The third season of History Channel‘s gangbuster hit Top Shot begins Tuesday night. Someone from History sent me a note that included this blurb:
The premiere of season three begins with a gauntlet of extreme challenges. 16 marksmen immediately pair off and duel with one of the world’s biggest handguns. Teams are then divided into winners and losers before facing off in a surprise military challenge. In the elimination challenge, two competitors get the ride of their life on a horse-drawn stagecoach as they shoot to stay in the competition.
I’ll be the first to admit, Top Shot is a guilty pleasure of mine. Sure the drama is ridiculous. Sure the game is more about Survivor-esque strategy than shooting skill. But seriously, who among us wouldn’t pay to spend a weekend shooting some of those challenges?
But that’s not why I try to promote the show. Top Shot has brought the fun and excitement of shooting to the broader public. It stands in stark contrast to the doomsayers who want to teach our neighbors that guns are inherently evil. My wife’s professional community, for example, trends toward the liberal left. In the past she’s even had some associates confront her about owning firearms. But ever since Top Shot has been on, she gets phone calls all the time from people across the country asking about taking classes and getting into shooting in general. Think about how incredible that impact is. Shooting explosive balloons while free-falling down a zip line doesn’t look inherently evil to anyone.
I don’t watch because I want to see how Team Blue is falling apart because they don’t all sing the same verse of Kumbaya or to listen to a competitor whine that bows and arrows shouldn’t be part of a contest that has, um, always included bows and arrows. I don’t care if Contestant #1 hates Contestant #2. It doesn’t matter to me if Contestant #4’s wife is home pregnant and Contestant #7 once had a pet frog named Turtle. But if that’s the stuff that attracts the non-shooting public to watch a show that portrays shooting and gun owners in such a great light, I say bring it on.
Now if only they’d incorporate the F.A.S.T. into an elimination challenge!
Train hard & stay safe! ToddG
It had to be team blue, didn’t it? Such a Red fanboy…
The drama and the fact that things are forced and enhanced takes away dramatically from the challenges.It’s too mainstream & pedestrian.
My take: shut up and let people shoot!
I heard the “world’s biggest handgun” will be the s&w .500 revolver.
Mother of god.
I’m glad it’s a hit. I tried to watch it once and couldn’t finish one episode but then I felt that same about Jack Bauer (24). Your points about the public are good. I wish the series success.
Everyone who bitches about the drama is missing the point. If it were just shooting, the only people who watch would be shooters. Compare the reaction (or lack thereof) to 3 Gun Nation to the reaction to Top Shot. My girlfriend is looking forward to the show. She doesn’t shoot, but enjoys the show and hearing about how some of the challenges compare to the matches I shoot.
Top Shot gets 2 million plus viewers every night. It makes describing our sport/passion a lot easier because rather than having to explain practical pistol shooting, I just say “Ever seen ‘Top Shot’? It’s what a lot of the competitors on that show do.”
Heck, my wife watches every show along with me, and she can’t stand any of the other shooting shows I watch. It got her out to the range this year, and if millions of people like her also head out to the range that is a very, very good thing indeed.
Todd, you magnificent bastard, you stole my post! 😉
They ran a season two marathon over the weekend that I DVRD….. my wife said “how about a bottle of wine and some top shot episodes?” Yes she is really that awesome.
To all those who say the show is dumb because it has some drama to it… there’s a reason why this show is carried on a major network and viewed by millions of people and coverage of IPSC competitions is not.
I like getting to know the competitors better – the human drama doesn’t bother me. What gets old to me is how slowly they introduce and move between competitions.
A lot of the competitions are pretty cool… but a lot of them look significantly less interesting than your standard IDPA course. They were getting better in season 2, though, and I hope that continues.
“Triple Nickel” coin holders have represented in all three seasons. Keep an eye on Jarrett and Gary this season.
Check out our new web page. Its still under contruction, so bear with us.
Well, tried to bite my tongue on this . . . but I can’t. Not much of a fanboy after last season.
I just hope the show gets back to range results deciding who progresses, and not BS politics/personalities.
I love the ‘trigger time’ segments, and echo what Todd says on all that.
Yeah, it’s TV. And yeah, to some that means drama. And I understand all the competitors signed on for it. But it’s promoted as a shooting competition show to the rest of the viewing public, and I (for one) expect it to be that. You know, truth in advertising.
Seriously, if you greatly outshoot a bunch of other competitors and still get kicked out . . . well, seems like they should stop yanking everybody’s chain and just rename the shot “Pop Shot” and be done with it.
I don’t think ‘voting’ would go over too well at any other sanctioned match.
And I confess I’ve always gravitated toward an armed society being a polite society. Not seeing much of that being portrayed on the show of late.
Just sayin’.
@Blurboy
Keep in mind, that they are editing it as much as possible to create drama. And even then, it has 1/10th of the drama of normal reality shows.
The reactions I have read from reality TV review blogs (as opposed to gun blogs) has been amazement and puzzlement at how polite and honorable (some of them seemed very confused at this idea) all of the competitors were. They sort of thought it was weird how much the shooters *wanted* things to be decided by skill alone.
Stop looking a gift horse in the mouth and think about what this does for normalization of firearms and the shooting sports.
Those of you living in free states may not understand, but those of us in CA, IL, NY and other states hostile towards the 2A know what a great asset something like this show is.
There are those who want to brainwash people into thinking firearms have no purpose but to kill. Top Shot is a slap in the face to the gun control lobby and we should all tune in and hope for the best success.
Mike-I am loathe to acknowledge much in any “reality show” category to be “real”. More than likely it’s “really manipulated”.
My knock is not on the competitors (again, they signed on for it), but the producers, directors and editors. Competitors don’t put the show together. But having said that, I would think some of them would watch what they say due to claims by past contestants their comments were badly edited and/or used out of context.
ddbaxte-Point taken. I grudgingly agree the show is probably better for gun ownership in general. Just want it to be as advertised.
Don’t tell me it’s about being the top shot, when it’s really about being the top back room politician.
My last word . . .