TV

"I need one girl to reveal herself as the perfect girl for the next 60 years of my life," Jake said at the start of tonight's finale. No pressure, Tenley and Vienna! (And what happens if they have a 61-year marriage? His wife can be a total slacker for the final few months?)

Dallas' KERA-TV (Channel 13) has won a national Gracie Award for its original documentary Boyfriends, which features.local teen couples and their relationships.

The award, from the American Women in Radio and Television, is for outstanding reality film.

If you missed it, watch at www.boyfriendsweb.com, where you'll also find information on forming and keeping healthy relationships.

Read on for KERA's news release:

Listen to this week's Talking TV right here or download it on iTunes.

This week, Tom and I discuss the need for a Olympics reality show, Jay Leno's smug commercials and whether or not laughing at Karl Pilkington on "The Ricky Gervais Show" is okay. You'll come for the TV talk, but you'll stay for Tom's imitation of a curling team.

The Wheelmobile, a 39-foot Winnebago that tours the nation in search of Wheel of Fortune contestants, is coming to Dallas. It'll be at the Dallas Convention Center from 2 to 6 p.m. on March 6 and at Billy Bob's in Fort Worth from 2 to 6 p.m. on March 7.

Visit the CBS 11 site for more information.

Good made a dramatic comeback against Evil Thursday night on Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains.

The Villains were left to cut one of their own after being trounced 8-0 in a muddy, Sumo-style battle.

Read on for the evictee:

Looks like a rerun of Project Runway is on tonight!

Until next week, let's take the time to decide who we think will be in the final three. I think it will come down to Emilio, Amy (from Plano) and Anthony (if he continues his excellent learning process).

What do you think? Who's in and who's out? Auf wiedersehen, dear readers!

Well, it was a close call for Duncanville's Tim Urban and North Richland Hills' Alex Lambert, but they squeaked by this week. This means our area can claim a whopping four of the 10 remaining men. That has to be a record for any metropolitan region. In fact, I'm going to go ahead and declare that it is a record.
Going home on the men's side of the stage were Joe Munoz and Tyler Grady. Tyler didn't take the news so well.
"I like all the judges and really had a great time with them," he said, "but I feel like I didn't get much constructive criticism during Hollywood Week. And I feel like what they told me was a little bit too late."
So it was the judges' fault. Got it.
Also leaving us were Ashley Rodriguez (who seemed a bit mad about the whole thing but at least opted not to throw folks under the bus) and Janell Wheeler. Janell said nice things such as, "I'm so grateful to be here among such great talent."
I'd say that's the way one should exit this show.

She still has that Kelly Clarkson vibe about her, doesn't she? Never a bad thing. Anyway, it's weird to compare her to this season's girls, because so far none of them have proven to have those powerful pipes. But it's still early!

We shall soon be saying goodbye to four of the top 24. And judging by this week's performances, we are not going to miss them much. (No offense.)
But first, the gang got together for a group singalong to "American Boy.". The best moment? John Park, Michael Lynche and Tim Urban were standing behind the judges, trying to act like they were all into the song, while Ellen bopped her head, Randy pointed backward at them, Kara smiled eagerly -- and Simon looked like he might bolt at any second. Methinks he's not going to miss group-performance moments when he's gone.

"I was looking forward to hearing you more than anyone else tonight," Simon said. Him and many millions of viewers. (Including myself.)
But his performance tonight was rather dull. All the judges could talk about was his creative rendition of Paula Abdul's "Straight Up." Sadly, he can't go with that week after week. People would notice.

Finally. We have a potential finalist, and he just so happens to be from Fort Worth.
The oh-so-cute Casey James sat on a stool, strummed his guitar and totally knocked Bryan Adams' "Heaven" out of the park.
After the judges stopped teasing Kara for her alleged crush on Casey, Kara got serious. (Kinda.) "You're eye candy, but you're also ear candy," she said.
Simon, noting that "we were both cursed with good looks," said Casey chose the right song, "and you came across very honest, very sincere. It was the best performance I've heard from you since you've been in the competition, so you did great."
Judges' commentary can't get any better than that, I don't think.

OK, so he's the adorable one. Our North Richland Hills resident sang "Wonderful World," during which time he was clearly nervous. (Clearly.)
"I don't know who was happier for that to end, you or me," Simon said. "It was the most uncomfortable performance of the night."
That being said, he noted that Alex has a good voice. "But if you can't get your nerves together on a night like this, this is never gonna work for you."
"Yes, sir," Alex said.
"You don't have to call me sir," Simon retorted. (Yes, he does. He's a good Texas boy who was apparently raised right.)
Luckily, things soon turned in Alex's favor among the judges. They were all in agreement that they really like him.
"I like that you're holding onto the mullet and you're not gonna let it go," Ellen said. (Awesome.) She then compared him to fruit. "Sometimes a banana is not quite ripe, and you're like, 'Ooh, I wish it was riper because I'd like to eat that banana right now.' It's just not ripe enough."
She told him he just needs confidence, because "you have all of it. It's all right there."
Ryan asked Alex how many times he's performed in front of a crowed. "Like three times at coffee shops and stuff with audiences of like 20 people," he admitted. "This is crazy!"
He'll get through to next week. Like Lee, people are just going to flat-out want to root for him.

Big Mike went with Maroon 5's "Big Love." Why? I have no clue. It was flat-out the wrong way to go.
Ellen, however, felt it was a great song choice. But Simon was less thrilled: "You were like the support act before the main act. You delivered so little on that performance."
This is getting depressing. I mean, somebody's going to have to win this contest, right? Can we get some potential going?

Before he took the stage, John reminisced about Shania Twain's flirtatious comments about him at his first audition.
"It was one of my proudest moments of my life," he said. "She's the most beautiful woman I've seen in person, no lie. If she would marry me, I would propose to her."
He then sang a version of "God Bless The Child" that I thought was very nice, but the judges poo-pooed all over those good vibes. They hated it. Simon accused him of having "zero emotion," while Kara used the dreaded I word. ("Indulgent.")
Huh. I'm confused on this one.

OK, so this guy is the adorable one, in my opinion. I didn't completely love his version of "Chasing Cars" (not caring for the trend of making songs so different that we at home can't sing along), but I like him. And I agree with the judges that he's very David Cook 2.0.
Simon also liked him, calling this "the best performance tonight by a mile." Ryan then asked Lee what it felt like to be on that stage.
"It feels like I don't ever want to lose this feeling," he said.
Lee's not going anywhere. Talent plus likability equals possible Kris Allen-esque success.

I had high hopes for the '70s rocker guy, especially once he started belting out "American Woman." (He'd started out really slow, repeating the phrase, "American woman, gonna mess with your mind." How many other people feared he was going to do a Todrick and change the song completely?)
Even though I thought it worked in places, I began to lose interest halfway through. Simon nailed down the problem: "My issue is that you come over a lot as somebody who's gone to Pretend To Be a Rock Star School."
Kara suggested that he's playing too true to the '70s "rather than playing with it" and making it more current. That makes sense.
The good news: He was memorable enough to get some votes. Can't say the same for Joe Munoz, sadly.

Wow, that was brutal. The whole thing was, from the singing to the critiquing to the condescending "you're adorable" comments.
Tim went with "Apologize" by One Republic -- despite the fact that he could not ever, ever hit those high notes. That became clear after the first attempt.
As Simon began his review, he congratulated Tim on coming back to the show; he'd originally not made the top 24, but after Chris Golightly was booted, Tim got the call to return.
"Having said that," Simon said, "we absolutely made the right decision by not putting you through, based on that performance. There was nothing, nothing to take from that. The vocals were weak, the version was weak, you didn't come over as a natural performer. And the truth is, I just don't think your voice is good enough. I don't."
OUCH. Tim had tears in his eyes -- heck, I almost had tears in my eyes for him. Because that was way harsh.
Kara said some other negative things, as did Randy. Ellen pointed out that he couldn't hit the high notes, so in the future he'll need to step it up "and not just count on the fact that you're adorable, because you're adorable."
Tim looked like he wanted to curl up in a ball. Like an adorable, scolded puppy dog.

Sixteen-year-old Aaron went with "Here Comes Goodbye" by Rascal Flatts. It was fine -- but what made it special was that it garnered Simon's first mostly-positive review of the week.
"Bearing in mind it was your first live show, it was quite a good performance," he said.
Based on what he's been saying to everybody else, this was stupdendous news.
Oh, but poor Jermaine Sellers. After he wailed through the dreary ballad "Get Here," Mr. Cowell was not kind.
"I think you've totally blown your opportunity with that, if you want my honest opinion," he said. Then Ellen protested, and Simon smirked. Ryan asked what was up with that look. "It means I don't agree," he said.
Methinks rumors that these two don't get along may have a teensy shred of truth to them.

For my 1,000 post, let's all imagine doing a back flip with the greatest of ease, a la Todrick Hall. Whee! That was fun.
OK, back to business. Todrick decided to sing Kelly Clarkson's "Since U Been Gone." Well, he decided to talk the first part. And then he decided to change the rest of it so completely that it was unrecognizable. Was it bad? I didn't think so. But I agree with Randy that the Clarkson version was a hit for a reason. No need to just toss it out the window and start over.
"I think you came over as a dancer trying to sing rather than a singer who can also dance," Simon said. "You completely murdered the original song. That was verging on stupid, what you just did."
Todrick was given a chance to respond. "I questioned it myself: Is this changing it a little too much?" he told Ryan. Good answer. Humility is always nice to see in these kids.
Despite the fact that he went first (which is often forgettable) and it wasn't great, I predict that our first local guy of the night will be sticking around. He already has a big enough fan base to pull him through. I think.

So I appear to be having a few technical difficulties tonight; it's hard to blog when one can't access the blogging machine. But here we are, finally! (By the way, the temperamental blogging machine just informed me that this is my 999th entry. Party over at the next post!)
As the show got underway, Simon set the mood.
"I watched some of the rehearsals earlier and saw an awful lot of nerves," he said. "If you lose it tonight or forget the words, your career is over."
"Yikes!" Kara said as her eyes got all buggy.
I'd be so scared to be one of those 12 singers right now.