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Survivor 35: Heroes vs. Healers vs. Hustlers |OT| Forever in Fiji

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Come on in, guys!

It's that time again. Twice a year, 16-20 Americans hit the beach for 39 days and test their bodies and minds as they compete in challenges and vote each other out with the goal of taking home the title of "Sole Survivor" and the $1,000,000 prize.

On Wednesday, September 27th, 18 new castaways will hit the beaches of Fiji in an attempt to outwit, outplay, and outlast each other using whatever means necessary to sit there at the end for a chance to win it all. This season, the theme CBS is shoving down our throats initially separates these 18 people into three tribes based on the "positive attributes" people most commonly associate with them. So, for some reason, a probation officer is a "healer", an actuary is a "hero", and a bellhop is a "hustler." This follows the tradition of the show in recent seasons organizing people by the color of their collar, how smart, beautiful, or strong they are, and what generation they belong to. It's all arbitrary in the end, as tribe swaps and the merge will have them on the same playing field before too long.

This is the 35th season, so we should expect big strategic moves, intense challenges, Shyamalan twists, and epic blindsides. It's always a good time to jump into the show, and YES - "this show is still on TV." Survivor still averages 8-12 million viewers per episode, almost always winning its timeslot, and sometimes the entire programming night. Survivor finally put American Idol out of business last year. It's also known to be one of the most authentic reality shows on TV. They really do waste away out there to try to win big.

If you feel so inclined, I reccommend playing Survivor Fantasy. You can play against 14 other strangers or organize drafts with friends (or people on this board) as long as you do so before the season starts. I'm betting with friends on mine ($150 on the line), hoping to take home my own grand prize.

Extended classic intro for those who, like me, enjoy it.


Twists


  • First Tribal Only Super Idol - At the marooning, there will be a "Super Idol", an idol that can be played AFTER the votes are read, which is only good during the first tribal council of the game. Even if the person holding the idol is on one of the two tribes that win individual immunity. Because it's an authentic production idol, someone could hypothetically hold onto it and pretend it's real, even though it would have no power.
  • Hidden Immunity Idol Clues at Camp - Clues to hidden immunity idols at tribe camps will be painted or carved onto trees, rocks, and otherwise hidden in plain sight to guide the castaways toward finding ornaments which can guarantee safety in the game if played correctly.
  • No Revotes After a Tie Discontinued - Last season, production tried a twist which bombed - in that it wasn't even attempted. If the votes were tied, there would not be a tiebreaker vote, forcing the contestants to go directly to rocks or a firemaking challenge depending on the stage of the game it happens during. This is going away, and contestants can once again revote in the case of a tie.
  • Debate Style Final Tribal Council Returning - After the new FTC format mostly succeeded at the conclusion of last season, this change is returning for season 35 (and according to Probst, it's here to stay.) Instead of each jury member standing up one by one to address the remaining contestants, it'll be more of a open forum where the jury and contestants (guided by Probst) will be debating why X deserves to win or lose against Y and Z.
  • MAJOR Final 4 Change - Not announced in pre-season press, but confirmed by the always credible Redmond of Inside Survivor. The winner of the final 4 challenge guarantees their spot in the final 3 and also gets to pick one of the two people who will sit next to them in the finale. The other two go to a fire-making challenge to compete for the final spot. Game changer!


Starting Tribes


-LEVU (Heroes)-

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Ben Driebergen - 34, Boise, ID. Marine.
Chrissy Hofbeck - 46, Lebanon Township, NJ. Actuary.
Alan Ball - 32, Houston, TX. NFL Player.
Ashley Nolan - 26, Satellite Beach, FL. Lifeguard.
JP Hilsabeck - 28, Los Angeles, CA. Firefighter.
Katrina Radke - 46, Excelsior, MN. Olympian.

-SOKO (Healers)-

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Joe Mena - 34, Tolland, CT. Probation Officer.
Cole Medders - 24, Little Rock, AR. Wilderness Therapy Guide.
Mike Zahalsky - 43, Parkland, FL. Urologist.
Jessica Johnston - 29, Louisville, KY. Nurse Practitioner.
Desi Williams - 27, Newport News, VA. Physical Therapist.
Roark Luskin - 27, Santa Monica, CA. Social Worker.

-YAWA (Hustlers)-

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Devon Pinto - 23, Solana Beach, CA. Surf Instructor.
Lauren Rimmer - 35, Beaufort, NC. Fisher.
Patrick Bolton - 24, Auburn, AL. Small Business Owner.
Ryan Ulrich - 23, North Arlington, NJ. Bellhop.
Ali Elliott - 24, Los Angeles, CA. Celebrity Assistant.
Simone Nguyen - 25, New York City, NY. Diversity Advocate.


Previous Season Threads


Survivor 34: Game Changers |OT| We Have To Go Back
Survivor 33: Millennials vs. Gen X |OT| Gen X vs. Millennials
Survivor 32: Kaôh Rōng |OT| Anything that can Kaôh Rōng, will.
Survivor 31: Cambodia - Second Chance |OT| Starring Phoebe. And also a fish.
Survivor: Worlds Apart |OT| Season 30, 15 years of blindsides
Survivor: San Juan del Sur: Blood vs Water 2: Nicaragua 3 - Exile Island 7 |OT|
Survivor 28: Cagayan |OT| Colby votes out Keith again
Survivor: Blood vs Water |OT| Favorites + Family
Survivor 26: Caramoan |OT| Fans (Recruits) vs. Favorites (Crazy People)
Survivor: Philippines |OT| Return of the Cart-Offs
Survivor: One World |OT| Thread of Stupid Name, Promising Twist
Survivor: South Pacific |OT| of Dragon Slaying and Russell 2.0?
Survivor 22 Redemption Island! Featuring Russell and Rob
Survivor: Nicaragua Starting right now!
Survivor: Heroes vs Villains - Thursdays at 8:00pm ET/PT (beginning Feb. 4th)!
Survivor Samoa: Premieres Thursday, Sept. 17 8:00pm ET/PT
Survivor: Tocantins
Ken "King of Smash" Hoang enters Survivor: Gabon

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That's it. Got nothin' for ya. Head Back to camp!
 

commish

Jason Kidd murdered my dog in cold blood!
I've been hot and cold on this series for years. I might watch this season with the GF because she's never seen a survivor.

I still say Probst gets too involved in the tribals. He basically manipulates the discussion and I think it undermines the strategy for some of the players. If someone is too stupid to see what's going on around them, then Probst shouldn't be the one to say "Well, do you think everyone is pulling their weight in camp? Do you think that the other members targeted you? Do you think that there are cliques forming between these three people?"
 

Bubble

Neo Member
You know, I got a good feeling about this season. The cast is looking good and the fact that Probst is not super into this season makes me excited for it.

It can't be worse than Game Changers at least. God that season went down the drain early.
 

Catvoca

Banned
Not too optimistic about this season but hey, I'm always down for more Survivor. Hopefully this is closer to Millennials V Gen X then it is Worlds Apart.

Looking forward to more awful monologues about how arbitrary attributes picked by the producers that don't really fit the teams at all are actually the most important part of Survivor!

Great OP too btw.
 
I know one of the players this season, maybe I'll care more than I have the last few.

I agree that Probst not being excessively glowing is a good thing, but seeing all the twists and rule changes laid out like that and knowing that there are more coming is just so distressing. The BB-ification of Survivor is almost complete.
 

DietRob

i've been begging for over 5 years.
No returning players makes this interesting to me for the first time in a while.

Big brother was terrible so I'm really hoping Survivor gives me teh reality TV fix I need.
 

UberTag

Member
Curious to see how this season shakes out after the recent successes of Millennials vs. Gen X and the still-airing Australian Survivor Season 4... Game Changers came off as a bust to me.

You should check out the latest season of Australian Survivor, which is currently airing.
It's soo good!
I'd say it's the best Survivor season since Cagayan. It's been that good.

Why are the tribe colors red, blue and yellow when the Heroes vs. Healers vs. Hustlers season logo is orange and purple? This makes no sense to me.
 
Not feeling too optimistic about this season, although if Probst is down on it, then maybe it will be good?

Can't believe that they might keep going back to Fiji and yet have the original Fiji season somehow wind up being the best (least bad?) of them.
 

llehuty

Member
Oh, premiere is this close. Have been quite busy during the summer, will have to find some time to watch this and catch up with the Australian season.
 

NKnight7

Neo Member
Always looking forward to a new Survivor season, even if I'm still somewhat iffy on the whole theme of this season. Not sure who to root for yet, maybe Roark or Ryan.
 
the fact that Probst is not super into this season makes me excited for it.

Not feeling too optimistic about this season, although if Probst is down on it, then maybe it will be good?

Probst hasn't hyped this season up, so it could be great!

I'm seeing this a lot in this thread. He HAS hyped up the finale in a recent interview.

Probst said:
”The last third of the season, you cannot predict what is going to happen," says Probst. ”You won't want to miss it. And you're going to love the thrill of the drama." The host also promises that said drama will extend all the way to the final vote in what he is touting as ”One of the best finishes. One of my favorite final Tribals — new format, a hearty discussion, and who knows? Minds may be changed in the jury."

Either way, I'm clearly excited. Enough to make the thread haha. I tend to agree with a lot of Probst's opinions about this show, an unpopular thing to do amongst superfans, I'm well aware. In the end, some seasons might be better than others, but there isn't a season of this show I truly dislike.
 

Grexeno

Member
For what it's worth, EW just put up a feature about the challenge producer's 35 favorite Survivor challenges, and one of them is the FIC from this season. So there's that.
 

legend166

Member
I've been hot and cold on this series for years. I might watch this season with the GF because she's never seen a survivor.

I still say Probst gets too involved in the tribals. He basically manipulates the discussion and I think it undermines the strategy for some of the players. If someone is too stupid to see what's going on around them, then Probst shouldn't be the one to say "Well, do you think everyone is pulling their weight in camp? Do you think that the other members targeted you? Do you think that there are cliques forming between these three people?"

Tribals go for 2 hours or more, and we see what, 7 minutes? It's really hard to know how much Jeff manipulates it when it's so edited down. Either way, it's basically part of the game anyway. If you put yourself in a position to let Jeff impact your game, that's your fault.
 
I absolutely despised last season and quit at the halfway point.

All of the good people left early, and there were waaaaay too many twists, idols, etc.

We're expecting this season to be worse? Oh god, please no!
 

UberTag

Member
It would be hard to be worse than Game Changers... a season that will only be remembered for Sandra owning fools pre-merge and talking trash as the QUEEN.
 

Leeness

Member
It would be hard to be worse than Game Changers... a season that will only be remembered for Sandra owning fools pre-merge and talking trash as the QUEEN.

I didn't mind the season as a whole, but it went downhill after the Queen departed :(
 
I don't even think it's a question that Australian Survivor is better now, but I'm still a sucker for main survivor too. So I always wait a few episodes and get sucked in anyway....
 
tenor.gif[/IMG]

Luke is great, basically Tony's wits but housed in the mindset of one of those unpredictable/counterproductive players. He's smart when it counts but comes off as a goofball, which is just really sound strategy.

(Also I am pretty sure he watched Tony's season. :lol)
 

kirblar

Member
I don't even think it's a question that Australian Survivor is better now, but I'm still a sucker for main survivor too. So I always wait a few episodes and get sucked in anyway....
AU Survivor needs to straight up have less episodes or more contestants or outcasts to avoid these stupid non elims that serve only
to put Lill 2.0 back into the game.
 

Limit

Member
Posted this in the other thread but my serial killer looking dude Ryan

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Has this in his profile


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He has the faced of someone who will backstab his way to the top.

Of course, judging a book by its cover. But dude looks like a schemer.
 

Macka

Member
AU Survivor needs to straight up have less episodes or more contestants or outcasts to avoid these stupid non elims that serve only
to put Lill 2.0 back into the game.
They should just have 'to be continued' episodes. I'm sure there's some complicated rounds they could have shown over two nights. Kind of like in SJDS when Julie quit and it made the Josh-Jeremy rivalry simmer even more.
 
My hope going into this season is that Jeff tries to curb the tribal council whispering. It got excessive last season, and the worst was when it was inevitable with the combined tribe thing they tried to do. It's kind of funny maybe once to see a plan fall apart, but it feels very un-tribal council; that stuff should happen back at camp.
 
Just waiting for the production quality to really be locked down.
A perk of our version going on for 35 seasons.

I dunno, I feel they're 95% there. With a 30000% bigger music budget. And honestly, I strongly prefer 22 episodes to 12-13. More time for actually developing the game and relationships. Mainline has refined so much over the years all that's left is the corn sugar sometimes.
 
I dunno, I feel they're 95% there. With a 30000% bigger music budget. And honestly, I strongly prefer 22 episodes to 12-13. More time for actually developing the game and relationships. Mainline has refined so much over the years all that's left is the corn sugar sometimes.

My issue is not with the main stuff for the most part its mainly a lot of the general framing camera work and such.

tenor.gif

for example isn't a shot I think would happen atm on the Australian show.
Also the interviews that sometimes happen where shenanigans are happening off in the background.
sometimes just feels too close up as well versus the American show.

I haven't caught up yet though on this recent season.
Its all little nitpicks really though.
 

Setzer

Member
I don't even think it's a question that Australian Survivor is better now, but I'm still a sucker for main survivor too. So I always wait a few episodes and get sucked in anyway....

Yeah I'm really enjoying Australian Survivor. Not so much a fan of the host...he comes off as trying to be a Probst copycat. I love their format though....24 contestants, 55 days. I'm guessing they only do 1 season per year compared to the US where we get a Fall and Spring season. Anyways, no matter how good Australian Survivor is I'll always prefer the US one because of Probst.

Survivor is back. Life is good!
 
Yeah I'm really enjoying Australian Survivor. Not so much a fan of the host...he comes off as trying to be a Probst copycat. I love their format though....24 contestants, 55 days. I'm guessing they only do 1 season per year compared to the US where we get a Fall and Spring season. Anyways, no matter how good Australian Survivor is I'll always prefer the US one because of Probst.

Yeah, S3 was a reboot, years later and much more in line with the american product. I really think if CBS wanted they could have aired it as the fall survivor season in the US, no problem. Hell the final immunity challenge in that season is what? Top 3 all time? Top 2? If you don't get swept up in the moment of that you are a shameless stone tiki.

S4 (the current season) does improve further. Still 22 eps/24 castaways, but at that size you have time for tribeswaps, shuffles, idol play and a lack of predictability over the vote. Bless the american survivor game we have today but at even 14 eps you start to see the budget of "who's got to go this week" and the inevitable super-rushed finale. I would treat AUS Survivor as like "old survivor" - not S1-3, but you know, around ~S10 or a bit earlier.

I have hopes for S35! Just a bit laid back because I know the formula: week 1 is always too much of a mess, then the game starts to form, and then around 7 left I'm inevitably caught off guard by the advert for the finale right around the corner, with a reunion heading for 30 minutes. :lol
 

coopolon

Member
How can people in us stream au survivor? I've always been a little interested in watching other countries survivors or big brothers but have never been able to find a way to stream or buy them.
 

Macka

Member
Still 22 eps/24 castaways
Last season had 26 episodes, and it seems to be the same this year.

Episode 21 aired last night, and that's only the F7. So there must be another two non-elimination episodes yet to come. :/

There's apparently going to be a live reunion this time too.
 

KaoteK

Member
Looking forward to watching this tonight.

Along with Apprentice UK, this is one of my favourite "guilty pleasure" programmes.
 
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