Big Brother 10 Begins

Well, Big Brother has become my most favorite of the reality shows in recent years - I have seen close to every episode of every season. So, season 10 started Sunday night and they have decided to eliminate the secret couples, hidden twins, and long-lost family members from the mix of this season's contestants - for the first time since something like season three, they said, no one in the house knew each other prior to entering the house (okay, we'll see if they stick with that the whole season). The thirteen contestants were described as something like "a mix of races, occupations, and ages from around the country", but to me it seems like close to their usual mix of mainly white twenty-something actor/actress wannabees that are from some southern state but currently live in L.A. and stereotyped characters (yeah, there's a "gay rodeo cowboy" and a black "son of a preacher"). Well yes, there is a seventy-five year old man this time (the oldest contestant ever on a reality show, they said, and I believe that's true), and there is a Korean gal and a Portuguese gal (described as an "East Coast firecracker" on the CBS website - the stereotypes continue).

The first night's episode didn't feature anything particularly that stands out in my mind with the exception of first: instead of *competing* for the first head-of-household title, they had the contestants choose the HOH on the steps outside the house before they entered - before anyone had even spoken to each other. I thought it was pretty obvious that the oldest man, Jerry, who looks very grandfatherly, would win HOH, and he did. Second: a longish-haired blonde named April announced at one point, as the whole group sat on the couches talking, that her breasts were "real" and as nearby obviously breast-enhanced chicks such as Korean Angie gasped in shock, April went around letting different men touch them to confirm them to be real. When she got to old Jerry at his spot on the couch, she prompted him to participate too - which he did (then he said something to the camera in the diary room like "they're real - as real as real can be", hmmm isn't that so similar to the line spouted recently by the Bachelorette's Jesse as he was falling for Deanna and described his growing passion as "it's real - as real as real can get"). The first two nominated by Jerry for elimination are loud and obnoxious fifty-something Renny and a young man who she got in a fight with thus disrupting the household and leading to said nomination, a 22-year old bodybuilder and jerk named Jessie. I guess I have to root it out for the one older gal on the show to stay in the house for awhile, so I would like to see Jessie eliminated first. I am, so far (some of the contestants didn't get very much air play, so hard to say at this point), rooting for old Jerry to win - he seems kindly and very sharp - a good mix to get him far, I hope.

Survivor Fans vs. Favorites Finale

Well, another Survivor has ended - this one was a very entertaining one, what with all the trickery and dumb plays (like not playing the immunity idol when you've got it, then finding yourself voted off, and right after a different player did the same thing - um!). Since all my faves - Yau-Man, James, and of course, Ozzy, were already voted off by the finale, I was pretty much pulling for Cirie since she did such a fine job of pretty much manipulating the entire game throughout the season, I thought. I can't say I was real pleased when Amanda and Parvati made the final two (gosh, I was pulling for Cirie in that last agonizing immunity challenge) . So between those two, I really thought that Amanda would win Survivor hands down (though I personally didn't care who got the win between the two of them) - quite a surprise, I must say, when Parvati ended up winning. Okay, yes poor Erik made the dumbest move ever in Survivor history (so far anyway!) and I've seen them all. I was just, like, "don't do it, don't do it, don't do it" when Probst was asking if he wanted to give his immunity necklace up to another player - then he does it and gives it to - of all people - the evil queen Natalie. One last thing - - I thought Amanda and Parvati were close to unrecognizable when they appeared on the final reunion hour - so much make-up! To me, both of them looked much cuter when they were on the island with their hair just hanging or tied back, and no make-up, but maybe that's just me.