TVSquad

It's hard to believe, but next month marks the 15th installment of Survivor. This season, they're in China and the producers are getting all literary and stuff. The teams will begin in Shanghai and then go to a Buddhist temple where they will be stripped of all "worldly possessions" except the clothes on their backs. They will split into two teams and be given a copy of Sun Tzu's The Art of War, which will apparently come in handy this season.

Today, CBS introduced the new 16-member cast. You can't tell much about their personalities from the general biographical information given out, but there are a few stand-outs already. For instance, there's a grave digger, a chicken farmer (whose name is 'Chicken'), a Christian talk radio host, a professional wrestler (Ashley Massaro), and a hiking guide from Kalispell, Montana. Okay, that last one is only interesting to me because she comes from my hometown. You can read more about the castaways here.

Survivor: China debuts on CBS at 8 pm on September 20th.

I was up last night wondering why there isn't a series on television that allows me to show off my greatest talent: singing Buddhist hymns.

Finally, someone has granted my wish: Master of Music, a new competition series on India's Aastha channel, will pit singers against one another as they sing their favorite hymns from the Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh and Jain faiths. Finally, rather than listening to some awful Elton John tune you can rock out to "Vishnu Aarti:"

Maat-Pita Tum Mere, Sharan Gahun Kiskee Tum Bin Aur Na Duja, Aas Karun Jiskee, Om Jaye Jagdish Hare . . .