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Survivor and Top Chef are crucial pieces of my television rotation. In a reality TV landscape in which “consistency” is rarely attained, they’re among the most reliable and prolific shows going.
Survivor and Top Chef have a combined 73 seasons and counting, but if I had my way, they’d produce four or five cycles per year, because weekly routine hinges on televised jaunts to Fiji and wherever Kristen Kish and company have taken the cheftestants. They’re my comfort. We all need comfort.
That makes it worrisome to report that this spring’s installments — Survivor: In the Hands of the Fans and Top Chef: Carolinas — suggest that both venerable formats are broken.
A good reality show is capable of being fixed. Look no further than The Amazing Race, another of my comfort viewing favorites, which has broken itself over (families?) and over (strangers matched on blind dates?!?) and over (exclusively former Big Brother contestants?!?), before bouncing back.
