T Dog's Four Pack

Haven't done it for awhile, so let's bring it back! It's another edition of T Dog's Four Pack:

Winners.

- Diane Sawyer to World News Tonight. She replaces the retiring Charles Gibson, and she certainly has the ability to anchor a major network evening newscast - unlike a certain former Today co-host (and the ratings more than tells that story.)

- The Vampire Diaries. Could this be the show that saves The CW? A record-breaking performance - with 4.9 million viewers for its premiere, but let's see what week two holds.

- Sons of Anarchy. Lost in the "hype" of the return of The New Melrose Place, was this FX drama, whose second season premiere outdrew the season premieres of CW's Melrose and 90210 with 4.3 million viewers. So where's the trade press hype over that?

- Michael Jordan's Hall of Fame Speech. Some called it arrogant. Some called it a sad display. I call it brilliant. The PC crowd just doesn't get it (and that's PC in "politically correct", not John Hodgeman from those Apple ads.)

Losers.

- Tyra Banks. With a ratings decline of this week's season premiere of America's Next Top Model from a year ago and a combative interview with Nightline's Cynthia McFadden, this may mean the public is finally tiring of Tyra's unbearable diva act.

- White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs. For slamming the Fox broadcast network (not Fox News) for not airing Obama's speech Wednesday night, when the speech was available on Fox News Channel, CNN, PBS, the Big 3 networks, and C-SPAN. Quote from Gibbs: " I do hope the viewers of Fox will find a way to watch the speech tonight. I know that the network, instead of dealing with the reality of millions of people on health insurance reform, have decided to show a reality show called something like, So You Think You Can Dance. I do hope that people will check into the reality of what’s going on in America rather than the distraction of a reality TV show."

Well, here's some reality you and the Obama administration need to face - this health care overhaul is in serious trouble. Maybe you need to focus on that instead of what Fox is doing.

And in case you're wondering, Dance tanked in the ratings Wednesday night.

- South Carolina Rep. Joe Wilson. And speaking of the speech, this guy yelled out "You lie!" to President Obama during his speech Wednesday Night after he said the health care plan would not cover illegal immigrants. You can disagree with the President on any given issue, but show some damn respect will ya?

- American Idol. For picking Ellen DeGeneres to replace Paula Abdul as a judge on the music talent show. Seriously, what the hell the producers thinking? They could have picked many, many others with solid credentials (Queen Latifah, Mya, Billy Corgan, Missy Elliott, Deborah Gibson, Jody Watley, Bette Milder, Peter Cetera, etc.), but they went - with a comedian? And one who has an absolutely hokey and stupid daytime TV talk show? Bullshit. Complete bullshit. What credibility this show had - or had left - is gone now.

Did anyone see Ellen's "judging" on So You Think You Can Dance? Horrible. She offers no insight on anything related to music. In addition, she is not funny or entertaining at all.

And they could have keep the judges at three, as it was before Kara DioGuardi came on board. Why do they still think they need four judges?

Chicagoans have already tuned out this waste-of-time talent show (the May finale ranked 51st here out of 56 metered markets nationwide), as evidenced by the screw-over job hometown favorite Jennifer Hudson got in 2004. With this choice, America will do the same. Stick a fork in it, Idol is about as done as the Cubs and White Sox are this baseball season.

And yeah Ellen fans, you can hate on me all you want for my opinion on this decision. But it doesn't change the fact that American Idol - whose ratings have been declining for the last several years, will decline even further.

But they could have made an even worse decision... they could have picked Jim Belushi.

Updated 11:25 p.m. on 2009-09-14.