One of my goals for 2007 is to replace this li'l retrospective with a blog post on the best books of the year. But, who am I kidding?

I'm very particular about the TV I watch. I'll damn near give anything a chance but tire of most shows pretty quickly. For example, this fall's Season 3 of Dancing With The Stars left me wondering how many more paso dobles I could take, particularly considering nobody will ever beat Drew Lachey's interpretation to Michael Jackson's "Thriller" in Season 2.

As much as I loved "My Name Is Earl" and "The Office" in 2005, my interest in NBC's new Thursday night staples waned considerably this year, particularly in the Jason Lee vehicle. For television to be compelling to a busy dude like me, it really has to become appointment TV as opposed to what they call habit-forming TV.

In the biz, the latter constitutes things like The Cosby Show always, always coming on NBC Thursdays at 7 throughout the 1980s. Watching that fine Phylicia Rashad became a habit.

A great example is CBS' "60 Minutes." Sundays at 6. C'mon, everybody knows that.

On the other hand, some shows we choose to watch because of the show itself and not because of our habits, what we're doing at the time or routine. With the way networks switch time schedules these days, it makes practically all television "appointment TV."

However, for me, there were five shows in 2006 that stood out not as the best, necessarily, but as my personal obsessions.

5. American Idol - The FOX staple had its biggest year yet in terms of ratings and votes; however, I thought it was a down year. The contestants are becoming too polished in one sense, while other shows (namely CBS' "Rock Star") are producing equally compelling shows with better music.

Problem is that nobody can argue that these contestants on AI -- the winners in particular -- are commercial failures. Kelly Clarkson is the biggest female star in pop music, and Carrie Underwood is arguably the biggest female star in music, period.

Jennifer Hudson, who finished in 7th place back in Season 3 is about to win an Oscar for her role in "Dreamgirls." Josh Gracin, a vastly overrated country-music-singing marine, who placed fifth in Season 2 is a definite commercial success.

Fantasia's second album is grittier and significantly better than her first. She has the legitimate possibility of standing toe-to-toe with the Aretha Franklin of this generation, Mary J. Blige.

However, what has always made AI appointment television is that the show itself is compelling. First, viewers are sucked in to rooting for some of these kids. Second, the show is typically full of surprises and controversy with regard to results because it's completely in the hands of the audience, which again is a positive. Third, the show is one an entire family can watch, regardless of age. Fourth, the show is the ultimate water-cooler program. Everybody has an opinion, and less gets done in corporate America on Wednesdays specifically because of Idol.

There is only one television event bigger on Earth, and it's a game played here in about five weeks -- the Super Bowl.

However, the talent itself the past two years has been down relative to the actual Top 12 performances. Not enough wow moments for me this season, musically. There were significantly more of those on CBS' "Rock Star," for example.

On the other hand, Elliott Yamin's story was ultra-endearing. The guy is deaf, diabetic and his mum is sick. To boot, the boy can flat-out sing the good stuff, as he proved by nailing Donny Hathaway's "A Song For You." You want a wow moment from this year on AI? That was it.

And on the other hand, runner-up Katharine McPhee was hot. Smokin' hot. Enough so that her image became part of my desktop wallpaper for like a month.

Still, there were better shows this year.

*****

4. Ugly Betty - I strongly considered making this my No. 1 show on two counts. First, this is a show that portrays a Hispanic family with a father who is an "illegal" in a positive light at a time when any brown person with questionable viability in terms of citizenship is looked down upon as if he or she were evil.

I love that, not because I support "rule-breaking" but because the issue of immigration is vastly more complex, as a whole and individually, than FOX News or Lou Dobbs will let you believe. "Ugly Betty" presented its primary patriarchal family figure as a guy who is here illegally not because he's evil but because he was busy supporting his family.

Anyway, I could go on. However, "Ugly Betty" is also socially transcendent in that it has introduced a queer kid, Justin Suarez, but refused to address it directly. The kid talks effeminately. He loves fashion and is quite knowledgeable about it. And, for Halloween, he dressed up as a sailor and sang and danced to Gene Kelly?

Gay. Gay. Gay. Right?

Not so fast. As a straight guy, I've always taken umbrage to the notion that we can't like musicals, that we can't like clothes and that we can't do any number of other things disassociated with sexual preference. While it's ok to kid your buddy for purposefully going to the theater to see "Brokeback Mountain," it's not cool for adults to chastise a 10 or 11-year-old boy because he's interested in dance, for example, instead of football.

I think it's about 99.9 percent likely that Justin Suarez goes the gay way. However, I thought it was quite classy that the only allusion the show has made to it was between Michael Urie's character and Justin, when the former told the kid he'd need to learn how to run fast.

*****

3. The Soup - I devote one hour to Joel McHale and the E Network's show dedicated to recapping TV shows every week. I typically watch "The Soup" twice. It's that funny. It's brilliantly written. The host is perfect for the show and he better not leave like that Kinnear fellow or Aisha Tyler or Hal Sparks or that dude with the skunk hair.

I'd never know about the blow-up bear featured in those telanovelas or that Rosie O'Donnell had a sex scene with a dude in Nip/Tuck. I've never watched VH1's "Flava of Love," but I knew all about New York after watching The Soup.

And, when somebody tells me something is a little gay, I know what to say.

I absolutely, positively do not miss an episode of this show, ever. For whatever reason, it wasn't on tonight, and I'm pissed.

*****

2. Big Brother 7 - In about 2000, I spent (er, wasted) an entire summer watching the first edition of CBS' semi-hit reality show that was so unsuccessful then, the show's executives literally erased it from the annals of the program's history.

However, I decided to give Season 7, an all-stars edition of the show, a chance.

Little did I know how obsessed I'd become with the show and just how much time it usurped. First, CBS airs this show during the summer on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. For those of you who don't know, a group of about 15 people live together in a house and, one by one, get voted off by each other until one remains.

It's not nearly as simple as a popularity contest. There are tasks, feats of strength or will or endurance. There are punishments. There is lying, deception and cruelty. There are bonds and alliances formed.

If you're thinking it's a lot like Survivor, then you're probably right. However, Big Brother is way more focused on human deception and pure evil than being able to start a fire from a pair of twigs.

Sure, like with Idol, you grow attached to certain contestants. Janelle was hot, but Will was the puppet master. Hell, I've forgotten half their names already, but what I do know is that I subscribed to an iTunes podcast (or two) devoted to this show and weekly online speculation about strategy.

There is no audience participation, really, outside of some spare contests CBS puts on affiliated with aspects of earlier seasons of BB. For example, they might have a contest where the winner gets his or her name put into a drawing for a trip to Vegas if he can remember something obscure about Season 4.

I could not care less about all that. My obsession is with the show itself, in its current format, which is a billion times superior to its original season. Hell, these folks this summer were doing each other in the house, or at least an allusion with a bit of video evidence was made relative to Boogie and Erika.

When it came time for the finale, I rushed home to get it on the DVR. I was pretty sure and definitely hoped that Boogie (Mike Malin is his real name) had the votes, but I didn't know. He did. He won. But, in true Big Brother fashion, half the contestants still personally hated the others. There was no, "Well, it was a competition, and we're friends in real life."

The real strength of a show, regardless of ratings, is whether you really look forward to the next season, and I can't wait. BTW, I should note that this is the one reality show I would consider applying for. Seriously. If I could live without the money for a summer, I'd be there.

*****

1. Heroes - What's funny is that I'll write considerably less about my No. 1 choice than my No. 2. That's because I already wrote a damned essay about NBC's breakout fall hit earlier this year, citing its characters and its concept as unlike anything I had ever seen.

Read what I wrote back in October. It still applies today, and although I fear what the show's writers are capable of in terms of eventually destroying what has begun as possibly the best scripted television drama in the past 25 years (slight hyperbole), I still must freakin' know who's on that goddamned list.

And, we'll know Jan. 22 at 8 p.m. on NBC.

Now, that is some appointment muthaf***** television.