The Amazing Race started off with a downright average beginning. The Apprentice has some annoying characters, and managers that can't do job one. I doubt that will change, so I'll focus today on Survivor, which hasn't gotten any OTB love.

When Rob Cesternino made it to the Amazon edition of Survivor, it was interesting to watch him play, because we got to see someone play the game when he was a student of the genre. He didn't win, but he did make it far. I have to wonder if any recent participants have even bothered to watch reruns of the program on OLN. Certainly they don't play like it. We have crumbling alliances, stupid evictions, and a personal immunity shrunken head thing that wields an amazing amount of power.

I don't care if you've quit smoking, drinking, or anything else before coming on Survivor. If you act like a churl, you can kiss away any chance at the money. If it's not complaining about his nicotine withdrawals, Shane is moping about having his own personal stool, or whatever. He's not going to win. Unfortunately, no one wants to stand up to him, which is a pain. The players are bringing it upon themselves by not getting rid of him at every opportunity.

On the other side of the coin, Cirie was one of the first four that was up for eviction when the Old Women went to Tribal Council. Instead of tactical voting, she was part of a bloc that decided to oust Tina, the one person who was catching food, gathering firewood, and would be an asset in challenges. How many times do I have to say this: you do not start thinking about the after-merge situation from day one. The tribe was thinking way too far ahead, and they shot themselves in the foot. If Cirie wins, it will be a great injustice, and fie on the other players for letting her slide under the radar and take the money. If any of the other two Old Women win, well, it'll still be an injustice, just not as big of one. Now they have a personal immunity idol floating out there, and they can even pin it down to Bruce or Terry as the owner. But the Survivors are too stupid to try and get rid of those two before the idol comes out, and their one vote sends someone packing. You know what? They deserve exactly what they get. The 'twist' was told to them at the very beginning, it's not a surprise. Whether they think anyone has the idol is immaterial, the players just aren't thinking. And that's one of the three attributes on the Survivor flag. Tsk, tsk.

I'm tired of going through this every year; tribes start out the game and think "When the merge comes, we won't be able to beat thus-and-so in the challenges, so we should get rid of them now." So they do, and it's stupid. I still have my favorites, but I'm tired of saying the same thing over and over. So that's it. I'm not going to waste anyone's time rehashing what we all know. See you next week.

Travis Eberle hopes that The Amazing Race turns out better than last season. Place your bets at traviseberle@gmail.com