Thrills and Spills on the Ice! Plus, Relief and Tears on 'Idol'

Well, things didn't go quite as we had all hoped last night on the gold-medal final of the women's figure skating. All three of our skaters stammered and slipped through their performances, but Sasha Cohen did skate away with the silver, thanks to an uncharacteristic performance by Russia's Irina Slutskaya. Slutskaya missed some of her jumps and fell near the end of her program, clearing the way for Japan's Shizuka Arakawa to take the gold and for Cohen to take the silver. Slutskaya had to settle for the bronze. First on the ice for the U.S., though, was 17-year old Emily Hughes, who got the call to Torino after Michelle Kwan had to drop out due to an injury. Hughes skated a beautiful program on Tuesday, but struggled a bit in the beginning of last night's performance. She slipped during one of her required elements, but she recovered very nicely. The rest of her program was pretty solid and she seemed to keep her focus and still have a good time out there on the ice. I thought she did an excellent job and gave her fellow Americans plenty to be proud of last night with her 7th place finish. I can't wait to see Emily in four years because I think she's going to rock this competition! The same is true of Kimmie Meissner, who didn't fall, but had a few miscues of her own. While attempting some of the most difficult elements of the night, Kimmie stumbled a bit (very out of character for her) and wound up in 6th. An admirable feat considering this was her first Olympics and she's only 16 years old. Sasha had stumbled throughout her warm-up, so I knew things weren't going to go well when she finally took the ice for her routine. Right off the top, she fell while trying to land an element, but it was the second fall that made my heart sink. I figured, apparently along with Sasha, that she was out of medal contention at that point. But, she didn't give up and she went to skate a artistically beautiful and clean program that landed her the silver, proving that they're right when they say that you should never give up. The biggest shock of the night was seeing the usually rock-solid Irina Slutskaya fall near the end of her program. Japan's Arakawa skated a very technically clean program and earned her country its first ever gold medal in women's figure skating. You certainly can't say that last night's competition didn't bring plenty of surprises! What did you think about the gold-medal final last night? Were you disappointed for Sasha or happy to see her still walk away with the silver despite her errors? Leave me a comment with your thoughts.


It was elimination night on last night's American Idol, and two girls and two guys were sent packing. For the girls, Becky O'Donohue (she of recent Maxim magazine fame) and Stevie Scott received the lowest vote totals and were eliminated. Based on their respective performances the other night, I think these two were the right picks. Neither turned in a strong performance (in Stevie's case it was probably the wrong song, in Becky's it was more of her not having enough talent to compete with the others), so I was happy with these results. For the guys, Bobby Bennett's not-so-hot performance of "Copacabana" landed him in last place. Patrick Hall's forgettable take on "Come to My Window" garnered him the second lowest vote count. Again, I think these were good picks. I had predicted that Patrick would go, but I thought that Bobby would have fans calling in to save him because the judges made it apparent that he was in trouble. I think all of the contestants are going to have to step it up next week. What did you think about the four eliminated contestants? Did you agree with America? Or are you bummed to see some of them go?

About Last Night... Fox grabbed the first hour of the night with its live results show for American Idol, followed by NBC's Olympics coverage and ABC's Dancing with the Stars. At 9, NBC took over with its Olympics coverage, followed by the second hour of ABC's Dancing with the Stars and a rerun of CBS' CSI. The final hour of the night went to NBC's Olympics coverage as the Americans and Russian Slutskaya hit the ice, followed by ABC's Primetime and CBS' Without a Trace (r). For more on last night's ratings, visit Zap2it.

~Primetime Pass~
@8 p.m. - NBC's Olympics coverage continues with Figure Skating (Champions gala), Alpine Skiing (Women's giant slalom gold-medal final), Bobsled (Four-man competition) and Speed Skating (Men's 10,000m gold-medal final).

SATURDAY OLYMPICS EDITION
@8 p.m. - Coverage continues with Alpine Skiing (Men's slalom gold-medal final), Short Track Speed Skating (Men's 500m gold-medal final), Short Track Speed Skating (Women's 1000m gold-medal final), Short Track Speed Skating (Men's 5000m relay gold-medal final), Bobsled (Four-man gold-medal final) and Biathlon (Men's 15km gold-medal final).

SUNDAY EDITION
@7 p.m. - NBC's Olympics coverage wraps up with the Closing Ceremony.

@8 p.m. - The team reopens the 2000 case involving the murder of a bank teller and Lilly gets an unexpected visitor on the return of CBS' Cold Case. ABC wraps up this season of Dancing with the Stars as Stacy Keibler, Drew Lachey and Jerry Rice compete one last time and the winner is revealed in this two-hour finale. Singer Mary J. Blige guest stars and the eliminated stars return to dance.

@10 p.m. - Meredith and George find themselves at odds at work, Bailey treats Addison and Alex becomes jealous of Denny on ABC's Grey's Anatomy.



QUICK CUTS

*And finally, Nickelodeon's Spongebob Squarepants is celebrating its best ratings ever this week. More than 8 and a half million viewers tuned in for the cartoon adventures in Bikini Bottom on a special primetime broadcast Monday night. The episode was the second most watched program for the year to date among children, 2-11 years old, behind the Super Bowl. Spongebob's huge Monday ratings are Nickelodeon's highest in about 5 years.



That's all for today. I'm leaving for the set of Veronica Mars on Sunday! I'm hoping to have something up on here late Monday night while I wait for my flight back, but I can't make any promises. It won't be a normal edition, but it will be thoughts and ramblings on my trip to the set. One final reminder, if you have any questions for creator/executive producer Rob Thomas, send them to me via the comment link or email them to veronicaquestions@yahoo.com and I will try to get them answered. Also, if you have any questions for the America's Next Top Model folks, leave me a comment as well. Be sure to tune in next week for all the dish on my set visit and plenty of scoop from Mars. I'll have pictures, interviews and more!






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