"Survivor" Goes Crazy

“Survivor” isn’t pulling the ratings it once was. But what show is in their 26th season? As a fan for all 26 of those rice eating, torch-snuffing installments, I know that the seasons fluctuate in entertainment value. The latest, “Survivor Caramoan: Fans vs. Favorites” falls on the plus side for me so far. But it’s clear from the generally negative commenters on the show’s facebook and other sites, that some people aren’t digging the tribe of misfits billed as favorites.

Well last night we had a season defining moment when Brandon Hantz got so worked up he dumped out his tribe’s rice and beans while launching a verbal assault aimed at fellow crazy person, Phillip Sheppard. Basically he was annoyed that Phillip considered himself the leader and wanted everyone to fall in line. But that’s part of “Survivor.” Let the delusional people think what they want. But Brandon couldn’t take it. It was a very real moment to see how the tribe interacted as the two loudest competed to be the most annoying player of the season. Well maybe second after epically useless Shamar who went home last week.

But as this whole episode played out, I couldn’t help but realize that I was on Brandon’s side. The guy clearly has some kind of personality disorder. But he had a point about Phillip treating the others like children. So when the tribes showed up for what looked like an exciting immunity challenge, good ol’ Jeff Probst had to go prying and ask why the favorites looked so miserable. What followed was more shouting and Probst calming Brandon by very creepily rubbing his shoulders for five awkward minutes. Without further ado, the favorites voted Brandon out in an impromptu tribal council after forfeiting the challenge.

History tells us that the following weeks don’t go well when a team forfeits immunity. That would make sense since the show has been heavily pushing how badly the fans are getting beaten week after week. But beyond that, I think the excitement level has definitely spiked. Brandon called out Phillip for both tribes to hear in addition to exposing those who had been working on team Hantz (Dawn, Andrea, Erik). That could mean nothing or everything depending on how the favorites recover next week. I’ll leave you with some glaring questions. Will Phillip change his approach after being embarrassed? Can the fans recover enough to survive until the merge? Most importantly, why was Jeff massaging Brandon for so long?

“King of the Nerds": What Did We Just Watch?

Without going in to actual numbers, the amount that TBS plays reruns of “The Big Bang Theory” would lead me to believe that they pull solid ratings. So the next logical decision was to make a reality show starring a bunch of real life nerds. It was? Well that’s the premise of “King of the Nerds,” which just completed its first season on the comedy heavy network.

The show stars 11 “nerds” competing against each other in nerdy competitions to see who will reign supreme. In the meantime, they live in a big old mansion outfitted with a comic book’s store worth of superhero statues and Rubik’s Cubes. Nerd-vana, as its called, also apparently has a lot of alcohol because throughout the season even the most even-tempered nerds got a bit screwy.

Season one casting consisted of some impressive geeks. There was a NASA engineer, a master computer hacker, a gaming champion, fantasy writer and the list goes on. But few of those skills actually seemed to help in the respective “nerd war” and “nerd off” challenges. For example, the gaming challenge consisted of contestants guiding a remote control hovercraft through obstacles. That’s a little different than if they played Mario Kart to decide who wins.

But no matter what, this is reality television. So a few crazies dominated airtime. Danielle, a pink haired gamer and apparently a self-obsessed nut, spent all eight episodes whining about how much she hates everyone and how amazing she is. Then there was the nice, but insane Genevieve, who was labeled a threat and cried every time it came up. But otherwise she hopped around singing Disney songs and screamed at the top of her lungs whenever her team won. These are just really enjoyable people. Sarcasm.

I don’t want to mislead you though. There were plenty of pleasant people. Moogega, a NASA engineer was (almost) always well spoken and reasonable. There was that one time she got really drunk and told America that she “loves sex.” Awkward. And Brandon, a neuro-scientist, was incredibly nice on-air. With the glasses and tucked in dress shirt of a classic nerd, Brandon congratulated the others when they beat him and was generally just pleased to be included in the cast. I’m confident that selective memory will cause us to remember these positives when the second season closes in.

Shot on a California college campus, the show would have benefitted from more time spent outside with challenges. Instead, the majority of the episodes had the players just sitting inside. But that’s what nerds do apparently; sit around in a pit of unmade beds and takeout food containers while ignoring the social norms of human interaction. Good to know.

Most of the challenges played out quickly and straightforward. Viewers with a pretty good working knowledge of reality television will have been able to predict a fair amount of the results. This is a physics challenge and everyone assumes a certain player will dominate? Well guess what, they lose. Someone is a Sudoku expert and they know they’re going to win? Well too bad the other team pulls out a miraculous victory. It’s reality 101 and TBS fails to build much drama. Having Revenge of the Nerds alumni Curtis Armstrong and Robert Carradine hosting the spectacle also goes along with how the show sacrifices drama for self-deprecating humor. In fact, some of their in-challenge comments prove to be the funniest moments of the whole series.

:Spoiler Alert: The finale ended with Celeste, a self-conscious video game champion appealing to her fellow nerds’ humanity with the final full cast vote. Facing off against Genevieve, the annoying one I mentioned earlier, it was the classic heavyweight vs. under-the-radar final two. But after the whole show talks about how these nerds were outcast and bullied throughout life, is a popularity contest really the best way to pick the winner? This is like 10th grade gym class all over again.

The credits rolled accompanied by a call to action for nerds to apply for season two. But if the players are any more annoying than this year’s, the show will be unwatchable. So do us a favor TBS. Let’s keep the certifiable weirdos out of nerd-vana. I liked this season. It reminded me of going to the comic book store.