The Rockefeller Center Christmas tree show just isn't watchable anymore

Tony Bennett last performed two years ago, showing the other performers a thing or two about real vocals. He appeared last year but didn't sing, and in fact he didn't look well.

This year he didn't appear at all, which was a sign of how low the show has gotten. What a continuous train wreck: good talent but bad songs, overacting, fakery (euphemistically called "lip-synching"), self-indulgent screeching, Lennox looking and singing like she's from the Church of Satan, and then Jessica Simpson trying to sing at the end. Not even a few seconds of Mike Bloomberg singing "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" with the Tishman Speyer and NBC chiefs, like last year.