Last week America’s Toughest Jobs took on the seas of Deadliest Catch and this week another Discovery Channel favorite is visited: Ice Road Truckers. The twelve remaining contestants remained in Alaska for the task and after getting their permits to drive 18 wheelers the challenge was off. With only six big rigs for the job, the twelve were split into pairs with two in each truck. One would drive 250 miles to Anchorage Alaska while the other would take over the remaining 250 miles the next day.

With the first six on the road half had problems. Rommel started it off early by stalling out as the trucks pulled onto the road and continued that streak while going up one of the many Alaskan hills. Bryce also had some trouble on the hill but his problems were going down. Since the hills are so steep, breaking wasn’t an option so the truckers had to downshift to make the decent. With over 10 gears to choose from, some of the drivers were finding it difficult to pull off these shifts, one of them being Bryce. Chris had the hardest drive though, stalling not once but several times on two different hills. His driving was so dangerous that his supervisor pulled him from the drivers seat and allowed his partner Phil to take over for the rest of the drive. Phil, along with Rie and Eric, did great at the drivers seat and showed how ice road trucking should be done.

After a nights sleep, which happened to be in the bright Alaska night, the next six drivers were ready to take the reamining 250 miles which were much worse then the first. The six driving this time faced a blizzard, unpaved roads and several avalanche warnings. About a quarter way through the drive the cast pulled up to a newly crashed truck and it made them all think just how dangerous their “job” was. It caused little paranoia though as most of the second round drivers did well. Sandy once again shined as she proved it doesn’t matter if you’re a man or a woman doing the job and Phil once again showed his success at the wheel. The only one with problems was Amy, once again. She was horrible at crab fishing and it was obvious she wouldn’t fair well here. Although she did well pre-hills, she almost killed Rie and herself by not putting the truck in gear doing down a steep and curvy hill. Her supervisor almost pulled her from the seat but luckily she got the truck in gear last minute. Chris also had a second chance to prove himself to his supervisor but after sleeping most of the way while Phil was driving he learned very little. With his big mouth open, Chris drove well his second time but berrated his supervisor in “his truck” which sent Chris packing. His supervisor was so heated from the argument that he kicked him out of the truck all together, forcing him to drive to the finish point with the boss and Josh, the host.

When it came time to name the bottom four Josh asked the truckers who they thought should be in there. It was kind of pointless to do so though, if you ask me, since they only got to see how their partner drove. After asking Rie who should be in the bottom four, she chose her partner Amy since that’s the only person she could evaluate. Amy didn’t take it too kindly though and when the weakest four were announced, Rie leaned in for a hug but Amy wasn’t having it. She couldn’t deal with Rie’s flip flop of friendship and “call out” but hey the producers basically asked for it. Since I got ahead of myself let’s just say the bottom four now. Rommel, Bryce, Amy and obviously Chris were chosen to compete to stay in the game. What they had to do was back one of the trucks up to gate without hitting any cones. They then had to remove the hydraulics, pull out the pin connecting the truck to the freight and then pull the truck through the finish line. The slowest to do so would go home and would not be able to compete in the next job.

Bryce started things off but not so well. It took him two tries to back the truck up and after hitting a cone his time went up by a minute. In the end he did finish though and Rommel was up next. Rommel did well, by not hitting any cones and perfectly lining up his truck he beat Bryce’s time which ensured he would stay in the game. Crazy Chris followed Rommel and showed his lack of trucking skills once again. After taking several attempts to get the truck lined up with the gate and hitting two cones, Chris finally finished with a time well over Bryce’s, meaning it was up to Amy to either send herself home or send Chris home. With a stellar move into the gate, Amy was sure to do well but her bad luck continued as she couldn’t pull the pin out, disconnected the freight car. Her lack of strength showed once again and with her time going past Chris’, Amy was sent packing and told she would not be moving on to the next job.

Next week its gold mining time! It doesn’t seem THAT hard but hey, I guess if you get swept away in a river like one contestant is rumored it, it just might be the toughest one yet!

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I recently got an email from a casting director of a show being billed as the Alaska Experiment 2. Although the show will take on a different format it will still be similar to the first season as it does take place in Alaska and is all about survival. If you are interested the information is below on how to apply for the latest series of the great show of Alaska Experiment on the Discovery Channel:

NOW SEEKING ADVENTURERS FOR NEW DISCOVERY CHANNEL SERIES
Discovery Channel, the network that brought you “The Alaska Experiment,” is currently casting its next Alaskan adventure. If you think you have what it takes to live and thrive in one of nature’s most brutal environments, then we want to hear from you TODAY! Our newest series raises the bar for our adventurers by sending them on an epic JOURNEY through the wild. THE CHALLENGE — if you dare to accept it — is to join a band of fellow explorers and journey through some of the harshest climates and roughest terrains in the world: the Alaskan wilderness. Both an epic quest and the ultimate test of courage, this amazing journey will test its participants in ways they never thought possible and, in the process, allow them to experience the raw beauty of nature and see the world like they never have before. Sound exhilarating? It will be! If you are ready to leave the monotony of your day-to-day life behind and push yourself to the limits, you can finally earn the right to say that you truly LIVED. Email AlaskaProject@gmail.com and include a recent photo along with your name, phone number, city/state, and a short explanation of why you feel you are up to the challenge. You can also call 818-752-5559 for more information. Join us. We dare you.

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I’ve been getting a lot of comments about how to apply for the Alaska Experiment on the Discovery Channel. It is now being reported that a season two of the show will take place and applications will be taken online in the coming weeks. I’ll bring you more details as I find them out and exactly how you can apply if you loved the first season of the show. For now you can catch up on the first season by viewing the episodes online at http://video.discovery.com/.

Read the rest and discuss with fellow fans!

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You may not realize this but Discovery Channel has amazing reality tv programming. Most of the shows don’t seem like “reality” when watching them as they aren’t competitive in nature but they do fall into the reality realm. The newest one called The Alaska Experiment harkens back to the early Survivor days when the show mostly focused on the survival aspect of the contestants. In ‘Experiment’ four groups of people are placed in four separate remote locations of Alaska. They are forced to fend for themselves, gather their own food, cut their own fire wood and survive. The show has no competition but rather tests each of the groups by seeing how long they can live off of the rough and sometimes deadly Alaskan land. The groups live in their “homes” for at least three months and are monitored daily by the crew to ensure all of safe to remain in the experiment. The homes they live in range from a canvas tent to an abandoned cabin. Each team uses different strategies to survivor and the ‘experiment’ is watch very closely to ensure the teams have the most basic tools and supplies possible to live in Alaska. The first show I watched yesterday has truly got me hooked as I’ve been wanting that survival aspect of Survivor to return. The Alaska Experiment just might be the closest thing. New episodes air every Tuesday night at 10pm while reruns are run often. To find out when the show will air for you click here.

The learn more about Discovery Channel’s Alaska Experiment go here.

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Wow I can’t believe how crazy tonight’s episode was! Not only did the idol get washed out of the game but one of the biggest players as well! It all started off as the newly merged tribe returned from their first, and also crazy, Tribal Council. Jason let everyone know that he in fact gave Eliza the idol and everyone said how stupid of a move it was. They don’t realize it was actually pretty smart, since it revealed that Ozzy did in fact have the idol. He let us know that it was a play from Yau-Man that actually worked this time around.

It was then time for an early reward. They were first divided into two teams of 4, meaning one person had to sit out. Cirie ended up being chosen last and was sent to Exile while the others were told they would be playing for a trip to a remote island for dinner and a sleep over. It was hard to know how close the teams were since they had to first swim to an answer board and then return to fill in the puzzle. The first tribe to correctly resemble the puzzle would win. The Orange Team consisted of Jason, Ozzy, Amanda and Erik while the Purple Team consisted of Natalie, James, Parvati and Alexis. Both teams were fairly close when it came to swimming out and back in but only one correctly assembled the puzzle on four trips. The Orange Team ended up winning thanks to a last minute switch by Amanda and were quickly off to feast in the country of Yap.

When the group arrived in Yap they were greeted by an older tribesman and a few children. After being guided through a trek through the jungle a small town was opened up to them and they were amazed how the tribe lived. Amanda and Ozzy quickly got to work on the food while Erik was just stunned by the town and the people themselves. The tribal woman don’t wear tops and since he probably never saw the History or Discovery channel, Erik was shocked by this. After eating, drinking and chewing on tobacco the four spent in Yap nice and dry. The same couldn’t be said for Cirie on Exile.

Although this wasn’t her first time on Exile Cirie wasn’t prepared for this stay. With no Idol there she knew nothing could be gained by her stay. It rained both days that she was there and it seemed very miserable. In the time she spent there she realized that it was the best time to get Ozzy out of the game. He has the idol so Ozzy going takes the hidden idol out as well. Cirie is really upping her game this season and I’m really liking her all over again.

Back at the Dabu camp James wasn’t too excited to be stuck there with the three other girls. As he split some wood and sharpened his knife the three girls Natalie, Parvati and Alexis slept. Parvati woke up long enough to basically tell James to shut up and that didn’t sit to well with him. It seems that Parvati and James aren’t going along as great as we thought and that could be thanks to her new “girl power” alliance. When the four from Yap returned it was time to let everyone know exactly what they ate. Ozzy decided it would be best to brag about exactly how much food he stuffed into his mouth and the girls + James did NOT look happy. Parvati said he was a little brat and the other two minions seemed to agree.

At the immunity challenge a rehash from the first All Stars was played. Each survivor had t hold up their arm, which was attached to a big bucket of water, as long as they could. When there arm dropped low enough the bucket, which looked more like a bucket of slime, would dump on them. They would then be out of the challenge. Some welcomed “goodies” were also used to tempt people out of the challenge. First up was a bowl of gummy worms and other candies. Cirie and Erik went out and decided to split the treat. Next up was a single cookie and a glass of milk. Alexis dropped out before Jeff announced the reward and therefore couldn’t received it. She wasn’t too happy about that but was soon joined by both Natalie and James who also missed out on the cookie. With only Amanda, Jason, Ozzy and Parvati left three chocolate glazed donuts were brought out by Jeff. Ozzy was the only one to take it leaving the two girls to beat out Jason. Amanda ended up going out soon after for a “pee break” and that left Parvati vs Jason. The last reward was a group reward and would only be won if one of the two dropped out. Natalie spoke up first (she’s still there?) and said Jason would be safe if he dropped down and got them the food. Everyone slowly agreed, with their fingers crossed, and Jason bought into it. Jason ended up agreeing, even though they were all lieing, and gave Parvati her first individual immunity win.

Back at camp everyone was laughing over the fact that Jason actually thought they were going to not vote him out. Ozzy and James, who are becoming more cocky then Jason, laughed about saying Jason was just “outwitted” by the oldest game in the book. What they didn’t realize was Cirie was about to make the biggest play in Survivor history by swaying the vote for Ozzy. It was the best time to take him out since he thought everyone was voting for Jason still. Cirie knew Parvati was the only one who may not go along with it but told her anyway. Being that she was in two alliances Parvati had to decide which one she wanted to go with the end game with and the whole thing rode on her.

At Tribal Council it came out that Jason would be getting some votes by those who agreed to not vote him out. James was the one to break the news while everyone agreed. Ozzy seemed confident as ever though even though he said the Idol did put a target on his back. I really had no idea who would be getting the votes and just assumed it would be Jason going. Things changed though when the votes started to be read. Jeff read all of Jason’s votes first plus one of Ozzy’s. Then he slowly brought out the other three votes for Ozzy and finally the last blow. It was amazing how quickly the mood changed as Ozzy’s, Amanda’s, James’, Erik’s and even Eliza’s mouths dropped. It was a great moment when Ozzy’s name was pulled out as the last vote and he, and the idol, were sent packing. Everything now changes with the biggest player out of the game. Will the girls continue to dominate or will everything just fall apart now? All I know is this season will probably just keep getting crazier and crazier!

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