I really hope it's Richard v. Stephanie in the Top Chef finals.

I am terrified that Stephanie is going to be the LeeAnn of this season! Especially after her last couple meh outings.

I agree, Nikki was the right person to go home. I couldn't believe she was abdicting the leader role like that. WTF? Also, it was nicely foreshadowed when she was all, "um, mayo??" and Dale said to the camera, "what are you still DOING HERE?" To which I say, SERIOUSLY.

The QF was awesome. As Bravo has obstinately refused to marathon season 3 of Top Chef, choosing instead to marathon seasons 1 and 2, the only thing I'd seen like that before was on the first episode of the Next Iron Chef, where it was an individual timed thing.

Survivor: Cirie, you are my hero. I seriously hope she wins this one. I have never laughed so hard in my life during a tribal council.

Serial:

I'd heard previous to the episode that last night's Survivor featured the dumbest move possible with a SHOCKING TC, so I was on the lookout for it. I was kind of thinking it would be Parvati not looking for the idol and then a surprise power play at TC, until Cirie said the words, "why don't you get him to give you the necklace?" Then I KNEW.

What I think is great/smart is that each jury member is actually excited to watch what happens. This may be the first time that most of the jury is actually okay with being outwitted--'cause damn those girls are good.

They played it exactly right. The right person went to exile, the right person approached Erik, the right person played the role of the "swing" voter.

I KNOW! It was a great episode. Oh, Erik, you're such a golden retriever puppy of a guy. Likable, eager, and STUPID.

Loved it. It is going to be fun to see how the four remaining women play the endgame.

HA! From this morning's Programming Insider email:

Before I get into the overnights rating results, let me focus on CBS' Survivor: Micronesia for a moment. Erik…are you crazy? Nuts? Cuckoo? Meshugenah? Could you believe he fell for that scheme to give the immunity necklace to Natalie? As James appropriately noted, this is now the dumbest move in the history of the Survivor franchise. All I can say at this point is…go Cirie!

It's everywhere.

Oh. My. God.

I'm finally caught up on Survivor. I've mainlined it over the last three days. Best. Survivor. Ever. SO HILARIOUS!

I'm very tempted to change my tag to "Because it's just a stick."

Oh man, I kept thinking about you catching up and how much fun you were going to have. There have been truly epic levels of fail the last few weeks.

OMG! Promos are fair game here, right? Sam Talbot back on Top Chef!!

Catching up on the last couple of weeks of Top Chef -

The $10 at Whole Foods thing wasn't as bad as I expected. But that rice challenge - what the fuck was that? I don't object to product placement, but I draw the line at actual pre-cooked convenience foods. Even the junk food thing required people to go a little crazy - this was just purely in service to the advertiser.

Am so so over Top Caterer. Can we get back to the real cooking please?

Now back to watch Survivor again. Hee!

Sam is the guest judge, right?

I read elsewhere that Hung is also going to be a guest judge.