I moved to new york exactly four years ago on July 1. I started out renting a room by the week from a nice Hispanic family in Harlem. I moved around several more times before ending up in Jersey City with a baby. My time in the JC was brief– maybe about 10 months. I still worked in NYC, so I never really considered myself a Jersey resident. However, I did take advantage of the few ways in which Jersey City totally wins over Manhattan: Target and a regular-sized grocery store. It was at that grocery store, the A&P to be exact, that I encountered a woman who just about made Sharon Osbourne poop her pants the other night on America’s Got Talent.

I didn’t know her name, but she was the serene grey-haired woman who would scan my groceries efficiently and gush over my newborn as I tried to dig my A&P card out of my cavernous and poorly-organized purse. I always liked getting in her line because she was fast and good at her job (plus, the baby-gushing didn’t hurt). What’s funny is I don’t remember a single other person who worked at that grocery store; nor would I be able to pick a single Target employee out of a line-up. Yet when I caught a glimpse of a woman dancing her heart out on television recently, I knew exactly who she was.

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Hey did you get outside and enjoy this beautiful weather this week? Don’t worry if you did, we’ got your back. Here’s some of what went down in the world of television:

• The TCA (Television Critics Association) Awards nominees were announced, with NBC and The Shield leading the pack. But I still want BSG to take home “Program of the Year.” Winners to be announced Aug. 1.
• Susan Boyle didn’t win Britain’s Got Talent, which of course has lead to some controversy about the voting on that show as well, and a clinic stay for Boyle.
• Conan O’Brien debuted on Monday as the new host of The Tonight Show with huge ratings, in what some are unhappily saying is a subdued iteration of himself.
• We spent way too much time talking about Sacha Baron Cohen’s “Bruno” character landing ass-bare on Eminem’s face at the MTV Movie Awards.
• Tell your children not to worry, Miley Cyrus has signed on for a fourth season of Hannah Montana, which will feature her and her father moving out of the beach house.
• Octomom Nadya Suleman is going to film a reality show, but has no networks to air it in the US.
• Actor David Carradine dies, and his death may be more colorful than his career was; I’m sure some sleazy network is looking for the rights.
• Prison Break’s “T-Bag,” Robert Knepper is cast in Heroes, where he’ll play a sleazy villain … that’s a stretch. But still great casting!
• Spencer Pratt and Heidi Montag contiue to annoy everyone on and off the set of I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here!

Kind of makes me want to take my television outside and just throw it in the garbage… except that I just got a 52″ plasma and video games and Blu-Rays look amazing on it!

No need to beat around the bush. Stuff happened this week. Let’s get right to it.

• Jon & Kate Plus 9.8 million viewers for their season premiere; that’s better than all of the broadcast nets on the night.
• Susan Boyle, the Britain’s Got Talent sensation, earned a spot in the finale this Saturday, but may be having a nervous breakdown in the process.
• The first step in the new television landscape begins this week as Jay Leno says goodbye to The Tonight Show, with Conan O’Brien taking over Monday.
• There was lots of bitching this week about the voting results of American Idol, with AT&T admitting to helping Kris Allen fans “power vote” for free. In the end, it doesn’t really matter.
• Nigel Lythgoe got GLAAD mad by criticizing two male dancers who performed a samba on So You Think You Can Dance, saying words that some say were homophobic and others say were simply in bad taste.
• Rumors have started to swirl that a reimagining of Buffy the Vampire Slayer might make its way to the silver screen, without the involvement of creator Joss Whedon.
• Twitter is developing a television show that looks like it’s training the next great celebrity stalkers.
• This just in, Karen Gillan will be The Doctor’s companion when Matt Smith takes over the role of Doctor Who in 2010 from current Time Lord David Tennant. She’s really young, too (21)!

So, here we go again.

Hot on the heels of Susan Boyle exploding all over the Internets, Britain’s Got Talent has found yet another middle-aged, down-on-his-luck singer with a surprisingly good voice: Jamie Pugh, a pizza delivery man who overcomes crippling stage fright to dazzle the BGT crowd with his rendition of “Bring Him Home.”

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