Fox Reality Channel Folding

[Brig Bother]

[quote name=\'clemon79\' post=\'238027\' date=\'Mar 22 2010, 06:14 PM\'][quote name=\'Brig Bother\' post=\'238023\' date=\'Mar 22 2010, 11:00 AM\']I thought by and large they were quite good, but something nags at me about that final treatment and it was the way the penalties seem to scale rather more harshly than normal, and I wonder if they might have been a bit more lenient if it was a male vs male finale.[/quote]
Without giving it away for those interested parties who have not seen it, I thought the penultimate one was WAY skewed towards the female contestant, and the final one was not nearly as excruciating as a Solitary final treatment should be.
[/quote]

I quite like the competitive aspect of the later treatments, but I'm in absolute agreement that the grand final should have been more... epic.

[TLEberle]

[quote name=\'Mr. Armadillo\' post=\'238008\' date=\'Mar 22 2010, 06:31 AM\']There was a Solitary 4.0?  I totally would have watched that if I got that channel.[/quote]Hulu for the win?

[quote name=\'clemon79\' post=\'238022\' date=\'Mar 22 2010, 10:54 AM\']neocon[/quote] Double word score!

propaganda channel they DO operate, someone, let me know.

I'm sorry, could you repeat that? Keith Olbermann is blathering about whatever on MSNBC, and I wasn't paying attention.

[quote name=\'Brig Bother\' post=\'238023\' date=\'Mar 22 2010, 11:00 AM\']I thought by and large they were quite good, but something nags at me about that final treatment and it was the way the penalties seem to scale rather more harshly than normal, and I wonder if they might have been a bit more lenient if it was a male vs male finale.[/quote]Did the second-per-year-of-age and head start for women help the assault course on those years of Krypton Factor? Survivor's very first final endurance challenge was awesome because it didn't matter how strong you were, you just had to hold on. The only other two finals that came close were the one in China, where the finalists had to keep a platter level via joystick, while adding teacups and saucers on it, and the one where players had to deposit balls into a maze and use a single hand to catch them.

Having the Solitary final as a test of strength would have punished any women (had they made it so far) unduly, plus if the whole point of the game is to endure everything, it seems doubly apropos for the final game to be an endurance one too. Wheel of Misfortune was a neat idea, but it paled in comparison to the Chokey, the Chains and the Electric Cross.

[Brig Bother]

[quote name=\'TLEberle\' post=\'238076\' date=\'Mar 23 2010, 04:30 AM\']Having the Solitary final as a test of strength would have punished any women (had they made it so far) unduly, plus if the whole point of the game is to endure everything, it seems doubly apropos for the final game to be an endurance one too. Wheel of Misfortune was a neat idea, but it paled in comparison to the Chokey, the Chains and the Electric Cross.[/quote]

Indeed, as a concept I liked the Wheel of Misfortune, but there is very little chance of anybody completing 30+ laps of it in two minutes as a penalty, and setting largely impossible challenges isn't what Solitary is really about - normally they'd up the time limit a little bit too (especially that early on!). You lose because you can go no more. I reckon they saw the chance of a female winner and ran with it, not to take anything away from the victory.

For more fun TV endurance, I always thought it was a shame that Hercules didn't get a second series. That also used running in a giant wheel for one of its challenges, the equivilent of doing a marathon up a steep hill.

[Jumpondees]

[quote name=\'TheInquisitiveOne\' post=\'237977\' date=\'Mar 21 2010, 06:51 PM\'][quote name=\'ChrisLambert!\' post=\'237976\' date=\'Mar 21 2010, 05:11 PM\']/Miss you already, VAL[/quote]

This.

As much as I opine about reality television, my fiancee had me watching Solitary 4.0. Holy crap, that was addicting, tense, and (at most times) painful to watch (referring to the treatments).

A simple fix, really: just move it to Fox for a summer replacement or a tide-over for the next Idol, and go from there.

The Inquisitive One

/our time in Solitary is indeed over, sadly
[/quote]

Solitary and The Academy (Not the newer one with the firefighers, the original one with the L.A. Sheriffs) were the only two series I would watch with regularity on FRC.  Hell, Solitary wouldn't work on the mother network, they would have to find another cable outlet.  With its $50k prize, it certainly would fit in GSN's "if it's cheap, and we can make money off of it, then let's do it" mantra.