[Photos: Sonja Flemming/CBS
©2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved]

The POV Ceremony has happened today and to everyone’s surprise, Russell used it to take Lydia of the block. Jessie put up Braden instead.

Braden??! Where did that come from?

Now, Natalie, Russell and Jessie are all thinking that there’s a rat in the house and they are planning to start a couple of stories with select people to find out who the rat is. This is going to be great!!

Don’t forget to watch Big Brother 11 on CBS tonight!! We’ll get to see the “Haves” and the “Have Nots” competition and the Nomination Ceremony.

And if you don’t already have the live feeds, it’s not too late to sign up so you can see the action in the house too!

[Photos: Sonja Flemming/CBS
©2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved]

The POV Challenge was held in the Big Brother house and Russell won the POV for this week. From the sound of things on the live feeds, he challenge involved going through some yucky material to get letters. Then, each person tried to make a word from their letters first. Russell won by making the word SHOTGUN. Figures.

Now the real campaigning is in force. Lydia and Chima are talking to everyone and trying to secure the votes. No one expects Russell to use the POV this week.

Jeff, a member of the Athletes team feels that his teammates are out to get him and Jeff & Russell had some seriously nasty words today. Stay tuned…

Be sure to sign up for the live feeds so you can watch the action too!

Hurray!! Summer is getting ready to heat up even more with Top Chef Las Vegas. I love Top Chef and I love Las Vegas, so how could it get any better? The sixth season of the series will premiere on Wednesday, August 26th at 9 p.m. ET/PT on BRAVO.

There are 17 new cheftestants ready to take on the crazy challenges in order to compete for the title of Top Chef. They vary in experience and age and if this season is a good as the first five, we are in for a real treat!

Here are the aspiring chefs:

[Bravo Photo: © 2009 NBC Universal, Inc.]

AGE: 40

HOMETOWN: Ann Arbor, Mich.

PROFESSION: Chef-Owner, Eve

CULINARY EDUCATION: Le Cordon Bleu in Paris, France

FAVORITE SIMPLE SUMMER RECIPE: Salad of Ripe Tomatoes, Avocado, Red Onion and Fresh Lime – with Mozzarella di Bufala and some good bread

Eve is the chef/owner of Eve, an intimate, independent restaurant in Ann Arbor, Michigan. She has a distinctive style of cooking based on French Philosophy with influences including North African, West African Cuban and Vietnamese. Her style expresses her love for bold, complex and exotic flavors paired with cool, clean contrasts and textures. Author of her own cookbook, Eve: Contemporary Cuisine, Methode Traditionelle, she recently received the honor of being invited to travel to The James Beard Foundation in New York to create a multi-course dinner to showcase her style of cooking. She also served as a delegate to Terra Madre, the bi-annual international slow food meeting in Torino, Italy on behalf of the Slow Food Movement, which was founded to help facilitate working closely with local farmers and artisans.
Read More – Top Chef 6 Las Vegas: Meet the New Chefs

We all know that Chef Ramsay can be a bit on the…shall we say…critical side when it comes to the cheftestants. But it looks like this season, one of the chefs gets steamed right back. The kitchen is going to get heated…and I’m not just talking about the stove tops!!

In this clip, we see the surprised look on Chef Ramsay’s face when one of the chefs tears off his jacket and comes after Gordon! Yikes!

Get ready for the season premiere of Hell’s Kitchen season 6 on July 21 on FOX.

[Photos: Sonja Flemming/CBS
©2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved]

Today has been an eventful day in the Big Brother house. Lydia is still trying to sway the men’s votes her way with flirting and touching. Chima is doing her own style of campaigning.

At one point, the voice came over the speakers telling them that there are over 300 varieties of turtles alive in the world today…it has to be a clue about the POV Challenge that’s coming up soon. Some of the houseguests start to study the dictionary and learn what they can about turtles.

No one feels safe at all and evryone is paranoid. They are all still trying to get to know each other and decide who they can trust. Then it was time to choose the people to compete in the POV Challenge. Here’s how it went:

• Chima chose Natalie
• Lydia chose Jeff
• Jessie chose Russell

I’ll update you when there’s more info about the results of the challenge.

Be sure to sign up for the live feeds so you can watch the action too!

[Photos: © 2009 Food Network]

[Photo: © 2009 Food Network]

This week on Next Food Network Star, we saw Katie Cuvato get eliminated from the competition. This morning, I was fortunate enough to get her answers to a few questions I had about her time on the show and what plans she has for the future. Here’s the Q&A:

Q: Do you think that the pressure of the competition or the limited time allotted were what caused you to stumble a few times?

Katie: I think it was a combination of both. I was really trying to stick to my culinary point of view and choose dishes that represented that. As a personal chef, it is rare I am rushing or racing the clock to get food out so cooking with a time clock was difficult.

Q: When you watched the way that Jamika struggled in last night’s episode, did you feel that the judges just made the correct decision to send you home instead?

Katie: I think I should have stayed based on how well I did this week—it has nothing to do with other people struggling or having a tough week…it happens, but I do think I should have been rewarded for having a good week. They were consistently really hard on me and I never felt like I was a favorite in their eyes…it was very defeating.

Q: If you had the chance to do it over, what would you do differently this time?

Katie: Be more confident and not take the constant criticism so personally. It is more of a game then a competition.

Q: If you had won your own show on Food Network, what would you do to make it uniquely your own?

Katie: It would be all about Green Cuisine…eating healthy for our body and the planet…it is unique as is.

Q: Will you continue to pursue your dream to have a cooking show? If not, how has your goal changed?

Katie: I am running full sprint towards my goals and happy to have had this opportunity to push me a little closer.

I wish Katie the best of luck in pursuing her goals and hope she achieves them. Hers is a very important culinary point of view.

[Photos: Sonja Flemming/CBS
©2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved]

Last night was the first night we got to watch Showtime’s Big Brother After Dark and it was all about getting to know who the houseguests are and figuring out what’s been going on in the house before the premiere. They’ve been in the house for days already, but the show just premiered last night.

First of all, the Nomination Ceremony happend yesterday and the two people up on the block this time are Chima & Lydia.

Here’s my first impression of what went on in the house on last night’s After Dark. Casey seems like a cool guy and I like him already. And Kevin seems very interesting and I like him too so far. (I’m almost always most interested in the “offbeat” reality stars…both on the shows and in person.

But Lydia, whom I totally expected to like, turns out to be a real slimey manipulator. She spent the whole evening running around in lingerie and high platforms, and hanging all over the guys…especially Jessie. The scenes in what used to be the sauna room with Jessie & Lydia were like repeats of last year’s Michelle & Jessie scenes. And they were no less sickening. Bless Jessie’s heart, he falls for any girl’s manipulation. He’s such an easy target that way. I don’t like the fact that Lydia is trying to seduce the guys in order to get their votes. That’s just disgusting.

Jordan seems to be a follower of Lydia and wore lingerie all evening too, but didn’t have any real reason, except to try to look cute. She doesn’t seem like the sharpest knife in the drawer, but time will tell…

Chima was saying that Lydia & Jordan were slutty to dress like that around the house and complained about having to sleep in a room with very uncomfortable accommodations. She talked a lot about the competition they had earlier in the week that determined the “Haves” & “Have Nots”. She’s also on slop, having to take cold showers, sleep in a bad bedroom and nominated…now THAT”S Have Not! No wonder she complained a lot.

Ronnie & Michele laid low and don’t seem to be as geeky as I expected them to be. Russell & Jessie spent a lot of time looking at themselves in the kitchen window’s reflection and talking about muscles and their bodies. Bore-ing!

The others didn’t have a lot to say yet, so they didn’t reveal too much right out of the gate. I’ll report on them as things happen. Right now, everyone is preparing for the Power of Veto Competition (POV) and it will determine who will be the two that need to get the votes this week.

Carolyn over at BBDish got a very interesting commenter on their blog last night and you’ll probably want to go see what that was about. I’m so jealous! I wonder if it was real…

Lessa also does a very nice word-for-word rehash of the conversations in the house last night, so please go give her some love too.

Here’s a review of the four cliques:

Athletes: Jessie, Russell, Natalie, Jeff
[Photo: Sonja Flemming/CBS ©2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved]

Offbeat: Casey, Lydia, Kevin
[Photo: Sonja Flemming/CBS ©2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved]

Popular: Laura, Braden, Jordan
[Photo: Sonja Flemming/CBS ©2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved]

Brains: Chima, Michele, Ronnie
[Photo: Sonja Flemming/CBS ©2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved]

I’ll be posting multiple posts every day here, so be sure to check back often for the latest. Until then, be sure to sign up for the live feeds so you can watch the action too!

[Photos: Sonja Flemming/CBS
©2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved]

OMG!! We already knew that there would be cliques in the house and we knew that there would be a mystery houseguest that would join the others. But did it have to be boring, idiotic Jessie?

Tonight was the Big Brother 11 season premiere. Yes, that means that Big Brother After Dark is on again every night for the next three months…woo-hoo!!

We saw the 12 houseguests enter the house and grab beds. Then they tried to introduce themselves a bit. Right away, Julie Chen told them to go to the back yard where they divided into their cliques and underwent their first challenge of the season.

These are the cliques:

That’s when we found out that there were four former houseguests from other seasons that represented the four cliques in the house. Depending on which clique won, that would decide which former houseguest would enter the house and become the first Head of Household (HOH).

Of all three of he other possible people to enter the house, I would have been happy with any of them besides Jessie, but sadly, he was the one that got back in the house. Yuck! What an egotistical loser! I hope he doesn’t last long!

They had to hang in a “gym” with giant wedgies and hold onto a toilet seat. LOL! The team who had at least one member left after the other three teams were out would get the extra team member. The athletes won and will have an extra team member advantage.

We haven’t seen a whole week’s worth of activities yet, since the houseguests entered the house almost a week ago. So when we watch the live feeds and After Dark, we’ll get a heads up on what’s been happening since Jessie entered the game.

What do you think of this season’s twist? Who were you hoping to have re-enter the house? Are you glad the jocks won? Leave a comment to let us know what you think!

I’ll be posting multiple posts every day here, so be sure to check back often for the latest. Until then, be sure to sign up for the live feeds so you can watch the action too!

Tomorrow is he big Big Brother day!!! The houseguests will enter the house and the drama will begin!! Woo-hoo!!

Here’s a flashback to the live feeds from last summer in the house. The houseguests were discussing alien sightings in the house:

Be sure to sign up for the live feeds now so you’ll be ready!

There are only two more days left before the houseguests enter the Big Brother 11 house. This time, the house is very eco-friendly. And the good news for the houseguests is that it might give them some activities to keep them occupied a bit.

They’ll be growing some of their own vegetables & herbs, recycling things that they use and generally being more “green” in their everyday activities. It also looks like there’s a bit of an Asian theme going. There’s a lucky red Buddha statue and sake cups…I hope they don’t try to play beer pong with sake cups! They’ll never finish a game!

The pool table’s back again this year and there’s a swimming pool bedroom, a crazy-looking pink bedroom and the HOH bedroom looks great! Much better than the polished steel walls from last season. It looks like there’s a surf board and a wet suit in the HOH bathroom too. With all those live plants everywhere, I hope no one forgets to water them!

[Photo: Sonja Flemming/CBS
©2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Read More – Big Brother 11: A Look Inside the House