Was the Grey Team Merger a Good Move?

Two became one on the most recent episode of Cutthroat. The Blue Team and Grey Team have joined forces as one unified Grey Team.

Allegedly, this was because the next elimination was a male elimination, and the Blue Team only had women on it. On the surface, that made sense, except when we consider that the original Grey Team only had one remaining male, Chris.

Meanwhile, the Orange Team has not lost a single male. Bananas, CT, Justin, and Will have all been sitting comfortably since the season began.

It’s pretty obvious production wasn’t planning this merger, and it was a necessary format revision because Nelson, Leo, and Josh were disqualified. But it’s a very short-sighted formatting move, because if Chris gets eliminated, the new Grey Team will only have women.

And while the Orange Team still has women on it, the teams are quite imbalanced: two girls on Orange and five girls on Grey. It’d be one thing if the distribution was due to the Orange Team sucking, but it happened because production forced two teams together.

All of the disqualifications on Cutthroat have really shaken up the season, so the best move would have been a total team restructure. Producers should have named Chris and Tori captains (and not Lete, because the Blue Team must dissolve due to its lack of men). Then, they picked teammates again as they did on the first episode.

That type of move is somewhat common on reality shows, and it would have made Cutthroat a less predictable season. Instead, we’re going to see Chris and Michele land in the hot seat over and over until they get eliminated, not because of their performance, but because of the format’s shortcomings.