All-Star Survivor talk here: This is going to be very interesting.

I guess I’m the only one who likes Hatch. I don’t see why he doesn’t deserve respect for winning the very first Survivor…Oh well. I’m also hoping to see Rooty and Rupert go a long ways.

I agree with you. Hatch is the one who provided the blueprint for how to win these damn things. During the first Survivor, he was the only one who seemed to get it that being a “valuable member of the team” was just so much BS and that the game was about alliances. He focused that first alliance at voting out supposedly strong competitors who never knew what hit them.

Everybody copies him now. They should give him some credit. Reality show alliances were his innovation.

Jeez, give me a break. To call that a spoiler is a pretty generous definition of the term, and is really no better than random speculation.

The Mods called, and they want their hat back.

I read your initial comment with dismay as well. You admit it is a spoiler from a spoiler site, why not use the spoiler tags for those of us who really want to be unspoiled?

I want to make it perfectly clear that there are no true Survivor “spoiler” sites. It’s all random speculation. Nobody knows where this is headed but Mark Burnett, and last I heard, he ain’t tellin’.

My apologies for those that wanted to go in “pure,” but this is still speculation. If you want to escape speculation, perhaps you should rethink posting about the show on a public message board, and just watch the show when it airs.

I will say no more on the matter.

I loved it! I do have some issues with the choices Burnett made for returning Survivors, though. Why Amber the leechwoman? My God! The woman has the personality of a catbox liner and has ALREADY chosen her first blood-donor (not that the Robfather musters much sympathy from me: “I’m in an alliance with Amber because she’s beautiful”?!).

Why Jenna Lazyassca?! A woman who literally profited off of her mother’s illness, playing up the sympathy angle to get the jury to vote for her instead of the guy who actually worked the whole time!

And Mother Tina was at it again, this time pulling the “let me ride your coattails” wool over Ethan’s eyes instead of Colby’s. Can’t these people find a new shtick?

What really impressed me about Richard was not that he played a brilliant game. Although he did, but others since have done as well. But Hatch seemed to understand instinctually, from day one, how the game should be played. He went in cold, without the benefit that every player after his group had, which was watching him do it. I think his reputation is deserved.

It won’t be so easy this time, of course. But who knows…as others have said, he’s a pretty sharp guy.

Anyway, I’m terribly excited about all this! I’m not going to even try to predict any winners yet, because this thing is going to have more twists than a, um, really twisty thing. But I like Rupert, Shii Ann, and Richard. If I had to hazard a guess as to likely winners, I’d agree with elf6c that Colby and Lex could be a real threat.

Oh, and Jenna Lewis is a total moron. Truly, I’m at a loss as to why she’s even on it. She didn’t make it very far, she had no game, and she’s not even a very interesting character. She’s reasonably good looking, but no knockout. I suspect that a lot of people the producers would like to have had were not interested in another round.

And Chastain86, I agree with the others: please don’t post any info of even potential spoilers withut using tags, okay? I know it’s all speculation (mostly), but many of us still want to avoid it. Pretty please, with sugar on top?

Ooohh, yes! She was a major hottie back then, too. Actually, if anything, I thought she looked a little less tight this time. Still gorgeous, mind you, but I thought her muscles were a bit more defined last time.

Pity about the grating personality though.

I could see her being an alternate. According to the Dallas Morning News TV Guy, there were two former contestants who turned down another bite at the apple. Elisabeth Hasselbeck and Colleen Haskell. Elisabeth because she’s preoccupied with a TV gig (ABC’s The View I think), and Colleen because she didn’t wanna. :wink:

Mmm, Colleen and Elizabeth! (drool) The two hottest Survivor babes ever! (Colleen is #1 and Elizabeth is #2, in my book, but it’s a close race. ) Would have been great to see them back. Oh well.

She did make it to the jury, so that’s pretty far in my book. I agree that she’s a bit of a moron and her big mouth is going to get her in trouble, but I think Alicia’s big mouth will get her in trouble, too.

Jerri’s trying to keep herself in check, but I can see her exploding if things don’t go her way.
Amber is a total yawn.
I can’t see where Rob (from Marquesas) is any All-Star. He’s a jerk.
I like Rob from the Amazon.
I don’t remember much about Tom from Africa. How far did he get?
Others I heard that turned down the offer were winners Brian from Thailand and Vecepia from Marquesas.
I would have liked to see Michael Skupin from Australia be on. He’s the one who fell in the fire and burned himself and was removed from the game. I think it would have been nice for him to get a second chance.

I think they should have had Pascal back. He’s really the only bootee ever that got kicked by pure bad luck (that damn purple rock!). Although Shii Ann getting hooked by the fake merge in Thailand comes in second (and I’m happy she gets another chance).

Whoops! I forgot about Skupin in the Bad Luck Follies. Add him in, though I believe he was asked and declined.

Only because there were other priorities to vote off before her, not through any skill on her part. She just sat there in line waiting to be shot down like the rest of the Pagongs, and just happened to be towards the end of the line.

Actually, I kind of like Jerri’s chances this time (though I still don’t like her much). She’s smart enough to have learned from her mistakes and keep a lower profile this time. Plus she’s had a lot more experience being in the spotlight, what with the Playboy spread, Surreal Life, and other stuff. She could make it pretty far.

Yeah, but he’s an entertaining jerk. He’s so stupid and out of touch with reality, it’s actually funny. I wouldn’t like to live with him, but he makes for good TV.

I think that Richard’s strategy is playing more of the game-within-the-game.

He probably realizes his chances of winning the whole thing are slim as per all of the reasons listed here.

Therefore, in order to be the hot topic around the water cooler --and message boards- he’s taken on this obnoxious persona, getting lots of face time (as it were), and if nothing else, still showing them that win or lose, he’s still the one who steals every scene and provides the fans with a spectacle that is irresistible to watch. And discuss.

Or… he was deliberately trying to be the first one voted off which would again provide instant conversational fodder and again put him at the top of the list of the talk show circuit.

Whadya think?

I watched the first season and this last season but never saw any of the others in between. I’ve seen this Shii Ann thing mentioned several times so far - can someone please explain what happened, etc.?

Thanks,

MeanJoe

Okay. It goes like this:

Probst gets both tribes together and tells them they’re going to be living on the same beach from that point forward. Everyone thinks it’s the beginning of the merge and Shii Ann, who’s been having personality conflicts in her own tribe, instantly starts reaching out and making deals with the other tribe. When the bunch of 'em shows up for the next immunity challenge, Probst asks a leading question, and someone says they’re all happy with the merge.

Probst puts on his best “surprised” face and asks, “Did I say anything about a merge?” Turns out they’re still competing as two different tribes. Shii Ann’s tribe loses the challenge and they vote her out because she jumped way too quickly and obviously to making kissy with the other tribe.

Thank you. So basically, he set them up with an implied merge without actually saying “merge” and Shii Ann jumped. Damn clever of Probst to contrive a situation and damn silly of Shii Ann to fall for it. :smiley:

MeanJoe

Damn clever of Burnett. Not that Jeffy didn’t have fun delivering the punch line on that one.

Ah, yes. Good catch.

Probst does, at times, seem to take a certain glee at tweaking the contestants. I’m becoming quite addited to this show, I wish I had not missed all the intervening episodes.