Survivor Finale

Correction: This doesn't seem to be the Apprentice Finale. Sorry, I thought it was.

A possible bit of news in the Apprentice Finale, because Trump has claimed in his live finale, he'd be making an announcement. Presumably about running for office.

The trouble is, NBC says that finale was taped.

“The show this weekend [part one of the finale] was taped back in November, and next week’s episode is also taped,” Pannozzo said. “So there will be no opportunity for him to do something like that.”

What? Didn’t Trump himself suggest to The New York Times that he’d be delivering the news—or at least news of when and where he’d deliver the news—of his presidential plans on the show?

“I am thinking of saying on the live finale of The Apprentice on May 22 that in a few days I will be making an announcement about my decision,” Trump told the Times. ”I might ask the two finalists if I should run for president. Of course, if they’re intelligent they’ll have to say yes, since I’m about to fire one of them.”

Not exactly, according to the show’s publicist. “There will be no announcement,” Pannozzo said. “It’s just misinformation on his part.” Pannozzo insists there will be no live segments of the show. Asked about Pannozzo’s comments, Trump spokesman Michael Cohen confirmed to National Journal: “Mr. Trump will not be making any announcement during the finale of The Apprentice.”

Is Trump lying? I don't know. I know in the past the finale has been live but containing chiefly recorded material. Maybe they tape a show, and then people keep quiet about winners and losers, and then they re-stage the show live, even though the winner was already picked. And maybe NBC decided that they wouldn't permit Trump to do that this time.

I haven't watched The Apprentice much anymore but it always was live before.

On Survivor, no political news. Reading the editing tea leaves: Whoever is going to win, the editors know it, because they already saw it happen. So they can (and always do) shape their editing to give the winner a good cut, a warm and fuzzy cut, even if the winner is a coattail rider who didn't do much on the show.

On the show, only two (and maybe three) people have been given anything like a hero's edit: Rob, Matt, and maybe Andrea. Mike, the Afghanistan veteran with the winner's edge, can't possibly be winning, because they would be featuring him in confessionals every week.

Natalie and Ashley? I wasn't even sure of their names until last week.

And they haven't shown much of Matt or Andrea lately, either.

Even though you might say, "Of course they're giving Rob a lot of screen time, he's making the moves," well yes, but they can always show the winner talking about family, or just sticking with it, or something for the audience to relate to and identify with them on.

They did that with Sandra, for example, when she won twice, despite being a bit of a coattail-commuter. You always got her sassy chatter in confessionals. They made sure you knew her.

According to editing: Mike and Grant are ciphers, despite being likable and hunky. The two girls are cute but virtually unheard from. Matt and Andrea get a little face time.

And Rob's on the show all the time.

Well, honestly, so is Philip. But I gotta figure that's just because he's zany and in this snoozer of a season that's how they filled the time.

Oh man. Geeze Louise, Philip might win.

Oh, I guess there is a slight political angle: A lot of viewers are annoyed that Matt the Christian gets so much Jesus-talk out into his edits. Not sure why that bothers people, but there you go.

posted by Ace at 07:57 PM

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