The difference between a basketball game and this show is that people don’t get to vote for who should win the basketball game.
But when you get into activities like ice skating, there is the same subjective dynamic at play. And believe me, some of those scores are terrible. The audience isn’t involved of course, but then they were only involved in this activity to draw more people to tune in.
People have a sense of fair play. That’s okay. Look, if Palin had been sent home the first week when there were clearly worse people out there, I would have been plenty angry about it.