While Summer is been seen as the season for going outside and doing some sort of activity, it is also a time where most stations have their regular shows go on hiatus.  When you come in from your Saturday or Sunday at the beach, the last thing you want to do is turn on your TV to a bunch of boring reruns.  To help remedy some of that, I have put together an unofficial guide to summer shows that I watch to hold me over until the fresh new lineup begins in the fall.  Without further ado, I give you the Television Summer Survival Guide: 2009 Edition.

First of all, I am well aware that Big Brother 11 has just begun and is in full swing.  Just to let you know, I DON”T watch Big Brother, and have no intention to.  There is waaaay too much drama on that show, which plays like a Summer soap opera.

Until Survivor: Samoa and Amazing Race 15 premires this fall, I will be keeping my distance from CBS’s primetime lineup.

For those of you who have a taste for adventure, Anthony Bourdain will embark on his latest culinary quest this Monday, with new episodes of No Reservations at10 p.m.  To usher in this season premiere, there will be a No Reservations marathon on Sunday.  Between the marathon and the new episodes, there is plenty of Anthony Bourdain to go around this summer.

Continuing in the week, ABC has an hour of Japanese game show hijinks.  At 9:00 on Wednesdays, there is a new season of I Survived a Japanese Game Show.  It is actually almost halfway through the season already, so if you want to catch up on all the action, you can watch the past episodes online.  The series follows 12 American contestants, who are flown to Toho Studios in Tokyo to compete in a series of wacky games on the Japanese game show Majide (本気で). 

The two teams compete in two rounds of games.  The winning team gets an “advantage” for the second round.  The team that wins the second round gets a nice reward, while the losing team is given a punishment.  The punishment usually involves them working at a Japanese business related to the winning team’s reward.  For example, if the winning team goes drifting, the losing team has to work at a Japanese gas station.  The losing team also must decide on two people that will play in the elimination round.  The winner stays, and the loser goes back home.  The sole winner of Majide gets 25,000,000円 ($250,000).  With more than half of the season remaining, I Survived a Japanese Game Show should make Wednesday nights more interesting.

So concludes my Summer Survival Guide.  Take it or leave it, there’s plenty of Summer shows to enjoy after a long day of work.  Until the fall lineup returns, I have just three words to say to Summer:  Bring it on.  I hereby declare boredom officially vanquished.