Season's come and go, so do old favourites.

I have been waiting to blog about Big Brother for weeks, waiting to see how the show progressed. This season's big twist were the houseguests competing in duos and the return of favourite pairs. "Double Trouble" is continuing to be a battle between "The Veterans" and "The Newbies", and was, thankfully, much more exciting than last summer's season with Enzo a.k.a. "The Meow-Meow". I am rooting for the Vets, especially Jordan.

With the end of Big Brother we start to see the beginning of the new Fall shows and return of old favourites. Survivor will be back with Redemption Island and two old favourites, Ozzy Lusth and Coach Wade. I find that to be an odd combination as neither played together before, and they played very different from each other: "Ozzy is a tough competitor and, arguably, the best performer in challenges; Coach likes to think he's the best competitor" says Jeff Probst. That is a fair account.

Some old favourites from Survivor are competing on The Amazing Race: Ethan Zohn and Jenna Morasca, winners of Survivor: Africa and Survivor: Amazon. I can only hope we have a nicer but still tough Rob and Amber duo on our hands as the two race to win, but mainly I'm happy to see that Ethan is doing better after battling cancer. This makes the fourth team to have people from another reality show competing: Alison, and Jeff and Jordan from Big Brother; Rob and Amber from Survivor.

America's Next Top Model is finally catching up with the other reality television shows with an all-stars version. All-stars versions are a great way to catch up with old favourites, but could all these returning players be a sign that the major networks are trying to get old audiences to come back by featuring some of the most popular players?

As one of reality televisions most loyal and dedicated fans, I want CBS, NBC, ABC (I only saw a few episodes of Bachelor Pad, and was not impressed, but did catch up on what made Melissa crazy) and CW to keep casting new people and focus on the new strategies, rather than see Russell Hantz try to win for another time.

I'll be sure to blog more now that the new shows are out, but does anyone have any suggestions on what shows to watch this fall?

All-Stars = Celebrity

For many reality television shows my favourite seasons are usually the "all-star" versions. Past contestants come back to compete once again for the chance to be the "sole survivor," "first-place team" or "final houseguest." In all forms of competition reality television, from outdoor adventure to cooking, there are all-star seasons, if there have been enough regular seasons to collect an all-star cast. A lot of people I have talked to ask why Survivor hasn't ever had a celebrity version of itself (the U.S. version hasn't, but many other countries have had a celebrity Survivor). I think the use of celebrities is a desperate attempt to regain the audiences once have.

Survivor hasn't had a celebrity version, but has had two "all-stars" and three seasons with returning castaways. Aren't these seasons celebrity versions of Survivor? Bringing back past contestants who garner a lot of media and public attention, like Rupert, Russell, Jerri and James, will draw in the money that CBS and Mark Burnett need to make the game stay alive. But are we not celebrating those who have played before by showcasing them once again? Just like in Celebrity Apprentice, Celebrity Mole, I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here we are celebrating the characters we love from the previous seasons of the past Survivors. In the ten years of the show, the all-star seasons have gained the most media attention, in comparison to the first season. Season 20, Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains, ranks in the top five seasons of the hit series because there was a clear division of true human spirit: you either cheered for a hero or a villain. But, in all reality, you're cheering for your favourite Survivor celebrity.