Famous words from Heidi Klum as she starts the last runway show on this seasons final episode of Project Runway.  Once again I know some American’s are reading this and wondering if I finally caught up on my PVR or am I just simply that out of it. Neither is the case. Unfortunately, here in Canada, some of the best shows are on a slightly slower schedule as they are picked by one of many channels fighting for such hits as this. The wait was well worth it and somehow I managed to steer clear of the media - the winner was a surprise…. I love it when that happens.

This extremely eccentric show has always had a history of some “out there” characters, and I think this season held up just fine. They came out blazing - opinionated, pig headed, stubborn and I even learned that apparently you can have a bad attitude and it will still take you pretty damn far. Too bad life outside the glamor bubble can’t be that easy, or successful.

For the first time this show produced three women in the final, all with completely different looks and views, and dare I say every collection shown was absolutely amazing. Sadly that can’t be said for previous season. Once again creators behind the scenes have managed to pick the best of the best and they produced when it counted. Here’s hoping the next season will have just as much talent and punch. It could be hard to beat this crew.

Saldy, as I deleted this final episode, the wait will be a long one but the anticipation will get me through to the next season. As Heidi always likes to say, you’re out “Auf Wiedersehen!”

The PVR/DVR and Timeshifting have to be the best technical inventions of our time. If I hadn’t had these in my television watching arsenal, it’s safe to say that I would have missed the greatest finale of Dancing with the Stars. WOW - what a showdown, or should I say Mambo Smack Down.

While in its 7^th season, Dancing with the Stars still has star quality that piques your curiosity and grabs your attention, and that’s with two shows per week, and three in the beginning. A lot to take in but it’s worth it. With the accessible cast of stars I think it’s safe to say that a few more seasons will be in the works for ABC.

Where else can you get a boy band pop star, model/host and very large football hero willing to possibly put their reputations on the line to learn a few steps? The finalists this season were sensational and one was even touted as being as good as some of the professionals on  the show. Koodos to you Brooke Burke and her fancy foot work. She had men swooning at their televisions and woman wishing they had her grace. A glimps into her perceived ‘perfect star life’ has given all her viewers a chance to see her as a normal person and root for her to win.

March can’t come too soon for the next installment. Here’s hoping for the sake of the next line-up that the accidents, ambulance rides and hospital visits will be kept to a minimum. This season taught us that dancing just may be a sport as the saying goes, “It’s not a sport until someone gets hurt.”  I guess there’s a little something for everyone.

You’re probably wondering if this is going to be another heart warming write up. If that was your initial thought… well your right. I can’t seem to pull myself away from the feel good shows. Is that really a crime? Seriously, there are far worse things in the world than wanting to see a happy ending.

So the tale of this week brings us to Extreme Makeover Home Edition. I think it’s safe to say that this is probably one of the best moves ABC made when they picked up this program. It’s good clean family entertainment, we all know that can be hard to find these days. And along with that smart decision they also managed to get the perfect host, Ty Pennington. He was well suited for carpentry when I first saw him on Trading Spaces,  but even better matched as not only a personality for the show but also someone that can empathize with his guest families and really bring their stories to life - the good and the bad. Just goes to show that a great host really makes the show a hit.

In all the years I’ve been watching this show, the team has always had the ability to make the viewer look past someone’s disability and get you to focus on all the abilities; and they usually are pretty grand. Koodos to this program week after week for highlighting the challenges of the not so every day person that has had to adjust to a not so accommodating world.

Every day, I come across something that I think is difficult in my life. Is it because I’ve hit a lazy streak or is the task actually overwhelming? More often than not it’s a common practice for the human race to go about this day to day torture of self loathing and close themselves in an incoherent, dense fog

Little People Big World – one on my favorite shows on TLC – has made me think about life a little differently in the past little while. This is a family in which three of its members are challenged every day by things that would be simple tasks for the average sized person. Makes you appreciate the world we live in.

Matt Roloff, the father of this fantastic family of six never ceases to amaze me. In the season premier, he made it his mission to travel to Afghanistan to help a family with three dwarf children who needed medical attention. An enormous task for someone so small, the size of his heart more than made up for it. In watching the past two seasons, this isn’t the first time Matt and his family has helped the less fortunate – a charity was developed to help kids with dwarfism and also adoption processes for those who wanted to open their hearts to a small child that needed a home. I could go on about how Matt has started to change and enhance the lives of little people around him but I’m afraid I would run out of time and space. He just simply is of the best examples of a man you can find these days: driven, compassionate, family oriented, achiever and so on. Kind of makes you want to start making a difference in your own life and some of the people around you. Every bit counts right!

I know my past few entries seem to pull at my own heart strings. I guess it’s because I enjoy finding  good stories to help hide from the horrible reality of our every day society. Matt Roloff and his family have shown us how to succeed and strive forward in good and bad. I think it’s time we took a page from their book and looked at our lives a little differently.

Fall is a great time of year, especially if you’re as fond of television as I am. New seasons of old favorites to comfort you and new shows that leave you with a sense of wonder for what’s to come.

This week was a sad one as I sat down to the finale of Top Chef – I know it’s a little slow on the showings for us Canadians but I’ll take what I can get. This show always has the ability to grab me and I don’t know why; it’s kind of odd when I’m not much of a fan of cooking. But for some reason I love to see the masterpieces these chefs concoct; talk about your brain moving a mile a minute. Plus you’re always guaranteed an uproar between the cast members, a given since they spend 24/7 together and are uncensored, raring to go and always speak their unforgiving minds when they hit the judges’ table. I have to say, from guests to contestants, this definitely gives you the best bang for your cable bill buck. Can’t wait for the next season.

And then the moment you know fall has truly arrived – Jeff Probst appears in a crisp, blue button down shirt ready to welcome us to the wonders of an untouched landscape soon to be overtaken by man and cameras. Funny how it’s the same wardrobe season to season…. But I seriously love it. Then the magic 18 march their way to their season of Survivor, what a moment. You can feel the nerves, the curiosity and, of course, the adrenaline as the first challenge is about to begin. And you always have that thought” ‘Are you kidding me? There’s no way she’ll make it past the first tribal counsel,’ and ‘Are they serious about placing that girl on the show? She won’t last a week in her thin state.’ Well it happens season after season whether our opinions are valid or not. I guess it just adds to the intrigue of the show. And so we watch and wait for those famous words: ‘Survivors Ready?’ I know I am, bring it on!

Have you ever been overcome with emotion when you thought it wasn’t necessarily appropriate? Well that was me last night as I watched the season premier of Biggest Loser: Families. Watching the excitement of these contestants as they found out they made the show was beyond joy - you knew they had just made the first step to a better second half of their lives

At a time when obesity has become so rampant in our society I think this show is the perfect counterpoint to the problem. I’ll admit when the first season was announced I was horrified and immediately jumped to the conclusion that this was a show just to poke fun at the unhealthy. I’m more than happy to admit that every season has proven me wrong as it has promoted healthy living, exercise and a new way of thinking about how to live your life.

As this years participants take the stage I feel it’s even more important to have families come together to save themselves and loved ones at home. It’s not just about the individual anymore. I think this could have a larger impact on viewers as it reminds us to once again not think just as individuals but also give some mind to the people living in our homes, our friends, our co-workers, etc. It only takes a little bit of support to help you get a lot of success.

I’ll be watching week to week as the pounds and the fears are shed to be replaced by new self esteem, and bodies are reshaped that were once thought to be lost.

My hat goes off to E! Canada once again for picking up risky programming (in this case, from CBS) and offering a wide variety of shows for viewers to choose from. We all know that no two channel surfers are alike and E! takes great advantage of this with several of their reality shows.

Case in point, Greatest American Dog. Yes, you read correctly. Try not to laugh too hard. I have to say this was a surprise hit for me. I had anticipated it to be a one episode wonder, but it was entertaining, full of fun, and best of all it had no fake drama like many of the other reality shows. Week after week, it was about relationships and the interaction between canines and owners.

Different challenge occurred, just like any other competition, but the difference was that the dogs did all the work in the Best in Show arena and the owners had to rely on their hard work before they arrived at the academy. Job well done for most, a few sad stories for some, but all in all a great run.

The creators did a great job picking a host who was perfectly suited for the roll - Jarod Miller, an avid animal lover and zoologist. It’s all to often that we shake our heads and wonder how a host was chosen, but not in this case – as they say on the show Jarod had a leg up on the competition.

I have doubts plaguing me about a program that is supposed to be reality. But, as some have rumored and I’m starting to believe, this could be a scripted show.

The Hills has had a pretty good run for the past few years, but it’s all coming crashing down as the drama is worse than an episode of 90210 (old and new). From cat fights to over-bearing relationships, this is way too much and contrived to be reality at least in the world that most of us live in. Makes you wonder if the stars of this show are living in an altered state to get the shots for the show. I find it hard to believe that anything is spontaneous as each actor tells the producers where they will be on any given day and that’s where the shot will be taken, and then there’s the stories of a couple of the characters being seen in retakes – wow, if that’s not as close to scripted as you can get I don’t know what it is.

I think it’s time for the girls of LA to get a sense of themselves and step away from the camera for a bit. Perhaps take a crack at real life and real relationships?

It really does amaze me how stupid criminals can be. You’d think they’d learn from their mistakes or even the mistakes of people around them. Well thankfully that’s the not the case for the cops of northern New Jersey in Jacked: Auto Theft Task Force – a new reality show for A&E that already looks to be a promising hit, and may be the natural successor to Dog.

They call themselves “The Wolf Pack”, and that’s apparent from the first moment of the hunt. The call comes in, the chase is on and the adrenaline is pumping as they circle their prey and get the job done. They’re a well managed and executed team that take down every type of criminal from your low end common car thief to your more serious offenders that jeopardize lives around them.

This show is fast paced and souped-up like the SUV’s they drive. As a viewer I enjoy the thrill of sitting back and watching each case develop from the tipped off stolen car to the bitter end of the take-down and find of the mark all the while getting some insight into the minds of officers that aren’t your typical beat cops. They work in the dead of night, the roughest areas and they take pride in it one car at a time.

With high hopes for a second season of the The Two Coreys it all came to a slow stuttering halt only a few episodes in, and sadly it wasn’t too soon for this viewer as I quickly grew tired as what was once a decades-long brotherhood turned into an ill-fated friendship.

Season one was based around Corey Haim staying with Corey Feldman and his wife while trying to get his career back on track with some ups and downs of what’s usually seen as every day life events. Season two was just about pure hatred and who would come to the realization the fastest that Haim was in need of serious help to kick his ever present drug habits. Denial is an amazing tool – I only wish I suffered from it part way into the season. Instead, I stared at the TV every week like a bad accident, unable look away from the horror. The worst part of this season is the producers indulged in this downward spiral even when it meant harm to some and grief for others.

Is a third season in the works? If it is, I sincerely hope the creators go back to the drawing board and use what worked previously. Yes viewers like to see drama from reality, but I really don’t need to see someone killing themselves in the name of stardom and stupidity.