Last night was the start of the third season of Dancing With the Stars. Despite some problems with the show, I was a big fan of the previous two seasons but last night’s show was just so boring. I think perhaps it just went on too long, or maybe the stars just weren’t very interesting or recognisable. The football star was better than last year’s but didn’t deserve any standing ovations; its only one show and already everyone is showing the same old biases. The judges are already bickering and, like with American Idol, it isn’t entertaining any more. There were some highlights: I loved the foxtrot by Vivica A. Fox and the ex-Miss USA contestant. Jerry Springer was fun to watch, and any time Karina Smirnoff is on screen is a good time by anyone’s standards.

So you didn’t listen to me on Thursday, or perhaps you voted for Jerry just out of spite? Dancing With the Stars has problems with its final show - Jerry is almost guaranteed to win as he clearly has the popular vote. But anyone with one half-working eye knows that his dancing is not on a par with the others, and the articles are no doubt already being written about what a sham the show is. Because of the ranking system used, about the only way Jerry can lose is if the judges tie Drew and Stacey for first place. If that happens then Jerry can only come second no matter the viewer vote. But if there’s a tie, we’ll all know that the ‘fix’ is in. Like I said, the final is damned no matter what.

We all know reality shows are little to do with reality but in most cases the person who goes further than they should is usually gone when it comes down to the trophy, and the winner is usually deserved. But here that person is likely going to win if the show doesn’t get rigged against him, and I’m not sure that’s happened in a reality show before.

I deliberately haven’t blogged about this season’s Dancing With The Stars but feel compelled to urge you all to vote for Lisa tonight. Yes, its admirable that Jerry Rice has the balls to try dancing but he truly is the worst person at this stage of the competition. And not just by a little, but by a whole planet. Its a dance competition, folks, not a celebrity fan club event.

I know Lisa has no chance, but wouldn’t it be nice if for once a reality show put forward someone who met the talent criteria rather than the most popular person? Come on, American, I know you can do it.

Fox (or rather producer Nigel Lythgoe) showed once again that they know how to do reality TV right; So You Think You Can Dance was far more enjoyable than Dance With The Stars. The dancing was great, we didn’t have to suffer too many fools in the auditions, and the judges were spot on with their comments. My favourite of the night was the girl in the brown dress who did a jazz/modern-type ballet with amazing footwork. Least favourite was Isis - the belly dancer with the huge fake boobs - now that was scary!

(It seems trite to talk about fluff when bombs are going off in London but life must go on. I can only say that I hope the British Government finds out who is responsible and sends our crack SAS team to visit them in their sleep)

Well, I thought I’d state my disappointment at the outcome. I don’t mind too much that Kelly won (from the beginning the reality TV boards all said she would as she was the most popular) but in the manner that she won. John and Charlotte never got a single 10 and yet they were always the “couple to beat”.

Watching the freestyle I was 100% sure that John/Charlotte would win the judges vote, Kelly has improved but she never even tries to get over her feet and that makes the whole thing look frantic. When the comments came, I knew the ‘fix’ was in.

I liked the flashback and then the return of the couples. It was great to see how much Joey had improved from that first Cha Cha, couldn’t say the same about Evander but kudos to him for being there. I was sad that we never got to see Trista dance more.

My wife called me right after and said she was disgusted at the ‘vote rigging’, this morning all my co-workers have said the same, that it was ‘clearly fixed’. As we know with Idol, all this means is that more people will watch the next season. As disappointed as I am, I bet I will still be one of them.