Watching Reality TV

It was bound to happen, after last week’s “bloodfest”. Mookie’s ousting saved Alex for the time being but he wasn’t near as fortunate this week. Okay, to be entirely honest, Alex’s plight was not helped by Boo winning immunity. Because, apparently, Boo is a twerp. And the rest of the castaways are realizing this. They wouldn’t have minded the chance to get rid of him, even before Alex, but no. The immunity has spoken. So homeward bound was Alex (actually, don’t they go on some vacation? or are they doing jury yet? Is it Friday yet??). They’re all getting pretty annoyed with one another, actually. I guess it’s just gotten to that point in the game already. You spend enough days on a boring island with a bunch of stinky, camera-whoring people and they’re gonna start getting under your skin in a big, big way. So “Bravo!” to them for sticking it out this far because with my tolerance for humanity, I’m not sure i would have lasted this long.

Anyhow. Where was I? Oh yes, Alex was sent home. Who is next? Who cares?

You would think that in an episode where Alex and Mookie find Yau-man’s secret hidden immunity idol, that things would get shaken up quite a bit. And you know what? You would be WRONG. Because what do these mental giants do? They try to blackmail Yau-man regarding the fact he has the idol. And Yau, my most favorite of Survivor’s at the moment, could care LESS. He knew that there wasn’t much these guys could really make him do. And, that the knew that they were blackmailing him could solve his problem for him. And it did. The rest of the tribe was rightly disgusted at Mookie and Alex’s tactics and voted Mookie out. Ha! Yeah, that little plan didn’t work too well for them. They were poised, after last week, to come back swinging and fight, fight, fight. If this was their idea of fighting, then they both deserve to go home. Thankfully, it looks as if Alex will be following next week. But we all know that when it comes to “Survivor”, you certainly can’t predict what’s going to happen even when it looks like a “sure thing”.

For the record, after Alex goes home, I want Dreamz to leave because his name bothers me. At least I don’t have to type “Mookie” anymore. That always made me feel like such a tool.

Last night’s episode was confusing. Even after reading through several different recaps I’m still a little confused about it all. Did they merge? Yeah, sorta. Did they compete separately for immunity? Yeah, sorta. And I know what the producers were trying to do too. In the past, big twists have inspired a lagging audience and made the show once again interesting if it had been losing it’s spark. So since this season has been a little less than exciting, I can see where they might think that a bunch of complicated twists would re-energize the show. However, it only made things confusing and convoluted. First they merge, then they lose their “cushy camp” but they’re still at that camp but it’s just not so “cushy” anymore and then they’re competing separately and then… then Michelle went home and she SO didn’t deserve that. Frankly, it was a little hard to keep up with.

Other sidenotes about the episode:

• The new tribe is Bula Bula. Seriously! Where do they come up with these names??
• The boys at old Ravu have formed an alliance and call themselves the “Four Horsemen”. Cuz that worked SO well for Jase and crew on “Big Brother”.
• Was I the only one who hoped for a minute that the newly merged tribe would be forced to live on Exile Island?
• Yau-Man remains brilliant and is perhaps the smartest person on that island.
• Boo should have gone home instead of Michelle. I’m still bitter.

So remind me, why am I still watching this show?

And it’s about dang time too. Not that I got to enjoy it because I chose to watch “The Office” marathon on NBC instead. Heh. But imagine my pleasure when I woke up this morning to find that it was indeed true! Rocky is gone and we won’t have to hear his bellyaching any more! The truth is, I was worried about Lisi after her breakdown last week and her trip to Exile Island. And rightly so, as her Tribe of Men was indeed planning to oust her. And of course, she’d had a change of heart and a clearing of her thoughts while in Exile. She wants to stay. But then Ravu went an won the reward challenge, their first challenge ever. And Rocky was… annoying at best. He mocked those who got sick after their feast of hot dogs and beer. As if it was a sign of personal weakness and not a purely physical reaction to eating proper (or rather, improper, depending on how you view hot dogs) food for the first time in many days. What a dingus. So they booted him instead. Ha!

In other news, Yau-Man found the immunity idol! He partnered with Earl to help get some alone time to dig for it and by golly, he found it. But then paranoia set in. Worried that he would get found out, he crafted a faux-idol out of coconut shells and buried it. Sneaky! Diabolical! Genius. You go, Yau-Man. I’m totally rooting for him, aren’t you?

It wasn’t a merge last night (probably too early for that anyhow, we haven’t milked the whole luxury vs. suffering thing enough yet). But Jeff did throw a big ol’ wrench into everything just the same. He switched up the tribes. Or rather, he selected Edgardo and Earl and had them pick buffs and then pick their new tribes (a la grade school kickball). It ended up that Earl picked Boo, Michelle, Cassandra, Yau-Man and Stacy and the group of them headed off to the lap of luxury on Moto. Hmm, the most likeable from Ravu with the women of Moto. Interesting pairing. Edgardo selected Mookie, Alex, Rocky, Dreamz and Anthony who now resided in Ravu. Lisi, who wants BADLY to go home, got sent to Exile Island instead (and she wasn’t too happy about it either). When she gets back, she’ll move in with the boys. I don’t envy her much, either, because those boys are a nice, hot, mess. For one, the new tribe of Ravu doesn’t seem to like women all that much. Rocky was practically ecstatic to be in a tribe of only men. And he berated Anthony constantly, calling him a girl and ultimately championing his removal at Tribal Council. Nice, huh? Rocky had better be on the chopping block next because he’s tap-dancing on my very last nerve. Luckily, he seems to be on the nerves of the rest of his tribe as well, so perhaps I’ll get my wish.

It was nice to see some of the more enjoyable players from Ravu get to enjoy the finer things in life for a change. It was about time.

Well, judging from how this show has gone from the premiere, what do you think happened on the show last night? Are you hopeful that maybe, just maybe, Ravu pulled out a big victory over Moto and caused the inevitable implosion of the luxury-laden tribe? Or are you a realist and think we saw more of the same: Moto steamrolling Ravu (despite Ravu coming SO CLOSE to winning) and causing Ravu to collapse in on themselves a little more and make another unwise elimination resulting in the loss of yet another female player?

Hmm, let me think about that one.

This one doesn’t actually take a lot of rocket science to figure out. What happened is what was inevitable to happen. Despite Moto’s shaky footing (as always seems to come to the stronger of the two tribes), Ravu’s lack of nutrition and rest took it’s toll and Moto won both challenges. Though Ravu did come very close with the “Memory”-like immunity challenge. But they made a few key slips and lost yet again. They debated getting rid of Rocky (which is probably what they should have done, he’s not doing them any favors at this point), but instead got rid of Rita because “she talked too much”.

This show is becoming harder and harder to watch. I’m saddened by this because it feels like the end of an era. “Survivor’s” reign over reality tv looks to be on its way out.

Survivor: Fiji, episode recap, Ravu, Moto

Well, Ravu finally got their act together. Did they win immunity? No, of course not! Don’t be silly. But at least when they had to go to tribal council (again), they voted out Sylvia and not Anthony like they were plotting to. But don’t let me get ahead of myself. There much to talk about regarding last night’s show.

The distance between the tribes seems to grow every week. The lucky Moto keeps winning and acquiring new things. They won the slippery reward challenge this week, garnering more fishing gear. The unlucky Ravu keeps losing and cannibalizing themselves, both physically and psychologically. Moto is doing so well, they decided to paint the floor of their luxurious shelter blue both for looks and to maybe keep the ants at bay. Meanwhile, Ravu sleeps on the hard ground and has to scramble for everything they get. Though, thanks to Michelle, they get fire this week. She used a pair of eyeglasses and a healthy dose of prayer to get a fire going, a feat which Jeff Probst admitted no other tribe in Survivor history has accomplished. In return, they finally received some flint so they won’t have to try the eyeglasses trick again. Moto sends Sylvia to Exile Island again, this time without the immunity that goes along with it. She finds a very telling clue about the idol, however. Back at camp, she’s unable to find it despite her frantic searching right under the eyes of her fellow tribemates.

Turns out, she could have used it. The immunity challenge was another one of those nasty food challenges where the tribes had to eat such horrible things as fish eyes and pig snouts complete with hair. Yuck! Anthony has saliva issues with the pig snouts and “Papa Smurf” (Gary to the rest of us) from Moto finishes first, winning the competition for his tribe. Predictably, Ravu then starts to campaign for Anthony’s removal from the game. Because voting off hard workers is working SO well for them so far. Their reasoning? He couldn’t eat the pig snout. Sylvia is the better choice as she is a detriment both physically and psychologically. Ultimately, Sylvia does get the boot but it’s a close vote. And the previews for next week show that Anthony has just about had it with the ass-munches on his tribe. Hoo boy.

Wow, Ravu had better wake up and smell the coconut juice if they want to have a prayer in this game, methinks. On last night’s show, they were a little less than intelligent on a couple things, unfortunately. One of those things was booting out Erica, a very strong contender in the show. And that tribe needs all the strength it can get.

Sylvia made it back from Exile Island and almost instantly stuck out like a sore thumb. A couple of uncomfortable jokes were made regarding her bossiness. And Yau-Man earned my eternal love by using the “welcome back” hug to check out her bag and see if she found the immunity idol while on the island. Mark my words, that guy rocks. Ravu was rapidly dehydrating and having a hard time finding any sort of decent food to eat. After tromping clear around the island, Erica is finally the one to discover hundreds of pineapples within spitting distance of camp. Earl is so delighted that he remarks, “Me and Erica, we’re getting married. She just saved my life, and I appreciate that. That’s a good woman.” Hee.

Over at Moto, Boo is proving to be a monstrous klutz. He manages to injure his eye, and promptly follows that injury up with an axe accident involving his leg and hand. Then? His hammock falls down while he’s in it. His tribe predicts that he’ll eventually klutz his way out of the game. At this rate, I’d be tempted to agree. Not much else to report with Moto, as they’re living quite the good life. In fact, Dreamz remarks he’s living better now than he does at home. Indeed.

The big challenge arrives and, bless their hearts, Ravu tries their hardest. As far as the more physical boating portion of the challenge goes, they blow Moto away. But they trip up at assembling their flagpole, while Erica freaks the heck out. So Moto wins yet another challenge (including some fishing gear that Ravu TOTALLY needs). At Ravu, they’re devastated. They make an odd decision to send Earl to Exile Island and immediately begin plotting to remove Erica from the game. Why? Not just because of the challenge, no, but because she’s a threat. Because that makes a LOT of sense. Even Sylvia seems surprised they didn’t choose to boot her instead.

All I can say is, they better wise up next week or this is going to be a good, old-fashioned slaughter for poor Ravu.

The bad news? “Survivor: Fiji” premiered with the lowest ratings EVER for a “Survivor” premiere on Thursday. The reality tv giant garnered 16.7 million viewers, whereas last fall the show premiered with 17.7 million viewers. This doesn’t sound particularly good. However, the good news is that “Survivor” DID out-rate both “Ugly Betty” and “The Office”. Considering the monumental competition on Thursday nights, Survivor did pretty good. An article at Media Life reported that “remains a top show for CBS in the demo, and no other reality show has demonstrated such impressive staying power for so long.�? So don’t weep for “Survivor” quite yet.

So, “Survivor: Fiji” premiered last night. Did you all see it? What did you think? I thought it was okay. Nothing groundbreakingly exciting, like I’d hoped. But I should know better to expect that now, 14 seasons in. At best, “Survivor: Fiji” will warm up over the coming weeks, becoming the absorbing sinful treat we all know it to be. The show started with the 19 survivors rowing to shore in their canoes. Moments later, Jeff drops a box attached to a parachute from a plane, which they retrieve from the waters. The men start to bash on the box without much success until Yau Man (who happens to be an engineer, of course) uses his head and drops the box onto a rock on its weakest side to open it. That works. Instant respect for Yau Man! The box contains blueprints and a map to supplies. The survivors need to build a shelter! And not just any shelter. It’s Super Shelter! Complete with a toilet and a kitchen along with a lot of other niceties. Sweet! Sylvia, who has been bossing everyone around, is chosen by Jeff to pick the teams. Which she dutifully does before being shipped off to Exile Island. Which has, *gasp* deadly sea snakes. While there, she locates a clue to the whereabouts of the immunity idol and also that it’s located back at camp. That puts a kink in it, doesn’t it?

Tribe Moto wins the first challenge, giving them rights to the Super Shelter and freedom from Tribal Council. Tribe Ravu loses and is sent to a lonely, barren beach to live out their lives with only a machete and a pot. Ouch! The scheming is kicked into high gear as a Sylvester Stallone look-alike who goes by the nickname (one of many) of (wait for it) Rocky decides he’s going to form an alliance with two other female tribe-mates and thereby rule the game. He assures one of these women, 27 year old fashion stylist Jessica deBen, that she’s safe at Tribal Council even though she performed miserably on the puzzle at the challenge. The only problem? Three people are a drop in the bucket in a tribe of nine and Jessica is most certainly NOT safe. She’s voted out, much to her dismay and displeasure. Whoops. Better luck next week, Rocky.

Like I said, could have been better but could have been a lot worse too. So for now, I’ll give it a “Meh” rating.

As if you could have forgotten, “Survivor: Fiji” premieres tonight on CBS at 8pm. Check your local listings for exact times and channels. I’ll admit to being a little psyched about the new season. It looks like it’s going to be a lot of fun, with some new twists to keep us all intrigued.

I found an article this morning on the Reality TV World website about the “lost” 20th castaway from this season of “Survivor”. Her name is Michelle McNulty, and she discusses why she felt she had to leave the show at the last minute before filming began. Her reason: panic attacks. She thought she had her issues with claustrophobia under control for the show, but with mere hours before filming was to begin, she found out that she very much did NOT have them under control. She discussions with the producers and the show psychologist (how awesome is it that they have to have a show psychologist?) and they tried to get her to stay. But the decision was ultimately hers and she feels she made the best choice for herself. Naturally, she’s disappointed that she gave up a chance to be on the biggest reality tv show on the planet. But she’s proud of herself for making the right decision too. So good for her!

To see how the producers scrambled to deal with the gap she left behind, tune into tonights premiere!

Wow, I just read this huge interview with Jeff Probst over at Reality TV World about the upcoming “Survivor: Fiji” season that is set to premiere next Thursday, February 8 at 8pm. It’s a long article, but very, very interesting. Basically? If you think you know what to expect from “Survivor” because you’ve seen 14 seasons already, then you might be in for a little bit of a surprise. I’m not going to go into everything the article said here, I think you can head over to Reality TV World yourself and read it from the source. But I will tell you about some of the highlights. For one thing, don’t expect the fancy camp/primitive camp to be anything remotely like the Tent Twist on “The Apprentice”. But do expect the twist to instigate some deep animosity between the two tribes. Probst also talked about some of the creative casting techniques that were employed this time around and some of the interesting personalities we can expect. Also, expect the return of the car challenge (sponsored by Ford this time, instead of GM). Time will tell if we will see the return of the “car” curse as well. Definitely head over and have a read. I fully expect this new season to be different and better than the previous ones. I have faith!

Looks like the good doctor was self-medicating a bit out there in the jungle, eh? The on-site doctor for “Survivor”, Adrian Cohen, admitted to cocaine use as well as “inappropriately obtaining prescription drugs”. Interestingly enough, he actually blames “Survivor” (or rather, the whole Hollywood “scene”) for his drug use. He was “accused of procuring a large supply of wholesale drugs, despite not having the appropriate wholesale license�?. He would then bring these drugs to the set of “Survivor”, even though not all of the drugs he brought, obviously, were required to be on hand on the set. “Cohen said a large amount of medication was needed because of the isolated sets, where hospitals were often a five-hour helicopter flight away�?, however I don’t think that includes cocaine, do you? I guess this isn’t that surprising, however it is disappointing to see that someone of his profession was unable to be around painkillers and such without dipping into it themselves. Especially someone in such a high-profile position. During each season of “Survivor” many people count on his abilities, contestants and crew and locals alike. Looks like he let a lot of people down.

Survivor, Adrian Cohen, cocaine, prescription drugs, Survivor doctor

Rob and Amber Mariano are perhaps reality tv’s most famous and notorious couple. Both appeared in seperate seasons of “Survivor”, before going on to “Survivor: All Stars” where they fell in love. Then we were treated to watching their relationship grow on “The Amazing Race”. And who could forget “Rob and Amber Get Married”? Good times, good times. Now, we have even more Rob and Amber to love. Starting next month, the couple will appear in no less than two seperate reality tv shows. There’s “Rob and Amber: Against All Odds”, the show that profiles Rob’s desire to become a professional poker player. And, of course, there is “Amazing Race: All Stars” where we will once again get to see the couple race around the world. And if that weren’t enough for you, the couple is starting to think about having children. As Rob told OK! Weekly, “[We plan to start a family] not, like, tomorrow soon, but pretty soon.” I guess we should be surprised they haven’t had a child already. “I think it’s important when you get married to make you marriage as solid as possible and really enjoy each other before you introduce other family members,” said Amber.

So when the couple does decide to reproduce can we expect a reality special, “Rob and Amber Have a Baby?”

This is HUGE news for “Survivor” fans! Ever since “Survivor: Cook Islands” wrapped up, we’ve been left to wonder what the next season would be like. After all, host Jeff Probst left us with such juicy hints regarding “Survivor: Fiji”. CBS is starting to let us in on the fun, thank goodness. They’ve announced the cast of “Survivor: Fiji”, the premiere date (February 8!) and talked about some of the twists we can expect during the season. We already heard about the “luxury camp” twist when we saw the teaser trailer for the Fiji season. But we learned more about how the twist would be used and how the tribes will be determined as well.

As CBS announced last month, the new season will feature an ethically diverse cast, however unlike last season’s Survivor: Cook Islands edition, Survivor: Fuji’s won’t be divided by race. Instead, all nineteen contestants will begin the game living in one “exceptionally comfortable” camp. Then, on Day 3, one of the castaways — who will be determined by an undisclosed event that will take place before the game’s first Immunity Challenge — will be given the task of splitting the group into two tribes.

Once the castaways are divided into their two new tribes, the tribes will then compete in an Immunity Challenge that will not only determine which tribe will win immunity, but also determine which of the new tribes will get to return to the plush camp that they had all initially shared. The losers will be forced to relocate to a new island that, in a The Apprentice: Los Angeles-like twist that Survivor host Jeff Probst first revealed during December’s Survivor: Cook Islands finale broadcast, will have “virtually nothing” — only a pot, a machete and a water source.

The show will feature 19 contestants. Why nineteen? There were originally going to be twenty, but according to a report by Us Weekly, one of the contestants dropped out the night before the show began, forcing production to make do with the nineteen left on hand. So let’s get to know these nineteen contestants, shall we?

• Alex Angarita, 28-year-old attorney who currently reside in Los Angeles, CA and is originally from Colombia
• Kenward “Boo” Bernis, a 34-year-old construction worker from Lafayette, LA
• Yau-Man Chan, a 54-year-old computer engineer who currently resides in Martinez, CA but was born in Hong Kong and raised in Borneo, Malaysia
• Earl Cole, a 35-year-old advertising executive who currently resides in Santa Monica, CA and is originally Kansas City, KS
• Jessica deBen, a 27-year-old fashion stylist who currently resides in Los Angeles, CA and is originally from New Orleans, LA
• Erica Durousseau, a 27-year-old non-profit fundraiser from Lake Charles, LA
• Cassandra Franklin, a 42-year-old civil engineer manager from Los Angeles, CA
• Liliana Gomez, a 25-year-old loan officer from Oxnard, CA
• Andria “Dre” Herd, a 25-year-old cheerleading coach from Wilmington, NC
• Stacy Kimball, a 27-year-old interactive Internet producer from Montpelier, VT
• Sylvia Kwan, a 52-year-old architect from Ross, CA who was born in Hong Kong
• Mookie Lee, a 25-year-old loan manager from Wheeling, IL who was born in Seoul, Korea
• Lisette “Lisi” Linares, a 36-year-old customer service representative who currently resides in Los Angeles, CA and is originally from Miami, FL
• James Reid, a 28-year-old bartender who currently resides in Los Angeles, CA and is originally from Boston, MA
• Edgardo Rivera, a 28-year-old advertising executive who currently resides in Miami Beach, FL and is originally from Puerto Rico
• Anthony Robinson, a 32-year-old expert witness locator from Compton, CA
• Gary Stritesky, a 55-year-old school bus driver from Ramsey, MN
• Rita Verreos, a 38-year-old single mom who currently resides in San Antonio, TX and is originally from Venezuela
• Michelle Yi, a 23-year-old student from Cincinnati, OH

You might notice that an awful lot of these contestants currently live in California, especially Los Angeles. This must be due to casting issues, of course. But I notice that CBS is sensitive to the issue by many times stating that they “currently reside” in California, but they are from someplace else in the country, maybe even someplace else in the world. The cast look pretty racially diverse, which is nice and we have a fairly interesting diversity in career as well.

February 8 is coming up awfully quick, so set your VCRs (or DVRs, since this is the new millennium) to Thursday nights at 8pm on CBS. Looks to be an interesting season!

Survivor, cast list, premiere date, twists