Strictly as a journalistic endeavor to discover just how it is that so many reality shows on television continue to be so popular, I decided to watch entire runs of two of the early ones, Survivor and The Amazing Race.

To my own shame, I had become somewhat fond of The Apprentice, a johnny-come-lately to the reality ranks. I had watched the first run of the show while on vacation, with my mind checked out of normal, but there is no excuse for watching subsequent showings of it, but I did. I’m over it now. My mental temperature has returned to normal.

As all of the above referenced shows come from the same producer, I thought I would see what they were all about. Of the two shows, The Amazing Race is far superior for a number of reasons.

Survivor is not about survival and the winner being the last one standing as it should be if it was played correctly. Instead they turn the game into a popularity contest when about half the contestants have been voted off, changing the remaining ones that are booted off to form a jury that chooses one of the last two to win a lot of bucks.

One of the survivalists was clearly superior physically, winning challenge after challenge, yet he was not one of the final two. The challenges were the best part. Some truly ingenious mind is at work devising very physical and complex challenges. What I hated about the show was the host always asking stupid questions and the insipid infighting among the island dwellers the viewers were privy to. In general, the show allows viewers to watch scantily clad men and women for a number of weeks and in the end chooses a winner who is not the survivor in truth, simply the more popular of the last two remaining on the island. It is a waste of time and valuable only if you are very very bored.

The Amazing Race is a different kettle of fish altogether. This one started with 11 teams of players, some married, some dating, some friends, some just two family members. The contestants literally race around the world, doing physical and mental games to receive directions to the next point on the map. As with any stressful event, there are some disagreements between teams, especially the teams composed of married or dating people. Some of it got kind of ugly, but in general this was a great show with real winners who won the race.

Along the way, viewers are treated to amazing visuals of a variety of countries and allowed to eavesdrop as teams try to converse with non-English speaking people and make their way along the route to the next stop. Typically the last team to check in at a designated stop would be eliminated, but there were a couple of instances in which the last team was not eliminated. Twice, this last team was a pair of young men from San Francisco who had been dubbed “the hippies” by the other teams.

Whether coming in first or last, this duo was always happy, declaring the day as awesome and inspiring. They also were the team always ready to help any other team in any way they could. The two times they came in last, they were stripped of all their money and left with nothing but passports and the clothes on their backs. They literally had to beg for money to continue the race. I missed both episodes after they came in last and have no idea what they did to progress, but in the end the two highly educated (Stanford and Harvard) and in my opinion, highly evolved pair won the race and the money. It was deserved. They played like gentlemen and didn’t seem to have a mean-spirited bone in their collective bodies. This is a show I will watch again.

It now being the rerun season, it will be Netflix and me for the next several months. I believe my exploration of reality shows is over. I will watch future versions of The Amazing Race but will leave the rest behind and never never go to American Idol land.

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