Top Chef news! Including news about the panel of judges and the lineup of contestants, if folks don't want to be spoiled about any of that.

Seriously? I don't recognize most of those names, but Kelly Liken was just on Iron Chef, so I'm assuming there are some other accomplished people there.

Also, love the judges news.

Idol: Thank god.

Could not agree more, Amy.

TCM - Totally rooting for Susan to go all the way. I just love her attitude about everything.

AI: First, teens and pre-teens of America, what the fuck? I can't even comment on the person that Perez Hilton paraded across the stage except to opine that it must be some elaborate practical joke. And the Beiber creature was horrible. When did A&R people get replaced by Youtube? Ugh.

Next, why are the judges checking so hard for Lee? I fully expect to see all four in "Lee Dewyze: Ride or Die" t-shirts next week. No matter. I remain a huge Crystal fan. Her original song was awesome.

Last, seriously. What is up with the Beiber creature? I thought for a second Tim Urban had found a way to sneak back onto the stage.

SYTYCD fans, set your Tivos; Nigel tweeteth:

So the new #SYTYCD series begins on Thursday of next week with our auditions in New York and Miami. For more information go to Fox.Com/Dance 26 minutes ago via Echofon

Thanks for the SYTYCD heads up.

Hah! I already set my TiVo last week! I am so on top of SYTYCD! :)

But not on top of Nigel. Because that would be GROSS.

I'm concerned about the auditions because I really don't like the Dance of the Terrible.

I wonder if I should skip them like I skip AI's.

I find that SYTYCD shows fewer of the terrible auditions than does AI . . . usually only one montage per show. However, because it's dance and more physical, I find that the bad dancers are just way more rage inducing (if they know they're bad and are just doing it to get on TV) or watch from the hall (if they cluelessly believe they are good) or both. But that's just me. And because they usually keep it down to the one block 'o bad auditions, it's really easy just to FF through or use that time to go grab some cookies and milk or something.

I wind up loving SYTYCD audition rounds because even the kids who clearly won't make the show are often amazing dancers. This is especially true among the non-contemporary dancers. The b-boys, hip hop kids, the ballroom kids. Often they haven't cross trained enough to be able to make it through the choreography rounds, but they are amazing at what they do and they throw down some ridiculous routines. So I enjoy the auditions because I'm gonna see great dancing and I'm gonna see some tremendously talented dancers whom I might otherwise miss because they won't make it to Vegas or they won't get featured in Vegas because they'll be amongst the earlier cuts.