Skin Survivor

Brian Heidik was just revealed as the winner of the latest version of Survivor.

Forget about the $1 million Heidik, who was billed as a "used car salesman" on the series, gets to take home. His back story, on vivid display at the invaluable Web site The Smoking Gun, includes not just getting punched out by his strange-ranger wife Charmaine but a previous career in the skin trade.

When Survivor first appeared in summer 2000, its success was seen as no less apocalyptic than the final Fatima revelation. Here we are two and a half years later and it turns out that the show is good clean fun--despite or perhaps because of the fact that the latest victor was once a soft-core stud.

Comments

[Russ Lemley]

OK, I have to admit it. I really like the show. Not only is the game extremely challenging (and I think finally people are seeing it as a game), but there's something else I really like about it. It seems Survivor is very respectful of the cultures of the regions in which the games are played. And they don't do it in a patronizing way either. The show is also very Disney-esque in how it pays attention to detail. Overall, it's a lot of fun.