h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

So CBS, a major television station here in the U.S., is going to run this show called "Survivor!". The show will be on in the Spring of 2000 and will feature 16 people from all over the U.S. who are stuck on a deserted island together for six weeks. Those people must work together to survive. Every few days, there is a vote, and one unlucky person must leave the island. The last remaining person wins a million dollars.

Anyway, they took applications and videos, and I was selected as a finalist. I think they liked my diatribe on the merits of Ayn Rand and lassaiz-faire capitalism. I just now got back from my interview at CBS and things went pretty well. There were a bunch of liberals that interviewed me, so I doubt they liked my conservative attitude about things. I will hear in a few weeks whether or not I will be going to the island. The guy that went into the interview before me brought in a bunch of coon skins (I'm being serious) that he had attained in his erudite life in east Texas... so I couldn't really compete with that.

Good luck...

Erm. Is it the people on the island that vote every week, or the viewers?

Cause if it's the people on the island, then I would think that final million-dollar vote would be a bit tough.

It's the people on the island that vote every three days. The person that "loses" the vote has to leave the island immediately. Once there are only 2 people left, the last 7 people (I think) to leave the island get to vote on who gets the million dollars.

I figure the most agreeable sort will win, which pretty much puts me out of the running. Between now and then, I need to learn how to climb a coconut tree so people on the island will need me if they want to have their coconut cream pies.

I figure you'd have to be both agreeable and be able to pull your weight, which is a tough combo sometimes. If there's even the slightest appearance that you aren't doing as much work as the others, you'll be voted off first. That would be my guess anyway.

It's a wild concept, "The Real World" in the jungle with a dash of game show. Weird.

Yes. In the interview, I think they saw that I am a strong personality and I have the potential for not getting along with people who disagree with me. Chances are that I will consider anyone that does not agree with me to be an idiot, incompetent, or both. They really seemed to like this, and I was shocked. I then read in a newspaper article about the show that they are actually looking for people who will cause conflict. However, just like you said, I figured that once people make it to the island, the most affable would survive.

Networks seem to be in a “cutting edge game show” mode where they are trying to do unique things to grab the attention of the finicky public. Soon, I can see us having that actual Running Man show, and they may even use the real Richard Dawson.

Errr, isn't he dead?

That's what makes it so cutting-edge, don't you see?

Good point. In retrospect, I am pretty sure he was dead all through the original Family Feud. With all those slathering kisses to unsuspecting female contestants, he was assuredly nature's first reverse-necrophiliac.