One of the critical things to making a reality show successful is providing the audience with contestants to root for and against. Think about it, if you're watching a reality show you constantly wish to see some people win and, if you're like me, some people go home. You may call it very negative of me, but I often find the latter more interesting than the former. Consequently, when I'm faced with a choice of two people I want to see leave – as I was on last night's The Celebrity Apprentice – I find myself torn.
Early in the season I was wholly anti-Melissa Rivers. I love her mom, but something about Melissa has always rubbed me the wrong way – probably it's been the sense I get from her of riding her mother's coattails, but maybe not. In any case, Melissa was at the top of the list of people I wanted to get fired from the start.
That may have been because I had no idea who Annie Duke was. If I'd had any idea that Annie Duke existed and what her personality was, she'd probably have rated higher on my "get fired" list. She certainly found her way to the top of it after the first few episodes this year, and last night I found myself watching the boardroom and debating (by myself) whether I'd rather see Annie or Melissa go home.
No, it wasn't mean and vindictive and awful of me, I employed true reality show strategy in my thinking. You see, I knew that if Melissa got fired, Joan would make some huge dramatic proclamation about quitting the show and storm out. Plus, there was no way that Melissa herself was going to go quietly into that goodnight. I have been waiting weeks on end to see both of those things go down, and I simply didn't want to wait any longer.
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