Sob, Weep, Here Come the Builders & Inventors

ABC is becoming the Network of Weeping. On Sunday nights, the juggernaut show is Extreme Makeover, with Ty Pennington, who can draw raw emotions out of anything, including a trip to Sears. Then each of the craftsmen and designers gets a chance to wring tears out of the audience.

Then tonight was "American Inventor." So many weeping inventors, they get so choked up on their emotional investments that they can barely make their presentations. Tonight they went from 24 to 12 lucky inventors, these winners will be getting $50K to invest and develop their products. Another black guy who's mortgaged his house, is in arrears everywhere, all because of his love for his football target device.

Another inventor dragged out his wife's terminal illlness. So sad, but he wanted to make the world better. So he invented a little hexagonal device that holds what appears to be ashes. But his sales pitch, "death is inevitable," that makes the wisest judge say, "he's ahead of his time."