I have to admit one of my guilty pleasures lately is watching Animal Planet’s King of the Jungle II. Unlike the first season in which naturalists and animal experts competed, in the second season regular joes get an opportunity to compete for the title of King of the Jungle. The idea set forth for this season is that the contestants are all members of a jungle pride, you know, the name a family group of lions is known by.
In the real world, the leadership of a pride is the strongest member of the pride. If a lion cannot contribute to the health, protection and livelyhood of a pride, that lion is usually kicked out or killed.
In the reality tv world though, it is a bit different and it just pisses me off. The contestants get sentimental, forge friendships, develop emotional alliances, and turn a beautiful survival of the fittest competition into a virtual orgy of touchy feely crap.
From the get go, the contestants refuse to get rid of the weakest members of the pride, choosing instead to send the strongest members of the pride into the “Lion Pit,” or the place where they are either retained as members or sent out of the game. One of the most annoyingly weak players, who in the real world would have been eaten in the first few minutes of introduction into the pride, stayed in the game for WAY TOO long.
If I was in the game, the first two people in the lion’s pit would have been the two weakest members, which coincidently, would have removed 90% of the drama.