Reid About It

With "American Idol" and "Dancing With The Stars" dominating the ratings, talent-based reality TV is an easy bet for FOX and ABC. However, this is the time of year I refer to as the "holding pattern."

The first weeks are over and the easiest eliminations have already been made. Now, there's an obvious difference in talent and popularity levels from the top to the bottom. We'll talk American Idol later on this week, but for now on DWTS, it's fairly clear who's there for the long haul. It's a month of attrition, like the slowest antelopes being picked off from the pack one by one.

For now, Gilles and Melissa can rest easy knowing they've got several weeks before the talent level catches up to them. They could do "The Running Man" on next week's show and be safe. Meanwhile, Steve Wozniak, Holly Madison, and Steve-O can only hope to not injure themselves or anyone else on their way out.

Much like a Seth Rogan movie, Steve Wozniak was fun to watch once. After that, further viewings tend to degrade your initial opinion of the product. Following the first week, I was wondering if Wozniak's connection to Apple was leading to all of the votes to keep him on the show. After two more weeks, I now assume he's kept on the show by Microsoft workers voting to make him keep dancing in hopes of lowering Apple stock prices.

Holly Madison was better than Belinda Carlisle and Denise Richards, but that's about it. Even a career in reality television and nudity isn't enough to keep her around for much longer.

And Steve-O seems so...un-Steve-O out there, I can't help but think he's ribbing us. And face it, when they first said Steve-O was injured, didn't your mind wander at the possibilities? He could have been hurt trying to dance the salsa with two small alligators clamped to his nipples. He might have been injured working on his quickstep when six half-naked friends ran out and hit him with electric cattle prods. It was almost a disappointment to find out he was just dinged up from dancing.

It's a double-elimination week, I say they lose Holly and Steve Wozniak. Steve-O still has a dedicated fanbase of 18-25 year old guys who like to staple things to each other, so I think that keeps him in the show.

UPDATE: I went 2-2 this week, for the full recap, check out Evelyn's rundown on the double elimination at her column here. If you're a DWTS fan, subscribe to her column! She covers DWTS fulltime for the Examiner.