I used to love this show. In particular, I thought Elise from season 2 was awesome.

Now the show is trash.

Dark skinned girls don't think they can be beautiful? Hmm, maybe, but it it hard to understand how they managed to audition for this show if they really don't have any self-esteem. More likely it is blatant manipulation of Tyra's not so sharp mind and some well timed button pushing.

The only reason to watch the show is to see what kind of lame excuse Tyra is going to come up with to dump the twins. Those nice seeming, ok looking girls just aren't pretty enough to put forth as ANTM. I am certain that Tyra won't have the guts to come out and say so.

"You don't look modelly enough." is one possibility. Alternately she may accuse them of not trying enough etc. I hope those girls do everything right, just to put Tyra and her entourage on the spot.

if your money is green -we will take it.

Two out of the last two weeks my DVR has decapitated the show because of switch to sunday night and, consequently, the continual late start because of NFL overtimes.

I'm about to give up and just BitTorrent the show. And I'm gonna let CBS know in the process.

You know how you introduce a unique friend to your gaggle of gals and gays and the unique friend is hilarious and charming and everyone loves her (as you knew they would). "Thanks for introducing this funny gal! We love her!" And indeed, we all do. She's so quirky and refreshing and hip.

America's Next Top Model was that "friend" who I discovered in it's first seasons. I told all my friends to watch. And they did. We all loved the show.

But then something changes. The unique friend becomes a scratched record. She's one note. And even worse, that one note (all she has) gets more and more grating. She's out for cocktails telling that same tired ass story about how she got into the VIP section for flashing a booby. We know already!!

Again. America's Next Top Model is this annoying, repetitive friend.

But even more puzzling, the more she crows and struts her sameness, the more your circle of friends seem to enjoy it.

In a television landscape where few reality tv shows are risking change, is ANTM lauded by it's audience simply because of it's familiar formula?

That formula being:

The wannabe's Story of Hardship: One girl had her momma die on top of her when she was a youngster. She was confronted with it over a casual breakfast (infront of the other girls). She didn't show enough remorse and was promptly booted.

The makeover episode: Girls crying cause they're weave-less. Girls crying cause they're getting their hair shaved off. Happens every "cycle".

Modeling hypocrisy: Modeling is not stripping. Now pose naked on a rooftop.

Flamboyant fashionistas: A second showing of the a-swirl twins? No need.

The bitchery: Tossing coochie juice in a girl's face. Sitting on the phone for three and a half hours.

Yet to come: The "acting" challenge episode. The posing with dangerous animals episode. The sit down and cry for Tyra episode.

And, as HH mentioned, Tyra's ego has far outstripped every other single aspect of this once interesting show... She seems to be featured in every shot. Various incarnations of her ginormous head looming in the background of every house shot on the created "covers" of the fake "Tyra Magazine".

When Foxy Love on the cartoon "Drawn Together" won the first season's parodied reality tv challenge she screams "i HAVE A JOB. I'M OPRAH! I'M OPRAH!"

Tyra is no Oprah.

Sometimes ambition can outstrip a person's abilities. I hope next cycle Tyra will reexamine the show that put her on the television radar instead of pushing onward with her mediocre talk show and (shudder) the obviously eventual magazine...

I will even name the place. The Dragon*Con convention in Atlanta, Georgia, fall of 2007. Debate at ten paces before an audience at one of my panels.

How DARE you say that I am an intellectually lazy, New York pretender! For the record, I work for a living. I work for a living in the industry Havrilesky claims to observe. I work in a red-collar job - my collar is red from the blood I must sweat to complete it.

As a friendless, loveless fat boy, TV was my only friend. I worked my entire life to become part of it, to pay back the industry that was my only companion, in hopes that I might help others out there feel less lonely. I learned some ugly truths about the making of television - much like the truths of how sausage was made - but I still believe in its value as a positive force.

Over the last decade, I've seen megacorporation takeovers, the elimination of the genuinely "locally-owned" TV station, the Jerry Springer-ization of local news and the disappearance of the unpretentious, simply entertaining network adventure show.

I still love the medium for which I work. That love is not returned very often these days, but I still have hope that the Democrats will break up the megacorporations, especially the media conglomerates, if they ever find their spines and their souls. That will be a start in making TV vital again.

Although that effort is impeded by people like Havrilesky, who often populate the "free" givewawy newspapers, who think that theoretically-witty contempt for a medium and the people who watch it is "criticism."

I've thrown down the gauntlet. Hope it landed square on your flip-flop. If you really want to apologize to a Cartoon Geek (hint, hint) you can find a certain web site.

Isn't it? Isn't it just a depressing soap opera about depressed people doing depressing things?

She must be doing it to create some kind of bloggy buzz. So weird.

I'm going to be highly annoyed if your Friday BG column is full of spoilers. If that's the case, some editor needs taking to the woodshed.

I'll read it on Saturday.