I don’t know if our habits are normal, but we don’t watch much network TV in the Murphy Family. The Fruit of the Murphy Loins tend to stick with the kid channels – Nickelodeon, Disney, and Cartoon Network being their Big Three. The Fearless Leaders watch a lot of Style, TLC, and HGTV. Over time our shows have varied – we watch a lot less Room by Room or Design on a Dime and a lot more House Hunters and Devine Design. We’d watch more Dreamhouse if it could keep to a regular schedule. The only normal show we watch on any station is Monk, and it isn’t that normal — including the shortest season ever. (I don’t consider what, four shows, a real season, but what choice do I have?)

The only network shows we make it a point to see are Survivor and American Idol. Yeah, I know, how trendy of us. But other than that you have a slew of unfunny comedies (outside of King of Queens) and the dramas seem to be part of either the Law and Order franchise or the CSI franchise, and quite frankly, I’m sick and tired of doctor and lawyer shows. And neither my wife or I are all that happy with Survivor All Stars or American Idol 3.

The competition in American Idol 3 is between Fantasia and LaToya. I don’t think anyone else is in the running, but it will be months of too long shows before we find out. And I’m still miffed that Scooter Girl didn’t make the cut, that the blonde cheerleader didn’t make the cut, and that Amy Adams got voted out so early. I’m having trouble with the cruelty as well – no not Simon – but the whole finding out you lost live on national TV – I thought it was especially bad on the wild card show when so many had to leave. Speaking of Simon, he’s trying too hard with those analogies and too often they just don’t make sense. I can’t abide most of the celebrity judges: Quentin Tarrantino was just annoying. I don’t know how much longer we’ll be watching.

Survivor is an odd show, and All Stars is even odder. What I enjoy about Survivor is the study of human nature it provides. What the players don’t seem to appreciate is that it is the triumph of the mediocre (and lucky). The first half, the teams vote out the weak sisters (like Sonja) or the too annoying (like hole man Peter). The second half, the stronger are voted out by the weaker, and then the winner is the one who pissed off the fewest of the jury. How else do you account for winners like Tina, Vecepia, or Sondra? The classiest winner was Ethan, and the strongest winner was Brian, whose people manipulation skills are unrivaled on the show. Compare him to Rob C or Johny Fairplay – not only was he far better at challenges, he ran the game so smoothly that people trusted him even after they were voted off — and he still barely beat Clay, one of the more annoying Survivor players. I think he is a sociopath, but he was a great player.

That brings us to Survivor All Stars – where a lot of the players know each other already. So the prior winners were dispatched first. Players were quitting left and right. And then Lex was too smart by half and started playing the end game before the opening game was over – eliminating stronger rivals during the team play which just killed his team. When his team didn’t vote out Amber when it had the chance I made my displeasure known quite forcefully (and the rest of the family let me know about their displeasure). So I wasn’t too surprised when he got the ax. The thing is, even when Lex played like an idiot, I still liked the guy. But I can’t stand Boston Rob. And by the looks of things, the next few weeks of Survivor will be featuring his smirk quite prominently. We may miss a few weeks.

Tags: American Idol, Survivor