Thursday nights present a veritable embarrassment of programming riches — so much so that it's hard to settle on one show.

Wednesday night's 8 o'clock wasteland — BIG BROTHER 9, DEAL OR NO DEAL, 'TIL DEATH and WIFE SWAP...really? — means I can stop to pick up dry-cleaning and Snapple on the way home from the train without missing anything even remotely resembling entertainment. (The N.Y. Rangers don't kick off the next round of the NHL playoffs until tomorrow night.)

Here's why it's a good thing that I'm not a fan/regular viewer of AMERICAN IDOL. The only performance I liked from last night's Andrew Lloyd Webber fest was Syesha's. Her version of "One Rock and Roll Too Many" proved the IDOL aphorism about the importance of song selection: Hers was perfect for her. Everyone else's — not so much. The less said about Brooke's false start, the better. I know the crowd (and judges) went wild for Carly's "Jesus Christ, Superstar," but I thought she was just yelling into the microphone while the backup singers carried the tune. But the biggest raves were reserved for David Cook, who performed "Music of the Night" — to my mind — as if he'd just heard it for the first time. He cheated on the finale and broke off the last note. I just wasn't feeling it. My bottom three: Brooke, Carly and Jason. Bye, Brooke.

What a great weekend this was for fans of the fantasy genre...

DOCTOR WHO: In the 90-minute Christmas special "Voyage of the Damned," the Doctor's TARDIS collided with the Titanic — a space-faring alien tour bus designed to resemble "the most famous ship from Earth." But when the tour was sabotaged by the company's unscrupulous boss, the Doctor had lead the survivors to safety in what amounted to The Poseidon Adventure in Space. David Tennant turned in the most restrained performance of his tenure as the Doctor's 10th persona.

Did anyone get the license plate of that truck? If so, send it to Ozzy, so the challenge powerhouse of SURVIVOR: MICRONESIA — FANS VS. FAVORITES will know what hit him! Ozzy had the hidden immunity idol in his back pocket, but despite some unease decided not to play it because he was so confident that Jason was going to be booted as part of a separate double-cross. In order for the group to win a fancy feast, everyone promised not to vote out Jason if he allowed Parvati to win immunity — a promise no one intended to keep.

Lucky for me the 8 o'clock hour on Wednesday is a wasteland for non-AMERICAN IDOL fans — that allowed me to watch my beloved N.Y. Rangers move to within a game of eliminating the hated N.J. Devils. Then it was crime time...

BATTLESTAR GALACTICA: Okay, as if we needed the Cylon situation to get any more complicated, we now have political intrigue and backstabbing among the toasters. Hmm, perhaps the skin jobs are more human than merely being humanoid. Distressed that the Raiders had become sentient, Cavil led a movement to lobotimize them.

There was no Rangers hockey Thursday night, so it's on to the entertainment portion of our blog….

AMERICAN IDOL: Well, the results show proved how easy this IDOL stuff is: a quick look at my earlier entry shows I correctly predicted the bottom three — and that was my first episode ever! I'm a natural! I was being kind when I compared Michael Johns' performance to bad karaoke.

I had been waiting for Wednesday night all week, absolutely breathless in anticipation of the debut of… New York Rangers playoff hockey! And I wasn't disappointed — the Rangers won, 4-1, taking a 1-0 series lead, and — What's that? You're not a big hockey fan? Haven't you ever… Oh? Oh.

Ever since ONE TREE HILL went on hiatus with its 100th episode a couple of weeks back, Tuesday nights have been a wasteland for me. The reason is this: I am one of the handful of people who does not worship at the altar of AMERICAN IDOL. In fact, I'd never even seen more than three consecutive minutes of the so-called reality show. Yes, people like me actually exist; we somehow manage to function without knowing what a snippy Englishman thinks of someone whose mother once told her she sings well. However, as a service to you, dear reader, I decided to watch my first-ever entire hour…