Quitters Never Win

I am a huge fan of reality tv. It's my guilty pleasure. My favorite shows? The Biggest Loser, Survivor, The Amazing Race, America's Next Top Model, and The Bachelor. Yes, I know some people think these shows are awful, but there's just something I love about them. It's all about the drama, I think. I enjoy seeing how people behave in different situations. Plus, I like the aspect of picking favorites and rooting for them. Like, right now I'm rooting for Chantal on The Bachelor. There's just something about her that I like.

But lately on some of my favorite shows, there has been a terrible trend. Quitting. Seriously? I want to scream at the screen every time I see someone quit. I want to yell, "Don't you know how many people wanted to be on this show? How many people would have given anything to be in your place?" But of course, they can't hear me. It just makes me so angry to see someone come onto one of these shows - get a one in a million opportunity to win money or change their lives - and then walk away because they couldn't hack it.

On Survivor's last season, two girls quit. One of them being purple Kelly, which made me just argghhhh! So mad! Then on the Biggest Loser, twins Dan and Don actually gained weight, threw their weigh-in and got sent home in consecutive weeks. Why? Because they're big ol' babies. They couldn't stand to be away from their family. I can sort of understand that. I mean, I hate to be away from my husband. He's my best friend and there's no one in the world I'd rather spend time with. But I'm still going to Emerald Isle this weekend for a writer's retreat. Why? Because writing is incredibly important to me. It's a priority, so therefore it's worth a little bit of sacrifice.

Okay, so maybe it isn't fair to compare one weekend away to months at the ranch. But in the end, if Dan and Don were dedicated to losing weight, they would have been willing to make that sacrifice. I don't think they left because they missed their families. I think they left because they couldn't handle the hard work. Plain and simple. I'm sure it's hard. Life is hard. Being healthy is hard. Reaching for any major goal in life is hard freakin' work.

In everyone's life, there are times when we're forced to go uphill. To work so hard that it hurts. What separates winners from losers is the determination and willpower and dedication to keep going, despite the pain and hard work. Quitters don't make good reality tv. I hate to watch when someone quits because it's too hard. To me, those people are losers - in so many ways. I'm definitely not perfect by any means, but I don't ever want to be a quitter. I feel like there were times in my life when I was a quitter. A loser. Less than I wanted to be. But now is not that time. I'm determined to be successful, no matter how long it takes.

With Survivor and ANTM and The Amazing Race starting up again this month, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that there will be some inspirational players. No quitters, please.

Megan and Cheyne win Amazing Race

Dang! I so wanted the brothers to win! Not because they were particular nice to each other, because they weren't, but because in my little reality show winner picks game with my sister, they are the team I chose to win it all. Last night's finale was a good one, especially since the final city on the Amazing Race was Las Vegas and my fiance and I will be traveling there in only 9 short days for our wedding/honeymoon! All three remaining teams ended up on equal footing by getting on the same flight home to Vegas. I have to say I prefer it this way, rather than one team getting way ahead or way behind right from the start. Even though the Miss America couple, Brian and Erika, were off to a solid start, they fell behind quickly and could never really catch up to the other two teams.

It really came down to the brothers and the blonds. I was on the edge of my seat as they showed both teams in the cab on their way to Wayne Newton's house, with Phil and the other teams waiting at the finish line. When the first cab pulled up, I was so hoping to see my brothers run toward the finish line as victors in the race! It would have been so awesome because my sister and I have had such a great track record on picking Amazing Race winners. Race 13, I picked Nick and Starr, the brother and sister team that won it all. Race 14, she chose Tammy and Victor,. also winners! This year, the brothers were my last hope in the reality show picks, and while they came close, it was Megan and Cheyne who walked away with a well-deserved million dollar prize.

I would like to say this, however... despite accusations online and during the game, I do not think the brothers elbowed the globe trotters or got physically dirty with the other teams. They did a replay of that run in the bog so many times, and not once did the brothers intentionally try to trip the basketball greats. It was the globe trotters who aggressively came up behind the brothers and tripped them, but it seemed to be an accident. On the other hand, they did some pretty rotten things like stealing a cab or whatever, but it's a race, right? You can't really blame them! That's all I wanted to say in their defense.

With one out of three reality shows over now, my sister and I have yet to pick a winner. This week, The Biggest Loser finale won't be any better - neither of us picked one of the people in the final four. There's still a chance that one of our picks will win the at-home prize, but we didn't guess the winner and that much is final. Survivor will be the only show left in this season of our friendly reality show picks, and I have no chance left to win that one. Erik, my pick, has been out for weeks now, but K's pick, Jaison, is still going strong. If he can manage to maneuver evil Russell's ousting, he might just have a shot at winning the million dollars. Stay tuned!

In the end, the truth is that it's just so stinking hard to choose a winner for these reality tv shows just off the opening credits or the online bios. I'm proud to have gotten as close as 2nd place. So close, but no cigar. Congrats to Megan and Cheyne. You weren't my initial picks, but you ran a good race and you deserved to win! I will definitely tune in again for Amazing Race 16 whenever it comes out.

More to Love - Fox's New Reality TV Show

More to Love. It's basically the Bachelor with so called "real" people. Plus-sized is the P.C. term. Obese is probably the technical term for many of the people on the show. Yes, big girls need love too, we all know that. But something about the show comes off as too much of a gimmick to me. Also, I was expecting voluptuous women with confidence who ate what they wanted freely and without guilt and who loved themselves despite their weight. I don't know what dream planet I was living on there for a minute, but apparently Fox couldn't find 20 such women in the plus-size category who were willing to go on this tv show. (I, of course, have decided to blog about More to Love on my long ignored reality tv worth watching blog, now housed at blogspot instead of wordpress.)

Instead, so many of the women told sob stories about how they never went to prom or have never once had a date because of how fat they are. Seriously? Didn't they go to college? As long as alcohol is still in fashion, anybody can get a date in college. Big women who are confident still find love, so obviously some of these women have some serious self-confidence issues. And honestly, if that's the case, are they really going to be able to handle the cut-throat world of reality tv dating, where rejection is the inevitable outcome for 99% of the girls? I see a lot of upcoming teary episodes.

On the other hand, one episode of more to love showed more honest conversations than an entire season of The Bachelor. Any show that has two or more women high-fiving over SPANX is alright with me. Unfortunately, both of those women were eliminated... shit. Oh well. I think the show will prove to have some worth, even if it only lasts for one season. What I really would rather see is for producers to go for actual, real normal girls.

They say on their commercial for More to Love that the average dating show contestant is size 2, but the average woman in America is size 14. Then, they proceed to cast their show with women who would KILL to fit into a size 14. Most of them have to be size 18 or higher. 5'5" and 235 pounds? No way that's a size 14. That's obese people. Unhealthy, 70 pounds overweight, size 18 or more. So don't tell me that is what's normal. That's just taking it to the opposite extreme. Give me some 5'5" 170-180 pound women who wear size 10-14 or even 8-14 and then I'll start to believe you understand what 'normal' really is. Then again, it's show business. Will people really watch a show about 'normal' people dating? I say yes, but I also say we'll probably never get to see that show.

Three Down, Two to Go: Teyona wins ANTM

One of my guilty pleasures is watching reality tv. Sure, there are some regular shows that I enjoy, specifically Heroes, but for the most part, I like watching competitions. It's just fun to watch people who really want something compete for a prize (usually money or fame), and each of the shows I love is different in the way they move toward that goal. Unfortunately, however, most of my shows that I love are coming to an end.

I haven't totally been keeping up with every episode simply because I can't sit in front of the tv every night to watch them. Instead, I usually sit in front of the computer all night, but that's not the topic here so let's move on :P.

The Amazing Race, which ended last Sunday, is always a great show. My sister and I love watching it and usually pick one team at the very beginning to win, then place a friendly five dollar bet on it. The odds of actually picking the winning team are usually 1 in 12 or something like that, so it's not too bad. Last season, I won the five dollars when my brother sister team came in first. This season, my sister took the five bucks back when her brother sister team won. My pick, the blonde flight attendants, were out of it after like four weeks or something. Either way, the show is over until they start again, which probably will be in the fall.

The Biggest Loser is another one that we bet on, and I loved this season. Last season, there were actually some players that I didn't like at all (namely Vickie), but this year I was rooting for everyone to lose the weight. My sister picked Tara right off the bat out of 22 competitors. I, sadly, picked David from the orange team. In the finale Tuesday night, Tara came within 5 pounds of winning the prize, but lost out to Helen in the end. Still, though, she lost over 50% of her total weight and was a record breaking player! The guy I picked lost a measly 10% of his weight, which was the lowest percentage of everyone by 12% percent. Most people lost about 30% or so. How did I pick the very worst guy on the whole show? He must not have even been trying, which sucks. And the funny thing is that the website says he lives in Fuquay Varina, NC, which is just minutes from where I live (part of why I picked him). I should go over there and make him explain to me what the hell happened! But I'm not a stalker chick, so I think I'll just leave him alone. I'm sad the show is over though.

Last night, my very favorite show, America's Next Top Model, also ended its season. Teyona, a black beauty from New Jersey, was named the Cycle 12 winner. My sister doesn't watch the show, so no bets here, but I think Teyona definitely deserved to win. Alison, the second runner up, was also one of my favorite contestants of all time. She was so unique and beautiful and sweet.

So that makes 3 of my favorite reality shows going off the air until the fall. Last night on American Idol, the top 2 finalists were announced... and I was surprised to see that it is Adam and Kris! And by that, I mean excited! Danny Gokey was eliminated, and although I think Danny can really sing, I was never really comfortable with the way he seemed to pimp his dead wife's memory for sympathy votes. Adam and Kris are both young and fresh and super cute, so I think this will be a good finale. All I have to say, though, is that American Idol better get some good female vocalists next season. This will be the second year of two guys in the finale and I hate it. Alison Iraheta was awesome and I would have loved to see her in the finale, but seriously she was the only great female this year besides Lil. I think Adam will win in the end, but you never know. Either way, the show's finale is next week, which is just sad.The final show that I love, of course, is Survivor. This is also a bet on show between my sister and I. We both came really close last season on our picks, but once again, I got it all wrong this season. I originally picked Sierra, but after a rough first day on the show, my sister let me change my vote to Sidney. Neither one of them made it this far, but Sierra did make it further which just proves that I was full of bad choices this season. Erin, my sister's choice, is still in it, but is probably not going to win it. Tonight is the next to last episode where it will be whittled down to only 4 survivors. Then, Sunday night will be the two hour finale. I think JT will win it all, and I am very happy with that. He's a good, genuine kind of southern boy that I think has given the south a good name with his intelligence, loyalty and hard work on the show.

With all five of my shows ending, what in the world am I going to watch next? So You THink You Can Dance is starting up on May 21, and that's an awesome show. Does anyone else know of any good reality shows starting up that will run through the summer? My sister and I are looking for a couple of fun ones to bet on that are coming up soon.