Survivor Samoa: Russell Best Survivor Ever With Laura Out

The CBS promos leading up to this week's Survivor focused on Russell Hantz, saying he would either be Survivor's best ever or biggest fool ever. Or something like that.

By the end of last night's episode it was clear Russell is not a fool, which makes him, according to CBS, the best Survivor ever.

I think I would have to agree with that. He certainly has made Survivor Samoa the most entertaining Survivor season, so far, in a long long time.

And now he's found yet on more Hidden Immunity Idol, though this time he had pretty good clues via a cell phone that was part of winning a Reward Challenge that had half the Survivors flown to another island for a picnic by a waterfall.

Who would have thought that Foa Foa would manage to whittle down Galu's 8 to 4 lead, to now have a 5 to 4 lead, with Shambo switched to Foa Foa, or a 6 to 3 lead if you count John on the Foa Foa side after he voted to get rid of Laura after the 5 to 5 tie at the Tribal Council.

I don't recollect that type of tie before on Survivor. I'm sure it's happened before, but I don't remember. I do remember a tie getting decided by a purple rock or by who could start a fire faster.

Top Chef Las Vegas: Kevin Wins Culinary Olympics

Kevin Gillespie won the final Elimination Challenge and $30K on this week's Top Chef. I think he won more challenges than any other chef. I like Kevin. Seems like a real nice guy who can cook well. But, please, lose that awful beard. Or wear a beard net.

Jennifer got her confidence back by winning the Quickfire. A chef I'd never heard of had them making a dish I'd never heard of, something to do with a protein in a protein in a protein.

Then for the Elimination Challenge the 5 remaining chefs had to cook in a competition modeled after another thing I'd never heard of, the Bocuse d'Or. Apparently the Olympics of the culinary world.

The chefs were very exciting and knew all about the Food Olympics and the chefs who would be judging them. All apparently very famous. I am apparently very ignorant about the culinary world.

Jennifer got an extra half hour to cook due to winning the Quickfire. She helped Bryan out when he got a bit overwhelmed by the complexity of what he was putting on his platter. Bryan came off more likable this episode. Laughing, acting funny and wearing a baseball cap backwards. And answering Kevin's questions about how to cook lamb.

The judges had problems with everyone's food platter. But the least problems with Kevin's, even though they seemed to think what he cooked was too easy and safe. The other chefs had issues like lamb being undercooked, or, in Michael Voltaggio's case, a fish bone left in his salmon, which apparently would get you the instant boot at the Food Olympics.

It seemed like they were disliking what Michael did the most, but it was Eli who was sent home for badly cooked fatty lamb.

But, even though the judges and famous chefs were highly critical, they also heaped praise on the 5 for managing to do what they did in such a short time. It was all very positive and Eli took it real well. In the end, even Eli turned likable.

Michael V., not so much. It keeps burning Michael that Kevin keeps winning for cooking simple things that Michael says he cooks on his day off.

The previews for the finale on a train going through the California wine country looked interesting. It appears everyone had some time off, because everyone has different hair. Tom is still bald, but Padma's has long bangs, Jennifer all curly, the Voltaggio's appeared to be a new color and Kevin looked less shaggy, but still with that awful beard. I want to get a look at his wife.

Nielsen Rating's Top 20 for November 9 - 16

The Nielsen Rating's Top 20 TV Shows for November 9 - 16. The first number is the ranking, the second number is the season average, then the show name and network. The last number represents the number of viewers in millions. An asterisk * indicates a tie.

Rank	Season average	Show name	Network	Viewers in millions	Season-to-date average
1.	2	Patriots/Colts	NBC	22.4	19.7
2.	1	NCIS	CBS	21.0	21.9
3.	3	Dancing with the Stars	ABC	17.6	17.7
4.	7	CSI	CBS	17.4	16.8
5.		CMA Awards	ABC	17.2
6.	11	Dancing with the Stars Results	ABC	16.2	14.9
*	5	NCIS: Los Angeles	CBS	16.2	17.1
*	5	The Mentalist	CBS	16.2	17.4
9.	3	Grey's Anatomy	ABC	14.9	17.7
10.	9	Desperate Housewives	ABC	14.7	15.5
11.	18	CSI: NY	CBS	14.5	14.0
12.	15	CSI: Miami	CBS	14.4	14.6
*	11	Two and a Half Men	CBS	14.4	14.8
14.	18	The Good Wife	CBS	13.4	14.1
15.	7	House	Fox	13.3	16.6
16.	16	60 Minutes	CBS	13.1	14.2
17.	22	Survivor: Samoa	CBS	12.9	13.1
18.	11	Criminal Minds	CBS	12.8	15.0
*	16	The Big Bang Theory	CBS	12.8	14.2
20.		Football Night in America Pt 3	NBC	11.9	10.4

The Amazing Race: Dan & Flight Time Take a Tumble

If I remember right, during the first few seasons of The Amazing Race the race followed a west to east or east to west direction, sometimes going south, sometimes north, but always gaining on an around the world journey.

The current Amazing Race went west and north from Dubai to Holland, then back east to Sweden, then further east to this week's Tallinn, Estonia and next week south and a bit west to the Czech Republic.

It's a zig zag race around the world.

This week's Detours and Roadblocks were entertaining. Particularly the mud volleyball. The Candelabra Roadblock in Mustpeade, the home of the Brotherhood of the Blackheads, was amusing. Particularly when Matt had no idea what a Candelabra was.

The Globetrotters, Sam & Dan and Erica & Brian all running together, trying to find the marked route to the detour, was funny. The 4 boys beat Brian & Erica to the 2 volley ball courts, so the married pair opted to take slingshot vegetable shots at a moose target.

Meghan & Cheyne had already won their 5 volleyball points and had checked in at 1st place at the Pitstop before the next 3 teams found the detour.

It was neck and neck between the Globetrotters and Sam & Dan to get the 5 points. Flight Time & Big Easy got 5 first and took off running to where they thought the Pitstop was. Then Sam & Dan got their 5 and took off running the correct direction, over a boardwalk to a wooden tower. The Globetrotters realized their mistake, turned around, and quickly caught up with the brothers. Flight Time fell down twice trying to overtake Dan & Sam, taking down Dan with him on the second fall. Dan got up and running faster than the big guy, so Dan & Sam made it ahead of the Globetrotters to the mat to claim the #2 spot.

Big Easy was not pleased about being manhandled by the much smaller brothers, claiming that Dan had knocked the much bigger Flight Time down, saying "I'm 6'10", 260, so we're gonna do what we gotta do." I think Big Easy needs to watch the incident on re-play.

In the end, the dad and son team of Gary & Matt could not recover from their mistakes, including the illusive candelabra, and came in last and were eliminated.

I have to say, the Sauna Bus that Gary & Matt had to take a 5 minute sauna in for their Speed Bump, was a very bizarre thing.

Dancing With The Stars: Joanna Krupa & Derek Hough Not In Finals

I was hoping it would be Donny Osmond no longer on my TV screen, but instead it was Joanna Krupa who got the boot last night on Dancing with the Stars.

I've never been much of a Donny Osmond fan. I like Marie. She's funny. I don't find Donny funny. His efforts at humor seem way too forced. I had no idea he had reproduced so many times til I saw his bio clip on Monday's show.

I thought Joanna Krupa's bio would have made people more inclined to vote for her. Then again, it did not cause me to vote for her. I've never voted on any of the vote for the winner type reality shows.

Of the 3 remaining I knew who 2/3's of them were before this season started. I'm still not clear who Mya is. I fast forwarded through her Monday night bio.

I'm not much invested in who wins this thing. If I had to pick who I'd like to see take home the coveted disco ball trophy I guess it'd be Kelly Osborne. She has sort of transformed herself during the course of the show, making her, for me, the most interesting person to watch. I'm thinking Kelly Osborne really was not a star before she got this dancing job, but I think Dancing with the Stars may have turned Kelly into a star. She's just so darn cute.

Dancing With The Stars: Mya & Dmitry Are Perfect Again

I am fairly certain that Barack Obama and Sarah Palin will not be dancing on tonight's results show on Dancing with the Stars.

Last night was the so-called semi-finals, with 4 couples dancing 3 dances each.

Kym Johnson and Donny Osmond did not do too well with their first dance, a Tango, getting only 21 points. For their second dance, a Samba, the pair did better, getting 26. Their final dance was a Jitterbug that got them 27 points.

Then we had Derek Hough and Joanna Krupa getting 27 points for their Vienna Waltz, followed by the Cha Cha getting them 27 again, followed by the Salsa which also got them 27 points.

Sharon Osborne was back in the audience, crying and cheering for daughter Kelly who with Louis Van Amstel got 24 points for their Rumba. Their next dance was the Quickstep which got them 27 points. Followed by the Cha Cha which also got them 27.

And then there was the best of the night, again, Dmitry Chaplin and Mya with no last name. The waltz was their first dance, getting them a score of 28. They followed that up with a Salsa that got them a perfect 30. Their final dance, another Cha Cha, got 29 points, giving this pair the highest total for the evening.

So, who gets the boot tonight? I'm guessing Kelly Osborne. I hope its Donny Osmond. But I really don't much care.

Survivor Samoa: Season 19: Episode 9: Russell Hantz Hidden Immunity Idol Coup

When Russell Hantz first appeared on my Survivor screen, I thought him to be an arrogant, Texas blowhard, suffering from little man syndrome who would quickly get his comeuppance with a fast boot off the show.

I was wrong. I'm thinking that now, with the airing of Episode 8 of the 19th season of Survivor that Russell Hantz has cemented himself a spot in the Top Ten all time best on Survivor. Even if he gets kicked out next week.

Russell has altered the Survivor game. Few have managed that. From this point forward if Survivor continues with the Hidden Immunity Idol thing, everyone is going to be looking for it, clue or not.

It was surprise enough that Russell found the first Hidden Immunity Idol without a clue, but then to do it a second time and then use it to blindside the former Galu, whittling the Galu numbers down by one more. If this were scripted TV the plot would not be believable.

And now in the previews we see the Galu members chasing Russell around, afraid he'll find a third idol. I may have the numbers wrong, but I think it is now 6 Galu to 4 Foa Foa. But, Shambo has pretty much said she is with Foa Foa. That makes it even.

I'm thinking Russell is going to engineer some little coup and keep himself on the island. Or he will win Immunity. That would be entertaining.