TV check

When it comes to American Idol, I’ve been telling people this for weeks, and I’ll say it once more -- For the girls, I’ll take Lakisha, Melinda and Gina all the way to the end, and I’ll take Blake Lewis and Chris Sligh for the boys. And even if they aren’t finalists, all three of those girls should have recording contracts wrapped up …

And before this week, I would have been begging voters to get Sanjaya off the stage (How he’s still in it, I’ll never understand), but his Kinks performance wasn’t have bad …(Seriously. Who the heck was that crying girl!?!?) … Sanjaya finally brought the umph that made him seem like a true contender during his original audition …

As for the rest of the contenders, Haley’s “Tell Him” was good, but she didn’t sell it … Chris Richardson singing “Don’t Let The Sun Catch You Crying” was smooth, but the fact he doesn’t enunciate his words drives Kates and I crazy … Phil’s “Tobacco Road” rocked, but I seriously doubt he’s the next American Idol …

The dark horse of the night was Jordin Sparks singing “I (Who Have Nothing).” She just sang, which is all you need to do in this competition. She played herself. She didn’t overdo it. Her pacing was perfect. She hit the notes. She performed beautifully.

And that leaves Stephanie Edwards who was voted off and deservedly so. She sang “You Don’t Have To Say You Love Me,” a beautiful song … and then she had to go and Beyonce-fy it. Yuck. She ruined the song’s perfect melodies with all her runs.

A good read: ‘American Idol’ has begun its decline

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Tell you what -- You promise to start watching The Class, and I'll try watching that other so-called endangered show titled Friday Night Lights. Deal?

Seriously people. It's the most underrated, under-appreciated sitcom on TV right now. Which is too bad because it has all the makings of a Friends-esque blockbuster. After all, James Burrows (Hello! -- Cheers, Friends, Will & Grace, Frasier) and David Crane (Hello! -- Friends) are behind it. What more cred do you need!?

The lowdown? The Class is a cast of characters who went through the second grade together, lost touch and were reunited as a bunch of twenty-somethings when Ethan Haas, played by Jason Ritter, invited all of them to a surprise birthday party for his longtime girlfriend, who actually dumped him at the party. Now Ethan is left scratching his way back into dating along with newfound pals like twin sisters Kat and Lina Warbler, Richie, Duncan and Nicole ...

Ritter, whose comedic abilities so closely resemble his father's chops, and Lizzy Caplan, who plays the sassy and sarcastic Kat, are a match made in sitcom heaven, and they're both on their way to becoming breakout stars. And Jesse Tyler Ferguson, as the clutzy, dopey, puppy-like Richie, isn't far behind. Often, his hard luck and deadpanned punchlines are the icing on the show ...

The sweet dynamic is rounded out by the storylines of gay school teacher Kyle (Sean Maguire), the budding romance between Duncan (Jon Bernthal) and Nicole (Andrea Anders, who deserves to work on a good show after the train wreck that was Joey), Nicole's hollow-headed husband and football legend Yonk Allen (David Keith), and Lina (Heather Goldenhersh) who is relentlessly optimistic while falling for Richie ...

It's a darn good show full of smart comedy, lovable and relatable characters, and some sweet, sweet moments. The big wigs at CBS would be fools to expel The Class ...

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I think my fascination and lust for Amazing Race has come to an end. I couldn't care less about any of these so-called All-Stars traveling the globe right now and I've been beyond bored ...

And this season's Survivor cast is nowhere near as cool as the last season's. Then again, I'm doubting any future Survivor cast will top last year's group...

I'll stick with Survivor, but I'm officially done watching Amazing Race ...

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So NBC's little stunt allowing America to pick the leads of a Broadway musical ended last night ...

Somehow, I stuck with it for every episode. I think I was the last one watching tonight ...

I couldn't have been happier seeing Laura win the part of Sandy. Yeah, yeah, so I said at the beginning that Ashley Spencer was my girl. But when it came down to it, Ashley had the look but she couldn't equal the talent Laura brought. As the weeks went by Ashley seemed to be only going through the motions; the last couple weeks she seemed robotic. Laura took her place the night she belted out "Jesus Christ Superstar" and never looked back ...

As for the Dannys, I was never very high on any of them. In fact, pretty boy Austin was in the basement of my list. For me, he was the Sanjaya of the Grease try-outs -- week after week, I didn't understand how he was surviving. Thank goodness, scrawny Max grew as a performer and came on strong to win the thing ... Sure, he doesn't have the Danny physique, but I'm pretty sure Kathleen Marshall can get him in on a weight training program to help him bulk up ...

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I think I'm with a good majority of Lost and Grey's Anatomy fans when I say: Thank god they've got their mojo back ...

Finally, Lost has been consistently good -- the way it was during its first season -- since it got off its whole let's-treat-Kate-Sawyer-and-Jack-like-zoo-animals storyline and the show returned from its mid-season hiatus a couple weeks ago ...

And Grey's is moving on from its latest cheese-fest that was Meredith's drowning ...

Just keep it real people.

Sunday reading

Some good reads from the last few weeks ...

Entertainment ...
a It’s hard work to become a Blue Man
a Mr. Television: Familysomething ... I stumbled across this one while searching for this story about Calista Flockhart.
a Heather Graham: Fun Is Her Middle Name
a 'Grease' is the word
a A bigger share of the couch: The late shift is starting to pay off for talk-show host Jimmy Kimmel. If not, Costco is calling
a With New Quiz Shows, 'Boob Tube' Earns Its Name

Media ...
a ABC News nipping at NBC's heels
a Big Profits in Small Packages: Little Newspapers Prosper With Narrow Focus on Very Local News
a Jailed Man Is A Videographer And a Blogger but Is He a Journalist?
a It's a new platform for comedy: For aspiring performers, Internet video sites are the new club circuit.

Sports ...
a Bush, Mantle Show Up on Derek Jeter Baseball Card
a Struggling Blackhawks losing games, fans

Music ...
a Piracy isn’t the only enemy
a Radio Stations and the Promotional Game: A Fatal Attraction
a Rougher around the edges: Jones sought a less refined feel for her latest album, "Not Too Late."
a Anniversary revives dark memories on Penny Lane

Everything else ...
a A Chip Off the Old Pringle? Not Exactly.
a Diaper Demographic: TV, Video Programming for the Under-2 Market Grows Despite Lack of Clear Educational Benefit
a Students Say Locker Size Is Cramping Their Style

Sunday TV

Thanks to ABC showing reruns of "Housewives" and "Brothers & Sisters" tonight, I actually got to watch "You're The One That I Want" and "The Apprentice" in real time ...

... For my money, ballerina bombshell Ashley Spencer blows all the other wannabe Sandys away; I've liked her from the start and I'll take her to the end. And while I'm still not very keen on any of the Dannys, Chad's far out take on "Signed, Sealed, Delivered" pretty much sealed his status for me ...

So I voted for Ashley and Chad. That's my story and I'm sticking to it ...

As for The Apprentice, Marissa was as good as gone the third time she dialed Heidi to try once more on selling her crazy chickens-on-a-corner idea ...

Guilty TV

Forgive me for being slow to post this week. Once again, projects at work and on the side are absorbing my time ... and the whole bathroom renovation is proving to be a more-involved and time consuming task than we first thought ...

So I finally got around to watching Sunday night's Apprentice and You're The One That I Want, and I finished watching last night's American Idol over my lunch...

And I loved every minute of them ...

What can I say? They're my guilty pleasures on TV right now ...

And I used to talk endlessly about how much I hated reality television.

Yeah.

But seriously! What the heck was Michelle thinking, resigning from The Apprentice because she couldn't bear to live any longer in the woods!? Baby, the posh backyard of Trump's mansion -- even with the cold showers -- is not the woods ...

And I was sooo cheering for Kara and Ashley to make it to the finals of their Grease try-outs. I've had a soft spot for both of them since the beginning, but I guess it wasn't meant to me ... As for the Danny-boys, I'm not seeing a single one of them as Zucco ...

And why's everybody so strung out about the Idol judge's not so pleasant criticisms? This being my first season of watching Idol, I honestly expected it to be much worse ... My favorite from last night: Melinda Doolittle. She was, as Paula said, brilliant.

Catching up on TV

... Out of work for the afternoon, I finally caught up on my Sunday night TV ...

I watched the new Apprentice first ... and I liked it.

The last couple seasons of the show were getting so bad, Kates and I bailed out ... But I like the new twists. The first task of setting up a tent in the mansion's backyard was comical, and seeing the losing team try to camp out there was even more entertaining. Plus, Ivanka is surprisingly fun to watch. At the first shot of her sitting next to Daddy Trump, I was thinking, geez, this can't be good. Not only does she look ditzy, she looks like she's 14 years old! ... Then she opened her mouth and spoke. Man, that is one intelligent, head-strong woman ...

And all I gotta say about the first episode's main players: Martin is a pompous dope who deserved to be fired, but Frank -- holy cow -- is a bomb waiting to explode ...

Next up: "You're The One That I Want"

Aye.

I'm not hot on the fact that the leads of a Broadway musical -- Grease -- are being picked via a TV show ... but the judges/Broadway top dogs seem like they know their stuff, they know what they want and they're not giving into any pressure to pick someone on a thin notion that they make good TV -- that was evident when Billy Bush swayed the judges to give a wannabe Sandy a second chance audition, and the judges booted her just as fast as they did in her initial try ...

... Kudos to David Ian and the other judges for being far more respectful and straight with the hopefuls than the crew from American Idol will ever be ... But the drama of David telling the hopefuls " ... (long pause with dramatic music and shots of people staring at each other) ... You're not Sandy" is enough to make me scream ...

... I'm not head over heals for any of these shows. The problems is now I've watched the first episodes and I want to see how it all unfolds!