The American Idol viewers have spoken, and Ashthon Jones got the boot.

The 24-year-old retail manager from Nashville had the fewest viewer votes on Thursday. The judges decided not to save Jones after her performance of Diana Ross’ “When You Tell Me That You Love Me.” Jones said before her dismissal that she regretted not selecting a more popular Ross tune. J-Lo said she was rooting for Jones, but that wasn’t enough.

The other bottom vote-getters were Karen Rodriguez and Haley Reinhart. Randy Jackson said they were boring.  The other finalists remaining in the competition are Naima Adedapo, Lauren Alaina, James Durbin, Stefano Langone, Jacob Lusk, Scotty McCreery, Paul McDonald, Thia Megia and Pia Toscano.

Ashton’s voice was strong, but maybe her personality and song choices just didn’t make her enough of a winner. I’m not exactly heartbroken that she was gone.

How do you feel about this season’s competition so far?

According to reports floating around on the web, Oprah Winfrey is upset with Aretha Franklin for not granting her the first interview about the battle she’s fighting with cancer. Aretha gave the coveted interview to Wendy Williams.

Via the National Enquirer:

“Oprah is about as angry as can be,” said an insider.

“This is the final season of her show, and she’s been pushing to land all the big ‘gets’ out there. Oprah is embarrassed that Aretha—a legend—chose Wendy, who is a relative newcomer in the TV talk show world.”

While Oprah, 57, gives Wendy, 46, credit for snagging the much-coveted sit-down with Aretha, she’s still “steaming,” adds the insider, telling pals that Wendy’s show is “a long way” from hers, and criticizing it for being “silly and gossipy.”

Aretha underwent surgery in December but has never publicly revealed the nature of her health issues. However, the Enquirer has exclusively reported that she is fighting pancreatic cancer, one of the most deadly forms of the disease.

Oprah was said to have had big plans for Aretha. Here’s more from the Enquirer:

Oprah insisted she would’ve been able to outdo Wendy by using her clout to pack her show with legendary heavy hitters paying homage to the musical icon.

“Oprah was not going to keep the whole interview on the illness, which she knows Aretha is reluctant to fully discuss,” said the source.

“She was going to get Stevie Wonder, Smokey Robinson and Berry Gordy, the founder of Motown Records, for a touching tribute. But instead, Aretha chose Wendy—and Oprah is NOT happy!”

If this is true, it sounds more like Oprah’s ego was hurt. Who knows why Aretha chose Wendy Williams for the first interview? There’s several obvious but simple reasons: Maybe Aretha wanted to speak to a different audience, i.e. younger, more hip, or maybe Aretha just likes Wendy’s interview style better (God forbid!). It could have been that Wendy’s people reached out first. Again, who knows why, but is it really that serious? Even Oprah has to lose sometimes.  That is, if the story is even true; this is reporting from The National Enquirer.

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The viewers have spoken, and apparently trash reality TV is still winning. Oxygen’s new show All About Aubrey, featuring former Danity Kane member Aubrey O’Day, has become the network’s most-watched docu-series launch in the network’s history in the key demographics (it debuted Monday).

All About Aubrey drew highs in total viewers (724,000) and both the 18–49 (557,000) and 18–34 (450,000) demos. The series also set records in women 18–49 (423,000) and women 18–34 (337,000) demos.

And in other news…

Tami and Evelyn’s fight was clearly on people’s agendas for Sunday night: The second season finale of VH1’s Basketball Wives drew 2.3 million viewers and snagged a 1.5 rating in the 18–49 demo, making it the highest-rated episode to date.

It’s funny listening to people trash-talk reality TV; it’s probably those same folks who sneak and watch it, hence the ratings. You already know there’s no shame in my game. I used to call it a guilty pleasure but I’m beyond the guilty part now. It’s just entertaining to watch someone else’s train wreck—as long as it’s not me embarrassing my mother.

Bobby Brown appeared on ABC News online yesterday to let everyone know that he is still around after nearly 27 years in the business. He is in denial about Bobbi Kristina’s alleged drug use that was plastered across the tabloids, and, of course, he is shopping a reality TV deal.

For the diehard stans, his new album is entitled The Masterpiece and it’s due out May 11. The first single is “Get Out of the Way.” Bobby said that his mom, who passed away a few weeks ago, wanted him to put out the album years ago (he had been working on it for 13 years) because it was one of her favorite projects of his. He is also very fond of this project, which is why he named it The Masterpiece, because he says it’s his best work. It’s described as “typical Bobby Brown and a little funky with a lot of love songs.”

Of course the reporter asked about the recent scandalous pictures that surfaced of Bobbi Kristina allegedly snorting coke. His response was, “I don’t know anything about that. My daughter doesn’t do that.” Um, OK. Parents who use tend to have children who use, but we’ll just throw in the word “allegedly” since no one wants to admit that they have a problem and then let Dr. Drew sort Bobbi Kristina out in a few years when it’s past too late. But I digress.

In other news, there are talks  of a New Edition reunion, and Bobby Brown and his fiancée are negotiating a reality TV show about his life (think Being Bobby Brown without Whitney). Bobby Brown finished the interview off by saying, “There’s something about entertainment that does it for me.” So, in short, we’ll be seeing a lot more of him.

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The highly anticipated kick-off of the new season of Celebrity Apprentice aired last night, and it was surprisingly tame. Not only is the cast full of some very insane colorful people (LaToya Jackson, David Cassidy, Nene Leakes, Gary Busey, Richard Hatch, Dionne Warwick, Jose Canseco, Niki Taylor, Lisa Rinna, Mark McGrath, Hope Dworaczyk, Marlee Matlin and John Rich) but we’ve been hearing reports for weeks about the enmity between some of the new crop, especially when it comes to Star Jones and Nene Leakes.

However, that was only the first episode, so it was probably more like a warm-up as everyone got acquainted with each other. As per the usual in Celebrity Apprentice, the men and the women were split into teams according to sex.

The men called their team Backbone and the women named their ASAPP, which stands for Artists Singers Authors and Professionals with a Purpose. The first task was to run a pizza shop and, of course, raise the most money by peddling pies for thousands of dollars.
The women, surprisingly, got along (for the most part), and all signs of the rifts that will come weren’t that evident. But the men had some tension. Richard Hatch (from Survivor), who was the men’s project manager, lacked people skills. He was rude, snippy, dismissive and sorta kinda pushed former teen heartthrob David Cassidy, who balked at one of his ideas (instead of being like a normal human being and simply verbalizing that he didn’t agree).

Long story short, the men lost after having raised $54,000. The women crushed them by raising double, $115,000. Star Jones was the women’s project manager, so the money went to her charity, The American Red Cross.

The final boardroom deliberation wasn’t as hilarious as it could have been. Richard Hatch dragged Jose Canseco and David Cassidy in with him (Canseco simply because he didn’t like him and Cassidy because he was weak) and the end result was that Cassidy was fired, but not before Hatch referred to him as “little,” “delicate” and “a whiner” several times (ouch). Cassidy was fired more so because he couldn’t hold his own in the final deliberation. He was overtalked and outargued, and in Trump’s office, gift of gab is everything.

We’ll have to wait for the drama to heat up, but from what we’ve seen from the promos, sit tight because the storm is brewing.

Did you watch last night’s episode? What did you think?

It looks like this is a good week for women of a certain age. Yesterday, news was released that Angela Bassett will be the lead in an ABC drama. Today, it’s all about Robin Givens.

Givens has joined the cast of Fox’s pilot Tagged, an ensemble workplace comedy set at the Los Angeles County coroner’s office. In the pilot, a man fresh out of medical school joins his father, a respected coroner, and his team at the office.

Givens will play the cheerful but boneheaded new head of the county department who doesn’t know a thing about forensics or pathology. There’s always one of those types at everyone’s job.  This sounds almost like The Office but in a different setting. I wonder how they’ll make this unique. What do you think?

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Angela Bassett will star in Identity, a new ABC pilot. The show is an action drama based on a British TV series and centers on an elite police unit formed to combat the explosion of identity-related crimes.

Bassett will play Martha, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s new Identity Crimes Unit. Martha is a tough Vassar graduate who is determined to make the unit excel using sophisticated new technology combined with old-fashioned investigative methods.

It’s going to be fun seeing her play a tough gal.  Until Identity is on TV, Bassett will next be seen on the big screen in Jumping the Broom and Green Lantern.

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It’s no secret that Nene Leakes probably clashes with everyone on this season’s Celebrity Apprentice, but Star Jones in particular is her primary foe. Let’s watch a piece of this in action:

This whole season is going to be a treat for reality TV viewers since there are so many train wrecks involved. Nene’s issues with the other Black women on the show have been highly publicized, but I wonder how she gets along with fellow cast crazies like Gary Busey.  Most of all, I wonder how she’ll take being fired. You know it’s probably going to be closer toward the end with that mouth—they have to keep her around for drama!

Celebrity Apprentice premieres Sunday night at 9/8c.

The new cast of Dancing With the Stars has been revealed, and they don’t disappoint. It’s a motley crew of reality TV stars, boxers, talk-show hosts, rappers turned actors, and more. In addition to an interesting cast, they’ve made some new additions to the show. Entertainment Weekly caught up with the show’s executive producer, who gave them some intel. He said that viewers can expect more theme weeks like last season’s tributes to rock ‘n’ roll and TV.

See below for the full cast:

Wendy Williams, 46

Sugar Ray Leonard, 54

Romeo, 21 – rapper, actor and best of all, Master P’s son

Kendra Wilkinson, 25 – various E! reality TV shows

Ralph Macchio, 49 – the star of the original Karate Kid movies

Kirstie Alley, 60 – Fat Actress and Cheers

Petra Nemcova, 31 – a Czech model

Psycho Mike, a.k.a. Michael Catherwood, 31 – a popular DJ for KROQ in Los Angeles

Chelsea Kane, 22 – She’s best known for playing Stella on Disney Channel’s Jonas L.A.

Chris Jericho, 40 -  pro wrestler (WWE)

Hines Ward, 34 – NFL Pro Bowler from the Pittsburgh Steelers. He’s the third wide receiver to appear on DWTS.

Who do you think will do well? I think Wendy Williams might surprise us and go far because she’s competitive and knows how to win. Romeo also has a lot to prove. His father was on the show a few season ago and didn’t do too well because, surprisingly, he had two left feet and not much energy. However, Romeo has to do better to redeem the family name and I think he will. Who are you betting on? Let’s hope there won’t be another Bristol Palin voting scandal?

Dancing With the Stars returns to ABC on March 21.

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Now that the American Idol top 24 has been revealed, the real competition begins. The top 12 men perform Tuesday from 8 to 9:30 p.m., while the women will go on Wednesday at the same time, with a two-hour results show Thursday.

Here are a few who have caught my eye that I’ll be watching and rooting for:

Naima Adedapo

I love that her look isn’t all-American cookie-cutter. Plus she has an amazing voice.

Jacob Lusk

His voice is the most (in a good way). He could work on his stage presence but I think he will go far.

Tatyinisa Wilson

I don’t know if she’ll make top 12, but I like her. She’s the underdog!

Do you have any favorites?