Posted Nov 6th 2009 1:00AM by Jackie Schnoop
Filed under: OpEd, Survivor, Episode Reviews
(S19E08) I know this photo might be considered sort of spoilerish for the front page. But since last week's
Survivor promo showed the merge going down, I know you all know Evil Russell will attempt to work everyone. Heck, that's what the guy does. To me, he comes off akin to a snake oil salesman. Yet he seems to get people to believe his wily ways. I bet he could have sold a lot of snake oil a century back.
Continue reading Review: Survivor Samoa - All Hell Breaks Loose
Posted Oct 30th 2009 12:50AM by Jackie Schnoop
Filed under: OpEd, Survivor, Episode Reviews
(S19E07) Even though we're down a Russell this week on
Survivor, I'll continue to refer to the remaining Russell as "Evil Russell." It just somehow fits even without a confusion of Russells. However, there is just one Shambo. Although she's a good worker in camp and works hard on the challenges, that might be a good thing. One Shambo is quite enough. Perhaps she's just too nice to be on the show. Perhaps she is a bit dim. I just don't know.
Continue reading Review: Survivor Samoa - Houdini Magic
Posted Oct 23rd 2009 8:30AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Other Reality Shows, OpEd, Survivor, Celebrities, Big Brother (US)
Lately, what we've been hearing about reality television has been awful. The winner of
Big Brother became a drug dealer by using his prize money to bankroll his illegal activities.
A family that appeared on Wife Swap perpetrated a hoax involving their six-year-old son and a helium balloon. Is there anything good to say about reality TV?
Here's something.
Survivor: Cook Islands winner Yul Kwon is joining the FCC. He has been named deputy chief of the consumer and governmental affairs bureau for the FCC.
That's the Federal Communications Commission. Chairman Julius Genachowski made the appointment, and it wasn't because Yul did well in challenges.
Continue reading Survivor winner appointed to FCC post
Posted Oct 23rd 2009 12:13AM by Jackie Schnoop
Filed under: OpEd, Survivor, Episode Reviews
(S19E06) Well, this was the most unusual episode of
Survivor I've ever seen. Mind you, I've seen all of them since the first season. I won't get into why it was so unusual until after the jump just in case you've missed all of the hype over the injured castaway in commercials all this week. But it wasn't just the injury which made it unusual. It was all discombobulated.
Continue reading Review: Survivor Samoa - This Is the Man Test
Posted Oct 16th 2009 1:06PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: OpEd, Survivor, Celebrities
Dear Rich,
You don't mind if I call you Rich, do you? I feel like I know you well. And it's not just because I watched you walking around naked on an island somewhere either. No, it's because you were on
Survivor twice and in both those instances, you really impressed me with your game-playing. You deserved to win that first
Survivor. You earned it,
Richard Hatch. You outwit, outplayed and outlasted all the rest, including Sue who probably wanted to kill you.
So,
now that you're out of jail -- hopefully for good -- I'm rooting for you to get your stuff together and move on with life. That means shut your mouth. Stop yapping about how the authorities are conspiring against you. Stop saying it's because you're gay.
The first thing you must do is pay the back taxes on the prize money you legitimately won. Surely, you know that's how they got Al Capone. Pay the IRS, man. Start a payment system, they'll accept that.
Continue reading An open letter to ex-con Richard Hatch
Posted Oct 16th 2009 1:55AM by Jackie Schnoop
Filed under: OpEd, Survivor, Episode Reviews
(S19E05) We're into the fifth episode of
Survivor and I'm still getting some of the cast mixed up. True, they're mostly on the larger Galu tribe -- the ones who keep winning, yet we only see a focus on a select few. We all know "Good" Russell and Shambo. Did you know that someone named Brett is on the Galu tribe? No. Really, I'm not kidding. He got some airtime tonight. At this point, they could stick in stunt doubles and we wouldn't know the difference!
Continue reading Survivor Samoa: Walking on Thin Ice
Posted Oct 8th 2009 10:53PM by Jackie Schnoop
Filed under: OpEd, Survivor, Episode Reviews
(S19E04) So far we've had one of those lopsided seasons on
Survivor. We've seen this happen before -- one tribe keeps winning, the other keeps right on losing. The numbers on the latter are decimated going into the merge which allows the stronger tribe to keep picking them off one by one. I prefer things a bit more evenly matched. The tribal losses affect both the strong and weak players across the board. Once a tribe keeps losing every challenge, morale goes down. Then they lose some more.
Continue reading Survivor Samoa: Hungry For a Win
Posted Oct 2nd 2009 2:28AM by Jackie Schnoop
Filed under: OpEd, Survivor, Episode Reviews
(S19E03) If I had my druthers and could choose which weirdo to watch take over
Survivor between Evil Russell and Ben "Coach" Wade from last season, I'd surely go for Russell. Don't get me wrong. I don't like Russell. I wouldn't invite him over for dinner or send him a birthday card. But he's playing the game and, despite saying he's not there to work, he works around camp and at the challenges. However, his expertise in work at camp is playing mind games. Wade did diddly. Now if only I knew what a druthers was.
Continue reading Survivor Samoa: It's Called A Russell Seed
Posted Sep 29th 2009 12:28PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, OpEd, Survivor, Reality-Free
What happens when the producer of
Survivor collaborates with his wife, an actress who starred in
Touched by an Angel, in a story created by the guy who brought us
Dirty Sexy Money? Do you get
Touched by a Dirty Sexy Angel? I guess that's what CBS will find out because
Mark Burnett and Roma Downey are teaming with Craig Wright for a drama project for CBS.
Burnett, he of
Survivor and a half-dozen other reality shows, is married to
Angel star Roma Downey, and they're both executive producers while Wright is doing the writing for Sony Pictures TV. The show is the story of a lawyer who nearly dies in a car crash and gets a second chance at life when the ghost of his ex-wife appears to him.
Continue reading Mark Burnett gets real for CBS drama
Posted Sep 25th 2009 1:18AM by Jackie Schnoop
Filed under: OpEd, Survivor, Episode Reviews
(S19E02) Controversy is good for a show, don't you think? When you think about it, we're on the 19th season of
Survivor. There are only so many fresh new challenges and twists you can do with a bunch of folks stuck in the jungle. What to do? We saw it last season -- come up with outrageous cast members. The same tactic is in practice this season, perhaps two for the price of one. Evil has a name and we know it's Russell. Stupid Jerk Bully has a name ... and, believe it or not, that name isn't Russell.
Continue reading Survivor Samoa: Taking Candy From a Baby
Posted Sep 21st 2009 7:03PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: The Amazing Race, Survivor, Celebrities, Awards, Emmys
Survivor host Jeff Probst won Best Reality Host last night, but the big news was when he told reporters that
The Amazing Race has already won for Best Reality Competition Show seven times and
should take itself out of the running!
So, is this just sour grapes or does Probst have a point? Maybe Probst should go on
The Amazing Race and Phil Keoghan should go on
Survivor and see who can last the longest.
Posted Sep 18th 2009 1:46AM by Jackie Schnoop
Filed under: OpEd, Survivor, Episode Reviews
(S19E01) CBS just came off the highest-rated season ever of
Big Brother. Will they be able to repeat the deed with
Survivor: Samoa? You know, it's very possible that they just might do it. That is, if the season premiere is any indication.
Right off the bat, they gave me a reason to watch (other than I write about the show). I want to see Evil Russell knocked down by a woman. He's not to be confused with Good Russell, nor Russell on
Big Brother. Nor even my brother, Russ. He's nasty, I tell you!
Continue reading Survivor Samoa: The Puppet Master (season premiere)
Posted Aug 27th 2009 10:40AM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Survivor, Casting
The unveiling of the
Survivor cast probably isn't "exciting" (cough) as the unveiling of the
Dancing with the Stars cast because those cast members are celebrities. We don't know these people, but we do know that there will be hot chicks that look good in bikinis, older people that will probably be voted off fairly early, and a villain. CBS says
this season's cast will feature the "biggest villain ever."
Oooooooooo!
Posted Aug 19th 2009 9:29AM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Survivor, Celebrities
Just yesterday I posted the
video of Richard Hatch's appearance on
Today. Now just a day later
the Survivor champ is in jail again.
Hatch's sister is saying that the reason why Hatch is in jail is because of the interview with Matt Lauer. There are no details yet on why he would be sent to jail because he talked to someone on a morning talk show (he did the interview from his home so he wasn't violating his home-confinement sentence) but his sister says that when the police came to take him, that's the reason the officer gave.
Continue reading Update: Richard Hatch is in jail again!
Posted Aug 18th 2009 3:41PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Video, Survivor, Celebrities
Richard Hatch, the winner of the very first
Survivor, was sent to jail in 2006 for not paying taxes on his winning from the show (and a radio talk show gig) and also got time for perjury. But he says that's not the real reason he was sent to jail.
Hatch said in an interview today on
Today that the court system in the United States is set up to be against gays, and he believes that if he was heterosexual he wouldn't have gone to jail. Hatch is currently out of prison and confined to his home. He's getting out on October 7 but wants to be released now.
Continue reading Richard Hatch says he was sent to jail because ... he's gay?!
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