As I pointed out last week, one of the hottest international exports is reality TV. 

A few years ago, the UK gave us Big Brother.  America anticipated the show, which launches its All Star season this summer, with the kind of zeal usually reserved for the Asian bird flu. While the show has always inspired tepid interest stateside, it's effing huge in the UK.

There's also the British version of The Apprentice, where Donald Trump is replaced by some old dude named (seriously) Sir Alan Sugar.  Which, coincidentally, is the name I used as a stripper in the late nineties.  The new Caroline is a sturdy broad named Margaret and a cast of (obviously) very British-looking contestants.

So the Brits give us Big Brother (as well as Survivor and American Idol), and what do we give them in return?  The majesty that is Project Runway. 

The other-side-of-the-pond version of Runway, called Project Catwalk, featured Liz Hurley as host last year, but this season has instead tapped (deep breath) Kelly Osbourne.  Their rationale was that Hurley was too wooden as host, which I could see, but is it really that great of an idea to replace her with someone is pretty much famous for never knowing how to dress herself? 

Nice try, Liz.

Project Catwalk, while missing out on the antics of Santino and Andrae, does feature this guy.  John Waters, prepare to duel.  (and there's this way-too-young hottie too)

There's no way I can write this without it sounding silly, so… here goes: I've started blogging about television for a new alumni magazine from my alma mater, called 02138 Magazine. There is no actual physical magazine yet, just this lovely website.

So far I've written about House, Survival of the Richest, and the one that's on the homepage today — The Amazing Race. (Update: I also have this post. It's a good one.) I've felt compelled to relate these posts in some way back to the old alma mater, and I've had to work within some sort of "editorial guidelines" (which I interpret to mean slightly less cursing than usual), but feel free to check them out if you have time.

And hello to new readers, directed here by the copious links I've made sure to embed in every one of my 02138 posts. Enjoy the increased cursing and non-college-related topics! It doesn't appear that 02138 is comment-enabled, so if you want to compliment me on my insightfulness and good taste, you can comment here or email me at .