Results tagged “survivor”

Cuban president Fidel Castro resigned his position after nearly 50 years of rule. The 81-year-old Castro has been battling illness since 2006, notably turning over power to his brother Raul and other ministers temporarily. Though he was still ruling after his 2006 surgery, Castro was little seen. Now it is expected that Castro's resignation positions Raul Castro, 76, in line for the presidency.

The Top Chef Miami finale is upon us and we're going to weigh in with some thoughts. There will be spoilers, but they'll be after the jump.

A look at some noteworthy television this week:

A look at some noteworthy television this week:

A look at some noteworthy programs this week:

Some readers have been asking about events related to the fifth anniversary of the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center. Aside from the official city plans, which include moments of silence, reading of victims' names and time for the families to lay flowers at Ground Zero, as well as the lighting of Tribute in Light, a number of organizations and groups have events all weekend and on Monday. For instance, the September 11 Memorial Quilts will be dedicated tomorrow at the Marriott Financial Center, the World Trade Center Survivor's Network will plant a "Survivor Tree" in City Hall Park on Sunday, New York Buddhist Church will have a floating lighted lantern ceremony at Houston and the Hudson River on Monday.

This morning, the City Council's Black, Latino and Asian Caucus protested the upcoming season of CBS reality stalwart, Survivor, which has split its four tribes up by race - Asian, black, Hispanic, and white. City Councilman Robert Jackson, the caucus' chairman, said, "We are going to call on CBS to pull the plug on this... I'm hoping that the experiment fails so they know that the people of this great country are above this race-baiting-type situation." Fat chance CBS will take it off the air, as the gimmick controversy will only give them higher ratings and an even bigger lead-in for CSI on Thursday nights. Hell, we're even back to being interested in Survivor now. And City Councilman John "Media Minute" Liu said, "The idea of having a battle of the races is preposterous. How could anybody be so desperate for ratings?" Um, it's called "I Can't Believe Fox Has the Number 1 Reality Show," we think - that Mark Burnett is always out for blood!

The Roosevelt Island tram continues to sit still as the NY State Department of Labor investigates what Tuesday night when it just stopped working...and the two backups systems didn't work. And the culprit for the problems that caused people to be stuck midair for hours? The air brakes didn't work properly, according to DoL sources, though Roosevelt Island officials disagree. The AP reports DoL will check out the first backup system - a diesel one - at Roosevelt Island today to figure out if it would have worked if the brakes worked; the DoL will also review ConEd's doings, to see what caused the initial power surges that downed the system. Ah, when in doubt, blame ConEd!

Rog, the Armchair Athlete, reminded us that there's an open casting call for Survivor tomorrow! It's at the Javits Center - here are his tips for that "Body by Starvation:

1. Filled out application (get the application here.)
2. Full body shot photo (fit or fat?)
3. Facial shot photo (Please do not be completely repulsive)
4. Valid passport, driver's license, or photo ID (No terrorists, please)

Could it be? One year after some talk that the MTA was considering bringing smart card technology to roost here, the MTA is actually going to pilot test smart cards. So that $44 million put towards testing isn't going to waste! The goal is to have a "seamless fare card" that would be able to work against the MTA's systems (the subways, buses, Metro North), the PATH, and NJ Transit (buses and trains). Gothamist would love that idea - waiting on line at Penn Station for LIRR or NJ Transit tickets kills us, even at the machines. The Daily News says the agencies signed a "strategic alliance" to simply NYC metro area travel, which makes us yearn for a reality show with contestents from those agencies trying to navigate through their properties, The Amazing Race-meets-Survivor like. However, the pilot program won't begin until next year at the earliest...but then again, that's a few months for us to lobby the MTA to be part of the test.

Recently Time Magazine picked the 100 best English-language novels from 1923 to the present. Now as these lists seem to come out about once a month and mean about as much as the prize in a box of cracker jacks we've learned to generally completely ignore them. In fact, we probably wouldn't have even registered this latest list if it weren't for this genius post on The Morning News.

Last night's winner of Survivor is a hometown firefighter: Tom Westman, 41 year-old Queens born and bred, and a firefighter in Williamsburg's Ladder Co. 108, managed to outwit, outplay and outlast nineteen other people - many of them horribly, horribly annoying (and yes, we're talking about Katie, the runner-up whose $100,000 payday Gothamist likes to think is payment to make sure she didn't win). Westman, or, Tom, as most of America knows him, was possibly the most physically dominating competitor on the show in a while, winning many of the grueling and cockamamie immunity challenges, and even won the support of ex-Survivor wannabes who thought he played "dirty" and was "chauvinistic," because he at least deserved to win, versus Katie who just suck-suck-sucked. Tom's fellow firefighters think the father of three will stay a firefighter, in spite of his $1 million payday.

Circa 7PM: We were pretty excited that Joan Rivers and Melissa Rivers were off Red Carpet duty for E!, because if there's one word we don't care to hear on Hollywood-congratulates-itself night, it's "Missy!" But we have our new Missy: It's "Al," as in Al Reynolds, Star Jones' "fiance." Star, who took over E!'s red carpet hosting duties (with some fashion guy named Robert), kept referring to her upcoming marriage and fiance throughout the evening. Eh. And what Star lacks in the bitchiness that Joan brought, she does make up for it in being able to be "black" with black. But still, hearing about Star watching TV in bed with Al makes Gothamist tempted to scream, "Bring back Joan and Missy, those horse faced, plastic-surgeried bitches!"

The Republican National Convention opened yesterday with two of its more liberal politicians, Rudy Giuliani and Senator John McCain, taking the stage. Senator McCain, whose dalliances with the other side have confused the more right-leaning conservatives, won the affection of delegates by "mauling" Michael Moore, who was at the convention under the auspices of writing for USA Today. On the Today Show Tim Russert called Moore the GOP's favorite pinata; Moore, for his part, seemed to revel in the attention. Related: Analysis of Day 1 from NY Times and Washington Post says it's all about terror and September 11. And then there's the Republican Party platform (PDF) that's driven by the social conservatives in the party.

The Medium's website was reportedly wiped out by a hacker Friday; now, there is a message saying its bandwidth has been exceeded. Rutgers' main daily is The Daily Targum.

Gothamist cannot wait to go to "Restaurant," the new restaurant/reality series from Rocco DiSpirito (Union Pacific), Mark Burnett (Survivor), and NBC (Channel 4 here in NY). There's nothing we like more than food and a little insanity. The Times Styles section looks what seems to be a hilarious casting/hiring process, as employees need to be competent but cute. But in a city of actors who work as watiers, Gothamist has to hand it to the genius of Mark Burnett to capitalize on it.

New that Survivor producer Mark Burnett is planning a reality show where people work for Donald Trump is something Gothamist would watch, but maybe it's because Jen is reminded of her first job:

So 'Joe Millionaire' Is Fox's Biggest Hit. It always seems so shocking that the Fox Network is able to pull out wins, even almost 20 years of existence. The Married with Children reunion made me realize that I've grown up seeing Fox evolve. It was wild and crazy in the early days, with A Current Affair and Tracey Ullman Show and Married with Children. And it was shocking when Fox decided to pit The Simpsons against NBC's Cosby Show on Thursdays at 8PM - everyone thought The Simpsons would die, but it was actually a brilliant counter-programming move, people were reminded of when CBS decided to move Survivor opposite Friends. What it did was bring more viewers to network viewing overall, with less cannibalization than thought, and forced the shows' creators to make their shows smarter. That strange mix of gutsiness, moxie, and smarts are why Fox is the quintessential challenger brand. Sure, they have Celebrity Boxing but they also have 24. The show that followed The Cosby Show on Thursday was Family Ties. That wily media mogul Barry Diller was the one who led Fox in the early days. Barry's other innovation: basically inventing the movie of the week concept while at ABC.

Reality television has been around in the U.S. long enough for one of the new Survivor:Amazon castmates to have written a senior thesis on "The Impact of Reality Television."