Dalton Ross asked Jeff about this in his weekly interview. When they did the run through, the practice contestants let the platform down in a controlled manner, since they weren’t actually playing for a million dollars (as Jeff put it). They didn’t realize the real runners would just drop the rope as soon as the caller grabbed the object. They have run this same challenge before, and I don’t remember there being any problems, but they may have done it with larger teams so there were dedicated rope pullers on both sides of the platform.
There seems to be a perception that people who claim to be huge fans of the game will turn out to be good at it, which ignores all those football fans out there who’d never score a touchdown. Even a blind pig finds the occasional truffle, but as a general rule, people who know everything about the game tend to suck at it, because the game is not in the details. It’s about getting to the final vote with four people on the jury who will either vote for you to win a million dollars, or who will vote against the other guy.
Blindfold challenges are not one of my favorite challenges. I don’t want to hear people yelling on my TV and then Probst feels he has to yell louder than the callers. And I don’t find is amusing to see people bump into obstacles.
I also don’t like the Survivor style wrestling matches.
Those are my two favorite kinds of challenges.
I noticed this time that they didn’t have too many horizontal posts at crotch height facing the direction they’d be travelling… the guy who managed to walk into one had to work at it.
I also thought it was funny that one of the callers would yell out “Grab it!” when her people were standing next to the thing, rather than “It’s on your left; grab it!” They’d always stop for a few seconds, like, “Is she kidding me?” and then start feeling around…
Because there is a chance to see some boobies? 
one of my favorite survivor moments is when Randy called out to a blindfolded member of another team and gave him wrong instructions.
Never never throw a challenge:(
Under the circumstances, why was it essential that they throw a challenge now, as opposed to just waiting until they lose naturally? Morons.
So glad to see the Power Couple broken up. If I had to see one more bro-hug I was gonna puke.
They were saying they wanted him gone before the merge. Based on that, they very much had to throw that challenge. And then it exploded in their face.
I dont think throwing a challenge has* ever *worked out well in the end.
As soon as Rodney the Imbecile Mental Midget started crowing about how he was going to take over and steer things his way and East Coast nonsense and yada yada yada, I just knew he was the boot.
So predictible. But also so funny. I don’t understand how he (and Max and So) will ever be able to go through their lives and introduce themselves to people with their heads held high. They all just came across like a bunch of clowns.
At this point, I think Joe or the married guy (sorry I forget his name) are headed for the big win. If Mike wins, I wouldn’t mind that a bit either. I really like that guy. He may be headstrong but he is just the one guy I’d want on my side in any kind of conflict. I think he epitomizes most everything good about the USA.
Seemed to work out great this episode, but two different things were happening:
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Rodney wanted to throw this challenge now, not later, because they had to get Joe out before the merge. His plan succeeded in that they got to tribal before the merge (just barely!), but it blew up in his face spectacularly.
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Mike wanted to throw this challenge now, not later, because he wanted to give Kelly as much cover as possible in the other tribe, plus he wanted to break up the two-some of Rodney and Joaquin. Mike ended up doing 90% of the heavy lifting of throwing the challenge because Kelly is dumb as a stump. For a guy who wanted to throw a challenge, and then have to work so hard (and seemingly obviously) it couldn’t have worked out better. Throwing the challenge worked out better for Mike than it went badly for Rodney.
Seriously. I was wondering if they were *both *trying to throw the challenge. Maybe they need to take another look at Kelly’s head injury. 
As Dalton Ross just posted:
*Rodney, throwing a challenge is ALWAYS a bad idea. Even if it ends up not hurting you—and Mike certainly dodged a bullet by agreeing to participate—it has all the potential in the world to screw your game up.
Repeat after me: You NEVER want to go to Tribal Council. Tribal Council is where people get voted out (when not receiving a dissertation from Jeff Probst on the pros and cons of Botox, that is). And, well, that person could be you. Just ask Max, who only three days prior was downright giddy after losing the immunity challenge so he could vote somebody out—only that somebody ended up being him. Or, if you don’t get voted out, your new bromance partner does. Rodney had all these secret plans to go to the end with Joaquin, and now those plans are dead and gone because he insisted on telling people to lose the challenge. And how bad is Rodney’s social game? So bad that Sierra would rather partner up with Dan—DAN! He of the terrible, no good, awful non-apology—than the tribe newbies she actually kind of liked and Rodney. That’s pretty damn bad.
Throwing a challenge is the height of arrogance in this game, and when you get arrogant, you get shipped out. You ALWAYS need to assume that your neck could be on the line. How many people have gotten eliminated after they said they got too comfortable?*
Seems to me he’s selectively dismissing that throwing the challenge worked out perfectly for Mike.
I think a better way of putting it might be it’s never a good idea to be the one to suggest throwing a challenge. That way Mike’s success doesn’t break the plan.
Although I enjoyed most of the episode, my absolute favorite part was the reaction shots after the votes. Oh Rodney if you’re not made fun of for the rest of your life for that look on your face your friends are falling down on the job.
So far.
His overbite doesn’t help. He looks like Mortimer Snerd under the best of circumstances.
I think you are exactly correct. Indeed!