That's a fair point.

Was anyone else surprised that Jeremy and Spencer voted for shelter over competition for immunity? Figure those two would join Keith and Joe, with maybe Tasha going for immunity. Weak sauce on their part IMO.

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That's a fair point.

Was anyone else surprised that Jeremy and Spencer voted for shelter over competition for immunity? Figure those two would join Keith and Joe, with maybe Tasha going for immunity. Weak sauce on their part IMO.

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I am honestly surprised anyone other than Joe went for the immunity idol. They new the challenge and it was pretty clear that this was likely another Joe-type challenge. Why take the hit in the social game just to lose to Joe?

Surprised they didn't have the contestants more spread out. I mean was it not obvious somebody could get conked pretty hard by a spinning disc?

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That's a fair point.

Was anyone else surprised that Jeremy and Spencer voted for shelter over competition for immunity? Figure those two would join Keith and Joe, with maybe Tasha going for immunity. Weak sauce on their part IMO.

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Im blown away every time someone forgoes immunity for anything - a feast, shelter, whatever. Especially when you know other people are likely to sit out - with every person that balks, your chances of winning immunity go up that much higher.

I can only assume that a lot of the players on this season are really weak-minded, because the likes of Jeremy and Spencer never even seem to be bandied about as targets. That tells me that the two of them are guiding the narrative every moment of the day as to who is going to go next, who is the biggest threat, etc.

I picked Jeremy and I really like Spencer, but it's kind of staggering that they are, at least edit-wise, going through the post-merge game so unscathed. You'd think the minute Jeremy played that idol people would have thought, hey - he had an idol we didnt know about - he's dangerous. But nope, that conversation didn't make it to air.

I got a pretty pic of Keith at the LSU game tonight if anyone wants to host it. Im pretty hammered.

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That's a fair point.

Was anyone else surprised that Jeremy and Spencer voted for shelter over competition for immunity? Figure those two would join Keith and Joe, with maybe Tasha going for immunity. Weak sauce on their part IMO.

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Im blown away every time someone forgoes immunity for anything - a feast, shelter, whatever. Especially when you know other people are likely to sit out - with every person that balks, your chances of winning immunity go up that much higher.

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IMO, I think this is something we can't understand if we aren't there. I think them giving them a shelter is an attempt to avoid losing people due to sickness.

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Im blown away every time someone forgoes immunity for anything - a feast, shelter, whatever. Especially when you know other people are likely to sit out - with every person that balks, your chances of winning immunity go up that much higher.

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I can see it. Giving up one immunity that most figure Joe will win anyway, for long term chance for some relief that might prevent them from becoming weaker and weaker, aiding in later challenges.

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Im blown away every time someone forgoes immunity for anything - a feast, shelter, whatever. Especially when you know other people are likely to sit out - with every person that balks, your chances of winning immunity go up that much higher.

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I can see it. Giving up one immunity that most figure Joe will win anyway, for long term chance for some relief that might prevent them from becoming weaker and weaker, aiding in later challenges.

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They only needed five people to give it up, tho. You knew that Abi, Kimmi, Wentworth, and Fish were going to quit for sure. The only questionable one IMO was Tasha, so that's why I figured that Jeremy and Spencer would still go for it.

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ENTERTAINMENT WEKELY: Look, bad weather is nothing new on Survivor and you even had 21 straight days of rain in the Philippines once, but how bad was this sustained downpour that had multiple players calling it the lowest point of their entire life?

JEFF PROBST: One difference with the rain this season was the strength of the downpour. It really was like a dumping of water and it felt at one point truly relentless, as though there was nothing that was going to stop it. On top of the weather, there was one big mitigating factor and that was the mental fatigue consuming every player. We may never see another season played at this level of strategic intensity. There was not one moment of coasting throughout the season, so the players were exhausted on a level that made that rain just that much more devastating. And, as you note, the best evidence comes from the players themselves. It wasn't just one, it was nearly all of them.

Jeff, you gave all the players the option to not compete in the first immunity challenge and if five said they would not, they would get a pimped-out new shelter. Eight of the 10 took the shelter over the competition. Did that surprise you, especially with so many returning gamers?

Yes. In fact, there was major debate among our creative team as to how many players we should require give up their shot at immunity. Some felt that five was too many and we wouldn't be successful. And they had a very good reason to be concerned since we had so many die-hard players and none of them easily persuaded to give up any edge. I felt that we had to have at least five because the invoice had to be steep enough to warrant us helping them with a new shelter.

It's reason #736,215 that I love being a part of this show. This kind of collaboration is what we do. We conceive, we debate, we decide and then we execute. And every step along the way we challenge the idea. Sometimes we're right, sometimes we're wrong but we never, ever approach it halfway. Once again we were rewarded with an amazing reality beat where Joe, the favorite to win every challenge, is one of only two who doesn't give up his immunity. That's game play. I love it.

Giving an idol to someone else to play can be a solid strategic move to maintain numbers (like Parvati and Russell did in Heroes vs. Villains) or it can end up being something of a waste (like when Malcolm did it to get Phillip out but then left himself vulnerable for the next vote-out in Caramoan). How do you like what Jeremy did here by playing an idol for Stephen?

I loved it. This is the only way to play this game. You must play to win. I say it over and over and over and over and over. You can't play safe. Not if you want to win. Jeremy wants to win. He put his faith in Stephen. It may work, it may not. Next Tribal he may have to vote Stephen out or Stephen may blindside him. But for this moment, this was his best move and I love that he made it. Major game play.

I can't believe you did the Survivor Folklore challenge! We haven't seen this in YEARS! Why did you decide to bring this one back, and how long did you have to spend memorizing that story?

We really wanted to do stuff at night this season, me especially! So we hid one idol that you had to find in the middle of the night and we decided to bring back Folklore! Another specific reason was I wanted to challenge our pyro and lighting department. These guys do such an amazing job at Tribal Council and we often don't use them as much as we could or should. So this season they were tested and man, did they deliver. We had so many obstacles for Folklore, including the strong possibility of rain, but they never backed away from believing they could pull it off. They kept saying "No problem. Rain or shine there will be fire." We had over 50 fires in that jungle. That is a major feat and a major endeavor to keep secure and make sure fires don't spread.

The other challenge is having me tell a story that is difficult enough for the players to remember but also interesting enough and short enough to entertain the audience. I know we succeeded on the first part, but not sure if the story and play along was interesting to the audience. It's a risk we were willing to take. Then we added in the idol clue and we had ourselves a kick-ass Survivor challenge. As for folklore, the writing of that is something I take responsibility for because every other department is already swamped. I just researched the story, wrote a first pass and then had everybody else weigh in with edits and suggestions until we got it as tight as we could. The key was trying to make it just confusing enough to make you think you are remembering something correctly but you're not certain.

Memorizing that's something I've always been able to do. It definitely comes in handy at times like that or complicated maroonings with several beats. One other fun note we had always done Folklore with two possible answers. But it wasn't dramatic enough because you had a 50-50 chance of being right, and if you missed one then you knew you were right the second time. So we had a big creative meeting to discuss options. All of our senior creative executives gathered together in a hot trailer bouncing around ideas for how to complicate the challenge. It was my son Michael, 11, who sat there listening and finally said, "How 'bout three possible answers instead of two?" Yep. Seems so simple when you hear it, doesn't it?

Sticking with that challenge, I have always maintained that it is best to not win any reward where you will be forced to include and exclude people, because it more often than not leads to problems, and we certainly saw that with Stephen here. Do I make a compelling case that winning these types of rewards are too dangerous, or is that all poppycock?

It's a legit question for sure and a legit concern, but here's the rub: Rewards come with food. Food is major. MAJOR. A good meal at a reward can often result in a major advantage for the next challenge as well as improved mental faculties. So yes, there is an invoice for getting food. You will almost always have some dilemma, but choosing to not win and hope someone picks you to go along is a risky strategy.

I would never do it. I would try my best to use my reward as a way to move myself forward in the game, by whatever means I can. I think people miss opportunities to strong arm. When you win, you have leverage. You may never have this much leverage again. So use it. Survivor has changed. It's a game for winners meaning, the game has evolved so much that weak ass players have a very hard time winning. Just look at the recent history. It's been a long time since a "lesser of two evils" won the game. So you have to play, manipulate, leverage, assess, reassess, lie, cheat, steal and often all at once.

I cannot even handle how insane this second Tribal Council was. Fishbach does the right thing and plays his advantage and then stillgets voted out. That moment just turned this season from a very good one into a great one. Take us through the scene and your thoughts being there as that all went down.

It's reminiscent of last season when Dan used his "extra vote" and was blindsided. My vantage point is really reactionary at Tribal. I know that Stephen has the advantage but I don't know when he's going to play it until he decides to play it. So my head is filled with a lot of "what if" scenarios. What if this happens. What if that happens? What if an idol is played? So I'm doing a lot of projected math and situational role-plays while conducting the Q&A of Tribal Council. And I love it! I love it when tribal is alive like that. It's honestly why I still love this show so much.

These people show up and play this incredibly difficult game knowing their odds of winning are so slight and yet they pour their heart and soul into it. Fishbach came up short, and I think in hindsight he will see he was too focused on snagging the big catch (Joe) and he ultimately robbed himself of his greatest asset observing. But, and this is a big but I give him a lot of credit for playing as big as he did. He really left it all out there. He let us see inside his heart and his vulnerability was really a beautiful thing to witness. Stephen's game is a great illustration of how Survivor can truly bring you to your knees and then lift you up above the clouds and then slam you back into the ground again. Over and over and over.

Looks like we have a loved ones visit and a possible medevac coming up. What can you tease for next week?

I am so happy you said this season just elevated from a good season to a great season because I feel the same way. These players should all be in the Survivor Hall of Fame. We've never had a group play this hard and it comes on the heels of White Collar, Blue Collar, No Collar, which I thought was another outstanding season. So yes, next week the loved ones come and it's pretty doggone emotional. I think I welled up just a wee bit. And I won't say if we have an evacuation but we do have a medical situation and it comes as a result of effort. Pushing a body so hard that it just stops.

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finally watched last night. that was the greatest 2 hours of survivor ever. Ciera and Fish gone in one night. no more whining and beetching and blah blah blabh make a move blah blah play the game blah blah cry blah blah

I too was astonished that joe was not voted off but i'll take it. as far as his chances to win, i agree that it is difficult to play the game very hard for players that dominate challenges. it would place an even bigger target on their back...and i think that with the exception of Mike last season, none of the physically dominant players have ever won.
and i cannot really see a majority of the jury voting for joe

so, with 8 left and the two biggest zeroes gone:

players i would love to see win:

Joe or Spencer

players that i would be ok if they won:

Keith, Jeremy, Wentworth

players that i would dislike if they won:

kimmi, tasha

player that i would throw my tv into the christmas tree if they won:

abi

i would also like to point out my comment on page 11:

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gambochaman
8:06a, 11/19/15
L
AG


epic fail...ugh...more ciera SHOOT ME IN THE FACE


also, fishback is missing the forest for the trees...so worried to make a big move when he didnt really need to

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followed by Jeff Probst's comment:

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I think Fishbach is so consumed with making a move that it has robbed him of his greatest strength, which is to just sit back and evaluate and then make his best move based on the assumption that everybody else is making their best move. He's a very smart guy, but thus far he can't see the forest for the trees. Maybe this will wake him up.

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i submit my name to be the next host of survivor

At this point, I think that 5, maybe 6 out of the remaining 8 could win (don't see any way Abi or Kimmi win). Keith maybe could win if he gets to the final 3 with those two.

I give Wentworth the best shot since I think the guys are going to start trying to knock each other out + she has an idol that no on knows about.

I'd rank chances of winning like this:

1. Wentworth
2. Spencer
3. Joe
4. Jeremy
5. Tasha
6. Keith
7. Abi
8. Kimmi

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And I won't say if we have an evacuation but we do have a medical situation and it comes as a result of effort. Pushing a body so hard that it just stops.

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That tells me that it's not a result of the falling idol thing after all.

The only two that I don't want to win are Kimmi and Abi, and neither has a chance unless it's a final two with both of them making it (not happening).

I'm good with any of the rest winning and think they all have a chance.

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At this point, I think that 5, maybe 6 out of the remaining 8 could win (don't see any way Abi or Kimmi win). Keith maybe could win if he gets to the final 3 with those two.

I give Wentworth the best shot since I think the guys are going to start trying to knock each other out + she has an idol that no on knows about.

I'd rank chances of winning like this:

1. Wentworth
2. Spencer
3. Joe
4. Jeremy
5. Tasha
6. Keith
7. Abi
8. Kimmi

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If Spencer hadn't flipped this past week, I'd have him as my odds-on favorite to win right now. But now I think Jeremy is going to be gunning for him, assuming they can't get Joe out next. I'd love to have the next episode open with Tasha pulling Jeremy aside and telling him "We couldn't tell you" just like he did to her 2 weeks ago.

I think the power players will go after Kelly as Joe is out, and while she has an idol in her pocket, they know how likable and affable she is. She'll be targeted for the same reason Wigglesworth was - too many good relationships on the jury. I can definitely seeing Abi/Kimmi being used as sheep votes to knock her out to further their own causes.

I think Tasha has become one of the more interesting players. She is continually part of switch votes, but isn't the one being seen as the leader of those moves. If the next person going home is a man, she should seriously consider teaming up with Kelley/Kimmi/Abi and making it a straight female bloc vote, picking off the power men and setting up a final 4 where her only competition is Wentworth. But of course, female players can never carry that off because as much as they might hate a man, they hate some woman who said their hair pin was ugly 35 years ago so much more.

Good point, and I think you're probably right. Surely they would be more careful then to put someone within the idol falling distance.

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And I won't say if we have an evacuation but we do have a medical situation and it comes as a result of effort. Pushing a body so hard that it just stops.

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That tells me that it's not a result of the falling idol thing after all.

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Still think the hand looks like Keith's. Dude is also famished so he is already weak as hell.

Someone with a wart.

You're right, I'm probably not giving Tasha enough credit.

Why is Survivor Still on TV?

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Since its inception, the show has consistently been #1 in its time slot. Fifty-two million people watched the first season finaleas many as watched the series finale of Friends. Survivor's numbers have slowly tapered off since then, but they've been holding strong for several years at around 9 million, outlasting virtually all its reality-TV offspring and suggesting that Survivor is down to a loyal, core audiencemany of whom find each other online. There are still highly active message boards and forums where users debate the tactics of each contestant, cheer for their favorite, and analyze the show's editing for hints at who might become champion.

Who are these 9 million peopleand why do they care?

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Why is Survivor Still on TV?

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Since its inception, the show has consistently been #1 in its time slot. Fifty-two million people watched the first season finaleas many as watched the series finale of Friends. Survivor's numbers have slowly tapered off since then, but they've been holding strong for several years at around 9 million, outlasting virtually all its reality-TV offspring and suggesting that Survivor is down to a loyal, core audiencemany of whom find each other online. There are still highly active message boards and forums where users debate the tactics of each contestant, cheer for their favorite, and analyze the show's editing for hints at who might become champion.

Who are these 9 million peopleand why do they care?

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Raises hand

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Everybody says Survivor spawned reality TV, but at its core, Survivor is just a complex, compelling social strategy contest held in front of a camera; it's not pretending to mimic real life, and that gives it a sense of honesty and credibility.

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The author nails it with the above statement.

I got on the bandwagon late, just a couple seasons ago. But I was a pretty avid Big Brother watcher, so eventually the promos dragged me in.

i like surivor because every season is different, and the competitions are not too contrived, ala the amazing race for example.

it's great to watch from a strategic standpoint, of what we would do in similar situations, and it's great to watch the social animal of humanity unfold. Throughout the game, all 20 people know their object is to get rid of the other 19, but they still let the basest of emotions - fear, jealousy, pity, bitterness, interfere in a game.

Plus, Jeff Probst is terrific. He's self-aware and he plays off players who are both self-aware and those that are oblivious. I begrudgingly watch The Bachelor with my lovely wife, and the host of that shoe is a 5-star tool who does jack squat. Probst has gotten better and funnier over the years, I like when he's on camera.

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Why is Survivor Still on TV?

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Since its inception, the show has consistently been #1 in its time slot. Fifty-two million people watched the first season finaleas many as watched the series finale of Friends. Survivor's numbers have slowly tapered off since then, but they've been holding strong for several years at around 9 million, outlasting virtually all its reality-TV offspring and suggesting that Survivor is down to a loyal, core audiencemany of whom find each other online. There are still highly active message boards and forums where users debate the tactics of each contestant, cheer for their favorite, and analyze the show's editing for hints at who might become champion.

Who are these 9 million peopleand why do they care?

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Survivor is one of my all time favorite television shows. To paraphrase Tyler Perry; Survivor is the Gold Standard of Reality Television.

I am amazed that I continue to watch this show every single season and I am always hooked.

I honestly thought Survivor was done after the two seasons that happened in the Fall of 2005 (this was the season that Tom won and that featured the tribe that lost every single immunity challenge)
and the Spring of 2006. At that point I felt that Survivor was getting very boring and predictable. Whatever alliance got the numbers at the merge would just pick off the minority alliance. It was typically very easy to see who was going to win one or two episodes after the merge.

One of the things that Survivor does very well is to listen to its fans and recreate itself with new twist. The Spring 2006 season was the one that was won by Aras. After that was when Survivor had the two "Racial Seasons" (Fall of 2006, Spring 2007) and I think the show rebounded in a major way. I can't remember when the Hidden Immunity Idol was introduced, but that has been huge in shaking up how alliances get to the end of the game.

I absolutely love the concept of this season. I had gotten tired of the same old Survivor Celebrities reappearing every few seasons. I had always wanted to see a season of (forgotten) players that had played really well but bowed out of the game early.

The players that got voted in for this season are almost all the ones that I would have chose. In particular I always felt that Kelly Wigglesworth, Jeremy and Savage all deserved a second chance.

The Second thing that I want to see is Survivor Champions Club. 20 winners. Winner gets to share the title of Best Survivor of All Time with Sandra.





Here are my reasons why Survivor can be so addicting.

1. The Diverse Cast. The diverse cast means that there always going to be players that you can identify with. In terms of race, religion, hometown, occupation....etc. I've always found it funny how I will hate a certain player, but you go on a certain message board and other people love that guy. Perfect example: Most of you guys couldn't stand Rodney from last season, but I'm sure there are some ******bag types from Boston or New Jersey that love Rodney.

2. The Challenges. The reward and the immunity challenges are unbelievable and taps into the sports fan that likes to see how normal people compete in the jungle

3. Probst. - By Far the best reality show host. I can't think of anyone that is remotely close

4. The imagery. The Shots of the wild animals. The shots of snakes and lizards when someone is about to be devious. The amazing views they show you of the island and where the game is being played. The editing is unbelievable.

5. The strategy. I think everyone wants to see how far people are willing to go for $1 million and if they would do the same thing.

Great post. I will add that the people who loved Rodney loathed Mike.

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Great post. I will add that the people who loved Rodney loathed Mike.

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No one loved Raaahhhdeny

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Great post. I will add that the people who loved Rodney loathed Mike.

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No one loved Raaahhhdeny

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Seriously bro, RELAX.

COOL CALM AND COLLECTIVE BRUTHA

And don't forget the dirty island hot factor that creeps in each season

it has actually hurt wentworth....her legs look like they have the aids

Mike and Rodney....Bromance.

Oh well...it was bound to happen

But WTF WAS UP WITH JOE AND HIS DAD

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Oh well...it was bound to happen

But WTF WAS UP WITH JOE AND HIS DAD

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They both had ponytails. You shouldn't be surprised.

Joe: My Dad has never been very affectionate.
::Joe and his Dad kiss on the lips::

What?