Survivor: Cambodia Premiere

Wow, there is so much to say about this season in question. I’m glad that a fan like me could help choose the players, even if every fan isn’t going to get their choices all picked. I still think that we have an interesting season ahead of us and I’m looking forward to it. When I think about it, I believe that 15 of the people that I voted for made the season. I just hope that I don’t write off the other 5 that I didn’t vote for. I still don’t know for sure who I’d want to win. But I can figure that out as the season goes by. I’m just glad that we are seeing a lot of great people play again.

You know, since there was a vote that decided the cast, I might as well mention what seasons are still in play and what seasons were eliminated by popular vote. Africa, Redemption Island, South Pacific, and One World had no players voted into the game. The seasons that are in play this time are Borneo (one player), Australia (two players), Pearl Islands (one player), Panama (one player), China (one player), Tocantins (one player), Samoa (one player), Philippines (one player), Blood versus Water (two players), Cagayan (four players), San Juan del Sur (three players), and Worlds Apart (two players). Time will tell just which seasons will do well this season. One would think that given Australia’s good track record with returning players that somebody from it will be in the finale episode this season. If Jeff Varner doesn’t make it that far, I’ll be disappointed. There’s a lot of people that I hope make it far. Other people, you’d be interested in seeing how their positions would affect the game in the long run. I’ll mention interesting things as the season progresses.

Now the interesting thing about season 31 is that they filmed season 32 before they did season 31. I’ve learned some potentially interesting information about season 32. SPOILER. You see, season 32 is rumored to be another brain versus brawn versus beauty season. There are two rumored contestants already. One of them is Scott Pollard. He’s some type of sports player. For some odd reason, every season with new players since Philippines (except Caramoan) has brought us some sort of sports player in the cast. I’m pretty sure Survivor 32 will have an all new cast. Caleb Reynolds, who was on Big Brother and made it pretty far before being blindsided by the Hitman at the final four, is another rumored contestant. Those are the only rumors I’ve heard about it so far and I’m not going to look up more fearing that I’ll learn things about it that I wish I didn’t know. That’s how I found out that John won Caramoan before I even knew the name of the season. The fact that they switched the order of the seasons and the rumors that they will also film Survivor 33 during the summer of 2015 makes me wonder if there’s a tie for the win for Survivor 32 and Survivor 33 will have the tied contestants fighting against each other in a one returnee per tribe season. But that’s mere speculation. I also have no idea if So Kim’s sister will be on Survivor 32 or not, but I think that she might be. END SPOILER.

I have wondered what they could potentially do for alternates this season. It’s possible that they didn’t use alternates this season or that any alternates were kept secret from people. I have the feeling that nobody was replaced and you have to wonder if the next highest in the poll would have been the first alternate. I also speculate that the tribe division could be a bit crazy this season. Without knowing the tribes as of the writing of this paragraph, I feel that they would separate not only people from the same season, but also potential pairs who have never actually worked together before. Woo and Stephen, for instance, might be on separate tribes at the start of the game. There may also always be fan theories that people with higher votes would be on one tribe, but we might never know why they put a tribe that way or not.

I even had a dream about Survivor: Cambodia. Kimmi said that in Australia, she would have wanted to play a day naked like Richard Hatch. Only that didn’t end up happening. I do wonder if that could happen again this season even if her birthday didn’t happen during the filming dates. Now, I’m wondering why I even have this paragraph. But I’ve decided to keep it.

Here’s a list that I might do regarding all the contestants from this season, including those that failed to make the cast. I will gradually cross out the ones that get eliminated from the game as time goes on. I don’t know how long I’ll keep the contestants who aren’t on the season as they didn’t get enough votes to get in the game. They could always be on the list, or I might get rid of them over time. The contestants that made the cast will always be on the list, just crossed out, while some of the names that you already see as crossed out will be removed over time. I’ll mention it at least twice in this particular blog post. Anyways, the list will start in the next paragraph. I got the list originally from Wikipedia.

Joe Anglim Worlds Apart Vytas Baskauskas Blood vs. Water Spencer Bledsoe Cagayan Jeremy Collins San Juan del Sur Teresa "T-Bird" Cooper Africa Brad Culpepper Blood vs. Water Max Dawson Worlds Apart Terry Deitz Panama Ciera Eastin Blood vs. Water Stephen Fishbach Tocantins Latasha "Tasha" Fox Cagayan Abi-Maria Gomes Philippines Mike Holloway Worlds Apart Yung "Woo" Hwang Cagayan Kimmi Kappenberg The Australian Outback Peih-Gee Law China Kassandra "Kass" McQuillen Cagayan Keith Nale San Juan del Sur Shirin Oskooi Worlds Apart Monica Padilla Samoa Shane Powers Panama Jim Rice South Pacific Carolyn Rivera Worlds Apart Troy "Troyzan" Robertson One World Andrew Savage Pearl Islands Natalie Tenerelli Redemption Island Sabrina Thompson One World Stephanie Valencia Redemption Island Jeff Varner The Australian Outback Kelley Wentworth San Juan del Sur Kelly Wiglesworth Borneo Mikayla Wingle South Pacific

Now at this point in the blog, I have looked up the then recently released information on the tribes for the season. It looks like Andrew, Ciera, Jeremy, Joe, Kass, Keith, Kimmi, Monica, Stephen, and Tasha are all on one tribe, meaning that Abi-Maria, Jeff Varner, Kelley Wentworth, Kelly Wiglesworth, Peih-Gee, Shirin, Spencer, Terry, Vytas, and Woo are on the other tribe. I am not at all surprised that they have split up a lot of the contestants who originally played on the same season by putting them on different tribes. I think that I had predicted that this would happen earlier. I wonder why they put Jeremy and Keith on the same tribe. I do wonder if they split apart other people who could have been potential pairs. I mean, Jeff Varner and Andrew probably would work well together having been eliminated after the merge due to reasons mostly out of their control, and they are starting out on separate tribes. Vytas and Kass, who were eliminated due to losing incredibly close challenges have also been put on separate tribes. But they put Kass and Ciera, two well known flippers, on the same tribe. It also seems like the time frame one originally played the game in has also been considered when dividing the tribes. They also separated people who originally placed the same.

I do wonder about the twelve contestants who didn’t make the cast regarding their potential future with the show. You’d think that any or even all of them could return to the game in the future. Imagine if they became the favorites tribe of a fans versus favorites season. I doubt for sure that it would happen like that, and not just because there’d be one too many man and woman. (Hmm. I wonder if the extra pair could be on a one returning player per tribe season. It would make me wonder more about the rumors of at least one other Survivor season being filmed this summer. Those are just rumors.) But I shouldn’t speculate that much. I just hope that I’ll see some of the, ahem, rejects from this cast in future seasons. I mean, just Shane has been cut enough from other casts.

Now while I’m still rambling and not to the actual start of this episode, I might as well reveal who my favorite to win this season is. While there’s a lot of cast to like and a lot of players that I probably will support regardless, you may have noticed in a previous post that I picked three that I think would become finalists this season. Those three were Jeff Varner, Terry, and Kelly Wiglesworth. My favorite to win would be among those three. I predict that Jeff Varner will win. Will I be right? Who knows? Well, some people already know. But, Jeff Varner will be my favorite to win for now.

Here’s something else that I noticed. You know how Stephen helps with Rob has a Podcast, right? Well, is he still going to help with this upcoming season? I don’t think that he should because he might end up accidently revealing spoilers about it. He might have already done that. SPOILER. He said that Andrew would go home before the merge. Whether that was a legitimate spoiler or not, I do not know. He might have actually said that before filming started, although, the news of him saying it was after the season’s filming ended. END SPOILER. So I don’t know if Rob will have to be careful having him on the podcast or if it would be best avoided until either his elimination (should he be eliminated) or the end of the season. You wouldn’t think that production would allow him to podcast again until after this season. You wouldn’t know what he might accidently say.

There’s something else that I’m wondering. Is the name of this season Second Chance or Cambodia? Which one is it? It might be the first season since the twelfth to have more than one name. I never really know what to call seasons like that. But, I will say that it should hopefully be official when the first episode airs.

My apologies if I ever ramble too much before getting to the actual point of this blog post. I seem to do that in every recap of an episode. I’m not sure if I’ll ever find a way to stop rambling. I don’t do that in my TV blog (except for the occasional opening paragraph), but I do that in other blogs too. Hopefully, people who don’t like my ramblings can just skip to the part where the actual post begins. I’ll always mention when my ramblings are done right before the actual episode starts. I also don’t know if I’ll be live tweeting any of the season or not. I might have run out of things to say on twitter (possibly, but maybe not) but I more importantly need this laptop to record other shows on at 8 (if ABC comes in at the time, that is).

While I’m still rambling, I might as well go through the cast and mention what previous mistakes the cast has to overcome to do better in this game. Kelly Wiglesworth needs to stick with an alliance to succeed this season. Kimmi needs to learn how to work well with others. Jeff Varner needs to hope that his mischievous ways don’t get the better of him. Andrew needs to avoid pissing off the wrong people. Terry needs to work better at the strategy part of the game. Peih-Gee needs to get along with people and avoid clashing with the wrong people. Stephen needs to stand out on his own without the help of other players. Monica needs to stand out in general if she’s to be seen as a serious contender to win. Abi-Maria needs a better attitude to get along with other players.

Vytas needs to avoid sticking out with other strong players and find his own identity. Ciera needs to learn when is and isn’t a good time to make a huge move. Tasha needs to avoid being seen as a threat. Spencer needs to work well with others. Kass needs to learn how to avoid making enemies. Woo needs to learn how to make his own moves. Kelley Wentworth needs to find friends at the beginning and hope that they stay on her side. Jeremy needs to avoid being seen as a threat. Keith needs to improve his social game. Joe has to find some way of not being too strong, but still be worth keeping throughout the early game. Shirin basically has to avoid being annoying or too weird. But enough of my ramblings.

In the first segment of the show, we get to a dramatic introduction. Not everyone gets a confessional going into the game, but most people do. As usual, I’m eating supper during the episode so I might not be able to write as much as I would want to. At least I’m not on twitter right now. The game starts out with an unofficial challenge of gathering supplies. Is this a real challenge? I don’t know for sure. Ta Keo wins the rice, despite the efforts of Kelly Wiglesworth. I guess that the difference between Kelley and Kelly this season is whether or not they have a second e in their name. Maybe one of them will be short lived in the game.

In the second segment of the show, Woo talks about winning the sort of official challenge. Two of the older school players talk about how the game has changed. Abi-Maria randomly talks about a bag of hers and we see some of her old self appear in the game. We get to Bayon next. They seem a bit more laid back than the other tribe. Also, remember to take a shot of alcohol every time Keith spits. Jeremy forms, or at least tries to form, an early alliance with Andrew, Tasha, Stephen, and Joe, at least. Stephen complains that he’s a Fishbach out of water. I imagine the twitter hashtag is already trending.

In the third segment of the show, Vytas flirts with various women on his tribe. I don’t think that Shirin likes Vytas that much so she works on getting him eliminated. I don’t remember Jeff Varner being this strange the first time, but it has been a while since I’ve seen Survivor. Abi-Maria finds her missing bracelet in Peih-Gee’s bag so I guess we know who will be like RC to Abi-Maria this season. What is the real story, anyways? It is interesting how so many people are being extra cautious this season because it is a second chance season. Stephen becomes the first person to look for an idol.

In the fourth segment of the show, Kelley Wentworth looks for the idol on her tribe. She learns of the idol at challenges twist. Also, the tribes prepare for the challenge. There’s some yoga going on. Not much happens this time.

In the fifth segment of the show, Kelley Wentworth misses a chance to grab the idol at the immunity challenge. But, she’s still the only one in the game who knows of the twist. Actually, while her tribe is distracted at the challenge, she quickly grabs the idol and I don’t think that anybody notices. Bayon ends up winning the first challenge. Tribal council happens immediately after the challenge. Does anyone else notice that they give confessionals about this? It seems to me like they are spoiling who survives the tribal council since there probably wouldn’t be time to talk about it afterwards. Will that be the case? We’ll see. In The Quest, they didn’t end up spoiling things by doing that, but it’s still hard to tell if they did something by accident or not. Will Kelley Wentworth get to know of her idol, is in fact, real?

In the sixth segment of the show, we get to tribal council and we talk about tribe dynamics. People talk about what alliances might exist and how the game has changed from old school to nowadays. In the end, people decide to vote out Vytas for some reason. I guess that Abi-Maria’s campaigning somehow worked. I wish there were more of a reason behind the vote. I guess his plan to charm the women turned against him.

On the next Survivor, Abi-Maria continues her terrible ways and Jeff Varner tries to come up with good ways to progress in the game. But, can he avoid becoming a target when he targets other people? I hope that he can.

Total confessional count: Kimmi- 2, Joe- 2, Vytas- 2, Peih-Gee- 1, Kelly Wiglesworth- 2, Spencer- 3, Kass- 2, Jeremy- 2, Keith- 2, Terry- 1, Shirin- 2, Ciera- 2, Monica- 1, Stephen- 2, Andrew- 2, Tasha- 2, Jeff Varner- 3, Abi-Maria- 4, Woo- 1, Kelley Wentworth- 4.

Remember, as always, that my numbers are probably wrong. If you have better numbers, let me know. Just don’t take me to Survivor Sucks. Heck, you can go to a link that has the same number that their website has, but I just don’t like them that much. The lowest thus far are Peih-Gee, Terry, Monica, and Woo who only have one confessional each. Meanwhile, the highest confessionals with four a piece are Abi-Maria and Kelley Wentworth. Are those good signs for them? According to my numbers in the past, a boost at the beginning may actually be a bad sign since sometimes they just show a contestant while they can. We’ll see as we go on who is going to have long term hope in the game and who won't. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.