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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As if Rosie didn’t bomb badly enough with the revival of the variety show, now she’s got a couple of other celebs nipping at her heels, hoping to succeed where Rosie Live! miserably failed.

The Osbournes’ new variety show, The Osbournes: Reloaded, which was announced this summer, is soon to debut on FOX by late winter or early spring. It reunites the whole family — Ozzy, Sharon, Jack and Kelly — in a one-hour combination of music, sketch comedy, audience interaction and more. The first episode is in the can, having been filmed on December 7.

Now, it’s just been announced that John Mayer has his own variety show in the works for CBS, on which he aims to highlight “true talent;” surely this is a dig at Rosie O’Donnell’s fiasco of contortionists and dancing food. We’ll be seeing this show later this season as well, with a similar deal Rosie got — one episode, expanded to six if it does well.

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Dog the Bounty Hunter is a rough gem. Over the holidays, I saw Dog the Bounty Hunter on On the Record with Greta Van Susteren. Wow, that guy looks like nine miles of bad road, doesn’t he? But it was sweet how he called Greta “ma’am” and was so polite and gentlemanly. Despite his rough looks and questionable past, Dog really seems to have a good heart, and Lord knows he’s got the bounty biz down pat. Things were going great until the interview was over and he signed off from Hawaii with “Obama Country!” That seemed a little awkward for Greta. Anyway, check out Dog the Bounty Hunter on A&E. It’s rough fun.

Those slippery floors on The Biggest Loser made me crazy. We faithfully watched The Biggest Loser this season, and loved seeing everyone get healthy and change their lives for the better. But the season finale made us grip our chairs with suspense. Not because we wanted to see who’d win — we pretty much knew Michelle had it in the bag — but because of those slippery floors on the stage.  Every time a female contestant emerged in her fancy dress and high heels, she was in dire peril of skating across the floor and landing on her nicely-toned butt. Thank goodness Bob Harper was there to help the ladies across the floor. Next time, think about sticking some of those non-skid grippers to the bottom of your shoes, girls. After all that work, you don’t want to end up in the hospital with a broken rib or something. Read the rest of this entry »