Video Beat - AMAZING RACE USA HAS BALLS VISITS CAMBODIA - THE SET UP TO FAIL ON THE CELEBRITY APPRENTICE

James Loving - National Radio Text Service

It took big brass balls for the Amazing Race USA edition to be the first to visit Cambodia. The producers did a commendable job in filming the true spirit of Cambodia by showing places and people who are really what Cambodia is all about… poor who get on with the job of survival. - It took just one week for Kiss bassist Gene Simmons to go from a solid Celebrity Apprentice Project Manager to where he lost the plot and the task due to his stubbornness and befriending someone who did an inadequate job of getting the right information in a product meeting.- AMAZING RACE ASIA DOWN TO FINAL 4 - PRODUCERS HOLD ONE MORE TRUMP CARD - MISSING PERSONS ... - Recommended TV Listings

Sunday November 2, 2008

AMAZING RACE USA TO CAMBODIA

With the paranoia projected by Thais towards tourists intending to visit Cambodia it took big brass balls for the Amazing Race USA edition to be the first to visit the realm. They producers did a commendable job in filming the true spirit of Cambodia by showing places and people who are really what Cambodia is all about… poor who get on with the job of survival.

The first scenes were of the Tonle Sap Lake the largest in Asia and the floating village where people are friendly and appreciate visitors. Though I'm very experienced with the area the Amazing Race showed sites that I wasn't aware of but will make it a point to visit. The most interesting site to me was a floating basketball court. Now I have to do that and that's a for sure.

On a task by boat is the Tonle Sap Lake the girl team of Kelly and Christy observed the people who live in a floating village. The villager's waves and smiles were abundant which prompted them to say, "It broke my hart to see the abject poverty these people are living in but they get on with it."

Ty another contestant was in last place and in a hurry to reach the next task. Haste or not he blurted out, "Man this place is beautiful."

I've traveled the road to catch a boat to Phnom Penh where Ty made the remark. It is beautiful and raw. The raw is what makes it so beautiful. It is McDonadls LESS and that's a good thing.

After the tasks on the lake the contestants headed off to the famous Angkor Wat to find a clue. What they all found out that other than being beautiful the grounds of Angkor are huge with many steps which are quite narrow. I wear a size 13 and had to walk up the steps with my foot sideways.

Nick who is teamed with his sister Starr remarked about Angkor Wat, "It was daunting, it was huge. It seems like a world wonder." And that it is.

As the show ended the pit stop was at the Bayon Temple.

MONDAY the new episodes are televised. Repeats are indicated on the schedule below.

8:00 PM - AMAZING RACE USA - AXN - NEW EPISODE

11:00 PM - AMAZING RACE USA - AXN - repeat

GENE SIMMONS FROM SOLID TO ABYSMAL ON CELEBRITY APPRENTICE

It took just one week for Kiss bassist Gene Simmons to go from a solid Project Manager (The decision maker) to where he lost the plot and the task due to his stubbornness and befriending someone who did an inadequate job of getting the right information in a product meeting.

For those who don't know, in a negative business environment sometimes people are intentionally set up to fail so there is a reason to fire them. In this case Simmons relied on someone who didn't do the job properly and then compounded his poor judgment by playing the blame game on the wrong people and Donald Trump had to say the magic words, "You're fired."

The first bad decision was Simmons refused to have his team meet with the Kodak product managers about the product they wanted to sell an ink cartridge. Kodak wanted to show how efficient and cost saving it was. They demonstrated by having two stacks of paper on the desk with about a 5-1 ratio. The point being was that their cartridge printed about five times more pages than their competitors for the same price.

TV producer and executive Nely Galán and super model Carol Alt were sent to the meeting by Simmons who wanted to stay behind and focus on his vision of Kodak. He came up with a slogan, 'It's A Kodak World and everybody lives in it.'

At the meeting Galán interrupted the Kodak executives and rambled on much to their displeasure. Due to her talking too much and listening too little she missed their point and gave Simmons inadequate information of what the product focus should be.

The irony was at the beginning of the episode Trump asked Simmons to be the woman's Project Manager reasoning that Simmons wins and he likes girls. Simmons also liked Galán, perhaps too much as she was his point person.

When the men won the task and stretched their undefeated record to 3-0 the man from Kiss didn't want to bring Galán into the board room. Surprisingly he chose Omarosa and Trump couldn't understand why. When Trump pressed for a second choice Simmons chose Jennie Finch who won Gold medals in the Olympics as a member of the US softball team.

Since Trump felt neither had anything to do with the loss and that Galán did she, and not they should be in the board room as a candidate to be fired. Simmons defended himself and was adamant about not attending the Kodak meeting and insisted that the executives were wrong and that he was standing by his decision not to attend.

He also was unwavering is his decision to stand by Galan and not call her into the board room noting that he would always stand behind people he would hire.

When Omarosa pointed out to Trump that Simmons didn't know what the product was to be sold Simmons guessed and was wrong. The bottom line is Simmons was undone by his poor judgment and loyalty to Galán who proved to be a poor performer.

But Omarosa summed it up this way, "He doesn't support women who don't do anything for him." Hmmmm I wonder what she meant about that? And so it goes as did the obstinate Simmons.

NOTE:

Former UFC mixed martial arts champion Tito Ruiz won as Project Manager.

A new episode airs Wednesday night on the Star World Channel.

The contestants include famous talent from sports, recording artist, actress and models.

The contestants include:

* Trace Adkins - recording artist

* Carol Alt - model

* Stephen Baldwin - actor

* Jennie Finch - Olympic Gold medal winner

* Nely Galán - Entertainment business executive

* Marilu Henner - actress

* Lennox Lewis - former heavyweight boxing champion

* Omarosa - controversial former Apprentice contestant

* Tito Ortiz - former UFC champion (Ultimate Fighting Championships)

* Vincent Pastore - actor 'The Sporanos'

* Gene Simmons - formerly of the rock group KISS and currently of his own reality TV show Gene Simmons & His Family Jewels. - Fired week 3

* Nadia Comaneci - Olympic Gold medal winner - Fired 2nd week

* Tiffany Fallon - Playboy Playmate/Miss Georgia USA 2001 - Fired 1st week

Only four teams remain as the Malaysian team of Bernie and her brother Henry were eliminated this past week. A missed changing flight connection from Hong Kong to India sent them to the back of the pack and they never caught up. Their nemesis Tish and Geoff who represent the Philippines were the first team to arrive at the pit stop for the second consecutive week.

Geoff seems to be toning down his act since Tish let him know that she was getting annoyed by his disrespectful behavior. With one more non elimination leg of the race remaining the producers of the show have one more unused trump card when they can manipulate who will be the final three teams to fight it out for the US $100,000 first prize.

Actress Ida and heiress Tania seem to be the producers choice to be in the final three since they previously finished last two consecutive weeks and were honored with those famous words by host Alan Wu, "This is a pre determined non elimination leg of the race."

This past week they finished third after waiting out a 30 minute penalty for their punishment for their previous weeks last place finish.

Our favorites A.D. and Fuzzie are still huffing and puffing their way to the final three when they finished second in the last race. Fuzzie is a handicap since she is carrying a lot of weight and as she says, "Fuzzie doesn't do physical stuff."

The good news is A.D. started chewing gum again in the last race after not doing so the previous week. Our concern is the she is being harassed by Singapore's chewing gum police for giving the city/country a bad image. We say chew on to victory A.D. and Fuzzie.

A new episode of the show airs Thursday nights on AXN with repeats throughout the week, please note the schedule below.

MISSING PERSONS is an interesting show on the Australia Network. A new episode is presented Thursday nights. The program consists of real life investigations in finding missing persons. During one episode they search for several individuals. What makes this show a bit more interesting is they follow an individual and before finding them they cut to another. They eventually return to the first person searched for. This interlacing of cases prevents boredom as a viewer may be interested in one case over the other and will stay with the program until they find out if the person is found or not. A read on the Australian culture and how they think is another interesting aspect of the program. On a five star rating we rate this as a 3 star *** as a must watch.

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TV SCHEDULE

Note: The shows listed are for the Cambodia - Thailand time zone. Check your local listings for time in your area.

NOTE TIMES AT OF THE SAME TELECAST IN VARIOUS COUNTRIES

SUNDAY

10:00 AM - AMAZING RACE ASIA 3 - AXN - repeat

3:00 PM - JAY LENO - CNBC

4:00 PM - LARRY KING - CNN - Airs daily

7:00 PM - AMAZING RACE ASIA 3 - AXN - repeat

8:00 PM - America's Next TOP MODEL with Tyra Banks - Channel V

9:00 PM - JAY LENO - CNBC

Midnight - America's Next TOP MODEL with Tyra Banks - Channel V

4:00 PM - LARRY KING - CNN - Airs daily

8:00 PM - AMAZING RACE USA - AXN - NEW EPISODE

10:30 PM - CLICK (Internet Technology program) - BBC

11:00 PM - AMAZING RACE USA - AXN - repeat

4:00 PM - AMAZING RACE USA - AXN - repeat

5:00 PM - LARRY KING - CNN - Airs daily

7:00 PM - AMAZING RACE ASIA 3 AXN - repeat

11:00 PM - AMAZING RACE ASIA 3 AXN - repeat

12 NOON - FRONTLINE - Australia Network

3:00 PM - AMAZING RACE ASIA 3 AXN - repeat

4:00 PM - LARRY KING - CNN - Airs daily

10:00 PM - THE CELEBRITY APPRENTICE - Star World

12:00 PM - THE CELEBRITY APPRENTICE - Star World

4:00 PM - LARRY KING - CNN - Airs daily

8:00 PM - AMAZING RACE ASIA 3 AXN - New Episode

10:00 PM - MISSING PERSONS - Australia Network

11:00 PM - AMAZING RACE ASIA 3 AXN - repeat

11:00 AM - AMAZING RACE ASIA 3 AXN - repeat

4:00 PM - LARRY KING - CNN - Airs daily

4:30 PM - CLICK (Internet Technology program) - BBC

8:00 PM - America's Next TOP MODEL with Tyra Banks - Channel V

SATURDAY

7:30 AM - CLICK (Internet Technology program) - BBC

9:00 AM - AMAZING RACE USA - AXN - repeat

3:00 PM - JAY LENO - CNBC

4:00 PM - LARRY KING - CNN - Airs daily

7:00 PM - AMAZING RACE USA - AXN - repeat

7:00 PM - THE BEST OF SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE - (1 1/2 hr) Star World channel

9:00 PM - JAY LENO - CNBC

10:00 PM - AMAZING RACE ASIA 3 - AXN - repeat

11:00 PM - THE BEST OF SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE - Star World channel

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