Eliminations, Beautiful People, and It's Never Too Early for an Emmy Rant

This week, another aspiring pop star/washed-up celebrity faced the long, sad road home without a recording contract/disco ball trophy.

First, Dancing with the Stars said good-bye to Shannon Elizabeth, who lasted much, much longer than any other model/leggy actress before her. She may not have won the trophy, but she did gain a (much younger) boyfriend in her partner, Derek Hough. So what if the relationship dies after three weeks? It was adorable while it lasted. Seriously, though. I really liked Shannon, and though it was clear that she was not going to win, she gave it her all and really improved over the course of her time on DWtS.

Then, last night, American Idol eliminated Brooke White, who had actually gotten progressively worse since her first performance on the show. She hit her high point in Week One with "Let It Be," and went downhill from there. Visibly nervous, she started two songs over and gave many, many shaky performances. But there was still so much to love about her Brooke-ness that you almost didn't mind. I hope she goes on to make lovely, Norah Jones-ish records sitting at her piano.

That leaves us with a fairly solid Top Four, with one glaring exception. Jason Castro is the biggest one-trick pony that ever tricked, and he's sailing through. Next week is the patented BIG SHOCKING ELIMINATION week (See: Grey, Tamyra; London, LaToya; and Daughtry, Chris) so my bet is that Jason and Syesha hang on and one of the Davids goes, clearing the way for the other David to win. We shall see, though. Syesha is verging on Nikki McKibbon territory here, hitting the bottom two every week, but somehow squeaking by. This means she has no fanbase, whereas each of the three remaining men/boys does. Should be a very interesting week...especially because it is "Rock n' Roll Hall of Fame Week" which plays right into David Cook's wheelhouse.

In other news, Jason Taylor, All-Pro linebacker and this week's leader on DWTS, has been named one of People Magazine's Most Beautiful People. Some other familiar faces show up on the issue's preview, including American Idol Carrie Underwood, Comedy Central's Sarah Silverman, Samantha Who? herself, Christina Applegate, Eva Longoria, the entire cast of "Gossip Girl," and a fully-clothed Vanessa Hudgens.

The awards show that absolutely no one cares about, the Daytime Emmys, announced their nominations yesterday. This, of course, got me thinking about the real Emmy nominations, which are announced in just about two and a half months -- July 17th. That date marks "The Wire's" final shot at any significant nominations. They submitted the fifth season premiere "More With Less" and the series finale "-30-" for consideration, but the realist inside me says that if the magnificent fourth season couldn't garner even one cruddy nomination, the somewhat flawed fifth season won't, either. I'm really trying to resign myself to it now, so that I'm only mildly enraged on the morning of the 17th.

I'm two discs and 16 episodes into the first season of "How I Met Your Mother," and I'm pretty much in love with it. Barney is quickly moving up the ranks of my favorite TV characters of all time.