Survivor and The Amazing Race, 3 weeks in

The only current prime time shows that I watch regularly are Survivor and The Amazing Race. (Chuck will not be back until next year.) However, my feelings towards the shows are decidedly different.

Survivor is a great idea which I don't think has been executed particularly well the past few seasons. The Amazing Race, on the other hand is a great idea with great execution. In a nutshell, that's why The Amazing Race has won every Emmy for Competitive Reality Show.

The Amazing Race is three legs into this season, and that's a good thing. The casting has moved away from the model/actors on too many reality shows and cast people from other walks of life. Theis season is filled with people I find interesting, whether it's the father/son team from Montana who work together very well, even though the son has dyed red hair and many tattoos, or simply two Harlem Globetrotters.

There are two reasons the show works. First of all, the teams teams of two are friends/family members, and is fascinating to watch how existing relationships change over the race, sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse. Second, this is not a show that rewards bad behavior. It's about the race. Do the teams sometimes interact well? Yes. But that does not determine the outcome. The fastest team wins.

Unfortunately, Survivor seems to be more and more about the bad behavior. Sure, the show's first winner was Richard Hatch, who has shown off his share of bad behavior. But he was all about gameplay, and he created the bluprint most of the players still use. He was interesting because of the gameplay.

Last season, the season was all about "Coach", a self-important doofus who hung around long on the show not because of his great gameplay but because, being a fool, he was easy for the group dominating the game to manipulate. Yet it basically became the Coach show, with soooo much focus on him that it threw the whole season out of whack. The three who drove the game, Taj, Stephen, and winner JT, were each far more interesting players and people, but some of the key moments were missing from the show.

They are doing it again. It's the Russell show this season. Ironically, Russell may be a better player than Coach, but I have a hard time understaning how destroying your tribe helps you. But the show has spent so much time with him that I can't name half the players on the other tribe after three episodes (the other Russell, Yasmin, Shambo, and ... 7 over guys). What's the game strategy? We know what Russell is doing, but who else?

Besides the questionable editing, the casting is getting worse. A couple of years ago, the casting was heavily minority, and that season including the best one-two punch ever, Yul and Ozzy. Instead of getting the hint that more normal people and more diversity was the way to go, the producers seemed to believe the disgusting behavior of Adam that season was what people loved. That, and more eye candy, and less strategy.

Would I have casted Russell this seaon? yes, actually. He's there to play. But he needed better foils. And there's no excuse for the casting of this racist jerk named Ben. I will admit, seeing him dropkicked by a unaminous vote this week was satisfying, as Jaison put Ben in his place at tribal, but couldn't have casting have picked up that he should not have been on the show in the first place.

So survivor, quit looking for pretty models. Quit casting for villains. Put normal people, see how they handle a tough situation, and allow me to enjoy this game. Look to The Amazing Race, and try to follow their example.