Creativity Shines During This Pandemic

With the pandemic hanging around for who knows how long, it has brought an unusual set of circumstances for the world of sports and reality shows.

It kind of hit me over the weekend while watching events on television. I'm not a huge fan of reality shows, but I do watch Survivor and America's Got Talent. I've been a fan of Survivor since day one. The show has evolved over the run of the series and and there has never been a season I haven't enjoyed. Normally, CBS airs two series a year, but from what I understand, that apparently won't happen this year. Plans are to return next spring. The show has dealt with difficult issues in the past and I'm sure they will solve this one too.

As for America's Got Talent, they are smack in the middle of their series, and went from a full audience in the theater before the pandemic became a concern, to just the judges and contestants, and finally to having the judges judge from home and the contestants auditioning from their home.

While I love the show, I really miss the interaction with the audience. Their applause, boos, emotions, it's all gone. It's so surreal. AGT has made plans to continue with the next rounds of competition in a variety of way, and I give them credit for their ingenuity on being able to keep the show alive.

As for sports, I tuned in this past weekend to watch an exhibition game between the New York Mets and the New York Yankees. So great to have baseball back. But, again, no people in the stands. So weird.

Although I did like the concept of having cardboard cutouts of people in some of the seats. Well, not all were people. Some were pictures of dogs. I love that. Other Major League Teams are doing the same with different pricing to have a cutout picture in a seat of you or your pet. What a great idea. Someone was thinking...and of course, a way to make some money.

While these times are changing our way of life in crazy ways, I continue to be impressed on how tough situations are being met with ingenuity. It gives me hope that things will turn out alright in the end, but in the meantime, we will continue to adapt.