This happens EVERY YEAR with this show and it drives me nuts. You would think I would learn to deal with it after three seasons. You would be wrong.

So after three weeks of initial auditions, "Idol"'s go-go cousin "So You Think You Can Dance" settled on its Top 20 performers. Know this: At times I actually like "SYTYCD" better than "Idol." For one, at least once a week I am blown away by what these young performers can do, and for second, there's no way you can fake your way through this show. People who have a really bubbly personality or who are extremely hot might get to hang around for another couple weeks, but if you're in the Top 6 you can really dance your butt off. You couldn't Blake your way into the finals by throwing around gimmicks and dressing like a crazy person.

So, I really do love this show. I haven't been blogging it as much as I should have, but it's been a decent season with some really wonderful dancers. Too bad nearly every one of them that we've been introduced to is cut before the Top 20. Seriously: of the finalists, fully 50 percent we have never seen or heard from before. Let's break it down:

Dancers we know:

-Anya (Russian female ballroom dancer No. 1; kind of pugsly face, enormous hooters)

-Faina (Russian female ballroom dancer No. 2, incredibly hot and much better than Anya)

-Jessi (the baby oil/suitcase girl; couldn't tell you what kind of dancing she does because I don't think she really "dances," just kind of moves around. Stripper?)

-Jesus (wine enthusiast; manic ball of lyrical energy)

-Lacey (Benji's sister; early Ashlee Simpson aficionado; swing dancer)

-Lauren (I honestly have no idea what her specialty is)

-Pasha (Russian male ballroom dancer; kind of a two-face)

-Ricky (flamboyant, weird lyrical dancer)

-Hok (breaker; clearly the Chosen One this season --- but he won't win)

-Dominic (breaker; goes by "D'Trix"; great dancing, bad face)

That leaves us with these 10 dancers we've never met: Cedric, Ashlee, Danny, Jamie, Jimmy, Kameron (we LIKE Kameron), Sabra, Neil, Sara, and Shauna. I literally do not think I've seen even a frame of Kameron, Sabra, or Neil dancing. That's ridiculous.

"Idol" does the same thing, of course. It gets us invested in these people and then they don't make the semifinals. I get that. But it never seems to do it to this degree. We'd never get a Top 24 with literally half of the contestants being completely unknown. It just doesn't happen.

I'm sure once the Top 20 take the stage next week I'll discover some new favorites. It always happens. But the editing is just so frustrating. Why spend so much time building up Olivia and that girl from Rochester if neither of them make the cut? What's the point of it? To fake me out? Well, frankly, I'd much rather get invested in some of these goobers you've deigned to throw at me for the next 10 weeks. Come on, Grandpa Nigel!

Last night's "Charm School" saw the inevitable booting of Brooke, the reality TV artist formerly known as Pumkin. It was hard to say goodbye. Brooke has exposed her body and soul to so many reality programs --- Blind Date (more than once), some MTV dating show I can't remember, Flavor of Love 1, now this --- that when she was finally snuffed for acting like a ho it was kind of hard to watch. That was why we liked her in the first place! Her willingness to remove her top, her glee at discussing the size of men's members... Inappropriate sexuality was Brooke's thing. That, and spitting. But you certainly can't fault Mo'nique for dismissing her from a charm-school competition on those grounds.

Unless you're Brooke, of course, who cried and cried that it was unfair for Mo to bounce her and also call her a whore. Brooke, I love you, but the proof is in your quivering mound of love pudding. You drank like a lush. Allowed at least three men (that we saw!) to grind into your privates on the dance floor. Sucked liquor out of an ice sculpture while an ex-con muttered filthy come-ons to you. Went for a secluded make-out/chest-burrowing session with another man you'd barely met. And that was just this episode! It doesn't bring up any of your other indescretions.

Still, Brooke was personally offended when Mo called her a whore. Mo then recast her sentence, saying that Brooke engaged in whore-like behavior. Brooke still took offense. Honey, own it. I'm sure it's no fun being called a slut to your face, but really. Bitching that it was unfair of Mo to take you to task for it? Or that she didn't bother to mention all the wonderful things you've done (which, incidentally, I kind of thought she did; it was one of the more well-meaning dispatches so far in the series)? You really come off looking like an asshole. (But not as big of an asshole as you did when you shouted out Leilene earlier in the episode; that got pretty gross pretty fast.)

I've been reading a bunch of post-show interviews with the girls and many of them bitch about Mo'nique. I'm not sure that's fair. A bunch say that she was overly harsh to them at elimination (um, duh --- she's the "principal"). A bunch say that she has no business teaching women how to be charming when she herself has a foul mouth (there's a little bit of truth to that, but by that same token, I've never seen Mo'nique's hoo-hahs and I also don't read about all her sexual escapades in the tabs). And a bunch say that she's just a fake bitch who had it out for the Flavor of Love girls. I think that last one might have been true at the beginning of "Charm School," but it's clear that Mo has some sincere affection for these ladies now. You saw it when she eliminated Goldie (who had no reason to be there in the first place), and you definitely saw it last week when she comforted Becky. She also has lots of love for both Saaphyri and Leilene. I think Mo's pretty great. I'm sure I'd have a different take if she was the person who just killed my chances at winning $50,000, but seriously, she's done a great job on this great show and I hope the catty eliminated contestants don't preclude her from doing a Season 2 (PLEASE let there be a Season 2!).

Anyway, next week we have a half-hour filler episode of stuff we haven't seen (whoopee), followed by the finale the week after. With a Final Four of Leilene, Becky, Shay, and Saaphyri it's anybody's game, but if we don't have a Saaphyri/Leilene F2 I'll be disappointed. They're the two that have done the most to better themselves, I think (Shay and Becky just turn it on and off) and I'd be happy if either won. But I sure hope it's Saaphyri, the most amazing woman ever in the history of the world. Seriously. I am in love with Saaphyri.

The summer's best talent competition continues apace, and some clear winners are emerging just as some clear losers are stinking up the joint. Unfortunately in last night elimination episode the judges got it 100 percent wrong, getting rid of one player who coulda been a contender (at least for Top 10) and keeping around someone who is essentially poisoning his partners on stage.

First, let me say this: I was disappointed in general with last year's Top 20. I thought Grandpa Nigel and Co. made some really awful choices, especially with the women (JOY?! Are you serious?). Season 1's group was overall much stronger, even if some of Season 2's individual dancers were better. This year I think we've got a good group in general, and at this early stage I think it's pretty wide open (whereas last year it was clearly Travis and Benji's show to lose).

But I was disappointed by Wednesday's performance show. I thought that about half of the Top 9 couples were pretty terrible, and I was furious at the judges, who were overly kind to some and way too harsh on others. I don't get the Lauren criticism, for instance; and yet they thougth Jimmy and Shauna's embarassing stomp routine was "fun." I recognize that I don't know dance, but I do know what looks good and fun. And a bunch of those people most certainly did not.

Anyway, the Bottom 3 couples ended up being Faina and Cedric (no surprise -- Cedric was awful doing the Viennese Waltz while Faina was fantastic), Jimmy and Shauna (see above), and, surprisingly, Pasha and Jessi. I say surprising only because Pasha is amazing. I officially have a passion for Pasha. And the judges loved it. They were pissed off that those two landed in the bottom, but after their solos I think their tunes might have changed a bit.

I know my opinions changed after the solos. I wanted Shauna gone; I think she's bland and barely holding on in this competition, and frankly kind of fat and ugly (for a dancer, mind you). Then she ripped that stage up last night. I don't love her, but I certainly have a new level of respect for the girl. Meanwhile, Faina really did kind of blow it in her solo (in her defense, she's a ballroom dancer, and to do her real tricks she needs to be partnered) by just shaking her skirt. BUT! She wasn't as awful as Jessi, who has no business being in this stage of the show. Go back and look at all of Jessi's pre-Top 20 performances. The oil-rubbing in the initial audition, the suitcase in the group number --- Jessi gets through via gimmicks. And she's done a remarkable job using them to hide the fact that she doesn't know how to dance. She can move, sure. And she's got rhythem. But as her solo showed very clearly, she does not know how to express herself through movement. Nothing is tied together. It's just a bending here, a bending there, a roll on the floor...she's essentially a stripper minus the stripping or a pole. She's done a good job mimicking in the actual performances but the woman is not a dancer. And I think Pasha is being dragged down by her a little.

But of course, Faina goes home. Why? I'm not sure. She was fantastic Wednesday night, an the judges told her to her face that the only reason she was in the Bottom 3 was because her partner stunk up the place. Yep, her solo was pretty...nonexistent, but it wasn't worse than Jessi's. Doesn't matter. This beautiful, sexy, talented dancer is going home. Rubbish. At least she outlived her brother, who was eliminated first last year.

For the boys, the judges savaged Pasha for his solo, which I thought was pretty amazing. (Again, ballroom dancer. All he knows is partner dancing.) He had energy and groove --- and a hypnotic ass. Meanwhile Jimmy came out all spins and leaps; it was all a bit manic. I don't like Jimmy at all -- I don't really get what he is or what he's supposed to be doing, and he's rather unattractive -- but it at least showed some athleticism and dancing ability. And then Cedric came out with The Cedric Shtick: his hip hop stuff where his arms suddenly go boneless and he kind of zips around the stage. I was frankly bored with it. But that doesn't matter: Even after telling him that he's been awful both weeks. Even after telling him that he seems to be incapable of partnering a woman. Even after telling him that this show is probably not for him, they KEEP CEDRIC --- the only reason he and Faina were in the Bottom 3! --- and ditch Jimmy. Does. Not. Compute! I think this was probably Mia's doing, bitching that if her Darling Ricky went home she at least needed to make sure his sacrifice wasn't in vain or something. Whatever, Mia. Just coreograph your amazing numbers for us, and keep your mouth shut.

That leaves us with Shauna paired with the deadly Cedric next week, which means they're both probably going home. But I really, really want Pasha freed from the succubus that is Jessi. Imagine what it would have been like if Jessi and Cedric had gone home -- a Faina/Pasha pairing! How hot would THAT have been? 

It was a little harder to take the drama of "Hell's Kitchen" seriously last night, after recent accusations that chef Gordon Ramsay exaggerated the squalor of a restaurant for his soon-to-premiere new show, "Kitchen Nightmares."  I mean, everything that can go wrong on "HK" tends to, and it wouldn't be a stretch to imagine someone planting something like rancid crab, the serving of which cost Joanna her spot on the show last week, to make things more interesting.

At least Ramsay's yelling seemed real enough. (Really, it doesn't look too forced. And he does plenty of it.) The first challenge, a test of palates, allowed for more personal insults, always more entertaining than the skill-based ones doled out at dinner. Ramsay looked as if he were about to cry when Julia and Brad, blindfolded, couldn't identify the carrots they were being fed; he screamed when someone missed the egg yolk. The girls won the challenge and the boys ate organ meats and other sundries as punishment.

After prep work, a special lunch at one of those total darkness dining experiences for the girls, and a few minutes of dinner service, it was already pretty clear who would be nominated to leave: Vinnie was incompetent and weirdly shifty, sulking around the kitchen instead of, you know, cooking. Bonnie was a tearful (but endearing!) wreck. In what now seems like part of a routine, Chef Ramsay stopped dinner service before all the food had been served, citing general incompetence. Both teams had to nominate someone, and, when the team leaders didn't pick Bonnie and Vinnie, Ramsay did. Ramsay pronounced Vinny "a crap cook," which, though a weak insult by Ramsay's standards, meant Vinnie is the one to go.