July 13, 2000

One year ago: A little more detail about my vacation and the origins of "Peace out" as a chat-ending device.

Yeah, I know I said I probably wouldn't be doing another entry this week, but yet here I am. I'm crazy like that. There are some pictures from my trip to the zoo. The first one is the baby elephant. Isn't it cute? There are like five female elephants and one male, and they keep them apart from each other. It's really neat how the other elephants protect the baby at all times, and are always watching it. While we were there, it was really hot, and two of the adolescent elephants went swimming, and were like hopping up on each other's backs. Elephants are big! But they looked like two little kids playing in the pool on a hot day. I think the baby wanted to go in too, but the mom wouldn't let her. Then the baby elephant was trying to drink water with her trunk, but she got more water on herself than in her mouth. It was cute to see her try, though. And one of the other elephants found the pipe where water comes into their pool and just put her entire trunk over it and then sprayed a ton of water into her mouth. I seriously could have stood there and watched them all day long. The other picture is one of the two tigers -- don't worry, it was behind glass. I'm no Crocodile Hunter and I have no interest in getting that close to a tiger without some protection between us! There was a little reflection on the glass, but you can't really see it. I love the expression on the tiger's face -- he looks so smug, doesn't he? The final picture is Eric and Jim posing by a life-sized tiger statue. Jim shaved his head the day before, in preparation for vacation, and he looks quite bald in this picture. He had a little hair left, but between the sun and the distance, you can't really tell. It also cracks me up that Eric is like petting the tiger statue.

Mary came over last night to watch Survivor with me, and also to visit because we haven't seen each other in over two weeks! First, she went to Arizona for a week and then I went to the Adirondacks for a week. I like having her over. She and Molly and I are planning a trip to New York City in August and I think it's going to be mad fun.

So I got thinking about Survivor vs. Big Brother and why I watch the former but not the latter. I mean, you'd think I, as the queen of reality shows, would watch both, right? I did watch the premiere of Big Brother (or rather, I taped it while I was on vacation) but it just didn't grab me like the premiere of Survivor did. Besides the fact that it was boring, and that the hosts were so annoying that I was actually yelling at the television, that is. I mean, I'm willing to forgive a bad premiere, but from what I've heard, the show really hasn't gotten any better. (The webcasts are another story entirely, of course. Lots of people are watching those.) The ratings show that I'm not alone in this feeling. So, here is my list of reasons why Survivor is interesting to watch and Big Brother is not.

1. Survivor is on once per week. Big Brother is on five times per week. Even in the winter months, when we are all stuck in our houses because of the weather and the early dark and all, it's hard to commit to any show five nights a week. And it's not even like "Every weeknight from 8 to 8:30". It's at different times, sometimes on the weekends, sometimes an hour, sometimes half-hour. Too confusing! It's summer! I think people are really willing to watch television in the summer, but you have to keep it simple and streamlined. The other problem is that multiple shows make it too easy for someone to give up. Oh no, I missed all of last week while I was on vacation! Well, screw it, I'm not watching anymore. With once per week episodes, if you miss one, it's not a huge deal.
2. On Survivor, someone gets voted off each and every week. On Big Brother, it's like once every two weeks, which means once every ten episodes. The whole excitement about Survivor is worrying and speculating each week about who will be voted off. With Big Brother, there are like nine episodes where you don't even have to think about it. Which means nine episodes that really aren't worth watching.
3. Survivor has challenges every week, usually two per episode. Big Brother has random puzzles. Very little time is spent on each Survivor episode spending time watching the cast doing their business. There's a few shots at the beginning, and then a challenge, and then a few more interviews, and then another challenge, and then the voting. I would say less than 25% of the time is spent watching the castaways just do their daily routine. On Big Brother, the percentage is reversed. No one wants to watch a censored, edited version of a person's daily business. I mean, give me the uncensored version or don't show it at all. And no challenges means no point to most of the episodes, other than to further the "storylines".
4. On Survivor, the castways vote one another off. On Big Brother, the contestants nominate but the audience decides. I'm sure that appeals to a certain democratic spirit, but since the audience decides, there are no alliances, no strategizing. I guess they could make alliances to not get nominated, but it seems like they're just encouraging the people to lie to the cameras or really play up to the audience, instead of try to relate to their fellow housemates in some way. Plus, the audience does not see the truth. We see what the editors want us to see. Only the people living there know how a person really acted, or how a person really is, but they don't get to vote each other off. It just seems way too easy to manipulate. One of the best parts of Survivor is trying to figure out each week what will happen, who will collude, who will have gotten on everyone's nerves, who will win immunity, how the voting will break down, etc.

Those are all the reasons I could think of randomly. I'm sure there are a lot more reasons, but I wanted to get those down while I was thinking about it. Ultimately, Big Brother will probably do better, as Pamie said, after some people get eliminated. But good God, people! This show goes on until September! September, for crying out loud! What were they thinking.

And you know what else is sad? CBS finally got a big ratings hit with Survivor, so they're trying to plug their other shows in front of all those demographically-elite eyeballs. And all their other shows suck! Every time I see a commercial for another lame-o series "Coming This Fall to CBS", I just shake my head. So sad.

P.S. Reunion Countdown: 2 days away! Sweet fancy Moses!