Well. I suppose Sia doesn’t have to give anybody anything, and how much she decides on is her own business.
But, yeah, those amounts did seem weirdly random. Perhaps they could have framed it better: “Sia is giving $100,000 to each of the two players with her favorite hairdos, with an additional $15,000 prize to the player with the highest cheekbones.” At least it would seem less arbitrary.
When I heard the $100K figure I immediately thought that I must have heard Jamal’s prize wrong - he said $50, not $15…right? Apparently not.
Random thought:
The idol nullifier is too powerful, especially if it can be played at the final 5. There’s no risk to it, since the worst case scenario is that person doesn’t play an Idol… and then goes home anyway. There need to be a little challenge to it. Like if you play the nullifier against someone and then that person doesn’t play an idol, that person now gets immunity.
Edit: Duplicate post
On the other hand, you could say the same about an immunity idol in the first place. The only risk to playing one is doing so without needing to, and then not having it later when you do need it. It’s just that at the final 5, that isn’t true of either the idol or the nullifier.
That said, I do like the idea of invoking some sort of penalty for a wrong guess with the nullifier, just to put a different spin on it.
Cast list for Survivor 40:
I’m curious to see how the guys who have been out of the game for so long like Ethan and Yul will do. The game has changed so much since the early days.
Also, anyone who doesn’t vote out Rob immediately is an idiot. I’m sure his strategy will be “You know I won’t make it to the end so you might as well keep me now” and “I can build a bitchin’ shelter.”
There’s actually lots of risks with the idol. Survivor is a game of alliances so the real mistake is playing for the wrong person and then your alliance gets weakened. Also, as soon as you play it the idol gets rehidden so someone else could find one.
Jeff said next season is the most anticipated in history, and he is right. I am just glad to start a season where I know almost the entire cast.
I’d love to do a Survivor pool for this season. I’d host it if anyone knows a great place to set one up. It would be epic.
No Aras? He was the winner who a long-ago Doper knew personally - he held up a “Hi SDMB!” sign on TV for a few milliseconds, IIRC.
And seeing all these alpha males trying to outsmart each other will be pretty funny. Tony vs. Rob seems like it’s worth the price of admission itself. I’m hoping Tony builds a treehouse or something as his new spy shack.
I’m a little surprised they’re letting Amber & Rob on the same season. Since they have an inherent alliance, and will pretty much by default sharing the prize. I’d assume they won’t let them ever be on the same tribe. But if they both make it to the merge, it would be sensible for one to play solely for the benefit of the other.
One year ago, during David vs Goliath, there was Angelina that Survivor women don’t find HIIs. Well this year, a lot of women got them, and mostly misplayed them.
Kareshma played one correctly negating a bunch of votes, and Kellee gave her IoI HII to Dean who played it correctly.
Chelsea went home with an idol.
Kellee was voted with two idols in pocket.
Janet played one of her HII, but did not need to.
Lauren played her IoI HII , but did not need to
Elaine played her HII, but did not need to
Janet played her other HII successfully, but negated by the HII nullifier
Vince went home with an idol.
Jamal played his idol on Noura, but did not need to
I think there were a lot of fun players this season despite the controversy and the rotten theme.
I would like to see Jamal, Janet, Kellee, Dean, Noura, Elaine, and Tommy return for another chance. and if they ever had a “Pre-Merge Boots” season, I would like to see Jack, Molly, Jason and Chelsea get a 2nd chance. Jack probably blew any chance by not going to the reunion this week.
Its unfortunate that Missy was part of the Dean/Kellee/Janet controversy cause I liked her game play until then. Really Type A alpha player and athletic.
So Sia gives three players $215,000. What is the total Prize fund for the cast? About $1.3 Million? Isn’t that about the same as what Richard Hatch, Rudy, Wigglesworth Sue Hawk, and the rest of Season 1 got 20 years ago? Sia (Cousin ITT) is giving away about 15% of the total prize fund for about 5 minutes of publicity
Hey Survivor, you ever hear of inflation? Just how much money is Burnett, Probst, and CBS making on this show? Cash Cow!
(yes, I heard that the winner of the Champion season is getting $2 Million, about time)
FWIW, Although I haven’t seen any spoilers for next season, but I have heard that there are spoilers available.
Honestly I think keeping the amount the same (along with the reduced ratings) has led to a better show. Early on, the contestants were a mix of people who had a sense of adventure, but mainly wanted the money. Then there was a weird belief that Survivor would jump start acting careers, so half the cast would be “account reps” from California who had never seen the show. Now, most the the castaways are big fans of the show. I think this had led to better gameplay and less bitter final tribals.
You need to name the person playing the idol. That’s tough. And you have to guess beforehand.
I’d vote out Sandra first. Then Rob. So he can build that shelter. But they wont be on the same team, I bet.
You wouldn’t play the nullifier unless you have the votes. You know where the votes are going. So there’s no really penalty for guessing wrong because that person is going to get voted out regardless. Their only hope of survival is if they have two idols.
Good breakdow about the idols.
IIRC they doubled the secondary prizes some time ago. #2 gets $200K, #3 100K, $50K, and on down.
You THINK you know where the votes are going. Lots of blindsides this game. And people have to stop blabbing they have a idol.
Yes, it needs to be played before the final five, i agree.
Tweak for the nullifier - the longer you wait to play it, the fewer votes it nullifies, and it never nullifies more than n-4 votes (n is the number of people at tribal).
A few seasons ago, my wife and I began skipping a bit through the reunion show. We did see Sia give away money.
When did that start?
As I recall, it started a few years ago - maybe 3 or 4.
I think it’s a terrible idea because it is so easy to create hurt feelings when someone gives $100K to two people and only $15K to one person. I was surprised no one was screaming this had something to do with gender bias or gender discrimination.
It really irks me that Jiffy is crowing about how much everyone learned and grew over the Dan expulsion but then he doesn’t see anything wrong with allowing this. I wonder if I was to mail in a check for a small amount of money next season for some contestant. Would they announce my name and give the money? What if many viewers started sending in random amounts of money? What a mess!