I haven’t talked about TV at all this season, have I? There’s some good stuff on, but it seems that I DVR more than I watch live nowadays. Some quick thoughts on the current reality crop.

Apprentice Donald

I enjoyed it this season, even though Mark Burnett is doing it by Braille now. His camera angles, music, themes are so predictable. Randal has to murder someone on the last task to lose this job. Even when he does something wrong, he handles it right. I wasn’t thrilled with his grabbing those megaphones from the other team, but it won him points with the judges.

I’m glad that they’re skipping the interview stage on this one. In the last seasons, when they got down to the last four Donald would have the candidates go through typical job interviews with other executives to weed it down to the final two. After weeks of seeing these folks judged on their creativity and leadership skills in on-the-job tasks, it came down to their traditional interview skills. Good that Felisha and Alla were eliminated based entirely on how they performed on tasks and not in an interview. Too bad that they (and we) had to go through the torture of the boardroom when I’m sure The Donald knew full well that he would fire them both before they even sat down.

Nice to see Bill (Apprentice 1 winner) getting so much screen time. Kendra who? Kelly who?

Apprentice Martha

I started out watching the show, and then it went up against “Lost” and that was that. I don’t care who wins. It was pretty funny to see her talk to her candidates with dialog written by Trump and/or Burnett “The tree you’re standing in front of is one of the best trees in the world, responsible for more than 30 billion leaves each year.”

At least on Martha’s show the tasks make sense given the job they’re going for. I’ve never quite understood how leading a team in a marketing or advertising pitch or a sales venture (which is 90% of the tasks they do) qualifies someone for an executive-level job in real estate.

Amazing Race

I haven’t watched one minute of this season. There is no reason I can think of to put my kids to bed and relax by watching other children whine “are we there yet?” Sure, and next week I’ll watch them refuse to eat vegetables and complain about their homework. Sounds like fun and a nice escape from reality for me. Not.

The Biggest Loser

The kids watched this with us. It opened a lot of conversations around here about healthy eating and exercising. I liked Suzy, but I knew there was no chance she could win. She didn’t have enough to lose. Next time, the candidates should pick a goal weight at the beginning and if they get to that weight they get an automatic bonus of let’s say 10%. At the finale, Suzy appeared to be at a very healthy weight for her height. She looked great, but she “lost” because Matt lost a higher percentage. Suzy couldn’t win. If she lost 47% of her body weight she would have been at an *unhealthy* weight. The focus should be on racing towards good health, not a number on the scale. I felt bad for that woman (forgot her name) who didn’t lose weight since leaving the ranch. I give her a lot of credit for showing up, and you could see how painful it was for her when she first stepped on the stage and people didn’t know to clap for her.

Survivor

Does it matter that Jeff Probst is getting ready to quit? The show is running itself now. You can tell exactly what is going to happen by the change in music or the editing. I’m rooting for Lydia. Scrappy little broad.

Tags: Apprentice, Biggest Loser, Survivor, Amazing Race, Reality TV