Survivor Sunday

It's time for that Sunday that comes only once (or twice) a year when you get together with friends, order a pizza, yell at the TV, and make ridiculous side bets. No it's not Super Bowl Sunday, it's the season finale of Survivor. As we close out another season of the grand dame of reality I thought we'd take a look at the show and how it still manages to stay fresh.

The Cast
Survivor has still managed to put together a wide range of cast members even after umpteen seasons. Many reality shows have taken to casting only beautiful people when putting together a season (Real World I'm looking at you). They also haven't resorted to the "token" form of reality casting. This season we got two whole teams of older contestants while most shows will just have one or two (see The Amazing Race).

Gimmicks That Work
A lot of shows that have been around for awhile feel the need to add something new to the formula. Survivor is no different but they have a stellar track record of choosing ones that actually make sense for the program. This year the introduction of Exile Island added a new level of intrigue. Sure Terry found the hidden immunity idol relatively quickly, but the intrigue of when and if he'd use it opened up new avenues we've not seen on the show.

Probst
If you had told me when Survivor started that I'd still find Jeff Probst as a positive aspect of the show I would have checked you into St. Mary's Home for the Loony. Happily you would have been right. Probst gets it. He's a host that's not trying to be the star (see Seacrest, Ryan for the opposite). The tribal councils are still entertaining largely due to the fact that Probst has fine tuned the art of stirring shit up. I've read that the 3 minutes we see every week are edited down from hour long tribal bitch fests but damn Probst knows how to get the cast to say what we want to hear.

The Game
After 12 seasons the game still holds surprises. Last year we got to see one tribe lose all but one immunity challenge. This season we actually saw an alliance formed pre merge stay strong after the merge except for the fact that we also saw Terry win more individual immunity challenges then anyone in Survivor history. Most importantly we can still sit on our couch and watch awestruck as the game takes inexplicable turns. I mean is it just me or could Terry and Aras have run this game to the final two? How did Terry's tribe fail to win challenge after challenge against the disfunction of Team Shane and Courtney? You always think you know how things are going to play out but they rarely follow form.

So as I get ready for the finale I'm going to forgive the producers for going the cheap route with Thursday night's non ending and get ready for some classic Survivor. I'd love to see Terry win but the odds seem stacked against him but then again they have been all year. At the very least he and Shane have probably secured a spot on the next All Star edition.