Peace, Love, and Lutefisk: Adventures i Norge

I’m in my pajamas and just enjoyed a TV show that typifies the Norway that I have experienced: 71 Degrees Nord. This is Norway’s most popular reality TV show and it is an interesting mix of Survivor and Amazing Race. There are 15 contestants and they start in the Southern tip of Norway and their goal is to go to the Northern most point of Norway: Hammerfest, which appropriately enough is located at 71 Degrees North. Today was the first episode when they start their adventure, and in line with the soscialist/help everyone nature of Norwegian culture, the contestants do not compete against each other. Instead, as a group, they must get to their destination in a certain amount in order to receive their food money. It makes it interesting as everyone is trying to hurry but has to wait for the slower people. Today they started by hiking 80 km and then rowing a boat around the Southeast of Norway towards Oslo. Then they took a train to a town a little bit South of Oslo, from which they had to kayak into the waterfront in Oslo. A very fitness oriented/outdoorsy show much like most Norwegians! When in Oslo, the show finally turned competitive when they did a small challenge to determine who had immunity. Maybe showing that deep down Norwegians too ultimately want to look out for themselves. Then, when it was time to vote, they did not have a vote like in most American reality shows when people had to choose one person to kick off; instead, they kept with the Norwegian way of voting by having a list of all 15 candidates. They then make a list with the people they want to keep most on top and the people they want to kick off the most on the bottom. Then the person with the least number of points is kicked off. It reminded me so much of the Norwegian way of voting for a party instead of a person during the elections and then every party getting the percentage of their votes in seats.