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I’ve mostly stopped complaining about or even marveling at the continued success of Dancing With the Stars, which crowns its sixth champion tonight (ABC, 9 PM), preceded by a repeat of last night’s final performance show). People clearly enjoy watching the once-famous or famous-only-to-a-subgroup (Cristian de la Fuente and Jason Taylor would qualify here) learning how to perform ballroom dances, and the formula isn’t showing much wear and tear, possibly because the amateur dancers aren’t around long enough for us to get tired of them, and the show (unlike American Idol) wisely downplays the role of its judges.
DWTS has a long history of “surprising” outcomes, where the dancer perceived as the leader all season long is nipped at the wire (Mario Lopez grumbles about it to this day). More notably, there has not been a female winner since Kelly Monaco in Season One, an oversight attributed to both the traditional male leadership role in ballroom dancing and to the desire of the female audience for the show to keep the hot male celebs on as long as possible. But this might be the season that ends the streak: Kristi Yamaguchi has been so far and away the best that it’s hard to imagine there are enough Miami Dolphins fans out there to stop her. Besides, she’s an athlete too, and that’s been as helpful as merely being a guy.
American Idol (Fox, 8 PM): David Archuleta vs. David Cook: the elfin balladeer against the haircut-challenged grunge knockoff. The final performance show of the season is always highlighted, if that’s the right word, by the revelation of the winners’ single, which is usually something icky-sweet enough to make Mister Rogers’ teeth rot out of his head, even as he is spinning in his grave.
NCIS (CBS, 8 PM): Word is that a series regular dies in tonight’s two-hour finale, and there’s a further complication near the conclusion. Another death? I haven’t recovered yet from last night’s House, which had me, um, dealing with the sudden flare-up of a medical condition that causes my eyes to water uncontrollably.

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