Reality Round-Up

We're "Survivor" fanatics. Period. Enough said. And this season's edition of the popular reality show does not disappoint. Set in Brazil, the cast is filled with enough misguided egos and malicious backstabbing to keep us tuned in and loving every minute of it. We'd watch the show for the sexy host, Jeff Probst, alone, but luckily the show is entertaining as well.

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Among the cast crazies, first there was Sandy, the happy hillbilly whose Southern accent was so thick that she kept pronouncing "camp" as "caimp", with two to three syllables. We loved Sandy, but she was a little squirrely, and her fellow castaways couldn't wait to get rid of her. She was voted out fairly early.

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Then there's Coach, the ego-maniacal soccer coach who resembles Fabio, complete with the '80's Chippendale's hair-do. The funniest thing about Coach, is that, despite his macho-laden boastings, he really sucks as an athlete. He finishes last or near to last, among the men, in all the athletic challenges. You just know that back at his university they're reconsidering his tenure as coach, and not in a good way.

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Tyson is the Johnny Fairplay wanna-be, but he's not mean enough or emotionally unbalanced enough to hold a candle to the infamous former Survivor backstabbing star. Tyson does like to walk around naked, but as with most people who revel in the nudist lifestyle, he has the kind of body that leaves us begging for him to be clothed.

And poor little cutie, Spencer. Spencer was the 18 year-old, token gay competitor. We had high hopes for Spencer; he was young, athletic and had supposedly watched and studied every single episode of every broadcast of Survivor. Plus he was gay, which is a big advantage in reality shows; gay people by experience have had to learn how to deal with adversity and how to navigate among varying personality types just to survive in real life, so a reality show is usually cake. But somewhere along the way, it was obvious that Spencer hadn't really done his homework. When he became the target for elimination, he seemed to accept his fate, and skulk away like a beaten dog. Somebody needed to remind him, that when targeted for ouster, that is the exact moment at which you turn on every scheming, lying and backstabbing trick you've ever learned to convince everyone else to vote a different way. But Spencer didn't, and he was voted out.

We love Taj, the former pop star as a member of the singing group, SWV. She's wily, smart and a very good player. But just as the Republicans have tagged Michelle Obama, some see Taj as a "sassy Black woman", and her temper might get her into trouble.

We're going to predict right now that the winner will be J.T., the cattle farmer from Alabama. J.T. came across at first as a little dim-witted and maybe not up to the athleticism required to make it in Survivor. But as the early episodes unfolded, it became quickly obvious that not only was J.T. the most gifted athlete on the show, but his intellect and understanding of others was razor-sharp. Unless the others vote him out to get rid of their biggest threat, which often happens, J.T. should easily win this edition of Survivor.