Scott MacIntyre

Credit: Chris Cuffaro/FOX

8:00 p.m. ET Oh, America. What have you done?

8:01 p.m. We're only 59 minutes away from learning who's coming back tomorrow for the Wild Card show. ANOOP!

8:01 p.m. Is it just me, or have the crowds been more enthusiastic toward Simon this year? Randy's solo booing stands out more than usual.

8:02 p.m. Ryan asks Paula to compare this year's group to past groups at this stage. In true Paula fashion, she ducks the shoe and replies, "I think we have an amazing start for the Top 12 going on."

8:04 p.m. "Hot -n- Cold" may be the worst Group Sing ever. It's a silly song, but the singers have all been instructed to deliver ever line with a silly smile. The song is especially emasculating for the men, who look like they're playing extras in a modern-dress adaptation of "Grease." A modern day adaptation of "Grease"? That's ridiculous. Exactly.

8:06 p.m. The cameraman just pulled almost out of the theater. Is he trying to escape? I don't blame you.

[More after the break...]

Lil Rounds of 'American Idol'

Credit: Chris Cuffaro/FOX

The season's first "American Idol" semi-final group seemed packed with stars and several very good singers didn't make it through. The second group was pretty top-to-bottom average, but that meant some solid singers were sent packing.

On Tuesday (March 3), "American Idol" unleashed a motley Group Three that contained some really rough performances. Were there any diamonds in the rough?

Recap after the bump...

Hayden Panettiere and Justin Baldoni in 'Heroes'

Credit: Trae Patton/NBC

Tonight's episode, entitled "Exposed," nominally referred to the leaked footage of superpowered detainment procedures going on under the American public's nose. But the title also referred to several plot points this week, as at least one thing came fully to light in each of the episode's three narrative arcs: Nathan's incompetence, Samson’s ability, and Aquaman's abs.

Let's learn about all three after the spoiler-filled break, shall we?

Jon Voight of '24'

Credit: Greg Gayne/FOX

Let it never be said that the producers of "24" are the least bit afraid to let their show venture into realms so ridiculous they nearly become science fiction.

They assassinated an ex-president and very nearly exploded his brother. They shot down Air Force One. They nuked Valencia. They've released deadly biological weapons in several public and private locations. They've unearthed moles on a weekly basis and invoked tenuous parts of Constitutional law that have never been called into play in 233 years of American history. If the big reveal of Day Seven is that Tony Almeida was a cyborg from the future sent to kill Jack Bauer, viewers will be temporarily confused, but they'll ultimately find a way to reconcile Robo-Tony with the the show's twisted continuity. 

So keep all of that in mind when I make the argument that Monday (March 2) night's two-hour "24" event may have featured the most preposterous plot developments in the show's history. 

With any other show on TV, the previous sentence would sound like a clear insult. With "24," I believe we'll all be able to agree that Monday's episodes were, at the very least, never boring.

[Recap after the break...]

Tammy and Victor of 'The Amazing Race'

Credit: Sonja Flemming/CBS

Sunday (March 1) night's episode of "The Amazing Race," which I watched at 1:30 a.m. after returning home from three days of WonderCon coverage in San Francisco, was one of the decorated show's very finest hours.

Maybe it's just that I'm on the verge of collapse myself, but the narrative arc that followed Tammy and Victor from the episode's beginning to its end was pretty shattering, the rare opportunity to watch a real person go from cocky and confident to utterly broken in 44 televised minutes. It's part schadenfreude, I suppose, but watching a generally likable team go through hell for an hour wasn't pleasurable, but it was just devastating.

[More thoughts on the episode after the break... With spoilers, of course.]

Starbuck meets a familiar piano player who may hold a secret to her past.

Credit: Sci Fi/Carole Segal

Much to HitFix's esteemed Executive Editor and TV impresario Dan Fienberg's chagrin, I may have become the worst TV blogger in this history of the medium.  After completely missing last week's episode "Deadlock," I'm now 24 hours late on "Someone to Watch Over Me" with only three episodes of our beloved "Battlestar" left?  Sigh, I'd suggest this is why you never let a movie guy volunteer to do a time-sensitive TV job, except McWeeny has been perfectly prompt in his weekly "Lost" recaps.  Now, in all honesty, last week I had a serious excuse, I was traveling on HitFix business Friday night and there was this little event called the frakin' Academy Awards I had to deal with for 72 hours straight upon arriving back in Los Angeles.  But, I digress...

After the Oscar cloud cleared, I chatted with some buddies about "Deadlock" the reaction I got was, "Eh," "Prelude to next week. Sort of boring" and "Didn't do much for me."  Well, having watched the episode it doesn't rank up there with the greatest of the show, but it had its moments.

Before moving on to this week's installment, "Someone to Watch Over Me," let's recap what we quickly learned in "Deadlock":

- Ellen and Saul Tigh are reunited and inevitably screw around again.
- Not surprisingly, Boomer was arrested after bringing the resurrected Ellen Tigh back to the fleet
- Baltar looses control of his "cult," sort of, but more importantly the Six in his head mysteriously reappears (anyone remember how long it's been since we've seen her? I've lost count.)
- Caprica Six looses her baby (sad face).  Colonel Tigh is heartbroken.
- After much debate, the Final Five vote to stay with the fleet.

Needless to say, it set the stage for the dramatic events in this week's killer episode, "Someone to Watch Over Me."

[Spoilers after the jump.]

Echo shines some light in the latest episode of "Dollhouse."

Credit: Carin Baer/FOX

Starting with a “Previously on...” this time, hitting the high points: super-secret organization supplies rich people with brainwashed sex cookies with kung-fu skills – including our heroine, Echo – and the dogged FBI agent, Ballard, who’s trying to expose the place.

Then we’re looking at a hot chick in a metal fringed bikini dancing in a cage. I’m wondering where I’m supposed to go to get my bills changed into singles. She’s a singer in the Britney/Christina/Beyonce mold. And now one of her back-up singers is on fire.

No, seriously. It’s so out-of-nowhere that I’m laughing until I snort. You have BritTinaYonce moving like a pole dancer, and then boom, someone’s hosing down a girl with a fire extinguisher.

And here’s our culprit, staring from the audience. Not much of a mystery. He might as well have a shirt that says “STALKER WITH DANGEROUS OBSESSIVE QUALITIES” in glow-in-the-dark lettering.

[More after the break...]

Benjamin 'Coach' Wade of 'Survivor: Tocantins'

Credit: Monty Brinton/CBS

Through two weeks on "Survivor: Tocantins," the eliminations have followed a very simple pattern: It's bad to be weak or old or sickly or have a name starting with "S," but it's worse to be an opinionated woman with an ample bosom and a name starting with "C." Good for Sandy and Sierra. Bad for Carolina and Candace.

Would the pattern continue on Thursday (Feb. 26) night's "Survivor: Tocantins" episode?

Pre-credit sequence. In Timbira camp, Erinn is pretending like she knew Candace was going home the whole time. She claims that her friendship with Candace was an elaborate ruse, an elaborate, exclusive, conspiratorial ruse. Coach isn't buying it. "For her to say that to us is insulting," the Pony-Tailed Machiavelli declares, making it clear that his alliance never had a place for Erinn anyway.

[Full recap, with spoilers, after the break...]

Allison Iraheta

Credit: Chris Cuffaro/FOX

After the "American Idol" Top 36 Group One sang, I was pretty confident that Danny "The Redeemer" Gokey and Alexis Grace were going through. I was even able to narrow the final spot down to either Anoop Desai and Michael Sarver and while I guessed the wrong one, I came close.

As Wednesday (Feb. 26) night's "American Idol" begins, I have a couple hunches, but I'm not sure I would be willing to bet on who's advancing... 

8:00 p.m. "The foundation of this show has always been the vote," Ryan Seacrest begins, proclaiming his own Magna Carta. He closes with his usual "What have you done?" and looks directly at Nick "Normund 'Norman' Gentle" Mitchell. 

8:01 p.m.  It seems 25 million votes were cast last night. 

[Who did they vote for? Spoilers and recap after the break...]

Terry O'Quinn brings the awesome as Locke on 'Lost'

Credit: ABC

Here's why I loved tonight's episode.  And I did.

"Lost" in increasingly defined as a battle of wills between two men.  Benjamin Linus.  And Charles Widmore.  Almost every other dynamic on the show can be defined by how it relates to one of these two or, even better, both.

Last night's episode was written by Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof.  Two in a row now, and I'm not surprised.  These were both pivotal moments, and I would imagine they wanted to be able to fine-tune and calibrate all the reveals themselves.

[Continued after the break..]