Reality Ravings

In today's Daily Terror Guy Sebastian criticised this years Australian Idol contestants as ".....people who were quite calculated in their use of the show and quite blatantly used it to get a platform for their careers,''

Couldn't agree more, how many times did we have to put up with Idol contestants like Marty, Matt, Brianna, and Holly, saying they much prefered to be playing originals rather then covers.

If they want to do that contest Triple J Unearthed contests rather then Australian Idol.

I suspect if they cannot do good covers their originals would be worse.

I bumped into Jordan Loukas at Marrickville Metro, and she was just gorgeous both in personality, and looks.

Firstly her skin was flawless, and perfectly made up. Maybe she was glowing from having been in the realm of the super soccer star David Beckham on the Monday night!

I asked her whether she felt she was being portrayed correctly on the show - she said yes, however she was wise enough to say that when you agree to go on a reality tv show you know there will be some editing.

I asked her what was next for her and she said she is interesting in music, modelling or hosting. So best of luck to her.

Also I asked about did she take offence at Charlotte Dawson calling her a 'Marrickville Ghetto Chick' - she appeared to be cool with that, and said Marrickville is a great place to live.

Jordan is back from LA - but I refrained from asking what happened as I will just watch the show.

Channel 10 has released footage which shows some of the dancers who auditioned for Australia's version of So You Think You Can Dance.

It looks hot, hot, hot and I wonder if any on this tape will end up being in the final 20.

This tantalising look just continues to whet my appetite for this fantastic show.

So You Think You Can Dance looks like it is going to be huge here when it starts in February following on from the increase in ratings the US version received here this season.

Jason Coleman looks like he will be the outspoken judge, and Bonnie Lythgoe just looked gorgeous.

Check it out here.

Natalie Gauci this years winner of Australian Idol has hit another first since being the first winner who was a 'judges' choice to take out the title. She is now the first Idol's winner whose single has NOT gone to number 1.

This maybe because not as many people this year are watching the show therefore not as many will buy the single.

Or as the Daily Telegraph hypothesises that it may be due to the fact that the Idol's especially Matt Corby dissed the song.

Darryl Somers has announced that he will not be continuing as host on Dancing With The Stars next year.

Many viewers who sat through season 7 will not be shedding any tears at this announcement. Darryl was even worse then the squillion of ads they managed push into the 2 hour show.

This feeling has been confirmed on the Daily Telegraph readers commenting on the announcement.

The Daily Telegraph states:
The veteran TV host spat the dummy over news a promised variety show pilot would not go ahead as well as the package offered to him for DWTS next year - which will only have one series instead of two, reports TV editor Marcus Casey.

Thank you David Leckie for not putting us through a tortuous variety show which I suspect would have been Darryl singing for the cameras with occasional guest appearances by Patti Newton.

Aren't those shows more suited for Channel 9?

Darryl also said he is ready for a "new direction", which is code for I don't know what I am going to do next, probably hair replacement commercials. Something he would be eminently qualified for.

This years finale though it had a respectable 1.68 million viewers it was the lowest audience they had had for a finale yet. A clear sign the show needs a revamp.

In other news it shows that the Dancing With the Stars does not necessarily mean the kiss of death.

With the well known rumour being confirmed that Sonia Kruger and Todd McKenney will be co-hosting the Mix 106.5 breakfast show starting from mid-January. It should be interesting to listen to it as the both have fast and sharp wits.

Ok when are they actually going to get to LA? This was episode 2 and the only plane they had gotten on was to go to Melbourne.

This episode I actually found quite irritating. What with Jordan Loukas being called a Marrickville Ghetto chick - from my viewing her family lived in a very nice terrace, with no signs ice smoking paraphernalia in sight.

I know Marrickville Metro can get ugly on Centrelink payment day but I would not call it South Central, LA. The deadliest weapons you see are star war light sabres that toddlers get from the local $2 dollar shop.

The other issue if Charlotte Dawson is so upmarket why does she have more tattoos then a bikers moll?

Also Jordan's constant whining was getting on my nerves. Does she really want to end up flipping burgers at the local yeeros shop for the rest of her life talking about what she could have been.

Jordan seems to have seen the one and only episode of the Victoria Beckham welcome to LA series and is channelling her in a bad way like using her accent, not the not eating bit however.

As an aside I think they should do more episode's on Posh Spice it was a hoot that show.

First up Jordan met Charlotte to look over her picture portfolio which they did over a car bonnet somewhere ?Wooloomoollo to get the harbour view in the background. Wouldn't it have been easier to do this in a coffee shop? What was the point of that?

Some of the pictures are great, but Charlotte tells her she needs to tone up and lose her muffin top. So stop eating carbs honey. Jordan apparently has a fear of choking so only eating smooth things, hence the job at Boost Juice, she could get all the free smoothies she wanted.

Charlotte castigates her for knowing nothing about fashion, and takes her to Jayson Brundson's, top Australian Fashion designer, store to work in retail for the day.

She gets put in a little cocktail dress, which she has to keep on hitching up as it is to big on her. This is the bit where I wondered how staged it was, as she was definitely playing up to the cameras.

Also then Charlotte, and Jay, who Charlotte had told Jordan that he was in New York, watched her on a tv in another room.

Jordan annoyed me with her ohmigod I going to have to work in a shop attitude and clearly could not give a shit.

Charlotte was over acting huffing and puffing with how terrible she was. Clearly Jordan is not the sharpest tool in the shed, but would she be that stupid to come across as so lacklustre about the task with the camera's on her.

Finally Jayson goes in as a "pretend customer" and then Charlotte cannot stand it anymore as "it is embarrassing for Jayson". Agreeing to be on this show is embarrassing for Jordan, especially when she was bagging out his designs.

But Jordan seem quite non-plussed about the telling off from Charlotte. "I should have put more effort in" etc. She seems to make excuses about everything that she does wrong.

Also did not apologise to Jayson when he told her he had ruin his dress.

Next Charlotte takes her to Melbourne to be in a fashion parade at the Royal Melbourne Show. To try and add spice to proceedings Paloma is there and Charlotte tells Jordan that whoever is best she will take to LA.

Paloma was pissed Jordan got her own show and say "She was the more entertaining one" and at this stage of the episode I had to agree.

Jordan goes out on the cat walk and glowers at the crowd. After the first show Charlotte comes backstage and gives her some good advice, "use your props like the mirror ball etc".

Jordan does second show - no change. Again Charlotte comes backstage to give the same advice.

Jordan does third show - no change. Charlotte walks out supposedly angry. Actually I don't blame her. Jordan says "I just look fierce, and don't do anything at the end of the runway that is what I do." She did not want to do what Charlotte advised her to do then gets upset when she walks out.

"My two fathers rejected me and now Charlotte has" Jordan sobs. I think she needs to show some sense of responsibility. I had a feeling that excuse had been used a lot for every fuck up she has ever done.

I really want to like Jordan, but this episode I was finding it very difficult to.

The next day Jordan got taken for a make over including speech lessons to get rid of her Marrickville accent. Maybe they mistook the whine in her voice as a inner western dialect.

After she is all gussied up she is taken to a nightclub where Charlotte sprung on her she would be co-hosting a fashion parade with her, and gave her a script to learn.

This time Jordan did do well, even though the way Jordan was dressed (Sunday afternoon croquet game) was different from the Ed Hardy clothes she was promoting, which are young, casual and funky.

So Charlotte and her were back being best friends after that.
Next week finally they get to LA.

It was the final episode of Farmer Wants a Wife, and the thing that was surprising about this show was the number of farmers that did find "love" on it. At least 50% have found a potential partner. So it shows that these reality tv shows do work in real life.

The show started off with the farmer's having to knock on the doors of the girls they had picked, and spend a weekend in their environment.

Chris was first up and it was obvious he was going to go to Kim's house, and in fact when he arrived her whole family were there to greet him. The party was ready with their corner bar fully stocked.

Expect wedding bells here to be covered by a weekly gossip mag within the next 12 months as this pair is in luuurrrrrrvvvvvvvvveeeee.

The surprising thing about this episode it was the first time they had shown Chris with any personality, he was sparkling in the group conversations in the end. Maybe it was all the endorphins triggering off in his brain.

Next up was Jon who had sent his two girls packing and brought in a third Deb.

However he decided to call on Jodie the nurse from Sydney he had really liked but as she did not like the isolation of the farm he had told her to go home.

Jodie said that once she had left the farm she had missed him and rang him to say she would be prepared to give it another shot.

However at the end when Natalie G was doing her excruciating interviews (is this is what she learnt in her journalism degree at Griffith Uni?) Jodie said they were no more then friends, and Jon agreed saying Jodie was not the ideal woman for him.

Gus knocked on quarantine officer, Brooke's door. This pair have always had communication issues with stilted conversation and they did not appear to be improving.

In fact I find her very guarded. Her body language over dinner was not great, as Alan Pease might say her arms were crossed. It was a pity Gus could not read the signs as he blundered in saying he liked her but he needed more feedback from her.

Brooke looked startled like a bunny in headlights, and said she thought he was a nice guy but she did not want to take it any further. I really don't know how genuine she was throughout the whole show in engaging with Gus, as she appeared to make no real effort, unless she is just really shy and boring.

Gus said he " Was disappointed by not devastated."

Drew knocked on Susie's door who is a 28 year old communications manager from Sydney. I felt so sorry for Tash the other cool chick. But Drew was on a winner either way. This pair were sweet and coy with their feelings with each other. I felt like a voyeur as they were trying to take it to another level with their cute but a bit embarrassing conversation on the couch in a bar.

I think Drew has made the right choice I think this pair is better suited to each other. I think Tash would have gotten a bit bored of the whole thing.

At the end they said they liked "hanging together" and she was a "top girl" I wish them both the best, and I hope they stick together.

I found it surprising that Drew said he had heard the "It's not you, but me speech," so many times. Is there something wrong with this guy that we don't know about? I think he seems great. Definitely my favourite.

Next was spiritual Brad, who had met a girl prior to his involvement on the show. However he picked Mel to spend the weekend with, and it looked like it was close to disastrous.

He said he found it difficult to bring out her "fun" side. I must admit I could not remember her smiling in any of the episodes. This girl is serious plus a little bit kooky.

Anyway instead of either of those girls going to the reunion place, it was the girlfriend he met prior to the show who came. Her name was Samara and they did seem like they were in love. I just don't understand why she would agree to be on the show. Maybe it was a show some sort of proprietorship.

Last there was Craig who limped in with a football injury and no girl. He declared he was in love but who was she, and where was she?

Well Craig went against his mother's wishes and picked Erin the 24 year old billing officer. They seemed to have some chemistry, and he did seem to have genuine affection for her son Lucas.

I am not sure what is going to happen to this pair. Either he will want her to be the traditional wife (clearly his mother did and still does most things for him), and after awhile she may not want to put up with that?

Or as she is quite assertive she may be able to whip him into shape. This one I would like to follow up on in 12 months time.

Erin was not there for the interviews at the end as she was in Canada for wedding and would be there for 2-3 months.

This got some bitching from the other participants. Kim saying "I would not want to leave someone that long at the beginning of a relationship" and others agreed it was a long time and questioned her feelings for him.

It only made me like her more, as it showed her independence, and in fact Craig seemed quite ok with it.

If he likes her why doesn't he fly over to Canada for 2 weeks to spend time with her?? Christ she is going to have to make the sacrifice of moving to the farm in the middle of nowhere if she wants to be with him.

This show was surprisingly enjoyable, and a big thank you to the reader who told me about it.

It was rating well for Channel 9 and is a certainty to be on our screens next year. Maybe by then Natalie G may be able to develop her interviewing skills a bit more.