They're doing Big Brother and Survivor both starting in February, so that will fill up a bunch of the CBS schedule for a while.

I never could get into Big Brother, and can only watch Survivor sporadically or my head will explode. Getting rid of my tiny cable and getting more Netflix is starting to seem like a better and better idea.

A friend of mine is totally loving Celebrity Rehab, even though she knows it's all about the trainwreck factor. She feels it actually sneaks a lot of real 12-step info in between the temper tantrums. I could not last through 30 seconds of it--too horribly sad. Has anyone seen this show?

I've been watching. (Of course! I'll watch anything.) It is sad, and seems pretty realistic, after two episodes, at least. There's an article about it in this month's Oprah magazine, where Jeff Conaway (not sober) is saying "it was an acting job," but there is no way he's that good an actor. It's also amusing watching Daniel Baldwin, because he came in claiming to be sober, and seems to think he could run group therapy himself. (The Oprah article leads me to believe he's leaving the show/rehab in the next episode.)

I think Dr. Drew is definitely legit, and is trying to do some good for the folks there and people in general. While making a buck, of course, but still.

I shall have to try Celebrity Rehab -- I do watch Intervention every week, but that does a good job of picking real people with real troubles. The one last night, the one family was so dysfunctional that they ended up talking the subject's father into going into rehab, too.

I also caught up on TAR, and was just this side of superbly pleased because I could have rooted for one of the other couples to win as we've had too many young dating couples win, but they certainly earned it. Having the memory challenge after a day full of running, running, running was genius, because changing gears like that was hard, and threw the field wide open.

How much did I like seeing the other half of the teams standing around together? I get the distinct impression that they'd all come to like each other through the competition, and the speeches from the losers about how they felt like winners was genuinely meant.

I like Celebrity Rehab, but it is really intense - especially where Conway is concerned. He is bad off. I watch Intervention every week, and that's Conway.

Celebrity Rehab is too watch from the hall, even for me. But I am slightly amused by Rock of Love II and eagerly await the return of original flavor FoL.

In AI news, I think they are doing a much better job with limiting the bad auditions this year to the truly deserving, deliriously bad rather than the "he cain't help it" bad. I didn't really like anyone until the last girl tonight. The Irish girl with the tattoo artist husband who also auditioned in 2005? I might've even shed a little tear at her sad tale . . . and homegirl can flat out blow. She's awesome.

I do love Simon. But I hate Randy-- he's the one who's always laughing at the bad performances! Simon's usually just honest.

But I hate Randy

Oh, Randy and Paula are the worst. Simon just tries to shut people down. When Randy and Paula get a hold to someone clearly terrible, they try to prolong the bullshit so they can laugh at them some more . . . like how Paula asked that dreadlocked boy who just kept singing that same phrase over and over again to sing something else? Evil. And yet, they're the "nice" ones. Feh.

I was upset that they put through that 16 year old kid who sang the John Mayer song. When will they learn about teen boys and this show? John Stevens, III? Keven Covais? Sanjaya, for pity's sake? 16 year old boys don't have the chops to hang on this show.

I think that's why they put him through. Simon may not like him, but he'll be drawing an audience/voters.