Last night, Olympic gymnast Shawn Johnson took home the ugly mirrorball trophy for her efforts this season on Dancing With the Stars, but her co-finalists, Melissa Rycroft (of dumped by The Bachelor fame) and Gilles Marini (of taking off all his clothes in Sex and the City fame) were clearly the stronger dancers. Johnson has grown into a moderately better dancer throughout the course of the show, but aside from her fun freestyle on Monday night, she didn't really have the flair that the other two competitors did. There was a lack of elegance and style, and she always had a pained look on her face, or a plastered-on faux smile. Due to her young age (or her sheltered life as a young athlete), she was also missing the flirty sexiness needed during the Latin dances. Though I've been to my share of high school dances and bar mitzvahs and there are plenty of 17-year-old girls who can bring on the sexy when they want to.. or just whenever.

Every year I say that I'm not going to watch this show anymore. But then I do. This time around I got suckered into watching because of the adorable Lance Bass (I never noticed he was the worst dancer in the boy band, I just thought he was cute!), who was teamed new pro Lacey Schwimmer, whom I loved on So You Think You Can Dance. I was fully prepared to stop watching once the N'Sync boy got ousted, which, judging by his early performances, should have been right about the time Cloris got the boot. However, he's stepped up his game and now he's in the finals. While I'm slightly miffed that I've wasted countless hours on this show, I think he stands a shot at actually winning this season. Go figure.

Don't get me wrong. I love So You Think You Can Dance. I aspire to be on America's Best Dance Crew (despite the fact that I can't hip-hop dance AT ALL). I kinda secretly adore the chaos of Dancing With the Stars. But I'm not sure I really needed another dance show. And yet, the adorable Nigel Lythgoe (and producing partner Simon Fuller) are unleashing Superstar Dancers of the World (which is thankfully listed as a working title and needs to be changed ASAP) on America sometime early next year.

Ostensibly Paul Rudd hosted this past week's Saturday Night Live, but the show was stolen right out from under him by one Mr. Justin Timberlake. The former host (whose "D**k in a Box" clip still cracks me up) showed up during Weekend Update to give a quick blow-by-blow of what next weekend's Thanksgiving-themed episode would have looked like if he hadn't had a scheduling conflict. This fast-paced rundown, followed by Timberlake's surprising cameo in heels and a leotard in a fake Beyoncé video shoot, were hands down the two funniest moments of the night. Rudd was forced to merely stand on the side lines and pretend to direct Sasha Fierce in the chaotic "Single Ladies" video while Timberlake shook and grinded (ground?) and got all the laughs.

Now that the elections are over, everyone's desperate to find something else to make fun of. It only makes sense that the juggernaut franchise High School Musical is the target that's currently the top pick. There's just so much to parody: the cheesy songs, the earnest performances, Corbin Bleu's odd hair, why there's a character named Sharpay, etc. Not to mention that every teen in the country is gaga for it.

I must admit, I was more than a little bit excited to sit down this weekend and watch this made-for-TV sequel to Center Stage. I kinda loved the first one [Editor's Note: That movie is my life!!! -- Mindy], and this had everything going for it: the return of real life ballet hottie Ethan Stiefel [Editor's Note: Really? I find him doofy. -- Mindy] as rebellious dance instructor Cooper Nielson, Peter Gallagher as the bushy browed school director, and it is a dance movie, which I'm pretty much duty-bound to enjoy (at least on some level). I should have lowered my expectations. The made-for-TV factor should have been the dead giveaway. The not really attractive newbie girl who was the star I was supposed to be rooting for, should have served as another massive warning flag. And yet... I watched the whole mediocre mess. I can't say I feel good about myself. I can say I'll never watch it again. Here are my main issues with it:

While there's been a buzz and a lot of debate this week about the new celebrity contestants on this season of Dancing With the Stars, I'm mostly excited about the new professional dancers. OK, not caring so much about Mark Ballas's dad (who'll be paired with Cloris Leachman) or pro Inna Brayer. But excited that Maksim Chmerkovskiy is back (woo!) and that a certain former So You Think You Can Dance hot tamale, Lacey Schwimmer, is joining in on the fun.

I always thought Dancing With the Stars should quit trying to sound all highbrow and just call itself People You Probably Forgot Existed But Whose Pathetic Career Trajectory Is Now Obvious By Virtue Of The Fact That They've Been Cast On This Show. That is, until I read the lineup of "celebs" they have on deck for the new season. Ladies and gents, this is the créme de la créme of D-Listers. One might even say the A-List of D-Listers. Hey, let's call them Delta Force Listers! Seriously, someone must've sold his soul to Heidi Montag, because this season is jam-packed with people I actually kinda give a crap about! Here are the bright and shining "stars" I'm most excited to watch shaking his or her thang for the world to see.

So apparently there's this thing called the "Olympics" happening right now in some place called "Beijing." I dunno, that's what they tell me. I've been trying to avoid all the hoopla, so certainly all the cutesy human-interest/spoof segments that The Today Show regulars have been doing have been no more than a blip on my radar. But today, you guys? My roommate hollered for me and made me watch this amazing footage of Matt Lauer and Al Roker doing rhythmic gymnastics -- you know, the ribbon dancing thing -- and I couldn't help it! I found it adorable. I mean in addition to the fact that I got to ogle Lauer in a Lycra body stocking (good morning!) there was the sheer darlingness of watching these two shuffle daintily around on tippy-toe, making pretty designs in the air with their pretty ribbons like pretty little gymnasts of love! Oh, and wait til you get to 2:10 -- we've got a cameo from a supercilious-looking Brian "Yumtown" Williams! Ahhhh, I can't handle it! It's too much! It's almost as amazing as Spaghetti Cat! No, it's not. But it's still rad! Watch it and squeal with glee after the jump.

All summer long I've been thinking that So You Think You Can Dance is better than American Idol, and clearly I'm not the only one. Idol executive producer Nigel Lythgoe is ditching his post behind-the-scenes on Idol in order to focus more on his gig exec. producing and judging the summer-long dance competition. One might think the man is crazy for leaving his presumably well-paying job on the insanely highly rated singing show, but maybe he'd just had enough of Seacrest. Plus, this is the guy who willingly sits next to scream queen Mary Murphy on a regular basis so he's got to be more than a little nuts.