Episode 26.7

You know, people talk about doing Survivor in a cold location. I don't think that it would ever work. It seems like a lawsuit waiting to happen since cold locations are much more dangerous than warm ones and people could easily die. I'm not sure what would happen if a contestant were to ever die during a season, but I doubt that it would be good for the rest of the season. It might never air and they might not even finish filming the rest. There would probably be a special tribal council as to whether they should continue the season or not or they would continue without informing the remaining contestants of the one that died until the filming wrapped so as to not affect the game that much. As to a cold location, a foreign season of Survivor is trying that and if it's successful for them, it might appear here. Or, Survivor: Frozen could be a spin-off of Survivor that would be filmed in cold locations. If it fails, it would never have to be associated with the real Survivor and if it succeeds, it could give Survivor fans some good episodes during the summer when it would air (I would see no reason why it would air as a normal season unless they wanted it to be that way). We also wonder about Celebrity Survivor. I personally hope that it never happens. They might do it at some point as I read an online news article about a legal spat with NBC over I'm a Celebrity, Get Me out of Here over possible copyright infringement. If they did do it, I hope that they would have a good division for the tribes. Maybe they could be divided by how they are famous or how famous they are. But I'd hate to see what even passes as a celebrity and how they get them to play for charity and not themselves (because celebrity seasons of any reality show have to compete for charities). I personally just think that they should keep doing what they are doing with celebrities and hiring them as regular players when they apply to be on the show. (Every famous person on the show to my knowledge has been an applicant, although outside of Survivor: Fiji, it is hard to know who is a recruit and who is an applicant.)

You know, I don't know if I should ever post Survivor dreams I have on this blog or not, but I did have one that seemed interesting enough to make me think of questions about it. It was the first episode of a season and two identical twins were playing. They were chosen to be on separate tribes, which seemed disappointing for them. Now I'm not sure if any identical twin has ever played the game before (the other twin not playing), but I'm not sure if that would ever happen. Survivor is meant to be a group of strangers and except for all stars seasons, contestants aren't supposed to know each other before the game begins. It could always happen though, due to pure coincidence, but I imagine that the changes of that happening are pretty low. Now the identical twins could be given the task of choosing the separate tribes and thus not be able to compete together until the merge, if they both make it there. Or, what would be more likely is if identical twins are cast to be on Survivor, one would be put on the fall season and the other would be on the spring season. They could both play, but not the same season at the same time. Although I have no idea how they would handle it and we might never know. I'm not sure what would happen with twins, but there's always more potential seasons left to explore what could happen. I don't know what I'd do with this blog if Survivor were to end. I'd probably just end it unless I looked back at a past season again. I also don't know if this blog could be continued if I died. It would probably just end abruptly with nobody knowing what happened. I don't think that would happen, but you'll never know.

I mentioned how other countries have versions of Survivor themselves. It may seem interesting to know that most of the twists done in our version came from other first. The switch might have been American and it's possible that the purple rock is too. We might have been the first to offer mutinies and were probably the first to have a fake merge. We were not, however, the first country to do battle of the sexes. We may have done buried treasures and looting first. I'm not entirely sure that the outcasts originated in this country, but I don't think that they did. We were probably not the first to do full fledged all-star season, but we might have been the first to have more than one tribe or tribal dissolves. I think that in all the foreign countries' versions of Survivor, not one of them lacked a merge, but one of ours did. We may have started the one returnee per tribe and I know we were the first with Exile Island and hidden immunity idols. We were probably the only country to split by race. Rich versus poor did not start with us but kidnapping might have. Fan versus favorites was done in other countries first before we did that. Heroes versus Villains might have been an American Survivor first, but it is easy enough to come up with an idea like that. Old versus young might have started with us, but Redemption Island did not. One World could have been us first. That's all the major twists that I can think of at this point in time.

Interesting Survivor firsts this season involve the first immunity challenge to be forfeited and the first tribal council during the day. What's interesting is that sense Bikal forfeited the challenge before they played it and the same challenge would appear in the next episode, Bikal would end up losing it when they actually completed it. This makes it the first tribe to lose the same challenge twice, although it is hard to call it that considering the weirdness surrounding it. It is technically impossible for any tribe to lose the same challenge twice since no tribes return for another season and a challenge is only done once during a season, if it ever shows up again. That also means that Gota is the first tribe to win the same challenge twice. During the individual part of the game, some contestants have competed in the same challenge and lost it again or even won it again. However, nothing like that has ever happened in the tribal part of the game. I do wonder if only certain challenges are allowed to be reward challenges or immunity challenges. I also wonder if they have to use a certain amount/all of the planned challenges like that in the game and wonder if there are any challenges planned for a season that never end up happening because they don't have to use as many as they planned after all. But enough of my ramblings.

Previously on Survivor, Matt was eliminated because they thought that he might have an idol (or didn't think that and knew that he couldn't save himself). In the first segment, Corrine continues to scheme to get Phillip out of the game, obviously not aware that the two favorites voted out so far did the exact same thing. Phillip continues to have a lot of rivalries in this game. I can't remember him being this way the first time, but he might have been. Also, off topic, I will try to be on www.twitter.com for future episodes. I just hope that I can blog about them and tweet about them at the same time. Expect me to tweet on Sunday or sometime afterwards.

On the next segment of the show, Bikal got the treemail about the upcoming reward challenge. Phillip and John arm wrestled for a bit and Phillip wanted to show how strong he was. This challenge had appeared as an immunity challenge in Survivor: Palau in the third episode: Dangerous Creatures and Horrible Setbacks (remember that I have the DVD set of that season and can look up any information about it that I want). The oldest guy was in the front of the challenge and Phillip tried to run but barely lasted a few feet each time. The tribe had a horrible decision to put him in the lead. Bikal sucked at the challenge. If this is a repeat of Micronesia, Bikal will continue to lose challenges and go to every tribal council, but Gota will lose players regardless due to quitters or medical evacuations. But that seems unlikely. All I know is that Bikal isn't the strong tribe it used to be when it was full of just favorites. To think, Phillip had a good strategy in the reward challenge from a while back where his shouting random stuff prevented the other team from scoring in his basket and helped him win the challenge. Meanwhile, Gota won their first reward challenge and were enjoying the food that they don't typically have. Back at Bikal, everyone wanted to get rid of Phillip due to his poor performance in the challenge. There are some who want to keep him just to help the favorites win the game. I'm rooting for the favorites, but I'm perfectly happy with the fans doing well too. I also wouldn't mind Phillip getting voted out. On Gota, Reynold told Malcolm about his hidden immunity idol for some odd reason.

In the next segment of the show, the immunity challenge happened. I missed a lot of the explanation for the challenge and thus don't understand much of what is happening. Bikal was slow and out of most of the challenge. Gota won the challenge. To think, a tribe switch was the best thing to ever happen to that tribe.

In the next segment of the show, Bikal talked about losing the challenge. Phillip is either very truthfully saying that he threw the challenge to help get rid of Julia or, as John suspects, he's making up complete bullshit (yes, I said that in my blog) about why he sucked in the challenge. If they were smart, they would get rid of Phillip. I mean, the smartasses who come up with the idea to throw challenges typically get voted out themselves. Also, Corrine loves gay guys (even though they can't love her back, or at least not that way). So it's between Michael, Julia, Corrine, or Phillip. I have no idea what's going on, although it is probably a fan going home tonight. You know, I do wonder if this is the first time where it is known that the hidden immunity idol can't be on one tribe and two are in play on the other. There is a two way time for Michael and Julia, with the three people voting one way and four people the other way. I have no idea why there was a tie. I guess that they wanted to split the vote for whatever reason. Julia got voted out after the revote. So, hopefully, Michael does better in the next episode and that the other tribe goes to tribal council for a (sort of) change. Next time on Survivor, the merge happens and a feast proves disastrous. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.

Episode 26.6

How should I begin this blog post? You know, I don't have to do these crazy random ramblings before the actual post, but I do. I don't know why I do that. I guess that's part of my randomness. I also don't know why this blog has only received one comment thus far. Are you the only person who reads it that has a blogger account? Does anyone else read it? I promise that if I ever miss an episode that you can post information about it for me in this blog. I really do hope that people I know read this as well as Survivor contestants. Also, I'm not sure how to rate if a season is good or bad. According to what I've read, if Survivor: Nicaragua didn't get such bad reception; they never would have done Redemption Island in the next two seasons. I didn't have any problems with Nicaragua. There are some seasons that I like more than others. From what I understand, though, the two seasons with Redemption Island were considered lame/bad by fans and that helped lead to its retirement (but as to whether it is a permanent retirement or not is anyone's guess). The returning players twist seems to keep happening every season. If they do a season with no returning players, normal tribe divisions of just two tribes, and no other outlying twist, they will have finally done a normal season again. But that might never happen. It took seven seasons after All Stars for a "normal" season to happen again. So, with any luck, the next season will be more normal. You know, something that I should do is post a list of Survivor second chances full of all the contestants that I think deserve a second chance to play again based on some unfortunate event they experienced or caused that got them voted out or otherwise leave the game. I'm also not sure if there'll ever be a final season of Survivor, but if they can play to do something epic, the last one should be in Sweden (if they can find a warm enough location, that is). That may seem like a strange place, but without the Swedish reality show Expedition Robinson, there wouldn't be an American version of Survivor. In fact, I wonder how many popular American TV shows were originally based on a foreign franchise of some sort. Also, there are some people that think about an all winner season. That might never happen, even though we could have winners as every contestant, we probably won't get every winner. I could do a rundown if I wanted to and could during random meaningless blog posts that might occur during the summer. Or I may do nothing during the summer in terms of this blog. I'm not sure that I'd get another season to watch yet or not, but I probably won't. I'm also interested in if future seasons will have more than two tribes again. I think that it would be cool if they did and I know what interesting things they could do with it. I would love to see Team X, a twist that has appeared in other country's seasons, but I'm not sure if that would work entirely or not.

You know, just for fun, I should list different Survivor stuff during the summer. You'll find out what then. I was thinking recently about top ten lists and bottom ten lists, but I'm not sure that I could do that with Survivor. What would I even compare? I could do a list of all the contestants who were eliminated due to tiebreakers or hidden immunity idols (and not because they didn't use it when they should have.) There will be other Survivor lists that I could help do and probably will soon. The only reason I wouldn't do that is if or someone I know buys me a season of Survivor to watch and own. And I can't think of one right now that I would like. Also, future promos of this episode help describe that my idea that they would do a double tribal council this episode are wrong. It could still appear in a future episode this season, but probably not this one. They are during a tribal swap. That might mean that there isn't a reward challenge, but there could be. So I'll have to post more information about Bikal and Gota. Maybe Gota will finally start winning challenges for a change. I have yet to see who will switch to what tribe. I will post the list of new tribe members as soon as the official list is revealed in this episode. But enough of my ramblings.

In the first segment, the favorites tribe returned to camp to talk about what happened in the last episode. It was a Survivor first: earliest tribal council in history. It was also the second shortest. But since it wasn't a real tribal council (and neither was the shortest) it's hard to tell what was or not. All tribal councils are edited down and last longer than it would take the episode to air without any commercials. Phillip makes another nemesis in the game with Corrine. I wouldn't want to be his rival since every one of his rivals have been successfully eliminated so far. Reynold talks about nothing shifting in the game right before the tribal switch. They are doing the egg way of dividing the tribe again which first appeared in One World and sort of appeared in South Pacific and maybe Redemption Island with the two returning players. We have yet to see how this will affect the game. Both of the tribes had new rice and flint. I have posted what I think is the new tribes.

The New Gota: Eddie, Reynold, Brenda, Andrea, Erik, Sherri, Malcolm

The New Bikal: Corrine, Phillip, Michael, Matt, John, Dawn, Julia

In the next segment of the show, the new tribes talked about the other people from their old tribes. They were pretty much getting used to their new divisions. It turns out that the immunity challenge from the last episode is being reused after all. This challenge is a classic one that has appeared in past seasons. You know, they probably have a set number of tribal challenges that they'll have to use no matter what. From what I understand, there is no set order that they do the challenges in, although I don't see why there would have to be. It looks like Bikal will lose the challenge. Phillip was used too much in the challenge so it's unclear whether his fight to get her out of the game will work or not.

In the next segment of the show, Bikal got ready for their first tribal council as a new tribe. Phillip actually wanted to get rid of Julia. The fans are outnumbered on this tribe four to three. At tribal council, Jeff helped sum up the new tribe and helped stir chaos at the council. Corrine is freaked out about the idol, although both the idols are on the other tribe. The other tribe is also outnumbered three fans to four favorites. Matt was voted out in order to break out the power couple of the two guys. Julia is safe which surprises me. If anyone knows for sure what happened, be sure to post it here. From what I understand, though, the favorites lied about who they were voting for, thus tricking the two males fans into voting for Julia. Julia put her one vote for Dawn. The favorites then all voted out Matt. The promo revealed little to nothing about the next episode. But I should go back to normal blog posts since the Lenten services ended this week. And I will return to twitter a week after Sunday. I'm sure that Rupert will like hearing more from me. I will return soon with new and normal blog posts. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.

Episode 26.5

I don't know what I'll do if I ever miss an episode again. I guess that I could just skip the blog entirely. I do wish that readers of this would post what happened instead should that ever happen again. I'm not sure what I'd do. You know, I will continue to post the firsts this season and post the three dumbest moves this season at the end of the blog. Not quite sure what's happening in the episode, but I guess we'll see what happens when it airs. All I know is that it will be remembered forever. Or, at least that's what Jeff says will happen. I've noticed that this season has gotten lower ratings than usual, but each Survivor season consistently gets worse and worse in the ratings with each and every new season. But, the show does better than most scripted shows on non CBS networks at least. Normally, nonscripted shows like Survivor don't have to do as well as scripted shows in order to get renewed (although there are arguments that the show is fake, I'd rather not get into that here). So it will probably get renewed, although no official news has come yet. I will say the moment that I know for sure, one way or the other. I hope that they do three or four tribes in future seasons because the day one majority alliances are getting bothersome and obvious. I just hope that if they do four tribes, they won't be disbanded early into the game. We also know that Exile Island will never appear again, although I'm not 100% sure why it was retired in the first place. I thought that it was a good way of handling the hidden immunity idols because without it, the idols are too easy to find by everyone and are thus not as good a twist as it could be. They mostly stopped doing clues for them even. I do wonder what happened to the hashtag on twitter of #immunityidol. Maybe it didn't work to well to use again this season. I'm not that big a fan of the idols. Call me crazy, but I liked the outcasts twist and Redemption Island, but I don't like the hidden immunity idol. That's weird. I don't know why they let the contestants see what happened on Redemption Island, but they should let the viewers see. If they do Redemption Island again, they shouldn't have the hidden immunity idol, although it has appeared in every season since its introduction. But I think that Exile Island wasn't working that properly in the first place because there were no limitations to sending contestants there and thus people like Sugar who end up going there many times in a row. I heard that it was Coach who made the most of the island and had such a good time there that the producers decided to retire it forever. I don't know if it will ever make a surprise appearance in future seasons or not, but it probably won't. I also don't know if I'll ever blog about Survivor: Palau again, but I could. Like I said before, a contestant from the season would have to die before I'd buy that season. I know that sounds morbid, but I have to limit the seasons I own somehow. Don't worry though. If I do buy a season, I will blog about it. And repeating the tenth season again would be fun, although I wouldn't do it for a while. I hate to say it, but someone else from that would have to die for me to watch it again. But enough of my ramblings.

So this episode was very unusual. The promos were right, we've never seen Survivor like this before. Brandon wasn't ejected from the game, but he was voted out. He will probably win the award for stupidest move of the season, although the rest of the season has to happen first. I don't think that someone could get dumber than he was. And he was the dumbest Survivor contestant the first time he played too. I'm not sure that he'll ever play again. I hope that he doesn't, but he might. I don't know if the wasted immunity challenge will be reused or not. In Survivor: All Stars, when Jenna M quit the game at the immunity challenge, they used the same challenge in the next episode, only they actually fought it the first time. Tandang proved last season that a tribe could forfeit a challenge, but the main differences are these: Tandang gave up reward and Bikal gave up immunity; Tandang had other deals made with the other tribe for the quit and Bikal didn't really do that; Tandang gave up the challenge after an hour of trying to compete it before they realized that it was hopeless to complete and Bikal didn't even let the challenge start. The fans lost the reward challenge, but the resulting win is what damaged the favorites. I still don't know if Phillip or Brandon started it, but Brandon got what he deserved. He is now the second person to be voted out at a challenge. What makes it different from Ian in the tenth season is that the challenge had run too long and it was too late for tribal council and there was no challenge competed in this time. Brandon left the game strangely without his torch being snuffed. He's not the first contestant to leave like that and might not be the last. In fact, some contestants have left before they even get a torch. Also, I still don't know enough about this dock at the favorite's camp that many contestants do confessions at. I don't remember seeing it last season and I thought that this was the same filming location too.

You know, I'm not into spoilers, but I know that there are some websites saying that they know what the vote out order is. I wouldn't look them up know, but if I can still find them after the season finishes airing, I might look it up just for kicks to see if it is accurate or not. Reynold found another hidden immunity idol. Maybe this time, he'll actually need it when he uses it. He could always give the idol to someone else if he had to. This episode is still not as shocking as Bum Puzzled from One World, but it is very interesting. I still don't know if I'll do a most memorable moment to this season or not. I would have last season, if there was such a moment. It looks like next episode, Phillip gets a new rival in the game and both tribes might go to tribal council. Also, it is rumored that there might be another medical evacuation this season, but I don't know if that's true or not. I don't know when this blog will go back to normal or not, but it should be after the next post, if not sooner. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.

Episode 26.4

Hopefully, I'll be able to watch the episode this week. I don't know if someone else was able to comment with a description of the last week's episode, but I will post information about what I know from the recap. I talked to a friend about the episode and she told me that Malcolm found the hidden immunity idol. I hope that he will be able to use it this time, although he hopefully won't have to. He still probably has last season's idol, only it is worthless know outside of a souvenir. He cannot use it this season, but he doesn't have to since he has this season's new idol. Also, there's a list of returning contestants who could be good to compete on future seasons that I would like to mention as well at the reason why I want them to compete again. They are Jonathan (Palau), Wanda (Palau), and Kourtney (One World) because they were eliminated in the first episode but weren't voted out, Mike (Samoa), Gary (Fiji), and Dana (Philippines) because they were evacuated premerge, and Colton (One World), Joe (Tocantins), and Bruce (Exile Island) who were the other evacuated players (remember that I exclude James because I don't think that he'll play again, even though he might). I would also like Cassandra and Dreamz (tied runner-ups from Fiji), Lisa and Michael (tied runner-ups from Philippines), Fabio and Chase (winner and runner-up from Nicaragua because of the close vote decided by two quitters on the jury), and any future season that has a tie at the final tribal council. Also, it would be fun if Malcolm and Denise, the two remaining Matsing members were to compete in a future season. Denise versus Stephanie might be a good matchup, but I don't know if Stephanie would play a fourth time. I know that I at least want Denise to play again so maybe her tribe will win immunity for a change. Did you know that if Denise were voted out at the last tribal council instead of Malcolm, she would have been the first contestant in Survivor history to cast a vote at every tribal council? I wonder if that will ever happen in a future season. Survivor never ceases to surprise me. But enough of my ramblings.

It turns out, that I was able to watch the episode online at www.cbs.com. Last time on Survivor, the fans lost Hope. There is no more Hope for the fans. Shemar thought about quitting, but didn't. The fans lost the immunity challenge and voted out Hope, as I already stated. Shemar got all mad about a diving mask and contacts, but a secret season at the website I just mentioned showed that Shemar is probably making stuff up as he never had the diving mask in the first place. The promo for the next episode made it look like the fans would be hurt by a storm as well as tribe dynamics. Also, new commercials point out that there might be a medical evacuation in this episode. If this remains a parallel to the last fans versus favorites, there will be two medical evacuations and a quitter with the quitter and first evacuation before the merge and the other evacuation during the jury phrase of the game. Maybe the storm will have something to do with the medical evacuation. Also, I just realized that there are four players this season who are the only representatives from their first season in this season (if that makes sense). They are Malcolm (Philippines), Corrine (Gabon), Brenda (Nicaragua), and Erik (Micronesia). I also don't know if any Survivor contestant reads this blog or not, but I thought that Parvati mentioned a statistic I might have mentioned in this blog (unless she read it somewhere else, of course). I enjoy watching the Survivor live after shows on www.youtube.com. I just hope that what I said is right. But I should get to the new episode.

The poor fans tribe lost two members in this episode. Shemar, who nobody really liked, a player who threatened to quit the game, and only survived tribal councils because people thought that he would be good to beat at the finals, was medically evacuated from the game. And it was for an eye problem to. Strangely, he has better chances of coming back into the game a second time than Dana does. Jeff Probst himself said that Dana technically quit the game since you can't choose to be medically evacuated. Yet her torch wasn't lied down on the Rites of Passage and I don't think that she considered herself to be quitting, or she would have stayed in the game. Plus, if she did quit, it would redefine past medical evacuations like Gary from Fiji and possibly others. The favorites tribe won both reward and immunity. Also, #sleathrus is now a twitter hashtag. That's funny in a way. Despite the fact that Sherri helped lose the challenge for the fans, her name didn't come up to be voted out. Reynold would end up wasting his idol. I hope that he finds it again. Laura ended up getting voted out. And it looks like something serious and memorable will happen in the next episode. It looks like it would involve Brandon Hantz. Will he be the first Survivor contestant in the history of the game to be ejected from it? If he is, then he would not be at the reunion show and he'll never be able to play again. But he is the stupidest player in Survivor's history and the Hantz family already has a bad rap on reality TV. If any of you are Big Brother fans, than you know what happened to Willie Hantz on the last season of Big Brother. Since this season was filmed before that season of Big Brother, than it would make sense as to why they didn't have problems with the Hantz family this season. I hope that Russell never plays again, even though he probably will. But I think that Colton has him beat as Survivor's greatest villain. Stay tuned for the next blog post where we find out what this memorable event is in the next episode. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.

Episode 26.3?

This is an interesting season so far that seems to currently mimic the first fans versus favorites. If that stays true, a favorite will be voted out today, but I don't know if that will happen yet or not. It is unfortunate that this season is so boring thus far. Survivor: Micronesia was a favorite season of Jeff Probst (and by the way, I'm sorry that your talk show was cancelled. But, seriously, you should have had more noticeable guests and less human interest stories). Maybe this season will get more interesting as time goes by. I'm starting to wonder also how many showmances have been successful in Survivor history. Has any of them? The most memorable was Boston Rob and Amber who have three children that are all potential Survivor contestants should the show last that long. Or they could compete on The Amazing Race. Or, maybe, they'll never appear on television. Their parents have an interesting and unique story among reality TV couples. I'm glad that there's has worked, for the most part, that we know of at least. It's strange how Survivor has had a successful romance and The Bachelor typically fails at it. That's the whole point of The Bachelor. But I'd rather not talk about The Bachelor or The Bachelorette. I'm not into that type of show. I'm sure that it has its fans; I'm just not one of them. And if any of you ever listen to the podcast that I once posted a link to in this blog (see quick link for it and hope that you have the right type of web browser and flash player is updated), I hope that you enjoy the information that I do when I listen to it. I learn that after this season was done filming, Reynold got married. In case you are wondering, it was not Allie. I also learned what Jeff Probst told the players about Malcolm, "he's a returning player from Survivor: Philippines, and that's all I'm going to tell you." Malcolm himself may tell them more if he wanted to, although this would probably not be seen on television. I also learned that if I were ever a contestant on Survivor, I might not be able to blog about my season or CBS might get mad at me. It's not like I'd say anything that would end up costing me 5 million dollars, but maybe it would be wise if that long shot of me appearing on the show ever happened. But enough of my ramblings.

Due to problems with recording the episode, I was unable to watch it. I looked up what happened on wikia. The fans went to tribal council and voted out Hope. I know that the first vote was a tie between her, Eddie, and Shamar. I don't know who Eddie even is. I don't know why the vote went this way. I know that the revote went to Hope who got voted out. If anyone who reads this blog has a way of commenting on it, please tell me the information in a reply to this post. Hopefully all will go well with the recording next week and I'll be able to watch it then. I also hope that the recap in the next episode is a good one that explains what happened in the episode that I missed. Sorry this isn't the blog post people wanted. Please reply with what happened in the episode. And to my readers on the west coast, I hope that this isn't a spoiler of any kind. Not sure what will happen next time. I will return and hopefully have a good way of explaining what happened from this episode in the blog post for the next one. NP, I hope that you watched this episode and can comment on what I missed so that you can tell me and my readers what I need to know. If anyone else who reads this blog saw this episode entitled There's Going to Be Hell to Pay, then please reply if you can so I can better understand what I missed. Sorry about this time. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.

Episode 26.2

I hope that people have been able to use the quick link I posted here to the podcast that my sister used to help with. I would listen to it if I wasn't unable to for some reason. I'm sure that it's great. Fans versus favorites 2 is doing well so far. Once again, a favorite was voted out first. But I'm not sure that the fans will do well or even win this season, but I don't know for sure yet. I hope that Malcolm wins, but I don't know if he will or not. I can't think of anyone else to root for just yet. I'm not sure if there's a fan I'm crazy about yet. I do wonder if future seasons will start with three tribes again. The producers or at least Jeff has said that they did that to avoid day one majority alliances to rule the game. Also, I'm not 100% sure why they retired Exile Island. If anyone knows, I'd like you to mention it here. NP, whoever you are, I might enjoy more comments from you, although I haven't checked recently to see if this blog has more comments or not. I also notice that this season is not using Redemption Island, which seems okay, I guess. But since it didn't save Francesca the first time, it probably wouldn't the second time. I also don't know if they'll ever do more seasons in Palau or not. They probably won't as they don't typically reuse locations that often and if they do, they didn't want to. I just think that they should go there and make sure to bring back contestants from the tenth season to play in it as well. I'm not sure Palau is my favorite season, but it is pretty high up there. I do wish that if I could never be a contestant on Survivor, that I could at least be a creative consultant or maybe even a producer. There are lots of twists that could happen on Survivor that haven't happened yet. Some of them might never happen. I would suggest them, but they can't accept my ideas unless I work for them. Besides, they can probably create them without me anyways. But enough of my ramblings.

So the fans went to tribal council and voted off Allie. I'm surprised they didn't go with Shamar, but I guess the strategy of keeping hated people around to beat them at the final tribal council worked this time. Poor Allie. Also, this is kind of a side note, but does anyone realize that when they show the dream team doing the challenge while Jeff is explaining it, that typically the person they show to win is normally the person that loses the challenge? The dream team showed that the fans won the challenge, which I recognized as an age old trick they've been doing a while now which actually means that the favorites would win the immunity challenge. My prediction was right, but I don't think that it always is. I do hate it when Survivor is predictable, like in the third season where the opening of the episode showed the tribe that would win immunity and the tribe the read the treemail before a reward challenge typically won it. I'm not sure if any other season had obvious giveaways like that. If you don't believe me, you can watch that season again for yourself. Anyways, Reynold found the fans hidden immunity idol and because someone saw him with the bulge in his pocket, he had to reveal that he had an idol a la Malcolm in the last season. He still has it and could have used it to save Allie, but he obviously didn't know she was on the chopping block and he probably wanted to keep it for himself anyways. If there is a switch this season, which there probably will be, I hope that he winds up on the same tribe as Malcolm as the two of them are alike. No word yet on the favorites hidden immunity idol, but if a hashtag like that appears. Not sure what will happen in the next episode, except that Shamar goes crazy (really? A black guy going crazy? Do we really need more of that?) and Brandon continues to be cynical. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.

Survivor: Caramoan Premiere 26.1

I don't know why they are reusing fans versus favorites. I thought that the first time they did it the fans were doomed from the very beginning. I will mention the cast as soon as I learn who they are. For simplicity's sake, I will only talk about the returning players at first. I will do a quick recap of their first time in the game. I understand why Jeff Probst would like the twist to be used again considering how the first time he did it, it became one of his favorite seasons. I do wish that they would stop bringing back returning players. I like seasons where every contestant is new. I guess that since recently, seasons with no returning player has been considered lame by some. In fact, every season which had returning players mixed with new ones, a returning player has always made it to the final tribal council. This season was filmed in the exact same location as the last one and not a single episode of the 25 season had yet aired when this season was filmed. And the supposed winner for this season has been leaked. It has been leaked by the same person who thought that Michael would win last season. I'm not going to mention who this person Survivor sucks says wins is in this blog. I will be surprised if it is that person and will mention in the blog if the prediction is right or not as soon as this person wins or gets voted out. There's a 5% chance that the prediction is right. And I don't buy it. I won't mention it here as I'm not into potential spoilers, although I will say if any are true or untrue when the time comes. And to the commenter who wanted to know where I heard the possible location for seasons 27 and 28: I can't find that information again. I wanted to find it the same way I did the first time (google search), but I can't find it again. Now the location for those two seasons is thought to be Tasmania, although the source that says that's where it is also says it could be a hoax. So I guess we'll have to wait until the reunion show this season until we find out the location for those two seasons. Besides, I think I heard about a storm that hit the Solomon Islands so I'm not sure if that would be the location if they can't even use it. Besides, the show hasn't even been officially renewed yet. Although, if it is, I'll be sure to tell all of you about it.

The returning players who were medically evacuated in previous seasons was a good twist for last season. I hope that they do it again. What's interesting is how far those three players had made it in the season when they were pulled from the game. All of them had been taken out of the game around the same time. Based on that, they could bring back Bruce, Joe, James, and Colton who had made it far the first time or they could bring back Dana, Kourtney, Mike (from Samoa), or Gary (Mike is the only one that got a torch, voted, and went to tribal council of the four) who didn't make it as far when they were pulled. If they do have to keep bringing back returning players, maybe it should be a valid rematch like it was in Redemption Island. Apparently the worse a season is, the less likely contestants from that season are of playing a second time. I don't think that's far, but I understand why a season with no interesting contestants would not return another time. They could always do returnees from the tenth season to lead a tribe or compete against one or two other tribes. I hope that they do three tribes again since that was interesting last season. Let's just hope that one doesn't lose every challenge again. If they bring back players from season ten, it could be these players for these reasons: Jonathan (didn't get a chance), Wanda (didn't get a chance), Jolanda (first voted out), Ashlee (could have done better), Jeff (injury hurt his chances in the game), Kim (chosen by wrong tribe), Willard (first voted out his tribe), Angie (sort of screwed during opening twist), James (strong competitor who helps add entertainment), Ibrehem (unlucky the first time), Coby (keeps gays happy), Gregg (since his girlfriend that season can't, he might as well), Caryn (she did well the first time and could do well the second), Ian (his move at the end cost him the game and a second chance wouldn't hurt), or Katie (runner-up could do well again). Wanda and Jonathan never voted, went to tribal council, or got a torch. Only three other people have done that and they all got medically evacuated. Besides, there's an argument over whether Dana quit or was evacuated. I think that she didn't quit, but I don't know for sure.

You know, I only own one season of Survivor and I'd probably want to own more if I could. The only problem is that I have no idea which season I would buy. I could go with the first one since I've never really seen it. Some could even wonder why one would rewatch a season that has already aired. The only reason that I ever got the tenth season on DVD is because a contestant from that season had died. So it would sound cruel if that's what would have to happen for me to buy that season and blog about it here, but I'm afraid that it's true. After 26 seasons, it is a surprise that only one of them has died, but I guess others will happen at some point. I had a dream that three time contestant James died and CBS aired a special about his time on Survivor. Besides, I don't think that he'll play again so maybe that would be the next time we hear from him on television. He probably would think that getting kicked in the balls or buried alive would be more pleasant than playing Survivor again.

I hope that they use Redemption Island again. Jeff has said that they haven't ruled out using it again while wikipedia thinks that it is too controversial to ever be used again. It's no more controversial than having returning players in every freaking new season. I don't think that they'll ever do a "normal" season of Survivor again (if such a term exists) considering how the first normal season after All Stars was China and the first normal season after Heroes Versus Villains has yet to happen. Although the returning players that unofficially lead a tribe is an interesting twist, it is kind of boring. Plus, there isn't any reason that they are bring back certain players anyways. At least every contestant gets money for being on the show. The further you get in the game, the more money you win in the game. They even give you money just for appearing on the reunion show, even if you aren't focused on that much during that hour.

I'm going to talk about the favorites tribe and how they fared on their previous seasons. I know that they are trying to be nice with the returning players, but I have the feeling that not all of them are technically favorites to the viewers. This is the first time that Survivor has reused a season twist like this a second time, I think. So the ten returning players are as follows. Malcolm, the ever popular contestant from the previous season, is a player. John Cochran, who prefers to be called by his last name but I will refer to as John. On his first season, he was known for betraying his tribe that ultimately didn't help him when he was voted out when his usefulness ran out. Erik, who was a fan on the first fans versus favorites returns as a favorite for this season. That makes him the first original contestant from Micronesia to return a second time as many favorites from that season have played a third time. He is known for falling for a woman's alliance and giving his immunity necklace away at a tribal council before getting voted out that night. Phillip, the most entertaining person to ever play the game (in my opinion at least, although I have never played and do not know if I'd be an entertaining player) is back for a second round. Will the federal agent from Redemption Island do well again? Will his craziness get the better of him? I see why they brought him back, considering how entertaining he was the first time. Although, just because I thought he was entertaining doesn't mean he's my favorite player. Rupert Boneham is. I'll never understand why people don't like him, but I do understand why he didn't win the Indiana election for governor. If he can't win Survivor, he can't win a general election. And he definitely can't win as a third party candidate. But I don't live in Indiana so I don't care about that state's politics. And Rupert, if you're reading this, I hope that you aren't offended by anything that I say. Brandon Hantz, the dumbest player ever is back which proves that the favorites label is used very loosely. Brenda, the Asian woman from Nicaragua, is back a second time. She was a crazy schemer whose ways got the better of her and ultimately got her voted out, although the reunion show that season implied that the reason she was voted out was lost somewhere in editing. Francesca from Redemption Island is also a returning player. She was the first one out her season which is the first time in Survivor history when someone who made it that short in the game got to play a second time. Corinne from Gabon is another contestant, but I don't remember who she is. She and Erik are the only favorites from before Heroes Versus Villains. None of these people have played a second time before. Andrea from Redemption Island is returning, although I don't know who she is either. Dawn from South Pacific is the last returning player. It's a bit surprising that no one from One World is returning. It's rumored that Troyzan was set to return and then was replaced by Malcolm. Some consider One World to be a lame season. I thought it was so interesting, I started this blog because of it. In fact, One World was the last season that aired before this current season was filmed. Survivor 25 was generally unknown by most people.

Something interesting to note is those people who play back to back seasons and how they fare well the second time. They normally seem to have an unfair advantage the second time as no one knows who they are. They also normally have the disadvantage of not being able to watch their first season to learn from it in preparation for the second one. Here's a quick rundown of those players and the seasons that they were on. It's also interesting that although they don't always do better the second time, they normally do. Pearl Islands had started airing when Rupert was filming All Stars. He did better the second time, making it to the jury on both occasions. Palau (by the way, I finally listened to all the commentaries that season and they were nothing special) had aired in its entirety (I think) when Bobby Jon and Stephenie did Guatemala While Bobby Jon didn't do that much better, he did make it to the jury and was voted out (instead of losing at a tiebreaker challenge with no votes against him). Stephenie had a great improvement in her game making it all the way to the final tribal council. Those two contestants were the first of only two people who had outlasted the rest of their tribe that wasn't a merged tribe. I doubt that they'd do that with Malcolm and Denise since they both made it to the final four, one of the won, and that other already playing again. Besides, they weren't the first contestants considered to be the two returnees that season. After China had starting airing, both James and Amanda, while still virtually unknown to the rest of their tribe, did improve on their game in Micronesia. James was on the jury both times and might have made it farther if he didn't have an injury that forced him out of the game. It was quite possibly the lamest life threatening injury in the game of Survivor. (In case you are wondering, an injury normally has to be that serious in order to be pulled from the game). He did place relatively the same both times. Amanda, on the other hand, made it to the final tribal council on both seasons while affectively choosing who would win both times. Unfortunately for her, it wasn't her either time. Russell Hantz had the advantage of being unknown to all the other players in Heroes Versus Villains as his time on Samoa had not even aired. This got him to ruthlessly get to the final tribal council both times. He technically did worse the second time, the only back to back player to do so. What's interesting to note is how often the back to back players replace other potential returning players. The reason I brought this up is because of Malcolm. Malcolm played a great game the first time. He had to reveal the fact that he had an idol due to circumstances beyond his control. In the end, his popularity was his downfall and he got voted out at the penultimate tribal council because everyone knew that he would win if he was in the finals. Since he's a player this season, no one on his tribe or the other tribe would have any idea who he is or what happened with him last season. What he would tell them about it is up to him but he could truthfully tell him that there's no way he won the last season. Malcolm is my favorite of the returning players and I hope that he wins. Unfortunately, the odds are against him doing better the second time. I also hope that Francesca is not the first voted out again, even though she was in the third episode of Redemption Island when she finally left.

I've already mentioned that I'm @IamAdamDecker on twitter. I'm following a lot of former Survivor contestants on that site. Every time I follow one they suggest even more that I have to start following as well. I don't know why, but Rupert Boneham is now following me on twitter. (Poor Rupert won't get much from me on twitter until the end of Lent. That's one of the three things I'm giving up for Lent.) That is the most awesome thing that has happened to a Survivor fan like me. Although, Jeff Probst and Russell Swan both replied to tweets of mine, I've never actually got one of them to follow me before. Besides, I know there are probably ways to get someone to follow you by hacking their accounts, but I don't know how to do that and I wouldn't want to anyways. Hacking is a bad thing. I also don't know how many accounts of Survivor contestants are actually real or not. I have no idea why someone would impersonate one, but twitter is a strange place. I'm sure that some of them could tell me more about the season than aired on television. What annoys me are all these contestants they want me to follow that I can't remember. Not only do I have to like the contestant, but I have to know who they are too. My apologies for the delayed blog posts, but until the end of Lent, I will have to record the episode and watch it later before I can blog about it. But enough of my ramblings.

After watching the episode, I'm not sure what to say. I guess I see why those that are voted out first aren't typically invited back again since they apparently don't do well the second time. The favorites won the first reward, but the fans won the first immunity challenge. Poor Francesca. Apparently she was scheming too much in the game or was otherwise unworthy of lasting longer in the game. I hope that she didn't eat that rock like she said she would. She now wants a fan to win and not a favorite. If returning players works like it has in the past, there will be at least one at the final tribal council. But Phillip successfully screwed Francesca out of the game again. What Sandra did for the winners, Francesca did for the losers. Nobody even voted for Phillip yet. But he sure is annoying this season and I hope he doesn't make it that far. Last season he was on, he got a record number of votes cast against him. I'm kind of disappointed with how obvious the vote went. I don't know why they thought she was such a schemer the first time or this time. But it's apparently enough to get her voted out. The episode wasn't as good as others have been, so it looks like my sister may not have to buy this season on DVD when/if it comes out. I do feel sorry for her because she can't watch this season or the next three (should more be made). I wish that she could watch the version of Survivor that the country she lives in makes, but I don't think she has a TV anyways and that country's version may be defunct (no longer making new seasons). She could still read this blog and learn a lot about this season. It is pretty lame with this first episode, but I'm sure that it won't fail to entertain us. Even the worst seasons have interesting aspects and I doubt that this will be a bad one. So, sorry Francesca on your second chance in the game. Maybe you should do a different reality show and you'd do better there. As for the fan tribe, I don't particularly like or hate anyone just yet. We are at 9 favorites to 10 fans. John got a terrible sunburn and seems to carry his loser persona from his first season. I'd be surprised if he does well this season. I'm not sure any Survivor contestant got a sunburn before. I think that they give the contestants unlimited lotion to prevent that. Looks like in the next episode, Brandon will be going crazy. What else is new? For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.