Let's start with Survivor. Was it just me, or was this the least interesting premiere episode in the show's history? That opening ceremony was a lame-brained idea. We watch the show to see the interplay among the contestants, not to see them sitting on the sidelines watching a show. A complete misfire. Worse, it caused the players to arrive at their camp sites after dark, so we missed out on the usual first day food/water/shelter dynamics. We never did see the men build a shelter. Then Brook gets blindsided and voted out by a cowardly band of his teammates who are already thinking of individual survival instead of the good of the team. Loudmouth Chris singlehandedly brought his team to tribal council, and should have been the one to pay for it.
The loudmouth did get the axe over on NBC's The Apprentice, in the most controversial firing yet. Ok, cockily stripping yourself of immunity is a stupid thing to do, but Bradford could have saved himself with a little sleight of mouth. All he had to do was say that he believes himself to be the strongest player, and he's willing to put himself up against anyone else in the boardroom because his skills are better than anyone else's, yada yada yada. We never saw him do that. Trump seemed fixated on the stupidity of putting himself at risk, but it was clear to Bradford that he wouldn't be at risk if Trump made a rational decision based on that week's performance. Instead, Trump blindsided him by throwing out everything else that had happened that week, including Bradford's own success at sales, and canning him for that one display of self-confidence. It was capricious and bordering on unfair, depending on what rules the contestants are given beforehand. Had Bradford been judged based on his performance at the task, he was safe and abdicating his immunity might have been a crafty strategic move to gain respect within his team. Trump ignored all of that and canned him, instead of the ineffectual Ivana or reviled Stacie, and to top it off was a royal prick to Jennifer for no apparent reason.
Good television? Sure. But distasteful. Trump didn't know the first series was going to be such a hit. Now that he's a superstar again, one wonders if he's playing to the camera.
Posted by Peter at September 17, 2004 11:12 AMI agree about the Survivor premiere. They didn't show nearly enough to give us any inkling of why they picked Brook. I was cringing at the thought of Chris or Rory going on the first day just for sticking out of the crowd, so I'm sort of glad they stayed, but they were the obvious choices given what we were shown. (Actually I was hoping it would be the guy with the Bob Barker shirt. He really annoys me.) Maybe it would have been better as a 90-minute or 2-hour episode.
Posted by: Doug Orleans on September 17, 2004 01:02 PMI was a bit shocked by the Trump firing at the time. After further thought I have to disagree with you.
Bradford had worked hard to earn his spot, and Trump acknowleged that. And yes, he was partly a victim of being made an example. But, he put himself totally in that position. His only reason for the statement was to essentially impress his teammates by putting himself at risk as well.
It wasn't something he did to benefit the team, and he was essentially saying to Trump "I call your bluff." Now maybe I'm not the greatest judge of character, but I don't think Trump is the bull you wave a red flag at.
He made a dumb, self-serving decision, and paid for it.