The eighteenth season of Survivor started tonight. I'm just going to write that out in numbers, in case you missed it when I esoterically spelled it out in the Latin alphabet: the 18th season of Survivor started tonight.
I can proudly say that I have watched 17 of those 18. Not to make excuses for the one I missed, but I'm going to anyway: I wasn't in the country and it was before hulu or online web-isodes. Anyway, there are always new twists on Survivor -- sometimes predictable, othertimes not -- but one thing stays the same season after season: Jeff Probst. He does get a new hat every time, but the rest of his outfit, and his entire persona, remain the same.
Last year, Jeff Probst won an Emmy. Aside from Ryan Seacrest, the other nominees didn't give him much of a run for his money (I'm not even going to begin talking about the Howie-Mandel-Emmy scenario for fear of getting violent). For example, when I first saw that Tom Bergeron was a nominee, I said, "For America's Funniest Home Videos?!" Turns out there's a little thing called Dancing with the Stars that I'd managed to forget about.
Tom Bergeron, Howie Mandel, and to a point, Heidi Klum (the other nominees), show me that being a Reality TV show host is not easy. It might seem like a fluff job, but these people (especially Seacrest on the live shows and Probst at tribal councils) have to be eloquent, witty, and charming without even taking a millisecond to think about it -- plus they have to deliver the cheesy slogans ("the tribe has spoken," "this is American Idol," etc.) in a way that doesn't make us want to throttle them.
Speaking of throttling, can you imagine Padma (Top Chef personalityless hot lady) coming up with a quick retort to a Simon Cowell snide remark? Just not possible. So here's to Reality TV show hosts, at least the good ones. Public speaking is the #1 fear in America, and these people do it for a living.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
There was a brief moment in which I thought Survivor had been on for 18 years. Then I realized that was in no way possible and looked it up on Wikipedia.
ReplyDeleteCan I just say that Jeff Probst probably works 50 times harder than most reality tv hosts. Given the number of seasons he has to film per year and their remote locales, he's got to be on the road almost as much as he's at home.
Oh. And he's hot. Just to put that out there.