Spare Us The Rob & Amber, Already

Sorry for the long break between postings.

I caught the premiere of "Amazing Race All-Stars" on Sunday. Andy Warhol once said, "In the future, everyone will be famous for 15 minutes." Warhol obviously never met Rob and Amber Mariano of "Survivor"/"Amazing Race"/reality TV fame.

With the exception of Paris Hilton, it's hard to imagine anyone who continues to benefit off their faux celebrity more than Rob and Amber. Each was a contestant on "Survivor" (different editions), then re-upped for the all-star "Survivor." After winning on that, they were signed up to do "The Amazing Race" as a couple, simply because of their "Survivor" fame. (Perhaps they have compromising photos of a CBS executive).

After finishing second in that, they did a live TV wedding, in which everything was paid for by sponsors. Then they got their own reality show coming out this year. Now, they are back in the all-star edition of "The Amazing Race."

Enough already. Seriously.

I pretty much hate these "all-star" editions of reality shows anyway, as if you could get worse than standard reality shows. All of the couples on "Amazing Race" had their shot at $1 million. Why not give some new couples a shot?

*******SPOILER ALERT FROM SUNDAY'S PREMIERE (Don't read this graph if you have "Amazing Race" on tape and haven't seen it yet): Watching Rob & Amber win and get yet another free, fantastic vacation was even more grating, especially since one of the couples I was rooting for, John Vito & Jill, was knocked out.



***OK, START READING AGAIN. That said, any of seven of the 11 couples racing could win and I wouldn't mind. I'm pretty much pulling for anyone except the teams of Rob-Amber, Dave-Mary, Team Guido, and Mirna-Charla, simply because all of the those teams were pretty rude when they raced originally. Any of the remaining teams were pretty nice the first time around and had some aspect about them that I liked.

So, which team are you pulling for?

WEEKEND/MONDAY REVISITED: A 14-hour drive this weekend prevented me from hitting all the highlights, and there were plenty.

I hope you loyal dozens managed to catch "The State Within" on BBC America this past Saturday and Sunday. Part 3 airs this upcoming Saturday. I'm sure the network will be re-running the entire series at some point.

"How I Met Your Mother" brought back one of the best running gags ever for a sitcom, the slap bet.

"Heroes" introduced a new hero to the mix, Hana, who has the ability to access any telecommunications system with her mind. Rumor is, she checks out "The TV Guy" blog at least twice a day. (Question for Webmaster Ryan: Do those hits count if she doesn't actually use a computer?)

"Studio 60" ran its last episode for the next couple of months, since it will be replaced by "The Black Donnellys" from "Crash" writers Paul Haggis and Bobby Moresco next Monday. Though there has been a lot of speculation about "Studio 60's" fate, I'm betting NBC will air the remaining episodes after May sweeps end, but probably won't renew the series beyond that.

TUESDAY'S BEST BETS: "American Idol" (Fox, 8 p..m.) moves into the semifinals phase with the 12 male competitors squaring off tonight, meaning "House" is pre-empted. Frakkin' "American Idol!"

"NCIS" and "The Unit," however, are new on CBS, while ABC delivers a new episode of "Boston Legal." On NBC, "Dateline" goes after sexual predators yet again, followed by new episodes of various "Law & Orders."

"Veronica Mars" is also new (CW, 9 p.m.) I'm not saying Veronica is bad luck, but her freshman year of college and the school's dean and head basketball coach are murdered, not to mention all of the campus rapes. Come to think of it, maybe she is bad luck. It's preceded by a new "Gilmore Girls."