The History Channel's Top Shot Premiere

Sunday June 6^th was the premiere episode of the History Channel's new program Top Shot. Hosted by Colby Donaldson, a former Survivor cast member, the show features sixteen competitors vying to be the season's top marksman. The competitors range from police officers to a Wild West performer to a former marine sniper. This premiere episode introduced viewers to the competitors, set up how the competition will work, and got right into the shooting events.

The competitors were divided into two teams, a blue and a red team. Each week the two teams will compete in a head to head challenge. The losing team will them be forced to nominate two members to go head to head in an elimination round. While the losing team gets to vote on who goes to the elimination, unlike other shows, the voting is not done in secret. Team members select who they want to face off by shooting a target with a members name on it.

In week one the focus was mainly on two competitors from the red team, Mike Seeklander a shooting instructor and Kelly Bachand a twenty two year old member of the US Rifle Team. Both competitors were very confident in their abilities, almost to the point of seeming arrogant. Mike assumed control of the red team and basically appointed himself the leader. In the first team challenge, the teams separated into pairs with each pair having to make two shots with a rifle from WW1, WW2, the Korean or Vietnam War. Each pair had to hit two targets, one at 50 yards and one at 100 yards. The blue team sailed through the competition quickly despite Mike's prediction that his team was going to crush the "Smurfs" as he called them. The red team never got by the second target as Mike took over 25 shots at his 100 yard target and failed to hit it before the blue team had completed all eight shots. The red team was then forced to choose two members to face off.

In the voting face Mike was nominated, and rightly so. In somewhat of a surprise, the youngest member, Kelly, was also nominated. Mike said he wanted to face the best rifle shooter so he selected Kelly and two other members selected him based on his youth and Mike's wish to face him. In the elimination round the two fired a more modern American rifle at targets placed at 200, 400, and 600 yards away. Mike actually hit the 200 yard target first, but it was his last. Kelly showed his ability to shoot and read the wind and finished off the three targets in only four shots.

Mike may not have been the worse of the sixteen shooters but his elimination was well deserved. During his two events he managed to only hit one target despite firing over thirty shots. Kelly on the other hand showed his youth wasn't a factor, at least with the rifles, and his performance might just sway how some of his team members vote in the future.

Overall it was a decent premiere and a rather fast paced show. Perhaps because of the number of competitors the show didn't spend a great deal of time on the weaponry or letting the viewers get to know much about the competitors. As the field narrows I would hope that the show would do a better job of highlighting the weapons, their uses and capabilities, and the skills it takes to shoot them. For the non-shooting viewer, it looked simply like some people could aim and some couldn't. The details of each rifle, the wind influence, and the actual shooting technique were only briefly shown. Next week the team challenge will be with handguns. This should bring different competitors to the front as each contestant came into the show with different skill sets and varying weapon expertise.