Unlike last episode, the travel took a back seat to the tasks this week.  That’s good for the episodes to have that diversity as winning teams should be good in coordinating travel and navigating as well as accomplishing the various tasks.
As a reminder:  Jeff & Jordan(JJ), Monique & Shawne(attorney), Jett & Cord(cowboys), Steve & Allie(baseball), Joe [...]

A second extremely demanding leg of the race. This leg had all the classic features of a hard leg:
1. Self-Navigation. Even with the 6 hour bus-trip mid-leg, there was a lot of self-driving / navigating this leg.
2. A potential physically grinding RoadBlock. If you get it the first time, it’s easy, but each time you [...]

Initial Thoughts
Not really much of a strategy episode, more of setting up for the long haul.  They didn’t even really focus much on Randy which is unusual for the person who goes home.
Heroes Camp (pre-credits)
The discussion after last episode’s tribal council is mostly about reconciling and putting on a happy face even though Tom knows [...]

Did anyone else find it ironic that the group song was the song that basically punched one of the eliminated contestant’s ticket to the top 24?  That’s right, Janell Wheeler really impressed the judges with her guitar take on American Boy during the first round of Hollywood Week.  Brutal
Janell Wheeler
I think you can chalk this [...]

Girls:
Janelle Wheeler – I’m surprised admittedly. I though she was going to be at risk because she really didn’t fill out what should be a good song, but I didn’t think she’d be going home. Her post-eviction version wasn’t really any better though so I’m not sure that we’ll miss her,
Ashley Rodriguez – Well, I’m [...]

Initial Thoughts
So last episode the Heroes voted off the person who, if you believe the core alliance was ‘a long-term loser who carried losing with her’, ‘a distraction at challenges’, ‘the reason the Heroes were losing’ or ‘the strongest female player in the game’. Which of these things she was we’ll see over the course [...]

And so it begins (or continues). Tonight Chindi is in the drivers seat but RigelSeven will come in and bat clean-up after we go along. Simon kicks us off by pushing just that extra bit of terror into the Top 12. I will sincerely miss him when he’s gone to some other show counting his [...]

American Idol 9 Preview
The Guys
See the blurb in the Top 12 Girls posts for an explanation
Mike Lynche
26 – NewYork/Florida
Mike’s backstory is that his wife was pregnant when he auditioned and had the baby during Hollywood Week.  He was also rumoured to have been disqualified but it turned out to be Chris Golightly instead.
Audition Song – [...]

It finally starts for real!  It’s in America’s hands now!  Kind of a mixed bag of performances, as usual for the opening night.  Let’s get into it.
Paige Miles
24 – Naples, FL
Song – It’s All Right Now – Free
RigelSeven’s Take:
Paige really needed to wow us and she didn’t do that.  Weird song choice particularly for someone [...]

A quick preview of the top 12 girls on American Idol season 9 in the order they were listed at the end of the selection episode with backstory and song summaries.  The information is based on what was aired, so it’s what the regular viewer has seen.  I (rigelseven) know there is more information available [...]

You know, sometimes the most interesting travel episodes are the one’s where there are no airports involved as it opens up a plethora of possiblilities to jump ahead or fall behind, as evidenced in this episode.  The structure of the leg made for more opportunities than usual to engage in strategic planning with some teams passing [...]

Interesting episode, one of the most interesting things about it is that we got a clear delineation of the teams that have good racing instincts and the teams that don’t have good instincts or have some form of fatal flaw. There were a couple of key mistakes made along the course of this leg, though [...]