Reality Shows

The soundtrack to my family life in Spain is the drone of the television. I´ve seen snippets of dubbed American movies--one was on Saturday where Richard Gere was a knight or something and the guy who did his voice sounded like Jean Claude Van Damme-- and shows like Family Guy (whose humor is definitely compromised in translation), Law and Order (which I don´t even watch in English), and my mama´s favorite: Supervivientes (Survivor).
I guess the appeal and turnoff of reality shows is the drama. In Spain, even newscasters are ridiculously animated. They make a car accident sound like an extra-marital affair. So the genre of reality shows is almost unbearable (or fabulous, depending on your taste).
Supervivientes is broadcasted during dinnertime, and her face visibly lights up to the sound of the theme song. Before I ever saw an episode, she tried to explain it to me: 15 people, perform challenges, live on an island. She excitedly relayed the details of several episodes: eating ants, staring into balls of fire. These were the pieces of sentences that I could catch as she rattled on about her favorite show. Then, I saw my first episode...
Supervivientes works a little bit like American Idol here. It is broadcasted two times a week, once on the island where they show the people attempting each challenge. The following day, the show is broadcasted from Madrid, where the tacky host brings in family members and others into the studio, and asks them to comment on the previous day´s show, and then the loser is voted off before a live studio audience.
Yesterday, my mama´s favorite female performed pretty poorly. Let´s just say that I´m not looking forward to dinner tonight.