The Flaw in Reality TV
Last night Todd Herzog was announced as the winner of Survivor: China, and once again the Achilles' heel of reality television shows was exposed: they lose steam as time progresses and the finales totally or mostly suck.
Last night was a case of mostly sucking, as is the Survivor way. All we care about is when the jury gets their chance to congratulate, question, and chew out the remaining survivors....the other 2.5 hours you can fast forward through and not really miss a thing. Though it sounds like a waste of time (and it is), it's more than other reality shows can say for themselves. At least Probst used to jump out of airplanes and parachute into a live studio audience to deliver the results...
Go ahead. Pick a show. "Big Brother"? "Flavor of Love"? "The Bachelor"? "The Amazing Race", maybe? I defy you to come up with a show that has an exciting finale.
At least the next Survivor looks to be like an "All-Stars 2"...kinda. Rupert and Yul would be a good team up.
3 comments:
I thought the finale was pretty decent. Probst pointed out that James made the worst blunder in survivor history by getting voting off still having 2 immunity idols. We got to see some cool footage of J.R. playing poker. And Courtney announced to America that she hates kids which was funny.
It was ok, maybe. My larger point is that reality television peaks out early, and by the time we get to the finale we are largely disinterested.
Survivor may be one of the only shows that has any kind of interest at all. Think of America's Next Top Model, for example....by the time whatever-her-name is announced, we don't care.
Mark Burnett shows somehow keep up at least some interest for the finale. It's fairly interesting to see the Apprentice and Survivor finales in most cases. All other reality show are whatever.
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