Fall TV Blog

• Win Top Model, get a career and score a hot, celeb boyfriend? That seems to be the case for Cycle 7 winner Caridee, who is rumored to be dating model-musician Tyson Beckford. So who do you think spends more time in front of the mirror–Caridee or Tyson?

• It’s been ten years since the show about nothing became, well, nothing. So what has Jerry and the rest of the Seinfeld gang been up to? Hmmm, let’s see, failed sitcoms, racial tirades and, oh yeah, that Bee Movie.

• Seems like celeb rehab is the thing to do, no, seriously. Aaron Carter is in talks to join VH1’s Celebrity Rehab next season. The younger brother of boy band-er Nick Carter would appear alongside Hollywood madam Heidi Fleiss and Skid Row’s Sebastian Bach. Boy, sounds like Dr. Drew has his work cut out for him!

Jason Kempin/WireImage; Stephen Lovekin/Getty

Parvati Shallow, the 25-year-old veteran from the Cook Islands season of Survivor, defeated recent Survivor: China contestant Amanda Kimmel to become the $1 million winner of Survivor: Micronesia - Fans vs. Favorites.

“I honestly haven’t even thought about it,” Shallow tells PEOPLE of her big payout. “I figured that would be presumptuous to assume that I won, so I haven’t been planning out what I’m going to do with the money. I do have a charity I am very involved with and doing public relations for that’s called Knockouts for Girls and we provide scholarships and boxing training for underprivileged girls, so I’m just going to help out the charity and keep working for it and maybe do a little shopping!”

Shallow was one of the main architects of this season’s self-dubbed Black Widow Brigade, an alliance of women that one by one eliminated the biggest threats in the game with a series of exciting blindsides. “That’s probably the best ensemble performance by a group of Survivors that we ever had,” host Jeff Probst told PEOPLE before the finale. “I can’t say she’s surprised me but I’m impressed with how Parvati’s played.” (more…)

Before Sunday’s finale of Survivor: Micronesia airs on CBS (8 p.m. ET), PEOPLE checked in with the show’s host — and resident torch-snuffer — Jeff Probst to get his take on the final four, the great streak of tribal council blindsides and his new MySpace page. –Cynthia Wang

There are four women in the final, Amanda, Cirie, Parvati and Natalie. What is your take and did you expect them to be in the running for the million-dollar prize?
I’m not surprised Amanda’s in it. Overall, she has a very good understanding of how to play Survivor. She’s played two times in a row and has gone deep in the game both times. Cirie — not surprised at all! She is so much cagier. You saw this season that Cirie is so much smarter than she let on her first season. She played that adorable, fish-out-of-water, laughing and giggling all the time when she was on Panama: Exile Island. But this season, when she had it out with [Jonathan] Penner and said, “Listen. You think I don’t know what’s going on. I know.” She’s proven she knows how to play. Parvati, I can’t say she’s surprised me but I’m impressed with how Parvati’s played, particularly with one huge move, bringing Alexis and Natalie into the fold of her, Amanda and Cirie. That move was great because Parvati put herself in a great place of having Alexis and Natalie on one side and Amanda and Cirie on the other side and therefore, for my money, Parvati would be the one I get rid of next because she might have more votes. Next on the block would have to be Cirie because she is so likable. The dark horse is definitely Natalie. I don’t think Natalie can win this game but that might make her a great person to sit next to because she has been so evil. (more…)

In a never-ending contest to become the most foolish player in Survivor history, 22-year-old student Erik Reichenbach, of Ypsilanti, Mich., made a forceful bid for the title when he gave his immunity necklace to Natalie and was promptly booted from Survivor: Micronesia.

After returning back to camp from last week’s elimination, Erik told Natalie that he thought Amanda was the most popular remaining contestant with the jury. Natalie told Erik that if either won the next reward challenge, they should send the other person to Exile Island to look for the immunity idol, or take the other to the reward. Meanwhile, Amanda tried to manipulate Erik to send Parvati to Exile, playing to his sense of guilt at voting against her in the previous tribal council.

She succeeded. After proving himself the ultimate fan at the reward challenge, which tested the remaining five on how well they knew past seasons of the game, Erik sent Parvati to Exile and took Amanda on a reward helicopter ride to a luxury resort for spa time and a meal. (more…)

In a third blindside in a row, Alexis Jones, 24, a motivational speaker from Beverly Hills, Calif., was eliminated when Amanda played her hidden immunity idol on Thursday’s episode of Survivor: Micronesia. Already sitting on the jury, James Clement, the gravedigger from Lafayette, La., also left the game when his injured finger risked infecting his joint, which could lead to the loss of his hand.

The reward challenge was the infamous “What the Tribe Thinks” question-and-answer game. First, everyone took a written survey and then answered questions out loud about how the group responded as a whole. The more correct answers a player got, the more chances to knock out another player. The winner of the challenge would get to send someone to Exile Island and take a visiting loved one to swim in Jellyfish Lake. Cirie, who seemed to know the most what other tribe members were thinking, was the last person able to knock someone out of the game and picked Alexis to win and sent Amanda into exile. (more…)

Survivor: Micronesia’s self-proclaimed Black Widow Brigade strikes again! For the second subsequent week, a strong male contestant bought the ladies’ lies, fell prey to their scheming, and found himself on the wrong side of Jeff Probst’s torch snuffer. This week’s victim, student teacher/gymnastics coach Jason Siska, 23, took time out from licking his reopened wounds to talk with PEOPLE about the island diet, post-elimination bonding with his former nemesis Ozzy and why he didn’t play the immunity idol despite knowing it was the real thing this time. –Carrie Bell

How does it feel knowing that the nation watched you become the second guy in a row duped by the tribe’s female alliance?
I’m still recovering from seeing the episode. It was a lot more painful watching it happen on TV than it was when it really happened. The reality is that I was voted out months ago and I had gotten over it. You know, you live, you learn. But so many emotions got stirred up. I’m out visiting my brother in West Hollywood and the pain of letting him down, disappointing myself all over again, and hearing people say how obvious it seemed that I was being played from the safety of their couch. It was a tough night.

You got a rare second chance to find a genuine idol after being fooled by the Ozzy-whittled fake and you still didn’t play it. Watching, it seemed like an obvious move. At the time, any instinct to use it?
It crossed my mind. But in the game you’re not thinking clear. Your mind is all over the place. There are so many factors and variables that come into the game. You could play it and not have needed it and then lose the trust of the people who told you they weren’t voting for you. My reasoning for what I did was that I thought the fan alliance could have gone all the way to the final four. Now, Natalie has put herself in a situation where she is trusting Pavarti, who we know is not very loyal and I think she is naïve in thinking that the favorites are going to take them to the end. At this point it doesn’t look good for any of the fans. There are still plenty of twists and back-stabbing left. (more…)

In another nail-biting tribal council, Jason Siska, the 23-year-old gym coach from Illinois who once believed Ozzy’s handcrafted idol was real, failed to play a real immunity idol in his possession, and became the third member of the jury on Survivor: Micronesia.

It all started at the reward auction, where each contestant got $500 to bid for food and other prizes. Cirie won a hot dog and fries while Erik traded octopus for nachos. Natalie won the chance to send someone immediately to Exile Island. After getting clarification that another immunity idol was hidden on the island since Ozzy failed to play his at the last tribal council, Natalie sent Jason. The auction ended when Natalie used Jason’s money to bid for a huge chocolate cake, which she shared for 60 seconds with Parvati, Alexis and Cirie, who let Erik lick chocolate cake off her fingers for the price of $40.

On Exile Island, Jason found the idol and wondered if Natalie had sent him there deliberately to help him in the game.

Back at Dabu, Natalie began to strategize. She told the ladies that they should split the vote between James and Jason. The goal was still to vote out Jason, but if he found the immunity idol and played it, they would get rid of James while flushing out the idol. (more…)

After all the talk about Grey’s Anatomy coming back, the show is finally returning this Thursday (ABC, 9 p.m. ET). Woo hoo! Watch a clip from this week’s episode.

And tell us: Which storyline are you most excited to watch unfold–The Mer/Der neverending love story, a possible Hahn and McSteamy hookup, George and Lexie become roomies?

Sometimes the player gets played. That’s what happened Thursday on Survivor: Micronesia — Fans vs. Favorites when challenge master Ozzy got completely blindsided by master schemer Cirie and became the 10th person voted out of Survivor: Micronesia.

After a reward challenge that sent Cirie to Exile island, and the team of Ozzy, Erik, Jason and Amanda to a village feast on the island of Yap, the remaining group of James, Parvati, Natalie and Alexis were left behind.

When the reunited Dabu tribe faced the individual immunity challenge, they were put on poles with one arm raised and tethered to a bucket of water. If they lowered their arms, they’d get doused with water and lose the challenge. Making it tougher, Jeff tempted the players with treats. After Ozzy succumbed to the offering of three chocolate-dipped donuts, only Parvati and Jason remained. Jason said earlier that he knew winning immunities would be the only way he could survive; however, when Jeff tempted the remaining players with an entire plate of food to share with the folks on the sidelines, Jason asked everyone to guarantee they would not vote for him if he sacrificed himself to share the food. Of course, everyone agreed — but with fingers crossed behind their backs.

Later, back at the beach, Ozzy encouraged everyone to stick to the plan and vote Jason out. But sneaky Cirie hatched a new plan and took Natalie, Alexis, and Parvati aside and told them to vote for Ozzy. Cirie reasoned that Ozzy would not expect a blindside and the hidden immunity idol that he was holding would also be taken out of the game. However, Cirie cautioned them not to tell James nor Amanda about the plan.

At tribal council, first juror Eliza watched in open-mouthed delight as the vote unfolded and in a 5-4 decision, and Ozzy was eliminated. –Cynthia Wang

Tell us: Will Survivor: Micronesia be less exciting without Ozzy?

Monthy Brinton

Yul Kwon won $1 million by outlasting, outwitting and outplaying fellow castaways on Survivor: Cook Islands. Then he nabbed the title of one of PEOPLE’s Sexiest Men Alive in 2006. Now the 33-year-old Stanford grad is celebrating another victory: popping the question to girlfriend Sophie Tan on stage at a concert — and getting a yes.

“It feels wonderful!” an elated Kwon tells People.com. “I’ve always thought that the single most important decision in your life is who you decide to spend it with.”

Kwon proposed to Tan, 29, a product manager at a mortgage bank, April 12 at a benefit concert at his alma mater in Palo Alto, Calif. The band, Seriously, played the couple’s special song before Kwon took the stage and presented her with a platinum, 2.2-karat, cushion-cut diamond ring.

“It seems my strategy of proposing in a public forum, maximizing social pressure, and shocking her into silence … seems to have worked,” says Kwon. “Now I just need to plan the wedding before she comes to her senses.” (more…)