"Survivor?" Yeah right!

For over a decade, the TV show Survivor has been on the air. It shows no sign of being canceled anytime soon. Apparently, it will stay on the air forever. But despite the moniker, the show has little to do with actual survival. It’s a game show, pure and simple.  

Sure, contestants need to survive by building shelters out of certain items and so forth, but everything is still “made for TV.” God forbid CBS would make contestants actually survive something. Do those people face malnutrition? Nope. People out to kill them? Heavens no! Suffer from post-traumatic stress afterward? Absolutely not! Have to live like an animal? Get real. Cash, cars and other objects are what motivate people to “survive” on the show until the season finale. The only fate is getting kicked off whatever team they are on. CBS’ concept of “survival” for the participants of their reality/game show is a joke.

Real survival is not a game show, folks! Just look at what John F. Kennedy’s PT boat crew had to endure, or the Andes Survivors. Game show that, oh grand, exalted network
execs! Real survival is also no fun. Just look at all the combat veterans from Afghanistan or Iraq who suffer from post-traumatic stress.  

While I am not a combat veteran, I can speak from personal experience about PTSD. My father was abusive and made my childhood pure hell. You can read a bit about what I survived here if you like. But it was survival that came at a price; personal demons have plagued me forever. They have affected me everywhere I go, both at work and at home. I have only just begun to banish them from my soul.      

If you ask me, real survivors are like front-line combat veterans. We look with skeptical eyes on those who have not shared our privations. This makes the contestants on Survivor like rear-echelon troops who sit out wars safely behind the front lines. 

Survivor? Yeah right, CBS! You big wig studio execs try going through what many survivors of genuine hardships have endured. It is guaranteed you will have to come up with a different title for your flagship reality/game show. It is also guaranteed that if you put a Survivor contestant through what real survivors like me endured, they would crumple after five minutes because it was no game.

Image courtesy of Wikimedia.