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. |