Survivor S40: Winners at War

[NYwdwfan]

Colton, kind of. Jeff made a comment in BvW that they brought back a quitter, and he quit again. I'll have to pay attention when I get to the episode, but I remember Jenn just kind of losing motivation and feeling defeated after Hali was voted out. It felt different than "quitting". But I haven't seen the season since it first aired, so details are pretty fuzzy.

I hated Jenn. I found her annoying and lazy. Her quitting reminded menof playing games with my sister when I was little - if I had Boardwalk and got Park Place she would stand up and leave. If I were the producers I would never have her back.

 

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I hated Jenn. I found her annoying and lazy. Her quitting reminded menof playing games with my sister when I was little - if I had Boardwalk and got Park Place she would stand up and leave. If I were the producers I would never have her back.

I think I gravitated to Jenn because I hated pretty much everyone else except Carolyn.

 

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I'm watching another episode, and I had to pause to comment on this. During a reward challenge, they had to climb up a ladder and go down a slide in the ocean. Will and Dan were going up for their respective teams at the same time. Dan completely falls down on his rear end hilariously, and then Will falls down and goes down sideways. During Will's fall they played the Wilhelm scream. I love catching the small sound effects on these rewatches. I never realized they were there on the first watch.

 

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Just finished Worlds Apart! I'm probably going to go back and watch the reunion to see them call out Dan and for the Second Chance reveal, but here are my thoughts, aside from what I've already said...

• I truly believe Carolyn played the better game than Mike, but she lost because she was that "mother" figure that makes it so hard to win. She was in on every vote, and she orchestrated a couple big votes in Tyler and Dan. She played her idol successfully, like Mike, but she wasn't the obvious target. She formed alliances that got her through the game. Her initial one with Tyler, and then she created her backup plan with Mike. She was the only one who saw that Mike could actually win out, and she was the only person who had a plan in place. Everyone else was too arrogant to think that was a possibility. She played a much better social game than Mike, too, and she was also a competitor in challenges, winning two herself and being right there on a couple others, including the final immunity.
• Mike's game was very flawed. Early on he created enemies by being the drill sargeant around camp. He swapped into a large majority of blue collars, which helped him for a couple rounds. At the beginning of the merge was when he did his best work, being the pin holding together the blue collars and their factions. Mike essentially had Kelly and Dan, and then he had his deal with Rodney, but Rodney's plan was to flip on him at 7. Rodney then also had Will. So he had a large majority, but then he messed it all up at the auction. Yes, he overheard himself being talked about as the next vote, but how terrible of a social game do you have to have to make that move with loved one letters on the line? That is something you don't mess with. And think about the people you're playing with. It was just an all-time terrible move. He went from being one of the top players in the game, to needing to win/idol his way to the end. He ended up making it happen, but there were a couple times he was very close to losing the immunity challenge. He had no back up plan. He had to social bonds. His social and strategic game were non-existent. Does he get a lot of credit for pulling off the run? Absolutely. But the only reason he won is because the players in the game openly acknowledged that he needed to go no matter what, which puts that thought in the brains of the jury. Perception is reality, unfortunately, and that's a good way to shape the jury's perception in a way that you don't want it to go. It's very similar to Ben in HHH, but Ben had a better social game.
• I have four players from Worlds Apart in my top 100. Joe sits right at 100. His game is purely physical. There's almost no strategy, and when there is... it doesn't seem like good strategy. I have Sierra at 97, but that's more for what she did in Game Changers. If it was strictly on WA, she would not be in the top 100. I actually dropped her down a little bit due to her performance in WA. Mike is sitting at 86, right behind Ben, actually. Like I said, they are very similar players, but Ben had a stronger social game by a hair, which is why I have him slightly ahead. And I have Carolyn ranked at 80. I can't believe she has not been brought back, but Shirin, Sierra, and Hali have been back another time, and Joe has been back two more times.
• I have Worlds Apart sitting at 32 out of my 39 ranked seasons. It's still good TV, but it's not the best product Survivor has put out. My last unranked season is Kaoh Rong, but I am going to rewatch at least season 31-35 again since I haven't seen them since they aired. They could shift around upon my second time watching them.

Next up... Cambodia! When it was airing, I loved this season. It was absolutely amazing, and I hope it lives up to the hype. Honestly, HvV did not live up to pedestal it sits on when I watched it for a second time. I currently have Cambodia at 3 and HvV at 2. I could see Cambodia jumping over HvV.

 

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Literally me if you ask me anything about Survivor.

 

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Dalton Ross did a Quarantine Questionnaire with Purple Kelly, and in it she said there was a time when Jeff had the producers stop filming at Tribal Council. He then yelled at them and told them it would be the worst season ever if they didn't start giving him better answers, since apparently they weren't giving him much to work with.

She also said she would "absolutely" play again.

 

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Survivor has now postponed production on seasons 41 and 42 until the spring, which is their usual timeframe for making seasons, just a year behind schedule. That could likely mean that we won't get another season until this time next year. And that's only if the state of the pandemic allows spring to be an option.

 

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According to Deadline, although there were reports of delaying production of seasons 41 and 42 to the spring, the situation is still fluid. They say Survivor is looking at other potential countries, although Fiji is still a possibility.

I hope this is true. Not only would it be nice to get Survivor back in February, but it would be nice to see a new location again.

 

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I just watched the final pre-merge episode of Cambodia, where Woo went home and Terry was pulled due to his son's health condition. It's always so sad to see that play out. I can't imagine being halfway across the globe and getting woken up in the middle of the night to that news. Terry was playing a pretty good game, and I think the season goes differently if that doesn't happen. I really hope Terry gets a 3rd chance. He really deserves it.

Overall, Cambodia had a fantastic pre-merge. I remember it being so much about strategy and blindsides, which is was. But what made it so great was the emphasis on character development. Each character had their story told and the Second Chance theme played out very nicely. So many natural story lines. And it helps that it's a fantastic cast, which is helped by the fans choosing it. I think fan chosen casts are probably always going to be some of the better ones because it's who we want to see again. Although I'll never understand how someone like Monica got in over T-Bird or Carolyn. I also would have preferred Shane over Woo.

Can't wait to start the merge portion of the season!

 

[JPPT1974]

Really to not watch Survivor this season and next is really strange since it is on my go to TV list. And really do not watch much TV at all hardly.

 

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I finished my Cambodia rewatch earlier today. I love that season. I have it ranked #2 behind Micronesia. I think it may be the best cast ever outside of Winners at War.

Jeremy's gameplay was really strong. He had connections with almost everyone, but it took Spencer and Tasha to get him nervous enough to play his idol at the final 6. If it wasn't for them, he would have gone home. And we could be talking Kimmi, Keith, or Wentworth as the winner of the season.

I was surprised how strong of a game Tasha played. When I watched it live, I remember being disappointed by her. But she played a very strong game, and she climbed her way up from the bottom of Angkor. Spencer also played a great game. In a normal season, both of their games likely would have won their seasons.

One of the things I loved about Cambodia is they actually paid tribute to the country and culture through rewards, the opening credits, the music, etc. We don't get that anymore, and that's a shame. I miss when the location and its history played a role in the season. Cambodia is probably the last season to really do that. They had Kaoh Rong afterwards, but then I believe MvGX is when they started in Fiji full time.

This season also did not feel advantage heavy, even though it was. And I think that's because the players knew how to use them. They weren't flinging them around recklessly like new players do. Jeremy played two idols successfully. Wentworth played two successfully. Fishbach did not play his vote steal the right way, but it resulted in a dramatic blindside, so it worked out. I am totally in favor of going back to only two idols in the game at a time with no extra advantages, but even cutting that back to only newbie seasons would help the quality of the game IMO. Newbies just don't have the experience to use them the right way. When you think of the big idol moments, it's mainly returning players who are a little savvier. Parvati in HvV, Amanda in Micronesia, Wentworth in Cambodia, Denise in WaW. There are a couple of newbie times, like Kellee in IoI, but mainly its the experienced players making the advantages work.

I also like how Cambodia made idols harder to find. They found clues that they had to use in order to find the idols. It wasn't just a blind scavenger hunt, and you wouldn't be able to find them without the clue. Wentworth and Jeremy found their first idols in challenges. Jeremy had to leave camp at night to find it (which was kind of a dud, IMO), and Wentworth had to wait for the perfect moment to find hers under the shelter. And she only found that because she got lucky and found the clue during the immunity challenge. That's so much better than us watching someone search trees for a couple minutes, when we already know they found it because otherwise they wouldn't be showing it. But I still prefer a max of 2 idols in the game at a time.

I have 10 Cambodia players in my top 100. 11 in my top 101. 15 in my top 150. Only two land out of my top 200, but those are both in my top 275 (currently have 578 players ranked). Here is how they currently fall in my unfinished rankings:

6 - Jeremy
24 - Kelley Wentworth
29 - Spencer
36 - Stephen
38 - Terry
46 - Ciera
72 - Kass
83 - Tasha
97 - Kelly Wiglesworth
100 - Vytas
101 - Joe
115 - Andrew Savage
142 - Kimmi
149 - Peih-Gee
150 - Abi-Maria
153 - Woo
168 - Keith
181 - Shirin
258 - Monica
275 - Jeff Varner

Overall one of my favorite seasons ever! Up next... Kaoh Rong! That will get my last season and the last 18 players on my rankings lists, but I need to rewatch a few more seasons (likely 33-35) again to readjust some of the players in their current spots.

 

[arich35]

According to Deadline, although there were reports of delaying production of seasons 41 and 42 to the spring, the situation is still fluid. They say Survivor is looking at other potential countries, although Fiji is still a possibility.

I hope this is true. Not only would it be nice to get Survivor back in February, but it would be nice to see a new location again.

Is Figi really being that stingy about filming there? I can't imagine it would take that much to keep the production/contestants healthy in that environment

 

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Is Figi really being that stingy about filming there? I can't imagine it would take that much to keep the production/contestants healthy in that environment

Fiji will allow people to come and film, but they need to test negative as well as quarantine for 14 days before starting production. The issue is that production comes from all over the world, which makes it very complicated to get things put together.

 

[artvandelay]

Fiji will allow people to come and film, but they need to test negative as well as quarantine for 14 days before starting production. The issue is that production comes from all over the world, which makes it very complicated to get things put together.

Maybe a break is best for Survivor right now. Give them time to take a long look at where the game is now and look back at how they got there.

 

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I've been taking a break from my Survivor rewatch, but there is some new Survivor news to share per Martin Holmes.

The Caribbean has been looked at as a potential "backup" option to Fiji in the event that Fiji's travel restrictions do not lift. Specifically the Dominican Republic, where various international Survivor seasons have been filmed. The Dominican Republic currently does not have any restrictions for entering the country. At this point, the goal is to film in the spring of 2021.

CBS has committed to casting at least 50% BIPOC, and casting/recasting is currently underway for seasons 41/42. Some of the original cast is being cut altogether, or being moved around and asked to send in updated videos. All casting has been taking place online, with a week of psych exams and a week of interviews. It is also to be expected that some of the people who were supposed to be in 41/42 no longer can with the delay of production.

It has also been talked about filming season 41/42/43 altogether, rather than just the two at a time as in the past. They would air a season in the summer, with it likely being season 41 in the summer, 42 in the fall, then 43 in the spring of 2022. Some production has pushed back on the idea of filming three seasons back-to-back-to-back. Season 43 has also not been officially picked up by CBS.

As with everything these days, nothing is final, and all of this could change. I'm just happy to hear some news, and hear that we could potentially have a season next summer!

 

[manmythlegend]

What does BIPOC mean?

 

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What does BIPOC mean?

Black, indigenous, and people of color.

 

[manmythlegend]

Black, indigenous, and people of color.

Ah I see

 

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Andrea answering some questions about Game Changers. Very interesting that she was able to have the producer's mindset even while playing.

 

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This would have been absolutely hilarious.