Posted Nov 23rd 2009 1:25AM by Jackie Schnoop
Filed under: OpEd, The Amazing Race, Episode Reviews
(S15E10) I mentioned last week that the remaining teams on
The Amazing Race are really feeling the pressure as they're getting closer to the win. Well, there were no fisticuffs, no elbowing, but there was an underhanded incident ... or two or three.
Unlike
Survivor, this show doesn't depend on sneakiness or scheming. In the end, it's how well they run the race around the world, how well they read the clues, and how well they complete the tasks. While getting along with the other teams is always a good thing, there's no popularity vote at the finish line. But they are competing. Sometimes some sneakiness just sneaks on in.
Continue reading Review: The Amazing Race - We're Not Working With Anybody, Ever, Anymore!
Posted Nov 16th 2009 12:50AM by Jackie Schnoop
Filed under: OpEd, The Amazing Race, Episode Reviews
(S15E09) Things got a bit down and dirty tonight on
The Amazing Race. I'm talking more ways than one. As the promos for the episode showed, we had muddy bogs and a quasi-skirmish between two teams tonight. There are five teams left in the race at this time. Two of the teams are definitely vying for the alpha male rating on the show. And I'm not talking Brian and Ericka! Any previous alliances are gone in the wind as the teams try to get to the precious final three. Take no prisoners.
Continue reading Review: The Amazing Race - We're Not Meant for the Swamp
Posted Nov 9th 2009 1:47AM by Jackie Schnoop
Filed under: OpEd, The Amazing Race, Episode Reviews
(S15E08) This week we revisited one of the toughest roadblocks ever on
The Amazing Race. Back in season six, the same farm with the same roadblock did in one team. Kristy and Lena spent eight hours searching for a clue they never did find. Phil Keoghan came out to them after dark in the field and called an end to their search. If I'm not mistaken, this is the first time the show has repeated a roadblock. And what a doozy to choose! While looking for a clue in a haystack is easier than looking for a needle, there are so many haystacks -- how would our five remaining teams fare? Read on.
Continue reading Review: The Amazing Race - This Is the Worst Thing I've Ever Done in My Life
Posted Nov 2nd 2009 12:41AM by Jackie Schnoop
Filed under: OpEd, The Amazing Race, Episode Reviews
(S15E07) Poor Ericka. In tonight's episode of
The Amazing Race, she didn't look quite like Miss America. Stress will do that to you. It seems each week a team or two make what might be a fatal error in the game. Oh, not something that could kill them -- just one which could lead to being Philiminated. This leg wasn't only tough on Brian and Ericka. One of the Globetrotters had to don a dress. Thankfully, it seemed to be specially tailored to fit him.
Continue reading Review: The Amazing Race - This is Not My Finest Hour
Posted Oct 26th 2009 12:34AM by Jackie Schnoop
Filed under: OpEd, The Amazing Race, Episode Reviews
(S15E06) One of the many things I learned tonight on
The Amazing Race is that Dubai is probably hotter than anyplace I really want to visit. Every team was sweating; every team was complaining. At least those teams who didn't have a clue about where the Persian Gulf is or whether it's a country in and of itself will remember it now. If nothing else but for the heat. Oh. And the way cool six-story water slide into shark infested waters. At least one team will really remember that water slide.
Continue reading Review: The Amazing Race - Do it for the Hood! Do it for the Suburbs!
Posted Oct 19th 2009 12:40AM by Jackie Schnoop
Filed under: OpEd, The Amazing Race, Episode Reviews
(S15E05) Once again in the NYC viewing area,
The Amazing Race suffered a huge delay in airing due to football. Tonight, it started an hour and fifteen minutes late. And, after all of that, the Jets lost! It's a miracle this show keeps receiving Emmy awards when the CBS Sunday night schedule is so fickle due to every sport under the sun or inside a stadium. Speaking of sports ... who are the Brinkley Tigers on Flight Time's t-shirt? They can't be Christie Brinkley's ex-husbands, can they?
Continue reading Review: The Amazing Race - I'm Like Ricky Bobby
Posted Oct 12th 2009 12:40AM by Jackie Schnoop
Filed under: OpEd, The Amazing Race, Episode Reviews
(S15E04) You'll have to bear with me tonight. You see, I'm cranky. Yes, I'm cranky about tonight's episode of
The Amazing Race. Perhaps I'd be a bit less cranky had the show started anywhere near on time. No, it's a Sunday show and here in the NYC viewing area, any sport played during the day can run over and delay the entire Sunday evening primetime line-up. On a night like tonight, delayed 45 minutes, it wreaks havoc with other shows I'd like to watch and my review writing time. But that's not the only reason I'm cranky.
Continue reading The Amazing Race: Sean Penn Cambodia Here We Come
Posted Oct 5th 2009 12:20AM by Jackie Schnoop
Filed under: OpEd, The Amazing Race, Episode Reviews
(S15E03) Gee, it doesn't seem like we're already three episodes into
The Amazing Race. But last week's two-hour season premiere with its two Philiminations, counted as two episodes. I'm still getting to know the teams. I think, so far, this season has more teams that I'd really like to see stick around for a while. There is only one team who really annoys me. With my luck, they'll be around for a good long while. I want them to implode. Nah, I'm not talking about Zev and Justin.
Continue reading The Amazing Race: It's Like Being Dropped on Planet Mars
Posted Sep 28th 2009 12:38AM by Jackie Schnoop
Filed under: OpEd, The Amazing Race, Episode Reviews
(S15E01) In this single two-hour season premiere, we were reminded why
The Amazing Race keeps snapping up those Emmy Awards for the best reality show on television. We're talking quality teams -- no Jerry Springer fans here! We're talking the adrenalin rush that viewers get just sitting on couches watching the show. We're talking a glimpse into other lands, cultures, and people we might never get the chance to experience in our own lives. We're talking simply amazing.
Continue reading The Amazing Race: They Thought Godzilla Was Walking Down the Street (season premiere)
Posted Sep 21st 2009 7:03PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: The Amazing Race, Survivor, Celebrities, Awards, Emmys
Survivor host Jeff Probst won Best Reality Host last night, but the big news was when he told reporters that
The Amazing Race has already won for Best Reality Competition Show seven times and
should take itself out of the running!
So, is this just sour grapes or does Probst have a point? Maybe Probst should go on
The Amazing Race and Phil Keoghan should go on
Survivor and see who can last the longest.
Posted Aug 4th 2009 9:04AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: OpEd, The Amazing Race, Survivor, Celebrities
Romance on reality TV is rarely as real as the producers want us to think. However, at least one romance seems to be the real thing:
Rob and Amber from
Survivor.
They met on
Survivor, thrived on
The Amazing Race, flopped on their own show, but have remained a happily married couple four years after they wed. Now the game really begins for these two reality TV vets.
Rob and Amber Mariano are the proud parents of newborn Lucia Rose.
Little Lucia was born July 4 in Pensacola, and chances are she's going to be raised as a Red Sox fan. Considering how difficult
Survivor and
The Amazing Race are, and how well Rob and Amber did on both shows, raising a kid should be a piece of cake.
Continue reading Survive this: Rob and Amber have a baby
Posted Jul 23rd 2009 7:08PM by Michael Pascua
Filed under: OpEd, The Amazing Race
It was inevitable: the stereotype of the poker player is being tested on another reality show. First there was Jean-Robert on
Survivor. More recently America watched Annie Duke shrewdly translate her poker prowess as business savvy on the
Celebrity Apprentice.
Now rumors are
flying in that two poker players will be on
The Amazing Race. Poker players Maria Ho and Tiffany Michelle have been spotted around LAX's airport ready to race around the world. What is it about poker players that are so appealing? Can the ability to bluff succeed with foreigners?
Continue reading More poker player reality stars?
Posted Jun 26th 2009 1:04PM by Nick Zaino
Filed under: Other Reality Shows, OpEd, The Amazing Race
I'm not a fan of reality shows. I know that's not a bold statement to make, and that reality shows are a fairly easy target. But I think they're boring after the first episode, for the most part. You pretty much know how it goes from there. Which one of the needy, self-esteem deficient bachelorettes the arrogant bachelor ends up with doesn't interest me (nor the opposite - which arrogant idiot catches the fancy of the bachelorette). Talent shows are usually just as bad, preying on their contestants' desperate need for recognition, and with wildly erratic and cynical judging.
So it's a surprise to me that there are two reality shows I actually do enjoy. There is
The Amazing Race on CBS, which is currently in between seasons, and
So You Think You Can Dance, which is in the beginning third on Fox. Generally, I don't feel stupid watching these two shows. I don't feel like I'm wasting my time. In fact, every once in a while, I feel like I'm learning something.
Continue reading Reality shows for people who hate reality shows
Posted Jun 24th 2009 5:02PM by Michael Pascua
Filed under: Other Reality Shows, OpEd, The Amazing Race
After the separation of
Jon and Kate Gosselin, one is left wondering: what will happen to the children?
Jon and Kate Plus Eight isn't the first reality show to feature children, but many including Jon and Kate, place their children in questionable situations.
What makes exploiting children the same as a twenty-something who wants to win
Big Brother? Family reality shows have done everything as well, including
swapping mothers,
adventure races,
fixing houses, and
general living with life. There's got to be a point where the legal guardian has to say enough is enough. Aren't child labor laws in effect with the 24/7 families?
Continue reading Should children be allowed on reality TV?
Posted Jun 11th 2009 3:00PM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: Other Reality Shows, OpEd, The Amazing Race, American Idol, Survivor, Big Brother (US), Dancing With The Stars, Celebreality
Considering how prevalent reality television is these days, it's got to be a pretty daunting task to try and put together a comprehensive list of the best and worst of all time. But
Entertainment Weekly thinks they've done just that. They've compiled the
top 20 reality shows of all time, but also the
ten worst reality shows of all time. All in all, they did a pretty damned good job.
I completely agree with the top six, but they lose me with
Jackass at number seven. I have never understood the appeal of filming morons doing stupid things on purpose just to be stupid. But there were some shows missing from the list completely, like
Little People Big World, So You Think You Can Dance and
Beauty and the Geek. Surely those shows are better than
The Hills and
The Real Housewives of Sesame Street, or whatever franchise they're spinning now.
Continue reading EW declares the all-time best and worst of reality television
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