Why this week was great:

I KNEW IT!!! Zack was in cahoots with Gormagon. Poor, socially awkward Zack. I'll miss his total inability to understand metaphor, hyperbole, and what is and is not appropriate to say at any given time. But I'm sure he'll make appearances from the loony bin now and again next season...at least that's what Executive Producer Hart Hanson told reporters who asked him about it after scores of fans threatened to boycott the show in the wake of the "startling" discovery. Like, dude, it's just TV!

Also the Gossip Girl season finale was awesome. I'm not sure how he does it but Ed Westwick manages to make the line "I'm Chuck Bass" the most awesome thing anyone on TV has ever said every single time he utters it. He's a genius. I miss that show already. I hope it comes to DVD soon just loaded to the brim with extras.

David Cook, who is totally my new boyfriend, is the incredibly deserving winner of American Idol. When the top 24 first hit the stage so many weeks ago, I did NOT like Big David (not to be confused with Lil David or Stripper David - this was the year of the David). His hair was atrocious and he had that stupid soul patch and he really did come off kind of smug (also, the dude does have a giant head). But then he rocked an emo "Hello" that had me shamefully confessing "if you close your eyes, he's totally hot." Shortly after hitting the big stage, on Dolly Parton night, he unveiled a new look that included shorter hair, not combed forward and the beginnings of a beard and he sang a beautiful version of "Little Sparrow" and that caused me to declare "oh my God, he's hot even when my eyes are open! I think I love him!" That feeling only grew over time and even during the occasional misstep in song choice or performance, I remained smitten with Cookie. Prior to January, 2008 and the premier of this seventh season of American Idol, I had purchased exactly one offering from any Idol winner or participant - Kelly Clarkson's Breakaway CD. That is it. Since this season began, I've bought 4 songs and 3 performance videos by David Cook from iTunes (also two songs from Brooke White and two from Carly Smithson). If he isn't at least as successful as Kelly Clarkson, I will be shocked beyond all measure.

Anyway, now that American Idol has retired to the shadows again until 2009, it is time once again for the best reality show in television history: So You Think You Can Dance. I could try to tell you why it's awesome, why you should watch, why it's the most compelling, entertaining, fun, inspiring show around but someone else beat me to it. And she said it better than I could anyway.

Last night kicked off with auditions which is my least favorite part of SYTYCD just as it is with Idol but I'd rather watch that than almost anything else anyway so I soaked up every single bit of the 2 hours. I'm glad I did too or I may have missed the tragically brief appearances by Season 2 runner-up Travis Wall and Season 3 B-boys Hok and my favorite male contestant ever, Dominic Sandoval. I hope that's not the last time we see any of the three of them this season. And I hope that we see other former SYTYCDancers as well because every last one of them is lovely and talented and inspirational and I've missed them all.

You know who else I've missed? Nigel Lythgoe and his bizarrely genius approach to the show; Mary Murphy and the shrillest scream on earth; every single one of the choreographer judges most especially Mia Michaels and Shane Sparks. And of course the lovely Cat Deeley who is bar-none the nicest host on Television. Last year, after congratulating a guest-performing clog dancer on the finale she said "I've actually sniffed his shoes and they don't smell at all." Which sounds creepy right? But when said with a British accent in total seriousness by Cat, is actually like a little slice of Heaven in a brown tutu.

Brown tutu, you ask? Yeah. In addition to being the sweetest, most lovely host on TV, she also has a tendency to be the most wackily outfitted. To wit:


The brown tutu.

This isn't Dancing With The Stars. You probably won't see anyone you recognize and every single contestant will have more dancing talent than you, there is no ugly trophy and you'll see styles of dance that you'd NEVER see the "stars" attempt. The choreography is no joke here either and two of the routines from Season 2 won Emmy awards last year - Mia Michaels' park bench routine which quite literally made me cry when I watched it, and a Wade Robson zombie routine to a Roison Murphy song that was semi-reminiscent of Thriller but a whole lot more awesome. If I were a member of the Academy (which I have a feeling I'll be posting a whole other rant about when the nominations come out in a few weeks and they get it all wrong...AGAIN!), I'd nominate several of last years routines. Mandy Moore's table routine, Tony Meredith's Paso Doble routine for Neil and Sabra, Shane Sparks' "transformer" routine, Benji Schwimmer's west coast swing routine, and Wade Robson's hummingbird routine. And maybe Dmitry Chaplin's samba and Shane's slow hip hop routine for Dominic and Sabra. Oh...and I really liked that one hip hop routine that Pasha and Lacey did where she was a mannequin. And the...you know what? If I were a member of the Academy, I think I'd nominate 92% of the dances on the show and all of the dancers in the special category of "super-duper awesomeness in pursuing your dreams" which, honestly, should be a category anyway because THAT'S the kind of thing that really deserves to be rewarded!

Ok, I'll stop now. Have a great Memorial Day weekend everyone.