Well, I read somewhere a while back that with the shifting nature of television, May sweeps just aren't the big deal that they used to be. Maybe so, but they sure are hitting us hard with the finales and other great programming. So far, I've already seen the season finales for Hell's Kitchen (the right person won) and Numb3rs (what an ending.) Oh, and The Amazing Race, last week. Good ending there too. Those were Thursday and Friday and the fun continues starting tonight.

Sunday: Tonight is the season finale of Survivor. This season was Tocantins: The Brazilian Highlands and there have been a lot of great moments. One of them was the most recent episode. I've already rewatched Coach's amazing boot several times. My favorite part is watching the reactions of the jury as he reads that ridiculous poem of his. BTW, if anyone wants to, go visit the Survivor forum here at TV.com and post a question for their interview with the Survivor cast. It seems like not many people are asking questions and the interview is supposed to be today, so I think they really need more. In any case, I'll be looking forward to tonight's finale. I'm rooting for either Taj or J.T. and I'm also rooting for Coach taking up as little time on the finale and live reunion show as possible.

Monday - 24 airs its explosive season finale from 8-10. I've been a fan of this show from the beginning and it's really been great this season. Kim is back and, well... that's not great, but it does set things up so Jack is being made to try and rescue Tony, his surprising arch-nemesis. Can't wait to see how that's going to go. After that, I've got Medium. This one's not actually a finale-- the way NBC is scheduled things, that won't air until a couple weeks from now, in June. At least it's not two hours, though, like the past couple weeks. I'm going to be very curious to see what happens with Medium, though once NBC starts airing Leno at 10 every weeknight starting next season. Where are they gonna put it? The word I read in USA Today is that it still isn't definitely renewed, but they'd be really, really dumb to cancel it. It just rates too well. If they did that, I think I would be officially done with NBC. There is nothing else I want to watch on there.

Tuesday - At 8 P.M., it's the final two performance for American Idol. Kris Allen vs. the show's biggest surprise to date, the amazing Adam Lambert. I haven't always liked all of Adam's performances, but he's definitely fresh, surprising and current. It should be quite interesting to watch. At 10 P.M., it's Without a Trace. Swan song? I don't know, but I do know that there's going to be some great stuff with the upcoming marriage of Danny and Elena. Oh, and there'll be another missing person, of course.

Wednesday - American Idol finale. Two+ hours -- the schedule indicates they've got it coded till something like 10:06 -- of fluff, followed by the crowning of the winner. My plan is to tune into my recording at 9 and power past the junk and the commercials.

And that's it. After that, my fall finale schedule will have petered out. No more finales until Medium on June 1. Time reclaimed to do other stuff. Nickelodeon, however, has been programming for sweeps. Last week, they aired a week of new episodes of Ni Hao, Kai-lan! which were really quite fun. I started watching the show regularly recently and quite enjoy it. This week, it's The Wonder Pets! I'm very excited about it. Tomorrow, they're going to have an episode featuring the voice of the late Eartha Kitt, who won a Daytime Emmy award for her role on The Emperor's New School against The Wonder Pets!'s Danica Lee. And it turns out that they had a chance to perform together. Also, at the end of the week, a special episode celebrating the pets' 100th save.

Next season, there are gonna be some changes for me. I've decided to drop Heroes, which I feel has gotten mostly ridiculous. Furthermore, and more importantly, I've come to realize that I no longer really care about what happens to the characters. And, if I don't care, then why watch? Instead, I've decided to slot in The Mentalist. I didn't watch that program this season, but I've come to realize that's a mistake. I have seen bits and pieces of it and I've really liked what I've seen, so I'm going to get the show on DVD when it comes out and put it on watch so that I can be all caught up. Also, I haven't decided for sure yet, but I'm giving serious consideration to dropping American Idol. It's such a time drain and I already use DVR to skip most of the stuff I don't care about anyway, such the clip packages and group performances, etc. In fact, most of the last few results shows, I've spent a good portion of the time watching DVRed recordings of Qubo's airings of Babar. Without a Trace - I want this show to come back, but it seems like there's a good chance it could be canceled. Won't know for sure until I think sometime this week. If it is, then that's another show off my schedule. It would really be a shame if they did, though. Apparently it actually still rates pretty good, but they're looking to cut costs. The other shows that are competing against it to stay on the air are NCIS and The Unit, neither of which I watch. Also, there's been some slight talk that it's uncertain if Numb3rs will be coming back, but I don't put much credence to this, since I've heard nothing suggesting it's actually endangered. I'd be very surprised if it was canceled.