.A. who teams up with a club impresario to bring back disco.

It airs New Year's Day at 8 p.m.

Here's a story I wrote back in May when I interviewed Romina.

A So You Think You Can Dance Canada New Year's

We have to wait till next summer for Season 4 of one of my favourite reality shows, but I know where you can get an eyeful of judge and choreographer Blake McGrath on New Year's Eve.

Blake, who as you probably know has launched a singing career, is the first act scheduled to take the stage as part of Citytv's New Year's Bash at Nathan Phillips Square. You can head down there to catch him live or watch the show on Citytv beginning at 10 p.m.

Blake will perform his new single, "Stage Fright," during the set. Plus, there'll be some familiar faces onstage with him, including Season 2 alumni Taylor James and Danny Lawn, and Season 3 runner-up Amanda Cleghorn.

And if that's not enough to entice you SYTYCDC fans, the night's closing act, featuring Shawn Desman and Danny Fernandes, was choreographed by SYTYCDC judge and hip-hop choreographer extraordinaire Luther Brown.

Post-show, Blake will be performing in Hamilton at Club LA with JDiggz, or so his Twitter tells me.

Here's a little warmer upper: Blake's video of his single "Relax," which was art directed by choreographer and SYTYCDC guest judge Mia Michaels. (The video's a tad on the suggestive side; consider yourself warned.)

 

Russell and Justin, Bristol and Alex, Jake and Vienna: My reality TV top 10

My blog vacation is over, 2010 is nearly over, so it seemed a fitting time to compile my reality TV top 10: moments that made me smile or groan or go "huh?" on the reality shows I followed this year. I've compiled them in chronological order (with videos for each entry where available):

April 1: Russell Hantz engineers the ouster of Boston Rob Mariano on Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains. It was a big moment in a wildly entertaining season and a disappointing one as the rivalry between two of the game's best players came to an end.  (Below is video of the tribal council at which Rob got ousted.)

 

April 5: Reality TV mom of eight Kate Gosselin performs the unforgettable "Paparazzi" routine on Dancing With the Stars. The awfulness of the performance is emphasized later that week when talk show host Jimmy Fallon does a hilarious and bang-on impersonation of Kate.

April 15: JT Thomas gives his hidden immunity idol to Russell on Heroes vs. Villains, guaranteeing himself a place in the dumb Survivor moves hall of fame and solidifying Russell's reputation as one of the greatest villains the game has ever seen. Predictably, JT was voted off the following week in another exciting episode in Survivor's best season ever, when Parvati Shallow used JT's surrendered idol and another she'd hidden from ally Russell to safeguard eventual winner Sandra Diaz-Twine and rival Jerri Manthey. 

May 26: Simon Cowell leaves American Idol. Hard as it was then (and still may be for some) to imagine Idol without its sharpest and toughest judge, the British billionaire did what he'd promised back in January and took his leave of the talent show that he seemed inextricably linked with. His departure dominated the finale of a lacklustre season. (Video of part of Simon's farewell, including a serenade by past winners, is below.)

 

June 28: Toronto's Justin "Rated R" Rego gets the boot on The Bachelorette. It was high drama when Ali Fedotowsky received a phone call from a woman who claimed to have been dating Justin while he pursued Ali on the show and Ali marched to the bachelors' hotel suite to confront him. Justin walked off the program as taped voice mails of his calls to his ex-girlfriend played on the air. He later insisted he had not been dating the girl, Jessica Spillas, when he began taping the show and that ABC had set him up to make him out as a villain in the episode.

July 5: Former Bachelor Jake Pavelka and ex-fiancee Vienna Girardi are interviewed together on The Bachelorette. For Vienna haters - and there were plenty after Jake chose her over Tenley Molzahn on his season of the series - news of the breakup was a bit of "I told you so." But any schadenfreude was extinguished quickly by the spectacle of a weeping Vienna sparring verbally with Jake, who came off looking like a cold-hearted, controlling bully. (Video of the interview is below.)

 

July 8: It was a sad day for So You Think You Can Dance fans when Canada's Alex Wong had to leave the show after lacerating his Achilles tendon while rehearsing a Bollywood routine. The brilliant ballet dancer was on track for top three if not to win the whole thing, particularly after performing a stunning hip-hop routine the week before with Twitch Boss. Executive producer Nigel Lythgoe left it open for Alex to rejoin SYTYCD the following season. Guess we'll have to wait, with fingers crossed, to see if Alex takes him up on the offer in 2011. (You can watch the hip-hop routine here.)

Oct. 24: Denys Drozdyuk wins So You Think You Can Dance Canada. From the moment the Toronto ballroom dancer took the stage in his Montreal audition it was obvious he had talent galore and an "it" factor that made him extremely watchable. Denys's well-deserved victory was the icing on a delicious season of the show. (Below is video of Denys's audition plus my interview with him after his win.)

 

 

Nov. 16: Bristol Palin beats Brandy for a spot in the Dancing With the Stars finals. Was it a shocker? You betcha. Brandy was the better dancer, but the daughter of Republican politician Sarah Palin was the one who went to the finale. Did Tea Party supporters really stack the vote or was it just viewer admiration for a young woman with no performance background who danced better each week? Whatever the answer, Bristol was no match in the end for sentimental favourite and Dirty Dancing star Jennifer Grey. (Below is video of Bristol and partner Mark Ballas doing the tango.)

 

Nov. 22: Valeri Bure and Ekaterina Gordeeva win Battle of the Blades. The Russians not only came, they conquered and so did Blades as the competition that pairs hockey players with figure skaters had its most entertaining season yet. Val's metamorphosis from awkward and fearful in boot camp to a bona fide pairs skater was thrilling to watch, but he wasn't the only one who brought his A game to the show. Patrice Brisebois and Todd Warriner were also worthy finalists, but all of the competitors raised the skill level substantially from Season 1. Season 3, if it comes, should be awesome. (Below is video of Val and Katia on the finale, as well as being interviewed by the press after their win.)

 

 

And that's my Top 10. I'd love to hear what you think I left out. 

And I'll add that there are a couple of shows I hope we saw the last of in 2010: Skating With the Stars, which didn't have any real stars to speak of, plus some pretty pedestrian skating; and Bachelor Pad, which got boring and predictable way too fast despite the promises of conflict and titillation.

Don't forget, if you want to follow me on Twitter, go to twitter.com/realityeo.

Reality Check says Merry Christmas!

And Happy Hanukkah and Kwanzaa and whatever else you celebrate.

I'm taking a little break until next Tuesday, the first day of which will be spent finishing my Christmas shopping. 

Here are a couple of little reality news tidbits before I hit the stores (note, I did not say malls, shudder).

Pauly D is getting his own Jersey Shore spinoff. Chris Linn, MTV's programming VP, says viewers are "curious about his life away from the shore and we look forward to exploring new possibilities around that."

Okay, this viewer isn't curious really, but we'll see who else is. The next season of Jersey Shore starts Jan. 6.

Also, I missed this when Blake announced it, but are you excited that Lauren Froderman, the winner of Season 7 of So You Think You Can Dance, is going to be in Blake McGrath's "Stage Fright" video? I am.

And one final thing, I've unlinked my blog from my old realyeo account on Twitter, which I no longer had access to, and linked it to the new one, www.twitter.com/realityeo, so if you were used to seeing my posts pop up on Twitter, you're going to have to switch to the new account. Sorry 'bout that.

See you Dec. 28!

(The photo of Pauly D is by Angela Weiss for Getty Images.)

 

Survivor: Nicaragua - Sash, Chase and Holly talk Jane and more

Here's a tip if anyone's planning a get-together for the castaways of Survivor's 21st season: put Sash and Jane at separate tables, and maybe Jane and Holly, too.

Sash told me this week he hopes never to see Jane Bright again. 

"Jane is just a very spiteful person," said Matthew Lenahan, a.k.a. Sash, a 30-year-old real estate broker from New York.

Jane, a dog trainer from Jackson Springs, N.C., had a bit of a Susan Hawk moment at the final tribal council, when she called Sash a "New York City river rat" who could crawl back into the black hole he came from.

"I saw just a really ugly side of Jane out there, unfortunately," said Sash. "I don't think it was her game face. I think it really is who she is at her core. I don't like to associate myself with people like that. She just had a very hard time separating the game from reality.

"Unfortunately, I don't think she has very many interesting, exciting things to look forward to in life and this was really the pinnacle. When I took her out of the game ... she knew that and she blamed me for leaving the game, which is true. I didn't want her around anymore and I thought she was a threat at the end, which really should have been a compliment, but she holds a grudge and there's nothing I can do about that.

"I hope I never see Jane again."

As for the rest of the castaways, Sash says they're great people whom he expects to stay in touch with for a very long time, even Dan Lembo, who called Sash a spineless liar and a phony at final tribal.

"He was bitter then, but he's since moved on, and he's a great guy and we've definitely reconciled," Sash said of Dan.

Sash readily admits it was he who pushed to oust Dan from the game. And he's pleased about that and everyone else he helped eliminate.

"I was 100 per cent responsible for every single person's departure systematically on the jury with the exception of the two quitters. Everyone knew that I was a major factor for their departure and they held me accountable, but in the end I really thought at least a few would respect the game enough to give their votes to me."

He even thought there'd be a three-way tie between him, Chase Rice and winner Jud "Fabio" Birza, expecting to get Marty's, Brenda's and Purple Kelly's votes, and maybe NaOnka's. But Sash didn't get any of the nine votes. 

Still, the professed super-fan of the game said, "I wouldn't change a single thing. If I could go back to Day 1, I would make the exact same moves at the exact same time ... If I was ever asked to go on the show again, I'd play the exact same way a second time."

Runner-up Chase, on the other hand, an aspiring country singer from Fairview, N.C. (now living in Nashville), said he'd do some things differently if he played again (not that he wants to).

He'd "lay low, maybe start an alliance and then stick with it, and just be me and not worry so much."

Chase, 24, said all the mind games "drove me real crazy. I was thinking way too much, way more than I should have about it ...

"It's a great experience, once in a lifetime ... but that type of game ain't for me. I'm used to being around people I trust, just hanging out and be friends with."

He now counts Dan among his friends, despite Dan's harsh comments at final tribal council ("Beauty fades, dumb is forever," he told Chase). Chase also says he's cool with Marty, who also accused Chase of being dumb.

"It's a game and I'm not going to take anything personally," said Chase. "I know who I am and say what you want."

And what of Jane, the friend he had a hand in voting off?

Chase said he felt worst about breaking their alliance "just because I knew how much she needed the money and deserved it. That was pretty rough."

He figures Jane's still a bit bitter, but she gave him her vote and "we still get along; we talk and we're fine."

That's more than Holly Hoffman, 44, can say. 

The swim coach from Eureka, S.D., said she tried to speak to Jane at Sunday's reunion and was rebuffed. 

"There's only one person still very bitter towards me and that's Jane. I did try sending her some emails. I tried speaking to her at the finale and she turned the other cheek. I guess resentment is like giving someone free rent in your head. I'm not gonna go there and I'm not gonna do that. I'm gonna move on. She's the one that has to deal with that, not me," Holly said.

The bitterness on Jane's part apparently started before they'd left Nicaragua.

When Holly reached Ponderosa, the camp where jury members stay, only two people greeted her: Alina and Brenda; everyone else ignored her. Holly says she was told that Jane and NaOnka "were telling lies about me, telling them things I was apparently saying that I was not."

It was hurtful, but Holly has focused on not holding on to any bitterness.

Heck, she even made up with Dan, who was furious with her for dumping his $1,600 alligator shoes in the ocean.

About that meltdown, Holly says she was taking her anger out on Dan after several days of no sleep, almost no food and almost constant rain.

"He was bragging about all his money and how he didn't have to apply for the show (producers approached him in a bar) and how he hated sand on his feet ... He was protecting his shoes, I always saw him hiding his shoes....

"There was no reason for me to steal his personal property."

Holly's still grateful to famous ex-football coach Jimmy Johnson for talking her out of quitting. She's grateful for coming fourth, and being the last woman and the last member of the older Espada tribe standing. And she's grateful for her family and little things she used to take for granted - like toilet paper.

"When I got home I stood and I opened the refrigerator, like, six times and my husband looked at me and said, 'What are you doing?' And I said, 'You have no clue how this feels.' Who would have thought we'd all take so many things for granted?"

(The photos of Sash, Chase and Holly are by Monty Brinton for CBS.)

Skating With the Stars: The winner is ... (spoiler alert)

Order was restored in the Skating With the Stars universe on Tuesday night.

Soap star Rebecca Budig claimed the golden skates over reality star Bethenny Frankel. This is not particularly rocking my world, but at least the better skater won. 

I didn't find either of the final performances mesmerizing, which is what judge Dick Button said he wanted to feel when Rebecca and Bethenny took to the ice.

Don't get me wrong. I can barely stand on skates, so I have lots of respect for any non-skater who takes on this kind of challenge, with all of the dangers inherent in whizzing around a sheet of ice on sharp blades. But part of what I do on this blog is give my opinion of the entertainment value of reality shows. As I watched Bethenny and Rebecca Tuesday, I couldn't help but compare their performances to what we saw on the Battle of the Blades finale. Clearly, Blades kicks SWTS's butt.

But let's get back to the show at hand. I'm thankful we only had to endure an hour, packed as it was with filler, including recaps of the past five weeks (we got to see Rebecca go to hospital with her wrist injury twice, as well as Brandon's barfing and Brooke Castile's cut finger), sort of embarrassing performances from Sean Young and Vince Neil, Brandon Mychal Smith waving from the audience as Vernon Kay told us that yes, he was still "under the weather" and would not perform (well, duh), and the judges doing their best to build up a sense of suspense and occasion.

I did feel badly for Jonny Moseley who, after getting undeservedly cut from the competition on Monday, fell while attempting a lift while skating one of his best routines with Brooke. "It's only a little stumble, it's only a little stumble," said Vernon.

At least we got to see the always entertaining Johnny Weir skate again, accompanied by pros Denis Petukhov, Jennifer Wester and Keauna McLaughlin in a routine choreographed by fellow judge Laurie Ann Gibson, but it would have been so much nicer to see him on a proper-sized sheet of ice.

And then it was time for the finalists to skate favourite routines from the season, as commentator Tanith Belbin reminded us that their marks would make up the final half of the night's total score and determine the winner.

Bethenny and Ethan Burgess chose to redo their first routine, skated to "Right Round," which earned them just 29 out of 60 that first week.

I didn't save the tape of that first show, so I couldn't compare the performances, but it seemed to me Bethenny was still doing as much walking on skates and standing around shaking body parts as actual skating. Yet you'd think she'd pulled off a quadruple axel the way the judges were gushing.

"Bethenny, you skated up tonight, you skated like you were a finalist," said Johnny. "It pushed you to be your best and I thank your fans so much for voting you into this final and letting me see you skate your best. That was really thrilling."

Added Dick: "More than anybody else, I think you've understood what this competition is all about, that it is not the Olympic Games but that it is about the fun and joy of skating that has entranced centuries of people over the years." (No danger of us mistaking it for that, Dick.) 

Laurie Ann Gibson actually gave Bethenny and Ethan a 10 for artistic impression, while Dick and Johnny doled out 9's. The technical scores were more modest: two 8's and a 7 from Johnny, for a total of 51 out of 60.

But Rebecca was not to be denied her childhood dream. She and Fred Palascak chose to redo their "Hot N Cold" routine, containing the lift that caused Rebecca's wrist injury. Kudos to her for acting like a real athlete and doing the lift again, pain be damned.

She also pulled off a couple of jumps, a platter lift and a bit more solo skating this time around, earning a standing ovation from the crowd and perfect 10's from the judges for both technical and artistic merit.

"You are a world class skater," said Laurie Ann

"Rebecca, you gave us so much soul tonight, you didn't rest on anything," said Johnny. "You gave us the hardest jump combination we've seen, a beautiful platter lift, the injured lift at the end. You were stunning."

Rebecca declared herself shocked right after she won, though I'm not sure why since her main competition, Jonny Moseley, was out of the running.

"I owe all of this to Fred, who is an unbelievable teacher," she added.

Bethenny had her say, too, calling the competition "a very, very challenging and very rewarding experience" and adding that "Rebecca totally deserved it. She should be a real ice skater."

I'm guessing Rebecca will likely stick to her day job.

The real question is whether Skating With the Stars will be back. The show had about 4.7 million viewers on Monday, up about a million from the previous week, but that's a far cry from the 20 million plus its sister show, Dancing With the Stars, draws.

Beyond the ratings, I can't imagine there's a lineup of celebrities clamouring to strap on blades for SWTS and we all know casts make or break this type of show. I found this Season 1 crew a ho-hum bunch and had pretty much abandoned the series until Brandon got ill, which got me watching again.

So farewell Skating With the Stars, we hardly knew you. Don't let the door hit your ass on the way out.

(The photo of Rebecca with the golden skates is by Adam Larkey for ABC.)

Survivor: Nicaragua - Fabio's exit interview (spoiler alert)

A conversation with Jud "Fabio" Birza, who at 21 became the youngest ever winner of Survivor on Sunday night, is punctuated, as you might expect, with exclamations of "dude." But it also becomes clear this is a young man with his head screwed on straight, to the peril of the other players on the reality show's 21st season. When I talked to Fabio Monday, he was operating on about a half hour of sleep and wondering how to tackle the 950 emails and 860 messages on his Facebook page, but he was thrilled about winning and being part of the Survivor experience. Here's an edited version of our talk:

Q: I read online that you only got about 25 minutes sleep last night. Is that true? 

A: Yeah, definitely, I told probably eight reporters that. It's kind of my disclaimer. We went over to Benry's bar after (the finale). We were all together, past Survivors, all our families were jamming. Some of the casting people were like, "You should really go home" and then my mom, everybody. I was in total social mode and then they made me go home at 2 and I still only slept from like 3:15 to 3:45.

Q: It's got to be pretty exciting obviously to win Survivor and to be the youngest person to do it.

A: Oh, I know and all this is such a new, I get to do all this stuff. It's so cool seeing everybody, you know, just realizing the weight, the gravity of what we all went and did, you know. Last night it was just cool to be in the room with all those live people cheering and it was like unreal.

Q: Let's talk a little bit about who you were on the show. Obviously you're a lot smarter than people gave you credit for.

A: Yeah it has to do with my speech patterns, the way I like to have fun and just get hurt or whatever, okay, just carelessness and also that combined with my age ... Like Shannon said, if it's a duck and it quacks ... people probably thought they had me figured out and then didn't even care to pay any closer attention, you know.

Q: That definitely worked to your advantage. You weren't really on anybody's radar as a threat until close to the end, right?

A: Yeah, definitely ... I think I was taking in more information about what was going on around me than other people because ... when everybody would go out and talk and do that, I knew who was talking where when. You can bend down and look through the trees and see a camera crew running and chasing somebody and then you gotta look around camp and see who's not there, and then you gotta see if you're coming back to camp after talking, if you split up with the person, you come back from different angles ... there's definitely a game within a game.

Q: You were taking it all in, paying attention, but I mean it still wouldn't have mattered if you hadn't of won those immunity challenges.

A: Yeah, I would have been done ... I've said this in a few interviews before I went down there, if it gets to the end of the game and people realize that everyone likes me, you know, on the jury or whatever, there's no way I'm gonna get close to it. And I told myself, save your energy, your willpower, your motivation, especially after that loved ones (challenge), I was definitely fired up. I was like there's no way that I'm gonna let one of these other people win.

Q. It worked, you pulled it out when you needed to and won. You got emotional at that final tribal council. Was that real or was that you just doing something for the jury?

A: No, it was real. It's definitely there. I'm a very emotional person, all opposite sides of the spectrum. I don't care about crying in public, but I also stand up for myself and I'll also make people laugh. So yeah, I definitely did let it fly. It was funny to watch it last night, the clip on the TV where Benry was wiping his eyes. We were all laughing about that. But yeah, whether people give me a million dollars because of it, but the more of your character people see the more comfortable they feel around you. Sash, I haven't really seen Sash express any emotion. Even when his mom came out he, like, said something and patted her on the back and, like, when he talks his voice is very monotone instead of really (inflected). Sometimes, like, mine goes super high.

Q: I have to ask you something about NaOnka because when I interviewed her a few weeks ago she told me that you and her were friends.

A: We are, dude, and I tried to tell her, everybody was, like, that NaOnka girl is crazy and I say yeah she is, you know, but there were numerous moments out there where NaOnka and I would be looking at each other and be smiling, and everything else went away. The same thing, I had my character, you know, I'm the little goofball that everybody overlooks, well, she's the crazy girl ... I think people recognized her as a serious player, but maybe she wanted to get taken to the final three.

Q: The more annoying somebody is the more you want to take them to the final three because you figure people won't vote for them.

A: And then we had the whole thing at the helicopter challenge where she came up and just started telling me everything about back at camp and who they want off, and I was like, dude, this is great. And I believe her, if she had not quit, her and my plan to really work together and start weeding people out and both of us staying under the radar could have worked. It could have been the ultimate duo like we were hoping.

Q: It definitely would have been something to see and probably would have shocked people, too. Tell me what you thought about what Alina said about you at the final tribal, when she was saying you're not a man, you're a boy.

A: Yeah, I was so pissed about that because I gave like a good minute answer after and it just showed a clip of me looking at her like, duh, you're right, you know. I'm not pissed ... I said I believe in a man as being open and vulnerable and I probably said some other stuff, but just, I showed respect for everybody out there most of the time. I gave my jacket to Purple Kelly for two weeks because all she had was a dress. I talked to Sash about tons of stuff. I played a good game.

Q: Well, yeah, you won.

A: I think I know myself quite well for being 21 and that's part of it. I believe that I'm a man. If I wasn't then I am now.

Q: Who was the person out there that you enjoyed playing with the most, if you can pick one?

A: I mean, dude, me and Marty, Ben and Dan had such a funny chemistry together. We were just goofing and listening to Dan tell his, me and Benry would just crack up like little kids, all these stories that Dan would tell us about New York and the '70s and what they'd get away with. It was so funny. And then Dan came out here a couple of weeks ago so we got to hang, too. And I think Benry and I definitely get along, we're going to be very good friends for a while, and I think we're also going to visit Marty up in San Francisco at some point.

Q: What about somebody you don't get along with or didn't get along with?

A: Kelly Bruno. I like her and stuff, just using her as an example because it is important in the game. There's a couple of things she did that weren't Survivor savvy. One of the things she said in the early tribal councils was, yeah, I can't trust anybody in this game. She said something like that. If you can't trust anybody in the game that' s not good. And then also, in certain situations, I don't know if she felt socially awkward, but once Alina left she just distanced herself and didn't make an effort to communicate, she just kind of separated herself ... she put herself to the outside almost. I don't think it even had to do with the leg, I think it was just a social game.

Q: The last thing I'll ask you ... when you came into the game did you realistically think you had a chance to win?

A: I did, I really did. Before I even went down there, when the casting lady hit me up, I was like, you know what, I could do that. I know what's in my toolbox. I know my natural talent, whatever the hell, the household I grew up in, the type of values. I know who I am and I'm very, very fortunate. I saw it as an opportunity and, yeah, the whole time I just had a sneaking feeling that I was going to do really well. Even when it came down to the end when Jeff was like, why don't you and Dan and Jane vote off Holly or something, and there was a part of me that was like, nope. I came in here planning to do something. I just knew that I couldn't deviate. It was instinct or whatever, being led by the spiritual force that I talked about, that everybody's like, woah, what?

(The photo of Fabio in Nicaragua is by Monty Brinton for CBS.)

Skating With the Stars: A shocking elimination (spoiler alert)

I should know by now that the silliest thing a blogger can do is make a prediction.

Last week, I said that the Skating With the Stars finale would come down to Rebecca Budig and Jonny Moseley and their partners and that Jonny, being an Olympian, would probably win.

Colour me surprised that Jonny got eliminated on Monday night: soap actress Rebecca is up against former Real Housewife Bethenny Frankel on Tuesday night. 

It seems beyond the realm of possibility that Bethenny can beat Rebecca, but after Monday's shocker, who the heck knows?

The love can only have come from Bethenny's fans, since she was still far behind Rebecca and Jonny in judges' score. The combined totals from two weeks of competition were 119 for Rebecca and Fred Palascak: 114 for Jonny and Brooke Castile; 88 for Bethenny and Ethan Burgess.

Those scores were combined with two weeks of viewer votes to determine the two finalists.

Bethenny had taken the judges' comments to heart (guess Johnny Weir's verbal bitch slap had some effect) and improved her basic skating. But a) I think Jonny was better and b) as a guy he had to shoulder a lot more of the load than the female skaters.

Sure, those overhead lifts require balance and core strength on the women's parts, but try being the guy doing the lifting.

During his freestyle routine, Jonny was able to pull off the lifts as well as what Tanith Belbin called a "proper pivot" during Brooke's death spiral. And he did it all with more finesse than in previous weeks after taking a ballet class as the judges suggested (although Dick Button did remind him not to stick out his tongue during death sprirals).

"Jonny, you are what this competition is all about, you improve every week," said Weir.

The score was a respectable 52 out of 60, which jumped to 60 total once Jonny and Brook's 8 out of 10 for the group routine was added in.

Bethenny, meanwhile, impressed the judges with her improvement but still earned just 43 out of 60, plus another 7 points for the group skate.

Rebecca was pretty much untouchable. She took the judges' advice about skating on her own more and turned in a really nice routine that included a flawless platter lift, a sit lift, a bounce spin and some jumps in which she used Fred's neck for leverage.

She and Fred earned the season's only 10s, one from Johnny for technique, two from Laurie Ann Gibson and Dick for artistic expression. Their overall score was 57 out of 60, which I believe is a season high, plus another 9 for the group skate, for a total of 66.

So it was no shock when Rebecca and Fred were declared safe first at the end of the show.

But Jonny eliminated? Host Vernon Kay wasn't kidding when he said earlier, "Anything could happen tonight."

The audience booed.

"Are you shocked? Are you surprised?" asked Vernon.

"I guess I'm a little surprised, yeah," said Jonny.

"The audience are in shock," said Vernon.

So what do you think? Is this like Bristol Palin bumping Brandy on Dancing With the Stars but without the political implications?

The Skating With the Stars finale airs Tuesday at 8 p.m. on A. The best part is we get to see Johnny Weir skate a routine choreographed by Laurie Ann. And we'll find out if underdog Bethenny can pull off another upset.

(The photo of Jonny and Brooke on last week's show is by Adam Larkey for ABC.)

 

 

 

 

 

Survivor: Nicaragua - The finale (spoiler alert)

Turns out the "dumb blond" was smarter than he looked.

Fabio, a.k.a. Jud Birza, 21, won the $1 million prize and title of "sole survivor" on Survivor: Nicaragua on Sunday night.  

And thank goodness he did. It would have been a pretty boring finale had Chase, Sash and Holly enacted their plan to oust Fabio and then Dan, and romped unopposed to the final three.

Fabio thwarted their scheme by winning the last two immunity challenges, leading to Dan's elimination. Then he proved he was more than just a pretty face by playing with his head instead of his heart and taking Chase and Sash to the final with him.

Chase did give him a run for the money, but I figured Fabio's win was pretty much a done deal when he broke down talking about his mom and jury members could be seen wiping away their own tears.

Here's how it went down. Day 37 unspooled with Fabio trying to find a way to convince Sash and Chase to take him to the final three, while they plotted with Holly to get rid of him if he didn't win immunity.

The challenge involved racing to a station to answer questions about Nicaragua, choosing between one of two replies, and then racing back to the start with bags of puzzle pieces; whether the puzzle pieces were real or fakes covered in black depended on how the questions were answered. It took three bags of them to solve the puzzle, which depicted the Survivor logo.

By rights, Fabio should have lost. He was way behind after answering a question incorrectly. But he ended up neck in neck with Sash and beat him with just seconds to spare.

Fabio got to work back at camp, trying to save his alliance-mate Dan, and to convince Sash and Chase that Holly was a bigger threat in the final three and should be voted out. He got nowhere with Chase, but Sash seemed to be coming around, noting that Holly was the only woman left in the game and might draw votes from the predominantly female jury.

Even host Jeff Probst seemed to be on board with the "Holly is a bigger threat" theme at tribal council.

Dan argued that because he already had money no one was going to vote to give him the million, but Holly would appear more sympathetic, coming from a small town of 1,100 in South Dakota.

Holly vehemently disagreed and said Dan should be judged on "has he been aggressive, has he gone out and talked to people, has he made the right alliances?"

"Holly, those attributes you mention, those all seem to make the argument to take him to the end. He hasn't done anything to earn the money, which is Dan's point exactly," Jeff said.

Fabio noted that Holly was a motherly figure respected by a lot of the women on the jury.

"That's a compliment to Holly, she's a pretty cool lady," he added.

"It's a compliment, but it's also a warning, Holly," said Jeff before calling the vote.

After all that, it was a mild surprise when Dan had his torch snuffed instead of Holly. Even Fabio voted against him.

Dan minced no words in his post-snuff confessional. 

"I switched my vote tonight to Chase to tell him how much I dislike the guy. I want nothing to do with you. Holly, you're a crook. You stole my shoes. They ought to cut your damn hands off. Sash, you're just like a whiny little girl, unh, unh, unh, and you're a liar. I wish them the worst and I can't wait to cast my vote."

Wow Dan, tell us how you really feel.

For the final four back at camp, it was business as usual: Holly, Chase and Sash plotting to get rid of Fabio, Fabio fretting about what would happen if he didn't win immunity again.

And then came the part of the show I hate the most: the cheesy paying tribute to fallen tribemates part. This time, the finalists had to gather shields with past castaways' names on them and then burn them while pretending to think fond thoughts of people whom, in some cases, they barely knew.

The only fun part of the exercise was when they got to the shields with NaOnka's and Purple Kelly's names and had nothing to say about them other than them being quitters.

"Eleven days left, to walk out of the game it's definitely disappointing," Holly said of NaOnka.

"Ah, another quitter," said Fabio, as they came upon Kelly's shield.

In her voiceover, Kelly at least sounded embarrassed about walking away. Na just bragged about how she always had a smile and was friendly (huh?), was the smartest player in the game (as if) and the craziest (yeah, I'll give you that).

It was on to the final immunity challenge, in which the players had to balance a sword vertically against a shield and use the other hand to stack coins with uneven surfaces on the handle.

Once again, Fabio looked like he was going to lose as his stack of coins tilted precariously. And then, just like that, Sash's stack fell and Fabio won his third straight immunity and his spot in the final three.

"I expect a very interesting afternoon back at camp," said Jeff with his talent for understatement.

I must say it did my heart good to see Sash and Chase scrambling to curry favour with Fabio.

"I feel like you're my best friend in the game," avowed Sash. "I guarantee, I promise you I've never said that to anyone else here. I'm serious."

"Cool," said a smirking Fabio, who didn't believe a word of it.

Sash also pointed out how many votes he suspected Chase would get from the jury, a conversation that Fabio duly reported to Chase.

"I'm pissed Sash went behind my back and tried to get me out," fumed Chase. "Sash will do whatever it takes to get himself further in the game ... he's definitely a snake."

Then he promptly ratted out Sash for wanting to vote off Fabio.

"Its like I turned on the light and all these little cockroaches are trying to scramble to get out of the way to throw somebody else under the bus, you know," said a gleeful Fabio.

Holly at least came clean and admitted that yes, she would have voted Fabio off if he hadn't won immunity.

"Sash and Chase lied to me the whole time, saying they would take me to the final three," said Fabio. "Holly is the only one who hasn't lied."

But honesty wasn't a good enough reason to take her to the final three, not after factoring in who would get the most jury votes.

Holly's post-torch-snuff confessional presented a stark contrast to Dan's. 

"On Day 5, I wanted to walk away from this game. Here I am making it through Day 38, so never give up. One thing I know is that my family and my true friends back home are going to be truly proud of me," she said, with nary of mention of wanting anyone's hands cut off.

Back at camp, on the final day, there was lots of fake bonhomie as the final three shared a breakfast of pancakes and bread and jam and juice together, but Sash didn't think his two "wingmen" deserved to be in the final three and Chase was hoping that telling Fabio he was going to win would make him overconfident.

I was happy to see one change at the final tribal. Each player got an opening statement and answered questions, but there was no closing statement.

Chase took the "it's been an honour to play the game with you" route and welcomed the jurors' questions, even the ones who were pissed with him, because "I will be completely honest and tell you exactly what happened."

Fabio concentrated on his immunity wins and the fact he hadn't backstabbed anyone, then got the jurors laughing by saying, "I just think I deserve a million dollars. I could have a lot of fun."

Sash tried the "it was only a game" gambit. "I want everyone to know that friendships I formed I take much more seriously than the actual alliances. Sorry if some of the alliances were broken. That was part of the game and I hope you respect me for that."

But it quickly became apparent that not everybody did. 

"Sash, all I have to say is somebody sure as hell raised you good to be a New York City river rat," spat Jane. "As far as I'm concerned, you can go back to the New York City gutters and crawl back into the black hole you came from."

"Sash, through the entire game, I was able to see through the fake smile, the uh huh uh huh laugh," said Benry.

"Sash, you're a liar, you're a phony, you said things to me that you never lived up to," said Dan. "I think you're spineless and I hate that smile and I think that if I were you I'd go to the doctor tomorrow to get that eye fixed" to stop the wink.

Dan also had bitter words for Chase: "A lot of people are bleeding here because of you. You backstabbed everybody, you backstabbed me, you backstabbed Jane, who was your right-hand person. You really let people down. You let me down tremendously. I'm gonna tell you something: beauty fades, dumb is forever."

Marty was also down on Chase, challenging him to pick a player other than Marty who should win the "dumber than a bag of hammers award." 

"It's a b.s. question because I can't pick you," said Chase.

Moving on, Marty said, "Sash, I think you're a cerebral player. Chase, that means smart." Marty also praised Fabio, saying, "Dude, I think you changed the most as a person and as a player."

Benry was another non-Chase fan, telling him dismissively, "Chase, I think I've heard everything I need to hear from you tonight." He congratulated Fabio for playing a "savage game."

Chase got some love from Jane, oddly enough, despite having thrown her under the bus. "Even though I'm totally pissed at you, you did make my time out here the funnest time I ever had," Jane told him before lobbing a softball question about what he would do with the million dollars.

Chase said he'd give $100,000 to a cancer charity started by his brother called Hunt the Cure and take care of his mom, which spurred Fabio to pipe up that he'd take care of his mom and dad, too.

Fabio's softball question came from, of all people, NaOnka (guess she wasn't kidding when she told me they were really friends).

"Fabio,  it's been a pleasure cussing you out," Na said, calling Fabio her "hippie friend."

She asked him whether seeing his mother at the previous reward challenge had been the gasoline Fabio needed to win three back-to-back immunity challenges.

"Yeah, man, it got me to the end, yeah," said Fabio tearfully. "That's just something inside you that comes out when it's necessary. I never felt like that before in my life." Benry and others wiped away tears.

But then along came Alina to kill the buzz. "Dude, I don't really want to give a million dollars to a boy, I want to give a million dollars to a man," she told Fabio.

Her questions had Fabio, Chase and Sash arguing with each other about who outwitted and outplayed who, whether Fabio had been as clueless as he seemed about some of the votes at tribal council and whether Chase was wishy washy.

"I like that this is two, maybe three men fighting for what they want," said Alina cheerfully.

Not surprisingly, Alina voted for Chase to win. "You impressed me tonight. You came in here like somebody I have never seen before. You had your game face on," she said after casting her vote.

Brenda also voted for Chase.

Marty said, "Chase is the dumbest player ever to play this game and Sash is a weasel. Fabio, man, I love you and I loved your game. I believed everything you said tonight. You were awesome."

Fabio also got NaOnka's and Dan's votes.

Is anybody surprised that Sash got not a single vote? In the end, Fabio took five votes to Chase's four.

He told Jeff on the reunion show he'll use his cash to start a production company focused on music and ethnicology. And yes, he's still using the name Fabio.

Some other highlights from the reunion show:

nChase said there was nothing going on between Brenda and him; they're just good friends.

nChase, who's trying to break into country music, sang a song (well, that wasn't really a highlight for me, I hate country music).

nTerry Bradshaw appeared to talk about his friend Jimmy Johnson and how "I was worried he was going to kill himself ... they got him off before he hurt himself."

nHolly and Dan literally kissed and made up after she gave him a pair of cowboy boots to make up for the alligator shoes she dumped in the ocean. And she got to keep her hands. Dan wouldn't answer Jeff's question about how rich he actually is.

nJane won the $100,000 fan-voted Sprint Player of the Season award. She and Marty definitely did not make up. Asked by Jeff if they'd become friends, Marty answered, "Not so much."

nNaOnka repeated her claim that how she played the game should not be confused with her real life, but even her mother, Zena, said she was surprised by what she saw her daughter doing week after week. "NaOnka, your mom just threw you under the bus," Jeff said.

nJeff announced a new rule inspired by Na and Purple Kelly whereby the producers get to decide whether a player who quits should be on the jury.

nShannon was given a chance to redeem himself for calling Sash gay at an early tribal council and instead dug an even bigger hole, saying, "I was calling the duck a duck. It was quacking like one. It had a bill like one. I was calling a duck a duck" before adding that he had met Sash's girlfriend the previous night. That wasn't the answer Jeff was looking for. "What I was referring to was to ask you just about the comment you made about Sash early in the show being gay. Sounds like you stand by it, that's good," said Jeff with a voice that suggested it was anything but good, refusing to let Shannon expand on his remarks.

nBoston Rob was in the audience (so were Russell and Cirie and Coach and Rupert) and announced that wife Amber, whom he met through Survivor, just had their second baby, a girl named Carina Rose.

nAnd finally, Season 22 of Survivor will introduce a new twist. When players are voted out, they'll be exiled to "Redemption Island" where they'll have to survive alone until the next player is voted out. Those players will then duel, with the winner getting put back into the game. Survivor: Redemption Island starts Feb. 16.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on the season that just ended. I was pleased to see Fabio win. Were you?

(The photo of Fabio after winning the $1 million is by Mark Davis for CBS.)

(P.S.: I fixed my typo. I had Fabio getting five votes to Sash's four and of course we all know that Sash got none.)

Survivor: Nicaragua - Jane's exit interview

My guess is we haven't seen the last of the "wrath of Jane." In our interview late last week, Jane Bright didn't want to say whether she was still holding a grudge against the castaways who had her ousted in Wednesday's episode of Survivor: Nicaragua, but she did say somewhat ominously that she's "a firm believer in what goes around comes around."  

The dog trainer from Jackson Springs, N.C., was clear about one thing: she hates to lose. The 56-year-old certainly went to great lengths to prepare herself for the rigours of the game. Right after the first audition call, before she knew she'd been selected, she started her physical training: working up to running three to four miles a day and swimming one to two miles; running the 68 steps behind her house 10 to 15 times at once; honing her upper body strength on a total gym; and spending 30 to 40 minutes after each workout in a sauna she got for a steal online that went up to 170 degrees F.

But of course, we know Survivor isn't just a physical game. Here's an edited version of our interview:

Q: The first question I want to ask you is, obviously I watched the program on Wednesday and saw what happened with you getting voting out and how upset that made you. How are you feeling about everything now that months have gone by?

A: Well, there's a couple people that made their bed and I'm gonna let them sleep in it. You'll have to see what happens up until the finale, but I'm a firm believer in what goes around comes around.

Q: Let's talk about some of the mental challenges of playing this game. Obviously alliances are kind of where it's at when you're trying to win and it seemed for a while there like you were really sitting pretty.

A: Well, I was, and my biggest mistake was not making several other alliances outside of the main alliance like Chase did. Because Chase led everybody on, he had an alliance with them. And not knowing Chase prior to when he was over at La Flor, I didn't know he backstabbed Shannon and all that when I got over there. Nobody really talked about stuff like that.

Q: Who do you think was the biggest factor in your downfall, in you getting voted out?

A: Marty.

Q: Really? Still after all this time?

A: Yep, Marty. When he threw me under the bus that night, claiming I was such a poor and defenceless and helpless southern woman with her husband passed away. I mean, I mentioned that one time sitting around the campfire when everybody kind of gave like a one or two-sentence synopsis of why they're there. It wasn't like I cried on everybody's shoulder and brought it up time and time again. I brought it up one time. And him throwing me under the bus that night, I don't think I was a threat to anybody until that point of the game, so yeah, I go back to Marty.

Q: Then all of a sudden it turned out they were thinking you were like the biggest threat. How do you feel about that?

A: I still don't agree with them because in my opinion there were so many young people on the jury and young people think about themselves. You know, they're not into giving yet and I think young people would give money to a young person vs. an older person. And I don't think they'd think twice about doing it. 

Q: One thing that really confused me was why Fabio and Dan didn't just take your suggestion and vote for Holly.

A: Because they thought they had a guaranteed alliance with Chase and Sash to go to the final three so why should they screw it up? Just go ahead and get rid of Jane. And that's what I say, what comes around goes around, you get to see if that decision paid off for a couple of 'em or not.

Q: I have my suspicions about what happened there, because sitting at home, I'm thinking there's no way, right?

A: Prior to leaving tribal council I wouldn't have put out that fire if I wasn't 100 per cent sure I was going home. And I just felt in my mind there's no way, hell or high water, can I get Dan and Fabio to change their mind. When Holly, Chase and Sash walked off I looked at Dan and Fabio and I said, "I'm gonna tell you something right now. This is what's gonna happen. If either one of you do not win (immunity), you will be going home. I know what their plan is. We've planned this for several days and I was part of that alliance. I'm telling you, they can tell you they're taking you to the final three. They're lying to your face. They're gonna pick you off one at a time if you do not win immunity. So you better suck it up and get immunity."

And I went to Fabio and I'm telling him, "If you don't win, you're next in line buddy, because they know Dan ain't a threat." And Fabio was like, "Well, Chase said ..."  And I said, "And you believe him? Look what he's done to me." And then he said, "Well, Sash said..." And I said, "You believe him? Look what he did to me."

(Earlier in the game) I said, "I think you have alliances with everybody out here if they've told you they're gonna take you to the final." And he never would comment on that, but you know, it was like I caught him out on it, but I also told him, "You know, the only way we can get further in the game is this: No. 1, you build an alliance with me and I go against them." And I said, "Trust me, you know, I'm going home, I got nothing to lose. If you guys say you're gonna be with me, I'll be with y'all 100 per cent and I got your back." I said, "You know I've had Chase's back the whole time." And I'm sorry, Dan was convinced it should be an all-male alliance going to the end, so he just figured he'd be right there with the boys. And that's why I put the fire out, I'm like screw you all. I'm gonna put it out. Y'all gonna make me miserable tonight, I'll just make you miserable tonight.

Q: I imagine it could be difficult to get it going again once they got back to camp.

A: They never ever tried to build a fire when we were out there, so who knows if they got a fire going. But they still had a flint, although I tried to get that. 

Q: Did you really?

A: Heck yeah, honey. I had it in my hand and Dan's like, "Put it down, Jane, put it down! Please don't leave us without fire." And I looked at him and I was saying to myself, hmmm. Anyway, I threw it in the back of the shelter. I was just going to chuck it into the woods, but I was like, "Fine, I did what I wanted to do, put the fire out and have a big exit."

Q: You certainly did have a big exit.

A: Well, I look at it like this, what did I have to lose? I knew they were voting me off, you know. At least go with a bang.

Q: Well, you certainly are one of the people who has stood out on the season, partly because of what you were able to accomplish. You were I think the oldest woman out there, but you were dominating in a lot of those challenges ... so I think that's got to make you feel pretty good.

A: I don't like to lose, period. And ever since I was a little kid, I mean I just can't stand to lose. And I show dogs and it's the same thing. ... And I've been in team sports and I've been playing tennis, but you're still part of a team, okay? And I do snow skiing and water skiing. I just really like to try to be the best you can possibly be. It doesn't matter what you do. I mean, I just give it more than 1,000 per cent.

Q: You're obviously valuable (to the tribe). You were going out there catching food and doing all sorts of other things for those people.

A: Well, that's what surprised me. I'm thinking to myself, we had the equipment now, if 10 people went and fished that would better your odds on catching a fish. Why does nobody step up to the plate and help? Now when I was over at La Flor, Brenda and Purple Kelly helped me fish a little bit, okay? But they got bored with it. And we were walking about a mile back into the woods. Well, they didn't want to spend that effort to get back there. And I live on a farm and I walk three miles a day with my dogs, so walking in the woods was nothing to me. To me, you get lazy sitting around doing nothing, so I didn't care if I was expending any energy. No. 1, I got to explore and No. 2, it gave me the opportunity to at least try to fish and if I caught something that's where my little fish dance came in, you know: "C'mon girls, let's celebrate, we caught a fish ... c'mon, let 's get some excitement going here."

Q: What was your favourite part of the whole experience?

A: Going down the volcano. The ride down the volcano was the most awesomest thing.

Tonight we find out whether Jane's right about what goes around coming around, and whether Dan and Fabio's gamble to believe in Sash and Chase pays off. The finale starts at 8 p.m. on Global TV and the reunion show follows at 10 p.m. I'm guessing Jane will have lots to say to Marty and Chase and anyone she feels has wronged her at the reunion. I'll be watching all three hours and recapping them here. Hope you'll join me.

And don't forget, you can follow me on Twitter at www.twitter.com/realityeo

(The photo of Jane is by Monty Brinton for CBS.)