2010's Most Bizarre Reality TV Moment: What's your pick?

“Most Bizarre” seems like the reality TV equivalent of “Best.” You gotta consider your genre!

Image Credit: Adam Larkey/ABC; Lifetime; MTV

It’s been a ridiculous year in “reality.” Bristol Palin outlasted fallen pop star Brandy in a televised ballroom dancing popularity contest. Ellen DeGeneres was suddenly sitting on Simon Cowell’s lap and then –poof!– both of them were gone. The Hills may have been fake molehills all along. And bangin’ Gretchen Jones took center stage on Project Runway, transforming the competition series into a riveting character study that often seemed like a senior-year elective for psych majors (PS 801: Raging Narcissism in the Age of Reality Television).

My pick for Most Bizarre Reality TV Moment of the Year: This sucks, but it was during the season 10 finale of Dancing With the Stars, when Kate Gosselin rose into the air on a hydraulic lift and nobody seemed to really react. She’d just re-danced her cringe-inducing “Paparazzi” paso doble; then suddenly more of her legs were showing and without any warning whatsoever — SCENE CHANGE — she was grinning “serenely” atop a tiny platform as a lone smoke machine sputtered below. The audience barely moved. But it wasn’t really an air of disgust. It was more like a low hum of indifference, a semi-opaque pair of control-top spanx stretched over a normally twinkling sea of happy wriggling sequins. The happy sequins couldn’t breathe! I was transfixed. PopWatch reader LR summed it up better and more depressingly than I ever could: ”Watching Kate Gosselin dance to ‘I Will Survive’ was one of the worst moments of my life. And I’ve had a horrible life.” That’s the spirit! What a season!

But I’m a special case. Which bizarre reality TV moments of 2010 stood out to you? When Lee DeWyze won American Idol, did you gasp? When Fabio peed in the pool on Survivor: Nicaragua, did you feel a tingle down there and think “that’s a winner”? Did one of the Real Housewives accidentally lift a finger, causing the earth to twitch slightly under your sofa? Ooh, Jen Carroll’s freakout after her early elimination from Top Chef All-Stars?

Wow, there are so many. Name yours below!

Read more:

‘DWTS’: The 30 finest Hidden Gems of 2010!

Annie on Twitter: @EWAnnieBarrett