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Greatest American Dog (?)
Sep. 11th, 2008 03:44 pmNow that the office Internet seems to finally be working again...
So yesterday was the finale of Greatest American Dog. I think it will be the final finale; CBS wasn't happy with the ratings, and more to the point, they were very hard put to come up with competitions for the dogs and their handlers this season, and another season would require a completely new set of challenges, I just don't see it happening.
But as for the result, I was both surprised and not surprised. Surprised that Travis and Presley won; they were the youngest and most inexperienced pair (both human and dog), they often landed in the bottom 3 each week, they should have been eliminated last week when Presley failed at the challenge. Travis is a novice dog owner who knew nothing about training before the show. Presley is barely past puppyhood.
Not surprised that Travis and Presley won; a lot of people (including putative dog 'lovers') don't like toy dogs and giving the award to a Maltese would have rankled these people. But more importantly, whoever won the contest was supposed to go out on a promotional tour and appear at dog-related events. Andrew was indeed too attached to Laurie, his one real fault, and that would be a problem at a publicity event. Laurie often came across as gruff and stubborn, which also wouldn't be good. But Travis is cute, personable and malleable; Presley is big, a popular breed and sociable. They'd be the better pair for publicity. And hence, they won.
I still think it should have been Bill and Star; but I'm willing to settle for it NOT being JD and Galaxy. Galaxy is a wonderful dog who deserves a better owner than JD; JD shouldn't have lasted on the show as long as he did. I wanted to slug him at least once an ep. And if you look up sore loser in the dictionary, there's JD's picture.
So yesterday was the finale of Greatest American Dog. I think it will be the final finale; CBS wasn't happy with the ratings, and more to the point, they were very hard put to come up with competitions for the dogs and their handlers this season, and another season would require a completely new set of challenges, I just don't see it happening.
But as for the result, I was both surprised and not surprised. Surprised that Travis and Presley won; they were the youngest and most inexperienced pair (both human and dog), they often landed in the bottom 3 each week, they should have been eliminated last week when Presley failed at the challenge. Travis is a novice dog owner who knew nothing about training before the show. Presley is barely past puppyhood.
Not surprised that Travis and Presley won; a lot of people (including putative dog 'lovers') don't like toy dogs and giving the award to a Maltese would have rankled these people. But more importantly, whoever won the contest was supposed to go out on a promotional tour and appear at dog-related events. Andrew was indeed too attached to Laurie, his one real fault, and that would be a problem at a publicity event. Laurie often came across as gruff and stubborn, which also wouldn't be good. But Travis is cute, personable and malleable; Presley is big, a popular breed and sociable. They'd be the better pair for publicity. And hence, they won.
I still think it should have been Bill and Star; but I'm willing to settle for it NOT being JD and Galaxy. Galaxy is a wonderful dog who deserves a better owner than JD; JD shouldn't have lasted on the show as long as he did. I wanted to slug him at least once an ep. And if you look up sore loser in the dictionary, there's JD's picture.
