Lately, embattled Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich has been making the rounds to defend himself.
He's appeared on day-time talk shows like "The View" and "Good Morning America," all the while saying he is innocent. He's also made a stop to talk to CNN's Larry King.
I'm not saying the Democratic governor is guilty or not, but he's obviously decided to avoid programs that have much more aggressive reputations when it comes to asking the tough questions.
Sure he has every right to defend himself and should be afforded that right. I would think, however, if I were a resident of Illinois, I'd like to see him hit the curve and fast balls from reporters willing to throw them.
Any politician with the ability to become governor surely has the stuff to knock the softballs out of the park lobbed by daytime television's brain trust reporters.
As for King, his relevancy as a reporter has pretty much fizzled like his marriages.
The sugar coated statements Blagojevich makes about his children asking if "daddy" will be governor are so sickening, it's as if he's clinging to any kind of sympathy he can get.
A far cry from the foul language he's accused of using.
Probably the only thing a resident of Illinois has to look forward to is when the whole mess is over and the state can move on from the entire mess.

If, by some chance, you own a TV but never use it, you might not have seen the daily reminders that analog TV is coming to an end next month. At least that's been the plan for several years until the sudden and recent push to delay the transition to digital because an estimated 6.5 million Americans are still not ready, according to Nielsen. These 6.5 million have not either bought a new TV or a digital converter box for their current set, but at this point I don't think delaying the transition a few months is going to help them. The government and television networks have bombarded the viewing public with information about the switch and coupons were available over a year ago to pay a majority of the cost of a converter box. The coupons were good for $40 of the roughly $50 cost. It's hard to believe that 6.5 Million Americans that own TVs did not have $10 to convert them.

But the push to delay the transition faltered in Congress, so unless something changes soon 6.5 Million people will be without TV in 3 weeks. Call me a cynical but if all this time and effort has not been enough, a few more months won't change anything. It's time to get this transition over with. Some people will not make the switch until the moment they absolutely have to and no amount of delaying will change that.

Monday night the newest season of The Bachelor started on ABC. This time, the bachelor is the man who was rejected on the finale of the last season of The Bachelorette. Ironically, the woman who rejected him was herself rejected on the finale of a prior season of the Bachelor. Not that it really seems to matter, since whoever "wins" doesn't really have much of a chance either. The guy she did end up choosing proposed, she accepted, and they set a date... four months later they broke up.

It's sad for them, but honestly, what did they think would happen? There have been 12 seasons of the Bachelor. Of those, only two couples are still together. Neither has gotten married, yet. Out of the four Bachelorette seasons that have aired, only one has resulted in a successful relationship.

Brett Michaels has failed twice to find love, if that was what he was actually looking for, on his show Rock of Love and is coming back for a third season, this time on bus. Apparently the McMansions they normally use are booked up with the two spin-offs series being filmed right now.

Likewise, after three seasons of Flavor of Love, Flavor Flav decided instead of dating whatever attention seeker won he would stay with the mother of his child. So while he was looking for "love" he was fathering a child with someone who was not part of the show, yet he kept going with the show anyway.

I'm sure you'll be surprised to learn that the spin-off series "I Love New York" ended after two seasons with only broken engagements. The spin-off of that spin-off (I'm not kidding) Real Chance at Love, has not had its reunion show yet, (it airs Jan. 19). I'm not holding my breath on hearing wedding plans.

Tila Tequila's bi-sexual Shot of Love series ended after two seasons. After parting ways with the man who won the first season, Tequila chose a woman as the winner in season two. Unexpectedly, the woman turned her down after admitting she wasn't ready for a relationship with a woman. Weird that she didn't think about that before deciding to participate in the show.

There are spinoffs and spinoffs and its all the same recycled garbage. Attention seeking B-list celebrities or previous reality show rejects agree to fool around with 15-25 attention-seeking strangers in a random McMansion until only one is left, collect their money, part ways, rinse, rinse, rinse, repeat.

These shows are spreading like a virus, which each new one having less and less pretense the previous ones. But with a success rate of about 2%, does anyone actually believe that real relationships are formed like this? I doubt even the participants do, but it doesn't seem like that is why most of them are doing it anymore either. So why do so many people tune in? At this point I can only assume it's because we like watching emotional trainwrecks because they make us feel better about our own relationship issues or lives in general.