The success of “The Bible” is and is not surprising. That’s a huge audience, and a huge audience for a bad series — plodding, stiff, dull, God-is-a-white-guy-with-sandy-blond-hair kind of bad. But it has been demonstrated before that there is a huge market for religious-based, evangelical-leaning entertainments, of which “The Bible” is clearly one. (Mark Burnett, the producer of “Survivor” and a very canny finder of eyeballs, is one of the series’ producers.) Part of the reason the series is so middling is that it is explicitly constructed not to offend this demographic: It isn’t even serious about all of the crises of faith chronicled in the actual Bible, because that would require elucidating ... crises of faith.

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Desiree and I didn’t have much in common. I tried to engage her in conversation, but her attention retreated whenever I strayed from her preferred subjects, like Piloxing. But one thing upon which we agreed was that when the game started, we'd be allies. "Because we'll both get on, right?" I joked.

"The energy in this part of the line is very cosmic," she said.

“Survivor” has been around for so long that mentioning it among the reality shows that are, after decades, still degrading our standards for entertainment almost seems redundant. And yet the show, now airing its 26th season in 13 years, still has its core audience – a group of 8 to 10 million people who tune in season after season. Inside that number is a smaller subset who dream of getting cast and starving on a beach somewhere in Southeast Asia or Latin America for seven to eight weeks.

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But just in case putting Bible stories on the History Channel makes you feel a little icky, don't worry. The series will be entirely free of historical context, according the network's president.

The Bible has its own layers of interpretation, of course, but Ms. Dubuc said the series would not try to impose any kind of historical context to events like the Flood. "It is just the magnitude of the book itself," she said. "We’re not stepping back to examine anything that could be called a controversy. We are just telling the stories that are in it."

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Since the series' U.S. premiere in summer of 2000, nobody has ever dominated the game as thoroughly and consistently throughout a season as Mariano did this year. It was his fourth time playing the game. In his second outing on "Survivor: All-Stars," he was beaten by his future wife, Amber Brkich, to whom he proposed before that season's votes were read. Brkich was in the studio last night with their two young children. "It was Amber that encouraged me to come back," he told the camera in one of his final interviews on the Nicaragua set, losing his composure as he spoke. "She believed in me. It's 'cause of her. I feel like whatever happens now, I'm OK, even if I don't win. Which is ironic, 'cause the only reason I ever wanted to come back and play again was to win."

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Case in point: Talking about "Harry Potter" movies released in 2001 makes me feel old. Mention "Pearl Harbor" and "Survivor," however, and I'm like, "The early aughts were so weird! Was that really only 10 years ago?" Reading this old CNN article, I actually feel like I've unearthed a time capsule.

And you thought the hype for "Pearl Harbor" would be so loud by May 1 you wouldn't be able to hear yourself think. Instead, with summer's movie blockbuster season right around the corner, there's only one item for discussion in the hills of Hollywood on Tuesday: the pending writers strike.

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The latest wrinkle is announced in the title of this season: "Survivor: Redemption Island." The "island" is actually an arena where people voted out of the main competition go up against other expelled tribe members in one-on-one competitions. Whoever survives those secondary challenges eventually returns to the main competition, invigorated by victory and (presumably) looking for payback against the people who voted them out. To jazz things up even more, the producers have brought back a couple of veteran "Survivor" players: "Boston" Rob Mariano, who appeared in three incarnations of the series, and Russell Hantz, who played against Rob in "Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains."

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The Foreign Relations Department official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment publicly on the case. He said Mexico has submitted its request to U.S. authorities, but for the moment there were no more details.

A spokesman for Richard Hirsch, Beresford-Redman's attorney in California, said nothing formal had been received and he could not comment on the official's statement.

A Mexican judge issued an arrest warrant for Beresford-Redman in the April 8 killing of his wife, Monica, whose body was found in a sewer of a luxury Cancun resort. Investigators have said her body showed signs of asphyxiation and evidence of a heavy blow to the right temple.

The former "Survivor" producer and co-creator of "Pimp My Ride" reported her missing two days before the body was found. Beresford-Redman, 38, says he is innocent.

He returned to Southern California in May even though Mexican authorities had confiscated his passport. He had not been charged at the time, however, and was not barred from leaving the country. It is not clear where he crossed the border or how he did so without his passport.

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Associated Press Writer Anthony McCartney in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

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Not to damn the "Heroes vs. Villains" iteration with faint praise here. I really enjoyed the season, which brought back players I love ("Boston" Rob Mariano) and love to hate (Rupert Boneham), and featured a high number of unexpected boots and blindsides. I like Sandra Diaz-Twine, and I like that she won again (or, really, that anyone besides Russell Hantz won).

Bringing back polarizing personalities for yet another all-stars go-round hid the problems facing the show to a certain extent, but it didn't solve them, and when "Survivor" returns to the civilians-only format next fall, it won't have Benjamin "Coach" Wade's samurai sermonizing to offer as entertainment. Can the show return to its earlier form? Or is it inevitable that a show with 20 seasons behind it will falter? Has "Survivor" run out of ways to make us care?

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The official says the body of Monica Beresford-Redman was found Thursday in a gutter at the swanky Moon Palace resort where they were on a family vacation.

The official at the attorney general's office in Quintana Roo state, where Cancun is located, spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media about the case.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

MEXICO CITY (AP) -- A Mexican official says the wife of "Survivor" producer Bruce Beresford-Redman is missing in Cancun.

The official says Beresford-Redman told police his wife Monica left the Moon Palace Hotel on Monday and has not returned.

The official at the attorney general's office in Quintana Roo state, where Cancun is located, spoke Thursday on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media about the case.

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Let's star with one of my personal favorites among the villains, Russell, who is a lot like Michigan State: Quick, scrappy and slightly out of control. Just as sports analysts often underestimate Michigan State, viewers seem to agree that Russell doesn't stand a chance this season. But keep in mind, Russell never looked like he'd make it very far on "Survivor: Samoa," either, making alliances with everyone under the sun, lying through his teeth, calling his closest allies "dumbasses" behind their backs, and becoming a target by finding one immunity idol after another. But crucially, just as Coach Tom Izzo's teams always know when to drive to the basket and when to go for the open shot, Russell knew when to play those immunity idols. True, this time around Russell is even less clandestine about his ambitions, an Achilles' heel roughly equivalent to snapping your Achilles' tendon (as Michigan State's point guard Kalin Lucas just did, leaving his team's Final Four hopes in question). Somehow, though, I look at Russell and I think of Mateen Cleaves: This is a guy who can get 'er done, against the odds. Go Russell!

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After a grueling Tribal Council, during which reigning blunt weapon Sandra suggested that he should do more work around camp, Coach wept openly to fellow Tocantins alum Tyson. Tyson took it as a good opportunity to suggest that Coach stop wearing mystical feathers in his hair, doing tai chi around camp and telling long-winded fantastical stories. In other words? Stop being Coach.

The next morning, Coach considers his options on a lonely walkabout, begs Boston Rob for a little man love and then, in a breathtaking demonstration of how insecurity is so often transformed, by sheer force of will, into self-aggrandizement, Coach swallows back his newfound vulnerability and takes refuge -- where else? -- in his old familiar friend, the superiority complex.

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And never before has the populace strained quite so strenuously against the unbearable oppression of free will. Look what our independence has bought us, after all: Houses we can't afford that are worth less than our gigantic loans. A terrible legacy as the world's jackboot-wearing cops. Lady Gaga. Where does it end?

It's time for a sure-handed, charismatic commander to lull us into sheeplike complacency once again. Fascism, communism, whatever flavor suits his or her mood is fine with us, as long as we don't have to make bad decisions all by ourselves anymore. Just make sure the little cameras in our bedrooms broadcast to the Web, so we can watch along with our fearless leaders, thereby helping to snuff out insubordination, laziness and chronic masturbation.

We'll be just like the Red Guards in China, only less fit and much more perverted.

Two legs bad!

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But let's not judge these sound-bite-spewing tattletales too harshly. Because we all hold grudges, don’t we? Sure, we pretend not to, with our therapy-speak about "That's all in the past," and "I wish him the best" and "I would send the motherfucker a congratulatory wedding present if I knew where the shameless gutter rat had crawled off to."

Let's face it: It's tough to let go of the past completely, or we wouldn't collect a colorful assortment of Facebook frenemies or Google the ex-girlfriends of long-lost ex-boyfriends to see how their boob jobs have weathered the storm of the childbearing years.

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We know every one of these reality archetypes all too well by now. Or rather, we know how they talk to a camera about themselves, and how they react to losing the flower-arranging challenge, and what they think about men who refuse to flirt with them or antisocial girls who make the same dress over and over again.

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Of course, some parents should've zipped up after they got lucky with their first. Two American "Fawlty Towers" weren't better than the British one ("Amanda's" and "Payne," we're looking at you), and the British "Friends"-style comedy "Coupling" fared better when it was single. When it comes to TV imports arriving in the States, there's been good, bad and ugly. We're just giving you the good and "Ugly Betty." table.int {clear: both} table.int th, table.int td {vertical-align: top} table.int thead th {font-weight:bold;} table.int td, table.int tbody th {border-top: 1px solid #ddd; padding: 12px 0 24px 6px} th img, td img {margin-top: 6px} div.series_date {font: 0.85em verdana, sans-serif; color: #666; } table.int h3 {font-weight: bold; text-indent: -.5em; margin: 6px 0 3px} th.foreign_title, th.series_title {width: 184px;} thead th {padding-left: 6px;} span.flag {color: #000; padding-left: 28px; background-position: 0 0.2em; background-repeat: no-repeat;} span.uk {background-image: url(uk_flag.gif)} span.netherlands {background-image: url(netherlands_flag.gif)} span.sweden {background-image: url(sweden_flag.gif)} span.japan {background-image: url(japan_flag.gif)} span.colombia {background-image: url(colombia_flag.gif)}

Foreign Title	American Title	How It Translated
"Till Death Do Us Part" U.K. 1965–1975	"All in the Family" 1971–1979	The American version moved the story from the East End of London to Queens, N.Y., but centered on an equally bigoted working-class antihero, though Archie Bunker was more riled over race mingling than the socialism that upset his British predecessor, Alf Garnett.
"Steptoe and Son" U.K. 1962–1965, 1970–1974	"Sanford and Son" 1972–1977	The African-American Sanfords of Los Angeles were dealing with pretty much the same junk as their white counterparts in London, and they hated to love each other just as rowdily.
"Man About the House" U.K. 1973–1976	"Three's Company" 1977–1984	The sexual subtext of this two-girls-and-a-guy comedy translated so beautifully across the pond they didn't even have to change Chrissy's name.
"One Foot in the Grave" U.K. 1990–2000	"Cosby" 1996–2000	The late-'90s show "Cosby" was a return to form for the man behind one of the most important black sitcoms ever, "The Cosby Show." The only thing black about its British relative was the comedy.
"Big Brother" Netherlands 1999–2006	"Big Brother" 2000–present	Americans took the democracy out of the reality show watched live by millions by introducing the head of household position and making it all about the money.
"Expedition Robinson" Sweden 1997–2005	"Survivor" 2000–present	What the show lost in dignity it gained in currency. Money was only an afterthought in Sweden, where 48 players tried to foster communal cooperation -- not fame -- while competing in tasks too intense for American castaways.
"Queer as Folk" U.K. 1999–2000	"Queer as Folk" 2000–2005	Jettisoning the quirky comedy of the original gave the American version more time to strip down to the bare essential: hot sex.
"Iron Chef/Ironmen of Cooking [Ryori no Tetsujin]" Japan 1993–2002	"Iron Chef America" 2005–Present	The secret ingredient in the American import? Old masters like Masaharu Morimoto meet new masters like Bobby Flay and Mario Batali in the American Kitchen Stadium, an industrialized take on the traditional Japanese culinary theater.
"The Office" U.K. 2001–2003	"The Office" 2005–present	The humor in Scranton, Pa., is wetter than it is in Slough, England, but awkward intercubical glances abound on either side of the Atlantic, and it's always hard to ignore that omnipresent camera.
"Yo soy Betty, la fea" Colombia 1999–2001	"Ugly Betty" 2006–present	When South America's twisty telenovela lands in high-budget New York, Betty is still ugly, but the result is pure glamour.

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For diehard "Survivor" fans, fans who haven't missed a single season since Richard Hatch so memorably trotted around on the beach naked, double-crossed everyone and still took home the million-dollar prize, these "surprises" are part of the "Survivor" formula, as predictable as the part on "Law & Order" where the gas station attendant suddenly recalls the details of a customer who came in the night before, acting "kinda strange" and like he'd just "been spooked by something." Nervous breakdowns, injuries, trickery, secret friends, secret enemies, lovers, manipulated wannabe lovers, betrayed former friends -- we've seen it all.

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These brave pioneers would forge a new path, and soon others would follow. But even the most intrepid and hardy specimens might wind up pacing the aisles of the corner store, braying and pawing at the ground over the fact that Corn Nuts aren't an adequate substitute for Double Stuff Oreos and Sour Cream & Onion Bugles.

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"Survivor: Fiji" will go down as the season in which a little old Asian guy almost won it all, then lost it all thanks to an ill-conceived deal. But even if Earl Cole won the million-dollar prize, Yau-Man will definitely go down as the unsung hero of this very riveting season of "Survivor."

He looked like a dead man walking during the first few episodes of the game. Frail, older than everyone else, dorky -- these aren't words that one usually uses to describe the kind of person who wins the prize on "Survivor." But Yau-Man had a few tricks up his sleeve: He made friends with Earl, a likable, smart leader on his tribe who knew how to rally his tribe members. Earl and Yau-Man collaborated to find the immunity idol hidden on the island. Then, much to everyone's surprise, Yau-Man started winning challenges for his team, and then for himself, throwing arrows with accuracy, solving puzzles quickly and figuring out the proper method to tackle each new obstacle course. He even figured out when to play his immunity idol. (You have to bring it out before the votes are read, so you need to know when you're at risk -- not an easy task, given how many times players in this game have been blindsided over the years.)

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Thanks to laziness, I've ended up watching shows like "I Love New York" for months, despite their obvious brain-melting stupidity, because they were always at the top of my TiVo queue. Like McDonald's french fries, they sit there, stinking up the joint with their foul, foolish stench, begging me to dig into their salty deliciousness despite my best intentions.

I know it's a sin, but something rotten inside me won't let me delete "Pussycat Dolls Present: The Search for the Next Doll" or "The Bachelor: Officer and a Gentleman" or the insipid eighth cycle of "America's Next Top Model." For some reason, the baby ho donkey festival and sea donkerella pageant are my personal El Guapo. I can't get enough of the skin-tight ass pants and the nasty little insinuations that Felicia can't dance or Jolena has an eating disorder. Sea donkey, who are you, to take these many forms?

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