Ever since the first Survivor winner turned out to be gay, I realized this series was actually a veiled attempt of social programming with a Lord-of-the-Flies angle that I never bought into.
I love The Amazing Race which I believe is produced by the same people since there seems to be a lot of cross-marketing between the two (this season’s TAR actually pits “all-star” teams from Survivor, Big Brother and past seasons of TAR where nauseating egotism and exhibitionism seem to collide for explosive entertainment), and even TAR started becoming preachy on social justice causes, but TAR has two things over the other reality creations. They have breath-taking scenes of beautiful nature from all over the world (at least the places where they won’t be killed) and the show is, at its heart, a competition where you can win even though unpopular by simply not coming in last.
Put simply, nobody can vote you off the island or out of the house. There have been once or twice where lesser teams have decided to gang up on a front-runner and have them eliminated but they typically don’t happen unless the unpopular team isn’t strong enough to survive it.
I think this will be TAR’s last or next-to-last season having milked the concept for all its worth. All those reality shows needed to have already died by now. It’s almost 2020 so it’s time for a new fad to take over.
1 gay guy out of 38 winners.