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[llehuty]

Noooo, I was rooting for Hali so hard. I think her being voted out is a consequence of the bad luck she had with the last swap and her previous relationship with power player Sierra. She is such an awesome speaker.

Also, Zeke is such a bad player. He is following to closely the Probst mantra "you have to make moves". I don't know if he is going to get any far, and even if he did, I don't see him getting many votes at FTC. He is a snake.

 

[kirblar]

Noooo, I was rooting for Hali so hard. I think her being voted out is a consequence of the bad luck she had with the last swap and her previous relationship with power player Sierra. She is such an awesome speaker.

Also, Zeke is such a bad player. He is following to closely the Probst mantra "you have to make moves". I don't know if he is going to get any far, and even if he did, I don't see him getting many votes at FTC. He is a snake.

The "I NEED TO GET OUT DAVID NAO" thing blew up on him last season and it's all blowing up on him again here. He's not a good player and I really hope we don't have to put up with him a third time. 3x Andrea was bad enough.

 

[Double Donut]

Fuuuuucking Christ. We lost so many amazing people pre-merge but I was at least thankful Hali managed to scrape by. Then she gets picked right off as the merge boot, yet again. Come on.

God, it sucks seeing how bad Hali had it all season. She was always on the bottom everywhere she went, never had a tight alliance.

 

[smokeymicpot]

Varner is a shitbag.

Still can't stand Zeke.

Same. Pissed Ozzy is gone. Hoping Brad can pull it off.

 

[Jack Scofield]

Brad seems like a real stand up guy, and I'm being completely serious. Some players have this weird dislike of him but he's a great dude every time he's on camera, confessional or no.

 

[UberTag]

Fuuuuucking Christ. We lost so many amazing people pre-merge but I was at least thankful Hali managed to scrape by. Then she gets picked right off as the merge boot, yet again. Come on.

God, it sucks seeing how bad Hali had it all season. She was always on the bottom everywhere she went, never had a tight alliance.

She was tight with Sandra that one week but that fizzled out almost immediately thanks to the pervasive, game-damaging tribe swaps.

Also, Zeke is such a bad player. He is following to closely the Probst mantra "you have to make moves". I don't know if he is going to get any far, and even if he did, I don't see him getting many votes at FTC. He is a snake.

He's pretty much Ciera. Except he had the benefit of not having his game pre-exposed with a bad reputation like hers was.

 

[Unison]

He's pretty much Ciera. Except he had the benefit of not having his game pre-exposed with a bad reputation like hers was.

That's actually a totally accurate analogy.

 

[Bubble]

The worst thing about Zeke is that he will probably return for a 3rd time.

When he does come back, I hope he is 1st boot (just like Ciera). Really can't stand players like him. Nothing worse then average players thinking they are really good at the game of Survivor.

 

[ironmang]

Brad seems like a real stand up guy, and I'm being completely serious. Some players have this weird dislike of him but he's a great dude every time he's on camera, confessional or no.

For me he's up there with Cirie as most likable members of the cast this season. Not the most interesting person outside of being a good guy but I don't need everybody to be a big personality.

 

[Double Donut]

Ozzy getting snuffed makes me think about that kinda "problem" Survivor has.

I'm not sure if it's really a problem or more of a limitation due to being so awesome, but it's just like... there are people who will absolutely never win this game. Because they're too fucking awesome.

I first realized this with Joe in his back-to-back seasons. Like, he was so amazing and just such a great guy that he was targeted pretty quickly in his return, since... I mean, how could he not win if he got to the end? Because he (and Ozzy) are so great, it would be pretty much impossible to ever win since they're such gigantic targets once those individual immunities come in.

Like I said though, I guess it's just part of the game. The only "solution" I could ever think of would be to have a season of just capable, buff folk like Joe, Ozzy, Jay, etc.

 

[TheYanger]

It's not REALLY a problem though, there exists a path for those that want to do that: Win immunity. every time. Yes I agree that's silly, but that's GUARANTEED to get you to the end if you can do it, so there's no way it shouldn't be.

The reality is that Ozzy could just as easily have been working his social game differently. People know he's a beast, and that's a disadvantage, but he knows everyone except Zeke and Michaela too, the impetus is on him to socially engineer a situation in which he can thrive, instead he just turned into kind of a dick right at the end and made his argument "It's gonna suck without me"

Like, he should've spent this entire season casually setting himself up as a challenge threat but not a beast like he used to be, make people think they can take you out later. Clearly he's beatable - he just lost to Tai ffs. Make sure people realize that. In this specific instance he was more a casualty of the alliances clashing, but he also still was THE target in that case because of his reputation, and that's on him to change, he knows it just as well as everyone else does.

The only time I think someone is truly fucked by the game (Obviously there is better and worse luck all the time in Survivor though), is when there are unpredictable tribe swaps and whatnot. Like the China screwjob, or even Hali this time, she had a window to work with, but it was MINISCULE and I'm not sure what she should've done differently, it's almost impossible to socially engineer the situation when you're continually thrown to the bottom of a new one.

 

[Double Donut]

His social game definitely could have been much better, especially with his whole basis of "they have to keep me, I get them food!". Such an old-school way of thinking, doesn't make the cut at all in modern Survivor, really.

 

[llehuty]

Yeah, what Ozzy needed is to chill out at challenges (both before and after the merge). Maybe it wouldn't had worked for him, but I think these type of players need to do it to reduc their targets.

I mean, obviously is not the same reputation, but I think Brad is doing a decent job at throwing challenges, and I don't see anyone seeing him as a threat, despite having social ties with plenty of people.

And damn,OG Mana lost ANOTHER memeber.

 

[RepairmanJack]

Yup, starting to see that by the number boring post merge come together.

I hate Debbie, but good on her realizing she wanted to get Ozzy out and carrying it out swiftly before tribal.

 

[luchadork]

Ozzy should've rocked up to this season fat.

 

[#sorrynotsorry]

And with Sierra/Debbie managing to get Ozzy out, they took a loyal member of the opposing alliance out and kept Zeke, who's volatile and no one trusts, in. Either way, someone from the other alliance goes and Sierra's now in the majority. With the exception of wasting the double vote (something that I don't blame Debbie doing because Sarah might not have voted with them/Cirie might not have wasted her vote), everything went incredibly well for the two. Zeke almost got himself out 11-1. There's no way Sierra's the moron here.

Except Ozzy was not a leader of an alliance. If they had knocked out Cirie, the alliance is dead in the water and you're on top. Ozzy could have been convinced to flip back with the guys.

Sierra took someone out on the other alliance, sure, but so what? All she did was eradicate Zeke's trust in her. So she took out an opposing alliance member and made an enemy. Instead she could have taken out the leader of an opposing alliance and made a friend. The friend would be a snake, but she knows that and the snake is there whether it's her friend or not.

Cirie or Andrea should have gone home. They had the numbers to do it. They are complete fools for voting out Ozzy who's clearly become old and is now simply good at challenges, not amazing.

Yup, starting to see that by the number boring post merge come together.

I hate Debbie, but good on her realizing she wanted to get Ozzy out and carrying it out swiftly before tribal.

I don't think so at all. One alliance is clearly on top, sure. But as tired as the "game changers" moniker is, it is generally true. These players will drive a knife into someone's back to get ahead. Most of them will not fall over and let it end without a fight.

 

[RepairmanJack]

Except Ozzy was not a leader of an alliance. If they had knocked out Cirie, the alliance is dead in the water and you're on top. Ozzy could have been convinced to flip back with the guys.

Sierra took someone out on the other alliance, sure, but so what? All she did was eradicate Zeke's trust in her. So she took out an opposing alliance member and made an enemy. Instead she could have taken out the leader of an opposing alliance and made a friend. The friend would be a snake, but she knows that and the snake is there whether it's her friend or not.

Cirie or Andrea should have gone home. They had the numbers to do it. They are complete fools for voting out Ozzy who's clearly become old and is now simply good at challenges, not amazing.

I don't think so at all. One alliance is clearly on top, sure. But as tired as the "game changers" moniker is, it is generally true. These players will drive a knife into someone's back to get ahead. Most of them will not fall over and let it end without a fight.

I think you're ignoring how Sierra talked during the episode. They talked about a bit on Know It Alls, but Sierra talked through the entire episode as if there was one big alliance and there was only a couple people stuck on the outside of it. Then when Zeke goes to Sierra with a plan to get them out what does she do? She goes and talks to Cirie? Cirie was also pretty in with Sierra on the first vote and what was going down the whole time.

By Sierra's view she could see Cirie and Andrea as pretty close allies, she could also be seeing Troyzan, Brad and Ozzy as close enough to be worrisome if they got the chance to vote out the girls.

I think saying Sierra made a bad decision based off of our knowledge is a little fleeting because we are only seeing what pertains to this episode for the most part and at the start of a merge there could be a ton of alliances in the works but since all we've seen is Sierra, Brad, Debbie, Tai we could be wrongfully assuming that none of those people see any other possible allies among the field.

 

[jstevenson]

I mean, it's easier to get people to rally around votes if they all percieve someone as a threat to their game

this is why this happens. end-game threats and physical threats.

combine those two (where the physical can go on a run to get to the end-game) and it becomes a mortal threat to many players.


also - returning players like this will probably believe (and realize) the game can dramatically shift. But the only thing you can't do is vote off someone with a necklace.

 

[Grexeno]

But the only thing you can't do is vote off someone with a necklace.

Unless you're Cirie.

 

[jstevenson]

Unless you're Cirie.

Bro wasn't wearing it when he got voted out.

 

[Grexeno]

Bro wasn't wearing it when he got voted out.

Meh, technicalities.

 

[TheYanger]

Unless you're Cirie.

And that's why she'll always be the true queen.

 

[oatmeal]

Fucking shit

Ozzy ain't ever coming back. He was the reason I watched this season.

 

[luchadork]

Ozzy needs to just start doing American Ninja Warrior.

 

[llehuty]

So, since I can't get enough of Survivor as it is, and I don't have already enough seasons backlog, I decided to watch French Survivor yesterday (just needing to lay on the sofa and turn on the TV helps). So, it's basically the same game, but it has a couple of twists that already came into play yesterday, and I like to know what do you guys think about them, and if you think they could work well in the american version.

1. If someone abandons or is medi-vac'd, it's replaced by the last contestant voted out. This replacement will happen AFTER the next tribal council. I thought it was a bit stupid at the beginning since it's quite likely they will be voted out again, but wince they come right after tribal, they have room to scramble and will probably try to win the immunity challenge at all costs.

In this particular episode was very interesting, because they are now divided in two tribes, and the girl voted out ended up in the other tribe. While she will naturally be and easy vote, she ttally killed it in the challenge and has a nice revenge story going on not.

I think this could work very well for the production side of things (since you know for a fact how many olayers are you going to have at any given moment) and as some wrinkles to change up the game. However, apparently players are aware of a loophole, one guy yesterday threatened their tribe, saying he will quit the game after the immunity challenge if they lose, which would mean that tribe would lose 2 members and get one back from the other tribe or one voted off by them, a total overkill.

2. The losing tribe instead of going to a tribal council, went to an individual challenge were the last one was eliminated. I really liked this idea. Strong physical players are sometimes voted out out of fear of them making it to the merge, this puts them in a better position. I do think they don't do this very often (or it was maybe the first time) since the players looked surprised.

3. The teams for a team challenge will be chosen randomly and always having a female/male parity between teams.

For example, blue tribe was 4 guys and 2 girls, red tribe was 3 guys and 4 girls, so even if they are on a 6 vs 7 situation, the challenge was a 5 vs 5 randomly selected. I also like this idea, I think it could avoid this situstions were we have one tribe easily dominating all the premerge (which maybe, sometimes is fair, but boring). This can also some new strategies (voting one girl out, so that the other tribe will have one girl less in the next challenge, that could be their challenge beast).

______

Some general comments:

However, there were some things that I didn't like at all. I believe all the girls were wearing make up and the guys have their hair with gel and stuff. Also, their clothes look brand new, and they are on day 20 or something. It's so jarring having them complaining of not having any food, but looking ready to do a photoshoot or something.

Which also goes to my second point, almost all of them look like supermodels. Even the token 50 year old is ripped. Not sure if it's just this season or is more common, but looks like they want everyone in good physical shape... but then you see how bad they sre at solvimg a basic puzzle in which they were shown the solution at the beginning of the challenge.

The host is good, he will let everyone speak, and have some comments on what's going on. He does seem way less annoying during challenges.

Also, it did look like the votes were pulled out randomly in the tribal council, and they end up revealing all the votes to the tribe.




Huh, the rant ended up being longer than I expected... so, what do you guys think? Anyone following this? Any other versions of the show that you know about, with different twists?

 

[SecretMoblin]

I lost interest in foreign reality content when BBCAN and TAR Canada sorta burned me with how bad they were. By this point a huge part of Survivor's appeal is its history and meta-narrative, and I feel like I would lose a lot of that if I were to dive into a foreign version.

On the other hand, Cirie getting a ton of content is great. Such a good narrator. Not sure about her "Sierra"-vote though, but maybe she is trying not to burn bridges... maybe?

Finally caught up and I agree, this episode really drove home the fact that Cirie is almost certainly the best narrator of the 500 people who have competed. She's fantastic at connecting on a very basic level with the audience, explaining her thought process and giving a solid overview of the game as it stands. I don't even know who would come close... Cesternino? Denise Stapely? Penner?

 

[satriales]

I lost interest in foreign reality content when BBCAN and TAR Canada sorta burned me with how bad they were. By this point a huge part of Survivor's appeal is its history and meta-narrative, and I feel like I would lose a lot of that if I were to dive into a foreign version.

They did a really good job with the recent Australian Survivor. Episodes were longer with more time spent on the cast rather than pointless reward challenges every week (still a few of those though). It did suffer from some of the players preaching about honesty over playing the game, but the format worked and hopefully will be even better this year.

 

[Razgriz-Specter]

Hopefully next time we get returning players of Ozzy, Sandra even Tony tier they don't pad it out with so many filler people.
just completely ruins an entire season.

 

[Swig_]

Hopefully next time we get returning players of Ozzy, Sandra even Tony tier they don't pad it out with so many filler people.
just completely ruins an entire season.

I never want to see Sandra again. I don't know how anyone likes her. She's a terrible person, she has a terrible attitude and she's won twice. She's going to get voted out, so it's a waste of a space.

I liked Ozzy on his first season, but after that, I think it went to his head and he's always had kind of an attitude problem. If you compare his first season to this season, he's a completely different person.

 

[RepairmanJack]

Don't know why this suddenly sparked in my memory, but I feel like Troyzan's line in the comp this episode almost confirms what this season was supposed to be. When Ozzy was in the comp Troyzan said something like "Guess that puts him in the Legends category." made me think they were pretty aware the season was supposed to be Legends vs winners or whatever it was supposed to be before it was Game Changers.

 

[Mega Man's Electric Sheep]

I lost interest in foreign reality content when BBCAN and TAR Canada sorta burned me with how bad they were. By this point a huge part of Survivor's appeal is its history and meta-narrative, and I feel like I would lose a lot of that if I were to dive into a foreign version.



Finally caught up and I agree, this episode really drove home the fact that Cirie is almost certainly the best narrator of the 500 people who have competed. She's fantastic at connecting on a very basic level with the audience, explaining her thought process and giving a solid overview of the game as it stands. I don't even know who would come close... Cesternino? Denise Stapely? Penner?

I'm with you on BBCAN being garbage tier, especially this season, but TARCAN is far better than the modern US amazing race, which has devolved to drive to obvious location, mindless task, mindless task, pitstop. TARCAN has actual challenging tasks and difficult clues in between, and a likable cast not full of drama attention whore types.

 

[llehuty]

Don't know why this suddenly sparked in my memory, but I feel like Troyzan's line in the comp this episode almost confirms what this season was supposed to be. When Ozzy was in the comp Troyzan said something like "Guess that puts him in the Legends category." made me think they were pretty aware the season was supposed to be Legends vs winners or whatever it was supposed to be before it was Game Changers.

There was a rumor for awhile that other themes were considered before Game Changers, but the Survivor leaker, Redmond, recently confirmed that Game Changers was always the plan.

.

 

[RepairmanJack]

.

Then it just seems like a weird damn comment by Troyzan then. lol

 

[Crazymoogle]

I lost interest in foreign reality content when BBCAN and TAR Canada sorta burned me with how bad they were. By this point a huge part of Survivor's appeal is its history and meta-narrative, and I feel like I would lose a lot of that if I were to dive into a foreign version.

Pretty much something I said before, but the Korean shows are where it's at

The Genius (4 seasons): psychological warfare
Crime Scene (2 seasons+): psychological crime solving
Society Game (1 season so far): survivor x big brother

(And of course, the most recent season of Australian Survivor.)

 

[llehuty]

Pretty much something I said before, but the Korean shows are where it's at

The Genius (4 seasons): psychological warfare
Crime Scene (2 seasons+): psychological crime solving
Society Game (1 season so far): survivor x big brother

(And of course, the most recent season of Australian Survivor.)

I have to watch Society Game, the other 2 are really good! (And crime scene 3 premieres this Friday!)

 

[RepairmanJack]

I'm stuck near the end of Genius season 3 and haven't found the time to go back. Love the show though, just ends up being an inconvenience going through the whole process to stream it to chromecast or something.

 

[Crazymoogle]

I have to watch Society Game, the other 2 are really good! (And crime scene 3 premieres this Friday!)

Friday?! Hot damn

Society Game is good. Quite a bit of Survivor in its roots, but mixed with political warfare. Some BB mechanics too. I don't think it could be executed as well with North Americans.

I'm stuck near the end of Genius season 3 and haven't found the time to go back. Love the show though, just ends up being an inconvenience going through the whole process to stream it to chromecast or something.

Yeah I have to admit the best way is really by connecting a PC or MacBook to your TV...

 

[hoverboarder]

One I never hear mentioned, and one of my absolute favorite reality competition shows, people should check out Solitary, which aired on the now defunct "Fox Reality Network" for a few seasons in the past decade. Here is a link to season one. The later seasons are on YouTube, and like Survivor, amp the game up and include twists and returning players. One of the seasons features a former Survivor contestant.

Solitary is a reality show on the Fox Reality Channel whose contestants were kept in round-the-clock solitary confinement for a number of weeks with the goal of being the last contestant remaining in solitary, for a $50,000 prize. It was the channel's first original series commission with its debut on May 29, 2006. The last season, Solitary 4.0, ended on March 20, 2010.

 

[JinjoUnchained]

Ozzie should have made like the 76ers and started tanking challenges. The best comp is Colby, who also had a reputation as a challenge beast and was voted off of All Stars early. Then he comes back in Heroes Vs Villains as "Superman in a fat suit" and is the last hero eliminated, all the way up to 5th place. Tank, tank, tank!

 

[Razgriz-Specter]

I never want to see Sandra again. I don't know how anyone likes her. She's a terrible person, she has a terrible attitude and she's won twice. She's going to get voted out, so it's a waste of a space.

I liked Ozzy on his first season, but after that, I think it went to his head and he's always had kind of an attitude problem. If you compare his first season to this season, he's a completely different person.

Oh I definitely don't want her back im just using her as an example of this season.

It either needs to be an absolute All-Star season(Heroes vs Villains) or Fans vs Favorites, "legendary" players just don't work against filler.

Ozzie should have made like the 76ers and started tanking challenges. The best comp is Colby, who also had a reputation as a challenge beast and was voted off of All Stars early. Then he comes back in Heroes Vs Villains as "Superman in a fat suit" and is the last hero eliminated, all the way up to 5th place. Tank, tank, tank!

It was a sad thing to see though, Colby was like a childhood hero.

 

[Mega Man's Electric Sheep]

Colby wasn't tanking as strategy, he just didn't care. The scene where Danielle and Amanda are fighting over the idol clue and Colby is ignoring them and watching tv is hilarious. Colby said in interviews that he loved Survivor for the adventure aspect and they were very restricted and couldn't explore or wander off in HvsV and so his heart wasn't in it.

 

[JinjoUnchained]

Colby wasn't tanking as strategy, he just didn't care. The scene where Danielle and Amanda are fighting over the idol clue and Colby is ignoring them and watching tv is hilarious. Colby said in interviews that he loved Survivor for the adventure aspect and they were very restricted and couldn't explore or wander off in HvsV and so his heart wasn't in it.

Not saying that Colby was tanking on purpose, but, rather, that Ozzy could have tanked on purpose to appear less threatening. "Looks like Ozzy's lost it guys, and he's not a social threat, let's keep him around." I would think that Ozzy would have wanted the same image that Colby enjoyed on HvV.

Not that this would've worked either, necessarily. You are who you are. But I don't think "I'm catching all the food, keep me if you want to eat" is an argument that works on Survivor anymore. Perhaps all of the big threats should've done the "big threat alliance" that Sandra and Tony proposed at the beginning.

 

[#sorrynotsorry]

I still think that big threat alliance had huge potential. I can't believe Sandra and Tony let it blow apart before it even got started. They could have had a lock on their tribe from the start. It might not have worked, but it was literally the only chance any of them had. It seems like only Aubrey is sliding around as someone who should have been a big threat but isn't.

 

[Grexeno]

Oh, Debbie's giving a confessional about how her alliance is going to Pagong the others?

Sure Deb

 

[lamaroo]

Michaela quit sulking and look under your damn bench girl

 

[vypek]

Michaela wears her heart on her sleeve and she really has to reel it in. I mean I doubt she'll win but still.

Also, I'm vaguely recalling some hilarity based on these ramps on the water

 

[UberTag]

Is this the most anti-climactic reward challenge ever?
I mean, the only suspense is whether Michaela can look down and find the secret advantage before it ends.

 

[vypek]

Is this the most anti-climactic reward challenge ever?
I mean, the only suspense is whether Michaela can look down and find the secret advantage before it ends.

Lol. Yep. And the somber music as the orange team got slaughtered at the end seemed odd to me

 

[Grexeno]

Lol. Yep. And the somber music as the orange team got slaughtered at the end seemed odd to me

It was for Cirie.

 

[vypek]

It was for Cirie.

I mean I get it was for her. I just don't recall ever seeing that before even when challenges seem to be going one way and one teammate is having trouble.


EDIT: At least someone found the advantage