HSX

So the Oscars are over...I was definitely way off on my predictions, some that I'm glad about and some that I'm not. I like that The Hurt Locker upset Avatar all night, but I really didn't think either film deserved the hype that they got. The Hurt Locker is perhaps more deserving of the awards that it received, but I definitely wasn't blown away by it. The award that ticked me off the most was Best Original Screenplay. There's no way that The Hurt Locker should have won over Inglourious Basterds. The dialogue in Tarantino's movie was brilliant, creative, intense and definitely should have won that award.

But anyway, what's done is done. Another year, another new selection of films to see. If you're like me and you enjoy reading/watching upcoming releases and deciding what you think, you may want to invest in those predictions. Now you can with HSX.com, the Hollywood Stock Exchange. It's exactly what you would guess it is: you can buy shares of not only films, but also TV shows and actors themselves. For example, you can already buy shares of Avatar 2 (symbol AVAT2) for $242.04. Iron Man 2 (symbol IRNM2) is currently going for $367.69. You may want to jump onto Tron Legacy, which is currently at $168.65, but I'd guess that'll at least double in the coming months. Unfortunately, however, this site doesn't run on real money but on "Hollywood Dollars," which are basically worthless. I'm hoping this changes eventually. Regardless, it could be fun.

You can sign up for free and get $2,000,000 to invest with...as they say, the rest is up to you. I like the concept and might jump on eventually. As for you, don't blame me if you lose all your fake money on buying shares of Gary Busey.

Oscar Predictions

This Sunday is the broadcast of the 82nd Oscars, the premiere award event for film, presented this year by Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin. It will be the first year in a long time that there are 10 nominations for best film and I've seen all of them except Up in the Air. Based on the 9 I've seen, I think this has been a great year in film to bring back 10 nominations. It's safe to say that, like it or not, Avatar, with its 9 nominations, will probably clean up. I just hope it doesn't cast a shadow over the other deserving nominations.

Here are my predictions for who/what will win in this year's categories:

- Best Picture: Avatar. Most people are thinking it's between this and The Hurt Locker but I think District 9 should get more credit here. Because it was freakin' awesome. What they should do is make an exception and enter director Kathryn Bigelow's Point Break instead of The Hurt Locker and just let it win everything.

- Actor in a Leading Role: Tough call here...especially since I haven't seen any of these films yet. I'm between Jeff Bridges, Colin Firth and Morgan Freeman. Interestingly, both Bridges and Freeman have been nominated 5 times between leading and supporting role...Freeman has won once for supporting...and this is Colin Firth's first nomination. Based on that, I'm narrowing it down to between Jeff Bridges and Colin Firth and saying that Colin Firth wins it.

- Actor in a Supporting Role: Another tough call since I've only seen one of these films (Inglorious Basterds). Christoph Waltz was fantastic in that role and I'd love to see him win but I'm thinking this goes to either Matt Damon or Woody Harrelson. Damon has one win under his belt for writing Good Will Hunting and I'm thinking he's picking up his second here.

- Actress in a Leading Role: I've seen all of these roles except Helen Mirren's. Sandra Bullock was surprisingly good in The Blind Side but it's easy to be surprised considering her past acting gigs. Meryl Streep did an amazing job as Julia Child but I'm going out on a limb and saying that Carey Mulligan steals this one.

- Actress in a Supporting Role: I've only seen one of these roles: Mo'Nique in Precious. And she deserves this win. I think she'll take it.

- Animated Feature Film: Don't yell at me, but I think Up is a little bit overrated. That said, it's the only nomination I've seen and considering all the buzz about it, it's safe to say that it will win.

- Art Direction: Avatar

- Cinematography: The Hurt Locker

- Costume Design: Straight up guess on this one, but it seems whenever there's a Victorian-era British nominee, it wins...so I'll say The Young Victoria.

- Directing: Here's the tough call of the night...James Cameron or Kathryn Bigelow? I'm hoping Kathryn Bigelow but thinking it will be James Cameron.

- Documentary Feature: I've seen 2 of these, The Cove and Food Inc. I'd be happy seeing either of them win but think that considering the lengths that the crew went to in The Cove, that it should win.

- Film Editing: District 9 deserves to win something and I think this is probably the one it could take.

- Music (Original Score): Avatar

- Sound Editing: The Hurt Locker

- Sound Mixing: Avatar

- Visual Effects: Avatar

- Writing (Adapted Screenplay): I'm torn here. I like Nick Hornby's writing style (An Education) but I don't think it will win here. District 9 is one hell of a screenplay but I'm thinking Up in the Air might steal it.

- Writing (Original Screenplay): Give it to Tarantino!! Personal favorite aside, Tarantino knows how to write dialogue and I think he'll take this one unless the Academy gets all snooty about his violence. We'll see.

Enjoy the show...let me know if you agree/disagree.

2010 Winter Olympics

The opening ceremony of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver is tomorrow night. Personally, I'm more of a fan of the Summer Olympics but I should also mention that if there were such a thing as "ESPN Ocho," I'd definitely watch it. What I mean to say is I'd even watch rock-paper-scissors competitions if they were on TV, so I'm pretty lenient on the types of competitive sports that I'll watch. I've caught myself watching juggling, cheerleading, table tennis and even darts.

The last time the Winter Olympics were on, in 2006, I was studying abroad in Ireland. The TV stations seemed to show nothing BUT curling, easily the most boring of all events (did that stop me from watching hours of it? of course not)

Now that I'll have exposure to more than curling, here are the events that I'll look forward to:

-Biathalon [Day 7 (Thur, 2/18)]: The Women's 15 km and Men's 20 km individual medal competitions are on this day. I don't think I've ever actually watched the biathalon - it's the one where you ski with a gun on your back, stopping at intervals to shoot targets.

-Bobsled [Women's Team (Day 12-13); Men's Team (Day 15-16)]: Feel the rhythm, feel the rhyme, get on up, it's bobsled time! Unfortunately, Jamaica is not competing this year, but I suppose I'll watch it anyway.

-Freestyle Skiing - Aerials [Medal Rounds: Women's - Day 13 (Wed., 2/24); Men's - Day 14 (Thur., 2/25)]: I've more or less competed in a similar event to this. It takes a lot of guts to fly off a huge ramp about 5 stories into the air. I've only sustained minor injuries competing in the Wii Fit version (more of a Ski Jump actually), but I suppose this is a little more realistic.

-Freestyle Skiing - Ski Cross [Men's - Day 10 (Sun., 2/21); Women's - Day 12 (Tues., 2/23)]: This is the first year of this event, which is similar to the snowboard cross - four riders at once racing down turns and jumps to the finish. I watched some of the Snowboard and Ski Cross from the recent X-Games; should be the most intense event.

-Hockey - USA plays Switzerland on Day 5 (Tues., 2/16), Norway on Day 7 (Thurs., 2/18) and Canada on Day 10 (Sun., 2/21). I'm kind of scared to see any of the Women's Hockey.

-Snowboarding - Half Pipe/Snow Cross (Days 4-7) - Check out all the stoners catch some wicked air and hopefully Shaun White won't land on his face like he did at the X-Games.

Other events to check out:

-Luge (Days 2-6)
-Skeleton (Days 7-8)
-Speed Skating (Pretty much every day)

Enjoy the Olympic Games...GO USA!

Superbowl XLIV Commercials

New Orleans won the Superbowl last night, upsetting the Colts but making most of the country happy for a city that could use an ego boost like a football championship. I'm glad it was a good game, but I certainly was not dazzled by the millions of dollars spent on advertising. First of all, it's tough to think about any company spending millions on a 15, 30 or 60 second spot when our economy is in the toilet. You would think that if one did though, they'd come out with some big guns.

Bud Light is known for being one of the more humorous collections of advertisements and they more or less continued that reputation, though most of them fell flat: the voice box one, the house made of bud light, and the asteroid coming at Earth. However, one of my favorites all night was this one:



Monster.com had a very bizarre spot (the one with the beaver playing violin) which wasn't very memorable. Alternatively, their competition, Careerbuilder, had the other favorite of mine:



Most of the other spots were either very bizarre, subpar or just not good. One or two of the Doritos ads were pretty good, but overall I thought the collection was just OK and found myself questioning why Doritos is pushing advertising so much. The Snickers ad was good but personally I liked their "play on celebrity names" campaign better (Kick your hunger with Adam Nougateri, Get dunked on by Patrick Chewing, etc.) The Google ad was heart-warming of course. The E-Trade ads were good, but not as good as in the past.

So overall, I'm glad the game was good, I'm happy that the Saints won but I definitely was not as impressed with the commercials as I've been in the past.

NBC Tonight Show Debacle

By now, you've probably heard about the situation with Jay Leno's time slot. If not, you probably know that last year, there were speculations of Jay Leno retiring since his contract with NBC was up and Conan O'Brien would take over his spot. As it turned out, Jay Leno did not retire and NBC took a bold step to create a 10:00 time slot for him, saving money from what used to air at the time, drama shows such as Law & Order. Conan took over the 11:35 slot and Jimmy Fallon started a show in Conan's old spot, at 12:35. Before all of these moves, Leno was the #1 late night talk show host in ratings.

Since the move, however, Conan's ratings are almost half as high as Leno's used to be. And Leno's ratings in his new time slot are about the same, not nearly as high as previous 10:00 shows. This caused complaints from NBC-affiliated programs, particularly 11:00 news programs who saw a drop in viewers apparently due to a weak lead-in by Leno.

So news dropped this past week that Leno may move back to his old 11:35 slot and speculations are that it would be cut to a half-hour, moving Conan to 12:05 and Jimmy Fallon to 1:05. Naturally, and rightly so, stories are empathizing for Conan. He has a contract with NBC but rumors are circulating that he could change networks, possibly to Fox. Amidst all of this, I haven't heard anything about the effect this has on Jimmy Fallon.

Which brings me to my opinion on this matter...

Jay Leno is not funny. I can't understand America's obsession with him. Sure, I've watched him occasionally, more times than not for the guests on his show. Ironically, I've probably watched more of him at the 10:00 slot because I hardly ever watched him at 11:35. However, his writing is weak, most of his segments are lame and Kevin Eubanks is probably the worst of all tonight show/late night accompanying musicians (and Craig Ferguson doesn't even have one). I've heard his group play the same stuff over and over, including a horrible rendition of Kings of Leon's "Use Somebody."

Conan, on the other hand, is funny. However, he was much funnier in his previous time and place. I'm glad that Andy Richter returned, but Conan's writers are also often weak and some of his new segments are just annoying. That said, he doesn't deserve to be jerked around like this because ultimately, he's funnier than Leno and ratings don't disprove that.

Which brings me to Jimmy Fallon. I was a little skeptical when he was announced as Conan's replacement and watching his nerves get the best of him his first week on air worried me a little bit. However, he's quickly become my favorite of all of the talk shows. His writing is actually good and even when it's subpar, he finds a way to deliver it well. He interacts really well with all of his guests and you can tell that he's just a genuinely nice guy. He's developed some great segments such as "Lick it for 10," "The Real Housewives of Late Night," and "Wheel of Carpet Samples." He plays beer pong and board games with his guests such as charades and taboo. He interacts with the crowd, getting them involved in games and other segments. Plus, he books quality musical acts, a lot of whom are indie groups and celebrities that you don't see on the other shows. And oh yea...his band is the freakin' Roots!

Point being...Jimmy Fallon needs to get a little more respect amidst all of this time shift controversy. He's already topped Conan's average viewers at that time slot multiple times and I'd watch him over Leno every day of the week. Our country needs to improve its average taste for entertainment.

Three Sheets Coming Back This Month!

The one topic that I've followed up on over a few times on this blog is a TV show called Three Sheets, a travel show about drinking customs and hangover rituals. Based on that fact alone, it's obvious that I'm contributing to the formation of geniuses.

In short, the show was solely on an HD-network called MOJO which ceased operations, thus ceasing the operations of the show itself. However, it was easily the most popular program on that network and through rallies to save the show and get it signed to a different network, it found a new home. Back in April, I posted about that good news.

This month, starting July 20th the fourth season of the series with the amusing, fun-loving host by the name of Zane Lamprey will begin airing on its new home, the Fine Living Network. Lamprey has gone from sharing a network with gambling addicts, technology fiends, and demolition enthusiasts to one with a Martha Stewart show. So obviously he's more at home on FLN. Joking aside, I'm definitely happy that Zane Lamprey found a new home to continue his career of getting tipsy on TV and hope that it continues for seasons to come.

Tune in July 20th if you have FLN! This season includes trips to New Zealand, Tanzania, Lithuania, St. Martin, Cape Town, Hawaii, Iceland, Poland, Barbados, Panama, Namibia, Tuscany, Barbados, Tahiti, New Castle, Hamburg, Lesvos, and Amsterdam.

Cheers Zane!

RIP Billy Mays

Billy Mays, famous for yelling at us to buy things that we don't really need, has unfortunately passed away according to reports that his wife found him dead in their Florida home this morning. The police found no break-ins and suspect no foul play. If there were foul play though, I'd know who to blame...let me elaborate...

Billy Mays and fellow pitchman Anthony "Sully" Sullivan appeared on The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien just 5 days ago, largely to promote their new show on the Discovery Channel called Pitchmen.

Conan humorously brought out some of the products that the two guys had pitched and had them demonstrate their use. Conan also fueled some fire by bringing up the ShamWow, knowing that Billy Mays had a bone to pick with the annoyingly hypnotic pitch of fame done by an odd-looking fellow named Vince Shlomi.

Why "a bone to pick" you ask? Well because Billy Mays pitched the "Zorbeez" before the "ShamWow" came onto the scene and they're both pretty much the same product. Watch below and see the Zorbeez vs. the ShamWow:



Obviously this Vince character is a sham (*cue the rim shot*) Basically the only difference between the two pitches is that Vince is wearing a headset...but why?? Looking into the end-all be-all truth that is Wikipedia, it turns out Vince has had his fair share of legal battles...

Shlomi made a comedy of sorts called The Underground Comedy Movie which was met with horrendous reviews. Vince accused the Farrelly brothers of stealing scenes from his movie for There's Something About Mary, to which the brothers basically said "We don't even know who you are." Vince also sued Anna Nicole Smith for not committing to the movie.

More recently, Vince was arrested in Florida for felony battery against a prostitute (see frightening mug shot at above-left).

My point is that this ShamWow guy doesn't have his morals in check and looks pretty damn sketchy. It turns out that the Zorbeez and ShamWow are distributed by the same company, which led to Billy Mays and Vince Shlomi sharing a box at the most recent SuperBowl. Mays was on Adam Corolla's radio show soon after the game and challenged Vince to a threatening pitch-off:



A long audio clip, but of most importance is the end, around the 4:00 mark or so, when Billy gets real heated and makes the challenge.

Did Vince Shlomi accept the challenge and take it too far? Did jealousy and greed escalate in this battle of absorbent towels?

Obviously, I'm exaggerating and don't seriously believe that there was any foul play. Ultimately, however, I'm sure this whole incident added some unneeded stress to Mays' life. My sympathies go out to his family and may he rest in peace. The world will never have a television pitchman of his caliber ever again.

Also, don't buy anything that's pitched by Shlomi.

T-Mobile Public Ads

It's comforting and entertaining to see genuine reactions from regular people, which is why hidden camera ads and ads based on guerilla marketing have grown in popularity. T-mobile has launched a couple of creative, inspiring advertisements with the tagline, "Life's for sharing," based on public displays in the UK.

These campaigns were created by the worldwide advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi who follows the motto, "Nothing is Impossible." A quick look through their site shows that this worldwide agency is very creative and their work will definitely grab your attention.

Here's the first video that featured a group of choreographed dancers, performing suddenly in a Liverpool station:



The video, captured by hidden cameras around the station, was cut down and featured on prime time on a UK TV station, as was this second video from London at Trafalgar Square just last week. This video only features one song, though apparently multiple songs were sung that day:

Three Sheets Was Saved!

You may remember I posted about an excellent show, Three Sheets, that was taken off the air because its home, the MOJO Network, was eliminated. Zane Lamprey, the boozin' host of the show called out to his many fans for help, asking them to email networks and join him in some Pub Crawls to fight for a new home for the show.

Well I just checked his website and it sounds like all of it paid off! Hooray! A few weeks ago, Zane posted that a network will be broadcasting the old episodes of Three Sheets and most likely shooting a new season of the show. However, Zane mentioned that said network wants to make the announcement so we'll have to stay tuned; the good news, however, is that this new network is apparently accessed by 65 million homes as opposed to MOJO, which only had 10 million viewers. So chances are I, and you, will see it. Zane also mentioned that the support has landed him some other projects which he will get into later...

No!!!!

Fabio

So the Top Chef season ended...if you didn't see the finale, and you plan to, stop reading. Otherwise, you know, or don't care, that Hosea won. The finale was pretty anticlimactic; it might of been more exciting had Fabio not been eliminated in the second to last episode.

I admitted my man-crush on Fabio in atleast one previous post, but I'm definitely not alone; he was voted fan-favorite. How could he not be with his funny Italian accent and his constant quips? I bring this up post-season because he may not have won "Top Chef" but I think he'll do just fine after his exposure on the show.

In addition to Bravo offering the "I <3 Fabio" t-shirt on their site, it seems that Fabio's been quite busy since the end of the show:

• Ducati (Italian motorbikes): image licensing
• Dr. Oetker Frozen Pizza: spokesperson
• Pellegrino: "huge deal"
• Food & Wine/Gail Simmons: "The Sparkling Life" national campaign
• Deals in talks: Red Bull and Don Q Rum; many talk shows
• Possible TV Show?
• 2 New Restaurant Openings in California
• 14-City Book Tour starting next month for new book: "Cafe Firenze"
• 2nd Book in the works
• Website launch: www.kidshealthcafe.com

Damn! In Fabio's words, "How 'bout that? Not bad at all!"

For those who are not Top Chef junkies, here is a little video to introduce you to this character:

Jimmy Fallon's Late Night Debut

You're probably aware that Jimmy Fallon is officially a late night host after the premiere of his new show last night in Conan's previous slot. I just turned my brain into "mushy mush" by watching most of it on Hulu and you can tell that he was a bit nervous, but he seemed to have done a pretty good job. I'm sure once he gets into the swing of it, he'll start doing a great job. Guests were Bobby De Niro (he lets me call him that), Justin Timberlake and Van Morrison. De Niro...well, he's De Niro...he doesn't have to say a word because he's the man. The highlight of the show was probably the interview with Justin Timberlake - I think they should probably give J-Timb his own show. His impressions of Michael McDonald and John Mayer were hilarious. See the JT interview here:



Now...it's obvious that Jimmy has the best band of all the talk show hosts in history: The freakin' Roots aka The Legendary Roots Crew aka The 5th Dynasty. I don't think anyone has ever flipped around the TV and said, "Gee, I'm going to put on Conan to see Max Weinberg" or "I want to hear what Paul Shaffer has to say tonight." The Roots, however, could definitely do that for people. They did an awesome job, but my only question is...who the hell is this bassist???


Leonard Hubbard needs to rejoin the group; unfortunately, he left the group about a year and a half ago (not sure exactly why), but he definitely looks way cooler jamming out than this white guy.

Ad Jingles

We all know businesses advertise so that we'll remember, be reminded and be persuaded. One great way to do this is to create an original theme song or jingle of some type, in hopes that it will stick in our head all day long like a bad 80's song (wait a minute...bad 80's? that's an oxymoron...80's music rocks).

I find myself whistling the Old Spice jingle in the shower as I pick up the Old Spice shower gel. Or whistling along to the Taco Bell commercials. In fact, one day I was going crazy because I couldn't figure out how one of those FreeCreditReport.com songs went (eventually I saw the commercial again, figured it out, and heard it in my head for the following week)...F to the R to the E to the E to the C to the R to the E-D-I-T, RE to the PORT to the DOT to the COM, come on everybody grab your bike and sing along...(you're welcome!) And don't even tell me the $5 foot long song hasn't been stuck in your head for hours.

The FreeCreditReport.com commercials bring up an interesting point though...the whole commercial is a song, but they change that song from commercial to commercial as I'm sure you've seen. In older times, brands would create long jingles and use them again and again. That was when people didn't have the luxury of DVR or DVDs. Most "jingles" you hear nowadays are a few seconds long like the whistles I mentioned.

I bring this topic up because I heard a radio commercial earlier today for Mohegan Sun Casino. Rather than coming up with a short wordless jingle or an original jingle, Mohegan Sun takes somewhat of a disastrous hybrid route: using an existing song and changing the words. They've butchered "Walk Like an Egyptian" and I dread the day when I have to hear the other one, which apparently uses "Sweet Home Alabama." They have television commercials that do the same thing with other songs except you get the honor of seeing people dancing around like choreographed jackasses.

Feel free to witness the ruination of Rick James for yourself:



No thanks MoHo...I'll stick with the CT Lottery to blow my money.

Sorry For the Hiatus...Top Chef Update

So...when I blogged about a month ago about Top Chef and mentioned that I would make an update once 6 contestants are left, I did NOT mean I would NOT post about anything else UNTIL then. I apologize...blog topics have been running through my mind left and right and yet I still managed to pull a 3 week stint without a single post...the longest stretch since this blog started.

That said, I'll have to fulfill the promise I made in my last post, and hopefully this post will get me back on track. If it doesn't, I'll post a video of me singing "Beat It" on Guitar Hero: World Tour...seriously...if that doesn't give me motivation, I don't know what will.

So on to Top Chef...which is on again tonight with 6 contestants left. It turns out I was 5 for 6: the final 6 are Fabio, Stefan, Leah, Hosea, Jamie and...Carla? Noone in their right mind is cheering for Carla and that includes her husband. Her bug-eyes bruise us and her comments about putting "love" into her food should have her automatically eliminated. And yet I have a feeling that she'll last another night. So who will bite it tonight? I'm going with Leah.

She flirted with Hosea, something abnormal in the Top Chef series, and it took her and Hosea off their game. I think Hosea will recover...I don't think Leah did last week and I think it'll screw her up tonight.

I'm still liking Fabio, but it's really hard to predict at this point who will win. Once it gets down and gritty, the judges throw some serious toss-ups to the chefs and it seems like they try to top it every season. What happens from here on out will happen, and I'm very excited to see it.

Save 3 Sheets!

Believe it or not, it's December 1st (excuse me for the week-long hiatus). If you have HD TV, you may have been among the many lucky ones to get the channel MOJO. I say "have been" because as of today, the network is gone...if you tune into whatever channel you used to watch it on, you will see a message saying that it has "ceased operations."

MOJO, an HD-only network, was much like Spike TV...programming mainly targeted for men: drinking, sports, technology, gambling, etc. By far, the best program on the channel was a show called Three Sheets. The show involves an eccentric host by the name of Zane Lamprey, who travels around the world and learns (and thus educates the viewer) about drinking traditions in whatever city he is visiting. He tries new drinks, find out about how they're made and always tries a new hangover ritual in each episode. It's informative, interesting and above all, funny. The best thing about the show is Zane Lamprey's personality.

Without its home network however, Three Sheets has no home. Logically, I would think Spike TV would pick up this show, which has 15 new episodes ready to go with 5 in the works...but as of yet, no network has grabbed at the opportunity. Well, if you're a fan, or if you're eager to check out the show after reading my awesome summary, you can go to this site and fight for Zane's right to party...and make a living while doing it.

Fight for Zane! As he put it, don't let him become "that guy who used to host that drinking show."

Top Chef - Season 5

Top Chef is a reality cooking competition show on Bravo that just started its 5th season. It has the standard elements of a reality competition show in the sense that it creates drama and tension, reeling in viewers to watch every week to see what happens and to see who will win or lose. Bravo's website even has a fantasy competition game. There are always chefs that you want to win and those that you want to go down in flames. A large basis of my love for this show is my admiration for the skills of the contestants. Like many others, I have a deep appreciation for fine food and cooking and many of the contestants that have competed on this program are artists of this craft. It's amazing to see how quickly and creatively they can create dishes based on the sometimes absurd and shocking situations that they are given in order to do so.

After having just watched the first episode of season 5, here are some of my predictions, which will likely change down the line...

My initial prediction for the top 6:

• Stefan - I knew before even watching the first episode that this guy would be trouble...on the Bravo website, they have headshots of everyone - this guy is the only one not smiling.
• Fabio - Okay, this guy's name is ruined by the model of "I can't believe it's not butter" fame, but he is definitely Italian so he knows his stuff...the question is whether he'll know his stuff when it comes to cooking other than Italian food, but I think he'll still make it far.
• Gene - This guy is all tatted up - he's from Hawaii and he moved to Vegas and has no "culinary education"...but he looks like the real deal to me. School of Hard Knocks.
• Hosea - I haven't seen a lot to judge this guy yet, but he looks serious, experienced and competitive.
• Jamie - Again, I'm going with the badass physique as with Gene to go with, but I think she won't take crap from anyone and she'll bull her way through.
• Leah - The NY native, she has the advantage of being exposed to such a culinary versatile city on a daily basis and she proved to be a top contender on the first episode.

Now...on the other hand...the people that I think will be eliminated in the next few weeks (in this order)...

• Radhika - she squeezed by on both the quick fire and the elimination challenge on the first episode. She does not seem very competitive at all and she wants to prove that she has more to offer than Indian cooking...but I don't think it will happen.
• Carla - She seems confident but something strikes me that she will not go far in this competition.
• Danny - although his over-the-top Long Island 'tude would go far in the dramatic aspect of the show, I think his personality might give him problems in any team challenge
• Jeff - this guy seems way too vain. Either prepare your food or prepare your hair style dude.

So those are my initial predictions...I hope the loyal viewers are excited and enjoy this season and I hope some people might try watching for the first time...