By Keisha Allisse
Simon Cowell Leaves American Idol:
And with him goes any quote-worthy phrases, laser precise (albeit mean) critiques and any other reasons for watching the show.
2011 Prediction: AI will leave the air after two more seasons and replace another judge.
NBC’s Late Night Debacle:
Comedy is truly tragedy plus timing and nothing summed that up more than the nightmare transition of ‘The Tonight show’ from Jay Leno to Conan O’Brien back to Leno. It was hard for Leno to come out of this not looking like the villain as Team CoCo (and rivals, Letterman and Kimmel) mobilized support against him.
2011 Prediction: Conan wins an Emmy for his new talk show on TBS. Leno isn’t nominated.
Bristol Palin ‘dances’ with the Stars:
Nothing was more painful than watching Bristol clump her way through a jive or waltz, yet somehow she managed to snag a spot in the finals and onto the list of America’s Most Reviled.
2011 Prediction: Bristol gets her own reality show shortly after her mother’s gets cancelled.
Project Runway Goes Off Course:
So not only did the move to Lifetime prove to be a bust, so did the expanded 90-minute format. And the jaw-dropping (in a bad way) season finale in which bland know-it-all designer Gretchen beat out exciting frontrunner Mondo, didn’t help things any.
2011 Prediction: The show will return to 60 minutes, and hopefully, Bravo.
Housewives Fly the Coop:
Bethenny Frankel (NY), Danielle Staub (NJ), and Lisa Wu Hartwell (ATL) left their respective shows. And while Hartwell never grabbed too many headlines, Staub and Frankel did which made their departures surprising and disappointing.
2011 Prediction: All three housewives write juicy tell-alls about their experience on reality TV.
Tyler Perry Paints a Picture…For Colored Girls:
And while the effort was admirable and brought together some of the most talented Black actresses working today, it was choppy and relied too heavily on negative stereotypes of Black men.
2011 Prediction: Wanting to branch out further, Perry attempts another adaptation: a remake of ‘Raisin,’ the musical version of the Lorraine Hansberry play.
Lady’s Rock:
Billboard just named Lady Gaga the top artist of the year and Ke$ha, its top new act of the year. Since the advent of the distinction, only seven women have earned top honors. For Ke$ha, she becomes the first woman ever to have a debut single become the top song of the year. Bravo, ladies!
2011 Prediction: Female artists will own the top spot on the Billboard Hot 100 for an unprecedented 38 weeks.
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