Top Moments: Dexter's Killer Surprise and Mother's Legendary Proposal

7. Most Gripping Duet: It's always great to see veteran talent embracing fresh faces, but LeAnn Rimes literally doesn't know when to let X Factor finalist Carly Rose Sonenclar go. During their duet of Rimes' hit "How Do I Live," the country star suddenly grips Sonenclar's arm and then pulls her in real close as she subsequently fails to hit several key notes at the end of the song. When asked about singing with Sonenclar, Rimes replies, "Oh my God, she's such an amazing talent; I want to wrap her up and just hold her," Rimes says, as she wraps her arms tightly around Sonenclar again. "You're doin' it!" host Mario Lopez adds awkwardly. Where's Brandi Glanville to stir the pot when you need her? Oh, wait.
6. Wet and Wild Award: Always a good sport, Tom Cruise sits down with Jimmy Fallon on Late Night to play his famed and super-wet Water War game. Perhaps learning from his all-too-short contest with Jon Hamm, Fallon challenges Cruise to a hilarious best-of-nine series that includes a tie (that Fallon won), Fallon dousing the Jack Reacher star with a pitcher of water and some confusion by Cruise as to whether they are playing aces high. He loses that hand, but fittingly wins the last hand on an ace and drenches Fallon with a Super Soaker. That's one fun way to avoid mentioning the K-word.
5. Best Tribute: In the wake of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, numerous shows, including Saturday Night Live and The X Factor paid tribute to the victims, but perhaps the most haunting one of all comes from The Voice. Host Carson Daly, Christina Milian, the coaches and the Season 3 contestants perform a stirring rendition of Jeff Buckley's "Hallelujah," while each cast member holds up a card displaying the name and age of one of the deceased.
4. Best Cameo: Naturally, the Gossip Girl finale is filled with OMG moments, like Blair and Chuck's impromptu wedding — and its subsequent interruption by the cops — as well as the reveal that Lonely Boy himself, Dan Humphrey, is actually Gossip Girl. But the show's best moment comes when longtime narrator Kristen Bell finally appears onscreen, staring straight at the camera while reading GG's famous opening line. The camera pans back to reveal Bell is playing herself and reading from a script to help her friend, actress Rachel Bilson, audition for the role of Blair in the upcoming movie based on Dan's book. "I'm sorry. If I'm being really honest, Rachel, I just don't think you can pull off high school anymore," Bell says. Whoa, now we know why Gossip Girl wasn't afraid to tell it like it is! XOXO.
3. Best Play: Barney proposing to Patrice? You cannot be serious, How I Met Your Mother. And they're not. It turns out that everything Barney has done in the past few weeks — telling Robin he's over her, dating Patrice, burning his single guy Playbook — was all a ploy to propose to Robin. He explains himself in writing on the final page of The Playbook, "The Robin," on a candlelit roof of her station's building. "Seriously, Barney? Even you — even someone as certifiably insane as you — must realize this is too far! You lied to me, manipulated me for weeks," Robin says after reading the first 15 steps. "How could I be with a man who thinks that this trick, this enormous lie could ever make me want to date him again?" "Turn it over," he says. "Step 16: Hope she says yes," the page reads. And — wait for it — she does!
2. Deadliest Double: The show may be called Dexter, but Deb definitely steals the spotlight in the Season 7 finale. Faced with either killing her brother — and the guy she loves — or the woman who would expose him, Deb decides to take an innocent life and shoots her longtime frenemy/mentor LaGuerta in the chest. Looks like Dexter's Dark Passenger may have found a new home!
1. Die Another Day Award: Just as Carrie makes her choice on Homeland, picking Brody over her career, everything blows up in their faces. After Brody notices that his car had been moved from its parking spot, it explodes, killing hundreds of CIA personnel, including Estes, at Vice President Walden's memorial service. Doubting him once again, Carrie pulls her gun on Brody, but he talks his way out of it, suggesting that he's been framed — a theory further supported later when al-Qaeda releases his suicide tape from last season. So Brody doesn't die as many of us suspected/expected, but he's now the most wanted man on either side of the Canadian border. Will he be back? And how?
What were your top moments?