SS Monday SS Tuesday SS Wednesday SS Thursday SS Friday SS Weekend SS Archives Primes Lineup About Us
InSites On the Buzzer Numbers Game State of Play WLTI Sparring Partners Video Wall Replay News Archive Contact
You never know who's going to buzz in next...

Today is

Survivor Races - August 30

Mark Burnett knows what's good for him, and good for his shows. While The Apprentice is a sinking ship, Survivor is still able to plug along with 16 million viewers per week (give or take). To get those numbers back up to the Borneo-ish 40 million viewers, Burnett has shaken up the goldfish bowl, this time separating the players by race at the beginning of the show. As you can expect, every half-wit blogger or two-bit Entertainment Today type of show has weighed in on the topic. Everyone but one intelligent writer has claimed that the end is near, the show is going in a direction that it shouldn't, and this is horrible, and it's propagating stereotypes, and on and on.

Guys? Take a breath, ok? It's just a game show.

Seriously, anyone who calls this a 'reality show' is deluding themselves. It's a bunch of people marooned on an island, playing games for Doritos or matchsticks. There is nothing real about this. It is not as serious as Jeff would like you to believe, when he puts on the serious face and does his Jerry Springer-inspired "final thought" bit at the end of Tribal Council. Burnett is doing the racial divide thing as a sort of "screw you" to the wags who claim that the show negatively portrays African-Americans as lazy, and other things. (Well, it's not libel if it's true; historically the black guy has been lazy on the beach...)

All of this publicity has to make Burnett pleased as punch. People are talking about the show again, and even the people who claim that they're going to never watch the show again will watch on the opening night to see how this works out. And you can just tell that the racial divide thing is only going to happen for the first few shows. (cf: Panama-Exile Island, where the teams were shuffled up after the first Tribal Council.)

In the end, you still have two challenges, a bunch of stranded Americans, 39 days, and one Ultimate Survivor. And I'll be right there on opening night, enjoying every minute.

Travis Eberle may be the one last rational person on the planet. Or he's a deluded fruitcake. Place votes now! at traviseberle@gmail.com.

 

Top of this Page
| Home | Inside | ShortShots | Prime Recaps | Archive | Extra | WLTI | Lineup | Contact |

© Copyright 2005 Game Show NewsNet