One of the weirdest TV weeks ever continued Wednesday as reality TV continued to get it right, with American Idol finally kicking the ridiculously out-of-his-depth Sanjaya Malakar to the curb. But does this leave Ryan Seacrest and Simon Cowell something — anything — to talk or argue about?Meanwhile, in the actual real world, the horrific saga of the Virginia Tech shootings took yet another surreal turn when NBC revealed and analyzed on air the existence of a disturbing package of video, text and photos sent by the shooter on the day of the killings. Unimaginably, he went to the post office between sprees to mail his deranged manifesto to the media in a final bid for media immortality. (I have decided not to name the shooter here, in a personal bid to deny him, at least in this space, that publicity.) This package of angry rants and deadly poses, resembling a nightmare vision out of Taxi Driver, is without question legitimate news, and its contents will be devoured on air...
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In a normal week, I would probably find myself writing something on the order of thanking America for coming to its senses and finally sending the classy but inert Clyde Drexler packing from Dancing with the Stars. And then I’d tack on some snarky thought about how maybe America could be similarly inspired tonight to send the “utterly horrendous” (Simon’s words) Sanjaya Malakar and his bandanna home from American Idol after Tuesday’s feeble attempt at Bonnie Raitt insouciance.But this is hardly a normal week. Between Monday’s instantly infamous tragedy at Virginia Tech, and the natural disaster of the floods in the Northeast following last weekend’s torrential storm, my TV has been a bearer of bad news for the last couple of terrible days. Reality TV has been thoroughly overshadowed by reality on TV.In times like these, especially as the nation tries to come to grips with the senseless horror of the Virginia Tech shootings, TV serves an essential p...
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You know those T-shirts and hats that read “I’d rather be golfing”? I bet Clyde Drexler owns at least one of those. As the weeks went by, the former NBA star brought less and less of his A-game to this competition, and his laid-back approach to dancing wasn’t working out too well. Basically, his heart wasn’t in it anymore, and it showed on the ballroom floor. Yet he always brought his gentle smile and positive attitude to each performance, and those are the things I’ll miss about him the most. Heather Mills, accompanying Clyde in the bottom two, was rather sweet when she took his hand as they waited for the results. And when Clyde learned that he was the one who would not be returning next week, he appeared to be relieved rather than disappointed. Moments earlier, when Billy Ray learned that he would be returning, he looked mad. But I interpreted that reaction as Billy Ray misunderstanding what was said and thinking that he was told he was out (honestly...
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Clyde Drexler thinks he's toast. "I'm out," says the NBA Hall of Famer, looking into his crystal ball and seeing his own elimination on Tuesday night's Dancing with the Stars results show. "I'm off the show. And if this isn't it, I'm gonna break a leg or something."
One week after head judge Len Goodman read the celebrities the riot act about not practicing long enough and hard enough, the DWTS judges seemed in a lighter, more forgiving mood. But Drexler still managed to take significant body blows. Judge Carrie Ann Inaba called him flat out, "the worst dancer in the competition." As a group, the judges seem dismayed that he's not improving and not more like a couple of supe
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If you thought head judge Len Goodman's tongue-lashing of the celebrity dancers tonight was scripted, think again. When he told them that they weren't rehearsing long or hard enough, it was his own opinion, something that had been building up in his mind since the performances last week. And it came from a place of genuine disappointment and frustration. "I just had a bad feeling," said Goodman right after the show. "So I looked at the DVD of last season, the fourth week. And then I looked at the DVD of this group three weeks in. And there was no comparison. There was no Emmitt Smith. There was no Joey Lawrence. No Mario Lopez. And I couldn't [figure] out why — because these people all hav
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