Ten Most Failed Alliances

There have been a lot of alliances on Survivor. Some have been good. Others have been bad. Then there’s everything in between. Having already done the best, I will get to my list of the worst. Obviously, there are criteria for this that have to be met. 1- If the alliance was successful in some way, even if it failed, then it will not be on the list. An example of such is the Three Amigos. 2- You cannot have an alliance that had a winner in it, provided that the winner stayed true to the alliance. 3- Just because some people in the alliance became finalists, doesn’t mean that their alliance was good. 4- I’m only going with only one alliance from each season. While others might have failed in the same season, one clearly would have done worse than the other. 5- How much it failed is how it gets on this list. As usual, before I get to the actual list, I will get to the honorable mentions.

The Younger Samburu alliance clearly failed because of the switch that season. For me, it failed to make the list because there were other choices that ranked higher. Maybe it could be number 11, but that’s not the point of a top TEN, now is it? The Timbira alliance isn’t on the list, although they did foolishly turn on themselves to the point that only one of them made the finale. You won’t find the Sook Jai alliance on here either since it was mostly the dumb fake merge more than anything else that ruined its chances at the game, although it was screwed either way. The Mogo Mogo alliance, while a good choice, probably wouldn’t work since they had no chance even if they hadn’t kept Amber in the game. The Rarotonga alliance never had much of a chance to be an alliance and there are enough like them on the list so you won’t see them here. The Lopevi alliance was bad, but someone in it won the game so it’s not as bad as it could be. Other bad alliances, I either can’t remember or am pretty sure are on the list. Also, any temporary alliance that didn’t see much life besides one tribal council, isn’t going to be chosen since it can’t even be proven to be an alliance in the first place. There were both successful and failed temporary alliances that lasted the same amount of time. Now, on to the list.

#10 Aparri Alliance (Cagayan): What happened to this alliance was pretty simple: it was formed to fight the other tribe at the merge, a member here flipped to the other side, it never recovered. Basically, it failed as soon as it started, which makes it bad. It may be a strange choice, but I stick by it.

#9 Barbeque Alliance (Borneo): This alliance was the first one made to oppose an already existing alliance. It failed mostly because by the time it was created, it was far too late for it to even work. There was a sliver of hope, but it didn’t work out for them. If only it was created right before the merge. They could have done what Joel had suggested, but they didn’t like the idea of alliances soon enough for this to even work. And that it way it made this list.

#8 Yasur Alliance (Vanuatu): It was so simple. There was so much it could do. So much greatness it could accomplish. But it failed at that goal. This is the first all female alliance and they could have easily gotten rid of all the men in the game before turning on themselves. But, they stopped one man short and he ended up winning the game. They crumbled on themselves by having members team up with Chris, the last man in the game, and seeing the people true to it voted out next. If only they had stayed true to its goal. Then, it would have been on the best alliance list.

#7 The Rotu Four (Marquesas): Never, before this alliance, was a group of people in control of the game, only to see it all slip past their fingers. They were supposed to be the final four. They entered the merge in control, but they made a fatal error. They didn’t release that they were actually the minority if the other players turned against them. They showed who of them was to be voted out next at a revealing challenge. The other players then quickly turned against them and they became the first four members of the jury instead of getting to the end together as they were supposed to be.

#6 Heroes Alliance (Heroes versus Villains): A lot of people probably wanted to see the heroes defeat the villains in the twentieth season simply because good people should beat the bad people. But the weakness of the heroes’ tribe gave the villains a lot of power. Most people probably weren’t disappointed that the heroes failed in this season. The villains were simply the better tribe. The heroes alliance was their last hope at trying to defeat the villains. But due to bad moves JT made before the merge and continuing at falling apart after the merge, this alliance was merely a pitiful attempt to avoid what ended up happening and did happen. The heroes fell apart to the surprise of no one, even those fortunate enough to not know spoilers about that season.

#5 Savaii Alliance (South Pacific): What made this alliance bad? Why is this alliance here? Well, a lot of people give John Cochran crap for flipping on this alliance. But, if they rewatched that season, then they’d notice that this alliance cared very little about him. They only used him when they need it and otherwise made no effort to keep him in the group. Because John was so mistreated by them, they pretty much had it coming when they were picked off one by one. They made no other real effort in the game than trying too little to repair the damage they had done to John. But by then, it was far too late. He flipped on them and they because the powerless group that they are.

#4 Galu Alliance (Samoa): I don’t know if there was an alliance before that had as high as number as they did and still fail as badly as they did. They should have been able to pick off the other tribe very quickly before turning on themselves. But, they turned on themselves immediately after the merge, pawns in the other tribe’s game. Members of this alliance quickly left this for the other one, only to be quickly tossed aside when they were of no further use to the game. Their fall was so huge that they deserve their rightful place on this list of bad alliances.

#3 La Mina Alliance (Panama): Never, before or since, has there been an alliance that failed so much due to a person in it who never turned on them. A lot of people remember Terry Dietz. Some call it a travesty that he didn’t win his season or that he hasn’t returned to play the game again. He would make a great returning player. But, he had a terrible game play in his season. He had an ultra powerful idol that he never used. Now the rules might have been strange about it, but he should have done something with his idol. Since he kept winning immunity challenges, he could have probably given his idol to an ally and they could have saved themselves with it. His stingy use of the idol is why his alliance failed. The idol would have been rehashed into the game. Even if someone else found it, he would have still saved an ally. Even if he couldn’t have given up the idol, he could have his immunity necklace to an ally and still had the idol. With any of those strategies, he could have made it to the finale with an ally by his side. But his failure to do any of that is why his alliance failed.

#2 Russell’s Zapatera Alliance (Redemption Island): There are some people that like Russell Hantz and will defend his game play to the death. Then there are people like me who are very glad that he’s never won and probably won’t play the game again. While he had success with alliances in the past, in Redemption Island, his ways fell short. He tried to do the same old tricks that he always did, but it was no longer any good to him. His alliance was in the minority immediately and was quickly picked off so that everyone in it was long gone before the merge happened.

Now, there’s one alliance that I think failed about all else. One of the honorable mentions from this list happened in the same season as the most failed alliance. I didn’t want to bring it up then as it might be a spoiler to this blog post when you went through the list and noticed that one wasn’t there. Thus, it would have to be number one and we’ve never seen one worst than this, in my mind. It was such a great idea. It could have worked, but failed miserably. The way it appeared hasn’t been in seasons before or since. I once heard someone describe it as the biggest fake out in Survivor history.

#1 Exile Alliance (Tocantins): Imagine that you could create an alliance full of members from both tribes before the merge happened. Sound good? Well, it wasn’t. It was a terrible alliance. They could have worked too. They might have been able to use members of both tribes with them until they were the only ones left. But then came the moment of truth: the first postmerge tribal council. And you know what happened? They instantaneously fell apart. What could have been the greatest alliance on the show turned out to be the very worst. They could never work together when they actually needed to be together. This alliance might have been why Exile Island disappeared for so long. This is my thought as to what the worst alliance in the show’s history was.

Well, that’s all for this blog post. Well, that and this last paragraph. If you ever have ideas for top tens for me to create, be sure to let me know by commenting here or sending a tweet to @IamAdamDecker. I can’t promise that I’ll do all of the suggestions that I get and I’ll only post any during the hiatus between seasons, meaning when Survivor isn’t airing new episodes. I’ll keep posting stuff here until the next season starts. I thought that this post would be a nice complement to the best alliances I mentioned before. I’ll continue posting here on Wednesdays and Sundays, although I could end up missing a day for one reason or another, in which case I’ll change things up for a while. The new season will start a week after Ash Wednesday, so expect Thursday posts once the new season starts until holy week happens. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.

Survivor: All First Boots

In Survivor: San Juan del Sur, Nadiya was the first person voted out, while her twin sister won the game. Why bring that up? Well, with that happening, I have finally decided to do this post. Now people have talked about for a long time, doing a season where they reunite every contestant who was the first person voted out of their season for one big season. Will it ever happen? I’m not so sure. But that doesn’t mean that I can’t speculate. Here are other twists that could work with the same sort of premise: any contestant that has never won a challenge, contestants known for being on bad tribes that never made the merge, the lowest ranking member of any tribe, not just the first tribe to attend tribal council in a single season, any season featuring only premerge boots, and I’m sure that there are others that I can’t think of right now. But I’m going to focus on who might return to an all first boot season to play again. And even if the first boot is confusing in a season, I’ll be sure to write down multiple choices as to who all might work. I’m going to skip any and all returning players who were the first ones voted out of the game. Only originally voted out first will make the list. Also, I feel that Francesca is not going to play again so she won’t be considered. But I’ll get to the list and hope that there’s enough men to choose from. I may have to go with the old number of just 16 contestants.

Sonja played Borneo. She was the first contestant voted out of the American Survivor. The only thing against her returning to the game is that she might be a bit too old. But I say that she will return. Debb played Australia. She was an interesting first boot. But she stated at the reunion show that she probably doesn’t want to play again. So I’ll have her as a no for this season. We then reach Diane from Africa. I think that she will probably return. Then we have Peter from Marquesas. He was the first man to be voted out first as it still remains more common for a woman to be voted out first. I see no reason why he couldn’t return. John played Thailand. While we may not see people from Thailand again, he still seems a more likely candidate to return. Ryan played Amazon. I’d say that he’ll probably return. It should be noted that without enough men to choose from, you might see a lot of them being considered. Plus, I haven’t looked up enough about any of these contestants. We get to Nicole from Pearl Islands. She got a second chance with the outcasts twists from that season. Well, she could have had a second chance, but more so than others. That may discredit her from a season like this, even if she wasn’t voted back into the game. I’ll put her as a maybe.

Brook played Vanuatu. He was chosen over Chris to be the first boot. Chris might have made more sense as he was the reason that they lost the challenge. But Chris stayed in the game despite being an obvious target to win and he actually did win. Could Brook pull a turnaround playing the game a second time? I hope so because I have him on my list. The Palau first boot is complicated due to the two people eliminated before the first person was voted out. On its complicated value alone, I may have to remove anyone from this season as a real contender. Jonathan was the real first boot, but he doesn’t want to play again anyways. Wanda and Jolanda could work, but neither of them were the real first boot. We then get to Jim from Guatemala who was quite old for being the first person voted out. Despite that, I’ll still have him as someone who might play again. Then we get to Tina Scheer from Panama. She was almost in the previous season, but then her son died and she was replaced. Sadly, when she did get to play Survivor, she was the first one voted out. But I think that she would more than likely play again. Sekou played Cook Islands. He was voted out due to a male disadvantage to the females on his tribe. As you might have guessed, I see him returning to the game again. Jessica played Fiji. There was enough screwyness that season that she should return based on that fact alone. We then get to Chicken from China. He seemed to be focused on a lot for a first boot so he’ll probably return.

Michelle played Gabon. She was the last one picked to be on her tribe, something that she never recovered from, obviously, as she was the first one voted out of the game. Obviously, I see her returning to the game on a season like this. Next we have Carolina from Tocantins who was chosen as the first boot instead of Sandy, who was on the outs of her tribe thanks to the stupid first impressions twist. I would have her returning since I see no objection to it. We then get to Marisa Calihan from Samoa. Well, her last name has changed now, but I won’t keep track of that. I might want to explain something a bit weird about the whole list thing. I had the perfect number of men (eight) and one plus the perfect number of women (nine) so I had to get rid of a random woman. Unfortunately for her, I decided that I would get rid of her, but she can be an alternate for any of the other women. Don’t ask me why I got rid of her; I just chose someone at random.

Wendy played Nicaragua. She wasn’t a good player, but she was entertaining enough so she could return. I’d love to see her return since she’s so crazy and the crazy players are always fun to watch, in my opinion. Francesca from Redemption Island and Caramoan isn’t playing again. I’m not sure if she’s have an advantage on them or not. So I’ll just skip her as I know that she’s not returning.

Semhar played South Pacific. Due to Redemption Island, she lasted twice as long as the typical first boot. Would that be unfair to other players? I think so. I discredited Nicole so I’ll get rid of Semhar too. We then get to another complicated first boot in One World. Nina was the first one voted out, but Kourtney was eliminated before her. So, as you might have guessed, I won’t go with either one of them. I’d like to see them return, but not in this type of season. Zane played Philippines. He was my favorite first boot before Blood versus Water aired. But he asked to be voted out. He didn’t want to be, but he did and that means that he will not play again. Jeff Probst considers anyone who asked to be voted out to be a quitter. So, unfortunately, we won’t see him again.

Once again, we get to a complicated first boot in Blood versus Water. There are actually four people that all qualify for that role. Rupert and Candice were returning players. Laura Boneham and Marissa Peterson both lasted pretty long in the game. So, obviously, I will not be considering any of them as returning players, although, in different seasons, Marissa or Laura could return. David played Cagayan. Because I don’t have any men to spare for this season and he’d probably return anyways, he gets to play on this season. And last, as of the writing of this blog post, is Nadiya from San Juan del Sur, the only person in American reality TV history to come in last place on two different reality shows. Poor Nadiya. It would be a disservice to never have her play again, considering the huge success her twin sister was in that season. So she gets to play again and we have our players for this season.

Here’s the cast that I would choose. The reasons for these choices are listed above. The women: Sonja (Borneo), Diana (Africa), Tina Scheer (Panama), Jessica (Fiji), Michelle (Gabon), Carolina (Tocantins), Wendy (Nicaragua), and Nadiya (San Juan del Sur). The men: Peter (Marquesas), John (Thailand), Ryan (Amazon), Brook (Vanuatu), Jim (Guatemala), Sekou (Cook Islands), Chicken (China), and David (Cagayan). Those are my choices. That is all for this post. Sorry that I didn’t do this sooner. It would have made sense before with such posts I did between Caramoan and Blood versus Water, but I have it now and that’s all that matters. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.

Survivor: San Juan del Sur Pairs on the Amazing Race

With Blood versus Water being a season with contestants together in pairs, you’d have to wonder if they’d ever do the Amazing Race, a game that works in pairs. Would any of the pairs from the twenty-ninth season of Survivor ever want to do the Amazing Race? While this list is purely hypothetical, I still think that I will do it. But before I get to the main list of consideration as to whether or not they will return, I will mention two pairs whom we may already know their Amazing Race status. Well, one we know for sure. The other one, I’m just guessing about.

Mystery pair: There was some sort of female/female pair that was cut before the twenty-ninth season before it started since one of them had medical issues and wasn’t allowed to play. Some may wonder if they’ll play Survivor. I wonder that too. One of them could be on Survivor: Worlds Apart. Would we know that if they were? That I don’t know. But since it seems unlikely that they can play Survivor together, I’d say that more often than not that they’d do an Amazing Race season, since that they can play together. Nadiya and Natalie: They have already played the Amazing Race together. Natalie got a much better, although still bad, edit on Survivor. Her sister, not so much. I don’t know if they’ll ever do the Amazing Race a third time or not, but that’s not to be considered here. Obviously, they can, do, and have already done the Amazing Race so I won’t talk about them anymore.

Now I get to the actual list of who to consider. Val and Jeremy: I could see them doing the Amazing Race. I’m not sure if they will. But I say that they are more likely to do this than other pairs are. John Rocker and Julie: I don’t see either one of them doing any reality show again. While the Amazing Race is a different show, I don’t see them playing it.

Drew and Alec: I don’t see them playing The Amazing Race at all. They could, but I’m not sure that they would want to do it. At least they would probably get along together, although they might not considering how Alec gloated in Drew’s defeat in the game. Kelley and Dale: I think that they were supposed to do the Amazing Race together, but they were put on Survivor instead. So they probably could do The Amazing Race. I’d say that it’s more than likely to happen.

Josh and Reed: Gays on the Amazing Race? It happens every season, I believe. These people probably could and would do the Amazing Race and they could probably make it enjoyable. I just wonder why the only gay teams on The Amazing Race seem to be male. They might have done lesbians, but I don’t know. Wes and Keith: I’m not sure that this will happen. I mean, both are pretty clueless about the game of Survivor and I’m not sure if them changing reality shows would help them or not. So I’ll just say that they won’t do the Amazing Race, even though they’d be better to watch than some teams.

Jon Misch and Jaclyn: I could see this happening. I’m not sure about this. But I’d say that it’s more likely than not to happen. Baylor and Missy: I’m not sure about this one. I’d say that I’d give it a toss-up between it either happening or not happening. I’d like to see them on the Amazing Race, even though I don’t watch the Amazing Race. It’s a far better choice than some other Survivor teams.

Well, just like the pairs from the first blood versus water two seasons ago, I’m not sure if any of these will happen or not. So far, except for the Anderson twins, every team that did the Amazing Race that also did Survivor was a showmance on Survivor. Now if doing the Amazing Race means that one will win Survivor, then I suggest that people do this if they want to win Survivor. But we’ll see whether or not that happens. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.

Development of Borneo Contestants

Well, we’ve come to another installment of “which season a contestant did better in” blog posts. I started this shortly after Caramoan was finished to show how the contestants had changed from one season to another. So, for this blog post, I am comparing the first season players who have returned a second time to their other game. I hope that this makes sense. Basically, I’m wondering when they played the better game since even if you are the same type of player each time you play, there’s always a difference between your two games. So, let’s get started.

Jenna played the first season and then returned to the game in the All-Stars season. In her first game, she played well, even though she butted heads with Greg. Ultimately, the alphabet is what got her voted out when she could have lasted much longer if her name was something like Zelda. Of course, she probably would have been a victim of Pagonging either way. She may not have been the most wanted person for a future season, but she returned anyways. I’m not sure if I believe the rumors that she was only cast in All-Stars because someone else they wanted declined because there really is no proof of that that I know of. But, her game improved in All-Stars a lot. This was mostly due to her alliance with Rupert and other members of Chapera. She even joined Rupert in spending a record number of days in the game without having to go to tribal council. But, there came a point in All-Stars where she could no longer win and she helped ruin her chances at it. Ultimately, after losing the last immunity challenge, she was the last one voted out of the game. Even though she messed up at the end, she did better in All-Stars and was the only player from both this season and that season to improve on her game. Main transition: From a random player to a better player.

Gervase first played in the first season and after the longest gap in Survivor history, he played again in Blood versus Water with his niece Marissa. Now that I’ve actually seen the first season, this post may be different than what I originally said when I compared his two games in Blood versus Water versus previous season. Just to show the difference, you’ll see the original section of what I posted about him after this paragraph is done. In the first season, he did a respectable job in the game and earned the nickname, Gervase never nervous. (Okay, that might not be a nickname and it may not be as common as I think it might be.) Ultimately, he made the merge but fell short of winning the game when people decided to get rid of him next. He then returned to play in Blood versus Water where his over-the-top playing once again got rid of someone he liked in the game. But, without his loved one, he got to be part of a good alliance that ended up getting him all the way to the end of the game. But, he didn’t do much on his own and thus, got no votes to win. He did better when he made it farther, even though he was more interesting the first time he played. Main transition: From an interesting jury member to a not so interesting finalist.

Original thoughts on Gervase from immediately after Blood versus Water aired and when I had yet to see the first season: Gervase played the original Survivor in the very first season in Borneo. Since I have not seen the first season, I’m not sure how to describe how well he did that season. I know that he said a comment about women and someone else thought it was funny, thus getting blamed for the comment and voted out instead of Gervase. Gervase made it to the merge, but like the rest of his dumb tribe, did not realize until it was too late that people were voting him out. Thus, he became a member of the jury. He would then set a record that could eventually be broken of longest gap between seasons that he played Survivor. He played as far as he could this next season and became a finalist. But since he was mostly following Tyson’s commands throughout the game, he did not get any votes to win the game. Since I haven’t seen his first season, I don’t know which one I state as better, although you’d think that it would be this season. Main transition: From an obscure, early contestant to a boring finalist.

Sue would become quite infamous in her two seasons, provided that I’m not using the word infamous correctly since people from Wikia where I get some of my information from don’t seem to know what the word means. Don’t ask me why I would want to use it incorrectly, but I figure that I might as well stick with what they are doing. Anyways, while Sue could never spell right when she voted, she did know that joining the right voting bloc would get her far in the game. But, all good things come to an end and she lost all her power at the final four. She would become the first victim of a tie vote thanks to her best freminy’s not wanting to compete against her anymore. This would lead on to a great jury speech in favor of Rich that ironically almost gave Kelly the win. Sue would return to play in All-Stars and the game was much different for her the second time around. Any other game she played the second time around was overshadowed by the way she left. Richard, the same player she adored in Borneo, got too close for her comfort when he was naked during a challenge. She didn’t like what happened at all. This lead her to leave in the most explosive quit we have ever seen in the game. So, it comes as kind of obvious that she would be much better the first time around. Main transition: From a memorable jury member to an angry quitter.

Rudy remains the oldest contestant to have ever played the game of Survivor. He would beat his own record when he did All-Stars. The first time he played, he was a bit reluctant to join an alliance, but he did and helped improve his game by doing that. He also said many funny things that may not have always been intentional. He proved such a good part of the game that production said that once he fell out of the final immunity challenge, that Survivor would be a one season show. They really wanted him to win and they cite the fact that he didn’t win as proof that the show isn’t rigged in any way. I think that they are right. But, I hope to never believe this show is fake because that would mean that it is. Regardless of that, Rudy was the last person voted out of the game the first time he played. He did return to play All-Stars. His age was considered a liability this time around and he got voted out at the second tribal council. Main transition: From a great player to an unfortunately short-lived player.

Richard will only be judged for his time playing Survivor and not whatever he might have done or not done outside of the game. The IRS is normally dumb anyways. Of course, I have nothing against the IRS myself, but I just find them to be problematic for other people and it’s mostly the company’s fault for these problems. Now that I’m probably getting audited, I might as well explain just how well Richard played the first time around. He thought of a great idea by creating an alliance and choosing (mostly good) people to be in it. Alliances proved such a great part of the game that they have appeared in virtually every season of the game (although, if I’m wrong about it, let me know). His jury skills could have used some work, but they helped him enough to win the game. He owned up to what he did to get to the end and he won the game because of it. He returned to play in All-Stars where he was targeted for being a previous winner. This ultimately got him to be the first player voted out of his tribe. Main transition: From a wonderful winner to an unfortunate premerge boot.

Contestant’s Name	Borneo	Second Season
Jenna	Decent	Best
Gervase	Good	Better
Sue	Memorable	Whiner
Rudy	Funny	Gone too soon
Richard	Best	Still good, but worse

I hope that you enjoyed this comparison. This is how I thought people from this season have changed on other seasons. I also hope that you enjoyed the obligatory column that in no way was required. I just hope that it gets a reader in good time. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.

The Ten Worst Survivor Challenges

(You can skip this first paragraph if you want to.) Sorry for the lack of an update last week. I was suddenly sick and unable to post a new post here. But I'm feeling better and am back with a brand new blog post. Since I missed a day, I might update this blog on Wednesdays and Sundays until the next season starts. We'll see if we end up doing that or not. I probably will, if I can come up with enough things to say. But since I have a lot of blog posts written for the current hiatus between seasons, I should be able to keep coming up with new things to talk about. Anyways, since sickness is why I wasn't here last week, I decided to post my blog post on the worst challenges in Survivor history.

When you think of Survivor challenges, what do you think? Do you like them? Do you hate them? A little bit of both? Well, I’m choosing ten challenges that I think are the absolute worst in Survivor history. I will mention why I don’t like them and include pictures of them (stolen from Survivor Wiki, of course) so you know more about why I don’t like them. I hope that the pictures turn out well when put on this blog. If not, then go to Survivor Wiki and look up the pictures on the page of each challenge. There are different reasons why different ones will be on the list. I should tell you some of the rules I’m using and what honorable mentions I might have. As usual, information will come from the site I just mentioned. Before I get to the list, here are the rules that I’ve used: 1- The challenge must have appeared in more than one season. This is because it is easiest to find information on the challenges that have appeared more than once. So a challenge like Cat and Mouse, for example, will not be on the list, even though that Micronesia challenge was pretty bad to the point that it has been banned from appearing again. (Don’t worry though; I will have another banned challenge on the list.) 2- It is my choice alone what makes the list. There have been a lot of challenges and I’m just sticking with what I think are the ten worst. 3- Challenges that caused some type of controversy are worthy of the list. 4- Challenges that are too physical in natural are probably going to be on the list. 5- Challenges that caused medical evacuations are good choices. 6- Bad challenges that I can’t remember are not going to be on the list because I don’t know what they are like. There have been a ton of challenges and I’m sure that I’m forgetting some. 7- Any type of challenge that I deem as bad in some way, shape, or form, is probably going to be on the list.

As promised, here are the honorable mentions. Fallen Comrades, which appeared in the finale of the first four seasons, caused controversy in the third season with an obscure question that could have unfairly helped a contestant get farther in the game. You might wonder why it appeared in the fourth season. You see, the fourth season was filmed entirely before the finale of the third season aired. It wasn’t until the finale aired when they learned of what was messed up. I still liked the challenge, though, and think that it could have lasted longer without that controversy. Battle Dig, which I think was most notable as the opening challenge of Heroes versus Villains where it caused the earliest injuries in the show. It could serve as a replacement for number ten on the list, but I don’t think that it was bad enough in other seasons to make the list. Maybe it should, since I hated it in the twentieth season. Oh, well. Playing Bridge, which I haven’t entirely been fond of in the two times it appeared, I also don’t think that I should include it because it has probably worked more often than not. Survivor Sumo might be a bit too physical, but it doesn’t seem as bad as it could be. There are tons of bad ones that I can’t think of right now or some that were only bad one of the times they were used. Now, to the actual list.

#10 Idol Hands (from Philippines and Cagayan): This challenge doesn’t make the list because it is too hard or too physical. It makes the list because it is too easy. If you don’t remember, this challenge had people trying to knock an idol off of the other player’s hand before they knock an idol off of your hand. The challenge flaw basically is that the idol that hits the ground first is the one who’s out. So you can throw your idol up in the air as a distraction to knock theirs down and they will still be the one who’s out. This challenge just seems too easy to work. I’ll admit, this might only be on the list since I couldn’t think of something better to post here.

#9 Spin Cycle (from Nicaragua and Redemption Island): This challenge seems stupid even though it isn’t really that terrible in some ways. If you don’t remember, this challenge has some contestants submerged in water as they spin around trying to spit that water into a container to release a ball. Well, there’s more to the challenge than that, but it already sounds bad enough. The whole having to be in the water while trying to get the water into your mouth is a terrible idea. I’m surprised that people aren’t worried about the threat of drowning when they designed this challenge. Likewise, I don’t think it really works like it should. It’s not as bad as one I’ll get to later, but I still don’t like it.

#8 Boulder Smash (from Guatemala, China, and Philippines): This challenge has been brutal the times it has appeared. If you don’t remember, this challenge has one tribe pushing a boulder past certain boundaries to score a point. The challenge was so ineffective in Philippines that for the first time in the show’s history, they decided not to finish the challenge. It ended with a forfeit. It left a female contestant without a top once. I’m surprised that it saw no long term injuries.

#7 Block it out (from Samoa, South Pacific, and Blood versus Water): Okay, so when this challenge first appeared, it wasn’t as bad as it would become. If you don’t remember, this challenge had people try to sort out puzzle boxes so that there would be no repeating colors in the end. There is more to the challenge to that. Why is it bad? You see, as long as this remains a two-way challenge, this challenge is fair, even though it is still a bit too complicated. As soon as it becomes a three-way, then things don’t work (I think that I just made a dirty joke). There might have been some unfairness going on at the challenge in Blood versus Water. I don’t like it when/if you can lose a challenge very closely. Just two seconds sooner and Vytas wouldn’t have unfairly been eliminated from the game that season. This challenge just does seem fair anytime it has appeared. Blood versus Water was just the worst of the bunch. And I hope this challenge doesn’t appear again.

#6 Kicking and Screaming (from Cook Islands, Gabon, and Cagayan): Once again, I’m surprised that this challenge never saw any bad injuries. It can get too physical and brutal. If you don’t remember, this challenge had people hanging onto a pole while other people had to forcefully carry them passed a line in the sand. It doesn’t sound like a good idea. But it’s appeared often enough. While I don’t know enough details to explain my distaste for the challenge, I never really liked it.

#5 Last Gasp (from Palau, Micronesia, and Caramoan): Okay, this challenge poses such a risk to potential drowning and seems largely unfair to anyone who would play it. If you don’t remember, this challenge had individual players stay beneath a grate while the tide rises beneath them. They have to stay under there the longest to win. It seems far too intense to work and I’ve never liked it when it has appeared. Geez, I sound like a broken record, broken record, broken record.

#4 Free Fallin’ (from Australia and One World): While you probably remembered this in One World, you might not have known that it first appeared in the second season. If you don’t remember, while this challenge had other portions, its main one is when contestants have to fall backwards onto a net. The design fall of the challenge is mostly in that falling part. When this appeared as the opening challenge in One World, it lead to an injury that resulted in the show’s earliest medical evacuation. You can blame Kourtney as much as you want for not following the rules, but it was the challenge being poorly designed that lead to more of a problem than anything else. I’d be surprised if we ever saw this challenge in the show again. But, not as much as the next one.

#3 Pilfering Pirates (from Thailand and All-Stars): This challenge provided entertainment to Thailand. Speaking for the overall low quality of that season, it was one of the few enjoyable parts about it. But it had a bunch of players that were pulled from it from breaking the rules. And yet, it seemed to have an even more controversial appearance in All-Stars where it lead to an incident with Sue and Richard that lead to Sue quitting the game in the very next episode. (Meanwhile, www.tv.com has trivia with this episode that said that the wrong tribe won this challenge meaning that the other tribe should have gone to tribal council. I don’t know if this is true or not, as it’s unknown where they got this information from. But, it seems like it would be more notable if a controversy like that actually happened.) If you don’t remember, this challenge had people fighting to steal one set of things and put it on their pile. What made it notable was something that gave it a different name, an attack zone where you were allowed the only place to confront people in this challenge. If you weren’t in the attack zone when you attacked, you would be out of the challenge and the opposing tribe would get a point transferred from your tribe. That’s what made it humorous in Thailand. “We lost by a bunch of rules.” But this challenge never worked in either season it appeared in. And we are better without it.

#2 Schmergen Brawl (from Samoa and Heroes versus Villains): This challenge would be the worst were it not for the absolute stupidity of number one. But, it deserves the number two spot for never working in any season it appeared in. In case you don’t remember, this challenge had people basically fighting as much as they could to win. It’s more physically brutal than any other challenge. They even banned this challenge because CBS doesn’t want to get sued the challenge has been deemed as too dangerous to ever be used again. A player was medically evacuated because of this stupid challenge. I’m surprised that it even returned a second time. But it will never appear again and that is a good thing. The bad thing is that it appeared at all in the first place.

Okay, so what do I consider the worst challenge in Survivor history? What do I consider to be the most unfair challenge? What challenge do I think should have never appeared in the first place? What challenge fills me with the most disgust? What could the absolutely worst challenge in Survivor history be? Well, let me give you some back story for those of you who haven’t already scrolled ahead to the end of this list (cheaters!). When Redemption Island came out, I was under the impression that only past challenges would appear as duels. And this is the case for a lot of the challenges there. But sometimes, an untested challenge sneaks in as a duel and it normally fails miserably in execution that affecting the season and ending the great games that some players could have otherwise had. That’s why I’m probably glad that Redemption Island didn’t appear in the twenty-ninth season. All of the hero duels were new challenges that had never been done before. But only challenges that were done before have sure fire ways of succeeding in the game. That’s why this challenge is the worst of all of them in my mind. That challenge is

#1 A Leg Up (from Redemption Island and Blood versus Water): For those that don’t remember, this challenge was the last duel used in the both of seasons. This was the final chance for the contestants left on Redemption Island to get back in the game. And this is the dumbest way to get a contestant back in the game. Think about it. The contestants have to balance a vase in the air with their foot on a balance beam of sorts. It is, in my mind, without a doubt, one hundred percent, the absolute, worst challenge that they have ever done in Survivor. The fact that it has appeared, not once, but twice, just makes me wonder why anyone ever thought this challenge could be fair for anyone. We’ve seen many a great player eliminated from the game simply because this crapfest appeared as the final duel. I probably could never finish stating my disgust with this challenge. It is an absolute abomination. It should not have been played in any good season of Survivor. And it is what I deem to be the very worst Survivor challenge in the show’s history.

Well, that all of my talk about bad challenges in Survivor. I may have been milking it at some of these choices and I’m sure that I’ve forgotten about other bad challenges. Plus, even those that appeared just once were pretty bad, but I went with those that appeared more than once, as stated before. Maybe a top nine would have been better since I can’t really think of a different one to replace number ten and that can at best be considered a placeholder for some other challenge that I couldn’t of it. But I’ll just stick with these ten as the worst ten challenges that have appeared in Survivor. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off. 

Top Ten Alliances

Well, it’s time for another top ten of mine. This time, I’m going with the best alliances in Survivor history. There are different qualifications about them that gets them a place on this list. I will get to that shortly. Plus, there are tons of good alliances that I won’t mention because I feel that they had to do something good enough to earn their place on this list. Before we get any further, I’d like to mention that with any of my top tens, they can easily become outdated when new seasons come along. As always, these lists will only contain information from the seasons that have aired at the moment that I posted this. I feel that I should state this fact just in case anyone wonders why the list is the way that it is. To better understand my thoughts, I will now post the rules regarding these alliances and how they would earn a spot on this list of mine.

Rule 1- I’m only including alliances that were successful in some way, shape, or form. While the three amigos was a great alliance, since they were still eliminated fairly easily, then they will not be part of the list. Rule 2- This goes in part with the first rule, but I’m only going with one alliance per season. That’s still pretty good for a top ten, but I thought that I would mention it. Rule 3- Alliances that succeeded due to dumb luck, such as the Chuay Ghaun five or the Solana alliance, are not worthy of the list. I may actually break that rule, but I still think that it’s a good rule. Rule 4- Alliances that succeeded in the game too easily, such as the Chapera alliance or the Koror alliance, are also not worthy of the list. I mean, the Koror alliance faced virtually no opposition and were forced to turn on each other pretty quickly. Are they even worthy of being called an alliance? Rule 5- While this is another rule that I might break once, I don’t think that it’s fair to have alliances that picked off their own members. I’m talking, of course, about alliance that did that before they were the only ones left in the game. Although, since there were some successful alliance that did that, then I might have to at least give an honorable mention to some that did that. In fact, I’ll get to the honorable mentions right now.

Okay, I’ll now mention different alliances from the seasons of Survivor that could have been on a different version of this list, but won’t be on mine. The Boran alliance from Africa was a good example of a successful alliance. They made the others turn on themselves and they wound up becoming the last ones left in the game. But I don’t want to put them on the actual list because I feel that others have done more than them. I also won’t put the Ogakor alliance on the list because they could have done more and gotten further as a group than they did. Now while every successful alliance probably turns on themselves at some point, they shouldn’t have to do that unless they are the only ones left in the game and there’s nobody left in the game not in that alliance. Now I can’t remember all the great alliances from season to season, but I’ve already mentioned some that I thought could work under different rules, but aren’t worthy of the list. Anyways, back to the honorable mentions. The Fei Long alliance was pretty good, but I don’t find them as memorable for some odd reason. Russell’s Villains alliance worked well both premerge and postmerge, but they failed to get rid of the threat not in it that won the game. It could have worked better, but it did not. Now, I will get to the actual list.

#10 Fulcrum Alliance (Philippines): The twenty-fifth season had the craziest alliances in the show’s history, I think. And one of them was more brilliant at using the other ones while also fighting against them than the others were. Consisting of Michael and Lisa, this alliance broke off of the Tandang alliance and made it to day 39 together. They used the other alliances while also fighting against those same alliances. However, unlike the other alliances from this list, the winner was not from it. They messed up at the final five and the lack of a final two that season prevented them from winning against a hero from Matsing. But they still respectfully earn the spot of number ten on this list.

#9 Final Four Alliance (Vanuatu): This alliance was one of, if not the most, boldest names for an alliance. Who would call themselves the final four alliance? Would they really be so ballsy as to actually call themselves that and become the final four? Who was in this alliance? I’ll tell you. This alliance consisted of Chris, Eliza, Twila, and Scout. If you remember the final four of Vanuatu, then you’ll know that’s who was in it. All four of them called themselves the final four alliance and they actually managed to become the final four. That’s remarkable in and of itself. Now I can’t remember most about this alliance other than the fact that it worked, but I felt they were worthy of being on the list.

#8 Stealth R Us (Caramoan): This alliance was named after another one from a previous season. During Redemption Island, the Stealth R Us alliance got along far too easily by hailing to its master. But in Caramoan, the alliance was much more interesting. Once they reached the merge, they had serious opposition from the Three Amigos. (Why the Spanglish? Am I the only one who doesn’t understand that phrase? For goodness sakes, just call yourselves the three friends or tres amigos. I really hope that someone can explain that to me, since it doesn’t make sense to me.) While they lost their leader, they still went far, despite not getting rid of the competition they could have at better times. They helped make that season the great thing that it actually is.

#7 Salani Alliance (One World): An all male alliance has never worked on Survivor. I don’t know if it ever will, but I hope so. But an all female alliance has succeeded before. And from another underrated season, we have the Salani alliance. They were definitely helped by the pure stupidity of the men that season (men are much dumber than women), but they did great things themselves. The way they controlled the game was pretty good. They got rid of everyone they could have and were the final three left in the game of quite an interesting season.

#6 The Family (South Pacific): A lot of people (including me) hated the South Pacific season. But, I still think that the successful alliance from this season is worthy of its place on the list. Even if this is the only alliance that could have also been a cult, the people were brainwashed into succeeding against other threats in the game. John ignored all logic (such as the odds of their side having to draw was higher on the other side and he’d get to go to Redemption Island to potentially win his way back into the game) by flipping on his old alliance (which isn’t as dumb a move as people think, actually, because he would have been screwed either way and his old tribe treated him like complete crap, a dumber move that probably caused him to flip) and taking control of the game. Things could have easily turned sour for them, but they pulled through and made it to the end of the game.

#5 Outsiders Alliance (Marquesas): This alliance is worthy of the list as it wasn’t originally even in the majority. Actually, it was, but only when they released they had to band together. For being the first minority alliance to take out the majority alliance, they are worthy of a place on this list. They knew they had to band together and they did. And they became the final five instead of the next five voted out. Just knowing when to band together was good enough for them to succeed.

#4 Foa Foa Four (Samoa): When you enter the merge with half the members of the opposing tribe, then you’d think your time in the game is done for. But, you can form an alliance and see what can be done. And this alliance worked to break apart the opposing tribe so much that they made it pretty far in the game. In fact, it wasn’t until the finale where we saw only one member of this alliance get eliminated. They got the other players to turn on themselves and thus deserve their spot on this list.

#3 Black Widow Brigade (Micronesia): The first successful women’s alliance worked so brilliantly at eliminating the mostly dumb men that you couldn’t tell what was happening. They got the men to turn on each other without people even knowing what was happening. They lured Ozzy into a false sense of security and then blindsided him. After thinking a fake idol was real, you wouldn’t think that you’d make dumb decisions with a real idol. But, that’s what happened with Jason. Poor Erik was even dumber when he gave up the immunity necklace only to be voted out by them. They worked brilliantly and had great powers in the game. They managed to do what no group of women had done before them.

#2 Aitu Four (Cook Islands): Okay, let’s say that you are comfortable on a tribe of six facing against another tribe of six. Then, a twist comes along and two of your members decide to join the other tribe. Now there are just four of you against eight of them. And yet, your alliance of underdogs wind up ruling the game and become the final four. Now doing that isn’t easy. But winning every challenge until the merge helps get that done. They never had to turn on each other until the finale. Even so, they made it there intact and that’s something worth putting here.

Okay, so you might be wondering what I have listed as the best alliance in Survivor history. Well, I may disagree with some of my own choices here. A lot of the earlier seasons are missing. But, I’m hoping that you think that I’ve missed only one on the list so far. Only one other alliance is worthy of the list. It deserves the top spot on the list for many reasons. It succeeded in getting rid of all the players before they had to turn on themselves. It wasn’t a perfect alliance because none of them are. But it worked better than any alliance since then. It worked, and that’s all that matters when it comes to alliances. It earns the number one spot as it was the very first alliance.

#1 Tagi Alliance (Borneo): Created by power player and first winner, Richard Hatch, this alliance not existing would create a completely different and far less interesting Survivor than the show is today. It was created to get rid of all other players and it worked. You can’t say no one tried to fight them. But by the time that they existence was known, then it was far too late to get rid of it. Even though a member of it left it, they still stayed together until the finale. I believe that this alliance has worked better than any other alliance on the show. It makes sense too. Feel free to disagree, but this is my number one. This is the best alliance in Survivor history.

Well, I hope that you liked the list. These ten alliances are what I consider to be the ten best in Survivor history. Sorry that there wasn’t much from the earlier seasons of the show. I know that I can’t remember every alliance, good or bad. But these are the ones that I think are the best. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.

Survivor: San Juan del Sur finale

Sorry that this blog post is late. I thought that the finale was going to be on Sunday, but it wasn’t. Meanwhile, I had to record the whole finale, although I did watch some of it as it was airing. I honestly want to take back everything bad I ever said about anyone in the final five. I’m sure that I’ll like the winner since I know who this person is now. I will be eating lunch during this time instead of breakfast as I didn’t want to slow anyone down. Meanwhile, this paragraph was added to the beginning later, not that it matters. I’ll get to the rambling part and then the actual post.

Believe it or not, there are some contestants from previous seasons who have always voted with the majority at every tribal council they attended during a single season. Isn’t that interesting? I could bore you with a lot of the details, but I’ll only tell you who from what seasons have done this. Rudy did this in Borneo. Michael and Tina did this in Australia. Ethan and Kim Johnson did this in Africa. Nobody did this in Marquesas due to the purple rock fiasco. Brian did this in Thailand. Rob did this in Amazon. Osten did this in Pearl Islands. Sue, Boston Rob, Amber, and Jenna Lewis all did this in All-Stars, unless you count Jenna’s jury vote in the minority. Twila did this in Vanuatu. Ian and Katie did this in Palau, although, if you count the rumored immunity vote, then only Katie did this in Palau. Stephenie and Rafe did this in Guatemala, unless you count Rafe’s jury vote. Danielle did this in Panama. Yul and Becky did this in Cook Islands. Nobody did this in Fiji. Todd and Amanda did this in China. Kathy and Parvati did this in Micronesia. Sugar did this in Gabon. Stephen did this in Tocantins. Mike, Russell Swan, Russell Hantz, and Natalie all did this in Samoa. Nobody did this in Heroes versus Villains.

NaOnka and Chase did this in Nicaragua. Nobody did this in Redemption Island. Coach did this in South Pacific. Colton did this in One World. Nobody did this in Philippines. It didn’t happen in Caramoan either. Thanks to rock drawing, it didn’t happen in Blood versus Water. Tony did this in Cagayan. Julie did this in this season. I have checked the voting records and nobody in the final five this season can achieve this feat. Only quitters, medically evacuated contestants, and people in the final three can achieve this feat, it if happens at all. And it won’t happen to people who are voted out, unless they are the last ones voted out in a final two season.

I figure that now is a good time to mention my thoughts on the final five this season. I will mention them in the order I think they are most likely to win in Keith, Missy, Natalie, Jaclyn, and Baylor, with Baylor being the least likely to win. Unless there is a surprise four finalists instead of three, a woman will be voted out this season, for the first time since Kelley was voted out. I don’t know if Missy will get medically evacuated, but she probably won’t. I’d want her to win if it’s not Keith.

Meanwhile, I’d be okay with Natalie winning, although I don’t think it will happen. I have the feeling that Natalie might at least be a finalist this season. “Somebody has the idol and we’re going to burn it.” Unless they randomly aired that in the super promo of the premiere to edit it out of the season, it will probably affect Natalie’s idol and be part of what Jon does at the final tribal council. They could be editing out the idol burning. I wouldn’t want them to promote something and then not have it in the final product. (It was like that one scene in the trailer of The Invisible, but not in the movie that might have explained a lot more about it. For those of you that have seen both the movie and the trailer, this scene involves the male main character talking with someone about the weird situation that he’s in. It might have explained a lot more about the movie.) It’s interesting that every time a contestant has been named Natalie, they have made the finale of their season. I said earlier that this could happen. You do have to wonder what point the idol burning will serve. It may serve as a way to shame Natalie, but it makes someone more interested in the finale. Or, it’s not going to happen and they are hoping that it was never there in the first place, like the GS ball in Pokémon. (They could have just made it a Missing No. That would have been nice.) I know I’m not the only person who remembers that idol burning comment so there better be some resolution to that.

Since this is a blood versus water season, you have to wonder if this could affect potential jury votes. Missy and Baylor are the only possible pair that could make it to the end together. I don’t know yet if they will. Could that split the votes where some people could have different opinions on the better person in the pair? Plus, if there’s a loved one on the jury and their pair is a finalist, does that mean that they will vote for the person? We had the drama of voting against a loved one in the last blood versus water season. Wouldn’t it sting even more if a jury member, for whatever reason, doesn’t vote for their loved one who made it to the end? If Jaclyn or Keith make the end (or even Baylor or Missy, if the other one is voted out), then you have to wonder if that means that there will be an automatic vote for them from their loved ones.

Pretty soon, I won’t have to wonder that much about the thirtieth season. Will they finally do another normal season with no major twists, all new players, and only two starting tribes? The last time that happened was in Survivor: Samoa, which happened TEN SEASONS AGO! I’m not sure that I care much about what happens. I’m a bit interested in players. Think about it. Back in the first blood versus water, RC’s father was supposed to play with her. Will her father appear in this coming season? Plus, there is the mystery pair from this season that was supposed to be on it. Will one of them appear on the next season? It was a female/female pair and might have been a water pair (not a blood pair). Lesbians? I don’t know. I shouldn’t jump to conclusions. But we might see only one of them next season, if we see any of them at all. Meanwhile, if there’s going to be seasons 31 and 32, we don’t know about them yet. It’s likely, since they are casting for them. But they also cast a second season of Pirate Master. (Remember Pirate Master? No? Exactly! It was a one season show.)

Mysteries so far this season: Was this a complete waste of a paragraph? (I probably won’t have this section in other seasons.) Is there going to be an idol burning? Who will win? Who will the finalists be? Is the finale going to be good? Will this season be remembered well? Will it be remembered poorly? What will the next season be like? Will it be good? What will they call it? Who will be in it? Will I ever know a contestant from before them doing the show? Why isn’t the finale on Sunday? I’m sorry that I thought that it was on a Sunday, which may no longer happen. I can understand not wanting sports delays to affect the show, so that might be the reason. Or, it could just be a new thing that they are always doing now. Regardless, this won’t be on Sunday as I thought and with Advent still happening, you won’t see this post until Thursday after all. This could mean that I get spoiled as to who the winner is an advance, which wouldn’t actually be that bad a thing. I will run into hypotheticals a bit later. Actually, I’ll do that right now.

Okay, so here’s what I’m thinking will happen: Natalie wins the final five immunity challenge. I don’t know who gets voted out, but it could be Keith, but it’s probably Jaclyn. If Natalie doesn’t win that challenge, then she won’t be voted out or have to play her idol. Meanwhile, Keith probably stands the best chance of winning, although Missy could win as well. I don’t know yet if any of my predictions are right or not. Natalie could surprise us and win. I still think that her idol plays some importance at the final tribal council and is part of Jon’s jury speech. Otherwise, they added his line about burning the idol in a promo for no good reason. They better not have edited it out. In fact, as usual, I’m not going to edit this blog in any way so I could be rambling about nothing (as usual). If this doesn’t go down at the final tribal council, then I don’t know what’s going to happen at all with it. Maybe nothing at all will happen. But I don’t like set-ups with no pay-offs. Just like the Pretender finale. That’s not something that I wanted after being with the whole series that whole time.

Well, it’s time for me to talk about some Christmas stuff. Typically, when I watch Christmas stuff, there is a VHS full of recorded things with four different programs in it of varying lengths. That wasn’t the only one that I would watch. There used to be another one that I would watch. The last time I did watch it was in high school, over five years ago. After watching the first three things on it, I was going to watch Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. I would always watch this and compare it with the edit of the special today, which is a different edit. But then the tape was messed up. At this point, I had a list of everything on this tape so I knew what was on it. While the tape might have been fixed, I have not watched any of it since. I have replaced most it if with what I can on DVD. One of the specials I will not replace, due to me not liking it. And I worry about the tape that I still watch getting to the point where it can’t be used again. Each year it gets worse, but never to the point where I can’t watch the tape anymore.

In case you are wondering, here are the all the specials on the tape that I’m not sure what happened to or if it still works with notes about what I’ve done with them: The Smurf’s Christmas special (bought on DVD in early January with a gift card I got for Christmas), The Bear that (or who) Slept Through Christmas (have not seen since the tape stopped working, although it might be online), The Christmas Toy (while available on DVD, I have not seen it since the tape stopped working right after I watched this special), Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer (got the family this on DVD for Christmas), a Charlie Brown Christmas (also got this on DVD for the family on Christmas), Frosty the Snowman (another one that I got the family for Christmas, each of these being a different Christmas), Tis the Season to be Smurfy (this was on the same DVD as the other Christmas Smurf special that I mentioned earlier that I got shortly before I had my wisdom teeth removed), A Mouse, a Mystery, and Me (a terrible special that poorly resolves things at the end that I thought was incomplete on the tape for a while, but wasn’t when I watched it online), a Garfield Christmas special (which I saw last year online, but do not own, even though I believe that it is on DVD with other Garfield holiday specials) and, finally, a Claymation Christmas special (which I also saw online last year and know is on DVD with other Claymation specials). There are other Christmas things that I could watch, but typically don’t.

This season was supposed to have Redemption Island, but it didn’t in the end. This season also had a bunch of great people getting voted out. I like Redemption Island because if great people are voted out, then they can fight to get back into the game. I think that this season might have worked better if Redemption Island ended up being in it after all. We could have seen a great player like Jeremy or Jon fight his way back into the game and stay there once they won reentry. And even if they didn’t, we might have seen players get better places in the game than we do now. But I do have mixed feelings about Redemption Island this season as with only new challenges appearing as duels, it might have been better off not being used. I don’t know how I feel about it in the end. That’s part of my beef with this season. It might be average, not good, but not bad either. Ultimately, you’ll see more of that later. I hope that I like the winner. I’m hoping that the final four and final three are good as well. But I won’t have high feelings for this season.

Before this season started airing, Jeff Probst said that it would have an unconventional winner. I wonder what he meant by that. The promo also says that there will be one last blindside this season. Unless they are talking about the jury vote, it could mean that someone who has a lot going for them, like Natalie, is going to get voted out. I’m glad that I don’t know spoilers yet, although I probably will before I watch this episode. Maybe the lack of a good edit or clear edit for potential winners this season is because of a tie at the final tribal council. From the moment that they first did away with final twos, the possibility of a tie for the win happened. They have to have some method of tie-breaking for the final vote. It’s possible that we will never know what it is. Or, it could happen this season. Or, a future season. But enough of my ramblings.

In the first segment of the show, we get to Jeff at the studio where they’ll do the reunion show letting us know what’s happening. Sorry about all the predictions as I’m not sure any of them are right. But, I’m leaving them in the blog post regardless. Anyways, the long and boring recap of the season happens so I eat some of lunch. The tribe gets back from Jon’s elimination where tempers flare. Not much really happened there that I can sum up easily.

In the second segment of the show, Missy and Baylor talk about making it as far as they did. There is then a REWARD? challenge that happens. Seriously? A reward? And the reward is an advantage in the next immunity challenge? I can tell you one thing for sure: I regret some of the choices that I put in my ten worst twist blog posts. A reward challenge in the finale should have made that list. Those are pointless. Geez, I’d like to see the rite of passage again, instead of this shit. Anyways, it is Keith that wins the challenge. Keith gets to send someone to Exile Island after what I believe to be the last reward challenge of the season. I do wonder how they reused all those Redemption Island duels. We then get a clip of Jeff at the CBS studio. The people in that studio are the only people on the west coast who don’t have to wait three hours to see the finale. I do wonder how that works. I’m not sure that I like the prereunion show bits as they tend to cut into the real reunion show.

In the third segment of the show, Jaclyn was sent to Exile Island and she was sad about everything. Keith’s reward is seeing how the upcoming immunity challenge will work. He gets the privacy of doing it. It looks like an interesting challenge. Maybe people were being ironic when they talked about how good Keith is at challenges. Or, this practice helped.

In the fourth segment of the show, Natalie is wondering what to do about who to keep in the game. We then get to the immunity challenge. Keith is the winner of that. Jeff then does another reunion show bit where he shows this person who designed the reward challenge in the last episode. It looks like a woman will be voted out for the first time this season since Kelley’s elimination.

In the fifth segment of the show, the people talked about the challenge. “I’m good with balls,” said Keith. I hope his wife knows about that. The usual pretribal drama unfolds. It’s unlikely that Jaclyn has an idol, although there could have been one. Natalie is afraid that people won’t like her if she makes big moves. We then get to tribal council. Natalie gives her idol to Jaclyn and it is Baylor that gets voted out in the “big” blindside that they were promising. We then get to yet another prereunion bit. I don’t get what this one is about and they typically seem to be wasting time with these. I understand trying to put more life in the reunion show, but this seems to be having the opposite effect to me.

In the sixth segment of the show, Natalie explains why she got rid of Baylor. Missy reacts to her daughter getting voted out. Baylor was probably voted out between the pair because Missy might be unable to win any challenges. Poor Missy. This is a bad time to get an injury, but at least it isn’t serious enough to pull her from the game. We then get to the final immunity challenge. No rites of passage again because that may be forever gone from the game. Keith is yellow in this challenge and they showed the yellow person winning in the dream team explanation of the challenge. Of course, if you are a regular reader of my blog, you’d know that what it typically means is that the person shown winning won’t win. Jaclyn gets hurt at the challenge, but she manages to finish the challenge and win despite trailing behind for most of the challenge. Keith is worried about being eliminated at the next tribal council due to Natalie’s move at the last tribal council.

In the seventh segment of the show, Jaclyn is proud of herself for winning the challenge. She wonders who she should take to the final three with her. Keith wonders if he’s getting voted out, which is Natalie’s plan. Jaclyn is wondering if she should make a big move or not. Missy is probably wondering if she’s safe as they plan on making moves. We get to tribal council next. After the talk of who all might get voted out, it is Keith that gets eliminated. We then get a strange segment from/about Keith and we get to the wife of Keith.

In the eighth segment of the show, the final three talk about how they got there to the end. With loved ones on the jury, unless they were being worse than Ciera was with voted out her mom (in this case, by not voting for your loved one to be on the game, despite you being on the jury and them being a finalist), then there will be some automatic votes in that part. They each give their opening statements relating to as why they deserved to win. Natalie seems to be owning up more to her game play than the other two people were.

Total confessionals: Keith- 31, Missy- 24, Jaclyn- 28, Baylor- 29, Natalie- 31. New confessionals this episode: Baylor- 2, Natalie- 6, Keith- 4, Missy- 4, Jaclyn- 6.

In the ninth segment of the show, Jon is the first juror to speak and he asks what Jaclyn thought she did to succeed in the game. The idol burning comment, much like Survivor Oz’s interview with Stephanie Favor, is nowhere to be seen in the end. What was it all about? I guess I know who to listen to more in Survivor Oz (Jon Misch). Keith was upset at Natalie for lying to him. Natalie pointed out that she did what she had to to stay in the game. Alec wondered what Natalie did to get to the end. Baylor talks to her mother and gets real emotional. Josh wonders what Jaclyn did that didn’t involve anyone else. Wes then asks them all general questions. Jeremy then gives a rambling statement as to why Natalie should win, something that no juror has done without the person they were favoring winning. He may not be the best at it, but I already know who won. Reed then spoke to all of the contestants where he mostly just bashed Missy.

In the tenth segment of the show, the jurors voted for who they wanted to win. This is the third time in a final three where all of the finalists got a vote to win. The blood versus water twist helped with that. In the end, it was Natalie who won. Natalie, who went the farthest in the game without her loved one, was the one who won. Interesting how her partner in the game was the first person voted out. But Rachel’s Tyson’s girlfriend, was the lowest ranking of the new players last season so they may be an indicator of what’s happened.

In the eleventh segment of the show, we finally get to the actual reunion show. Natalie feels that she might have done better without her twin, as I have stated before. She talks about the big moves she made throughout the game. Jeff does the usual, who would have won question that he has asked in the past. Keith is being the usual crazy person that he is. I like him. I’m not sad that he didn’t win, but he definitely falls under the entertaining aspect of the game. That doesn’t always mean good, but it’s still something that’s very good. We also get to the Natalie versus John Rocker fight.

In the twelfth segment of the show, Josh talks about how he and Reed have helped influence other people outside the game. I’m not sure what I think of the whole gay/Christian thing, but since all Christians go to heaven, then I shouldn’t be thinking too much into it. And nobody should just be hating for the sake of hating. We then get to Jon Misch and Jaclyn. They are over the fights they had and still engaged. In fact, they were engaged during post production. Actually, I think that it was during the airing of this season to be specific.

In the thirteenth segment of the show, Missy talks her failed relationships. It’s hard to know what to make of this segment here. Reed is sort of sorry about his hateful jury speech. We then get to what will happen on Survivor 30. While we are on this topic, does anyone know if they actually renewed for seasons 31 and 32 yet? I know that they were looking for cast members of them, but that doesn’t mean that it’s actually happening. I say that it’s likely that it will happen. But I don’t know yet as I haven’t looked anything up about it. If you know, feel free to comment. But it doesn’t matter yet anyways. I mean, there’s season 30 to look forward to.

In the fourteenth segment of the show, we learn about the thirtieth season of Survivor. There are three tribes: white collar (whatever that is), blue collar (whatever that is) and no collar (whatever that is). I’m not really sure what to make of this twist yet and I’m hoping that it will make more sense before the season starts. Survivor: Worlds Apart. This makes me wonder what other twists could start a season that have tribes divided in a certain way. I should let the professionals take care of that. I’ll be back on February 26^th (or 27^th, if Lent has started by then) with blog posts about that season. But I’ll post more about what’s happening with this blog before the end of this post.

In the fifteenth segment of the show, we get to the last bit where Natalie gets the check for the win. Do you realize that every Survivor contestant who has done the Amazing Race has won Survivor? With this Amazing Race season having Keith and Whitney from South Pacific, neither of whom won Survivor, I thought at first that they were destined to win the Amazing Race. But that didn’t happen on this Amazing Race season. Maybe they are both destined to win Survivor when they return in separate games. But could Nadiya return and pull a reverse Tina Weeson by going from first out to winner? While I think that Nadiya will probably return for a future season, despite being a first boot, I’m not sure if any person that was originally the first boot could go on to win the game. But, it could happen. I’ll post more about that idea for an all first boots season later. But, they made have to work their way up from out early to winner. You should see a strange post about that in the future. I’m disappointed that so many of the contestants were ignored at the reunion show. The prereunion bits may have led to that.

Points at reunion show: Nadiya- 0, Val- 0, John Rocker- 1, Drew- 0, Kelley- 0, Dale- 0, Julie- 0, Josh- 1, Jeremy- 1, Wes- 0, Reed- 3, Alec- 0, Jon Misch- 2, Baylor- 1, Keith- 1, Missy- 2, Jaclyn- 2, Natalie- 4.

A look back at my predictions: Last season, I got twelve of the eighteen contestants predicted right. I said they would be a premerge boot, a juror, or a finalist. Only six of them turned out being different. So I thought that now would be a good time for me to look back and see how many I got right this season. If you want to check, I did an analysis of who might rank where this season before this season started. It was a cast assessment. Meanwhile, since there is a contestant who made the merge but not the jury, I’m going to count them as a premerge boot, even though this will mean getting that prediction wrong. I’ll post which contestants I had where and if I was right about them. Then, I’ll post how many I got right versus how many I didn’t. Nadiya: guess- jury, actual placement- premerge boot, accuracy- wrong. Jaclyn: guess- premerge boot, actual placement- finalist, accuracy- wrong. John Rocker: guess- premerge boot, actual placement- premerge boot, accuracy- right. Josh: guess- jury, actual placement- jury, accuracy- right. Dale: guess- premerge boot, actual placement- premerge boot, accuracy- right. Baylor: guess- jury, actual placement- jury, accuracy- right. Alec: guess- finalist, actual placement- jury, accuracy- wrong. Val: guess- premerge boot, actual placement- premerge boot, accuracy- right. Wes: guess- jury, actual placement- jury, accuracy- right. Natalie: guess- jury, actual placement- finalist, accuracy- wrong. Jon Misch: guess- premerge boot, actual placement- jury, accuracy- wrong. Julie: guess- jury, actual placement- (a bit confusing since she made the merge and then quit, thus not being on the jury, you see, I’d count the jury members gone before the merge as jury members and the people who made the merge, but not the jury as premerge boots) premerge boot *, accuracy- wrong (or half right). Reed: guess- jury, actual placement- jury, accuracy- right. Kelley: guess- premerge boot, actual placement- premerge boot, accuracy- right. Missy: guess- premerge boot, actual placement- finalist, accuracy- wrong. Drew: guess- finalist, actual placement- premerge boot, accuracy- wrong. Jeremy: guess- jury, actual placement- jury, accuracy- right. Keith: guess- finalist, actual placement- jury, accuracy- wrong. I got nine out of eighteen right, if I did that math right. Only half is right.

I hope to be better with next season’s predictions. I’ll wonder about that mystery pair for a while. One of them could be on the next season (but probably not both). That’s provided that one of them is there at all. I should have known from the beginning about the lack of a good cast this season since I almost put nobody as a finalist. It was hard for me to guess with some since I saw them together in the preseason interviews and not apart. I feel that apart from each other, I would have gotten more to know about the other people. But they were just predictions anyways. Maybe I’ll do better next time or even worse. But I’ll talk more about the next season later.

Before I get to the end of this blog post, I will do the stuff that I typically do at the end of every season. There’s even a bit extra this time. Okay, so you might be wondering about what dumb moves have been happening this season. I will crown what I believe to be the three dumbest moves this season. Here are the candidates: Drew causing his own elimination, Julie’s quit, the flint fiasco, John Rocker’s dumb decisions, Jon Misch being voted out while in possession of a hidden immunity idol, Hunapu’s deals with Jeff, and the rice fiasco. Now, I will give a reason as to why some will be considered and some won’t. You see, Drew wasn’t the only person who was going to throw the challenge that got him voted out. That’s why I won’t have him on the final list. And Jon Misch did some good moves before his dumb one so I don’t feel that he deserves to get that award. I feel that the Hunapu’s deals with Jeff are worthy of the bronze for dumbest move of the season. Both the rice and flint fiasco is covered by this. I would put Julie’s quit as getting the silver award for dumbest move of the season. Meanwhile, John Rocker gets the gold award for dumbest move of the season by getting voted out while in possession of an idol after being an unbearable person.

Now there’s the reward of the most memorable moment of the season. To me, anything that can qualify for the list is in the blindsides of the season. Here are the candidates- Josh’s blindside, Jeremy’s blindside, Wes’s blindside, and Jon’s blindside. Ultimately, Wes’s blindside is what I think deserves the list due to the way it went down. It was very memorable what happened. Then, we also have the breakout character of the season. That’s an award I give to a new player of the season that left his or her mark on the show. The candidates for this section are Josh, Jeremy, Jon, and Keith. I feel that Jeremy is best winning this award.

Now we get to the ranking of this season. Out of all twenty-nine seasons, where does this one rank? You see, the lower the number, the better it did. So if one is the best, how does this season rank? I rank this season eighteen out of twenty-nine. Now we get into the extra part of this section. My sister was gone in South Africa for the last four Survivor seasons. So those four seasons, which I have already revealed my rankings for (unless new seasons or rewatches have changed it), I’m going to rank for you right now. From best to worst, the most recent four, I rank like this: Blood versus Water, Cagayan, Caramoan, and San Juan del Sur. The worst of them is this season. Caramoan ranks fourteen out of twenty-nine. Blood versus Water ranks eight out of twenty-nine. Cagayan ranks twelve out of twenty-nine. As for this season’s tribe swap, it ranks eleven out of nineteen, with the lower number being the better number, as I mentioned before.

So here are my thoughts on the next season: What do these different collars mean? I’d understand more about the next, upcoming season, if I knew what while collar versus blue collar versus no collar would be. Maybe I’ll have to talk to some people about it. I hope that there’s someone who understand. I just hope that I can someday be a guest at David and Jeff’s Survivor podcast. (It’s been over a year since I wanted to be a guest. I would like to be on your show sometime. Just let me know what time might work best for you.) You’d think that they would be able to explain things well. Or, maybe someone will comment on it. I’d like to know which contestants from the past have best fit which collar types. I really don’t know what to think of this twist yet. But I look forward to it as I always look forward to each Survivor season.

Well, the idol burning comment sounded great, but wasn’t in the final edit. Besides, that sort of thing is probably against the Survivor rulebook. Maybe it was just something dramatic that they needed to get people to watch this season. But I don’t know why it was even promoted in the first place. WHY WAS IT PROMOTED! I don’t get it. I may have to start a vlog just to interview Jon Misch, or any contestant from this season, actually, to see what that comment was about. But, if I do start vlogs, Coby Archa gets to be my first guest, because I promised him that’s what I’d do. My laptop doesn’t have that technology, but I might be able to borrow it from someone. Sorry for this random paragraph.

I will tell you what’s happening with this blog of mine in the future. I will post random things in this blog during the hiatus between this season and the next. I may not do any posts on Sundays. But I will do posts on Wednesdays. I know that Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve are both Wednesdays this year, but I will probably be able to post whatever I can. I have a lot written already and many more ideas that could be done. I’ll probably never finish writing all these ideas. But I won’t tell you about what they all are since I don’t know if I’ll write them or not. You’ll see what happens if it happens. And if I miss a Wednesday during hiatus, then I’ll be sure to post two a week, if possible. I need to figure out when to update my TV blog since it relates to this blog when I post it. You might see more movie updates until I can finally get rid of the Sunday movie list. (However, I do plan on putting the Monday list on Sundays when I’m done with the watching of Survivor: Borneo.) I might not know what else to talk about for now. But come back here every Wednesday until Survivor: Worlds Apart starts to see random thought of mine relating to Survivor. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.