TV Watch: Survivor: A Thrown Challenge and An Imaginary Love Affair

I hate that the Aitu tribe (the Hispanics, if you haven't been paying attention) lost the immunity challenge on purpose because they wanted to get rid of one of their tribe members. True, Billy was kind of lazy, he snored, and he had an imaginary love affair with a person from another tribe (more on that later). But now they have one less member in their tribe--one less vote that they may need and one less person to compete in challenges.

The tribal council was especially crazy this week, not just because of the usual fighting over who should get voted off (Ozzie vs. Billy), but because Billy revealed that he had fallen in love with Candice, one of the members of the Raro tribe. Apparently, Billy thought it was love at first sight upon seeing Candice, and when she tried to console him after they lost the challenge, he misinterpreted her "We love you" as being in love with him. Nobody at tribal council could believe it, especially host Jeff Probst: 'I've never heard anything that has surprised me more than what you just said,'' which as far as I can tell is a nice way of saying ''Are you completely crazy?'' The three men of the Aitu tribe came off badly this week--what with Ozzy throwing the challenge, J.P. acting like a bully during tribal council, and Billy indulging in his imaginary love affair.

An avid reader of the blog says that I seem to be rooting for the Puka tribe (the Asians), and I guess it's true--I can't help it. After winning last week's immunity challenge, they won this week again (a later replay showed that they actually tied in first place with the Raro tribe). Even when the Aitu tribe sent Yul to Exile Island, he took advantage and found the immunity idol (with just two clues!). I hope he keeps it secret and reveals it only when he really needs it. I need people I can root for to stay in the game!

TV Watch: Amazing Race: Fish Eyes and the Great Wall

After all the hype and controversy of Thursday night's first Survivor episode, it's nice to see The Amazing Race back and doing what it does best: showing us a diverse cast of characters racing around the world, facing culture shock, and enduring physical challenges--all in front of the visually stunning backdrops of different countries.

While Survivor looks gimmicky by dividing its tribes by race, it seems to come more naturally to The Amazing Race to have contestants from different cultures competing against each other as they race around the world. Here are some of the contestants who stood out from the first episode:

• Sarah and Peter, the triathlete with the artificial leg and the prosthetist she's dating, seem to do a great job supporting each other--even when her artificial leg started leaking hydraulic fluid. They were able to overcome this problem during this leg of the race, but I'll really admire them if they make it all the way to the end.
• Bilal and Sa'eed, the first Muslims to compete in the race, seemed gung-ho about running the race--even if they have to deal with the team of cheerleaders who wondered: "Do Muslims believe in Buddha?" It's too bad that they were eliminated so early in the race.
• David, a Kentucky coal miner, and his persistent wife Mary, who I thought did surpisingly well in this episode, considering that she's never been outside of Kentucky or Tennesse in her life.
• Rob and Kimberly are the couple most likely to split up after the show. They're already arguing and sniping with each other this early in the race.
• Erwin and Godwin, the weightlifting (but smart, they claim) Asian brothers, inexplicably started playing with water pistols at the Seattle airport and were reprimanded by airport security.
• Tyler and James, the drug-rehabilitated male models, came in first because of their bricklaying and wall-scaling skills.
  
• Vipul and Arti, the sweet Indian couple, got lost and were the second team that Phil had to eliminate in this episode.
  

In addition to the surprise of having two eliminations during this first episode, I was also surprised that the "eat-exotic-food" challenge came so early this season. This challenge involved eating the Chinese delicacy of fish eyes (which I actually kind of like). Most teams didn't have a problem eating the fish eyes, although quite a few had trouble using chopsticks! The first episode also gave us impressive views of Beijing, the Forbidden City, and the Great Wall of China (a section of which all the contestants impressively scaled using rope). Judging from this first episode, this looks like another great season of The Amazing Race. I can't wait to see next week's episode!

TV Watch: Survivor: Stereotypes and Stolen Chickens

The first episode of this controversial season of Survivor started tonight. Of course, Survivor: Cook Islands is controversial because the 20 contestants are initially grouped by ethnicity in four groups. Here are my impressions from the first episode:

• The Puka tribe (the Asians) won the first immunity/reward challenge thanks to good teamwork and puzzle-solving skills. The Aitu tribe (the Hispanics) came in second.
  
• The Hiki tribe (the African-Americans) lost the first challenge and had to go to tribal council to vote out someone from their group.
• One member of the Raro tribe (the Caucasians) stole a chicken from the Asians and was later sent to Exile Island to be alone for 2 days and 2 nights. Later, another tribe member accidentally sets free the stolen chicken.
  
• Though the contestants are divided by ethnic groups, the divisions that came out tonight were due to age and gender. On the Puka tribe, for example, the older Cao Boi is having trouble getting along with his fellow tribe members because he says they were born in the U.S. and have forgotten "the old world." He was successful in "curing" the headache of one of his fellow tribe members by giving the guy a face massage and leaving a red mark on the guy's forehead.
• At tribal council, the Hiki tribe divided along gender lines to vote out one of the guys (3 girls vs. 2 guys).
  

The first episode was pretty good, considering that we are being introduced to 20 people (most of whom will be voted out before we get to know them). It's tough to find someone to root for yet, but it's nice to see that most of the contestants are interested in "smashing stereotypes"--I hope that's something that they really try to do in future episodes.