From the Inside Out

My family met for dinner tonight to celebrate my Mom’s birthday.  After arriving home, Gary and I sat down in the media room and got ready to watch the latest episode of Survivor.  We fired up the DVR, hit play and…wait…that’s not Survivor.  It’s a man standing in front of a storm radar.  No problem, I thought.  It should be over in a couple of minutes, and then they’ll return to regular programming.  Wrong.

Why does every meteorologist think it’s a good idea to interrupt prime time television when a storm blows through town?  C’mon people, it’s spring in Dallas.  There are plenty of storms this time of year.  They don’t all justify a meteorologist breaking into local programming and showcasing his radar screen for 30 minutes to an hour (or longer).  Why can’t they just break in for one or two minutes?  Better yet, let people read the scrolling text at the bottom of the screen.

Not only did we miss the entire Survivor episode because the meteorologist was getting his “hour of fame”, but we also missed a few other shows due to the continuing storm coverage.  It’s frustrating and unwarranted.  You would have thought there were twenty tornadoes on the ground.  There weren’t.

I realize people may be a little edgy because of the storms that blew through town last week, but tonight’s storm didn’t warrant a 2 hour newscast.  It was just a typical springtime storm.  Sure, there was a small tornado (which caused no damage) and hail, but it paled in comparison to last week’s storm.  So, let’s save the detailed coverage for the 9:00 and 10:00 newscast and let everyone else enjoy their regular programming.   

Yes, it’s back.  Survivor kicked off its 16th season tonight with a new group of castaways.  However, not all of the cast members are new to the game.  To make things interesting this season, the producers are pitting “fans” against “favorites”.  

Amongst the 10 favorites is Jonny Fairplay, the guy who lied about the death of his grandmother in a previous episode.  He’s the guy everyone loves to hate.  Obnoxious and cunning, Jonny is a snake, but you have to admit that he’s entertaining.  When we first see him tonight, he is dressed like Jeff Probst and proudly wears a “will lie 4 food” hat on his head.  That was a classic Jonny moment.  It wasn’t long until he was up to his old tricks, trying to manipulate everyone on the team.

**if you haven’t seen the episode yet and don’t want to be spoiled, stop reading now** 

Unfortunately, it all backfired on him, and he was voted out at tribal council tonight.  He hatched a crazy story about missing his pregnant girlfriend and told people he wanted to go home.  The story was supposed to be a distraction to make one alliance think that everyone was voting for Jonny.  In reality, Jonny’s alliance was supposed to vote for Eliza.  They didn’t.  The rest is history.  I guess they were all too smart to trust him this time around.  He was outplayed….unless you really believe his story about wanting to go home.  I don’t.

Although, I’ll miss Jonny’s antics, I still think this season will be interesting.  It has a good mix of new, unique competitors and old, beloved characters.  I’m looking forward to more.