MY THEORY ABOUT WHY WE WATCH SURVIVOR

Okay, it's probably really just one of the reasons *I* watch Survivor.

I don't watch a lot of the unscripted drama (so-called 'reality') shows but Survivor is one of them (Amazing Race is the other). I was a snob about it all when it first showed up and refused to watch the first season and was disgusted at all the attention it got. Eg. I live in British Columbia. When there was a season finale of Survivor guess what had taken over the front page of our once-respected NEWSpaper? Yup, Survivor. Crazy. How that is news is beyond me. Sure, in the entertainment section but front page?

I digress. I began watching Survivor with its second season when it took place in Australia. My love was in Australia and was watching and this was yet another way to share something.

And I've been hooked ever since even though there have been a season here and there where I think, Never again!

There are a lot of reasons Survivor is still so popular. Its production value is still very high (try watching the ones who try to copy it and you'll see how bad it can be). They usually succeed in keeping it interesting with the contestant choices, challenges, etc. They're smart enough to usually put it in beautiful places (you don't think that's important until you don't have such a location..... it gets very blah), there's identifying with one tribe or one person and cheering on your team (brilliant move with this new season, separating them by age and gender) and, oh ya, there are those (sometimes and only briefly since rice and water diet with the odd fish or coconut thrown in doesn't exactly keep the healthy curves where they belong) beautiful bodies.

I realized a while back that one of the reasons I enjoy it wasn't so much for the show itself as for GOSSIPING opportunities it provided me.

I don't gossip. Not about friends, coworkers, family members. I just don't. So I never understood that evil little joy you can get when you gossip about others.

Survivor gives me license to gossip. I can tear them down, analyze them, shout at the t.v. at them (did that tonight already and I watch it alone), have heated debates with others about your favorite ones and the villains. And no one gets hurt. The show WANTS that kind of interest and buzz. I do try to keep the gossip all about their behavior on the show itself and not judge them on who they are back in the world. I don't really care about that. It's just plain fun to watch and talk.

While I do know others who watch the show and I do talk with them briefly about each week's show, it's not the same now that my love has died. We had such (FUN!) debates about the various personalities. We were constantly laughing about it because we definitely didn't see eye to eye on everything but he always gave me a perspective I hadn't previously considered and I did the same for him so we ended up learning about each other.

Strange the dumb things you miss and how even the dumb things leave a hole.

I thought of the stupidest things when he died, including regret that he'd miss a certain episode of Lost, would miss the family AR - not that he missed much there - ..... see? really stupid. If he IS somewhere out there still somehow I doubt that missing a t.v. show is on the top of his "what I miss" list.

Then again..... maybe he gets them whenever he wants them. No reruns. No preemptions. No commercials.

Ah yes, THAT must be heaven. ;-)