In Palau, her tribe was totally blown out. They lost every team immunity challenge, IIRC, and the only time the other team lost a member was when they did the “both tribes lose someone tonight” thing. Steph was the last one standing on her tribe, got merged and soon bumped off. In Guatemala, they brought her and the 2nd-to-last from her tribe back. (Was his name Bobby Jon? big strapping lad who got totally pwned by dehydration the 2nd time around.) It was a sort of “sorry for sticking you guys on a tribe full of schmoes. here, try again with a real tribe.” But they billed it as, “each tribe will get a little boost: a voice of experience from the last season.”
I didn’t know, until the show aired, that JT was in. My money’s on him. No matter what he says in his confessionals about not playing the same game. I just can’t seem him being anything but likeable to everybody. JT and Cirie should team up.
Anyone catch Surviving Survivor last night? We DVRed it and just watched. It’s basically an infomercial for the new season of Survivor, but there were some interesting moments here and there.
And holy crap, how tall is Richard Hatch? My Google-fu is out of shape. They showed him interviewed with Russell Hantz, and it was unbelieveable the difference in size. I was able to find that Hantz is 5’6"; Hatch has to be at least 6’4", then.
Anyone know or have better Google-fu this morning?
Ah, never thought to check the IMDB. And his nickname is Darth Gaydar. Um…nice.
And what is with this magical height of 6’4"? (Hubby is 6’4", BTW.) Whenever I see a tall actor on TV, I go to look them up on the Net and they are almost always 6’4": Joel McHale, Chevy Chase, John Lithgow, Dr. Phil, Richard Hatch…and then there was the oldest son on Big Love. He’s a mere 6’3 1/2". Tsk, way to break a trend kiddo.
FINALLY!11!! :o
The Great North Texas Snowstorm of 2010 (seriously–12 inches of snow in freaking Fort Worth!) knocked my power out Thursday night about 15 minutes into Survivor (my neighbors probably heard me cursing like a sailor), and I didn’t get power back until late last night, so I just now got online and watched.
Totally agree about the hotness. I don’t think much of her Survivor-playing skills (even though she’s been runner-up twice), but she is so gorgeous. And she was definitely starting to cry at tribal council as Sugar left, which makes me love her even more. God, I could just stare at those eyes all night. 
I like Sugar, so I was sorry to see her go so soon, but it was not a terrible move by her teammates…
Except: Tom was absolutely right–they should have taken Cirie out of the game. I posted in the earlier thread (when they announced this season’s players) that if they were smart they would get rid of Cirie ASAP. She is too conniving and will gun for the strong players early. Tom was also right when he talked to Colby about Sugar. Everybody seems to be pairing up with people they know, and Colby doesn’t really have anyone. He could have had Sugar in his pocket (triple entendre!) and he just shooed her away.
Colby is a great guy, but I think he’s kinda clueless about a lot of the social gameplay. He isn’t really a ‘student of the game’ the way most of the other players are. He was asking Candice questions about who was in who’s previous season and who knew each other. These are things that most of the other players seem to already know inside and out, because it’s vital information in a game like this.
Colby was basically an unrivaled challenge-monster in his season and he gave the prize away at the end by bringing Tina with him to the final two. Then in All-Stars, IIRC, he was voted out very early. Maybe he’ll be tight with Tom and Steph. I hope so.
My two all-time favorites:
Boston Rob - His first season is the only season I skipped, but I’ve loved him since All-Stars and I’ve seen him on both Amazing Races.
Stephanie - this girl ROCKS! One of the toughest competitors ever. In my fantasy world, it would be a tough choice between Steph and Hot Amanda. Wait–it’s my fantasy, I can have both! 
i think his whole premise on going back again was to see if his body can take it with about 10 years added on since his first try. Sadly with a mindset like that he’s not gonna win.
I hope a Villain wins over a Hero. I prefer the dirty play over honorable play anyday of the week in Survivor. It’s not that I won’t cheer for a Hero, just that you get better drama, strats and such with Villains. I dont want to see Heroes string victory after victory because all the challenges are strength ones. Nor do I wanna see Villains string wins because the puzzle part is way over the Heroes heads. We need a good close merge (if they have one), we need a pre-merge mix-up, we need more boobage with less blurred and censored parts too, lol. We need impossible to find HII so Russell can’t get one without clues.
This is great. I was looking forward to this, and it’s turning out to be real good. Don’t miss Sugar-- she was pretty annoying. The Villains had a good strategy in the reward challenge, but they still didn’t win. The puzzle challenge was a reminder that Rob is actually pretty smart.
Coach and Jerry… what can I say other than they deserve each other.
Heh, no doubt. The great thing about this season is all the eye candy. The bad thing is that all the eye candy seems to be targeting each other. Stephenie and Hot Amanda both mentioned each other’s names, IIRC. Not a good development.
I was a fan of Sugar in her original season, but hated the edit they gave her on Thursday so was glad to see her go. I don’t give her much props for being bold enough to run topless; she’s a professional actress who has been fully topless on the silver screen.
Loving this season with so many people to root for, making each tribal council that much more stressful. Normally there’s maybe three people I really want to survive each TC, but on Thursday it was more like there were only three people I was okay to see leave.
Do you think you’ll feel the same way when the Villains get to TC?
Just got around to watching; here are some of my thoughts:
I don’t give Russell much of a chance for two reasons: 1) His strategy relies on manipulation, and last season he was blessed with a number of easily-manipulatable fools. No such luck this time. These are smarter and more experienced players (and most of the Villians tribe are manipulators in their own right), and I have no doubt they’ll be able to see right through his bullshit; Parvati already has. 2) The live finale of last season occured after he’d returned from H vs. V, and when he lost the vote, he moped and grumped his way through the rest of the show. I didn’t catch any “at least I still have a chance to win the next one” vibe. I think he knew already he was 0-for-2.
Jerri is already bugging the crap out of me. Conniving bitches can be fun to watch, but too much self-referencing ruins it. When she goes on and on about what a conniving bitch she is, I just want to slap her. Get over yourself.
The tribe did the right thing by voting out Sugar, rather than the more threatening Cirie or Tom as some suggested. I believe the game is best played in stages, and this early on it’s more important to keep the tribe strong. One of the pitfalls of playing a second (or third) time is that they’re already thinking “endgame” on day 1.
Rupert seems different this time around. Like him or hate him before, you couldn’t deny he had a certain spirit. Now he just seems mopey and defeatist right out of the box. I don’t look for him to go far.
At this point I’m not really rooting for either the “Heroes” or the “Villains,” but I do hope the Villains lose the next immunity so we can see the claws really come out. That’ll be fun.
Except that, with rare exceptions, it’s the people who are thinking “endgame” on Day 1 who wind up still in the game on Day 39.
“Keeping the tribe strong” is usually code for “keep young males and eliminate young females,” but this approach doesn’t usually work - just enough challenges center around balance, puzzle-solving, willpower, or wit to make it impossible to just stack your team with athletic men and win everything - and it cedes strategic advantage to the people who are thinking smart from the beginning. The way the game is structured, as long as you, yourself, and your primary allies don’t get eliminated, it doesn’t matter if you lose challenges. Even going into the merge with an imbalance from the original tribes isn’t a disadvantage, thanks to all the shuffling and chicanery the producers pull; I think the last time a tribe got straight-up Pagonged by a majority after the merge was… well, Pagong.
On another note, does anyone else think the “Hero” and “Villain” designations are just hilariously arbitrary? I mean, I’m as big a fan of Hot Amanda as anyone, but her approach and Parvati’s approach are primarily differentiated by the fact that Parvati won and Amanda didn’t. Sandra is villain? Why, because she scowls a lot? Tom, who won his million in part via calculated cruelty designed to manipulate a kid who idolized him, is a Hero? Candace, as I remember her, was pretty much a Mean Girl; she’s a hero? Of all the oversized physical features that make Danielle memorable, which of them are “villainous?”
I think the producers will agree that the designations are pretty arbitrary. I think it was in Probst’s blog where he says they switched Sandra at the last minute.
Perhaps I could have worded that better, but what I mean is, I think there should be different reasoning to the vote at TC #1 vs. TC #5, 10, 15, etc. The best players have beginning, middle, and end strategies, and playing on day 3 like it’s day 33 may not be the wisest thing.
This isn’t my definition of “keeping the tribe strong.” Sugar was already getting on peoples’ nerves and starting to become an emotional basket case. She was destined to be an energy vampire and negatively affect team morale. It didn’t have anything to do with her gender or physical stature.
You may be right, but surely the best way to ensure that you, yourself, and your primary allies don’t get eliminated, is to win tribal immunity in the first place.
Not to mention the fact that Sugar’s performance in the Reward Challenge wouldn’t peg her as the weakest girl anyway.
ETA: And did anyone else find it weird that after Rob’s collapse, he was discovered by Jerri?
There are maybe four or five Villains I’m fine seeing leave as opposed to three or four for the Heroes, so not quite as a much but still quite a bit more than a regular season where there are maybe three or four players total (including both tribes) I root for to stay.
You know, I think Coach is as much a tool as anyone else, but I am still uncomfortable when people (including Jeff) mock him right in front of his face. I’m beginning to think he’s mentally unstable. He makes up really unbelievable lies and has these delusions of grandeur that are just too far-fetched for someone “normal” to try and pass off as real.
Colby and Jeff Probst were very good friends at one time. I’m assuming they still are. I do not believe that Colby allowed Coach to move him like that. All he had to do was to flatten his body out on top of the parcel as it’s nearly impossible to move someone in that position. I’m wondering if Colby did that because it would make for good drama.
Sugar talking all night would have made me want to sock her, too. CLEARLY Colby wasn’t interested in her. How mortifying for her.
I still have a love/hate relationship with Tyson. So many things he says are laugh out loud funny but he’s got a mean edge to him that I don’t like.
Tom still rocks.
James could and should do underwear ads. Holy mother, he’s got an awesome body. He made Boston Rob look like Erkel.
I don’t understand Jerri. Didn’t she walk off the set of the Survivor reunion show following her last appearance, claiming that she was edited to look like a bitch? Now she appears, proudly, as a Villain?
Why, oh, why doesn’t Cirie wear a bathing suit with more support?
Courtney didn’t beef up for the show at all. Sigh.
I think she might also be mentally ill, albeit less dramatically so than Coach. You’d have to have a tenuous grasp on reality not to realize that all the “femme fatale” things she gets are making fun of her.
I knew a guy who used to make up crazy stories like that. He was otherwise perfectly normal, so I don’t buy into the idea of it being a symptom of mental illness. He’s just a tool.
No it’s not. How do you figure?
Where did you read that Colby and Probst were good friends at one point?