It’s the 50th round of Survivor after 25 1/2 years. Amazing. I watched the very first Survivor episode right as it aired and have seen every single season, even when I lived in China for two years(my Dad sent us copies on DVD/CD-rom).
For Christmas, I bought my wife a signed copy of Jeff Probst new Survivor book. It’s been shipped only now to coincide with the new season. I like to get my wife at least one thing she wasn’t expecting and Jeff’s autograph in this book was this year’s idea.
Oh, and Survivor AU is airing their 14th season…but they fired Jonathan Lapaglia, which sucks.
Lesson #1 - Don’t target the Queen and miss. That was a harsh first Tribal Council vote.
Coach/Ozzie war redux - this could get bloody.
Savannah vs Colby challenge - my two favorite players this year head to head. I hope they both go far, but nobody is buying Savannah’s story. I would have told everyone of my advantage. MAD doesn’t work if it’s secret.
Otherwise a good start to what looks to be a fun season. Now if they can just shank Rizzo early…
What an excellent episode! I guess when the cast knows what to do, and we already know their personalities, the editors can get right to stuff. Observations:
How the hell did Colby only get better looking with age?
How does Cirie stay looking so good!
How the heck did Johnathan get EVEN BIGGER.
Christian Hubicki is just… awesome. That’s all. He’s just so fun to watch.
Loved all the challenges. LOVED seeing Johnathan just basically throw everyone up the ramp :).
The extra hour wasn’t really needed, but I see why they wanted to play things out. Getting the idols, and the challenges, and the medical eviction, were necessary to see.
The not-quite-fight-but-severe-disagreement between Colby and Rizzo i think is more of a generational issue, than a personal issue. Colby is a different breed of man than Rizzo, and I think its just a huge conflict.
I really hope Aubrey and Emily go far. I love their disparate personalities, and I love seeing them work.
And Coach should be next. I hope Ozzie comes out on top. I’ve never understood how one man could be so oblivious about their own behavior. Honor and truth are about the furthest thing from coach’s actions.
But overall I agree, it looks like a great season.
At least he acknowledged his social game was lacking and he will make adjustments. As amazing as he is, he’s not cut out for winning this game.
I agree, I like watching Cerie but she’s much to dangerous to keep around - from a player’s POV. In addition to Survivor, she won the inaugural season of The Traitors US (2023), taking home the $250,000 prize as the sole remaining Traitor - a game which one could argue is a much harder game to win.
I fear they’ve missed their chance to get rid of Cirie early, which would have been safest all around. I like Savannah, but her winning 49 puts a target on her back too big to ignore. Colby has the advantage of being one of the most liked and respected competitors on Survivor, which may come in handy against the new style of play.
Would be nice to have a season where someone doesn’t get evacuated. Or maybe do a season of just such folks!
The editors made a point to show one of the survivors pointing out that there were two immunities up for grabs in the challenge, as if she were expecting only one. I was too, honestly.
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Yes, they have all obviously figured out with a 26-day season and this many people, they gotta kick people off at a quicker rate.
One injury helped the rest even if it was unpleasant.
Unrelated:
Is Colby too good for this world? I love that he found Rizo annoying and ended up befriending/mentoring him later on. I hope both of them go far. I, uh, like Rizo, which apparnetly isn’t the common view.
I want Colby to win. Just watching him again reminded me how genuine and nice he is.
Cirie is insane. If you are not aware, she just finished Survivor AU, yet another season of Survivor, one that runs over 40 days on the island. She made it far there as well(Parvati won).
I like her. She went couch → Survivor and now does other shows as well. Good for her. I bet she really wanted Parvati on the show; the two are friends. But Parvati, now winning a second time, announced she is done.
Just got to the premiere last night. Looks like (not surprisingly) this will be a fun season with some really good gameplay.
Honestly, I think Savannah and Rizo both benefited from playing with a bunch of dolts in season 49. There are no dolts here, and they were both called out as targets in episode one; I’ll be surprised if either of them goes far.
As for the supply challenge, IMO Coach’s every-man-for-himself attitude was absolutely the right way to play. His mistake was in not immediately rejecting Ozzie’s suggestion of letting whoever grabbed the key first keep it. His silence seemed like agreement, and that’s what ticked Ozzie off. I hope they both make the merge so that we get to see them interact further.
The throwers for the other two teams both held the ball itself and threw it like a softball, which worked very well. Cirie kept swinging it by the rope and coming up short - over and over and over and over. Why she didn’t change tactics — and nobody on her team tried to convince her to do so — is perplexing. The classic definition of insanity.
I felt really bad for Kyle. Medical evacuations are always heartbreaking. When the episode kept going after Tribal Council, and there was clearly not enough time for another immunity challenge and a second TC, I kind of guessed what was about to happen. I too would like to see a season of all players that were pulled out of the game. There’s got to be enough of them by now.