LOL at the look of shock on Colton's face. I thought he was a big Survivor fan who had learned from past seasons. Anybody as familiar with the show as he claims to be should have known this was coming and planned for it -- nothing shocking about it.

I missed TAR last night, so I didn't see the Survivor promo. Is the twist a swap or a full merge?

Propst says "we're switching tribes," so I take that to mean swap.

What I don't understand is why they make it a big trailer for the next show and then give it away during a commercial. They seem to do that a lot though. Yes, Colton looked shocked. And yes, he should have known better.

[QUOTE=AGDee;2131774 Yes, Colton looked shocked.

And yes, Colton will be brought into the final three since [FONT=Impact]everyone[/FONT] now hates him?

[QUOTE=Cheerio;2131807]Seems too early to be making jury fodder calls. At this point in the game, those people tend to get voted out because 1) it's an easy decision to agree on and 2) they tend to be divisive and you can't have your tribe divided this early in the game. The guys even went as far as willing going to TC to get their divisive person out of the picture.

I'm not sure they do, at least not in a final-three sense. At least Troyzan seems to want to defend him, and I think others would see him as a threat, not as jury fodder.

As for why they give away the "twist," it basically means that the swap probably isn't going to be the main "plot point" of the show.

[QUOTE=SydneyK;2129298]You know, I think it's time for Survivor to move to a 2-hours/week format.

With 2 hours, they should show more actual interaction between tribe members and less 'Talking to the Camera' pieces, reducing confusion in viewers minds as to whether CONTESTANTS know :confused: something about another tribe member or just the AUDIENCE ;) knows it.

^^Right. That's definitely one of the reasons I'd like to see it go to 2 hours. At least in the beginning, it'd be nice to have more opportunities to get to know the castaways, see how they interact with each other, see more camp-buiilding, see more camp-life, etc...

But, I haven't ever heard anything AT ALL that indicates the show's going in that direction - I was just playing At-Home-Producer-for-a-Day.

CBS does it 2-3 times a week with Big Brother, but that show is certainly not as costly to produce as Survivor. It's all about the money.

You can check out the secret scene videos at cbs.com. There were 18 or so for this past episode. Some are more confessionals, some are scenes that didn't make it in, but it can really round out what you see on TV and give additional information about what's going on.

Tonight was the first time I have watched Survivor in two seasons - I am soooooo tired of watching the people who are the strongest and who could ACTUALLY survive on a deserted island get voted off, while the jerks - like Colton (who I despise) - and the players who are just plain dumb move ahead in the game. Is Colton a student at 'Bama or what college?

They've swapped and split up...so they figured out both the living on one beach and the gender based tribes were bad ideas and we're back to a regular season of Survivor. I guess with all the Redemption Island, former player, Exile Island randomness a classic season IS a novelty.:p

Right.

After the last two tribal councils, though, I'm kinda wishing Redemption Island was around this season. I liked Monica. And Bill. And I can't believe Colton is getting as far as he is. It's crazy. (And so is he!)

I don't think they've decided that at all. There have been a number of season with tribes based on gender, race, age or whatever, and they have always, I think, mixed them up after 4 or 5 tribal councils. As for the one world thing, it's not that they decided it was a bad idea, but it had served its purpose. Once they had the swap, they needed to separate the tribes to separate the former alliances. Otherwise, all the old alliances can still plot together at the shared beach.

I have no doubt both of these "twists" were planned all along.

Colton plays a bizarre game -- very strong in some ways, but very, very bad in other ways.

As for Matt, his arrogance is what got his torch snuffed.

Not even two mins into tonight's episode and I'm ready to slaughter Colton.....I'll admit the first episode I was rooting for him, now I'm hoping for everything to go against him and laughed when Manono lost the reward challenge :)

COLTON? MERGE!
 

OMG - God answers prayers.

But you know Colton will be back on some sort of All-Stars deal.

I know I'll get heat for this, but I really, really hope he is. I actually found him fascinating to watch. Some brilliant strategy coupled with some dismal strategy. Some good understanding of the game coupled with some horrible people skills. Perhaps it's because he reminded me of a few people I've known (especially one guy from college), but he kept me interested.

The thing is, if he comes back, I don't think it would be a repeat of the Colton who just went out. Based on interviews with folks who have been voted off and on tweets that Colton has tweeted over the last few weeks, I think we'd see a more mature Colton. I think that, unlike Russell, he might have learned something.

Meanwhile, LOL at Kat. Bless her heart.

Good Riddance Colton!
 

Soooooo glad he is gone!!!!!!!! Tarzan and Alicia need to go next!

Bless Kat's heart indeed. It's a good thing breathing is instinct or she would probably have trouble with that, too.

Colton's exit interview has been posted at Reality News Online (here) and it is worth reading. Here is an excerpt:

RNO: Let’s jump into the topics I know people want to hear about. After the episode in which you had plenty to say about Bill, you posted to Twitter to say that your comments were ignorant and you were a 20-year-old brat, but you’ve learned that you don’t have to be funny at somebody else’s expense. How has this experience overall changed you?

Colton: It’s changed me kind of like of I said. I know my comments were ignorant. Not that this is an excuse, but I was a 20-year-old kid. I’d never been outside of my own little world. I’ve led a very sheltered, privileged life.

First of all, I think some people think I really meant what I said. There’s humor behind everything I said except some of the harsher things. Why I went there with Bill was Bill would remind us, “I’m a struggling artist. I’m a starving artist. I’m poor.” I honestly thought, “He’s going to get to the end and play that card.” It’s human nature that if there’s three people at the end and one says he really needs the money, they’ll vote for him.

Did I handle it the right way? No. Were my comments ignorant? Yes. But I never meant them as racist. When I called him ghetto trash, that wasn’t directed at his race but his level of poverty. I’m not trying to justify what I said, just explain it.

RNO: What do you say to those who doubt that there has been a real change yet, such as Monica telling me last week, “It’s an arduous process to change as much as he needs to at this point”?

Colton: The people who say I haven’t changed – people think it’s a back-and-forth thing. I don’t think you can go through that and not grow as a person. I was running that game and you can call it karma or divine intervention – I don’t think you can help but take a step back.

I was more angry when I left because I was thinking, “Why did this happen?!” But when you watch it back and see how you treated people, you really don’t get it until you watch yourself. Then it was this uncomfortable feeling about, “Oh my God.” There really is no justification for it.

Not saying he comes across as ready for sainthood, but after all, those people rarely play Survivor well.

And it turns out he didn't have appendicitis after all. (Kat can breathe easier.) It was a severe bacterial infection.

He also says that had he not gone out of the game, it was Alicia, not Christina, that they were going to target. He had already discussed it with Jonas.

Wish Monica could come back in his place

Regarding Colton: I read something last week, and wish I could find it in order to link to it now, but Jeff pretty much said he wouldn't expect us to see Colton on Survivor ever again. I'll keep an eye out for it and will edit this post accordingly if I find it.

I understand why they voted off Jonas, but I hated to see him go. It seems awfully early in the merge to vote people off because they're well-liked and would be hard to beat in a final TC. While well-liked and a good provider, Jonas didn't appear to be much of a threat. I think, if I were on the show, I'd be voting off the people who are more threatening from an immunity POV, not from a jury-likability POV. At least, at this stage in the game.

I like Kim and Jay (Jed? Geez, I still don't know all their names), and to a lesser extent, Chelsea and Troyzan. It'll be interesting to see how the season plays out.

Oh! Forgot to mention how happy I was that Colton didn't give the HII to Alicia. I'm surprised the producers left it up to him - I'd've thought they would've told him he had to return it to Jeff for re-hiding.

**ETA: Here's the interview I was referring to.

Interesting about Colton.

I think Jonas was a threat because he's smart and everyone liked him. I think Kim had it exactly right -- what can be an advantage before the merge can be a disadvantage after the merge.

I'm thinking Kim may win.

Hey, who wants a 7-up?

Last night's episode was rather boring, imo. I think the most entertaining part of it was Kat's comment during the immunity challenge that she'd suck at the puzzle. 'Cause, you know, puzzles are SO HARD!

Jonas looked happy to be on the jury, didn't he!

I can see why the women did what they did, but I think they might have acted too soon. Especially after Chelsea let the cat out of the bag in front of Alicia and Christina. And honestly, I think they'd be stronger without those two women anyway. Keep the new Salani tribe thinking it's strong, I say!

But, that's just my dislike of Alicia showing.

I agree...it was one long, boring 7up commercial.

Usually I'm GLUED to the tv during Survivor, but these last few episodes I've been paying more attention to Facebook than the tv.

Thank you! I've been trying all morning to remember what soft drink it was that they mentioned once or twice. I just wasn't sure I caught it.

LOL. I liked it when Jeff said something about how slow Jay was with the puzzle, and Jay, without looking up, said "I hate puzzles." But I guess slow and steady wins the race.

I agree that the women may have made their move a little too soon, but boy -- Troyzan bought the story about Michael hook, line and sinker. And I noticed that Jay voted for Michael as well.

Jay has turned out to be better at the non-physical parts of Survivor than I gave him credit for at the beginning. Not sure how far it will get him, but I think he the clearest take on what's going on of any of the men.

I have to comment, too, on one moment I liked: After all the hyper-religiousity last year, I found Sabrina's table grace to be refreshing. Rather than thanking God for favoring them and helping them defeat the enemy to win a 7-Up challenge (you know Brandon would have done that), she acknowledged that they all now have a sense of what hunger is like and prayed for those in the world who are hungry. That gets an "amen" from me.

I thought that was the dumbest move of the night. What was Chelsea thinking? They didn't even need Jay's vote. Why say anything?

I thought the same thing! It was appropriate and refreshing.

Amen!

They (Kim and Chelsea) wanted Jay in on it because they wanted to keep the Kim-Chelsea-Troy-Jay alliance viable and so didn't want Jay to think they were ditching him, especially if it was a new-Salani and not a new-Manano getting voted out.

Chelsea's mistake wasn't in talking to Jay about it; it was in talking to Jay about it in front of Alicia and Christine, two people who are not in their alliance of four and not in the wider new Salani alliance. It had the potential to do exactly what Kim wanted to avoid -- disturbing the alliance of four with Troy and Jay.

I thought that slide looked awesome!

I think the women picked a good time to align, because you saw that the men were already thinking that way. In past seasons when the women waited too long and just listened to what the male leaders said, they got picked off one by one.

Would any of you guess that Tarzan is a surgeon?! I keep thinking that maybe he's pulling a Phillip and is just pretending to be someone in a smart occupation for the purposes of the game. Then he goes and says something crazy to someone, like, "I was wondering if you have a negative bias against me because you had a boob job and now hate your surgeon."

On the other hand, Jay seems much smarter than I thought he was, between the puzzle and the way he analyzed the conversation Chelsea started. I admit, I think I judged him based on his accent and slow speech. Sorry, Southerners!

I think it's particularly funny since he refused for quite a while to say what he did IRL. BUt apparently, Chelsea was supposed to hate him because of what she didn't know he does for a living.

Hey, this Southerner misjudged him because he's a model. Sorry, models!

What's with the "self-directed" reward challenges the last few seasons?? Is Jeff getting so expensive that they can only afford him for one challange and a tribal per episode?

They're getting good at the triple plays.

Anyone else catch what one of the women said about the reward challenge finally being on the island, and how nice it was that they weren't going to have to walk or boat for miles to get there? Are the challenges usually on a different island? If so I guess I've missed that all these years.

The challenges typically are some distance from camp, as is Ponderosa. Otherwise, the construction noises and everything would be too close to camp.

Jay, Jay, Jay. You fooled me. I thought you could see what was going on. One mistake after another last night.

I figured it was a ways away, and I know that Ponderosa is often on another nearby island, but I was surprised to hear the remark, "finally a challenge on the island!" Figured though it was a ways away, it was still on the island.

I did a little digging, because I knew I had seen a map before of where Survivor was being filmed in Samoa. Here it is:

http://www.claycritters.com/map/s19/...or_s19_map.jpg

It's from Season 19, but I bet the locations are mostly still the same.

It all seems to be on the same island, but since almost everything is near the beach and is some distance apart, they may well use boats to move from location to location. It occurred to me last night when Alicia said "the island" that that might just be how they refer to the area around the camp and that they might not mean it literally.