And so the clouds parted and Jeff Probst came floating down from the sky with a gift for all of mankind. That gift is another season of Survivor. Yay. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you your cast for Survivor's latest incarnation: So we have a few interesting returnees.....whoah, yup, Phillip is still wearing his colorful ginch......but a couple of no namers that didn't really stand out in their respective seasons. I'm excited to see how annoying Cochrane will be, if Brandon will actually kill a woman, if Malcolm can put together another solid season, if Brenda has a nip slip while dominating the field and if Erik commits some sort of Survivor ritual suicide after pulling off the most boneheaded move in Survivor history by giving up his immunity in his last go round. I think in the last Fans vs Favorites the Fans got absolutely dominated. Last season was really good I thought, so hopefully this one carries the momentum. Trekbbs ready..........go!
Survivor is one of the few things on TV that I make a point of consistently watching even if I miss an episode for one reason or another, and I've really been looking forward to this season premiering. I personally love that the Favorites tribe has several people on it that were better known for their blunders and mistakes, as bringing them back gives them a chance to redeem and/or reinvent themselves. I don't think we need to spoiler-tag our episode comments, but I'm going to anyway. Spoiler: She Really Annoys Me Francesca getting voted out first AGAIN was hilarious. I love that Phillip is trying to be Boston Rob, as it's an interesting strategy that could either get him far or end up blowing up in his face; either way, though, it gives him a different identity than just 'the crazy black guy', which is a good thing as far as I'm concerned. I'm glad Cochran and Dawn paired up, because it's a natural fit and gives them a chance to possibly influence things without being called out for influencing things. Speaking of the D/C Alliance, I didn't see who they ended up voting for, and was wondering if anyone saw and could tell me.
Francesca! Hilarious, I wouldn't have thought that was possible to be voted out the first time twice, but here we are. Truthfully though I really don't find her to be a likeable person. She's kind of a bitch and doesn't bring much to the table. Great immunity challenge, that structure they built was massive!! Hope they go for it like that all season. Great comeback by the Fans too. Phillip is in fine form. And Brandon doesn't trust the hot chick, what a shocker. I would have thought that after watching those two in previous seasons you'd avoid making alliances with them like they were lepers, but there's people willing to wheel and deal with them. Good start, looking forward to the rest of it.
I wonder if it's like previous seasons where the allstars wouldn't know Malcolm at all because they were filming while the season was airing.
Interesting premiere episode. Cochran was always my favorite on his season, so I'm hoping that he goes far. I also really liked Erik. It would be great if they could get together, as I think they'd make a formidable duo, but unfortunately that isn't looking likely at this point. I actually didn't mind Francesca, I liked her sarcastic humor, it reminds me of a couple of old friends I used to have. But, I'm not terribly upset at her leaving first again, in fact it's pretty funny! The newbies aren't too exciting yet, though the "popular clique" probably won't be around long, which is a good thing since a couple of them seem like complete dodos. Should be a great season!
I love that Francesca was the first one voted out again! I really don't understand why they brought her back as a "favorite." A favorite of who? Jeff Probst? Because I highly doubt she was high on anyone's list as a fan favorite. I also found the "cool kids' table" alliance amusing. They do realize that they're a minority alliance of four in a tribe of ten, right? They're going to get destroyed just like the "alpha male" club did in One World.
I imagine they brought her back merely to antagonize Phillip. I too enjoy that they've gathered up mostly misfits this time. Looking forward to next week's billed Hantzsplosion.
A Survivor thread? One minute. *walks out* *comes back in wearing fake mustache* Good evening, gentlemen. My name is Reginald Q Featherbottom, and I do very much enjoy the show Survivor. I thought they did a great job casting the favorites. I like seeing the way Philip and Cochran grew since their last appearance on the show. I do wish they would bring back veterans less often though. They should either have an entire cast of new contestants or an all-star season. When there's only two or three veterans they just absorb the entire show. One tribe of veterans is ok, I guess, but they haven't done a non-veteran show for two years. And just like the real cool kids, they don't know that 10 - 4 = 6.
Jeff Probst has said that every season from now on is going to feature returning players because it makes for good TV. I've stayed fairly spoiler-free but do know enough to know that this season isn't going to play out as smoothly as some people might think or expect, which should make for interesting viewing.
Does it really make better TV, or does it just make the show easier to promote? Heroes vs Villians was awesome but the first All-Stars was awful, and now we're getting fewer new stars because all the new castaways automatically align with the returning castmembers.
^ Yes, it does; the ratings for seasons that have featured returning players have generally outperformed seasons that haven't ratings-wise, and are generally considered to be among the best seasons of the show from a popularity standpoint.
I thought I had posted something a few days ago, but it seems to have disappeared (or never got posted in the first place). *shrugs* Anyway, I thought it was funny how Jeff called one of the teams "heroes." He's obviously lost track of what season he's on... As for the cool group: I agree that it was one of the funniest moments of the episode. They're just begging to be voted off early.
A favourite of the producers, because she's apparently very good friends with a bunch of former Survivor player, who went absolutely crazy on Andrea on twitter after the episode aired...
Heroes & Villains is generally considered the best season, but the others? All Stars was boring and predictable. The first Fans vs Favorites was pretty average. Rob's season was pretty good, I guess. Coach's season was passable, and last season was average. Guatemala, yeah, I would consider that among my favorites but not because of Stephanie and Bobby Jon. (And why haven't they ever brought back any of the great people from that season?! Danni, Rafe, Brian, Amy, the entire cast was gold that year.) Other than Guatemala none of the seasons where only two or three cast members came back have been that great. I have to question your statement that the seasons where cast members came back have better ratings, looking at the Wikipedia page. Yes, All Stars and Heroes vs Villians got higher ratings. South Pacific, One World and Phillipines did not. They seem to just be normal seasons in the gradual decline of ratings. Guatemala got lower ratings than the season before. The first fans vs favorites got lower ratings than the season before and after. It seems that bringing back old players only generates higher ratings if the entire cast is old players. If I were to rank the best seasons: 1. Heroes vs Villains 2. Guatemala 3. Season 1 4. Pearl Islands 5. Australia 6. Amazon 7. Russell season 1 8. Vanutatu 9. Season Todd won (Todd & Stephen, why have they never come back?) 10. Rob 4th season (Okay, that was a pretty good season.) If they were going to bring back somebody who was voted out early, why Francesca? Why not Betsy? Why not 'Beat you down' Amy?
Someone needs to tell the cool kids that math can be your friend. Going in 4 strong against 6 will get you in trouble every....single.....time. Well she was nice to look at but I can't even remember her name, so I'm not really too chuffed that she was voted off. The odds of the guy finding the immunity idol, then being spotted with a bulge then being called out on the first tribal about it are pretty incredible! Although people see a bulge in my pants all the time, so there's that. Brandon is just messed up, I said to my wife that if I was in his tribe I wouldn't even be able to converse with him, he's just a lunatic and no good can come of even speaking to the guy. Cochrane NAILED It when he said that Brandon goes from saying harsh, incredibly bad things and then following it up with a nice friendly comment. Phillip thinks he's a superstar even though Rob carried his ass the entire game when he last played. I like how the girl is keeping the Marine in her pocket as her Phillip. So far so good. Me likey.