One of the reasons for my light posting last week was that I was knocked flat on my ass by some sort of horrendous illness that left my throat raw and throbbing. So swollen, in fact, that I woke up at six in the morning barely able to breathe. A few rounds of antibiotics and a bottle of codeine (not as much fun as it sounds) later, I’m fine.

There were some perks, though, to being drugged and couch-ridden.

1. I got to spend some quality time with my girls on the Food Network (Giada, Ina, Sandra and Paula).
2. Not being able to ingest much means I subsisted on one piece of pizza per day for three days — inching me that much closer to my goal of weighing less than a dream.
3. I cleaned out almost the entire DVR and decided that that if I hadn’t watched some of it after spending 76 continuous hours in front of the TV, then it didn’t deserve to be there anyway (looking at you, Proof. Even Jake can’t make me want to watch you).
4. And, finally, I happened upon a new show I plan on watching until its resolution — HGTV’s Design Star.

In its second season, the show is very much in the Bravo creative/gay-ish professional/competitive reality oeuvre. And, since the winner gets their own TV show, it’s kind of like Top Design meets The Next Food Network Star at a gallery opening, goes to Massachusetts, gets married, gets a labradoodle (or whatever dog is in style that season), buys a fixer-upper in an up-and-coming part of town, and adopts a baby reality show. That baby is Design Star and it has the cutest fucking nursery you’ve ever seen.

There’s really nothing on the show that you wouldn’t expect — they don’t try to reinvent the reality wheel. A British host named Clive, three judges (two ladies and Verne Yip from Trading Spaces), a giant loft for the dozen or so contestants to live in, challenges, winners, losers, blah, blah. But the show clears the all-important hurdle of getting the casting right; the contestants are lively enough to be entertaining, but talented enough to make us care.

Even though the show is only three episodes in, they’ve already shown five designers the door. There’s Lisa (self-proclaimed punk rocker), Neeraja (who possessed the exotic and statuesque good looks of an animated Disney villainess), Josh F. (young, granola, and totally doable even though you’d likely smell like patchouli afterwards),
Adriana (cute, spritely Latina), and Scott (who was portrayed in near-constant tears).

So only six remain:

Todd - the oft-shirtless surfer dude (and I mean oft. Like even, inexplicably, in interviews) who won last week for his impressive, if completely conceptual/non-practical crashing wave room.

Christina - the young Southern mommy.

Kim - who cuts hair. Seriously. She’s labeled as a “hair stylist/design enthusiast” in her interviews. But she’s made it this far, which must count for something.

“Sparkle” Josh - who is 1/4 gay man, 1/4 Miss America, 1/4 Queer Eye’s Thom Felicia and 1/4 My Little Pony. All spray-on tan and flowing blond locks, he’s a casting director’s wet dream. Luckily, he’s funny and self-deprecating enough to be totally likable and I kind of want him to win the whole thing.

Robb - as tends to be the case with reality show Robs (and, specifically, Robbs with two bs), he seems to have skated by at least two eliminations because he is a magnet for conflict. Despite being loud and seemingly unable to win the respect of the non-fratty contestants, he is wee and buff. For that, I can forgive a lot.

Will - not necessarily the biggest personality on the block, but probably one of the more impressive designers thus far.

The show airs on Sundays on HGTV. It’s entertaining enough, and it’s way better than spending time watching Big Brother 8 or reruns of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.

I’ll tell you a little more about it in a little bit.

• John From Cincinnati has been put out to pasture.
• The new My So-Called Life DVD box set will include contributions from Joss Whedon and Janeane Garofalo, in addition to a 40-page book.
• Trent Reznor: gothic icon, industrial music pioneer, TV series creator?
• An E! spoiler chat.
• Will Geico competitors advertise on the Cavemen show? Will anyone?
• Indie rock on TV: Smashing Pumpkins, Chuck D, Andrew Bird, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah.
• The New York Times lends some ink to The Hills.
• An episode of CSI will deal with the murder of a female TV star that is basically either Roseanne or Cybill Shepherd.
• Neil Patrick Harris talks about his Emmy nomination and the whole gay thing.
• Sesame Street promotes literacy with Tina Fey, etc. Also, if (through the miracles of science) Maggie and Cristin were to have a baby, this is what it would look like. (the one on the left, not the red furry one)

Do I even need to tell you who this is referring to?

“He grew up in California. He has a younger brother named Dylan. He’s a Libra. He’s dating Vanessa Hudgens. He’s in ‘Hairspray.’ His first big thing was ‘Summerland.’ He had a gap in his teeth, but he got that fixed. He went to Hawaii with Vanessa. That’s common knowledge. We saw him at the ‘Today’ show two weeks ago, but I didn’t get his autograph. His hair is amazing,” Regina said.

High School Musical 2 airs for the first time this Friday.