CarriePrejean

NBC is fond of 'Miss Universe' and 'Miss USA': The network has struck a new three-year deal with the Miss Universe Organization and Donald Trump to continue to broadcast the pageants, beginning in 2011, according to a report in Entertainment Weekly.

Last year's 'Miss USA' averaged around 5 million viewers, a record low for the pageant, but scored high on the buzz meter because of Carrie Prejean (Miss California) and her comments on gay marriage. The 2009 'Miss Universe' contest pulled in 5.9 million viewers, an improvement over previous outings.

On the ninth day of Festivus, TV gave to me... nine on-air breakdowns.

Director Alfred Hitchcock once said, "Television has done much for psychiatry by spreading information about it, as well as contributing to the need for it."

Yes, having a camera stuck in your face for an hour or more a day must take a toll on your sanity. Your privacy is virtually limited. Your every move is scrutinized and criticized by faceless meanies. Your therapist is one session away from owning his own fishing trawler.

It's only a matter of time before the grasp of sanity is clipped away like a loose thread on a homemade snowman sweater and you turn into a blubbering, snotty, incoherent mess for all the world to enjoy. These are the personalities who lost it and may or may not have gained whatever "it" is back.

As Barbara Walters prepares to show viewers her annual list of the 10 Most Fascinating People of the Year (pictured, featuring Lady Gaga and Walters) in a special airing tonight, we realized that TV gives far too much airtime to people at the other end of the spectrum. With that thought, here are the year's 10 least fascinating people on TV. Let's all try to make it a New Year's resolution that we won't be talking about these people's overexposure again a year from now.

After a disastrous appearance on CNN's Larry King Live last week, Carrie Prejean is drawing heat from critics as well as her fellow pageant competitors.

"It just goes to show you how much respect she has, and how disrespectful she is," Chelsea Gilligan, 2009's Miss California Teen USA, said over the weekend.

"Larry King is amazing, he is so sweet. He is the nicest, most easiest interviewer," Gilligan told Inside TV at the 'Planet 51' premiere in Westwood, Calif. "The fact that she would disrespect him on national television, an elder -- I mean, I don't know."

Former Miss California Carrie Prejean is back in the spotlight once again -- not over the anti-gay marriage statements that got her dethroned back in June, nor her contentious emails with pageant officials, but over her breasts. Or that is to say, her breast implants.

Officials from Miss California USA are suing Prejean for $5,200 they say she owes them for breast augmentation surgery. According to papers filed, Prejean borrowed the money with the understanding that she would pay it back, which she never did.

The always outspoken Margaret Cho has tackled issues of race, sexuality and weight in her stand-up comedy, and she was the first Asian-American female to have a sitcom in the U.S., 1994's short-lived 'All-American Girl.' Over the years Cho's brash sense of humor and outspoken support of gay rights have earned her a devoted following.

In the new Lifetime series 'Drop Dead Diva' (premieres Sunday, July 12), Cho plays the sidekick to a recently deceased model trapped in an overweight brainiac's body.

Cho talked to AOL TV about the ideals of beauty, why she thinks Miss California Carrie Prejean deserved to lose her crown and why she's saving her body for Kat Von D. -- By Katy Kroll