You can say a lot of things about American reality television programming. You could say that it is trashy. You could say that it brainless. You could even say it’s ethically questionable.

But we’ve got nothing on some of the international shows.

Take a look at this Dutch reality show, where a 37-year-old woman who is dying of a brain tumor will choose another dying person to receiver her kidney. To the losers? Sucks to be you.

Then there’s the Australian Big Brother. The whole concept behind Big Brother is that people are cut off from the outside world and monitored with cameras. This season, a 24-year-old female cast member’s father has died and the producers aren’t telling her.

I’m not trying to generalize this into a trend or a commentary, but I guess we can just realize it could be a lot worse than squabbling over boys.

House airs its season finale tonight. At one point in the past two weeks, I got into an argument with someone who disagreed with me when I claimed that House had beaten American Idol in the ratings. I don’t remember who, and I don’t remember why he would dare to question me in this matter. As it turns out, I was wrong, and so I am sorry, nameless stranger. All I can say is that I’m an optimist and I may have read that article a tad too quickly.

Next Best Thing: Who Is the Greatest Celebrity Impersonator? airs on Wednesday, and looks like a whole bag full of crazy.

Also on Wednesday, Hidden Palms premieres on the CW. It’s created by Kevin Williamson, who you may remember from Dawson’s Creek and the Scream movies. It’s about the secret lives of teenagers in Palm Springs. I leave it to you to draw your own conclusions. My only thought is to wonder what exactly the past ten years have been like for Kevin Williamson.

The National Spelling Bee is airing on ABC on Thursday! Remember when it was only on ESPN? How far we’ve come, as a society.

Pirate Master debuts at the same time on Thursday. I expect Cristin will share her thoughts.

Studio 60 continues to exist and infuriate people, only as far as I can tell, no one’s defending it any more.

And in case you’ve missed the ubiquitous subway advertising, The Starter Wife, starring Debra Messing, begins on Thursday on USA. It’s summer, so I’ll mention it, and I won’t judge you if you choose to watch it, but it seems a little too earnestly feel-good self-empowering for beautiful people. Witness, the website.

You can take your fancy pants bistros. All I need is CPK.

• Reality Blurred has a bunch of Idol-related stuff, that I guess I won’t summarize because you probably care or you don’t.
• The Simple Life is even more fake than you thought it was — the alleged camp that Paris and Nicole are working at is made up of actors.
• Mark Cuban vs. Donald Trump in battle of the disgustingly wealthy.
• Omar Epps discusses his fate on House.
• TV Gal talks season finales.
• Adam Sandler’s Gay Robot YouTube series might get animated. Okay — so between that Chuck and Larry movie and this, when did Adam Sandler become the nation’s foremost queer comedy authority?  And Gay Robot is awful, by the way, but you probably didn’t need me to tell you that.
• Matt Roush talks Emmy nominations — must be that time of year.
• Corporate heads are rolling at NBC.
• There’s a new reality show for aspiring TV producers. No, not On The Lot. A different one.
• That show The Loop is coming back, if you remember it.
• Visit the TV Show Pitch Generator.
• Carol Burnett is out of luck in her suit against Family Guy.
• Ty Pennington got 3 years’ probation.
• There are now Prison Break dolls. I’m guessing some TiFaux Tournament voters might be flipping out over the prospect of a plush Wentworth Miller.
• I guess I’m not the only one who thought last Thursday’s Studio 60 was marginally less awful than usual.