People who don't like "Survivor" shouldn't talk about who wins in their diaries so that those who do follow the show don't accidentally go to the diary, thinking they're all safe from finding out who won because they were at work and had to tape it and will go home and watch the finale until 3 a.m. You know who you are ;)

But I knew it would be Tina (it's 3 p.m. on Friday, if you don't know by now, you don't care). It didn't surprise me. What did surprise me, though (and I loved it) was how Jeff went and got the box, came back to read the votes, and then was like, "Psyche! I'm off to the States in this helicopter, and I'll read the votes on live TV in May, which is like five months from now, so I hope you make it back in time!" And all the survivors just sat there, looking at one another, bewildered, wondering what the hell they were supposed to do next. It was like they had asked Jeff to take their picture, and he bolts with the camera -- a million-dollar camera. But it did make for good TV, the way it ended, how they all got to watch how the final two hours was edited and how a few people voted. And then you got their reactions on that L.A. soundstage. Not bad.

I don't care what anyone says. Sure, it's contrived, but not that much. I know some things were staged -- you don't think there was a nearly full moon every night, do you? No, that's stock footage. But I don't think they did to much in the way of forcing people to say things or vote a certain way. Sure, they can take liberties with how they cut and edit footage to create a feeling or an illusion about what it's like, but I think for the most part, they try to stay true to what it was like. It's obvious that you're not seeing the actual product, but one dressed up for TV. I mean think about it: In the entire 3+ months of the show, only twice did talk of the latrine come up, and the first was when they were talking about where it would be. And that stuff only came up once in the first one too; thank God they cut that stuff out.

So my "Survivor" jones has been satisfied for a few months. I watch it more to see how people react to the environment than I do for all the drama and how they all play the game. That's why I'm looking forward to the third one in Africa. I was actually ready for it to end -- I'm always ready for the TV season to end in May. The weather warms, there's baseball everywhere, and there's just no time to be inside watching TV, unless it happens to be at 1 a.m. after work or a night out at the bars. Then TV is really funny.

Well, another weekend approaches, and I have to work. But I'll go out afterwards for a few drinks. And tomorrow I'm off and LJ is coming up from D.C., so we'll probably head up to Queens to see the Mets and Diamondbacks at Shea. And then settle into a bar for dinner tomorrow night and watch the Devils and Maple Leafs, a superb sports day.