In praise of...reality TV...

I revealed something to my coworkers last year that made them laugh at me and ridicule me - all in good fun - but still, laugh they did. I told them that I was a big fan of the reality TV show "Survivor". I've watched every single season of this show since it began. I can name players, past and future, and even tell you how they did on the show and what made them memorable. I can recall entire challenges and even some of the bad jokes told by the host, Jeff Probst. I am, indecidedly, a Survivor geek. I am not alone! For the past several seasons, I've been co-writing a Survivor recap blog with some good company in the inimitable Paul Vagnoni and the hilarious Jamie Cairo. We watch this show likes it's our religion and then recap each episode every week with our own unique take on the action. We always have our favorites too. Paul tends to go for the bootylicious bikini bottomed babes. Jamie seems to like the brainy nerd types or the uberstrong female players. Me? Well, I either go for the eye candy or the really sneaky snake tpyes that outwit everyone.

The reason I'm writing about this now is because Survivor is back on TV this Wednesday and I'm already wondering how the first episode will play out. My fave from last season, Malcolm, is back since this is a Fans vs. Favorites season. I feel like a kid waiting for Christmas!

Now you may think that's weird. I mean, after all, it's just a TV show, as a coworker just said to me. But wait...what? She actually said that to me after she told me that she not only recorded last nights premiere of "The Walking Dead", she also watched it live and then stayed tuned for the recap on The Talkng Dead. This from someone who gave me the  hardest time when she heard about the blog! Haha! So you see? We all have one of these. Something in the public sector, something other's might find cheesy and we wait week in and week out to see for ourselves. We all have our TV rituals or our book rituals or movie rituals - whatever floats your personal boat! For me - it's Jeff Probst, the tribal drumbeat, the challenges, the ever stinky players, the tribal councils, the voting off and, ultimately, the sole survivor. I wish CBS would let me create my Survivor super team. It would consist of:

Malcolm
Rupert
Russell Hantz
Cochran
Parvati
RC (Just so Paul would watch!)
Coach (I secretly like the crazy one)
Penner
Boston Rob

Those have been my personal favorites and I'd love to see them all in one place competing at one time. In the meantime, since CBS has yet to call me for my line up, I'll have to make due with the show as is. And I cannot wait until Wednesday for that familiar opening theme song and the mayhem that will commence! My one hope? That they stop feeding everyone so much as in the past few seasons and that they bring back the disgusting eating challenge that they used to have. Lately, these players seem pampered! This isn't ClubMed - it's Survivor for crying out loud!