Honors, dishonors: Reality TV awards for 2006

Best Phenomenon: "Dancing With the Stars"
It's got goofy, practically no-name hosts, B-list celebrities, and features super-bizarre dance/song combinations such as Lisa Rinna dancing the paso doble to Europe's "The Final Countdown" and Drew Lachey cha-cha-chaing to Ricky Martin's "She Bangs."  Yet it absolutely slayed any other TV competition and sucked in everyone from grandmas to grade-schoolers. Now celebs such as Duchess of York Sarah Ferguson reportedly are clamoring to be chosen to cha-cha. To misquote Don Henley, al she wants to do is dance, and all America wants to do is watch.

Most Unfortunate Cancellation: “Fear Factor”
When NBC’s “Fear Factor” debuted, its gross-out stunts earned the show a lot of attention. After five years, NBC finally pulled the plug. America, it seems, just doesn’t have the same taste for grossness as it did before (another example: “Extreme Makeover,” the plastic surgery edition, returned for just one episode). The sad part is, “Fear Factor” finally found a groove in its later years. Instead of disposing of cast members immediately, the show kept them around, sometimes for a string of multiple themed episodes, like a series that took place in the Psycho house and Bates Motel at Universal. Those allowed us to get to know the characters and appreciate the horror of the stunts. One series that aired last year featured reality show contestants we already knew and wanted to see gagging on rat parts.

Best "What the heck was THAT?" moment
Reality shows are full of these moments, but for our money, no show ended on a weirder note than "America's Next Top Model," which wrapped things up with a runway walk-off in Spain in which finalist Melrose and eventual winner Caridee had to dress — and act — like ghost brides. No, really. It was kind of a Vera Wang meets the Haunted Mansion meets the Spencer Gifts' Halloween costume department moment, complete with dress-ripping, whiteface makeup, and Caridee screaming like she'd just come face to face with Jay Manuel in his underwear. It's kind of like they just threw a random adjective and a noun together to create this finale concept. This year, ghost brides! Next year, waffle clowns!

Runner-up "What the heck was THAT?" moment
Challenged to make an ice cream flavor, "Top Chef" contestant Marcel apparently mulled over all the flavors that have long been popular in ice cream and decided they were all flukes. Chocolate? Old hat! Marshmallow or caramel? Declasse! Instead he somehow came up with ... bacon-avocado ice cream. Even adults were spitting it out, and kids were practically racing to sand their tongues after tasting it. Needless to say, his creation received the lowest amount of votes of any of the flavors. It could only have been worse had it been served up by a ghost bride.

Gael Fashingbauer Cooper is MSNBC.com's Television Editor. Andy Dehnart is a writer and teacher who publishes reality blurred, a daily summary of reality TV news.

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