Nielsen Rating's Top 20 for July 27 - August 2

The Nielsen Rating's Top 20 TV Shows for July 27 - August 2. 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 average	Show name	Network	Viewers in millions
1.	1	America's Got Talent (Tuesday, 9)	NBC	13.2
2.	2	America's Got Talent (Wednesday, 9)	NBC	11.2
3.	3	The Bachelorette	ABC	10.0
4.	3	NCIS	CBS	9.7
5.	5	60 Minutes	CBS	9.6
6.	6	Two and a Half Men	CBS	9.1
7.	7	The Mentalist	CBS	8.7
8.	7	America's Got Talent (Tuesday, 8)	NBC	8.6
9.	9	The Big Bang Theory	CBS	8.5
10.	10	CSI: Miami	CBS	8.1
11.	10	The Bachelorette: After the Rose	ABC	8.0
12.	12	CSI	CBS	7.8
*	12	So You Think You Can Dance (Wednesday)	Fox	7.8
14.	14	So You Think You Can Dance (Thursday)	Fox	7.6
15.	15	Law & Order: SVU	NBC	7.2
16.	16	Hell's Kitchen	Fox	7.0
17.	17	Wipeout	ABC	6.8
*	22	Big Brother (Sunday)	CBS	6.8
19.	17	CSI: NY	CBS	6.7
20.	17	Cold Case	CBS	6.6
*		Without a Trace	CBS	6.6

Paula Abdul Booted Off American Idol?

It does not seem credible to me, but, from the information that is out there, it seems as if American Idol's producers have taken a step beyond the standard negotiating type ploys and have instead made moves to get rid of Paula Abdul.

Paula Tweeted on Twitter about her sad state of mind regarding American Idol, Tweeting, ”I’m actually moved 2 tears upon reading the enormous amount of tweets showing me your kindness, love, & undying support. God bless all of you! If it weren’t for you, this specific time and situation would feel a whole lot worse!”

Paula's new manager, a guy named David Sonenberg, said, referring to the American Idol producers, "I find it under these circumstances particularly unusual, I think unnecessarily hurtful. I find it kind of unconscionable and certainly rude and disrespectful that they haven't stepped up and said what they want to do."

Sonenberg said due to the stalled talks it is unlikely Paula Abdul will be back on the show for the 9th season, which begins auditions tomorrow, August 6.

Ryan Seacrest recently signed a new 3 year deal with American Idol, making him the top paid Reality TV Host at $15 million a year for 3 years. Yes, that is $45 million in 3 years for Ryan Seacrest. Yet one more sign of how messed up the American economic system is.

Ryan O'Neal Flirts With Tatum With Foot In Mouth

I know Ryan O'Neal had not seen his daughter, Tatum, in years. And Tatum does not look all that much like she looked when she won an Academy Award for acting in Paper Moon with her daddy.

But still, would you not think that common sense would stop a grown man from doing any flirting, with any woman, let alone his grown daughter, at the funeral of the mother of one of his children, that being Redmond, Farrah Fawcett's only offspring, with whom Ryan also does not get along.

Apparently, Ryan O'Neal has never been a Father of the Year candidate. His other son, Griffin, who Ryan had booted from the funeral, was on Larry King talking about his dad's fading faculties, which included flirting with his own daughter.

Then Ryan compounded the foot in his mouth, with more information, as in when he broke up with Farrah, in the late 1990's, to take up with a much younger actress named Leslie Stefanson, he did so, because, he says, "She was more of a daughter to me than a lover, and my own daughter had flown the coop, so here was the replacement."

Yikes! Red Flag Alert!

And then Ryan O'Neal went public with what drove him from Farrah to the Tatum substitute. Farrah's raging menopausal mania. Ryan thought she hated him. He could not handle the mood swings. And so he left.

And if that was not a sufficient dose of too much information. Ryan also shared that at one point he was in bed with his Tatum substitute and Farrah showed up, uninvited, unannounced, in the bedroom, where he was flagrante dilecto with the new girl friend. I am sure much hilarity ensued.

I hope Farrah is resting in supreme peace now.

The Real Housewives Of Atlanta: Bonnie Hunt Parody Of Kim

Apparently Bonnie Hunt is a fan of The Real Housewives of Atlanta. Who isn't? Bonnie does a pretty good imitation of crazy Kim Zolciak. And Niecy Nash does a good NeNe. Isn't Niecy Nash the person who's party all the girls went to on the first episode of the new season? Where all the girls shunned Kim and Kim shunned all the girls? Should I know who Niecy Nash is?

The Real Housewives Of Atlanta: Police After NeNe After She Chokes Kim In Street Fight

I learned from one of my sources who works in the TV industry, but not on a Reality Show, that Real Housewife of Atlanta's Kim Zolciak claims that she was assaulted by NeNe Leakes in a very heated exchange where NeNe got so mad she supposedly started strangling Kim.

The girls were on their way to do some filming for their Bravo show.

When the fight escalated to the point where NeNe was poking her fingers in Kim's face, others tried to break the girls apart, at which point NeNe then grabbed Kim by the neck and started choking her.

Kim filed an assault charge police report against NeNe. Kim's publicist had a few words to say, including, "Mrs. Leakes needs obvious therapy for her apparent anger management issues."

Prior to the street fight there had been leaks from Leake's autobiography, "Never Make the Same Mistake Twice," in which NeNe talks about Kim's habit of dating married men. And Kim's past as an Atlantic City stripper going by the name "Barbie." Neither of these items are revelations, both have been mentioned before.

I hope the street fight makes it on to the show. Along with NeNe's arrest. And trial. If either actually happen.

The Real Housewives Of Atlanta: New Season, Let The Fighting Begin

Those are some big veins popping out of Sheree Whitfield's neck in the biggest fight in the opening episode of the latest season of The Real Housewives of Atlanta.

The opening episode got the highest ratings of the first episode of any of the Bravo Real Housewife franchises, with 2.7 million viewers.

Last season's biggest nutcase, Kim Zolciak, seems to have managed to alienate all the other housewives, with Sheree now back in NeNe's camp. All the girls went to a party where there was a red carpet. Kim did some amusing shunning of the other girls, which caused them to engage in some group bitching about Kim. NeNe was hurt by the supposed lies Kim has spread, while Lisa wants nothing to do with Kim. Should make for some entertaining catfighting.

NeNe Leakey going bankrupt and losing her house was widely talked about in blogs and forums during last season with the Atlanta girls. Complete with documentation. On the opening episode we see NeNe complaining about Kim spreading the gossip all over town that NeNe and her husband had gone bankrupt.

Well, you can read NeNe's bankruptcy papers on this very blog. Last season people were speculating that NeNe's house did not look like anyone lived there. This season NeNe is in yet another new house. And it looks even less as if she actually lives there. She did bring in her gay boyfriend for decorating ideas for the house that seemed bare of anything except for a big fake plant and a pool table.

When last we saw Kim she was certain she was about to be a big country music singer, with her first hit single to be released by last February. I've not heard her hit single. Kim seems to have moved on from being a country music star to starting a new business selling wigs. To learn the wig business Kim went to a beautician school, where she quickly got bored and decided she could just hire people to figure out how to make wigs.

Kim claims to be off the Big Poppa gravy train and in need of getting an income. We saw nothing to explain where Kim is currently getting money. The previews seemed to indicate that Kim is still seeing Big Poppa at times. I'm sure it is a lucrative assignation.

We got rid of one housewife, that being the sort of dense, sort of boring wife of a basketball player. I can't even remember her name. She's been replaced by an apparently successful musician named Kandi Burress, single mother of one really precocious little girl and soon to be step-mom to 6 other kids.

So, currently only 2 out the 5 housewives are actually wives. In addition to Kandi, the unmarried are Kim and the freshly divorced Sheree.

Speaking of the freshly divorced Sheree, who is almost as big a piece of work as Kim, well, to celebrate her divorce Sheree wants to throw an "Independence Party." In her new house. What happened to her old house, you can't help but wonder? Well, it went into foreclosure. Somehow, totally without Sheree knowing a thing about the impending foreclosure. Her ex-husband had ceased making the house payments on the enormous mansion.

We saw Sheree schlepping boxes, herself, into her new, shrunk down living quarters. She can schlep boxes herself, but she is incapable of planning a party.

So, Sheree contracted the services of a professional party planner, a career I did not know existed. We saw nothing this episode that explained where Sheree gets the money to pay for her new house or a big party.

Sheree wanted a grand entrance to her party, via helicopter. The party planners planned to have Sheree brought from the copter to her guests via a Cleopatra type lounging chair carried by a bunch of hunky guys. With others throwing rose petals in her path.

Sheree made a call to her party planner, Anthony Shorter, who proceeded to get short with her, to Sheree's ire, which she verbalized to her hairdresser, who insisted she confront her party planner to let him know who's boss. Sheree proceeded to follow her hairdresser's advice and soon we got so see one of the weirdest, fastest escalating shouting matches in the history of reality television. Anthony Shorter was obviously an incompetent idiot. Did he not see the cameras pointing at him?

We were left with no clue as to what Sheree is going to do now to hold her very important Independence Party, which she insists be very very "grand."

That was about it for the first episode. Oh, I forgot, Lisa Wu Hartwell, 38, may have another baby with her younger husband. Lisa referred to herself as a cougar who's clock was ticking.