Dating couple Jason Case (left) and beauty queen Amy Diaz (right) are in the finals of THE AMAZING RACE - (CBS photo)

The Voice judge/coach Adam Levine has three of the remaining five contestants competing for The Voice title - gashleygoh photo

Beatles for life Ringo Starr and Paul McCartney survived overindulgence to continue touring and rocking at the age of 73 and 71 respectively - Antonio Fucito photo

Video Beat EXTRA - ADAM LEVINE TOPS THE VOICE - Beatles RINGO STARR & PAUL McCARTNEY ROCK ON - AMAZING RACE FINALE

James Loving - National Radio Text Service

The Voice judge Adam Levine has three of his team competing in the remaining TOP 5 VOICE contestants vying for the title making him a favorite to win his 2nd The Voice championship after being the winner in the initial season of the program - The remaining living Beatles Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr live on to continue to rock and tour with their bands at the age of 71 and 73 respectively. The point being is they changed their ways - Four teams vie for the Amazing Race title finale - Recommended TV Listings

Sunday, December 08, 2013

AMAZING RACE FINAL

This week the Amazing Race will televise its final with four teams vying for the title and $1 million prize. Former Miss Rhode Island USA beauty queen Amy Diaz, former Minor League Baseball player and sports agent Tim Sweeney are the only celebrity types remaining in the contest. Diaz and her partner/boyfriend Jason won their first leg in the race last week.

Sweeny is teamed with his disruptive girlfriend Marie (a Jersey girl) are their competition as they have issues. Tim and Marie won the first leg of the race and the Double Express Pass that went with it that they could give to any team they desired. That gave them an edge to make friends and influence people to contend for the pass but things went sour when they gave their competition an attitude. Their actions qualified them as the team to hate.

That blew up in their faces when they lost the directions to the finish line of a leg and they unwillingly gave it up to married ER doctors Nicloe and Travis who are also in the back to back double episode finals. The have three first place finishes in the 10 legs of the race making them the strongest contenders based on wins. The self proclaimed Afghanimals who are friends fill out the final four. Tune in or miss out on the AXN channel in East Asia and CBS in the USA.

THE VOICE is down to TOP 5

With only five contestants remaining coach Adam Levine has three of his charges in the running to notch The Voice title. Of his three competitors Tessanne Chin, Will Champlin and James Wolpert, Chin has the best voice by far. The question is has The Voice changed their original intention to find the best voice or have they succumbed to becoming a popularity contest.

The involvement of Telescope in the show raises a red flag about the integrity of the show. Telescope is an unknown quantity that has been involved in American Idol's questionable winners over the years given that the company was in charge of calculating the voting results. There is no record that we can find of who they are thus our suspicion that all is not kosher.

Three time winning coach Blake Shelton's chances are slim to none as he has only one remaining vocal student Cole Vosbury who is good but his voice is not exceptional. Christina Aguilera has the other remaining contestant Jacquie Lee who being 16 is the youngest contestant in the competition.

Lee has a strong quality voice. Her advantage is her youth and charm given that the competition seems to be going younger and younger every season to attract a larger viewing audience that is more appealing to advertisers and users of social media.

Cee Lo Green is the only coach out of the running as he lost his last contestant two weeks ago thus his role has been diminished to that of a commentator and cheerleader. Of the remaining five competitors our ranking includes Tessanne Chin and Jacquie Lee as being our top choices to win the competition with the remaining competitors being very similar in talent resulting in our not having any definitive decision to rank them. aka same, same but different

Champlin is living a charmed life as he was dropped by his first coach Levine and then picked up by Aguilera and cut again by the diva and then saved again by Levine. At that time we questioned if he was a cat with nine lives. Up till now he is living up to our appraisal. Being 30 he is the oldest remaining contestant. Cole and Vosbury are both 22.

Although Chin 28, has the best voice she is the second oldest remaining contestant thus she may suffer from the shows apparent focus on attracting a younger audience that votes for youth. If our theory is correct Lee would be the odds on favorite to win the title. She is worthy and being so young she is the most malleable to develop her skills for what could be a fruitful future in the entertainment business. Chin is more experienced and talented but at 28... could it be TOO LATE?

BEATLES RINGO AND PAUL McCARTNEY STILL ROCKIN

During my two week visit during the 70's as a guest at Ringo Starr's Tittenhurst Estate in England we went to a pub to have a drink. The party of four included Harry Nilsson and Ringo's recording engineer. After three rounds of shots of Martell each shot was washed down with a bottle of Guinness Stout I dropped out as it was enough for me. As they continued my thoughts were these guys won't live to be 50.

Nilsson passed away at 52 but Ringo lives on and tours with his band at the age of 73. He noted to former CNN talk show host Larry King that following those excessive drinking days that he changed his ways.

What recently came to our attention is a documentary about the Beatles prime time days that is repeatedly televised in East Asia on the BIO channel. It focuses on the Beatles wild behind the scenes antics and wild conduct during their rise to fame. The result is they partied hearty with Paul McCartney being portrayed as a wild child although his profile to the public at that time was clean cut and low key.

When McCartney sang at a Grammy Award show his voice was shaky and broken which raised some of our concerns about his health. This past week he was shocking with a strong showing on the Jimmy Fallon talk show singing three songs with his five piece band. It appears that he has turned his life around and at 71, like Ringo continues to rock. During interviews with Fallon McCartney's mind was sharp and spot on. Fallon's shows are repeated from time to time in East Asia on the CNBC channel. This is a must watch should there be a repeat airing.

Given that George Harrison and John Lennon (murdered) have passed away it is a tribute to Ringo and Paul that they pulled it together to live on and continue to entertain while in their 70's given other rock stars from the 60's failed to reach that age.

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