The Real Housewives of New York City Go To Morocco for Blondes vs. Brunettes Feuding

This season of The Real Housewives of New York City has been a bit of a bore. Particularly compared to last season.

The 3 episodes covering the girls trip to Morocco were rumored to finally amp up the drama and entertainment.

Well, I will say that Morocco Part 1 was the most entertaining episode this season. But that's only because the previous episodes have been so weak.

You know you're a bit starved for drama when way too much time is spent on the annoying Cindy's complaint that the blondes had stolen her clothes hangers.

When Cindy reported the crime to the brunettes she amped up the accusation by claiming her clothes had been tossed in the hanger theft.

It was really a big mistake to add Cindy to the RHONY cast. She is like a big energy suck.

LuAnn seems to grow evermore insufferable. She has made herself the girl's guide to all things Moroccan. Previously we heard LuAnn brag she'd been to Morocco many times. On her Bravo blog Alex said the actual fact is that LuAnn had been to Morocco once, years ago.

Which makes sense, because LuAnn thought Morocco was a city and compared it to Paris. Not realizing that it is Marrakesh that is a city in Morocco. LuAnn seems both real pretentious and real dumb to me.

Kelly has shown no signs of crazy so far in Morocco. I thought it was amusing when Kelly went on and on, telling the brunettes what a mess Sonja's house is. Which had LuAnn coming to the absent Sonja's defense.

Apparently it was right before the Morocco trip that Sonja filed for bankruptcy. Which may partly explain some of her behavior. Like being totally paranoid that her small amount of luggage might be stolen.

Ramona and Alex are pretty much my favorites. Why would Ramona bring so much stuff with her to Morocco? A case full of jewelry? With stands for the jewelry?

Jill's ex gay husband, Brad, showing up in Morocco, with Jill having told him she would be there, with Jill saying Brad had a home in Morocco, which she later made a big deal over the home turning into Brad having a room at a Bed & Breakfast, was a bit much.

Also a bit much was Brad's birthday party. I am not a fan of snakes. Seeing a guy kiss a venomous snake is not entertaining to me. I did enjoy seeing a snake wrapped around the reptilian Jill's head, though.

At one point we heard Sonja ask menopausal Ramona if she had any feminine hygiene products. Ramona mis-heard and showed Sonja her high heels. Next week somehow Sonja's female woes come into play with a camel ride.

That should make for some riveting TV viewing.

Dancing With The Stars Disco Ball Trophy Goes To Hines Ward Instead Of Kirstie Alley

I bailed on watching the Dancing with the Stars results show. I got tired of way too many weather interruptions.

Or split screens like you see in the screen cap, with Chelsea Kane dancing in the lower right corner, with the upper right and lower left showing important still images of lightning strikes. I suppose in case a viewer does not know what lightning looks like.

The upper left shows a tent either being blown by the wind, or being hit by hail.

I figured Kirstie Alley was going to be the shoo-in winner. As fun as that would be to see, I turned off the TV.

This morning I was slightly surprised to learn that Kirstie did not win. Instead the NFL footballer, Hines Ward, won the coveted mirror ball trophy.

Kirstie had lower scores from the judges than Hines or Chelsea. But, I figured she had so many more fans. That and I thought her freestyle was far more entertaining than either of her competitors.

How could she not win after losing so much weight and doing those cartwheel flips?

What an injustice.

I figured there could not possibly be all that many football fans who also watch DWTS. I am not a football fan, so it is not too shocking that I'd never heard of Hines Ward before he started dancing.

Anyway, methinks Kirstie was a winner in DWTS even if she did not win that shiny trophy.

Best of Night For American Idol Final Performance Show Was Either Scotty or Lauren

An incoming Texas thunderstorm knocked out my power about 5 minutes before the start of the American Idol final performance show of the season.

Power came back on at the end of the show, right when re-caps of Scotty McCreery and Lauren Alaina's 3 songs of the night and the voting numbers were shown, as you can see in the screen cap, with all the weather info taking up most of the screen, with Scotty shoved up in the upper right corner.

At least I got to see a condensed version of the show.

It did not take extensive research to learn that Scotty started off the show, with the first round being the singer's singing what they felt was their favorite performance of the season. Scotty sang "Gone" by Montgomery Gentry.

Lauren chose Carrie Underwood's "Flat on the Floor." Apparently Lauren sounded a tad hoarse.

For the second round Scotty and Lauren asked their favorite idol to pick a song for them. George Strait picked his own song, "Check Yes or No," for Scotty. Carrie Underwood picked "Maybe It Was Memphis."

Judges' opinions?  In the first round Jennifer Lopez and Randy Jackson gave Scotty a slight edge, with Lauren getting the coveted slight edge for round 2. Steven Tyler gave both rounds to Lauren.

The third round song was what it always is, that being the first song the singer will release should they be the winner.

For Scotty, Jimmy Iovine picked "I Love You This Big." Randy was the most negative of the judges. Jennifer reached deep into her extensive vocabulary and said it was "amazing." Steven said Scotty proved, "You can't make a 3-point shot from under the net." I don't know what that means either.

Lauren sang a tribute to American moms called "Like My Mother Does." Jennifer felt that this song just might make Lauren the winner. Randy cleverly went non-cliche and said, "Lauren Alaina has arrived."

With Steven saying something I could understand, that being, “The first time I saw you I thought you were my American Idol. I think America’s gonna find that to be true as well.”

So, I guess that means Steven thinks Lauren will win. Randy thought the slight edge went to Scotty. While Jennifer thought it too close to call.

Two things for certain. The winner will be a teenager who's future is likely in country music, not heavy metal.

Nielsen Rating's Top 20 TV Shows for May 12 - May 18

The Nielsen Rating's Top 20 TV Shows for May 12 - May 18. The first number is the ranking, the second number is the season average, then the show name and network. The last number represents the number of viewers in millions. An asterisk * indicates a tie

Rank	Show name	Network	Viewers in millions	Season-to-date average(in millions)
1.	American Idol (Wed.)	Fox	23.6	25.6
2.	Dancing with the Stars	ABC	22.0	21.9
3.	American Idol	Fox	21.8	23.8
4.	NCIS	CBS	18.6	19.7
5.	Dancing With the Stars Results	ABC	18.1	18.3
6.	NCIS: Los Angeles	CBS	15.6	16.7
7.	The Mentalist	CBS	14.1	15.3
8.	Jesse Stone: Innocents Lost	CBS	13.9	--
9.	Dancing With the Stars	ABC	13.8	11.6
10.	Castle	ABC	12.9	11.4
11.	Criminal Minds	CBS	12.8	14.3
12.	The Good Wife	CBS	12.6	12.9
13.	The Big Bang Theory	CBS	11.3	13.2
14.	60 Minutes	CBS	10.8	--
15.	60 Minutes	CBS	10.4	13.3
*	Hawaii Five-O	CBS	10.4	11.9
17.	Body of Proof	ABC	10.3	13.1
*	Modern Family	ABC	10.3	11.8
19.	The Voice	NBC	10.0	12.6
20.	Grey's Anatomy	ABC	9.9	11.3

The Bachelorette's Ashley Sends Drunk Tim Home & Keeps The Masked Man Jeff

I had not intended to watch the first episode of the latest iteration of The Bachelorette. But then when Dancing with the Stars ended, up started The Bachelorette, with nary a break.

The DWTS DVR recording stopped after about a half hour. Then I realized the DVR was recording The Bachelorette. So, I continued watching til I caught up with the recording, right at the commercial break before the Sacred Rose Ceremony.

I sort of got hooked, due to this always weird show, seeming even weirder, than usual. Maybe I was just tired.

I fast forwarded through much of the intro. There were several bios of just some of the boys. Are they the ones who made it far in the game? I mean, search for love? After maybe 5 or 6 bios, the 25 boys started arriving via limos.

Ashley Hebert is The Bachelorette this time around. Ashley had been rejected on The Bachelor by Brad Womack, who preferred Emily.

One of Ashley's potential husbands, Bentley, also prefers Emily. Michelle Money, she of crazy lady fame on Brad Womack's The Bachelor, apparently warned Ashley that Bentley had that horrible Bachelorette/Bachelor disease of not being in it for the right reasons.

But, Ashley thought Bentley was cute, overlooked Michelle's warnings and gave Bentley one of the Sacred Roses. I know this from the previews of the season that started the show, where we see Bentley breaking Ashley heart, or appearing to do so.

I also know Ashley gave Bentley one of the Sacred Roses because I looked at the ABC The Bachelorette website to see if I could see the famous masked man, Jeff, without his mask.

Yes, one of the boys got out of the limo with most of his face covered by a mask. Not due to some hideous deformity. But because his gimmick was he believed with the mask people are forced to judge him on his inner beauty, not his outer beauty. Or something like that.

On the ABC The Bachelorette website's graphic of Who's In & Who's Out? Jeff's face is all blacked out.

If I were Ashley, I would have told Jeff to take the mask off or go home. As the boys got more alcohol in them, Jeff's mask became more and more of an issue, as it unsettled some of the potential husbands.

Ashley kept the guy in the mask, but did send another one home before the Sacred Rose Ceremony.

That would be Tim, a liquor distributor from New York, who drank too much, had trouble talking to Ashley, then passed out.

And then in a contrived scene, marching towards the passed out Tim, with the camera behind her, Ashley tried to wake Tim up. When that failed Ashley went to request the assistance of some of the burly men to help her haul Tim out to a waiting car to send him home.

Tim was not in it for the right reasons. I don't know if I am.

Kirstie Alley Flips During Dancing With The Stars Finale Freestyle

That is not a screen cap of Kirstie Alley falling during her freestyle routine on the Dancing with the Stars finale. Instead of a fall, it is Kirstie going into a cartwheel move.

Just a few weeks ago I would not believe what I saw tonight on Dancing with the Stars would have been possible.

A few weeks ago, in a relatively simple move, as Kirstie wrapped a leg around Maks, Maks' leg could not handle the stress. And to the ground they fell.

During tonight's freestyle routine of the finale, the extent of the transformation of Kirstie Alley during the course of this season of DWTS was clear.

Kirstie Alley is no long the Fat Actress. She is now the shapely, well-rounded actress. Who dances well.

The Kirstie/Maks freestyle started off nice and slow. And then Kirstie ripped off some of her clothes and ran towards Maks who caught her and spun her around like a light feather. This was followed by Maks lifting Kirstie into the air in multiple formations, with Kirstie at times doing gymnastic flips.

Along with 2 instances of a Kirstie cartwheel.

I think the audience in the studio, along with the viewers, were a bit happily shocked at the Kirstie freestyle. And then those stingy judges gave Kirstie & Maks all 9s, just like they'd done for their first dance, a samba. The audience booed at the three 9s for the freestyle.

There were two other couples dancing. I did not care for the Chelsea Kane/Mark Ballas freestyle. It seemed frenetic and goofy. I also did not care for the Hines Ward/Kym Johnson halftime show freestyle. But those annoying judges did, giving those couples all 10s, except one 9 for each, giving both a total of 59, for their 2 dances.

So, it is Kirstie & Maks in 3rd place with 54 points. And the other pairs tied for first with 59.

Apparently there is one more dance for the judges to judge tomorrow.

I suspect that the huge number of votes that Kirstie gets from the viewers, will give Kirstie the coveted disco ball trophy and Maks his first win.

Then again, I don't bother to vote. I suspect others don't as well. Which means the Disney kid and her annoying partner could win. Or the football player with the Aussie partner.

The Real Housewives of New York City Go To Morocco For 3 Weeks

That is Jill Zarin in Morocco in the picture. It looks as if Jill may have a snake wrapped around her head. Jill Zarin is a bit of a snake, so this would seem to be appropriate headwear for her.

This week's episode of The Real Housewives of New York City was another strange one.

Cindy took the non-blondes to some Spa/Hotel somewhere that took 6 hours to get to, due to, apparently, someone reading a Google map wrong.

While the non-blondes were at the spa banging drums, the blondes went in for some spa treatment of their own. Alex got her face scraped, Sonja had her cellulite issues addressed, Ramona found out that botox would fix her neck waddle.

At another point non-blonde Kelly went to blonde Sonja's to offer much needed advice while Sonja was having a photo shoot for her Toaster Oven cookbook.

Sonja has turned really weird. Apparently Sonja can no longer afford underwear. While posing for the photographer at one point Sonja went totally Sharon Stone, shocking Kelly, who had never seen that part of another woman's anatomy before.

LuAnn has turned totally insufferable. Does LuAnn watch an episode, like the most recent, and realize what an overbearing, inappropriate bitch she was being to Ramona, lecturing Ramona about Ramona's supposed bad behavior towards Jill?

We viewers had seen, clearly, who was the wrong one in that scenario.

Jill.

LuAnn, at the point in time she was lecturing Ramona, had not seen what really happened.

LuAnn continued her bad behavior at Jill's anti-bullying charity, confronting Ramona again, making the mistake of doing so in front of Alex who, as always, accurately assesses what is going on and correctly says LuAnn is yet one more thug in a cocktail dress.

Jill is so un-self aware that she has not an inkling how ironic it is for bully Jill to be having anything to do with an anti-bullying charity.

I am amazed at how much less annoying Kelly has become. And is almost a sympathetic character. Telling LuAnn that she'd been physically abused. By who?  The ex-husband? Or that guy who Kelly beat up, who had her arrested?

This episode started with LuAnn and Sonja at lunch, where LuAnn tells her of the Bravo plan, I mean, LuAnn's plan, for all the girls to go off on a trip together. After pretending the location was not already known, throwing out various destinations, til LuAnn revealed it would be Morocco where this season's major drama will play out.

One by one the girls came onboard the Moroccan train, with Kelly being the last holdout.

At the end of the episode, the screen goes to black, with white type telling us, "For the Next Three Weeks the Girls are in Morocco." Or something like that.

We then see a series of previews that clearly show the blondes and the non-blondes are in civil war mode. It appears LuAnn acts insufferable, a lot of alcohol is consumed, Ramona breaks down in sobbing tears, LuAnn looks in horror at a snake going in a guy's mouth, the girls go on a camel caravan.

Will the Three Week Moroccan Debacle be the equal, entertainment-wise, of last season's Three Week Scary Island Debacle? I suspect not.

Will Sonja have the common sense to wear underwear in a conservative North African country? I hope so.

Scotty McCreery & Lauren Alaina American Idol Final Two

I'm not believing the Interweb rumors that American Idol's final two, Lauren Alaina and Scotty McCreery are romantically linked.

However, in the photo it does appear that Lauren is sitting on Scotty's lap with an arm around him. I don't know if this weak evidence is enough to proved the pair are currently at a boyfriend/girlfriend state of affairs.

This year's American Idol has been very strange to me. It started off seeming as if they'd found the best talent yet.

And then as the weeks went by it seemed less and less that the best talent ever had been found.

And now we are down to next Tuesday's 2 hour finale between 16 year old Lauren and 17 year old Scotty. The youngest finalists in American Idol history.

We were told 95 million votes were cast, Wednesday, which resulted in Haley Reinhart being the lowest vote getter.

I believe each so-called voter gets 10 votes. Wouldn't it be more accurate to say 9.5 million votes were cast?

Last week American Idol, according to the Nielsen Ratings, had 23 million viewers.

It seems really silly to say there were 4 times as many votes as there were viewers.

It also seems to me that Scotty McCreery will have to mess up real bad to not get millions upon millions of votes,next Tuesday, making him this year's winner of American Idol.

The 3 Finalists Sing 3 Songs On American Idol With One Week til The Finale

My favorite of the night this week on American Idol was Haley Reinhart. Next week is the finale. I'm guessing the final two will be Haley and Scotty McCreery. I am often wrong about such things.

This week during the bloated two hour show, the singers sang three songs. Song #1 was the contestant's choice. Song #2 was Jimmy Iovine's choice. Song #3 was the Judges' choice.

In round 1 Beyonce was the guest mentor. Near as I can tell guest mentors do the pseudo mentoring in order to promote their latest video or album or movie.

Scotty McCreery was the first up with Beyonce, singing the song of his choice, "Amazed" by Lone Star. Jimmy Iovine chose "Are You Gonna Kiss Me or Not?" by Thompson Square. While the judges chose "She Believes in Me," by Kenny Rogers.

I thought Scotty did fine with all three songs.

Lauren Alaina was up next. She sure seems older than her 16 years. A very likable cutie. Lauren chose "Wild One" by Faith Hill for her Beyonce mentored song. Jimmy Iovine chose "If I Die Young, by The Band Perry for the young singer. The judges chose that done to death "I Hope You Dance" song by Lee Ann Womack.

I did not like Lauren's songs as much as I did Scotty's.

And then there was Haley Reinhart. Haley chose Led Zeppelin's "What Is and What Should Never Be," accompanied, on guitar, by her dad. Best of the night in my tone deaf opinion. Jimmy picked "Rhiannon" by Fleetwood Mac. The judges picked Alanis' "You Oughta Know" which may have been the worst of the night.

So, I'm guessing it is either Haley or Lauren who get to the boot tonight. I though Haley was the best of the night. But Lauren may attract a lot of those younger voters who view Haley as an older woman.

I suppose I will be fast forwarding through the results show tonight.

Kirstie Alley For The Win After Dancing With The Stars Eliminates Ralph Macchio

It was no great surprise that Tuesday night's Dancing with the Stars elimination show eliminated Ralph Macchio and Karina Smirnoff. They trailed well behind the other couples after Monday's dancing.

And then there was the 13 point boost Chelsea Kane and Mark Ballas got from winning that Cha-Cha dance off, which made it unlikely they'd get the boot.

Reading the Interwebs this morning it appears that Kirstie Alley will have to mess up real bad and get real low scores to not give Maks his first glittering disco ball trophy.

On those same Interwebs it quickly becomes apparent that Mark Ballas annoys many viewers. And while Chelsea Kane is a likable girl, she just does not have a big fan base.

Unlike Kirstie Alley.

Like me, it seems a lot of people warmed to Hines Ward after learning his history, this week, on Monday's performance show. But, it appears a lot of people think the judges seriously overscore Hines.

Kirstie is paired with the professional dancer who may be the most popular with the fans. Maks Chmerkovskiy. We've been seeing these pro dancers for so many years now that they often are as much, or more, of a celebrity as those they are paired with.

For instance, in the case of Chelsea Kane, I had never heard of her before. But I knew who Mark Ballas was. And that I did not particularly care for him. Thus a negative for Chelsea.

In the case of Hines Ward, I knew nothing about him. But, I like his partner, Kym Johnson. But not enough that it caused me to watch the Hines/Kym dances til this past Monday night.

Now, with Kirstie Alley, I've known who she is for decades. And have always liked her very much. She is paired with my favorite of the pros.

Like I said, I think Kirstie will need to mess up real bad next Monday night to not win the coveted glittery disco ball trophy.

Nielsen Rating's Top 20 TV Shows for May 5 - May 11

The Nielsen Rating's Top 20 TV Shows for May 5 - May 11. The first number is the ranking, the second number is the season average, then the show name and network. The last number represents the number of viewers in millions. An asterisk * indicates a tie.

Rank	Show name	Network	Viewers in millions	Season-to-date average(in millions)
1.	American Idol (Wed.)	Fox	23.0	25.6
2.	American Idol (Thur.)	Fox	22.5	23.8
3.	Dancing with the Stars	ABC	20.7	21.8
4.	NCIS	CBS	17.6	19.6
5.	Dancing w/Stars Results	ABC	17.5	18.3
6.	NCIS: Los Angeles	CBS	14.7	16.7
7.	The Mentalist	CBS	14.1	15.3
8.	Criminal Minds	CBS	13.3	14.2
*	Survivor: Finale	CBS	13.3	--
10.	Castle	ABC	12.6	11.2
11.	60 Minutes	CBS	12.2	13.4
12.	Blue Bloods	CBS	11.8	12.6
*	CSI	CBS	11.8	13.6
14.	The Good Wife	CBS	11.7	12.8
15.	Dancing with the Stars	ABC	11.3	10.3
16.	Survivor: Reunion	CBS	10.9	--
17.	Survivor: Redemption Island	CBS	10.8	12.5
*	Big Bang Theory	CBS	10.8	13.2
19.	Bones	Fox	10.5	11.4
20.	CSI: NY	CBS	10.4	10.9
*	Voice	NBC	10.4	12.4