I tried to watch The Bachelor last night, really I did. But I really cannot get into the dating shows; I don't know why. However, I'm still a little unsettled by Bachelor Jason's son playing any sort of role on this show. True, the show is supposed to be about romance and true love, but history has shown this hasn't really been the case. Even when there is an engagement, it rarely lasts. Also a little icky was the preview showing bachelorette Stephanie's daughter brought in as a surprise for her next week. I don't know. You know, grownups can decide whether to be featured on these shows, but adding kids to the mix, especially on a relationship show, kind of squicks me out.

I also caught True Beauty, and it was so tremendously awful that it almost came back around to awesome. The premise is that these men and women believe they are competing for the title of Most Beautiful Person in America, but they are actually being judged on their "inner beauty." For instance, on last night's show, the contestants were divided into groups of three and told that each group had $100 to go shopping and create three outfits for an exclusive club opening that evening.

Clearly, $100 wasn't going to be enough, so they had to find ways to make it work. One team promised the clothes would get a lot of airtime and that they would return the clothes the next day, which worked. Another team basically flirted its way into outfits. The last team -- Chelsea, Ashley and CJ -- took another approach. CJ and Ashley claimed to be raising money for some amorphous charity, which, speaking of icky and squicky. Chelsea wasn't into it at all and was horrified. CJ eventually had second thoughts and ended up with only half an outfit anyway. Karma?

In the end, CJ and Ashley were in the bottom two and faced one last challenge -- a stuntman playing a bike messenger pretended to crash in front of them when they were headed into judging. CJ stopped and helped him; Ashley didn't. Not so surprisingly, Ashley went home.

My god, though, the show is cheesy. When people are eliminated, a maintenance crew removes their portrait from the wall and shoves it in a trash bin. Contestant Joel actually spoke the words, "I'm scientifically beautiful." And judge Cheryl Tiegs looks like she is crying half the time. Sorry she signed up for this? Sorry for the tricks they're playing on the contestants? Just plain sorry? It's odd. And yet, I found myself unable to change the channel. I'm hoping it was just a food coma and that next week I'll break free from the nonedible cheese.