Nicki Minaj

Let's get the bad news out of the way first as we recap the year in TV. In 2012, we lost Mayberry's Sheriff Andy Taylor, J.R. Ewing, George Jefferson, two dance-party kings with the initials D.C., Barnabas Collins, the cutest Monkee, the skipper of PT-73, and Family Feud 's kissing bandit. The good news? We gained Honey Boo Boo. You do the math. TLC's tiny, tubby yahoo was a rebuke to all of you who wrote me declaring that TV could not get any lower than Jersey Shore . Ha!

"I am the last thing on this planet as far as being a racist," Steven Tyler said on Canadian TV in a quasi-apology to Nicki Minaj , we hope the last salvo in one of the sadder media smackdowns in recent memory. It began when Tyler, an American Idol alum, attacked the show's new judges as ignorant. "You just have to give your opinion. It wasn't hard for me," Tyler told MTV. "If it was Bob Dylan [competing], Nicki Minaj would have had him sent to the cornfield!" He added, "Whereas, if it was Bob Dylan with us, we would have brought the best of him out. " This put Minaj out of sorts.

LOS ANGELES - Justin Bieber thanked his haters after winning the first award at the American Music Awards, while Nicki Minaj and Taylor Swift performed their new singles. The 18-year-old won favorite pop/rock male artist in the first award handed out at Sunday's American Music Awards and gave a shout-out to those who didn't think he would last on the music scene. "I want to say this is for all the haters. . .," he said. "I feel like I'm going to be here for a very long time," he said, also thanking his mother, manager, family, and his "beautiful, beautiful fans.

A lot of people got drunk on election night, some in glee, some in despair. And some only seemed drunk. Which was it, we at "SideShow" wonder, with Diane Sawyer , longtime ABC anchor? She seemed, shall we say, lit from within Tuesday night as she cohosted election coverage with George Stephanopoulos . Her speech was slurred ("President Barack Ora - Barack Obama "), she wandered, seemed on the verge of giggling, and she kept leaning forward on her arms like a stevedore calling for a double Rusty Nail and make it quick . Twitter, with customary lack of mercy, exploded.

LOS ANGELES - It'll be a little bit country and a little bit rock 'n' roll on stage at next month's American Music Awards. Organizers announced Wednesday that Taylor Swift, Nicki Minaj and Linkin Park will perform at the 40th annual ceremony on Nov. 18. All are also up for awards. Minaj is the night's leading nominee, along with Rihanna, with four bids each. Swift is nominated for favorite female country artist, and Linkin Park is in the running for alternative artist. Fans can pick the winners by voting online.

IN HIS NEVER-ENDING quest to make "American Idol" seem relevant again, host Ryan Seacrest said Wednesday that things got intense between new hosts Nicki Minaj and Mariah Carey during a tryout taping the previous day in Charlotte, N.C. Amid a dispute over a contestant, Nicki announced that she was no longer putting up with "her [bleepin'] Highness," in a reference to Mariah. The entire expletive-laden rant can be seen at TMZ.com. Another new judge, Keith Urban , was in the unenviable position of sitting between the pair, wondering why he ever chose to take the gig. On his radio show, Seacrest said that "Idol" needs some passionate debate.

OK. Guess whom "SideShow" is imitating. "Beeeeeep. Beeeeeep, beeeeeep. " The Road Runner ? Star Wars ' R2-D2 ? My Mother the Car ? No, no, and no. We're channeling the bleeps on American Idol now that Nicki Minaj , who can bench-press 350 pounds of foul language, is a judge on the show. Apparently, the feud between her and Mariah Carey (also a new judge) has been upgraded from a tropical storm to a hurricane. A trending video on YouTube shows Minaj on Tuesday, chucking *%#s at Carey, who may well be chucking back, though only Minaj is audible.

The court was shocked, shocked, to find topless photos of a beautiful celeb in a French magazine. Actually, "brutal" was how the tribunal in Nanterre, France, described the pics of Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge , née Kate Middleton , that appeared Friday in the magazine Closer. The court, responding to a complaint by Kate and hub Prince William , ordered the mag on Tuesday to turn over all digital copies of the pics within 24 hours and cease further publication of them. The publishers will be fined $13,100 for every day they delay.

IN A MOVE that surprised even avid celeb-stalkers, Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds tied the knot in a secret ceremony over the weekend. Linked publicly for a little more than a year, the "Gossip Girl" actress and her chiseled hubby were wed at Boone Hall Plantation in Mount Pleasant, S.C., right outside of Charleston. Florence Welch , leader of Florence and the Machine and a good friend of Lively's, provided the soundtrack for the wedding. The newlyweds have largely been tight-lipped to reporters about their relationship.

MERICAN IDOL'S" game of musical chairs may have taken another casualty as new reports claim Randy Jackson is vacating his post as judge - a spot he's held since the singing competition premiered in 2002. Jackson is reportedly stepping away from the judges' table but would continue to play a role in the show as a mentor to the contestants. No word on what capacity that mentorship would be. "Idol" currently relies on guest musicians to dole out advice alongside Jimmy Iovine, the in-house "Idol" mentor and chairman of Interscope/ Geffen/ A&M (contestants broker deals through Universal Music Group, with Interscope proving popular among them)