You Are the Weakest Link

I caught an episode of The Weakest Link the other day, and I'm glad to report that Anne Robinson is doing quite well on her home turf. It's too bad that Americans weren't able to embrace her the way they obviously have in the U.K. Anne's exactly the kind of villain that game shows, and reality shows in general, need. She's not underhanded, she just calls things as she sees them and tries to push each contestant's buttons.

For example, she spent most of the episode I saw hinting that one of the contestants might be gay. He was a flooring salesman who was married, but he'd previously sold drapery fabrics. Anne took the drapery fabrics bit and ran with it, asking him if he liked musicals and things like that. The fact that she kept asking about his sexual orientation wasn't the funny part. It was that he didn't seem to understand why she'd assume he was gay, even though he kept talking about his interest in musical theater and interior design. He didn't realize that all of his interests were lining up with a lot of stereotypes of gay men.

America needs more of Anne's spirit. Reality villains need to spend less time trying to be over-the-top nasty, and instead exploit people's weaknesses and vulnerability. Use someone's insecurity against them until they doom themselves. Classic Rob C. from Survivor, as when he built up Alex's ego and then booted him off. Lacking that creativity, I'd sooner tell most reality villains, "Goodbye."