It's been a number of years before we had anything remotely kind to say about American Idol, and when we got a full screener of this season's premiere, we definitely rolled our eyes. It seemed like a sign of desperation because the show usually just sends critics teasers for each season, not full episodes. So out of sheer curiosity (and boredom during that off week during the holidays), we decided to check it out. And, well, it was surprisingly decent. We'd go so far as to even say watchable, almost to the point of enjoyable. And if the premiere is any indication of the direction the show is taking this year, maybe we'll grouch less about having to sit through yet another competitive reality singing show. This is not to say that it's blow-your-mind DVR-worthy but it is definitely leaps and bounds above the last few Simon-less seasons. So why the dramatic improvement? Here's our take on the big changes:

New year... and a bunch of horrible new reality stars to contend with. Welcome to 2014, everyone.

Syfy's strangely addictive and occasionally just plain strange hybrid of a competitive and candid reality show, Heroes of Cosplay, wrapped up its limited freshman season run last night with a team-based challenge at Kansas City's Planet Comicon, the fifth and final stop on a six-episode cross-country tour of the comic convention scene. We've gotta admit, this show kind of surprised us as it went along; what initially seemed like a crass and exploitative appropriation of a geek tradition (the early promos did spend an awful lot of time playing up the busty-girls-in-skimpy-outfits aspect of cosplay) wound up becoming a fun and even moderately respectful tribute to the women and men -- but mostly women, at least on the show anyway -- who spend their time designing and donning costumes derived from comics, video games, anime and American cartoons and pretty much every other medium under the yellow nerd sun. (To see what true geek exploitation looks like, steel yourselves for the hideous Fangasm, which takes over Heroes' slot next week… one more good reason why this show deserves a second year.) We take a look back at which of the show's core cast of costumed-players deserves the status of "hero" and which are closer to villains.

Just one day after it was announced that American Idol would bring on Harry Connick Jr. (and bring back Jennifer Lopez) as a judge, Dancing with the Stars one-upped them with the reveal of what is, quite possibly, their best cast yet.

CBS has released photos of the 15 new members of the Big Brother cast, and along with their standard headshots, they included more "fun" poses. Most of them just tried to look cute or serious, but there were a few with some actually personality. So these are the contestants we're already rooting for, based simply on their very telling pictures.

With Survivor and The Amazing Race taking the summer off, a trio of cable shows are out to fill the endurance challenge-based reality series void. TNT offers up the one-two punch of the Dwayne Johnson-fronted The Hero and 72 Hours (which air back-to-back on Thursdays at 8 PM and 9 PM respectively), while the obscure Reelz network counters with Race to the Scene (Thursdays at 9 PM). Which of these shows walks away as the sole survivor? We pit them head-to-head in five key areas:

I can't imagine anyone went into Bravo's Princesses: Long Island expecting anything other than what we saw in the pilot, aptly titled, "You Had Me at Shalom." I mean, surely Bravo only settled on name after the FCC shot down just plain calling the series JAPS, right? (That would explain why there are a few non-Jewish women shoehorned in there.) Rather than go so far as to dignify these ladies with no firm grasp on reality with individual reactionary descriptions, or the network for so brazenly perpetuating ugly stereotypes, let's just talk about the very worst lines of the pilot and call it a day.

I have watched every season of Survivor, a lot of Bad Girls Club and even Are You Hot?, but I'm pretty sure I've never watched a more mean-spirited show than the new Fox reality series Does Someone Have to Go?.

It's obvious what Eva Longoria and NBC were trying to do with Ready for Love: Cash in quite belatedly on the fame of The Bachelor using the "science" and snark of Millionaire Matchmaker. Unfortunately, this show is so poorly edited, egregiously sexist and clearly low-budget, it's much closer to The Choice meets Fashion Star and has all of the authenticity of Burning Love. Rather than validate Ready for Love by giving it a straight-up review, I'll instead list the very worst things about the show.

People weren't as disgusting this week as normal, so that's refreshing. Instead they were just obnoxious.