Survivor: Old versus Young with all Returning Players

With the verge of a season based on two different generations fighting, I thought that I would do another one of my hypothetical casts for a season this time putting old returning players against young returning players. I might exclude players from Panama and Nicaragua simply because they have already played a season like that before. Panama wasn’t too much like that, I’ll admit, simply because of the tribe divisions from episode 2 onward. But that doesn’t mean that they should do it again. Also, due to how people keep ageing, I probably will have to pass on some of the older people from earlier seasons so if they are among the older contestants now, then I might have to include them. But they can’t be too old or I know that they won’t be cast in seasons like this anyways.

Older men I’d cast: Paschal from Marquesas is a pretty interesting man. He fought hard and was eliminated from the game without a single vote ever cast against him. He should return. Gary from Guatemala would be a great player and great choice for returning to play the game again. Plus, at some point they are going to have to bring back a player originally from that season, right? Yau-Man from Fiji and Micronesia is a smart player who knows how to get things done. Tarzan from One World may be a random choice, but he’s the type of crazy person who still makes a good player to watch. Dale from San Juan del Sur is my last pick for the older men.

Older women I’d cast: Teresa from Africa is someone who has to return to the game at some point before she gets too old. Kathy from Marquesas and All-Stars is someone who I feel needs more done with her game so she should return. Gillian from Gabon is very active in the Survivor community so it makes sense that she should return to play the game again. Trish from Cagayan is a wonderful player and she should return again sometime. Carolyn from Worlds Apart is another great contestant who I think she be brought back. Thus ends the list of older players that I’d bring back.

Younger men I’d cast: James from Palau may not be that young, but he is entertaining and it would be a shame if we never see her again. Erik from Micronesia and Caramoan may not be the smartest player, but he’s still someone I feel should play again. Matty from Gabon is a player that I liked and will thus cast on this season. Eddie from Caramoan may have been on the wrong side of the numbers a lot, but he was still a pretty effective player. Spencer from Cagayan and Cambodia is a player who needs more love and I’m casting him on this pretend season of mine.

Younger women I’d cast: Jenna from Borneo and All-Stars may be a bit of a weird choice, but I am still putting her in my cast. Neleh from Marquesas is someone who I really liked the first time and feel should return again. Darrah from Pearl Islands is another player who should return and I’m surprised hasn’t been asked back ever. Eliza from Vanuatu and Micronesia is a player that I really like and feel should return again. Mikayla from South Pacific is my last pick of the younger tribe.

Well, there’s my cast. I would mention alternates, but I don’t feel that such a thing is necessary. Do you like my picks for an all-stars young versus old? Did I miss anyone that you’d think would work better? I just hope that I did a well enough pick. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.

Why Survivor Should Redo the Opening Twist of Philippines

At the beginning of Survivor: Philippines, the new contestants learned that three players who were medically evacuated in previous seasons would be playing again. That twist lead to a wonderfully great Survivor season. Could redoing the twist lead to another great season? Even if it doesn’t, shouldn’t medically evacuated players be brought back? What better way is there to bring them back? You might not have the same people to pick from again, but there are still some good players that can be brought back to play Survivor again.

We all know just how devastating it would be to be pulled from the game. It could be any number of bad things happening. Maybe you get an injury that just gets too serious. Maybe a sickness gets too serious instead. But these people didn’t do anything wrong. They weren’t voted out due to mistakes that they made. They were forcefully taken from the game simply because of medical reasons beyond their control. Do we really think that most of the players would leave the game without being pulled from it? Could some of the players really not reach the end on their own? All you have to do is bring back three of them. You can’t say that you wouldn’t have interesting picks.

Let’s first look at Bruce Kanegai. He was an entertaining player when he was in the game. He created a rock garden and proved to be a vital part of his tribe. Before he was pulled from the game, one might have thought that there would only be one evacuation ever in Survivor. Is he the type of player that you think should never play again? Even if he wasn’t medically evacuated, he would still be a person who should return to play the game again.

Next we have Gary Stritesky who was always on a winning tribe. Only one other person besides him has that distinction. Can you imagine not being able to compete in the game anymore even though your tribe has won ever challenge in the game? That wouldn’t be fair for him not to ever play the game again. Why is he even considered a quitter? He clearly left for medical reasons and he should be brought back, even if he might lose his perfect winning streak.

Different players who were medically evacuated had different amounts of success in the game and Joe Dowdle made it all the way to the merge. He knew loyalty to a fault. He helped lead his tribe to the camp when they first got there. All that freaking went wrong in his game was a knee that got infected. While hardly the first person to fall victim to this, he certainly would prove that he’s good a second time since he did so well the first time.

Sometimes players are taken from the game for dumb reasons such as what happened to Mike Borassi. The challenge that got him medically evacuated has now been banned from ever appearing on the show again. Isn’t that unfair? If you don’t think that is, imagine that you recover quickly after being pulled from the game. Not even the camp’s next tribal council had even happened yet. Sometimes you’d think that the rules regarding medical evacuations should be changed and since they aren’t going to change them, then you should at least bring him back to play again.

Speaking of medical evacuations that are unfair, Kourtney Moon was injured in another poorly designed challenge. I know that she had cancer in the past. I don’t know much about what happened afterwards. But she should be healthy enough nowadays to return to play the game again. I mean, she didn’t even get to finish the first challenge she was in. Even Jonathan and Wanda from Palau technically did a challenge. Poor Kourtney got just half a challenge that was messed up because she was pulled.

Now sometimes whether or not someone was medically evacuated is debated by people. But if you remember in Philippines, someone sadly did have to leave the game. And this was a season already devoted to bringing back players who were medically evacuated. So shouldn’t you bring back Dana Lambert? She had a lot of potential as a player that we never got to see. And if she really was a quitter, than why wasn’t her torch laid down on the rites of passage? She should probably return to play the game again because it just makes sense.

Sometimes productions messes up and they need to right their wrong. There were problems that lead to Shamar Thomas’s evacuation that were seemingly caused by production itself. But this poor person was pulled from the game when it probably never had to happen in the first place. He had a hand injury that caused a staph infection. You should bring him back to play again as his problem only got worse due to a lack of help until he eventually had to be pulled from the game itself.

Then we get to Erik Reichenbach. The first time he played, he made a really dumb move that got him voted out. The next time he plays, he does really well again despite some blunders here and there on the way to the end. But then a leg infection pulls him from the game right after someone else was voted out. It’s a shame that bad things keep happening to him. But that could end on a third appearance.

Another contestant has a debatable status as to whether or not he really was medically evacuated. Terry Deitz played in Cambodia (a season about second chances) and was told by Jeff Probst basically that he had to leave the game. The way Terry left was actually a new way, but it shares something in common with all the medical evacuations: he left because production forced him to. They shouldn’t have actually told him this information when you think about it. You go to Survivor knowing that you won’t receive any updates about your family until you are voted off. But they probably made an exception due to how serious the condition was. And thus Terry had to leave.

Only three contestants can be considered for most serious medical evacuation. One accidently fell into a fire. Another passed out at a challenge that was then cancelled and left incomplete. But at least Russell Swan was able to speak and say something as he was pulled from the game. When Caleb Reynolds was getting pulled from the game, he basically was unconscious the whole time. They had to air something immediately after his departure that said that he was okay. (Honestly though, if he wasn’t okay, they wouldn’t have aired the season when you think about it.) There was a lot of potential still in his game that we never got to see.

Now we get to another poor contestant who we know had a terrible overall Survivor experience. Poor Neal Gottlieb was medically evacuated after a specially ordered doctor’s visit in one of the most unusual ways of ever leaving the game. Since when do doctors just randomly visit the island? I know that he wasn’t the only one looked at, but he was the only person who had a serious enough problem that he had to be tearfully pulled from the game. And that’s not even the worst thing that happened to him. A twist that was highly unfair got one of the final three to vote out a member of the jury and he was the victim of that vote. How messed up is all that? They owe it to Neal to have him brought back.

Last is the most recent medical evacuation as of this blog post (although, since Cambodia was filmed after Koah Rong, Terry is actually the most recent if you count him) named Joe del Campo. He’s an old contestant (one of the oldest, actually) and his removal was sad that it was after he had won a challenge that caused his medical problem. That challenge was messed up in the rules and could have had a different winner had the rules made sense. Once again, a dumb decision with a challenge leads to a poor person’s medical evacuation. Like every contestant on this list (which is everyone I consider medically evacuated except those who have already played again), I believe that he should return to play Survivor once again.

Well, I wasn’t entirely sure what this post would be when it started out. But I guess that I can’t make the case for reusing the twist where three medically evacuated players are brought back without making a case for any of those players returning too. I’m not sure when they should redo the twist. They have overused returning players a lot even when this twist was introduced the first time. There have since been three more seasons with returning players since. I just hope that if they ever have to do the one returnee per tribe twist again that they will have the decency to do this again. I at least hope that they will consider it. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.

Top Ten Best Survivor Challenges

When it comes to ranking the best of the best in terms of Survivor challenges, you might be wondering what I believe are the greatest Survivor challenges in the history of the show. Well, I might as well mention them and include a link as to which challenges are which in case you get confused. All links will be from Survivor Wikia. But I might as well mention which challenges I think are the best and why.

Rules: #1 Only challenges that have appeared more than once can appear on the list. If it were a good challenge, why would it only appear once? I’m not saying that it wouldn’t happen, but you’d think that the best challenges would appear over and over again. #2 I’m not including the Survivor Auction as I have no idea how to classify it as a challenge. Is it a challenge? Is it a twist? Is it an event? I feel that I have enough challenges to choose from without it. To me, it takes place instead of a challenge and isn’t actually one. #3 Both tribal and individual challenges have to be included. #4 Both reward and immunity challenges have to be included. #5 A final immunity challenge has to be included. #6 An opening challenge has to be included. I think those are all the rules that I can think of.

Honorable mentions: Survivor Quiz is a pretty good challenge, but I feel it is too close to another choice on my list to make the top ten. Shoulder the Load is a great challenge demonstrating strength, but I don’t think that it works in the long run for a top ten. Build it up, Break it down is a challenge I love a lot, but I just don’t like it enough to put it on my top ten. Blind leading the blind brings entertainment whenever it is used, but it would just barely make the cut in a top eleven and thus wouldn’t be in a top ten. I also like Get a grip a lot, but not enough to put it in this list. And I would like fallen comrades, but it wasn’t that great a challenge even without its controversy in Africa. I do like the concept of the challenge, but I don’t feel that it works as well as it should. On to the top ten where I have a link from their page on Survivor Wikia so you can look up more info about the challenge.

10- Survivor folklore: This challenge has contestants listening to a story about someone related to the location that they are at. This is a fun and great challenge, in my mind, even if it is only good enough for number 10. It’s nice that they incorporate some cultural aspects to the show at times in the challenges and that is why I like this challenge a lot. I just wish that we would see more of it in the current seasons than we do.

Link for more info: http://survivor.wikia.com/wiki/Survivor_Folklore

9- Distress signal: This challenge is a classic survival situation which makes sense as something that would work as a Survivor challenge. All you have to do is create a signal that a person on a plane would be able to see. Is your tribe better at it than the other tribe is? Could you get rescued when they can’t? Once again, I don’t know why we still don’t see the challenge in newer seasons when we should.

Link for more info: http://survivor.wikia.com/wiki/Distress_Signal

8- Quest for fire: Remember the first ever challenge on Survivor? I wouldn’t do a top ten without including it. While it always has different variations, it basically involves the new tribes lighting a fire to win the challenge. It is the type of basic thing that makes the perfect first challenge in a season as fire represents your life and without it, someone on your tribe won’t have life in the game anymore.

Link for more info: http://survivor.wikia.com/wiki/Quest_for_Fire

7- Survivor Obstacle Course: Sometimes basic concepts make for good challenges for Survivor. What better concept than an obstacle course? (Well, I do have six other challenges that I think are better challenges and one of them is based off of a simple concept.) You could practice this challenge before going on Survivor. Heck, you could even design your own version of this challenge if you wanted to. Have any of my readers not done an obstacle course? I don’t recall this challenge ever causing problems in the game. That’s why I like it so much.

Link for more info: http://survivor.wikia.com/wiki/Survivor_Obstacle_Course

6- When it rains, it pours: While people often criticize the endurance challenges on Survivor (probably only due to their overuse in season after season), sometimes it can prove to be the best challenge used. Jeff loves tempting the contestants to step out of the challenge. Some contestants love to drop out in front of all the other people in the game for these food items. But if you are really into it, you just keep your hand held high and prevent the water it is attached to from falling down on you.

Link for more info: http://survivor.wikia.com/wiki/When_It_Rains,_It_Pours

5- Hand on a hard idol: Survivor’s only exclusive final immunity challenge is something that I’m surprised we don’t see more often. It has only appeared on Survivor a mere four times. But it makes a great last challenge for a Survivor season. It makes a great lead-in to the end. And it should be used even if they don’t use the final two again. It could make a good final duel for Redemption Island. All you have to do is hold onto an idol for as long as you can.

Link for more info: http://survivor.wikia.com/wiki/Hand_on_a_Hard_Idol

4- Survivor Smorgasbord: Better known as the gross food eating challenge, this is a staple of Survivor challenges and something that really works well in the game. I’m surprised we don’t see it more often even though we do see it as often as we do. But this hands down has to make the list. No one would ever want to compete in this challenge, but it makes sense that it is here in the game. You could even wind up liking the food the way Tom Westman did.

Link for more info: http://survivor.wikia.com/wiki/Survivor_Smorgasbord

3- The Maze: Okay, so I like mazes a lot. And I like them better when you can see what you are doing versus being blindfolded the whole time you are going through it (although the other variation should be an honorable mention, I didn’t say it as I didn’t want to spoil this choice). You see it a lot during the finale episodes of seasons nowadays which make finales even more memorable. Solving a maze never looked more fun.

Link for more info: http://survivor.wikia.com/wiki/The_Maze

2- Touchy Subjects: This challenge is such a classic that you have to wonder why we don’t see it enough. That’s not to say that we haven’t seen it a lot, but we don’t see it anymore. First, contestants do a poll of what they think about their tribe mates. After that, they then vote on the most popular answers. It works best as a reward challenge. Whoever gets something right gets to take steps to knock someone out of the game and with three strikes, they are out. Anyone can try to knock out someone else. But it makes the game more interesting to see tribe dynamics after the merge being shown this way.

Link for more info: http://survivor.wikia.com/wiki/Touchy_Subjects

Now while I like every challenge on this list, there is one that I like more than any other. It wasn’t that hard of a pick for number one for me. The best challenge in my mind is something so simple and basic that you have to wonder why we haven’t seen it in a really long time. I guess that I like too many classic challenges, but this one I like most of them all.

1- Perch: Imagine just having to stand on a perch for as long as you can. But then the desires of wonderful items come up. Would you lose immunity and your clothes for chocolate and peanut butter? Would you give up security in the game for any sort of sweet? This challenge has been seen mostly as the first post merge challenge of the game. It shows you how the newly merged tribe feels about their place in the game. And it makes for what I think is the best challenge in all of Survivor.

Link for more info: http://survivor.wikia.com/wiki/Perch

Well, that’s all I can think of for this blog post. I would have included pictures instead of links, but I wasn’t sure if pictures would actually post to this blog. You can look back through the archive and see the ten worst challenge post that I did to see the fail of pictures that I was trying to do. You can also compare that list to this list. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.

Final Two versus Final Three

There are arguments as to what is better between a final two and a final three. Is it best to have two finalists on day 39 or is three better? You probably know that I prefer the final three. But there are clearly advantages and disadvantages to both. What are they? Well, I might as well mention them.

Pros of a final two: We get to see a decision made at the end regarding who should get to go to the final two and who should win. The decision is completely different with a final three. The winner of the final immunity challenge basically gets the sole decision in the end and decides who will join them in the final two. The final immunity winner ultimately decides if he or she wins or comes in second, although they won’t always know what decision they are making. A final two is also less confusing and more natural to the game play of Survivor. There’s no chance of a tie with a final two (unless there is an even numbered jury for some odd reason). The vote was closer at one point with final twos than it has been with most final three seasons.

Cons of a final two: It’s all too easy to bring a goat to the end by voting off a strong player at the final three. Landsides are quite common in final two seasons. There are less people who can win when there are only two finalists.

Pros of a final three: Three people face the vote instead of just two. It is hard to take two goats to the end, or at least harder than just one goat. Final threes can be more interesting. Alliances tend to make it to the end and stick together without having to worry about cutting someone off at the end.

Cons of a final three: There is always someone easily coasting to the end with a final three. In a final two you either have to win the last immunity challenge or be taken to the end over the other contestant. In a final three, someone doesn’t have to worry about being the target at that last tribal council before a vote to win. This puts the final immunity challenge at a disadvantage. There is the possibility of a tie in any and every final three scenario. There always tends to be a person without any jury votes in a final three. It’s harder to break-up a core alliance with this set-up.

Well, that’s all that I’m saying about the difference between the two different ways they do the end game. Maybe there’s more good about the final two than I normally think as I pointed out more good in it than in the final three. And it’s always possible that we see a final four in the future, although I doubt that they would actually do that. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.

Interesting Survivor Coincidences

If you know me well enough by now, then you should know that I’m chalked full of various trivia relating to Survivor. This then leads to this post on different coincidences about the Survivor TV show. This may not be as basic as the car curse, but it will be full of different facts that you may or may not know about. Hopefully, there’s enough for me to think about for this blog post. In fact, I’m probably missing a lot of different facts, but here they are anyways.

For those of you familiar with Survivor: Borneo, you may remember Sean and his alphabetical way of voting. (I still don’t know why so many people think it was stupid of him to do that. It worked.) What makes this interesting was how it just so happened that all of the members of Pagong who made the merge had names that were alphabetically before the members of Tagi that made the merge. This has not happened in any other season. If either Dirk or Ramona hadn’t been voted out before the merge, this wouldn’t have happened. I’d have to do a map of how this could have happened in other seasons, if it could have at all. It’s just weird that it ever did happen, especially since it happened the very first time that Survivor was played.

Shii Ann was going to make a risky move in Thailand by flipping on her tribe after the merge. This famously backfired on her as there wasn’t actually a merge. But she later played All-Stars and improved on her first game. Here’s what’s interesting: if the merge had happened normally in Thailand, it is likely that Shii Ann would have come in sixth place and become the highest ranking member of her tribe. In All-Stars, the result of the game made it so that she came in sixth place and was the highest ranking member of her tribe.

Continuing on the topic of All-Stars, you might remember the tribe swap. Now you wouldn’t think that a swap would happen that would put everyone but one person on the opposing tribe, but it did happen. The odds of that happening had to be pretty low.

Bobby Jon is an interesting contestant in a rather mundane way. In Palau, he was eliminated one tribal council away from the jury. In Guatemala, he was the first jury member. I’m not sure if this applies to anyone else. It can actually be a bit sad that he only improved his game by three days the next time. But it is interesting, right?

When it was announced that Cook Islands would divide tribes by race, many declared this as racist segregation, ignoring the fact that only ¼ of the cast was white and many advertisers dropped the show because of it. Now many Survivor players declare that as a great twist and people forgot that they complained about how white the casts of other seasons tend to be. Now 80% of the applicants of Survivor are white (or were at the time the statistic was made known), and some people still don’t like the idea of intentionally casting minorities. But if there were actually a case for that season being racist, the returning players from it might be that case. Three white people from that season have become returning players. One Hispanic person has. None of the Asian-American contestants from that season have returned, although Yul has been asked back. And not only have none of the black contestants from that season returned for a future season, but there is no evidence that any of them have ever even been asked back for a second season.

Kota from Gabon is an interesting tribe. Well, maybe not all that interesting, but there is something interesting about it. Due to three tribe swaps that season, there were three incarnations of Kota. And each incarnation of Kota went to tribal council once and only once.

Before I end this blog post, I would like to say that just because coincidences happen on Survivor doesn’t mean that anything about it is rigged. Ugh. I hate the people who think that. And these are fans of Survivor who think that as often as the haters do.

Well, that’s all that I can think of for this blog post. There are probably more that I can’t think of. But I hope that I made a good list. I do wonder what else there is that works for the list. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.

A Perspective of Survivor Christian Players

Regardless of your personal religious beliefs, you will almost certainly find people on Survivor talking about Christianity a lot. We almost never see any other religion represented. There are also debates as to whether or not Christians are represented well on the show. We’ll see what happens over time. But I might as well talk about my perspective of different Christian Survivor players.

Dirk from Survivor: Borneo was the first player in the series that we saw mentioning God a lot. Now he may not have lasted that long in the game due to an alliance that he wasn’t in, but he sure made a mark in terms of bringing Christianity onto the show.

One contestant who stands out (to me at least) with Christianity on Survivor was Vecepia from Marquesas. She’s the only person who claims God as the reason that she won the show. I forget how her claim goes exactly, but she did credit him for that.

Now Christianity may not always be represented well on the show. With South Pacific, it seemed like the use of God was more warped than it should have been. I didn’t quite like how it was portrayed that time around. If I still feel that way when/if I watch that season again, I’ll let you know more how and why I felt that way.

Matt was quite an interesting contestant regarding Christianity. In some narratives, he could be considered a tragic hero. He might have been a better player reentering the game after Redemption Island, but he screwed up and got sent right back there. He may not have won Survivor, but he was still a good player when it came to talking about Christ.

Well, I’m not sure what else there is to add in this blog post, so I might as well call it quits. I’m not sure if there’s anything else worth saying regarding Christian Survivor contestants. I know that I didn’t cover them all, but I hope that what I did cover was good enough. This is Adam Decker, signing off.

Why Survivor is Probably Not Scripted

I get tired of hearing and reading all this shit about Survivor being rigged. It’s not. That would be illegal. Just ask the FCC. There might be some moments that are borderline unfair and maybe some cases where you can tell something fishy is going on. But in this blog post, I’m going to mention my reasoning as to why I think that Survivor is not scripted.

Before I get into the whole Survivor thing, I have a much broader scope to cover. There was a time when game shows were scripted. This wasn’t fair, as you can imagine, but it happened. The most well known example of this was the TV show 21. I don’t think that it was the only one, but it was the first and probably helped the other ones decide to rig things. But then when people learned about it from a contestant who was forced to lose, things pretty much fell apart for that show and many others like it. It’s possible that the game show genre could have fallen apart because of this. The fact that it didn’t is a bit of a surprise considering what happened.

Here’s more information about it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1950s_quiz_show_scandals

Now you’d think that there would be tons of contestants who would have stated that Survivor was rigged if it really was. In fact, there was only just one. Stacey Stillman, a contestant on the first season, sued the show as she believed the producers had convinced people to vote her out instead of a different contestant. I don’t see much truth to this rumor. It seems as if she wasn’t reacting well to being blindsided. You’d think that there would be another contestant like her if stuff like she claimed happened again. But there wasn’t.

If Survivor were rigged, you’d have to wonder about the controversy in the final four immunity challenge in Survivor: Africa. They messed up the challenge and they knew it. They then paid the players negatively affected a settlement. Why would they do that if it were fake? Not only that, but since finding out about this problem, that challenge has never appeared again. It was never officially banned either, but it doesn’t appear anymore.

Here’s more information: http://nypost.com/2002/02/20/survivor-screw-up-costs-cbs-200g/

Speaking of challenges that were banned, sometimes a challenge is declared too physical or there is some problem with it that gets it banned from reappearing on the show. There are at least two challenges that caused serious injuries to players that won’t ever appear on Survivor again. They did end up resulting in someone getting medically evacuated. That’s a good enough reason for the challenge to be banned which is why it was.

Speaking of medically evacuated players, do you think that there would be people agreeing to be medically evacuated if Survivor were fake? Do you think that Survivor would ever get that dangerous in the first place? I don’t.

A lot of people seem to look at any and every coincidence that happens on Survivor and is certain that points to the fakeness they claim is in this show. The final six of Koah Rong, for example, had exactly two players from each of the starting tribes. Some people then say that this is proof that the show is fake. But why would they do anything like this? It would be a completely random thing to do in a scripted show, which is why it probably is just a coincidence.

I’m not sure what else there is to say about why I don’t think that Survivor is scripted, rigged, fake, or anything like that. Of course, there are some hard headed people, Survivor fans and haters alike, who will never be convinced otherwise. But I hope that I made a good point in this blog post. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.