The Real Housewives of New York City: Countless LuAnn & Jill Needs a Hobby

The characters on The Real Housewives of New York City are being very mixed up in this 3rd iteration of this version of the Bravo Housewives Franchise.

Somehow, formerly creepy and deluded couple, Alex McCord and husband Simon Van Kempen, have become the sane voices of reason. And they're likable.

While formerly likable, Jill Zarin, has turned into a raging nutcase fixated on the crime against humanity her former best friend Bethenny Frankel committed when Bethenny left a voice mail on Jill's phone suggesting that Jill get a hobby.

On and on Jill goes about Bethenny's hobby remark. Keeping the message for months, playing it for anyone willing to listen, including a psychic, who Jill consults regarding the horror foisted upon her by Bethenny.

To me, Jill comes off as a big bundle of jealous. Bethenny's finally found herself another keeper, named Jason, her various business efforts are taking off, she's about to get her own TV show. So, Jill has moved on to "taking care" of the Countess who lost her count and now spends her days seeking an apology from Ramona's husband, Mario, because Mario committed the horrible crime against humanity of referring to LuAnn as Countless.

Which seemed to me to be a perfectly fair little bit of wordplay.

And then there is Kelly, Bethenny's arch enemy, and now one of Jill's dearest friends. Kelly seems a bit more likable this time around, maybe it's due to her suffering a bit of humility due to spending time dealing with the criminal justice system.

Jill visited Kelly's apartment for the first time. That all seemed awkward to me. On and on Jill went about how Kelly had been misinformed about what was special about the issue of Playboy Kelly is not baring her cha-chas in. I don't know what a cha-cha is. I can guess, but I'm not sure.

Strange conversations about the Playboy posing between Kelly and her daughters, one of whom characterized it as being something like her mom's gift to the world, entertaining people with her weirdness.

Meanwhile, Countless LuAnn and daughter Victoria drive along with LuAnn often not having a hand on the steering wheel, chatting about Kelly taking it off in Playboy. I think it was from Victoria we heard the Cha-Cha concern. LuAnn would consider it if Playboy asked her to take her clothes off, seeing nothing wrong with a little breast baring, what with LuAnn being so European, despite being a Native American.

Next week looks fun, with Bethenny yelling at LuAnn and Ramona aggravating Kelly. What a fun group of girls.

American Idol: Lacey Brown Sent Home

Yes, I know, I think I said I was done watching American Idol. But, when I read they'd be warbling Rolling Stones songs I thought it might be good. I was wrong.

How can 12 singers all suck the life out of Rolling Stones songs? It was bizarre.

I did not watch last night's results show. It's easier just to read a re-cap. From that I learned Tim Urban, Paige Miles and Lacey Brown were the bottom 3, with Tim Urban somehow saved by the judges? I did not understand that part of the re-cap.

Lacey Brown had the least votes. I remembered who Tim Urban and Paige Miles were, but I was not sure that Lacey Brown was the redhead, til I Googled the name.

Not remembering the names is sort of an indicator of how boring and unmemorable most of these people are this year.

That annoying "Judges' Save" is back again. So, Lacey had to sing one more time before the Judges consulted and did not save her.

The most amusing part of the Tuesday performance show was when Ryan Seacrest got in Simon Cowell's face saying something about why don't you offer constructive criticism for once. This was in regard to Simon telling Michael Lynche that his dancing was desperate. I don't know if it was desperate. I do know I fast forwarded through it.

Another painful one was Katie Stevens singing Wild Horses. She turned it into an awful song, but not as bizarre as when I heard Susan Boyle sing it.

The judges jumped all over Tim Urban's version of Under My Thumb. Apparently it was a reggae rendition. I didn't quite catch that. I thought he did fine. At least I remember his name.

Siobhan Magnus just irritates me. It may have something to do with the nose piercing, which is also a strike against Crystal Bowersox. I don't get the pimping of these two as being the best and one or the other heading for the win.

I also don't like Andrew Garcia with the strange neck tattoo. Why has this guy not been sent home? I don't get it.

Of all of them the only one who seems at all to have any star quality is Casey James. He just seems like a normal, likable guy who sings well. I don't get Cowell saying the guy needs to give more of a star performance, rather than just standing there. It's like those judges are double-binding nutcases giving out mixed signals. Next week Casey James will probably be dancing all over the stage like a monkey on amphetamines, which will cause Cowell to tell him he needs to restrain himself and stand still.

That little guy, Aaron Kelly, singing Angie, he did well. I think. It was a lot better than last week when he sang about his kids. A 16 year old singing about his kids is never gonna seem right.

Nielsen Rating's Top 20 for March 8 - 14

The Nielsen Rating's Top 20 TV Shows for March 8 - 14. 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	Season-averange rank	Show name	Network	Viewers in millions	Season-to-date average
1.	1	American Idol (Tues.)	Fox	22.8	27.0
2.	2	American Idol (Wed.)	Fox	20.7	29.3
3.	3	NCIS	CBS	19.6	20.0
4.	-	American Idol (Thurs.)	Fox	19.3	special event
5.	12	Two and a Half Men	CBS	17.6	19.0
6.	8	NCIS: Los Angeles	CBS	17.0	16.3
7.	15	The Big Bang Theory	CBS	16.3	14.4
8.	7	The Mentalist	CBS	16.0	16.8
9.	10	CSI	CBS	15.2	15.8
10.	22	The Good Wife	CBS	13.9	13.2
11.	5	Undercover Boss	CBS	13.5	18.2
12.	15	Criminal Minds	CBS	13.3	14.4
13.	22	House	Fox	12.8	13.3
14.	19	Survivor: Heroes	CBS	12.1	13.6
15.	15	60 Minutes	CBS	12.0	14.9
*	12	Desperate Housewives	ABC	12.0	14.9
17.	22	CSI: Miami	CBS	11.9	13.2
18.	19	CSI: NY	CBS	11.1	13.4
19.	17	Grey's Anatomy	ABC	10.9	14.1
20.	41	Cold Case	CBS	10.2	9.6

The Amazing Race 16: Episode 5: Louie & Michael #1 Again After Eliminating Joe & Heidi With U-Turn

I have not liked the "U-Turn" twist ever since it was introduced on The Amazing Race. The U-Turn pretty much lets one team eliminate another, not by racing better, but by forcing another team to do whatever Detour task the team had not done.

In the latest The Amazing Race episode it was Louie & Michael Blind U-Turning Joe & Heidi. Since Louie & Michael were in 1st place with Joe & Heidi in 2nd, it was no mystery who U-Turned them.

This was a very odd leg of The Amazing Race. It did not start with leaving the previous episode's Pitstop. Instead the Pitstop was a bus ride from Hamburg, Germany to some spot in France.

After finding a clue in a hunk of bread it was off to the location of some, apparently, well-known WWI battle. Teams had to put on WWI American Doughboy uniforms and choose a Detour between In the Trenches or Under Fire. All chose Under Fire because the other choice had to do with figuring out a message in Morse Code.

The WWI battle scene may be the most elaborate ever done on The Amazing Race. It was sort of bizarre. The teams had to crawl under barbed wire while soldiers were shooting at each other, bombs were going off and bi-planes were flying overhead.

Joe & Heidi made it out of the battle in second place, only to find they'd been U-Turned, which sent them back into the trenches to figure out the Morse Code message.

Meanwhile, Jeff & Jordan, nice kids, but a couple of the dumbest clucks ever to run the race, were far behind, got lost, bickered, finally got to the WWI battle to find their special Speed Bump. They completed that quickly and then started in on the Under Fire Detour, while Joe & Heidi kept trying to figure out the ridiculous Morse Code thing.

Jeff & Jordan got their clue directing them to ride old style bicycles to the Pitstop where they checked in in 7th place.

Phil then had to hit the trenches to tell Joe & Heidi they had been eliminated.

I did not like this episode of The Amazing Race. What does the U-Turn thing have to do with racing? And to have such a thing where the 2nd Detour task is pretty near impossible, thus, effectively letting one team eliminate another. This did not make for good TV. It may have been a Jump the Shark moment. I would imagine plenty of viewers found the U-Turn annoying.

I'll probably keep watching.

Nielsen Rating's Top 20 for March 1 - 7

The Nielsen Rating's Top 20 TV Shows for March 1 - 7. 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	Season-averange rank	Show name	Network	Viewers in millions	Season-to-date average
1.	-	Academy Awards	ABC	41.7	special event
2.	-	Oscar's Red Carpet	ABC	25.3	special event
3.	2	American Idol (Wed.)	Fox	23.6	25.4
4.	1	American Idol (Tues.)	Fox	23.5	27.0
5.	3	NCIS	CBS	19.6	20.0
6.	-	American Idol (Thurs.)	Fox	19.4	special event
7.	12	Two and a Half Men	CBS	16.9	14.8
8.	16	The Big Bang Theory	CBS	15.7	14.3
9.	10	CSI	CBS	15.6	15.9
10.	28	The Bachelor	ABC	15.2	12.1
11.	-	Barbara Walters	ABC	15.0	special event
12.	7	The Mentalist	CBS	14.9	16.8
13.	8	NCIS: Los Angeles	CBS	14.8	16.3
14.	-	Bachelor: After Final	ABC	13.9	special event
15.	22	The Good Wife	CBS	13.3	13.2
16.	14	Criminal Minds	CBS	13.0	14.5
17.	18	Survivor: Heroes and Villians	CBS	12.7	13.6
18.	20	CSI: NY	CBS	12.3	13.5
19.	22	CSI: Miami	CBS	12.1	13.2
20.	16	Grey's Anatomy	ABC	11.8	14.2

The Handsome Men Club With Jimmy Kimmel in Bed with Ben Affleck

This morning I watched a funny video clip from Jimmy Kimmel Live.

In the video, Jimmy Kimmel is the leader of the Handsome Men Club. Members include Matthew McConaughey, Patrick Dempsey, Rob Lowe, Tony Romo, Sting, Ethan Hawke, who gets permission from Jimmy to change his name to Handsome Hawke, Keith Urban, Josh Hartnett, Matt Damon and others I'm not remembering, plus Ben Affleck, who ends up in bed with Jimmy Kimmel, comforting Jimmy who is distraught about being kicked out of the Handsome Men Club because the Handsome Men voted him un-Handsome.