Survivor: Gabon episode 14: Say Goodbye to Gabon

I realize now that when I mentioned Cagayan again, I forget to mention where I have it ranked among the other seasons. Well, it is 14 out of 40. Now as for a previous season that I have not yet mentioned the ranking of, I have One World ranked as 8 out of 40 seasons. Also, since another death happened which was or will be talked about in a different post, I’ll post my ranking of South Pacific. That season ranks as 37 out of 40 seasons.

It was weird doing posts of this blog on Wednesday like it normally is instead of Thursdays during the time of Advent. I move the posts to Thursdays due to being at church when Survivor would be on in the normal time of years. But you might be wondering what Thursday shows I was watching around the time of Advent back in 2020. I was watching the CBS shows of Young Sheldon, B Positive, and Star Trek: Discovery. I was watching the ABC shows of Grey’s Anatomy and Station 19. I would watch the NBC show of Law and Order: SVU if the network came in more often where I live. I was not watching any show on the CW or FOX at the time. I was watching The Outpost then, but that moved to Sundays so I changed when I watch it as a result. I kept normal posts on Wednesdays instead of Thursdays during Lent as well since there was nothing new to blog about. I’ll get more to Lent later.

Let’s get to the idols from Island of the Idols part 5. The last lesson has Tommy first solving the clue, but being limited in what he can see. Because of that, he had Dean help trying to find the idol. Because of this, Dean found the last idol in the game that he never needed.

Now in this old post on a Madam Secretary blog post, you will noticed that I was talking about recording The Big Bang Theory season 5 episodes on tape. I only put those from the third disc on it since that is the one that my player had issues with for some reason. I also talk about blogs affecting other blogs, which still happens. I also mention lost Doctor Who episodes some. They should recreate them.

http://adamdeckermadamsecretaryblog.blogspot.com/2016/11/episode-from-3-6-2016.html

How many lawyers does it take to change a light bulb? That answer is redacted.

Continuing with Survivor challenges, I’m now going to talk about the challenges from Survivor fandom that start with B. I almost had an issue with this or another post with a link, but that turned out to just be the dumb new way that internet explorer has links set up. Does it want to wind up like the web browser of Mosaic? It could.

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

In this challenge, contestants have to balance coins on a sword. As this is an individual challenge, then it could be done while social distancing. I have the feeling that a lot of the social distancing challenges would be watching people stand around and not going much of anything.

https://survivor.fandom.com/wiki/Ballin%27_A_Jack

In this challenge, contestants have to stand on one leg while balancing a ball above their hands. What is it with all of these challenges that include at least one ball? I think that it has become quite the joke or obsession with challenge producers. What did it first appear? I might have to get Screen Junkies to do an honest trailer on this show so they call talk about Jeff Probst’s ball fetish. Anyways, as for this challenge, it could be done while social distancing.

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

In this challenge, contestants have to cross from one end of the beach to another using barrels, planks, and ropes without ever touching the ground. Since it relates to people being close to each other, I would say that this challenge could probably not be done while social distancing.

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

This challenge is also known as In the barrel. In it, contestants have to roll another one in a barrel to get items, cross the finish line, and in at least two versions of the challenge, had to roll balls at the end. This challenge could probably not be done while social distancing.

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

In this challenge, contestants have to fight for control of a ball in a water based environment and score baskets. All the physical contact means that this definitely could not be done while social distancing as any challenge like that is out.

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

This challenge is also known as Build a better bathroom. In it, contestants get supplies from Home Depot and have to build a shelter or bathroom that is better than the other tribe’s or tribes’ project is. I would think that this challenge could probably not be done while social distancing. It is worth noting that only one other challenge that I know of uses an outside party to judge it like this one does.

It is also unknown if this challenge could be done without a link to Home Depot, although there are probably other places that would want to promote Survivor. Home Depot was one of the sponsors to drop the show after the Cook Islands controversy. All of the sponsors that were lost during that time either denied that it had anything to do with that or had no comment as to why they did that. It is worth noting that some of them dropped during that time entirely by coincidence as the timing of when that company did that would have been too early for it to be related to the controversy.

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

In this challenge, contestants are in either a boat or the water as they have to get keys to release puzzle pieces and then solve said puzzle. This challenge is named after a song of the same name. I do not think that this challenge could be done while social distancing unless they make it more of a relay race, in which case it could, actually, be done while social distancing.

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

This challenge is also known as Tiki towers, palanquin slalom, flip out, blind cube crisis, four on the flour, love is blind, blind build, blind rage, money roll, seers and doers, smoko, family ties, ow pairs, hallin’ oat, collar blind, blind faith, and Sir Duke. That’s a lot of names. In it, contestants would work through a caller to find items and gather them. This challenge could not be done while social distancing and is one of the more dangerous ones. In fact, this might be the most dangerous challenge on the show that does not involve any physical contact whatsoever that hasn’t yet lead to an evacuation, but has lead to some injuries such as the badass Kelly from Worlds Apart who took a hit, took the treatment, and then just kept on playing the challenge. It reminds me of the musician who broke his leg during a concert and still wanted to perform the rest of the show after being treated. 

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

In this challenge, contestants have to go through a bunch of water obstacles and then complete tasks, typically like solving a puzzle. I’m not sure how this challenge could be done while social distancing, but like a previous one, if it could be turned into a relay race, then it would be just fine.

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

This challenge is also known as Pot shots, sands of time, and signal fire. In it, contestants must break opponent’s plates or objects before their own are broken. There is a trivia like version of this that’s simplified in some ways that I’ll get to later called touchy subjects. This challenge could be done while social distancing and honestly might need more exposure on the show.

https://survivor.fandom.com/wiki/Boats,_Brains_%26_Brawn

This challenge is also known as Rove, rove, rove your boat and Kenny log-ins. In it, contestants collect items to solve a puzzle. I feel like that’s the gist of a lot of team challenges. But at least there are a whole bunch of different ways to do that. This challenge could not be done while social distancing unless you change it into a relay race. How much of that could be done with boats is unknown or unlikely as that tends to involve multiple people at once and thus couldn’t be made into a relay race.

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

In this challenge, contestants have to make a hook, get puzzle pieces, and complete a hook puzzle, all with one hand tied behind their back. The name comes from the type of puzzle that is done. I think that this challenge could be done while social distancing.

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

This challenge is also known as Chinese checkers and bog roll. In it, contestants have to roll a boulder across a line instead of the other tribe. This challenge could not be done while social distancing as none of the physical contact challenges can be.

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

This challenge is also known as Hard to handle and bo diddley. In it, contestants must balance on a beam while balancing a ball where they have to move to smaller planks and things get harder as a result. This challenge could be done while social distancing.

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

This challenge is also known as R.A.M., marine memory, river rats, bai bai, propellerheads, shut your trap, and running the numbers. In it, contestants must memorize items and then put them in order to replicate them which could win them the challenge or score a point for themselves or their tribe. I’d say that versions of this could be made that could do this while social distancing. In fact, I’m unsure of any of this could not be done while social distancing. 

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

This challenge is also known as Fiji Braille maze, blind maze, and going blind. In it, contestants must do things blindfolded while trying to solve a maze. The challenge could not be done while social distancing unless each contestant had their own maze. There is a link to another maze challenge on Survivor that is mentioned in another post, be it currently available or will be in the future. 

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

This challenge is also known as Offer it up. In it, contestants have to make a stack of dishes that they hold on a pile, but can’t drop out or they will lose the challenge. This challenge like a lot of individual ones could be done while social distancing. 

https://survivor.fandom.com/wiki/Buggin%27_Out

This challenge is perhaps known by the most names, as it is also called tucker’d out, safari supper, Marquesan menu, Thai menu, Amazon menu, Survivor smoothie, Survivor smorgasbord, cool hand balut; u pick, I chews; Samoa smoothies, Caramoan catering, pesky palate, Cambodian catering, and Fijian feast. This is known best at the gross food eating challenge. In it, contestants have to eat native food that is considered gross. While this challenge could be done while social distancing, it would seem like a waste of food and resources in the end. They could still do it, though, if they have to do something like that in the end. 

https://survivor.fandom.com/wiki/Build_It_Up,_Break_It_Down

In this challenge, contestants have to build a barricade on their own side before breaking it down on another. This has only been a tribal challenge thus far. I think that this challenge could not be done while social distancing, but I have no idea what all would work for that or not. 

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

This challenge is also known by a much better name: free fallin’. I think that some of the names of some of the challenges were changed once fandom was put under a new format, much like both blogger and facebook. Anyways, in this challenge, contestants must jump from a certain point and then reassemble before doing another task. It is infamous for possibly causing Kourtney’s evacuation in One World. While possible variants of this could be done while social distancing as it could easily be turned into a relay race, I think that it is too risky to ever use again. We’ll see if producers feel the same way or not. 

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

This challenge is also known as battle dig, beach bash, and water slaughter. In it, contestants have to use whatever methods they have possible (or, you know, any means necessary) in order to get an object and use it to get a point for their team. With it being yet another physical challenge, it could not be done while social distancing.

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

In this challenge, contestants have to cross a beam one at a time until all members were across, but they can only touch one person at a time. Basically, the people have to switch even though others are in the way. Since the challenge involves physical contact, despite it being minimal, it can’t be done while social distancing. It is still an interesting one to see regardless. 

TV shows I watch on DVD update: I finished watching Dollhouse season 1 on DVD. While I could put the second season in its place, I won’t until next year has started where it will probably get to cut ahead to the front of the lists that I have. It won’t be on the second list as that currently has a d choice on it. It was replaced by Power Rangers season 1, volume 2 from the other list that I have. Meanwhile, season 2 of Flashpoint is now done being watched and it was replaced by season 3 of Flashpoint.

At the start of 2021, the main list of six choices are Charmed season 6, Flashpoint season 3, Matlock season 1, Power Rangers season 1 volume 2, Survivor: Gabon, and recorded shows on tape. It seems like this (Survivor: Gabon) is the most likely choice to be removed from the list next, so I might as well do a segue into the next note about this.

Basically, on Amazon Prime Day, before I started doing Christmas shopping, I had to buy presents for those who had birthdays in November so I bought myself Blood versus Water to blog about again in order to get free shipping. I wanted to get All-Stars, but that didn’t wind up happening just yet. It was not available or something like that when I went for it. Maybe I’ll get that in the future. Or maybe I’ll get something else. Or maybe I’ll be busy blogging about other seasons of the show instead. I do not yet know what day of the week I’ll be blogging about that, but I had to guess that it would more than likely be on Sundays the way things are going right now, replacing this season’s posts.

Since I’ve done enough YouTube videos to cover a new playlist (I have no idea just how many have to be used for the bare minimum in a playlist, so I make sure that at least five will work), I’ve been working on the theme that is outside of other themes. If you want to see the miscellaneous videos that I do on my YouTube channel, here’s a link to that playlist. I’ve been doing some of these on Saturdays to make up for what I should have been doing in my Moonlight review videos instead. It has not covered every Saturday instead like I would have wanted to.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLO8vECGH5CX_x4dVEdE2m5d_PjgOsWdOE

It was on Friday, March 19, 2021 that I rolled the episode in question and was able to watch it. I saw on the disc that the reunion show is a separate episode so I will do a separate post on that in the future as in not in this post. Let’s get to the episode. 

We begin with a recap of important events in regards to this finale: Ken and Crystal were calling the shots, having gotten ahead of Kota after the second tribe swap, Randy was blindsided by a fake idol, and there are different paths to a win. They talk after tribal council about the vote with Sugar believing that she saved Matty which she didn’t really as he got only minority votes. Ken feels that Bob is not a man of his word anymore. Bob felt that Ken was trying to add insult to injury by making it seem like Bob was not a man of his word.

Ken tells Sugar that Bob should be the next one voted out. They all put on war paint and other things as they get to the immunity challenge at hand. There is a lot to the challenge at hand. In the end, it is Bob who wins the challenge, having now won five challenges in a row. Susie doesn’t like this.

After the challenge, Ken is certain that Susie is going to get voted out now to the point of not wanting to do anything. Matty wants to wait until the end so that Susie doesn’t scramble. But she is suspicious since she doesn’t know what is going on. Too much of this seems too obvious, plus I already know what will happen as I’ve already seen this episode. As always, Sugar wants to do something else and thinks that Ken could be a good vote instead. She thinks that Bob and Matty will vote with her.

Next is tribal council. Jeff starts with Bob. Bob thinks that there is a target on his back and that is why he fights hard to win challenges. Bob tied a consecutive win reward. Ken lives a different life. Susie thinks that some of what she does with a relatively floater game isn’t doing that well. Ken brings up the deal again and Bob brings up the fact that Ken was likely to blindside him. Ken admits that people might end up voting for Bob and says that’s what the deal is. Ken thinks that he is safe while admitting that he feels that Bob should still live up to his end of the deal. When the votes are cast, Ken votes for Susie while the rest of the tribe, Susie, Bob, Sugar, and Matty, all vote out Ken.

Getting quickly to some trivia, Ozzy in Cook Islands won 5 challenges in a row and Kelly in Borneo did this as well. I do not remember offhand who might have done this in future seasons beyond Gabon and am not checking my notes about it just now that are incomplete now anyways. I’m hoping that I can get them caught up to Winners and War, but won’t go past that even when Survivor 41 is done airing at this point in time.

Ken was a questionable player at times in terms of how good or bad he was at the game. He was once my favorite to win when I first watched this season, but I no longer liked him by the end. He made a lot of terrible mistakes and was a fool to think that someone would give up immunity considering what had just happened to Erik the previous season. I still might like to see him play again. I’d imagine that he would have about a 56% chance of returning to a future season.

Back at camp, Susie is now super nervous. Susie wants to win the challenge. She wants to vote out Bob if that happens. She thinks that she will be voted out if she doesn’t win. They get treemail of the people who were voted out before them. Matty is honored to be a part of this game. They talk about all of the people and how they did in the game. There isn’t much of a point of summarizing all of this.

We get to the final immunity challenge where someone will either have to build a house of cards ten feet tall or have the highest one after 30 minutes have past. Susie ultimately wins and becomes one of the least deserving final immunity winners in the show’s history. Sugar now regrets not getting rid of her the previous time and Sugar considers voting against Bob.

Susie is glad that she gets to be in the final three, being shocked about what happened. Susie wonders if she thinks that Bob would win. She had considered voting Sugar off. But she didn’t seem to put it that well. Sugar wants to put it up to fate to give Bob a chance and put it up to fate. Despite promising to never write Matty’s name down, she likes Bob like a father figure. Could she chose between her father and her brother? That’s what she feels the choice is like. Bob prepares for tribal council by making fire since Sugar told him about the planned tie. He is glad for this opportunity.

We then get to tribal council. Susie is glad that she won as she wouldn’t be safe otherwise. Bob talks about being in danger at this tribal council. Matty makes it clear that he wants to vote for Bob. Bob says that he would have to vote against Sugar thinks that she would lose to both of them. All of them are quite emotional about the decisions at hand and what to do.

The votes are cast and it is how people think that it would be. Sugar and Bob vote for Matty. Susie and Matty vote for Bob. This forces a tie. They then have to go to a fire making challenge. The first person to win the challenge stays in the game while the other joins the jury. Despite struggling at some point in time, Bob wins the challenge, which eliminates Matty from the game since Matty never did that well at the challenge at hand.

Matty is one of my favorite players from this season. I wouldn’t think that anything other than what some people involved with the shows would do to prevent him from playing Survivor again. I give him about a 67% chance of playing Survivor again.

Susie is glad to still be in the game and having made it to day 39. She never thought that she would have made it that far. Sugar talks about the jury and how she had a hand in putting everyone but Marcus on the jury. Not only that, she has successfully voted out every person she voted for. Bob burns down the shelter at hand, even though you’d think that it would be fun to keep around for potential future people that might come around there.

We hear from the jury before the final tribal council. I like this better as part of the game than an online exclusive, although maybe I should just listen to those videos sometime. I just don’t because I don’t have as much time and I also have only watched the Ponderosa videos at times. I don’t even always watch the Ponderosa videos, but that is probably going to change in future seasons.

Total confessional count: Matty- 34, Susie- 18, Ken- 34, Bob- 27, Sugar- 37. New confessionals this episode: Bob- 3, Sugar- 5, Matty- 1, Susie- 7, Ken- 2.

Next is the final tribal council. Susie starts with her opening statement. She wants to show what it is like to try. She thinks that she was up against a whole lot of people. Bob talks about how he played with his heart and personality. He admits that he didn’t outplay or outwitted, but he did outlast. Sugar is last and talks about how she had to lie and did a lot about how she played on her own a lot, but also found the idol and did a lot of other things too.

Charlie is up first and talks about how the two women were ranked worst in their tribes right before the first tribe swap. Susie says that she always knew that she would be underestimated, but is always doing the best that she can. Sugar seems to dismiss a vote. Charlie talks about him spooning with Bob and Bob says that Charlie is a wonderful person. Crystal is up next and tells Susie that she rode coattails. Bob then says that he was riding Sugar’s coattails. Crystal then asks why Sugar voted her out. Sugar admits that she should have kept Crystal around.

Ken talks to Susie with Susie saying that she deserves his vote. Ken asks why Sugar backstabbed him and she admits that she made a mistake. Ken asks why Bob didn’t live up to his deal. Bob thought that Ken would stab him in the back and Ken doesn’t want to hear that. Corrine talks next. She asks Susie if she would have her vocal cords removed. Susie denies this vote by declining the offer. Bob is told that he is one dimensional. Corrine then tells off Sugar saying that she ain’t nothing but a hound dog, crying all the time. But I don’t know why Sugar’s dead father has to be brought into this.

Marcus talks about how people could have made different life choices if they did some things different. Marcus then asks if Sugar would have given any money in honor of her dead father. He wants to know when Bob was responsible for making his own decision. Bob felt that he didn’t need to be. Randy then goes up next. He goes off on Susie and asks why she felt the way she did. Sugar dismisses the fact that he went to the jury, calling him a jerk. Randy goes off on Bob and Bob admits that he could have done the fake idol better.

Matty then asks Susie why the others are less deserving of the money than he. She says that Sugar is a jerk and that Bob was mean after he was in danger at the final four. Sugar is told to reveal something that she did that was evil. He then asks Bob why the women deserve the money more and he says that they don’t. Here, the final tribal council ends with the votes being cast.

Ultimately, there is something interesting with the final tribal council vote that I’ll get more into later. We see only two votes then with Randy telling them all off. Matty, Ken, and Crystal vote for Susie. Randy, Charlie, Marcus, and Corrine all vote for Bob, making him the winner. Here, this part of the episode ends and we’ll get to the reunion show later.

Sugar is liked by some people like my sister, but I don’t care for her. Despite her relatively mean ways, she was cast as a hero for the twentieth season: Heroes versus Villains. She was the first one out of the game and suffered a mental crisis that forced her into getting medically evacuated from the premerge boots part of the game. I’d put her chances of returning to the game at 15%.

Susie is someone that I’m even more surprised that people like and I can find it just a bit appalling that she came within one vote of winning the game. But she wasn’t that great a player to me. All that she did prove was that others underestimated her. Which isn’t too bad, but wasn’t that much. I’d say that her chances of returning to the game are around 30%.

Bob might be unique among the winners as he might be the only person to win who did not vote out a single jury member who voted for him to win. I’m pretty sure that every other winner in the game got at least one person who they voted out to vote for them to win the game. I’d have to check my notes from all the other seasons and put them in this blog in different sections to see how they work. He did not appear to be asked back for the landmark all winners season. Since he is the oldest winner, I’d have to put his chances of returning to the game at around 40%.

As I get to the planned April blog posts, know that the cheat that I’m using the updates a blog of mine based on unused offering envelops is going to change during the month of April. That is because I have to update the random Elementary blogs on specific dates in specific years and April 26^th just happens to be the next time that it will show up. Hence, where the cheat will be will change during that month and will stay there until a month without the cheat applies.

Planned April blog posts

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

Well, there’s not much else to say about this season’s episode. The reunion post will be the next one that you see on Sundays in this blog. I’ll then explain another blog change then. In fact, there will be a lot in the next post to look forward to. What is it? Well, you’ll have to find out. To be continued…

Notes on Filming

There hasn’t been that much of note regarding the filming of Survivor seasons versus when they air at some point in time. But I thought that for fun, I would spend this post mentioning when the first 40 seasons of Survivor were filmed since I have nothing else ready to be published now.

The first season was filmed from March 13, 2000 to April 20, 2000. The second season was filmed from October 23, 2000 to December 3, 2000. The third season was filmed from July 11, 2001 to August 18, 2001. The fourth season was filmed from November 12, 2001 to December 20, 2001. We are lucky that that season wasn’t cancelled due to 9/11 and it might have been delayed based on the filming dates much like the airing of the third season was delayed. The two almost go hand in hand.

The fifth season was filmed from June 10, 2002 to July 18, 2002. The sixth season was filmed from November 4, 2002 to December 12, 2002. The seventh season was filmed from June 23, 2003 to July 31, 2003. The eighth season was filmed from November 3, 2003 to December 11, 2003.

The ninth season was filmed from June 26, 2004 to August 3, 2004. The tenth season was filmed from November 1, 2004 to December 9, 2004. The eleventh season was filmed from June 27, 2005 to August 4, 2005. The twelfth season was filmed from October 31, 2005 to December 8, 2005.

The thirteenth season was filmed from June 26, 2006 to August 3, 2006. The fourteenth season was filmed from October 30, 2006 to December 7, 2006. The fifteenth season was filmed from June 25, 2007 to August 2, 2007. The sixteenth season was filmed from October 29, 2007 to December 6, 2007.

The seventeenth season was filmed from June 23, 2008 to July 31, 2008. The eighteenth season was filmed from November 1, 2008 to December 9, 2008. The nineteenth season was filmed from June 11, 2009 to July 19, 2009. The twentieth season was filmed from August 9, 2009 to September 16, 2009. This would mark the start of a new way of filming seasons for the future.

The twenty-first season was filmed from June 14, 2010 to July 22, 2010. The twenty-second season was filmed from August 16, 2010 to September 23, 2010. The twenty-third season was filmed from May 30, 2011 to July 7, 2011. The twenty-fourth season was filmed from August 1, 2011 to September 8, 2011. I bet that the editors felt better with more turnover between the fall and spring seasons now.

The twenty-fifth season was filmed from March 18, 2012 to April 25, 2012. The twenty-sixth season was filmed from May 21, 2012 to June 28, 2012. The earlier film dates were to accommodate Jeff Probst filming his talk show which he had for a season. The twenty-seventh season was filmed from May 19, 2013 to June 27, 2013. The twenty-eighth season was filmed from July 10, 2013 to August 17, 2013.

The twenty-ninth season was filmed from June 1, 2014 to July 10, 2014. The thirtieth season was filmed from August 4, 2014 to September 11, 2014. The thirty-first season was filmed from May 31, 2015 to July 8, 2015, having been filmed before what would be the thirty-second season was filmed from March 30, 2015 to May 7, 2015.

The thirty-third season was filmed from April 4, 2016 to May 12, 2016. The thirty-fourth season was filmed from June 6, 2016 to July 14, 2016. The thirty-fifth season was filmed from April 3, 2017 to May 11, 2017. The thirty-sixth season was filmed from June 5, 2017 to July 13, 2017.

The thirty-seventh season was filmed from March 29, 2018 to May 6, 2018. The thirty-eighth season was filmed from May 30, 2018 to July 7, 2018. The thirty-ninth season was filmed from March 21, 2019 to April 28, 2019. The fortieth season was filmed from May 22, 2019 to June 29, 2019.

And that’s about it for this blog post. Sorry if you found it boring in some way, but that’s about all that I felt like including. Also sorry if you want information about all of the reunion shows that happened in the seasons in regards to when they were filmed, but I also felt against including them this time around as I just wanted this done. I’ll see you sometime for the next post. I hope to get one done on an episode of this show before the month is over. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.

Survivor Connections

When I talk on and off about this planned idea for a season where one of the three tribes would be of returning players all at one point from the same season, I never mention the rest of the twist. I would want the other two tribes to be of new players. But if one tribe has a connection to each other, then you’d think that the other ones would as well.

So if Survivor decided to do a season that wasn’t about a group of strangers but people who knew each other, then what would the connection be? You’ll have to wonder if a whole bunch of things would work and what those things would be. One could think of co-workers at a company would work. You’d have to wonder what company would be okay with this, but then you’d just remember that Survivor needs advertisers just like advertisers need Survivor or some other show. A company working with Survivor to give us a season of people from them could make a good promotion, but also runs its own risks just like any show would have to do.

Another idea for a connections season would have a graduating class from the same school or college. It could also have the people who were once in a person’s same class. One could get congregants from the same church or other worshipers of whatever religion who work in a community. Some towns are small enough that there could be a huge connection from any random group of people there that could work since they would know each other. We could even get people who used to serve together in office.

If we go back to one of my previous ideas, then we could include a group of people who all survived the same event. Those that were part of the miracle on the Hudson could be a tribe as they are likely to still have connections even now. There are military branches that you’d think by now would have enough women on them for it to work. They might not have survived something, but that could still be a thing that works for a connection season. At the very least, they would have survived a service together and being an influence in the world.

That’s all that I can think of for this post. I realize that I have a lot of ideas for top tens to put in this blog so we’ll see if I do them like I want to in the end. I just need to think of what to put there and hope that I have good ideas and enough material for a top ten. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.

Examining the Final Immunity Challenge

While a lot of the game has changed since they put in the forced fire making tie breaker, there is still the classic idea of the final immunity challenge where we have one of the players win against the others. But things have changed over the years.

When it started out, there was a final two and the winner of this challenge would pick who would be against him or her in the final tribal council. In the first four seasons, they all made the wrong pick as the person who sat next to them wound up winning the game. But as the show moved along, many people found it easy it take a goat to the end where they would then win in a landslide.

Thus, as the players evolved, the game evolved too, with the producers bringing in a new twist for the game where they had three finalists instead of just two. This also changed the final vote and gave the winner less control over it. I am thinking that there could have been a twist where the winner of the final immunity challenge also cast the sole remaining elimination vote among the three of the remaining contestants in the game, thus still getting the choice that those in final two seasons would have gotten. But this twist never came to be.

Instead, in order to prevent the last voted out from being a great player that could make a great winner, the game changed again. They didn’t do four finalists. Instead, they made the final immunity challenge less valuable by giving one of them safety by the final immunity challenge winner and giving the other two left a chance to win another challenge to stay in the game and win. This has lead to all three of the outcomes where the final immunity challenge winner wins the game, the fire making challenge winner wins the game, and the person who is picked as safe wins the game.

Now how do we examine the final immunity challenge itself? Some of them work better than others. But I do believe that there haven’t been any suckers for challenges then. I’d have to do more research into it, but even those that become final immunity challenges on a regular basis, such as hand on a hard idol or simmotion, have always worked.

What’s interesting is just how much it can change the game. As mentioned before, it is common for the winner of it to not win the game and effectively chose the wrong person or people to sit next to them. Plus, a lot of people wouldn’t have been voted out if they had won this. Of course, this is how the game works and pretty much any challenge can change the game at any point any time. This one is just how so many of the last people voted out (before the rules were changed) wound up losing.

Well, I hope that there was a good point to this post in the end. I might have lost focus and can only hope that providing some content in this blog is better than doing nothing at all. You can let me know and I’ll figure things out if I still keep writing all of my blogs. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.

Survivor: China episode 6: That’s Love, Baby! It Makes You Strong!

In case I haven’t mentioned this as much already, know that I have a Survivor season ordered for the future so I should have the potential to talk about Blood versus Water again. It is currently the plan to have it replace Gabon when I’m done with that on Sundays.

I have an idea to possibly post on my YouTube channel that others could do too. I haven’t done this yet, but it is based on Survivor where you do something like a voting confessional, but with recreations of a ballot since you might not be able to do a ballot legally in some states online. With ballot selfies illegal in some places, you can write down a vote and share with people why you voted that way for that person or issue. Maybe you could share it on TikTok or some other forum like that.

Speaking of politics relating to Survivor, it turns out that producer Mark Burnett supports Trump. This may relate to the time they worked together on The Apprentice. While some don’t want to watch the show of Survivor due to this connection, I don’t care about his support and am not going to let it affect my love of this show. I mean, he is one person who has a relation with the show, but it doesn’t matter that much how he cares about whatever way politically.

What I do care about is an unfortunate affect of coronavirus. There is now a lot of racism against Asians and descendents of Asians because of coronavirus. This should not be happening at all. Just because the virus originated from China doesn’t mean that we should attack those from there or looking like they are from that area.

Now in the last post, we got to Aaron’s vote out from this season that some might consider unfair since it seemed like the deck was stacked against him. This was mentioned in a podcast that I was in once where one of the people successfully argued this as a point. This part starts at around 36:30. You can watch this and see if I picked a bad choice for this category like I think that I did.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1P6L5Wab18

It may seem like I’m jumping around from place to place when I mention different challenges in each of the posts that I’m doing to see if they are something that could be done while social distancing or not. Well, you’d be largely correct to think that. But I’m still doing to get to the challenges that start with the word the from Survivor fandom.

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

In this challenge, contestants must balance a ball on a cylinder with ever growing wooden parts to it. This challenge could be done while social distancing. This is one of many ball related challenges that are part of Survivor. I wonder when they took over and became such an easily mocked part of Survivor.

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

This challenge is also known as dress to keel. In it, contestants have to get one ring at a time and then use those rings to land them on a post. This could maybe be done while social distancing, but I’m not sure that it can be, depending on if it is tribal or individual.

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

In this challenge, contestants must make a tower and put a flag on it using only their feet. This challenge could be done while social distancing. I wonder if they could do a version of this that would make use of the metric system.

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

In this challenge, people compete through something like an obstacle course trying to gain pendants while members of the other tribe attempt to knock them off of said course. This challenge could possibly be done while social distancing.

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

This challenge is also known as Wizard’s staff and home stretch. In it, the rules seem complicated, but you have to get through things such as maybe a net crawl and then find items like tiles or discs before going through more obstacles and then either solving a puzzle to potentially unlock a box or spell out a phrase or possibly landing the discs through a bunch of slots that are there. It is possible that this could be done while social distancing.

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

This challenge is also known as obstacle puzzle maze, snakes and ladders, Maya maze, a-mazing Gabon, Meso maze, balance beam maze, roundabout, maybe I’m a maze, and Vin Skully. In it, contestants have to find items and then leave the maze. There is a link to this as a blindfolded version covered elsewhere. This challenge probably couldn’t be done while social distancing unless every contestant were given their own maze or only did it one at a time.

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

This challenge is also known as double play, wicker ball relay, rats in the rigging, big bad o-course, balance beam maze, Austin’s elemental obstacle course, and tower of power. In it, contestants must complete various obstacles, both physical and mental, to win. This challenge cannot likely be done while social distancing from what I could tell of it.

Now in the last post of me covering this season, I shared a challenge link that was also the name of a song by the same group that did the song Free Bird. This song is called Gimme Three Steps. I am going to share a link to that song here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYhh-avGjpU

You should know that there are other songs to mention, maybe, in other posts, if they have a link to the challenge that I can find and I like the song enough to want it included in this or other blogs in the future at some point in time. I will share them throughout the time in the future if it works out.

TV shows I watch on DVD update: starting in 2021 when I went back to watching these things, I reached a stopping point in mystery choice #8 so mystery choice #5 will be its replacement for now. This also means that NCIS replaces NCIS: Los Angeles and Power Rangers season 3 replaces Parks and Recreation. Again, nothing new is added to the list of things to watch this time. I am hoping that I can whittle down the list to just six choices soon, but we’ll see if that happens or not. There are just a bit of complications that are going on or could go on potentially.

On Saturday after watching the previous episode, I watched The Great Race. I replaced that with The Fugitive. On Sunday, I was busy doing other things for lunch. While I’m annoyed in some places that my Sundays aren’t always used for watching movies, since I’m often using it to spend time with both of my living grandparents who are in their 90s, then I can’t really complain which meant that there was no movie again that Sunday. On Wednesday, I watched no movie which I also didn’t do either that Thursday or Friday. I had the chance and time on Friday due to no new shows, but I didn’t know this in time and ran out of time to see a movie or even roll for one. That takes me to the next week.

On Saturday, I watched The Fugitive. I replaced that with Indiana Jones: The Temple of Doom. The next day, Sunday’s movie wound up being Finding Nemo. I replaced that with Finding Dory. I did not watch a movie on Wednesday or Thursday. On Friday, I watched True to the Game. I replaced that with The Treasure of the Sierra Madre.

Now I promised myself that whenever I watch True to the Game, I would share a link from my blog on Elementary since I got that movie to review it for my blog on that show. I mentioned a lot of the episodes that I posted after that in my blog on Madam Secretary until that show ended. Now, here we get to the last post that I posted in that blog. I’ll get back to posting about The Good Wife blog posts in the next post of this blog or later if other weird things about it.

http://adamdeckerelementarytvshow.blogspot.com/2018/06/june-18th-2018s-episode.html

On Saturday, I watched Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. I replaced that with Raiders of the Lost Ark. On Sunday, Wednesday, and Thursday, I watched no movies. On Friday, while the movie choice was locked in for the future, I did not see it this week in preparation for a visit with family for the weekend. That meant no movies for me the next Saturday or Sunday. On Wednesday, I wanted to see a specific movie that would not have been on my list of things to watch. But it didn’t work out to see it. Nor could I see something on the main list either.

On Thursday, I watched Tower Heist. I replaced that with The Somewhat True Tale of Robin Hood. On Friday, I watched The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. I replaced that with Rain Man. On Saturday, I saw The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. I replaced that with John Q. On Sunday, I watched Kingsman: The Secret Service. I replaced that with Kingsman: The Golden Circle.

On Tuesday, February 23^rd, 2021, I rolled this episode and watched it. I was regularly updating my TV blog on that day of the week in my quest to phase it out and put it on just Saturdays weekly. I will now have to update my Madam Secretary blog then instead. I will alternate Tuesday posts between the TV and Madam Secretary blogs during this time until the TV blog is updated on the last Tuesday of the month and then just the Madam Secretary blog will be updated then instead.

We begin with Peih-Gee talking about potentially throwing the challenge and wanting to throw the next challenge in anticipation of the upcoming merge. James wants to conserve energy to make sure that he can help win the challenge if he needs to.

Todd talks to Amanda about the hidden immunity idol. They both want it. They then gather for the next reward challenge. At the challenge, Peih-Gee tells Sherea that her tribe is still looking out for her and Frosti. Fei Long wins the challenge and gets to kidnap a member of the other tribe. They take James with them as he now gets to enjoy the reward with them.

At the reward, people enjoy the tea and baths and other things like that. Some call it the best reward ever. But it doesn’t even have loved ones with it. Courtney wanted to be as far away from Jean-Robert as possible. James doesn’t mind being naked in front of others, which Amanda talks about some as his butt is good to her.

Back at Zhan Hu, they realize that Frosti isn’t making eye contact with them and they feel that they have to win immunity. Peih-Gee doesn’t think that Sherea is still on their tribe’s side since they didn’t talk much at the challenge.

Todd approaches James about the idol clue. He convinces James to give the clue to him. They find the idol, but Frosti is there. He is part of this now. He is part of the group. Amanda, Todd, and Frosti know about the idol. James is told to look for the idol at their camp and throw the challenge so that they all vote for him and then nullify his votes. They want to get rid of Jamie while Todd tells Courtney and Denise each about the idol and how they have to win the challenge.

At the immunity challenge, the contestants have to eat Chinese dishes that are not considered good as we get to the challenge at hand. The first round is Peih-Gee versus Frosti eating chicken heart. This might not be too bad, based on the beef heart that I had once in Peru. Frosti and thus Fei Long wins the first point. Courtney and Jamie then eat eel with Jamie and Zhan Hu winning a point. Amanda then faces off against Erik while eating baby turtles. Erik wins a point for Zhan Hu. Denise then faces off against James for eating balut. Denise does terribly at eating it. James is unable to throw his part as a result. The next round is 1,000 year old egg. Erik gets the winning point, just barely besting Frosti.

At Fei Long, Denise is upset that she wasn’t able to win it. Todd gathers with Amanda over getting rid of one of the former Zhan Hu members. Between Frosti and Sherea, they think that they should go with Sherea since they feel they can trust Frosti more and even have him as an ally potentially. Courtney then joins them to “gather water” and is not sure that she likes the plan to vote out Sherea as she wants to vote out Jean-Robert instead. He has a feeling of uneasiness. Sherea doesn’t want to go down without a fight. Todd talks to Amanda about who to vote out since he doesn’t want to be seen as a power player and voted out as a result instead.

We then get to tribal council. Jeff wonders just how much the game changes when a tribe loses and has to vote someone out. Sherea does a lot of attitude to Jean-Robert. She says that people don’t like him and he even admits that he knows this. He thinks of himself as a bad boy, but Courtney finds this to be ridiculous, much like how one would do the laughing reaction on facebook when one finds a point that one has to be ridiculous. Todd seems to fight some with Courtney. Jean-Robert thinks that he’s in a good spot. When the votes are cast, Courtney and Sherea vote for Jean-Robert while Frosti, Jean-Robert, Denise, Amanda, and Todd vote out Sherea. Todd and Amanda picked their side as if they wanted to get rid of Jean-Robert, he would have gone home instead.

On the next Survivor: China, Jamie and Erik might have found an idol, there is more drama between the two members, and the two tribes merge. What else could happen? Well, we already know if we care and we’ll have to see later when this post will be.

Total confessional count: Amanda- 9, Courtney- 7, Todd- 17, Jamie- 13, Peih-Gee- 11, Denise- 7, Frosti- 10, Jean-Robert- 9, Sherea- 11, Erik- 5, James- 9.

New confessionals this episode: Erik- 0, James- 2, Amanda- 4, Courtney- 2, Todd- 6, Jamie- 2, Peih-Gee- 1, Denise- 2, Frosti- 0, Jean-Robert- 2, Sherea- 1.

I don’t think that Sherea had much of a chance after the most unfair swap in Survivor history (which was even worse that what Caramoan’s would be, which also screwed over players in a different yet similar fashion) and it wasn’t helped when Frosti did what he could to stay as part of the new tribe. She did have a chance to work to get rid of Jean-Robert, but it didn’t pan out in the end. Still, I would like her back at some point and I feel that her chances of returning to the game are around 60%.

One of the reasons that I’m always wanting to do a post on an episode every month is so I can do one of these planned calendars where I talk about which blogs will be posted on each date in the upcoming month. The plan might not end up happening for whatever reason, but I still feel like doing it to see if it will be close like that or not. At the moment, only The Good Fight blog posts are locked in that specific dates that I have them at and are not subject to change.

Planned March blog posts

Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
Not March	1: freebie	2: TV	3: Survivor (maybe)	4: freebie	5: The Good Wife	6: TV
7: CSI: Cyber (maybe)	8: Elementary	9: Madam Secretary	10: Survivor (maybe)	11: The Good Wife	12: Survivor (maybe)	13: TV
14: Survivor (maybe)	15: The Good Fight	16: TV	17: Survivor (maybe)	18: The Good Fight	19: Survivor (maybe)	20: TV
21: Survivor (maybe)	22: The Good Fight	23: Madam Secretary	24: Survivor (maybe)	25: The Good Fight	26: The Good Wife (maybe)	27: TV
28: Survivor (maybe)	29: The Good Fight	30: TV	31: Survivor (maybe)	Not March	Not March	Not March

And here the post ends. I need to juggle all of the blogs that I have and have to put some more effort into some posts than I do in other posts. But I’m always trying to produce some content for it in the end and can only hope that the posts are good enough to some extent as a result, although I’m hoping that it will be better at times than I’ve done. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.

How Would Survivor Deal with a Coronavirus Case?

It seems like, if all goes according to plan and what Survivor fandom says is accurate, we will be seeing a new season of Survivor in the future as they are set to start filming Survivor 41 sometime soon. After a year long delay (approximately), it would be nice to see the show again. But now we have a factor that could change things in ways that have never happened on Survivor before. What if there is a case of coronavirus while they are filming this new season or any other ones?

This probably wouldn’t be anything like the typical medical evacuation that we are used to even if the person with the virus would display serious enough to pull them from the game. We’d then have to deal a whole lot with possibly quarantines and filming delays. The weirdest thing that has happened thus far was the two times that they had to pull all of the contestants from the game temporarily due to extreme weather in the area like hurricanes. Would they have to do something like that until the game was given a go ahead to start again?

Plus, there would be more of a problem than simply a contestant or even the host getting it. There are a lot of other people in the show, such as cameramen and other producers that are always off camera, that could get coronavirus and force a shutdown of at least two weeks. What could one even do if there is such a problem like that? It would be hard to know for sure.

Hopefully, they have a contingency plan of some sort. I can hope that they could still do the rest of the season without having to pull anyone or many people without losing too much time. What if a person tests positive and they are then pulled then and there? Maybe it would have to be that way and there is nothing else that could be done, no matter how mild their symptoms might be.

It is hard to know for sure what could be done or would be done. Hopefully, it doesn’t happen and they don’t have to worry about such an event anyways. Otherwise, they need a plan. They’ve had all of this time to form one. If we are to expect more Survivor, we need to be prepared for these things and hope that it can be made in the future. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.