reality show junkie
i am a die-hard reality show fan. ever since i got hooked on survivor, i follow almost every major reality show on TV, local or foreign. though hindi naman exactly lahat.
last week, rockstar supernova reached its finale and true to my hunch a guy contender got the job as lead vocalist of a band consisting of gilbey clarke, tommy lee and jason newstead. lukas rossi, dubbed as the "kid punk" from Toronto, Canada (the same city where JD Fortune, the Rockstar INXS winner, hails from) reigned over his closest rivals Dilana (South African-born US singer), Toby Rand (from Australia) and Magni (from Iceland).
i was disappointed for the first few seconds after Tommy Lee called Lukas to join the band, because i was rooting for Dilana. for me, she’s the greatest singer among the 15 contenders and has the most memorable and heart-rending performances. i voted for her twenty times through text in the hopes that a woman might take the rockstar title this time. but it was no avail, lukas reportedly got the highest number of votes and this alone swung Supernova to his favor.
but when lukas finally performed with Supernova, it became clear to me why the fans chose him over Dilana. though it was obvious lukas is not the strongest vocally, he blends well with the band and has enough star value to be at par with his more famous and experienced bandmates but not much to outshine them. i think Dilana’s already a true rockstar herself that she would be better off strumming her own band, and releasing her own songs.
by the way, Dilana’s composition in the contest, "SuperSoul" got me really into her even more. i wish i can have her cd real soon. though i like the other songs by Supernova which were played during the contest, such as "It’s All Love" sung by Magni but interpreted greatly just the same by Lukas.
when rockstar supernova ended, two reality shows began its run a few days later. Survivor Cook Islands premiered last Friday and unlike the past twelve seasons, the cast for Season 13 is more multi-racial precisely because the format this time is to divide 20 castaways into five groups based on tribe. "rarotonga" consists of white Americans, "puka puka" of Asian Americans, "manihiki" of African Americans, and "aitutaki" of Latinos.
now the interesting part here is that Pinoys are taking part in the contest and of course are members of puka puka tribe. jenny, 36, is a Chicago-born real estate agent who’s a former tv reporter for "Philippine News Reports", said to be the only Filipino-American news program in Chicago. brad, 29, is an L.A. based fashion director who can very well come in Manila and be a top-ranked commercial and ramp model. of the two, jenny is the most outspoken about her Filipino roots. brad looks like his being Filipino is not an issue or something to brag about, but i might be wrong.
the first episode was a thrill. puka puka won the first challenge, which was both for immunity and reward. jenny looks promising in the challenge and i got a hunch she’s gonna be a smarter player than brad and would go far in the contest.
i found this whole new format misleading at first. i thought there should have been more representation of minorities during the previous seasons, without resorting to an obvious format of social experimentation through the race card. but eventually i have to agree with host Jeff Probst that its still gonna be the same contest. in the end, people will root for whom they like regardless if they share the same race or not.
already i have my favorites: jenny, becky, sundra, parvati, ozzy and billy. of course this will change as more episodes are shown.
then there’s the Amazing Race which premiered just this morning. it returned to the old format of 12 teams, and fortunately, the 10th season cast is also multi-racial -including a Muslim team, an Indian-American team and a Korean team. It even has a dating pair whose one member has a bionic leg. though the cast still has the usual characters: the hunky team, the cheerleader and beauty queen teams, the gay couple, the couch potato parents, the blue-collar worker team, and the dating bickering couple. but the cast looks more promising than season 9 when you have only a couple of teams dominating the entire race (remember the hippies and the horny jocks?).
unsurprisingly and sadly, two of the minority teams are already out by the first leg. in an unprecedented twist, the first leg included an overnight hold, sort of a minor "pitstop" where the last team to arrive would immediately be eliminated. the first leg was in china, and the 12 teams have to race all the way from Seattle to hurdle the first set of clues and arrive at the Forbidden City where they had to pull one of three departure times. the last three to arrive at the spot interestingly were the minority teams, with the Muslim team unable to wrest the last departure time from the Korean team.
Bilal and Sa’eed were almost teary-eyed when host Phil Keoghan brought them the twist early in the game. They looked cheated but kept their composure and accepted their fate.
With the Muslim Americans eliminated, pressure was on for the Korean team and the Indian-American team who were the tailenders going into the heart of Beijing the following day. Erwin and Godwin were able to get in the middle of the pack by their sheer athleticism, greater hustling and improved navigation. Unfortunately for Vipul and Arti (who’s the most beautiful among the women, including the beauty queen team, their poor navigation worsened as they treat the streets of Beijing and by the time they’re about to climb one part of the Great Wall of China before the first pitstop, the other ten teams have already reached Phil and are on their way to the hotel preparing for the second leg.
for me this was unsurprising because somehow you get the funny feeling that the producers of the show would not have wanted minority teams (especially a Muslim team) to advance well into the show, since market demographics may still point to white Americans as the ones frequently watching the show. again i may be wrong, but its just really sad. it would have been more interesting to have less "white" people in the show especially the bickering ones since as a viewer im already tired of watching brashy Americans snapping at each other like mortal enemies. believe me, every season of the AR has at least a couple of bickering teams.
the only thing i look forward to with these two shows is to have the first Asian American winner of Survivor (hopefully Jenny) and an all-woman team in the final three in Amazing Race.
after all, life is bland without diversity.
