Ten Worst Survivor Tribes

Before I say anything else, I might as well point out that there might not be a cast assessment in this blog this year. I have not been able to find the preview show I was looking for online. Without it, I'm not sure how I could do it. Let me know if you can think of any good links that would work for a cast assessment. Meanwhile, I'll get to the actual point of this blog post. This could be my last random post before the new season starts.

I once posted what I thought the ten dumbest Survivor tribes were. Now, there’s a difference between dumb tribes and just plain bad tribes. So I will go into deal about which ten tribes I think are the absolute worst in Survivor history. I am picking the ten that I think did far worse than any other tribes. I will also mention which tribes aren’t going to get a place on this list and what tribes came close, but ultimately weren’t worthy of being with the main ten.

What are the ten? I’ll get to that later. But, first I should mention the tribes that I’m not choosing. Some tribes are complicated due to tribe swaps messing up the tribe. With La Mina, for instance, the original tribe is not remembered as much as the post swap tribe, which didn’t do as well in the game. The original Aitutaki was pretty bad, but we remember the Aitutaki four alliance that dominated after the merge so this won’t appear. I will mostly consider the original tribes and how they did. That’s why a tribe like Fang won’t appear on this list, although they were pretty bad. I’m also only talking about tribes that did bad before the individual stage of the game. That’s why you won’t see Pagong on this list. Something that I feel that I must note here is that since Ravu only lost a ton due to the worst twist in Survivor history, you will not see it on the list because it did not have a level playing field like other tribes that are on the list did.

Now to the honorable mentions: It’s a bit complicated wondering which tribe was the first to be considered among the worst. Was Samburu bad enough to be on the list? Not in my mind. And Sook Jai was a pretty bad tribe, but mostly not until after the fake merge. Zhan Hu was pretty bad, but ultimately, not bad enough for this list. And I’ve mentioned before how I think that Fang is too confusing to be on this list. Before I get to the top ten, there’s something that I should mention: if a terrible tribe managed to produce the winner of that season, I’m still going to put the tribe on the list, but I will put them towards the beginning of the list instead of the end. Regardless of that fact, they were still bad tribes. Also, please remember my list of dumbest tribes because tribes that made dumb moves aren’t necessarily bad in the way tribes on my list are. But now, I’m onto the list.

#10 Matsing (Philippines): You might be wondering why this is only number ten. It’s the only tribe that never won any challenges. But tons of worse tribes lost plenty more challenges than Matsing. Plus they are kind of redeemed by how well Malcolm and Denise did. The tribe was dissolved based on how pitiful it was and it shouldn’t be excluded from the list because of having the winner come from it. So I made it number ten on this list because it is one of the worst tribes in Survivor history.

#9 Maraamu (Marquesas): This is considered to be the original tribe that sucked. It went onto a losing streak very early into the game and it wasn’t until after a tribe swap happened that this tribe won challenges. It only had three challenge wins, a record that wasn’t broken for a while, although I forget if it was tied anytime soon afterwards. What’s interesting about this tribe is that three people on it got to be on a tribe with every contestant this season. That’s a feat that doesn’t happen easily. It was also people who were members of this tribe that formed the outsiders alliance that ending up flipping on the would-be final four. The winner of the season was from this tribe, but it still sucked.

#8 Foa Foa (Samoa): This will be the last bad tribe on the list that ended up having the winner of the season. Starting with number seven, the other tribes would not wind up producing the winner. You see, with the effect of Russell Hantz’s sabotaging his own tribe, they failed a lot in the game and ending up winning only one reward and one immunity challenge, losing all the rest. Despite this, the four members that made the early merge all outplayed the other tribe despite the two to one odds against them. Nobody even knew what happened until it was too late. Were they not saved by the early merge, they might rank closer to number one. But they produced a great winner, even though they sucked as bad as they did early on.

#7 Luzon (Cagayan): Brain fail are the two words that perfectly describe this tribe. It was pretty funny to me to see a tribe full of smart people be so dumb at playing the game. They lost half of their members pretty quickly. After being saved by a tribe swap that actually got rid of the tribe, the rest of the members made it pretty far, but none of them made it to the end. While they could have been better had they actually known how to use their smarts, they ultimately failed at living up to their name and earn a spot on this list.

#6 Heroes (Heroes versus Villains): You may think that I hate on the heroes tribe too much. You’d probably be right. But this tribe was pretty pitiful, when you think about it. It probably suffered from bad casting. (Look at the females on this tribe and tell me why any of them were heroes because I’d really like to know why myself.) And while one would probably like the heroes to succeed, simply because they were heroes, these people probably weren’t who you wanted to win. They failed a lot in the game and were pretty weak in the game. It does not surprise anyone that they failed. If only they were better cast.

#5 Espada (Nicaragua): In an old versus young season, you wouldn’t think that the old tribe would do well. But just how bad it did is why it is now on the list. While you’d want an old tribe to win to defeat stereotypes about it, it didn’t do that well as a tribe, even though they had some good players. A medallion of power advantage might have been the only reason the original tribe won a challenge. They also had some pretty weak players that didn’t do so well.

#4 Morgan (Pearl Islands): In the very beginning of the game, this tribe failed pretty quickly and stayed failing until the other tribe intentionally threw an immunity challenge. Due to a twist, the highest ranking member of the tribe was also the third person voted out of it. It did suck a lot and only succeeded in some way due to Drake’s bad decisions. Ultimately, whereas other minority tribes before it pulled a turnaround after the merge by producing the winner, this tribe was the first premerge minority tribe (in my mind at least) to not wind up with the eventual winner coming from it. At least they brought us Darrah who could have done more were it not for that stupid immunity twist towards the end. Oddly, nobody from this tribe has been asked back for another season. But since they were as bad as they were, it shouldn’t be that much of a surprise.

#3 Gota (Caramoan): Ah, Gota. So many people were bad from this tribe. It’s highest placing member was one of the most obvious goats to enter the final tribal council. In a fans versus favorites season, you’d except the fans to do bad. But this tribe failed terribly at the game. Like the heroes tribe, it was probably miscast, if you believe the rumors that over half of the tribe was recruits. It can be a bit of a surprise that this tribe succeeded in anything at all. The only thing that made it good was after the tribe swap which still caused its original members to lose. Some of these players knew what to do in the game, which is a good thing in the end. But it failed miserably as a tribe in general.

#2 Coyopa (San Juan del Sur): This may only be on the list since this season this tribe was a part of aired recently. But, when you think about it, it was a pretty pitiful tribe. Only the merge saved this tribe, but not enough to have a serious contender for the win. One might not even be able to say for sure what had happened that caused this tribe to be so terrible. How were all the good loved ones on the other tribe? Why did this tribe due so poorly? Like many bad tribes, we may never actually know the real answer. But this tribe was very terrible at the game and what it enthralled.

You may be thinking right now: okay, there’s an obvious bad tribe that hasn’t been listed yet. It has to be number one, right? Well, to me the answer of the worst tribe in Survivor history would have to go to a single tribe alone. No other tribes are even close to being as terrible as it was. The term used for describing a terrible Survivor tribe comes from it. It won barely any challenges, not one of them for immunity. It lacked any clear leadership and near the end of its existence, we saw the other tribe being able to sit out the same members in back to back challenges just because the other tribe didn’t have hardly anyone left on it. A unique twist happened because it was so pitiful; one never seen in any other Survivor season. Only one member from it made the individual stage of the game. You may have guessed it by now, but there’s one clear and obvious choice for the worst tribe in Survivor history.

#1 Ulong (Palau): At first, nobody knew that this tribe would be so freaking terrible. Nobody was prepared for just how much this tribe would lose. It was actually quite interesting to see them lose so frequently in the game. One member was able to outlast all the other tribe members while the tribal part of the game was still happening. It’s a bit surprising that she was able to outlast two of the other tribe’s members. But Ulong was so bad at the game, a merge didn’t even happen because of how few members (or, technically, just a single member), they had in the game. I don’t think that any other tribe was as bad as Ulong one. That why it gets my number one pick.

Well, I hope that I didn’t forget any notable bad tribes. I don’t think that any tribe other than Ulong deserves to be number one. You may notice the difference between this list and the one that I did on dumb tribes. There is a clear difference. I also hope to return at some point with a best tribe list, but I won’t make any promises about it yet. Keep an eye out on this blog anytime Survivor is on hiatus and you should see interesting posts like these. Well, I hope that they are interesting and I hope that there are people who are reading it. Please keep reading this blog of mine, although I’d probably keep posting even if people didn’t read it. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.

Important Survivor Events that went Unaired

Sometimes, editing can make or break a season of Survivor. In fact, editing can severely affect anything in television or movies. Bad editing can ruin a lot of things. I mean, Turbo: a Power Rangers movie and Thomas and the Magic Railroad would probably have much better reception if they weren’t so poorly edited. But since better edits of those films don’t exist (as of this blog post at least), then we are just left with the version we have and hope that it isn’t inferior by as much as it could be, considering how we could know more of what should have been there. Now I have heard from various sources things I will tell you in this post. I will cite sources whenever possible. But, sometimes, events that are important to a Survivor season will not make the final edit. This blog post is to inform you of those events. Some important Survivor events went unaired. This will not be a top ten, just a list of different noteworthy events in my mind that I figure my readers should know about, if they don’t already.

Amazon- cause of fire: Okay, I’m not even sure about this one being true. I could be remembering it wrong, but maybe not. The way I heard about it is sketchy enough that I probably don’t think it’s true. But I’ve mentioned this before. My brother heard this from one of his friends (or a friend of a friend) that apparently worked in this Survivor season. You may remember at the final five, there was a fire at the camp that destroyed most of the remaining player’s belongings. One of the contestants still in the game was blamed for this fire. But that’s not the case. What was the real cause of the fire? We don’t know. The person in question knows the real cause. Here’s the strange part: he can’t reveal what the cause was until six months after the series finale of Survivor. How weird is that? This could just be an elaborate hoax that few people know about besides me. But, if Survivor ends, I’ll wait six months to see if any news breaks about this.

Pearl Islands- more on the outcasts: Lots of people hated the outcasts twist in Pearl Islands. I don’t know why so many people say that the twist was bad, but it helped make the season better. Just seems very weird to me. But, as a fan of the outcasts, I think that one part where it failed is that the audience never saw anything that happened while the outcasts were out of the game. From the moment Nicole was voted out to the moment that they arrived for a twist challenge, we saw none of what happened to them. The outcast tribal council didn’t reveal as much as it could have about this tribe’s dynamics. Why did the votes fall the way they did? When could they have even aired what happened? Redemption Island, while not always edited well, at least gives more insight into the game than this ever did.

Pearl Islands- why Osten quit: Sometimes on Survivor, what’s in the final edit deliberately changes what actually happened in the season. Like when Osten became the first quitter. There was a lot about it that they didn’t show, some of which would have made Osten look better than he did. Did we know of Osten’s staph infections? No, we didn’t. He had to tell people about it after the season had finished airing. The quit might have been more orchestrated by production than they would have you believe. With him having all these problems that they didn’t show you about, it made him even more likely to quit. And he did quit, but we saw a much different version of it than we should have. But we have a contestant who knows more about what happened that episode which he quit. And he told Survivor Oz about it. Link: https://survivoroz.wordpress.com/2012/06/12/ryan-opray-interview/

Palau- immunity vote: Actually, we may know things about this thanks to Survivor Wiki. But, there still remains an unexplained mystery about the double tribal council episode that season. Before Ulong was to vote out a member, the members of Koror voted to give one of them immunity. We have no idea why people voted the way they did. Wikia has who voted for who. It’s unknown where they got their information from or if it is accurate. However, they are the only ones who have it (the voting record) so I trust them more than I would anyone else. But we still don’t know that much about the vote itself or why it happened. Link: http://survivor.wikia.com/wiki/The_Best_and_Worst_Reward_Ever

China- idol question: Some people may have wondered why Jamie couldn’t have stolen one of James’s idols in this season. Well, there is clearly a rule that prohibits stealing idols. While the edit makes her look a bit clueless, not realizing that she could have grabbed an idol and used it to save herself at the next tribal council, there is a rule that prevents hidden immunity idols from being stolen. But nowhere onscreen is this rule ever addressed. I don’t know how they could have addressed it, but it explains why she didn’t steal it, even if she didn’t know it was real.

Nicaragua- possible expulsion: This one was pretty strange. One wonders if it even affected the season as much as it could have. But something happened with Sash that could have had serious consequences was pretty much guilty of production interference. Due to an infamous (word being used correctly for once) double quit in the season, the show didn’t want there to be even more bad things happening. That’s why there were no consequences when there otherwise could have been. But let’s get into more detail about it. Jane is the person who told production about this. Supposedly, Sash offered to help pay off Jane’s mortgage and she told production about it. I wish I had a good link for this story, but I don’t. I still don’t know if this is true, but it could be.

One World- idol incident: In the rulebook of Survivor, it says that one is not allowed to steal a hidden immunity idol from another player as an idol is considered a personal item. You can steal an idol clue, which I find strange, but that’s probably a different discussion. Now an incident happened in One World that probably happened but couldn’t be aired. It seriously affected the whole season. I still don’t know why this happened. But it is widely believed that Bill stole Colton’s hidden immunity idol and threw it into the sea. Why Bill did this in the main question about it that I want answered. But it happened and Colton learned about it. Suddenly, Colton hates Bill and we are lead to the moment when Manono gave up immunity. Without this season, Colton comes off even worse than he is by hating Bill. But this event could have revealed more about this season. It couldn’t be shown since it would raise too many questions. Link: http://www.realityblurred.com/realitytv/2012/10/survivor-one-world-idol-stealing/

Caramoan- Shamar’s evacuation: If you don’t know about this one, you really should. That is why I’m going to tell you about it right now. Production screwed up a lot of Caramoan. That is not a secret. It was, quite possibly, the poorest edited season out of all the seasons ever done. I actually like the season in question, but there’s still a lot they did wrong with it. Medical pretty much caused Shamar to be medically evacuated. If you don’t believe me, click on the link at the end of this paragraph. There’s no reason he would lie about all of these things. In fact, the reunion show fiasco may have been to help prevent him from telling the truth about it. Of course, he would tell people about it anyways. So listen to what the link says and you may learn something you’ll be glad you heard, if you didn’t know about it already. Link: https://survivoroz.wordpress.com/2014/02/26/shamar-thomas-interview/

Caramoan- Erik’s evacuation: Well production wasn’t actually responsible for this evacuation happening, they did make it look much different than it actually was. We didn’t see his leg infection. Only in Ponderosa did we see it. As far as we know, he had low blood pressure and was pulled from the game. But that’s not what happened. That’s not serious enough and wasn’t the real cause. I don’t know why people were so messed up in Caramoan. I still like the season, but it’s not hard to understand why people hate it so much. They could have done so much better with the editing. But they screwed up too much and had to cover their asses. So we saw less of him than we should have thanks to him being pulled from the game. Link: https://survivoroz.wordpress.com/2013/06/07/erik-reichenbach-caramoan-interview/

San Juan del Sur- idol burning: This one was probably unimportant. It could have been something that we thought would be in the final edit, but wasn’t. Once they started the season, they ended the first episode with a weird comment regarding idol burning. It never actually happened on the show. It might have not been in the final edit since they would probably be breaking the rules by taking somebody’s idol and burning it. Only if a hidden immunity idol is not in possession of anyone or is willingly destroyed by its owner, would such a thing happen. So we still don’t know what this was about or what happened regarding it. The only idols that have ever been burned on the show were fakes. A real one was thrown into the sea during Gabon, which was pretty dumb. But we’ll never know what happened with the idol burning this season. Well, not unless someone talks to a contestant about it or they simply reveal what the thing was about.

That’s all the secrets of the show that I can think of for now. I know that I probably missed a lot of other important events that were edited out of the show. I mean, so freaking often we have a contestant that gets voted out and the real reason why they were eliminated was edited out. So many people talk about this in their interviews after the show is over. I could give examples, but that would take too long. The point is: sometimes important stuff gets edited out of Survivor. And we as fans may not know what it was. But I will keep an eye out for anything and everything that we should know about that wasn’t in the final edit. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.

Blood versus Water Seasons Similarities

With the twenty-seventh season of Survivor and the twenty-ninth season using the same major twist (blood versus water), it’s only inevitable that people compare the two seasons to each other. This blog post will point out the similarities (and differences) between the two seasons.

·         The highest ranking pair in both seasons was a mother/daughter pair.

·         The lowest ranking new player in the first blood versus water was paired with the person who ended  up winning. The first person voted out of the second blood versus water was paired with the winner.

·         Both seasons saw an injured contestant become a finalist.

·         Both seasons had brothers playing.

·         Both seasons had a person quitting the game.

·         Both seasons had two boyfriend/girlfriend pairs and a married couple.

·         Both had contestants that played other reality shows before they played Survivor.

·         Both had a male gay couple that was in a relationship.

·         Both quitters were with a romantic partner.

·         Both seasons lacked any cousins playing with each other.

·         Both seasons had a pair completely eliminated before the merge.

·         Both seasons had a men’s alliance that failed. (For the record, there has never been a successful all  men alliance in Survivor as of this blog post.)

·         Both seasons had pairs united by a tribe swap and more were united by the merge.

·         Both seasons had a sports player on it.

Now you might be wondering what some of the differences are. Well, I’ll get to that next. There are a lot of differences that existed between the two seasons. I might as well mention what they are, if only I could stop drawing this out… I think that I will.

Blood versus Water	San Juan del Sur
Did not have any sisters playing with each other.	Did not have any engaged people playing with each other.
Did not have a father and child.	Did not have a person with their aunt/uncle.
Had no twins.	Had the twinees!
The lowest ranking pair was married to each other.	The lowest ranking pair was a father and daughter.
A man won the game.	A woman won the game.
The game was more focused on singles- those without loved ones in the game.	The game was more focused on pairs- those with loved ones still in the game.
Had more pairs that weren’t related.	Had more blood relative pairs.
Had an even number of men and women.	Had more men than women.

Well, that’s all the trivia I can think of for now about the blood versus water twist. There’s probably more that I can’t remember. But I thought that this would be interesting, so I’m spreading my thoughts about it with you. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.

Survivor All Final Fives

A Survivor fan probably remembers the strange way of how Cook Islands began with five players on each tribe. Also, people wonder what twists could bring back players who made it far in their seasons. So I thought, why not take the final fives of various seasons and put them on one tribe against other final fives from other seasons? You may have noticed that I did a list like this with the final fours of various seasons. But, I thought that I should see if final fives would work. Just to be clear about something: the gender ratio has to be pretty close to even. So if the final five wasn’t three men and two women or two men and three women, then I won’t be choosing it, even if it was likely that they would return anyways. I will go through all the seasons and, if all goes well, I can find four tribes that will work from various seasons. What are they? Well, let’s look. (Sorry if the font is weird on this blog post.)

We start with Borneo. The final five was Sean, Sue, Rudy, Kelly, and Richard. Sue is definitely not coming back, Rudy probably isn’t, and Kelly won’t so this tribe won’t happen. Next we have Australia. The final five was Elisabeth, Rodger, Keith, Colby, and Tina. Elisabeth is not returning and Colby probably won’t so this tribe isn’t happening. Next we have Africa. The final five was Ethan, Kim Johnson, Lex, Tom, and Teresa. If Ethan is healthy enough and everyone can play, then this tribe could conceivably happen. The Marquesas final five was Sean, Vecepia, Kathy, Neleh, and Paschal. I see no problems with this tribe happening. The Thailand final five was Brian, Clay, Helen, Jan, and Ted. Production has openly admitted to not liking Brian and he probably won’t play again. Likewise, I doubt any of them would return, regardless of if they all accepted. The Amazon final five was Heidi, Jenna, Butch, Matthew, and Rob. I don’t think Heidi wants to do the show again, Jenna returning is complicated due to her quitting her second season, and Rob is very busy with his podcast. The Pearl Islands final five was Burton, Johnny Fairplay, Sandra, Darrah, and Lillian. They are unlikely to have Johnny Fairplay return to the game again, so I say that this is unlikely to happen. The All-Stars final five was Amber, Boston Rob, Tom, Jenna Lewis, and Rupert. I don’t see Amber or Rob playing again, so this won’t happen.

Now we get to Vanuatu. The final five that season was Chris, Julie, Eliza, Twila, and Scout. Julie can’t play again since she dated Jeff Probst. However, gender imbalance gets rid of this tribe anyways. In Palau, the final five was Caryn, Jenn, Tom, Katie, and Ian. Since Jenn is dead, this tribe can’t happen. In Guatemala, the final five was Cindy, Danni, Lydia, Rafe, and Stephenie. Due to gender imbalance, this tribe can’t happen. In Panama, the final five was Danielle, Cirie, Shane, Terry, and Aras. This tribe I could easily see as happening. In Cook Islands, the final five was Ozzy, Sundra, Becky, Yul, and Adam. Depending on if Ozzy agreed to return, I’d see this tribe as possibly happening. The Fiji final five was Dreamz, Kenwood, Yau-Man, Earl, and Cassandra. Due to gender imbalance, that won’t happen. Next, we get to the China final five. That was Amanda, Courtney, Denise, Todd, and Peih-Gee. I’m not sure that Denise would play again and Todd is going through a constant crisis with alcohol, so I don’t see this tribe happening. Next is the Micronesia final five which was Erik, Natalie, Amanda, Cirie, and Parvati. This one I don’t see happening due to gender imbalance. It was a great final five, but Cirie can’t be on more than one starting tribe in the same season anyways.

Now we get to Gabon. Ken, Matty, Susie, Bob, and Sugar were the final five that season. I don’t see Sugar returning to the game so this probably won’t happen. The Tocantins final five was JT, Stephen, Taj, Coach, and Erinn. Taj has openly stated that she won’t play again so this tribe probably won’t happen. Next we have the Samoa final five. The Samoa final five was Jaison, Mick, Natalie, Russell Hantz, and Brett. Since I’m not sure if they’ll let Russell back (not to mention the gender imbalance), so we won’t be seeing this tribe. Next we have the final five of Heroes versus Villains. That was Colby, Jerri, Parvati, Russell, and Sandra. Once again, they probably won’t let Russell back and Colby doesn’t want to play again so this won’t happen.

The Nicaragua final five is next. That was Dan, Holly, Chase, Fabio, and Sash. Even without the gender imbalance, Chase is too busy with his music career and Sash probably won’t play again due to an unaired event that would probably not let production think he’s a good returning player. Then we have the Redemption Island final five which was Andrea, Ashley, Natalie, Phillip, and Rob. Since Rob isn’t playing again, this tribe won’t happen. The South Pacific final five was Ozzy, Albert, Coach, Rick, and Sophie. This won’t happen due to gender imbalance. The One World final five was Alicia, Christina, Chelsea, Kim, and Sabrina. It’s the first final five to be comprised of a single gender. So, this tribe won’t happen. The next final five was in Philippines. It was Denise, Abi-Maria, Malcolm, Lisa, and Michael. This probably would happen, in my mind at least. Then we have the Caramoan final five which was Erik, Dawn, John, Eddie, and Sherri. This could potentially happen if John wants to play again.

The Blood versus Water final five was Monica, Gervase, Ciera, Tina, and Tyson. I don’t think that Monica will play again so this won’t happen. The Cagayan final five was Trish, Tony, Woo, Spencer, and Kass. This one I could see happening. The last known final five at the moment was from San Juan del Sur. It was Natalie, Missy, Baylor, Keith, and Jaclyn. Yet another one eliminated due to gender imbalance. Now, we get to the tribes that could potentially happen in a season like this. I have to remember which of the tribes would produce an even number of men and women in the end.

Borneo- no, Australia- no, Africa- probably yes, Marquesas- yes, Thailand- probably no, Amazon- probably no, Pearl Islands- no, All-Stars- no, Vanuatu- no, Palau- no, Guatemala- no, Panama- yes, Cook Islands- probably yes, Fiji- no, China- no, Micronesia- no, Gabon- probably no, Tocantins- no, Samoa- no, Heroes versus Villains- no, Nicaragua- no, Redemption Island- no, South Pacific- no, One World- no, Philippines- yes, Caramoan- probably yes, Blood versus Water- no, Cagayan- yes, San Juan del Sur- no. Now I only need four tribes, but there can’t be gender imbalance. So let’s see if this will work. Here are the seasons/tribes I will go with: Marquesas, Panama, Philippines, and Cagayan. That’s my idea for a Survivor season. I hope that you like it. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.

Rites of Passage Analysis

Mistakenly know by many as fallen comrades, the rites of passage is something seen in the finale of each season until Redemption Island entered the game. It is when we remember the contestants from earlier in the season who were all eliminated before the finale (plus, usually there’s one from the finale that’s included to). Some like it and some don’t. I, personally, probably just have mixed feelings about it. Sometimes it works better than other situations. When one group of contestants was successful at Pagonging another tribe, the thing becomes kind of lame since the people talking don’t know much about the people they are talking about. It’s rumored that the rites of passage will not appear in future Survivor seasons. Whether that will end up being true or not is unknown. But I will offer an in-depth analysis of the rites of passage on Survivor. I will go over the good and the bad as I discuss my own personal thoughts on this part of Survivor.

The good: It’s a good way of remembering all the contestants from the season. One may not be able to remember much about all the contestants from this show, but the rites of passage is a good way of recapping who those people were. Plus, it serves as a great build-up to the final immunity challenge. It’s the type of thing that you’d want to be in the finale of a season and expect to be there.

The bad: It’s time consuming. If contestants at the rites of passage don’t know the ones out of the game that well, then it just seems like a waste of time. The type of players in the finale make or break this type of thing. For instance, you don’t want someone like Russell Hantz there who doesn’t say anything about these people that he beat.

More of my thoughts: I honestly don’t know what to say about it. Some seasons it works better than others. I don’t think that we’ll lose anything by it never being featured again. But, it will also seem like something is missing without it being there. It’s hard to tell what to really think about it. If it never appears again, it will have been a good run, although it is over now. So I’m not sure what all I had to say about it, but here this post is anyways. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.

Survivor Tarnished Legacies

If you check out other Survivor websites like www.survivorpodcast.blogspot.com you might have seen a list there. You might have seen one on www.survivoroz.com as well. Basically, there are some Survivor players that started out pretty well and were memorable the first time they played. But then, they play again and basically fail at the game and people wonder why they were considered good in the first place. That’s the point of this blog post. I’m going to tell you about tarnished legacies in Survivor history by pointing out notable ones in my mind. I decided that this will not be a top ten; instead, this will just be a list of various contestants that I feel have tarnished legacies. To reiterate, this list is not arranged in any order. I may like people on this list. I also may have mixed feelings about any of these players due to their tarnished legacies in later seasons. But, I’ll get to my list.

We start with Sue Hawk. She was a memorable person the first time she played. Then, the second time, she’s mostly just remembered for complaining about an incident and quitting the game over it. While she did have a good reason for quitting, she’s not remembered as well in All-Stars because of that. Colby Donaldson was a good player the first time around. The second time, he didn’t do as well as he used to. But the third time, he totally sucked. He was no longer worthy of being a great player in Heroes versus Villains. He was just terrible at the whole thing and only outlasted the other heroes because he was so weak compared to them. Next up, we have Johnny Fairplay, or, as he could have been known after Micronesia: Johnny Wouldn’t Play. He could have done a lot in Micronesia. While some might have expected him to be the first person voted out that season, the way it happened just makes you hate this guy even more. It’s a shame that he was cast over all the other great applicants. But, he made his choice and might have done us a favor by sparing us a return visit to the show.

Next, we get to someone like Stephenie LaGrossa who may not be as obvious a choice as other people are. She was very well liked in Palau. But in Guatemala, she wasn’t that good and in Heroes versus Villains she was even worse. It’s sad really. Ozzy Lutch is also worthy of this list. While he was a great player the first time around, the second time didn’t do him any favors and the third time just had him coming off as egotistical. Of course, I should point out that I like some of these contestants on this list. But, that doesn’t mean that they don’t have a tarnished legacy now. Take Yau-Man Chan. He was a wonderful contestant in Fiji. He was one of the very few bright spots in that terrible season. But in Micronesia, his tribe just got rid of him very quickly as his great game play just wasn’t there the second time around. Then we have someone like James Clement who was well liked the first two times he played. The third time? Well, he just came off looking like a huge ass to everyone before he was finally voted out of the game.

I’ll now mention someone I think is overlooked in the whole tarnished legacy thing: JT Thomas. He tarnished his legacy a lot in Heroes versus Villains. He went from being the first person to play a perfect game to being the dumbest player for a while. It’s a shame that he hasn’t been back to defend his win. I would add Russell Swan to the list, but his game the first time wasn’t actually as great as it could have been. Russell Hantz played two great games, but the third time showed his ways come up short and he left crying like a little girl. I would say that he would be more worthy of the list should his evil legacy from the first two seasons not still stand.

The last player that I’ll mention that has a tarnished legacy is one that should be pretty obvious for most people. In his first season, he got his entire tribe to give up immunity. In his second season, he whined and quit. Colton Cumbie has a terrible tarnished legacy because he just didn’t want to play the game with people who hated him. Of course they would hate him after his villainous ways in his first season. But instead of trying to play the game or take the free ride his tribe was having by constantly winning immunity, he decided to just up and leave the game. At least he’s sparing us from a future reappearance on this show. Well, sorry if you wanted a top ten. Sorry if you disagree with anyone on this list or if you think that I missed someone. I don’t hate everyone on this list. A lot of these people I like. But, I decided to post this anyways. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.

Possible New Ways of Dividing Tribes at the Start

In Survivor history, there have been times when the tribes were divided by a certain way. Such ways have been pretty basic: men versus women (Amazon, Vanuatu, Panama, and One World), old versus young (Panama and Nicaragua), or returning players versus new players (Micronesia and Caramoan). Others have been more creative: battle of the cultures (Cook Islands), brains, brawn, and beauty (Cagayan), players versus their family members (Blood versus Water and San Juan del Sur), and the upcoming battle of the social classes (Worlds Apart). So you do have to wonder what new possible ways they could do that which they haven’t done it before. Well, that’s what this post is about.

Here, I start with seasons that would not involve returning players. Why not do a season that starts with players from rural areas fighting against those from urban areas? Would the rural people have an advantage by being most outdoorsy? Would the urban people do better at certain challenges? Call me biased, but I think that the rural tribe would do better. If people don’t think that will work, then why not have people from different states? You could separate the west coast from the east coast and add in the Midwest. Or you could put people from water related areas with people from more land based areas. There are probably other ways a person’s job can fit into a new way of doing a Survivor season. A season could do college students versus professors. Or you could get different graduating classes from different schools but the same year as competitors. Maybe fans of different types of sports could play it out. Now I’m just rambling (as usual) and I’m not sure I have much good ideas for that.

But, I do have ideas on how to do new returning player seasons. Everyone says that they should do old school versus new school, as in, the seasons that a contestant first played in being older versus the newer seasons. They might have to rename something like that as I’m pretty sure that more than two tribes would work best for it. Of course, a real second chances season is something that they should do and it’s a shame that they haven’t already done it. If you look through past blog posts that I’ve written, then you should notice that I’ve already done multiple ideas of which seasons would work with what returning players. They could do winners versus runner-ups. They could do runner-ups versus last voted out. They could do second-timers versus third-timers. There are probably other choices for any of this stuff, but I’m done with this post. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.