This week marked the end of two fairly popular reality shows – Big Brother and Last Comic Standing. I devotedly watched each and was a bit surprised at the final outcomes.
If you had been watching Big Brother 8, you know the Donatos. If you have not, let me tell you about them. This year’s big twist (other than Eric being America’s Player and having to vote according to how we wanted) was to reunite three people in the house with three people with which they had unfinished business. One was Dustin and Joe, boyfriends who had a bad parting. One other was Carol and Jessica, high school BFFs who had parted ways as well. The third was the Dick and Daniele Donato. This father and daughter duo had not spoken to each other in two years. Reuniting the four others didn’t seem to be too successful, but as the Donatos stayed in the house, we saw them begin to get closer and work together.
The final three houseguests were Zach, Daniele, and Dick. Now you must know that Dick verbally and in some cases physically terrorized the house the whole season. He mocked people for their religious beliefs, poured tea over Jen’s head, mimicked Amber as a waitress – the tirade never ended. Daniele was the hot shot of the house, winning HOH and the Power of Veto several times. During the last round, Dick and Daniele had to work together to get rid of Zach, leaving themselves as the final two.
The winner would be the one for which the majority of ousted houseguests voted. Daniele was obviously the less harassing of the two, so I assumed she would win the $500,000 while her dad took home the $50,000 for second place. But no, in the end, the houseguests voted Dick the winner. Dick, who caused commotion the whole time he was there. But he did play it off as simply “playing the game.”
Now, for Last Comic Standing. It seemed the Lavell Crawford, the Grizzly Bear of Comedy, might have had an edge over Jon Reep, the guy from the Hemi commercial. Lavell’s comedy consisted mostly of fat jokes (he is a large man), but they were hilarious! When he talked about ordering the 25-piece bucket of chicken and the cashier asked him if it was for “here or to go,” I was literally crying because I was laughing so hard! But Jon had his moments as well. When he imitated his mother breaking down the door with a gun after his father’s gun had accidentally gone off (his father was a policeman), I was rolling in the floor.
They had two distinct styles of comedy, but both were very funny. I thought Lavell had a lock on the win, but last night, Jon was deemed the winner. For his efforts, he gets an exclusive contract with NBC, a Bravo special, and $250,000.