How I Became a Survivor Fan

Everyone who has watched Survivor probably has a story of how they became a fan of the show. All of us would have different experiences with the show. But I don’t think that there is too much to say about this so we’ll see just how long this post becomes in the future.

At the time, my mother and brother were somehow into this show for reasons that I don’t remember. They set up a tape to record the fourth episode of the second season that is called The Killing Fields. I did not see much of it, as I had a hard time understanding the show at the time. But I did see the tribal council at the end and then had to see the next episode of the show. I think that it was the first show that I watched in primetime. My sister was a fan of it at some point during this season as well.

My fandom of the show seemed to only grow from there. I’m not sure that I had a bedtime anymore, but this became a problem more so as I slowly decided to get into other shows. But I wasn’t always into the show like I should have been. The fifth season, for instance, had me missing a lot to focus on school work and due to not liking the season that much, yet I still might want to see more of it in the future. I had missed plenty of episodes here and there throughout time. I especially hated when they moved the show to Wednesdays instead of Thursdays for two weeks during March Madness as that would always be during Lent, but I tended not to miss that many episodes then anyways.

I forget what the last episode of this show that I haven’t seen would have been. If I had to guess, it might have been back in Nicaragua or around that time frame. It was in the twenty-fourth season that I felt that something happened that was so big that I had to start blogging about Survivor in the future. While many hated that season, especially the episode where the male tribe gave up immunity, that was the episode that inspired me to create this blog.

Now that I have this blog, there are other old seasons of this show that I can watch and put in this blog. I wound up doing one on Palau pretty soon after One World after I got it on DVD. There have now been other seasons of this show that I have written about that wasn’t covered before and even more that I will keep covering since I might as well keep writing about the seasons I have on DVD to include more and more in this blog for future posts. 

I’ve decided that this is it for this post. Hopefully this makes sense to others and you like it even if there was some of the usual jumping back and forth that I do from time to time, too often, perhaps. I think that this show is pretty good or I wouldn’t keep watching it or updating this blog even now not knowing when or even possibly if it will return. But I plan to be back throughout the years even long after this show is no longer on the air. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.

On the Largely White Casts of Survivor

While it would be hard to remember all of the casts of Survivor, all of them except two seem to have one thing in common: they are largely white. Most of the contestants on a season are white. This is not really a problem on its own. Indeed, at one point, 80% of the applicants of Survivor are white. This may not be the case anymore. But is that alone why the casts are largely white? And is this a bad thing?

Well, for one reason or another, the producers of Survivor are either caving to the racial awakening of today (see my occasional posts in my Madam Secretary blog) or decided that they want at least half of the cast to be non-white in the future for other reasons (see previous post of this blog) which could be a good thing, deciding that the previous way of doing things just wasn’t cutting it. This isn’t that bad of a thing potentially, but the last major decision that they made with casting, getting rid of their long time casting producer, Lynne Spillman, lead to the very first season cast without her, Island of the Idols, to have a contestant ejected from the game. Is it post hoc ergo propter hoc? Maybe.

Once Survivor is back and has some of these casts for the first time, we’ll find out whether or not these casts work. But I have to talk about something that I neglected to mention in the post on the new rule of casting of Survivor. That is the two seasons done thus far without a majority white cast.

The first of these was Cook Islands. A lot of fans, at least in the one group that I’m part of and see the most on facebook, do not like this season. I don’t hate it, but I don’t think that I have it ranked high either. I put it in the middle of the seasons in my current ranking of them. But I don’t think that the hatred of that season had to do with the casting of it so much as perceived injustices in a last minute twist before the merge that might not be worth getting into here. If people don’t like the season that didn’t have a largely white cast, then one would think that it wasn’t a good idea. But was casting alone the reason that people didn’t like it? I’d say no.

We then get to the very next season which I didn’t like much at all. Fiji was cast in a way to make sure (according to Jeff Probst at the time) to prove that the other season wasn’t just a onetime thing. Due to the last minute quit of a player before the game even started, there were only four white players versus five of every other race. Jeff didn’t like the season. I hated the twist that put one tribe at a disadvantage over the others. Plus, I think that the main reason why I feel that this cast was weak was due to it being largely recruits instead of applicants.

If those two seasons were anything, it only brought Survivor casting back to how some feel that it should be in the end. Now I don’t know for sure just how many benefits white players might have versus those that aren’t white other than a numbers advantage on the other players (that never seems to happen that much, if ever, on its own) or why things seem to go this way a lot. I mean, most casts of TV shows are white (as I discussed recently in my TV blog) so one wouldn’t think that there being any issues with that on its own.

Now one might wonder if a largely white cast of this or any other show is automatically racist. I’d argue that it isn’t. I don’t think that even someone like Philip Sheppard would say something that irrational. Would anyone think that Survivor or any other show for that matter is racist simply for having largely white casts? It seems so normal, for better or worse, that no one would make that argument.

I forget where I was going with this post, so I’m largely just going to end it here for today. I hope that I can write a lot more of this blog and hope that I can come up with quality largely not done like it should be lately. I will get to more Survivor seasons in the future as I will explain in future blog posts on older episodes of the show. I just hope that I can get it all done and come up with something good. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.

Team Cagayan

As part of a planned idea, in every season that I can make work, I would put three men from it and three women into a season with new players. The twist that I plan is unlikely to ever happen (especially if CBS won’t allow any unsolicited ideas as part of their show), but it is still fun to speculate. Today, I focus on the cast of Cagayan. But I have to follow certain rules.

1- You can only pick people from this season who have only played the game just once thus far. If they have returned since they played, then you can’t pick them. 2- As often as possible, try to represent all of the tribes on this season. It can’t happen this time around for reasons that I’ll get into, but I’ll explain what else I can do to make up for it. 3- If there is any reason why you can’t or won’t pick a contestant, then you might as well explain it, especially if the previous rules don’t apply.

Let’s get started as to who isn’t on this season. I can’t go with Cliff because he is dead. I can’t go with Lindsey because she quit. I can’t go with Tony, Spencer, Sarah, Kass, Woo, or Tasha because they have all played again since they first played Survivor. Everyone else is fair game. It’s time to vote. No wait, that’s something else.

Starting with the men that I’d want to see on this season, let’s get to who would best represent Luzon that has not already played the game again. I think that I would go with Garrett since he would have more to prove the second time around. Since I can’t go with any man from the original Aparri tribe, I will go with one from the post swap Aparri tribe: Jeremiah. As for my last choice, I would go with L J as I think that he could prove to be a benefit the next time around.

Continuing on with the women, I think that a good choice would be Trish. I mean, she is the only person in the final six that season that hasn’t returned for another yet. I would also like to pick J’Tia so that Luzon can be represented. As for the last pick, I think that I’d go with Alexis to represent Solana.

Now while I’m not going to mention groupings of contestants, I am going to make my case as to why each of these players (outside of the dead one and quitter) should get to play the game again. David should prove himself to be a better person who can like blindsides that aren’t his own. Garrett needs to prove that he could be a good player who can make better decisions. Brice is wonderful and eccentric so he could prove to last longer if he ever played again. J’Tia could prove to be a good player in the future or be the same player she was in the past.

Alexis was wonderful, despite not making it to the merge. Sarah is likable despite being devious so she should get to play again. Morgan could prove herself to be more memorable playing the game again. L J also has a lot to prove if he were ever coming back.

Jeremiah was a bullfrog. He was a good friend of mine. And the player Jeremy from this season was one of the most memorable players on his tribe so he should play again as a result. Jefra made it the furthest out of her original tribe so she could play again and prove that she deserved this. Tasha wasn’t as good or memorable the second time that she played, despite making it further. She could prove to be a better player than that game was for her. Trish is one of the most memorable players from this season who has not already returned for one.

Spencer also has to prove himself after his reputation took a hit after the second time he played. Kass is a great player who would be a great one to return to see if she can win in the end. Woo still has a lot to prove in the game by playing again. And Tony has won twice now meaning that he could return to be the first three time winner, if people will let him.

And that’s it for this post. I’m scheduling this and other updates for the future so hopefully I can get it all done in the future to have enough planned out for the rest of this year. I doubt that I will be able to get much in with other blogs that I was wanting too, but this could still be good as a result. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.

How Important is a Beach for Filming?

Survivor is often known for filming at beaches throughout most of its seasons. This is not always the case. There are some seasons that have taken place that do not have beaches involved. I do not really care personally if this show is at a beach or not. But some people do care.

Here are all of the seasons that I’m pretty sure wasn’t at a beach: Australia, Africa, Thailand, Amazon, Gabon, and Tocantins. I might be missing some here and there. But there weren’t a lot of them that weren’t filmed there as pretty much the rest of them were.

Why does this matter? In fact, does it matter? Are there some people who can’t stand Survivor when it is not at a beach? Or do you not really care as much where they film a season? I know of one person who does not like it when Survivor isn’t filmed at a beach. But I don’t care. Survivor is about just being put in a remote location and surviving the other players, elements, and challenges, among other things. Putting it at a beach doesn’t seem to affect my enjoyment of a season that much.

So to sum up this short post, I don’t really care that much if Survivor is filmed at a beach or not. Others do. Production must care as they are often always filming seasons there. Thus, there isn’t much else to say about the topic in question. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.

Location, Location, Location

Before I get to this post, I should get to an important update. You see, I will not be able to do any of the planned calendars for December or January as I won’t be able to post about an episode of Survivor until next year at the very soonest or most likely in my mind. This means that you will only see updates in this blog on Wednesdays until next year. This is different from the usual Advent season as I normally have to delay when the blog is posted due to being at church while the new episode airs lives. Since I can’t post about episodes, then there will be no posts on episodes or none not on Wednesdays for a while. I have done ways of rigging rolls to go my way before to ensure that I could watch certain episodes at different times in the year, but this won’t happen again (if it does at all) until January at the soonest.

Now as to what this post is about, I’m really just examining places Survivor has gone to. Well, I may just be listing them more than doing anything else. With Survivor not going to Europe, they have still been to places pretty much every other continent or general area in the world. I have split this into different sections. If Survivor has been somewhere four or more times, they get to be added to that part of the list. Otherwise, they will be subjected to the general main area such as continent it was in.

Asia seasons (sans Philippines): This is where Survivor began. Despite this, it wasn’t until much later that a contestant of Asian descent won the game. Survivor has been here for the 1^st season (Borneo), the 5^th season (Thailand), the 15^th season (China), the 31^st season (Cambodia, filmed 32^nd season), and the 32^nd season (Kaoh Rong, filmed 31^st season). It is the most recent place not to be Fiji to be where Survivor would be filmed thus far. This continent helped inspire this post in some ways that I might get into in one of my posts on Survivor: China.

Oceania (sans Samoa and Fiji) seasons: This is the most well known and logical place for Survivor to film any of its seasons. Survivor has been here for the 2^nd season (Australia), the 4^th season (Marquesas), the 9^th season (Vanuatu), the 10^th season (Palau), the 13^th season (Cook Islands), and the 16^th season (Micronesia). It branches out into two other subgroups that I’ll get to later.

Africa seasons: Survivor has only been here twice. Once was for the 3^rd season (Africa) that was filmed in the country of Kenya. The other was for the 17^th season (Gabon). Neither of those seasons were filmed in a beach, which might affect some viewer’s perspective of it. I might have to do a post as to whether or not it matters that a season is filmed at a beach as I don’t care where it is filmed.

Brazil (filling in for South America) seasons: I’m calling this Brazil as Survivor in America has not filmed any season of their show in any other country in South America thus far. They should as I recommend Peru as a place that they should visit. The two Brazilian locations were very different. The first was the 6^th season (Amazon), filmed in the most well known place of this country and area. The 18^th season (Tocantins) was filmed in what could be seen as the lesser known highlands. I never heard of that area before, but I doubt that many have.

Central America seasons (sans Nicaragua): Survivor has been here for the 7^th season (Pearl Islands), the 8^th season (All-Stars), the 11^th season (Guatemala), and the 12^th season (Panama). What else is there to say about this? I have no idea.

Fiji seasons: This is now the most used location in all of Survivor history. After filming the 14^th season (Fiji) here, they have filmed every season here starting from the 33^rd (Millennials versus Gen X), then they continued for the 34^th (Game Changers), the 35^th (Heroes versus Healers versus Hustlers), the 36^th (Ghost Island), the 37^th (David versus Goliath), the 38^th (Edge of Extinction), the 39^th (Island of the Idols), the 40^th (Winners at War), and are set to film the 41^st and more seasons there.

Samoa seasons: They filmed four seasons here starting with the 19^th (Samoa), before filming the 20^th (Heroes versus Villains), the 23^rd (South Pacific), and the 24^th (One World). They weren’t originally supposed to film the other two seasons there, but I’ll get to that at the end of this post.

Nicaragua seasons: They filmed four seasons here as well other time. They did the 21^st (Nicaragua), the 22^nd (Redemption Island), the 29^th (San Juan del Sur), and the 30^th (Worlds Apart). It is hard to know if there is anything else to say about this, so I won’t.

Philippines seasons: This was the last one that I’m mentioning as it was the last grouping that I feel works for this post. They filmed the 25^th (Philippines) the 26^th (Caramoan), the 27^th (Blood versus Water), and the 28^th (Cagayan) all here over time.

There were also some planned, then rejected locations of this show. I want to say that this happened three times, but it may have only happened twice with it affecting three seasons. Jordan was to be the filming location for the fourth season, but 9/11 changed this. Tonga was considered for both the 23^rd and thus 24^th season, but they returned to Samoa instead. I don’t quite understand the economic issues that caused this to happen, but that was it.

That’s it for this post. Sorry if it was dumb in some ways. I just really wanted to list the general location of various seasons and never really examined them that well. But this is a post that I wanted to write and take care of so here it is. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.

STOP RECRUITING NEW PLAYERS ALREADY! An Open Letter

While this is not being sent to anyone outside of being posted on this blog, I would thought that I’d do a quick (possibly) post on the terrible problem of Survivor casting: recruitment. Obviously, if these are returning players or all star seasons, then this isn’t worth addressing too much. It is when new players are recruited for the show instead of being applicants, there are issues with it.

Why applicants are better: you are going to get a ton of people who are interested in the show if you do applicants. Recruits may not care that much about the very thing that they are doing. Applicants might be seen in better light by fans if they are better players. I mean, we shouldn’t be able to have those who admit to being recruited always be the more controversial players.

There are a lot of various flaws with the recruitment of new players and it can be maddening. I am sure that a lot of people still apply to the show. Indeed, there have to be enough applicants to make up a whole season because there has to be more than 20 each season. Surely applicants are still being done even now during a long hiatus of Survivor.

Ultimately, the failure of recruits should be known best by Survivor: Fiji. While I’m sure that it has its fans, I don’t like it and feel that it had the weakest casts of all of the seasons (outside of any of them that are facebook friends of mine ;-) because they are good). The fact that all but one of the contestants that season were recruited might be one of the reasons why. Am I lead to believe that it is a coincidence that this happened? While there were other reasons that the season sucked, it would be hard for them to do much good with a season full of recruits who never saw the show before.

This leads to the biggest issue that I have with recruits that I might be willing to overlook and get rid of all of my hatred of them. If the casting department on this show is going to recruit people to be on this show, then they should at least recruit fans of the show. There is no reason why someone who has never seen the show should be on the show. You are screwing devoted fans by not putting those who are doing the hard work of applying for the show on the show and instead putting people on the show who have no idea what the show is even like.

You might have to wonder, then, what if Survivor producers read this blog of mine, track me down, and want to put me on the show, without me ever having applied to be on it? Honestly, I don’t think that I would say no. But I don’t even know if I should be on Survivor or not. I don’t want my thoughts on this show to be tainted by playing it and finding out that I’m just better off watching it. Besides, if I want to work for Survivor, I’d rather be a creative consultant than a contestant.

And that’s all that I have time for in regards to this post and the rest of the month of this blog. I wish that I could have gotten a post done on another Survivor episode, but this will not be the case. I doubt that you will see one again until January. We’ll see what Survivor seasons I might get on DVD as a gift for Christmas. Maybe Cagayan or All-Stars? I won’t need any for a while, but still want some. I got another one as I will talk about in probably two blog posts as you’ll see it in place of one of the current ones. I wish that I had more time for things this week and the rest of this month, but it won’t happen. I just wish that I could have shared another calendar of planned posts. But you’ll figure things out at one point or another. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.

50% People of Color- The New Survivor Rule of Casting

Supposedly, at least the 41^st season of Survivor and maybe the 42^nd season are already cast. But will that affect the new potential casting change? That, I don’t yet know. There is this new rule that is being implemented for future Survivor seasons. That rule says that any new cast of Survivor has to have 50% people of color. This has to be in response to some of the current racial unrest in this country.

One would have to think: is this a good idea? You’d think that it should be with no issues. But then there is the fact that Survivor has already tried doing more diverse casts in the past. This is despite the fact that around 80% of the applicants to this show are (or used to be) white. While they could ignore any applications to recruit new players instead, this is probably a bad idea. But I’ll explain more of why I don’t like recruits of new players in another post, probably the next one.

You see, in Survivor: Cook Islands, the casts were split into four tribes at the beginning and whatever race you were born into was the tribe you started on. Since this was considered segregation (despite the fact that no camp site was better or worse than the others, which typically happens with segregation), the show was decried as racist. They had a cast with only 25% white people, but this was too much of any issue since they couldn’t put the casts together originally. What was dumb about the twist was how they got rid of it early into the game.

Despite the controversy it caused, some of the players like the twist. It seems to some that this was going to be used again in the very next season. But a last minute twist left the cast with an odd number of players and I can’t even tell how this could have worked with four starting tribes. Plus, this season had only one applicant on the show while the rest were all recruited.

Still, one has to wonder if forcing half of the cast to be something other than Caucasian is a good idea. Don’t get me wrong, though. I’m okay with the idea. I’m just wondering if they are doing too much pandering to a side of supposed racial justice by simply hoping that making half of the cast not white each season is a good way of doing this or not. There’s another problem that needs to be addressed as well that I don’t think that casting alone can fix.

The edit of people would need to be fixed. Black men on this show are often portrayed as lazy. The black women are typically shown fighting with others or otherwise having attitude. The women of Asian descent typically are mistreated or otherwise hated by their tribe. While that might be more due to the way tribes are set or how friction takes place among contestants and not the edit, as long as we see the negative edits of these players, casting alone won’t fix the mess.

Honestly, I think that once we see more Survivor with these more racially integrated casts, we’ll see if this idea works well or not. I can only hope this is a good thing and not just some way of appeasing the so called social justice warriors (SJWs) who are not actually good people like you’d think they should be. Is intentionally trying to put in more minorities a good thing? I can only hope so. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.

Why It’s Harder for a Woman to Win Survivor

If recent Survivor seasons have proved anything, there seems to be issues that women keep having with winning the game in recent seasons. A woman has not won since Game Changers and a new player that was a woman who won her first time playing was back in Kaoh Rong. It is hard to know for sure why this could be, but is still worth exploring nonetheless.

The simplest explanation is that this is gender bias causing the problem. But is that true? One would think that it would have to be. Men get rewarded for playing a ruthless game while women are shunned for doing the same thing. It has been quite a while since someone like Vecepia could dominate the way she did and get a win based on her game play. While Sarah was like that when she won, why has no one else been able to do that since?

There was once a time when there were more women winners than male winners. I forget offhand what the current proportion is (if I’m using the right word). But there have clearly been more men who won this game. Of course, this does make you wonder if there have been unfair advantages that might be in men’s favor somehow, perhaps intentionally or otherwise.

The gender balance of a season is normally equal or close to it. But then there are times when they do a one returnee per tribe season and only one of those returnees thus far has been a woman. There was a plan once to put three women in a season again with one of them, Stephenie, returning this way for a second time. But this didn’t wind up happening.

Still, in at least Philippines, there were more new women playing that season then new men and one of those new women won the game. The same can be said about South Pacific where a new woman beat all the other players, including the two returning men.

Women can still be vicious players and rewarded for it. In Micronesia, women dominated the game and made the men look like fools. Sandra won the game twice by manipulating others and at least once getting the votes of those she didn’t help.

This can make you wonder, though: what changed? At what point did it become more difficult for the women in the game of Survivor to beat the men? Well, advantages haven’t helped as a lot of them keep being found by men over and over. The blunders of some men don’t prevent others from doing well themselves in the game. Women can often be overlooked as players despite playing good games for the most part overall.

The other aspect as to why women aren’t winning recently is because people know that they can and would win so they are voted out so this doesn’t happen. Their likability keeps them for making it to the end while those who don’t have as big a chance at winning are kept against the men who are more likely to win instead of those women.

Honestly, even though Lillian in Pearl Islands was facing another woman at the end, what kept her from winning is what prevented other women before and after her from doing that as well. They didn’t like her deceptive game play when they felt that she should not win as a result.

And there’s really not much else to say about this unfortunate trend in Survivor. There are numerous factors that prevent women from doing as well as men, at least in recent seasons. Hopefully these issues can be fixed somehow without changing the game too much if we are lucky enough to have this show return to the airwaves in the future. After the issues of the last two seasons, one can only hope that there will be more done to prevent issues while staying fair to everyone. We don’t want that great discussion that Sarah and Jeff had to not change anything. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.

How this blog would Change if Survivor Ended

Consider the hiatus of Survivor right now to be a trial run of future events. If Survivor either doesn’t return for season 41 or comes back and then ends at some point in the future, this blog would have to change as a result. How would it change? Well, let’s see.

This blog still is what I consider to be called the primary blogs of all the ones that I have. Despite not being the first blog that I did, it ultimately was given priority over all other blogs where it would be given the best update time and always be consistently given that time over and over again. Basically, the posts of this blog would be done later in the day after the newest episode of Survivor aired. At times when church would be given priority over watching Survivor live, this blog would be published on Thursdays instead of Wednesdays.

What other blogs could be the primary blog? Well, I have little to no other choices without messing up this blog and/or creating a new blog. The TV blog remains linked to this and other things in its own way when I decided that rolling a Survivor episode on DVD meant updating my TV blog that same day. I did change the rules some to do weekly updates of that blog, but it is subject to change at times.

There are now four blogs that I have that are all in the cast update stage where due to the show that it covered ending, I focus on what the cast of that show is doing now, if they are doing anything at all. Those blogs cover Madam Secretary, The Good Wife, CSI: Cyber, and Elementary. I also learned for some of them that having turnaround for a blog where I didn’t have to update it the day it aired was a good thing. All four of them had issues with episodes not being covered promptly for various reasons with CSI: Cyber perhaps being the worst of them all.

The only other blog that I have right now is about The Good Fight. I created it when that show aired its first season for free on TV. I’d have to get it on DVD or wait for it to potentially air more for free on TV for me to cover the second season and beyond. That second option is the only way that it could take over as the primary blog instead of this one.

Of course, I need to cover how this blog would change. You see, I don’t think that I would stop updating it entirely based on the rules that I have for other blogs. It would probably continue with the every Wednesday updates unless or until I decided not to do that anymore. I would want to cover a bare minimum of one post of this blog every month. There are a lot of past seasons to write posts about as I’m doing now. I won’t yet know which ones I’ll want or otherwise get. Whether or not they remain with the current strange day of the weeks that I pick for them (and haven’t even covered in their entirety yet, not even really needed to, although I’d be more than happy to put this in an introduction of a post for the future since I have the rules for myself written down) would remain unknown.

The point is, you should keep an eye out on this blog and I’ll keep covering all that I can or otherwise want to in terms of various Survivor related things. I plan to keep having this blog like I normally would unless or until I don’t update it anymore. I’d try to do a posts are ending update if at all possible, but only if I needed to do that by ending posts. Let’s hope that doesn’t happen yet. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.

Could Survivor Return if it is Cancelled?

While it is widely believed that there will be more Survivor after this pandemic is over (as the 41^st season is supposedly already cast), but as we go through possibly the longest hiatus of this show, I wondered if the possibility of this getting cancelled was an option and if so, could it come back?

I still don’t think that we have to worry about this as much now, but even if the show were to end, would it come back in the future? I would think that it would at some point. But then the question would become just how long this would be gone from the airwaves.

You wouldn’t think that a show as big as Survivor would be in danger of airing. Isn’t it in the top 50 every season? But the ratings of it do get lower and lower every season. It might be a bit hard to tell since they now put both seasons together instead of just one by itself. But the lowering ratings being a constant can’t be good. But then you learn that it does better in ratings than a lot of scripted shows do, which says a lot about it. (Reality shows aren’t often better than scripted ones in terms of ratings.)

But then this leads into a new problem. What if when Survivor returns, it returns with a whimper? What if no one watches anymore and it doesn’t stay back for long? Or what if the show never returns? Could the planned hiatus last even longer to the point of not knowing if the show will return? Some fans of this show will easily flock to others, but this will make you wonder, will they flock back? And what are people like Rob Cesternino supposed to do with their livelihoods? They can’t do many podcasts about Survivor with no Survivor to podcast about. And while there are past seasons they can cover, if this show isn’t coming back, they’ll have to find something else to do instead.

Honestly, I’m not sure that if Survivor were cancelled that it would return. It probably already causes some irritation for CBS by not airing consistently throughout the year. They have to deal with enough schedule changes outside of this that it may be better off without this show.

But if CBS doesn’t want it, would another network? It is rare but not unheard of for a reality show to switch networks. (Tons of shows do, but these are normally only scripted shows that this happens with.) You’d think that other networks might care or be interested in it. But which ones? And since I don’t have cable or satellite, then this blog would probably not be able to cover these new seasons until they are on DVD, if I even bother with getting them at all. Would I still do this blog at all?

Honestly, though, you’d think that if this should could survive the chaos of 9/11 relatively unscathed, then it would survive a pandemic. But this is worse and even global. How soon would it be until we have a group of people ready to go to a remote place to spend time like this again?

I think that if anything were to come back after cancellation, it would be this show. Who knows just how long we would be without a new season? It could be on a different network, with a different host, or both. There could be plenty of other changes that happen with it as well. We wouldn’t know just how long a truly cancelled Survivor would be gone or if it will even come back. But I am hopeful that if worst comes to worst, then this show will not be gone forever. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.

Survivor: Gabon episode 13: The Good Guys Should Win in the End

While I am not sure that I will talk about it in this blog post, you should note that, for me at least, there have been some issues with blogger changes and there was a link from my old Madam Secretary blog not working last time, but a fix should be in there now. It changed what the default was and I had to edit at least one post to ensure that the enter button did what it was supposed to since they changed it. I also had to get out of the html default and make sure that it interpreted the typed links now instead of just sticking with what wouldn’t have the hyperlink. Plus, blogger is more or less forcing me to use their new format at some point in the future or my blogs could all disappear.

Let’s get to the idols from Island of the Idols part 4. Lauren gets an idol only good for two tribal councils. She immediately plays it after a crazy tribal council and wastes it as a result. That’s about all that I can say about it this time around.

In this old post from my Madam Secretary blog, I talk about The Big Bang Theory on DVD problem and how season 1 has since been added to my list of things to watch, but isn’t on the list yet. I wound up recording episodes from season 5 on a special tape which will certainly complicate lists in the future of what I watch things from when I get to it since I have the sixth season of that show to watch too.

http://adamdeckermadamsecretaryblog.blogspot.com/2016/10/episode-from-2-21-2016.html

I thought of the greatest redacted joke ever. What was it? I can’t say.

TV shows on DVD that I watch update: Community season 1 is blocked by a holiday and removed from the list in favor of more of Charmed season 5. This immediately allowed me to add the new list of five choices and Survivor: China (so, six choices) to a new list that I will be alternating with some as we go about with some of the new changes. I have already started the alternations. I will tell you more about changes to the list. There could be further problems too and I’m already working on doing posts on both this season and China all at once.

While I normally do a setup to a link and then share the link, when I talk about different challenges from this show that I want to talk about, I’m going to mention the link and then talk about it. If you can now remember, I’m going to be doing a run through of nearly all the challenges and mention the ones that I think can be done while social distancing. I am splitting this into different groups. In today’s post, I will be covering challenges that start with a with links from Survivor fandom. Since there are two types of these challenges, I’m starting with the article this time and will cover the challenges that start with a where a isn’t an article in the next Survivor: China post. Note that right now, I have no idea which one you will see first in this blog.

https://survivor.fandom.com/wiki/A_Bit_Tipsy

This challenge was also known as Got a Hunch, Discy Business, Another Brick in the Wall, and Let There be Rock. In it, contestants have to balance a stack of letters and spell out a word. I believe that this could be done while social distancing, even if they do a tribal variant of it in some cases.

https://survivor.fandom.com/wiki/A_Crate_Idea

This challenge is also known as Crate Outdoors. In it, the contestants have to get blocks and spell out a phrase before winning. While it will be hard to find a tribal challenge that could be done while social distancing, we do have to figure out what could potentially work. I feel that this challenge could not be done while social distancing.

https://survivor.fandom.com/wiki/A_Leg_Up

This challenge is also known as Free Will. In it, the contestants have to stand on a beam to balance a pot and avoid having it break. While this challenge could be done while social distancing, I hate it immensely and don’t want it to appear on the show again. I hate the fact that it has appeared at all in the first place and can only speak ill of it.

https://survivor.fandom.com/wiki/A_Numbers_Game

This challenge is also known as Matchbox 25. In it, the contestants have to get puzzle pieces and arrange them in order from 1-25 or 1-100. I think that this challenge could be done while social distancing, but not if it is the tribal version done in David versus Goliath.

Since it is clear out of all that is known about shows this upcoming season that Survivor will not be on from 7-8 on Wednesdays, then I might as well talk about the shows I’ll be watching or trying to if I can that are on Wednesdays at 7 Central during the extended Survivor hiatus.

I will not be seeing The Amazing Race and that’s if it even airs when it originally was going to. I don’t think that I’ll get back into Big Brother if that winds up airing at 7 to keep my options open. I could get back into Chicago Med on NBC, but I won’t. I don’t even know yet if Survivor will return on Wednesdays or some other day of the week. FOX will be airing The Masked Singer (or is scheduled to) and I may watch that some. I mean, I did watch the third season finale after finding out that Shad Moss was on it. Maybe I can figure out who is on it before they are revealed (or just find a spoiler site that might have the information). I do plan to check out Devils on the CW. I might watch The Goldbergs more, but not whatever show airs after it that I don’t think that I like.

Movie update: On Wednesday, I watched Ice Age and replaced it with Ice Age: The Meltdown. On that next Friday, I watched Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and replaced it with Power Rangers: The Ultimate Rangers. On Saturday, I watched Celtic Woman: A New Journey and replaced it with Celtic Woman: Songs from the Heart. Also on that day, I got a lot of my neighbor’s old movies that she doesn’t want anymore so I should be adding a lot of new things to the list as a result. On Sunday, I watched National Treasure and replaced it with Muppet from Space. I don’t know yet when or if I will be adding the old movies of hers yet as I have to make sure that they are clean enough and good enough. Her late husband got a lot for free and maybe they aren’t worth anything.

On Wednesday, I watched Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith. I replaced that with Rogue One: A Star Wars Story that will appear as the same choice and letter as the previous choice, effectively being the same thing so that I can watch the original trilogy and at least one of the sequels at some point in time. While this movie does come with commentary, I’ve already seen that so I won’t have to see it again, unlike the other two prequels. On Friday, my movie choice was not related to any of the lists so I didn’t watch any of them as a result. On Saturday, I watched Indiana Jones and The Temple of Doom. I replaced that with Raiders of the Lost Ark. On Sunday, I watched Shrek 2. I replaced that with That Darn Cat, the original version of that movie.

On Wednesday, I watched The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. I replaced that with Déjà Vu. On Friday, I watched The Emperor’s New Groove. I replaced that with The Devil Wears Prada. On Saturday, I saw Raiders of the Lost Ark. I replace that with Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. On Sunday, I saw no movies that day as I had alternative plans for lunch that didn’t involve watching a movie.

On Wednesday, I watched Déjà Vu. On Wednesday, I watched Déjà Vu. I replaced that with Free Willy. On Friday, I watched The Devil Wears Prada. I replaced that with Liar Liar. On Saturday and Sunday, I did not have time to watch movies that week. On Tuesday, I watched Vantage Point from a scab list. It was on Friday’s list. I replaced that with A Wrinkle in Time. Only, it isn’t the recent version that came out in 2018 that I still need to see. It was the lesser known original version.

On Wednesday, I watched Ice Age: The Meltdown. I replaced that with Hancock. On Friday, I watched Minions. I replaced that with The Muppets Take Manhattan. On Saturday, I watched Jason Bourne. I replaced that with Jungle Fever, the first of the movies from my neighbor to make it on this new list. On Sunday, I watched Dumbo. I replaced that with The Fugitive.

On Wednesday, I watched Rogue One. Here, I’m going to do a segue so I can share something that I already shared before in another blog. There’s a popular (among some) YouTube channel that does some videos on movies pointing out flaws with them. This channel is called CinemaSins and they did a video called Everything Wrong with Rogue One. Here it is.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSCP2yg-v2g

This channel is not without criticism as there have been around four channels that are or at least were at one point doing videos sinning CinemaSins. While I have shared one from a channel now called Jay Exci before, another good one on the previous video is by a YouTuber known as The Birdman as he did one called Everything Wrong with CinemaSins: Rogue One. Here’s his video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-4LpSUHgZw

I replaced Rogue One with Star Wars: A New Hope. I highly recommend watching those previous two movies back to back sometime. I knew that I wanted to do that the first time I saw Rogue One and did do that in 2018. On Friday, I watched Power Rangers: The Ultimate Rangers. I replaced that with Popeye. That choice is not normally on the list as I watch it automatically at a certain point in the year that is not happening this year. We’ll see if that winds up happening or not. On Saturday, I watched a movie that was not on the list instead of one that was on the list. On Sunday, I watched nothing.

On Wednesday, I watched Star Wars: A New Hope. I will be watching it again with commentary in the future. I am still replacing it with Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back. On Friday, I watched The Muppets Take Manhattan. I replaced that with Monsters University. On Saturday, I watched Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. I replaced that with Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. On Sunday, I did not have the time to watch a movie as I spent it doing other things. On Tuesday, I watched The Fugitive from Sunday’s list. I replaced that with Ghost Town.

On Wednesday, I watched Hancock. I replaced that with Invictus. On Friday, I watched Taken. I replaced that with Spaceballs. On Saturday, I watched Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day. I replaced that with Oliver and Company. On Sunday, I was busy with lunch and rented a movie with supper. I didn’t have time for movies from my list until the next Wednesday.

On Wednesday, I watched Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back. That comes with commentary so I will watch it again with that. I replaced it with Star Wars: The Return of the Jedi. On Friday, I watched Monsters University. I replaced that with Monsters Inc. On Saturday, I watched Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. I replaced that with Eclipse in America. On Sunday, I was able to watch a movie that day for the first time in quite a while it seems. I watched That Darn Cat. I replaced it with The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. On Tuesday, I used a scab list to watch Despicable Me from Saturday’s list. I replaced that with Despicable Me 2.

On Wednesday, my streak of Star Wars continued and I roll The Return of the Jedi. I’m replacing that with The Phantom Menace with commentary. I cannot give those rolls away. On Friday, I watched the movie Courageous. I replaced that with Absolute Power. On Saturday, I watched Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. I replaced that with The Two Towers. On Sunday, I watched nothing.

Switching topics for a bit, I need to catch you up on the TV shows that I watch on DVD. You already had a hint of some of this with the Survivor: China posts that you’ve already seen. Let’s get to it. The first change was that mystery choice #4 was replaced by Winnie the Pooh, leaving Survivor: Gabon where it was on the list. Charmed season 5 was replaced by Charmed season 6. Flashpoint season 1 is replaced by Flashpoint season 2. And then Winnie the Pooh tapes was replaced by Matlock from the alternate list which moves Survivor: Gabon to number 5 on this list instead of number 4.

Going back to the movie watching list, on Wednesday, I watched Blank Check. I replaced that with Bean: the Movie. On Friday, I watched Spaceballs. I replaced that with Space Jam. On Saturday, I watched Eclipse in America. I replaced that with Enchanted. On Sunday, I watched nothing. I couldn’t from the main list with lunch. It is possible that I could have with supper, but didn’t wind up doing that instead at all for various issues.

On Wednesday, I watched Invictus. I replaced that with graduation DVDs that I have, the first one on my grade school graduation. On Friday, I watched Popeye. I replaced that with North by Northwest. On Saturday, I watched Jungle Fever. I replaced that with Fireproof. On Sunday, I once again watched no movies this time around.

On Wednesday, I watched Star Wars: The Phantom Menace with commentary. I replaced that with Star Wars: Attack of the Clones with commentary. On Friday, I watched A Wrinkle in Time. I replaced that with The Wrong Man. On Saturday, I watched Celtic Woman: Songs from the Heart. I replaced that with Celtic Woman: Believe. On Sunday, while I did watch a movie, I’m not going to tell you about that here. I am going to move the movie updates to my China posts and away from these Gabon posts.

Where do things stand in terms of movies right now? The Sunday list has the following choices: Arrival, Ghost Town, Kingsman: The Golden Circle, Muppet from Space, Raising Arizona, and The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. The Wednesday list has the following choices: Bean: the Movie, Free Willy, grade school graduation, Lilo and Stitch, Star Wars: Attack of the Clones with commentary, and Toy Story. The Friday list has the following choices: Absolute Power, Liar Liar, Monsters Inc, North by Northwest, Space Jam, and The Wrong Man. The Saturday list has the following choices: Celtic Woman: Believe, Despicable Me 2, Enchanted, Fireproof, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, and Oliver and Company.

Back in my posts on David versus Goliath, I posted about a missionary named Duane Meissner. He has left the mission field and is now a pastor at a church in Denver. If you want to continue his mission, here is one of the people who did one of the two things that he used to do.

https://www.lcms.org/burch

I was finally able to see this season again on Friday, October 23, 2020 when I rolled this episode in order to see it. It has been a good long while before I was able to see this again and am glad that I finally can see it. Now let’s get to the episode in question.

We begin with Matty upset at the vote. Ken tries to explain his strategic move but as often happens on Survivor or in real life, they don’t believe the truth. Crystal regrets her vote. Sugar wants to vote out Matty next if Bob wins again.

Ken confronts Bob about the idol that wasn’t played. Bob actually feels bad that this was his move. So he says that if he wins immunity, he will give it to Ken. Ken isn’t sure that he can trust Bob. But there is a lot of unknowns still going on in the game.

We then get to the reward challenge. The women do terribly. Bob wins. He decides to take first Crystal and then Ken with him on the reward. He decides to send Susie to Exile Island. The people enjoy the reward to a gorilla sanctuary. They get showers and better clothes. While there, Bob wants to make sure that he has a good deal with Ken and won’t just give away immunity for any reason.

Meanwhile, on Exile Island, Susie picks comfort as she knows or otherwise believes that Sugar has the idol. Back at camp, Sugar and Matty talk some. Sugar thinks that he needs to win immunity because he is a target otherwise. Sugar and Matty have some more confrontations a bit. Sugar points out that the idol she has is only good for the next tribal council and Matty wants to use it. He is also convinced that Ken is playing them for fools.

When the people are back together, Crystal goes off against Matty for what seems like Crystal to be no good reason. Sugar wants to work with him now. She wants to get rid of Crystal. Matty is hoping that he will find the strength to finish.

Next is the immunity challenge. The contestants have to recreate a mask of facial features and they have to do it blindfolded. Maybe you can create things like this. J Bob wins the challenge. Ken hopes that Bob will give the necklace away to him.

Ken wants to vote for Bob after getting the necklace from him. Ken thinks that he’s in danger, but can’t explain why he feels that way. He’s bad at lying. Maybe he’s also a redneck heartbreak. Sugar doesn’t want to side with Ken who revealed this plan. However, Sugar tells Bob about this plan to blindside him. She is emotional as usual. Sugar wants the good guys to win in the end. Ken thinks that either Bob or Matty will go home tonight. Sugar isn’t sure how things will go.

At tribal council, the contestants talk about Bob’s dominance of the game. Ken admits that he had flopped at the tribal council and then reveals Bob’s plans. Ken feels that he’s in danger now. Bob says that the deal was renegotiated. Jeff keeps asking about the picks that Bob had for the reward challenge. Sugar reveals that she has the idol, but Jeff reminds them all that fake idols are played. Bob thinks that since he doesn’t feel that Ken is in danger, he will keep his idol.

The votes are cast next. Ken and Crystal vote for Matty. Matty, Sugar, Bob, and Susie all vote for Crystal. When Jeff gets the votes, Sugar gives Matty her idol and he plays it on himself. Crystal is voted out of the game as a result.

On the next Survivor, it is the two hour season finale where one of them will become the sole Survivor of Survivor. There’s still a lot more in the game that will happen. I will tell you more about this later as it happens. I’ve got more of the blog post to finish now.

Total confessional count: Sugar- 32, Matty- 33, Susie- 11, Ken- 32, Crystal- 35, Bob- 24. New confessionals this episode: Ken- 9, Crystal- 5, Bob- 7, Sugar- 5, Matty- 6, Susie- 1.

Crystal proved to be a player so terrible that people even questioned whether or not she really won gold at the Olympics. While it turns out that she did, it was revealed that this was due to using steroids which might have cost her whole team the medals they won. This may make one wonder what her chance of returning to the game is. Well, I think that she has about a 30% chance of coming back again.

Since we are approaching the end of this month, I might as well get to the schedule of November blog posts that I have planned for the future. As usual, I’ll mention a disclaimer that I won’t know for sure if the schedule will happen this way in the future or not. Also note that I may do this twice next month since I’m unsure if I’ll have a regular post of this done in December or not.

November planned blog post calendar

Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
1: The Good Fight	2: freebie	3: TV	4: Survivor	5: Madam Secretary	6: The Good Wife	7: CSI: Cyber
8: Survivor (maybe)	9: Elementary (if not on Sunday)	10: TV	11: Survivor (if not on Sunday)	12: freebie	13: Survivor (maybe)	14: freebie
15: The Good Fight	16: freebie	17: TV	18: Survivor (if not on Friday)	19: The Good Wife (if not on the 17th)	20: Survivor (maybe)	21: freebie
22: Survivor (maybe)	23: freebie	24: TV	25: Survivor (if not on Sunday or Friday)	26: freebie	27: Survivor (maybe)	28: The Good Fight
29: Survivor (maybe)	30: freebie	Not November	Not November	Not November	Not November	Not November

I hope that the calendar keeps publishing well. I plan to do a rant video on YouTube about all of the issues that I have with the new blogger and post a link to that video in this blog. I still have other series of videos to share in different blogs of mine. There ones that are serious and the ones where I blog about one of my jobs in the past. Both of them will only be put in my Good Fight blog posts, should I ever be able to blog more about those seasons in the future. But that’s all that I feel is worth talking about at the moment. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.

Team Gabon

 

Well, there is a twist that I’d want to do for a season that will probably never happen. What it basically boils down to is that I’m picking six contestants from Gabon in order to form a tribe for a potential season. I’d need a place to film the season and I’d recommend South Africa as the location. I’ve been there. It’s beautiful. (The other two tribes would both be new players, but they would have some sort of pre-existing connection between them.) First, let’s do a refresher in the rules.

 

1- You must pick exactly three men and three women for this season. 2- As often as possible, you must include a contestant from all of the tribes from a season. This includes both the starting tribes and the merged tribe. 3- Previous rule only applies fairly in seasons with all new players, one returnee per tribe season, or all returning player seasons when everyone in the season has played the same amount of times at the start of it. Otherwise, the rule is rewritten for half returnee and half newbie seasons or in a season where all the returnees have played a different amount of times. 4- You cannot pick someone from this season unless they’ve only played once.

 

First, let’s remove Dan since he can never play again due to his death. The cast of 18 is now down to 17. With rule 4 applied, Randy, Corinne, and Sugar are all out. Thus, we go from 17 to 14. I’m going to remove GC from consideration as he asked to be voted out. He wasn’t a real quitter, but he sure felt like it. This leaves us at 13. I’m going to take out Bob next as I felt that he, as a winner, would have too much of an advantage over the other players. Now we are at 12. It would be hard to mention any more cuts from here, so I’ll skip to the people that I would choose next.

 

Let’s start with the men that I’d choose. I’ll get a contestant from Fang and Nobag out of the way first. Matty was a pretty good player and could have won had he been able to make fire at the end. In light of the fact that Dan, who can’t play again, was eliminated at a double tribal council, I thought that I would put Ace in this team as he was eliminated at the other part of the double tribal council. He also fulfills my Kota requirement. The last person who I’d pick is Marcus as he played a pretty great game until he fell short of an immunity challenge and was voted out as a result. Thus, the men I’d choose are Matty, Ace, and Marcus.

 

Now let’s get to the women that I’d choose. In order to fulfill my Kota requirement, I’m picking Kelly. In order to appease my Nobag requirement, I’m picking Susie. And I really can’t cast a tribe of people from this season without including Gillian who did a lot for reality TV by creating reality rally, a good event, I hear. Thus, the women that I’m picking are Gillian, Susie, and Kelly.

 

I figure that I should now make a case as to why everyone from this season should return to play the game again. But first, I’ll have to take out anyone and everyone from this season who is probably not playing again. Well, I would take out GC, but since he didn’t really quit, then there might be a possibility that he returns to play again, even if it might be slim. Thus, the only contestant who won’t be returning to play again is Dan, who is dead.

 

Now let’s get to my case for each contestant for this season as to why they should return to play the game again. Michelle is a great athlete and should get a chance to play for longer. Gillian has done a lot for reality shows by creating reality rally. Paloma could prove to be more interesting if she got to play again. Jacquie could prove herself as a better player and person if she got another chance at the game again. GC might be able to better handle the wilderness if he got to play again. Kelly might better know how to handle other players if she could return. Ace was a wonderful villain and we should see more of his game since it was cut short over someone’s manipulation.

 

Marcus was one of the most dominate players to have never made the merge. Charlie was wonderful to watch and might make a good player again if given the chance. Randy’s crass way of playing the game may not be for everyone, but could be nice to see again. Corrine still has a lot to prove among her fans and should get more chances to prove them as a result. Crystal might want to prove herself more as a player and as a person.

 

Ken could prove that he’s a good player with control of this game like he has over his Super Smash Brothers avatars. Matty was a wonderful person who almost won who should have a second chance as a result. Sugar is a sly person who had more control over the game that others realized. Susie is liked by some fans for some reason so she might fit right in with playing the game once again. Bob is a great winner and should get to play again as a result before it is too late.

 

Now I would do groupings of all of the players, but don’t see a reason for doing that. In fact, I might not do something like that again depending on how much time I have for posts in the future. There are all sorts of ways to group these players for potential future returns as I sort of have already done with the heroes and villains of this season.

 

I’m going to end the post here as a result. I’m spending a lot of time working on posts of episodes of Survivor, but you won’t see them until they are ready and thus posted as a result. I’ll have to do more of them in the future if and whenever possible. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.

How Blood versus Water Affects this Blog

While it should be clear by now that I have some seasons of this show and want others (and have one that I don’t currently want to see, but more than likely will someday if the discs work), even before I might get them and thus be able to watch them as often as I want to that some seasons of this show might affect my blog more than others. Today, I’m going to briefly talk about how this is the case with the 27^th season of this show.

You see, when I watched Survivor: Borneo to write notes on B. B. Anderson for a blog post about him, I also decided to write a post on Gervase Peterson at the same time as well due to him being a player on Blood versus Water as well. This means that any season that I have with a player that would later appear on Blood versus Water would get a priority over other players from this season that have played in a later season as well.

There could be other ways in which this season affects my blogs. You might find out more about this as I write about this season in the future. Or, you might not get as much out of it as you would like. Just know that it affects this blog in ways that most other seasons don’t, or at least don’t yet. Since I don’t know of other examples of this right now, I’m going to have to end the post about it here. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.

What to Watch During Survivor’s Hiatus

I thought that I would do a quick post again as I keep not giving myself enough time to write these posts to get something good and of substance. I talk sometimes in posts about what I watch during the winter of hiatus of Survivor and I normally don’t care about keeping track of the summer one as much. But since Survivor will be on a much longer hiatus this time around, I might as well post beyond more than just what I’m doing and suggest what to do if you like Survivor.

There are some options that you can get into that are temporary itself. For one, there is now a show on the CW called Devils that is new. It aired internationally before it aired here. It won’t be here for long as it will be gone before the new year comes. I have no idea yet if this is a complete series or just one of many that we will be seeing later. That could occupy your time.

Another show that isn’t too much of a commitment is The Masked Singer. Like Survivor, they will start fresh every season with new people. In fact, I feel a bit sad already for Survivor since I know that a lot of the fans of this show will flock to the other show and if the two wind up competing against each other again, some might not return to Survivor, especially if they got rid of Ken Jeong. But I’d have to imagine that one would feel safer with the show they stuck with longer. This still might be the go to replacement for most Survivor fans.

Of course, one could remain loyal to the CBS network that airs Survivor. After finishing with Big Brother, they are finally set to air a long delayed The Amazing Race that I believe will be the last season of the show since they just won’t feel like doing it for quite a while again. It might never return enough though they had filmed a bit of what was supposed to be the next season of the show already before they had to stop, much like other shows did, even the domestic productions.

ABC has largely been airing filler now, but will be airing The Goldbergs then American Housewife during the time that Survivor will normally be on. I have gone in and out of those shows already a lot as I can do that with sitcoms. What’s also worth noting is that I was into Chicago Med at one point, but gave it up when it moved to compete with Survivor (and I was getting bored with it). That is an NBC show. At least The Goldbergs is in syndication now, but not all of those shows in syndication are on every network that one could watch where they live. Neither are back yet, so if you want an immediate replacement, you don’t want to wait for them in November.

There are plenty of other networks with plenty of other shows. With a recent schedule change, I have no idea what My Network TV is airing right now. One doesn’t even have to watch a show at all when it comes to what’s on TV and some might not try to cover all hours of primetime like I often do. So feel free to read a book during this time. It’s too late to spend time outside. If there are old seasons of Survivor that you want to watch instead, you can. Make whatever you want to out of this long break of the show and these are just the shows that are on now that I know about. Watch whatever you want to if you want to watch something at all. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.

A Hypothetical Speculation on this Blog’s Future

As you can tell for those who are still coming back to this blog that’s still being updated despite the fact that there is no new Survivor on the air, you might wonder how this blog will continue throughout the time. While I could be doing a blog about Bob’s Burgers that I have talked about doing for quite some time now, I don’t believe that I will largely due to changes in blogger that I’ll get into in another post. For now, what am I supposed to do with this blog? And will it stay updated for as long as I’m able to write it in the end? Well, let’s delve into this.

You see, I’m not entirely sure yet where I’m going with this post, but do feel that it is a good one to write now because a hiatus of Survivor for over a year can make you wonder what a Survivor blogger like me is supposed to do. I still have at least two seasons that I’m writing about at times. There are more of the old seasons that I want to cover and I will even do some that I have already written about.

I always want to write about something in any one of my blogs. Even after four of the shows that I watch have ended, I still do blogs about them based on what the cast of them is doing now. I can even cover subjects that have nothing to do with the shows in question that I blog about such as doing posts just about politics in my blogs about Madam Secretary, The Good Wife, and The Good Fight. I want to write about something and wonder if I could review TV shows for a living. I don’t know yet if I will ever have this chance to do so in the end, but can only hope that I can.

Basically, there are a lot of random posts to write about still so that you shouldn’t have to worry about me not having content. I wish that it were quality content or something that people were interested in, but have no idea yet if this will happen or not. One can always suggest what posts you might want to see in the future and I’ll let you know if that can happen or not. That’s all that I can think of for this post. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.

Survivor: Cagayan- Hero or Villain

 

As usual, there are some seasons that I want to keep track of the heroes and villains from it so I think that I should include this season in the list as well. I should get into why Survivor is having an even longer offseason than usual as most people might know in a different post of this blog not dedicated to that. But I remain dedicated to doing as many of these blog posts as possible regardless of it there is a season to blog about at all. Now let’s get to the post in question.

 

When we go through the cast of the 28^th season of Survivor, it shouldn’t be too hard to figure out where some of the players rank in terms of their villainy or, perhaps, their heroicness. Of course, maybe they are neither in the end. But let’s get started with the first one out and work my way to the winner from there. You can let me know your thoughts in the comments.

 

David was the first one out and didn’t leave much of an impact on the game outside of trying to do some moves, but ultimately being hated enough that he was taken out. Most people can’t be hated unless they are bad in some way so I’m going to put him as a villain as a result.

 

Garrett was too much of a dumb player to rank that well either way with being a hero or villain. It is not like he’s trying to do something right when he was getting voted out with an idol in his possession. Thus, he is neither a hero nor a villain.

 

Brice was known at one point for doing a Survivor website where he liked to throw shade at people. He may not have made much of an influence on the game, but I do think that he was a villain and one that I like as a player nonetheless.

 

J’Tia is effectively a female Brandon Hantz the way she played the game. She didn’t last as long (which is great), but she is so undoubtedly a villain that one can’t even make a case for anything else that has seen her play the game in the end or remembers her even a little.

 

Cliff was one of the notable celebrities who had played Survivor. Some make it further than others. He was voted out after his tribe threw a challenge. But I feel that it wasn’t too hard to keep track of where he ranks on this list as he was clearly a hero to me in my mind.

 

Lindsey is known for being a quitter, even though her reasoning doesn’t seem to make as much sense in the end. I thought about maybe putting her as a villain, but am not sure that would be a good label. All I know is that she’s not really a hero either, so I have to rank her as neither.

 

Alexis is a nice person from what I remember, even if she didn’t wind lasting that long in the game for reasons that I don’t remember as well right now. I’d still rank her on the hero side of players based on what little I remember of her.

 

Sarah was a different player the first time around versus what she would become in later seasons. She kind of does flip between what type of player she is at times since she adapts better sometimes at the game than she does at other times throughout the game. This time around, I’d say she’s neither.

 

Morgan also didn’t seem to have that much of an influence on the game despite making it further than a lot of other people in it. I mean, I could read the posts that I wrote on Cagayan again and probably will at some point in the future, but won’t right now. In terms of being a hero or villain, she is neither to me in the end at this point in time.

 

L J seemed to make his mark on the game the same way a lot of other players this season weren’t as well known as they could be, even making it as far as he did. I’d have to say that what I remember of him makes him seem like a hero in the end.

 

Jeremiah, also known as Jeremy, was quite a good player. It is hard to even explain how he wound up on the wrong side of the numbers since his tribe was doing well before the merge, but the game changes a lot throughout the game. I rank him as a hero.

 

Jefra was kind of boring or at least seemed that way since she didn’t have much footage of her game shown in the end. I’d have to say that she wasn’t that much of a hero or a villain and was thus only neither in the search for a label for him.

 

Tasha in this season was a great player that could have made it further if she either won more or had gotten on the right numbers this time she played. While returning certainly made her a different player, this season around, she’s clearly a hero.

 

Trish is quite a character and there wasn’t much to her that we can’t say for one reason or another had been the way that it was. I hope that makes sense to some people. I can’t quite put her on one side of the split that easily, but do think that she better fits in with being a villain than anything else.

 

Spencer was much better the first time he played despite making it further the second time that he played. It can be a curse, really, to be a better player when you don’t make it as far. This season, it was clear that he was the hero of the season.

 

Kass was clearly a villain this time around to the point that calling her something else wouldn’t even make that much sense. Do you think that anything else would work, either this season or any other one as well? I know she played again, but can’t think of what might have changed then.

 

Woo will be remembered for being a dumb player who could have easily won if only he didn’t win the final immunity challenge. That’s ironic, right? He was so concerned about playing an honorable game that he didn’t care that it would cost him that win. That’s what makes him a hero, if still a dumb one.

 

Tony might be one of my favorite villains who ever played the game. He was quite a villain who was in control of the game so much despite not even winning immunity individually. It is hard not to like him despite his evil ways.

 

Well, there you have it. I don’t know what else to say and am sorry that I had to rush this post here at the last minute and won’t be able to get rid of the last minute edits that I’m always having to do now that the new blogger exists. Ugh. Let’s not talk about that now, but save that for other posts. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.