Hi, My Name Is Earl

All reality show are dependant on good casting but if there is one that hits or misses depending on its new castmenbers it is The Real World. Since they have upped the token frat boy quotient to two per season, the show has been unwatchable (granted the most recent season in Denver was its best in a long time thanks to the clinically insane, and I mean that in a good way, Brooke). But Survivor is a close second. The problem though is that most contestants know they can’t act like a nut job because they would leave the island just as quick as they got there. Somehow the producers of the show seemed to find the few people who have never seen the show and didn’t realize that acting a fool wouldn’t endear them to their tribemates.

Number one on the clinically insane list was the Sylvester Stallone without the steroids looking James “Rocky” Reid, your obligatory bartender from Los Angeles this season. How he stayed while a bunch of soft spoken (i.e.: boring) tribe members got voted off before him was a miracle even publicly berating Anthony Robinson multiple times and somehow made it as far to make it on the jury where, even though not allowed to speak, he still got enough screen time thanks to his non verbal.

Even more shocking than Rocky making it to the jury was cheerleading coach Andria “Dreamz” Herd actually sitting across from Rocky as one of the finalist. Here is a guy who would have been on the chopping block had his team would have lost early on, and then was the odd man out in his alliance where he was on the chopping block from week to week again. After turning on that alliance at the merge he still made it to the final three possible just because he made a deal with Yau-Man Chan to exchange the truck Yau-Man one for immunity if Dreamz would win at the final four.

And poor Yau-Man, played the best game this season, but Dreamz pulled a WWF type swerve when he reneged on their agreement. This was befuddling because it is one thing to go back on your word if you have an actual chance of winning, but Dreamz should had know by doing so there was no way he was going to win so he basically traded his word to finish third instead fourth. For me that is just not worth it. Not only did Dreamz not win, he didn’t even get a single vote as all went to Earl Cole (I believe I called that, see: First Impressions Survivor Fiji). For those keeping track at home, in the two times they have had a final three, three of the six finalists have received no votes. Hopefully they go back to the final two next season.

Speaking of which, for the first time in a while, Survivor is going to be land locked next season as the show will be the first American show to ever film a whole season inside China. Odd choices as it would have made more sense to hold off a China season until 2008 to capitalize on the Olympics, but who am I to comment on how networks should make their schedule as I would have kept Veronica Mars, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip and Knights of Prosperity around.

Survivor: Fiji gets a on my Terror Alert Scale.

Download this season of Survivor and a few of the past seasons on iTunes.