Sure, ABC's dance-off registered a bump in its most recent episode: a respectable 13 million viewers for Tuesday's results show.

But bear in mind this was the first week since the odious Tom DeLay dropped out. I'll bet C-Span's ratings also increased after DeLay was forced to resign from Congress in 2005.

Even on Tuesday, DWTS finished second in its time slot to a prime-time rookie, NCIS: Los Angeles. And there's no getting around the fact that viewership is down by more than 10 percent since last year.

Why the downhill samba?

Blame a bad crop of contestants. Ashley Hamilton? Kelly Osbourne? When did this become Dancing With the Children of the Stars?

The usually reliable category of athletes is abysmal this time. Michael Irvin? Louie Vito? We're tangoing dangerously close to Tonya Harding territory here, people.

You know you're in trouble when your biggest name is Donny Osmond. I still can't get the image of Donny dipping judge Bruno Tonioli into that romance-novel clinch out of my head. Yuuuck! It made Al Roker lip-locking Tina Fey on Today this week appear sexy by comparison.

Look, this country leads the world in semi-celebrities who are well past their sell-by dates. The whole reality-TV industry would collapse without this bounty.

Raise your sights, Dancing With the Stars. Next time, Kirstie Alley or bust!

Foreign affairs. Last week, I asked you to send in your choices for the worst actors on TV. The biggest vote getter by a wide margin was CSI: Miami's David Caruso, who one reader described as "more wooden than Pinocchio."

But I got even more mail from fans of Mad Men who pointed out that, despite my skepticism, it was perfectly plausible for Betty Draper to speak Italian since she had spent time modeling in Milan. Don't know how I missed that tidbit.

Usually when I make a glaring error in the column, the response tends to be nasty and insulting. But the Mad Men devotees were remarkably and unanimously polite in bringing this to my attention.

The experience has taught me a valuable lesson: From now on, when I make a boneheaded observation, I'm going to make sure it's about Mad Men.

Boycott. In my dream, the cast of Glee is drifting down Broadway, singing "Don't Stop Believin' " beneath a giant blow-up Bullwinkle.

NBC dashed that fantasy this week when it booted the Fox choir from the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, which the Peacock network broadcasts every year.

Sure, why would you want to include something in this tired old ritual that viewers might actually want to see?

As Glee co-creator Ryan Murphy said to Entertainment Weekly after the ban was announced, "I completely understand NBC's position, and look forward to seeing a Jay Leno float."

Low and outside. Usually I like the visual and graphic aids that TV adds to sports coverage.

But the Pitch TRAX box that TBS has been using during the baseball playoffs is infuriating.

It purports to show where each pitch lands, but the results are absolutely random. Two identically placed pitches will be marked outside the opposite margins of the box. And this may come as a shock to the players and umpires, but, according to TBS, about one pitch in 10 is a strike.

I'm pretty sure the location of the balls on Pitch TRAX is determined by a TBS staffer in the production truck throwing foam darts at a screen.

Big fan. This week's Modern Family found Ty Burrell's character, as usual, straining to prove how hip he is. He tells his daughter he was such an inveterate concertgoer back in the day that he was a "Hall Raiser."

As he explains, that's someone who followed Hall & Oates around the country as they toured.

I guess that makes me a Grand Mason because there was a time when I would drive anywhere to see Dave Mason play.