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48. Hell's Kitchen 4

Wikipedia
Reality Blurred Archive

Season 4 of the American competitive reality television series Hell's Kitchen began airing on the Fox Network starting on April 1, 2008.^[1][2] The show was originally planned to air later in the season, but instead was aired as a replacement for shows that were affected by the 2007-2008 Writers Guild of America strike.^[1]

The winner will be installed as a "senior sous chef" with a $250,000 salary at Gordon Ramsay at the London West Hollywood^[3][4] - not an executive chef as mentioned in show-related publicity and press releases.^[5] The London West Hollywood restaurant opened on May 27, 2008, while the series was still on-air.^[3][4]

This season's winner was Christina Machamer.

After I got hooked with season 3, I became a full-on fan of Hell's Kitchen. So Hell's Kitchen 4 comes along, and god damn is this cast a joke. But that's why we watch, right? Let's jump into this.

1. Master of Disguise. Ramsay decided to start this season disguised as a contestant so he can eavesdrop as the other idiots made asses of themselves. There was some good material, mainly Bobby calling himself "The Black Gordon Ramsay," which Ramsay grilled him for for a few weeks. Good stuff.
   
2. Vanessa. She wasn't spectacular, but she wasn't horrible either. She burned her hand during service, requiring medical attention. She still managed to fight for awhile until she quit because of her injury.
3. Ben. For some reason, I thought he had a winner's edit, but it turns out it was a "nice guy who was in over his head" edit instead. The guy seemed like he had potential at first, but the further the show went on, the more he started sucking. He left around halfway through the show. So much for that.
   
4. Louross. He was a short weird-looking dude, and Ramsey never hesitated to mock his height. He was somewhat competent at times and looked like he had a decent shot to win, but he didn't make it far. Oh well.
5. Matt. What the fuck was this guy doing there? He sucked ass a lot of the time, everyone hated him, and he was fucking psychotic. The fact that he even made it to the F6 was crazy. The guy was batshit insane and a horrible cook, even though he had some rare moments of competence. It was weird to watch.
6. Bobby. The Black Gordon Ramsey. Initially he came off as an arrogant buffoon, but eventually he became one of the more competent players, performing consistently strong in services. He screwed up in F5 though, and that cost him the game. Still a class act despite his initial appearance.
7. Jen. Wow, talk about obnoxious. That bitch had a big-ass mouth and was always yapping about moronic shit. She kept going on and on about how great she was and how much everyone sucked and she was always so fucking loud and annoying and SHUT THE FUCK UP. At least Matt, as incompetent and moronic as he was, was somewhat enjoyable to watch. Jen was just intolerable to watch, as she was always running her fat loud mouth over and over without ever shutting up. The sad thing was, she was actually a decent cook, not a great one, but still alright. Still, she had an inability to work with anyone else, and she finally got eliminated in the F4. Christ.
8. Corey. She was kinda hot, a good cook, and she had some rivalry with Christina. Despite the two not getting along, they both still managed to work together during service, which shows how professional these two were. She butted heads with a lot of people, but she was still competent enough. Made the F3, but lost. Eh.
9. Petrozza. From "Hen in a Pumpkin" to finalist, Petrozza didn't stand out at first. He was usually pretty messy, but he was a solid cook regardless, and he was also one of the classiest people there. He made it to the finals, where he did a solid job, but fell short.
10. Christina. Eh. She was competent, she fought with Corey after she nominated her for elimination a couple times or whatever, and she beat Petrozza. Nothing too impressive, but are the winners ever really that impressive? It's more of an accomplishment of being the least shitty cook there, and Christina managed to succeed in that.

Hell's Kitchen write-ups are hard, as I focus on characters and key moments, when Hell's Kitchen is about Ramsay screaming at everybody for sucking. This cast was pretty shitty, and two complete duds made the F6 just because they were trainwrecks, which is what you expect from this show. It was an alright trainwreck, but there are better trainwrecks, and better seasons of Hell's Kitchen.

47. The Contender 2

Wikipedia
Reality Blurred Archive

The Contender 2 was a reality television show based on the sport of boxing, but with an element of the (welterweight) competitor's lives and relationships with each other within the show's living quarters, based in Pasadena, California. Filmed in January and February 2006^[1], the show began airing on July 18, 2006. The winner of The Contender Season 2 was decided in a bout at the Staples Center, Los Angeles, broadcast live on September 26, 2006, winning a purse of US$500,000. The Contender 2 was shown on ESPN in the USA, in the UK on ITV4, in Canada on TSN, in Australia on FOX8, on TV2 in New Zealand and on AXN in Asia.

So The Contender came and impressed many with what could be Mark Burnett's finest work. The bad news is, its ratings sucked, but it found new life on ESPN. It had a few changes and a very stripped-back budget, but the format still worked. It was hard to recapture the magic of season 1, and the cast wasn't as memorable as season 1, but it was still a good season to watch.

1. Season 1 cameos. One interesting part about this season was appearances by several contestants from season 1, including fan-favorite Alfonso Gomez, the ever-unlucky Peter Manfredo, and winner Sergio Mora. It was neat watching Alfonso spar with some of the season 2 competitors, or to see Peter in the bleachers watching the fight.
2. No more challenges. One of the more noteable changes was the removal of challenges, probably due to a combination of budget cuts and potential injuries (like Anthony suffered during a challenge in season 1). Instead, in order to determine which of the two teams got to determine a fight, it depended on which contestant won the previous fight. So if a gold fighter won a fight, the gold team would choose the next fight. I feel it was a better decision, as it adds a bit of strategy to the mix and cuts down on potential injuries or exhaustion before a fight.
3. No Rocky. While Sylvester Stallone was co-hosting with Sugar Ray Leonard in season 1, he was nowhere to be found here. So we were left with Sugar Ray, who is a great person, but a kinda-lame host. Supposedly, Stallone wasn't around because he was too busy filming Rocky Balboa, but then he didn't show up in seasons 3 or 4 either (hell, Sugar Ray was gone for 4 and they ended up having Tony Danza host), so maybe it had less to do with the movie and more to do with the fact that the show simply couldn't afford him. Oh well.
4. Celebrities. Mark Burnett liked to bring celebrities into the audience to make the matches seem more high-profile, and even with a cut budget he managed to bring in some noteable names for season 2. From Wikipedia, I see Jeff Goldblum, Joe Pantoliano, Burt Reynolds, and Dennis Miller. Even former reality contestants showed up from time to time, with last season's Peter Manfredo and Rock Star: INXS's Mig.
   
5. Jeff Fraza. Jeff was actually in season 1, but he got eliminated before he could fight due to chicken pox. That's gotta suck. But he managed to shed some pounds to get into the welterweight division and thus participate in season 2. Unfortunately, he lost his first fight, but at least he actually got to fight this time (well, he fought in one of the finale matches in season 1, but more on that in that write-up).
6. Norberto Bravo. He was kinda dull and uninteresting. I'm only really mentioning him because he made the semi-finals before losing to Grady. He lost the third-place bout to Cornelius, even though he had a huge part of the audience cheering for him. Eh, whatever.
   
7. Cornelius Bundrage. AKA "K9". I remember some guy talking shit about him in the first episode, so he beat the crap outta the guy when the fight came. Overall, he was a solid fighter and someone I rooted for, though he tried to pull some dirty stuff in his second match. He eventually lost in the semifinals to Steve Forbes, but at least he won the third place face-off against Norberto.
8. Steve Forbes. He seemed to be a strong favorite to win the entire thing, and he was indeed a pretty strong competitor. Because of how quarterfinal matches were chosen, Steve actually had to fight in back-to-back matches, in the last of round 1 and the first of round 2, and he still won them both. He then took out Cornelius to make the finals against Grady Brewer.
9. Grady Brewer. This guy had a great story, working at a tire factory to support his family and all that. He had a fierce rivalry with Vinroy, which they finally settled in the ring with Grady winning by a decent margin despite getting headbutted. He dominated his opponent in round 2, and still netted a majority decision in the semi-finals against Norberto, making it to the finals against Steve Forbes.
10. The Championship Bout. First, it was neat to see Rock Star: Supernova's Storm Large sing "The Star Spangled Banner." Maybe it's just me, but it seemed like Steve was already declared winner before he even stepped into the ring. The commentaters, Sugar Ray, even the freaking editing was hinting at a Steve win. Grady was impressive in his run, but Steve was also strong and had an impressive record to boot. It made the match all the more exciting when not only did Grady hang with Steve, but he actually was winning at the beginning. It was a tough match, but Grady ended up winning the championship by split decision, which definitely seemed like a great way to close the season. The guy no one really expected to win winning, and a blue-collar worker who's supporitng his family trying to make a name for himself. Solid way to end the season.

It wasn't season 1 (which I've mentioned probably too much in this season 2 write-up), but it was still a great season to watch. The cast wasn't as strong and the storylines didn't tug at the heart strings as much, but there was still the heart and soul in there that made the first season go great. It's a shame this is the last season that The Contender really felt like The Contender instead of some boxing reality show, as the show really lost a lot of its spark in season 3, and then Tony Danza misses the entire point of the show and removes the family elements for season 4. Still worth a watch if you enjoyed season 1 (as you can tell I have).