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.

American Idol: only three more weeks of this!

So yeah, I forgot to tape the show. Here are my rankings, based on some video clips and mp3s.

1) Archuleta "America." Hate the song choice, love how he sang it.
2) Syesha "Thank the Lord for the Night Time." So Broadway it hurts.
3) Castro 'Forever in Blue Jeans." Perfect song for him.
4) Brooke "I Am...I Said." Very Brooke. I'm so glad she had one good performance.
5) Syesha "Hello Again." She had a great night tonight.
6) Archuleta "Sweet Caroline." Penalized because it's the Red Sox song.
7) Cook "All I Really Need is You." Parts of it were good, I guess.
8) Cook "I'm Alive." Most of this was not good.
9) Castro "September Morn." More like September Bore.
10) Brooke "I'm a Believer." Ouch. Her voice is definitely not strong enough for this song.

Overall:
1) Syesha
2) Archuleta

(Monstrous Gap)

3) Castro
4) Cook
5)Brooke

Syesha still has no fanbase, but Brooke has been struggling for awhile now. However, it might be time for a shock! bottom three placement, so keep an eye out for one of the David to flirt with disaster and rejuvenate their fanbase before their inevitable showdown in the finals.

Bottom Two: Brooke, Syesha
Going home: Brooke

Like I Need More TV to Watch

Another thing I've done in the last week is start two new TV shows. I'm Netflixing "How I Met Your Mother," I'm through one disc and I'm already in love with it. The main character is Ted Mosby (played by Josh Radnor, a guy who gets cuter every episode), a late twenty-something who is spooked by the engagement of his best friends Lily & Marshall (Alyson Hannigan and Jason Segal) into looking for real love in New York City. Sort of like a funnier, less annoying male Carrie Bradshaw. In the pilot, Ted thinks he's found love with Robin (Cobie Smulders), but it turns out she's not looking for a serious relationship, so she becomes part of Ted's circle of friends. The best part about the show is Neil Patrick Harris as Barney, Ted's other best friend who lives for his next one-night stand. Sample dialouge:

It's gonna be legend-... wait for it... and I hope you're not lactose intolerant because the second half of that word is DAIRY!

We're building an igloo in Central Park! It's going to be legendary! Snow-suit up!

What's that? Self five? Nice! We out!

He's fantastic. My next disc arrives tomorrow, and yes, I will be up until midnight watching all eight episodes.

I also started watching "Mad Men," on AMC. They replayed the pilot episode last Sunday night, and I think I'm really going to enjoy the show. Jon Hamm plays Don Draper, the creative director for a Madison Avenue advertising firm in 1960. The rampant sexism and racism of the time are on full display, but the show hooked me in after about 10 minutes. Plus, John Slattery co-stars as Draper's boss, Roger Sterling. I love Slattery from Sex & the City -- he's the guy that wanted Carrie to pee on him. And it stars a Firefly alum -- Christina Hendricks -- which will always get me to tune in. I fell asleep before the second episode aired (midnight on Sunday), so I'll try to catch up before episode three next Sunday.

Huge Weekly Wrap-Up; The Week In Pictures

Again, apologies for the lack of updates. Tomorrow is my last day of class...ever, so with the exception of studying for finals and trying to find a job, I have nothing to do in the next two weeks. Which is good, because sweeps/finale season is almost here, and we need TV blogs more than ever during that hectic time.

Since the last blog: We said goodbye to Carly, probably unfairly.

Then we said goodbye to Marlee. This one was deserved.

The Office attempted to un-cute Jim & Pam.

They were not successful. (Picture credit to pessimistreader) Also on The Office, we learned that Ryan has a cocaine addiction and Toby is leaving Scranton for Costa Rica. (Season finale title: "Good Bye, Toby") Also, here is an amazing countdown of the best Jim & Pam moments in the history of The Office. Oh, the memories.

This list of "Jump the Shark" moments was released. I could not agree more with the entries for Idol, Grey's Anatomy, and Heroes. Sanjaya was the jumping point for Idol. The fact that the judges put him in the top 24 was inexcusable. Grey's...I can't say anything that hasn't been said, but killing Denny (even though that's not the jumping point the writer uses) sent the show into unecessary melodrama, which culminated with the unfortunate Gizzy experiment, and apparently, they're still trying to drag on the business with Alex and Jane Doe. Seriously? Does anyone actually want them together? They had something with Alex and Izzie, or even Alex and Addison, and they blew it. I could rant for days about Grey's, though, so I'll move on.

The Heroes moment that Matthew Gilbert chooses (the first season finale), is the most obvious example I've seen of a show being unable to deliver on its premise. These are people with superpowers, and for the bulk of the finale, they are standing around, not using them. All season, they had built up to a super battle between Peter and Sylar, and it lasted approximately 15 seconds. I think I could actally hear the whoosh of disappointed sighs as the episode ended. To make matters worse, two days later, the Lost season 3 finale (a.k.a. the greatest episode ever) aired, and the difference in quality between the "grown-up" twisty sci-fi show and its spawn had never been more pronounced. You can trace Heroes' disappointing second season right back to its season one finale. Here's hoping that their new concentration on villans (bring Kensei back, you fools! He was the best thing about the second season!) will breathe new life into the show next fall.

In "better late than never" news, after four years of crappy sports teams, we Orange seniors finally have two sports teams we can feel good about: All hail the mighty power of Syracuse lacrosse. Yes, Katie Rowan is The Boss Of Everything. Just accept it now.