Survivor: Samoa
 

The cast has been announced. The premiere is September 17.

Hooray!! An new show to watch!! (I'm so tired of big brother!)

Thanks for the link!

Erik sounds like a real winner. :rolleyes:

Oh God...I had to check him out, then to my horror I saw that he's a Pepperdine graduate. Way to use that degree, buddy!

ETA: What the...there's another Pepp grad on this season, too - Brett.

Fixed it for you. But WTF? How do you get a double degree from a school like Pepperdine, and then become a bartender? I hope to God that he isn't Greek.

He was apparently there the same time I was, but he would've been a freshman whereas I was a senior. So I don't recognize him.

Have any of you guys watched the "Tribal Council Orientation Video"?
http://www.cbs.com/primetime/survivo...2JBh2YY7mw4p_I

It's definitely a nod to LOST's Dharma orientation videos, but at one point, Jeff Probst starts to talk about a "secret bypass" loophole, which is then "cut" by CBS.

What do you think? Is it BS, or is it yet another 'twist' from CBS in order to try to keep the show 'fresh'?

So who watched tonight?

Yes, I get it that Russell is in there to make for good television, but if he honestly thinks that he can approach the women one by one, and then assume that the women won't talk to each other and figure him what kind of tomfoolery that he is up to, then he doesn't know much about women. :D:p

Exactly. It'd be one thing if he made an "alliance" with just a couple of the girls. Even the two seemingly naive ones. But Marissa obviously caught on quick (although she was still stupid to have said something to him), and so did the older woman (I forget her name).

They're probably going to keep Russell around for a little while because he's strong and can help win challenges. But his strategy for winning the game clearly isn't going to get him into the final three... or anywhere close to it.

ETA: And the bartending dude is obnoxious.

Marissa was classy in her exit interview.

I was expecting Eric to be my least favorite - Russell made that impossible. Who in their right mind would do all that at the very beginning? Sure, it's a game, and if he wants to play it by dumping out all the canteens, making the women think he's in an alliance with each one, burning teammates' socks, lying about surviving Katrina, etc... then that's his prerogative. But why would he do it now? He's weakening his own tribe. Why not save those antics for later in the game (i.e. after a merge)? (Perhaps because he knows he couldn't possibly last that long?)

Unfortunately, I'm afraid we'll be seeing a lot more of Russell than I'd like.

Exactly. Maybe there's a reason his tribe ended up at tribal council.

And if you're going to form an alliance with people in the first few days, you don't try to form one with EVERYONE. At that point, people are still very much on their own, and they'll vote out anybody. As long as they're not going home themselves, they're happy, and there's very little arguing... and a lot of talking between everyone.

It's when the game really gets going that you begin to strategize. Because like a few of those girls, I would have seen right through him from the beginning, and he would have painted a huge, red target on his back by approaching me that early.

I was so excited for this season to begin, I even talked my husband into watching with me, and I ended up SO disappointed. Russel is vile, and he's not fun to watch at all (IMO), his strategy is crap - weaken the tribe so that he's the last one standing, then get Pagonoged by the other tribe. Then, they hardly showed anyone else, so there was no development of the characters - just a 45 minute beating over the head by a troll.

My husbands reaction was , "How do you watch this trash?" Oh well, guess I'll be watching alone this season.

Here's the link to Jeff's blog

I didn't even notice that the typical Survivor opening was omitted last night!

I am interested to see how 20 will make it down to 2 (or 3) in 39 days. I admit that I like it when they have enough people that you know everyone isn't leaving by *regularly scheduled* tribal councils.

I HATE Russell. He's 100x worse than Coach. Coach was a liar and had a huge ego, but at least he wasn't transparently and overtly (and literally) evil.

Russell (or, as they're calling him at Reality News Online, RussHell) reminds me of a cross between a troll and Ernest T. Bass. As Barney would say, "he's a nut." (A really dememted nut.)

Meanwhile, Ben was getting on any nerves left over from Russell H.

And I loved the criticism of John's swimming. :rolleyes: (Was that Ben or Dave -- not sure.) The guy was swimming in jeans. Of course he was slower.

Speaking of which, do the producers make the cast wear stupid clothes? What is this coming up to the beach with jeans, partial suits or blazers, crazy shoes or the like? Until they start shooting Survivor: Midtown or Survivior: Sitka, why wouldn't you go in wearing a comfortable and durable shirt, shorts and appropriate shoes. And while you're at it, you'd make sure that you've got on underwear that can be seen on national television, 'cause it will be. It take me a few days to recover from seeing Russell H. and Mike in their scivvies. http://www.smilieshq.com/smilies/sick0001.gif)

I'm convinced that they do. I haven't watched many seasons of this show consistently, but I usually always catch at least the first episode. I agree that things they are wearing this season are pretty abnormal for being in Samoa, but I can think of a few people who showed up in much worse. I vaguely remember a girl (when they were in China?) who was more gothic looking, and wearing black boots up to her knees, with buckles (or something) all over them.

Some people might just be crazy enough to wear things like that, but how many people, after rowing their way to the beach, would continue to wear a blazer as the sun beats down on them? Not many, I'm sure.

Some of it has to be for the "Oh my god, who would wear that on Survivor?" reaction.

ETA: And I know you kind of mentioned this MysticCat... but is it me, or are more and more people showing way too much of themselves on this show? Either intentionally, or unintentionally.. ?

I noticed that about the colors actually. I think you are right about the producer influence. With exception I can't see all the castaways being as stupid as they are in what is packed. I noticed for instance that several of the girls were falling out of their shirts during the challenges. I can't see any of them being too dumb to wear a sports bra even though they know the game is really physical. And for the first challenge, why did only one of them strip to their boxers for the swim?

I noticed it too but forgot about it when I posted earlier.
If you noticed in the second challenge, John did strip to his underwear -- briefs, not boxers. Maybe he thought that briefs and swimming against the waves in the ocean =/= a good idea.

I think part of the impractical outfits is that they are supposed to be castaways who got stuck on the island. Never mind that the challenges they then perform are ridiculous. I remember one season when they actually tricked all the castaways into thinking they were going to a press conference first, so most of them were dressed nicely.

I remember that. Ever since that season, I've assumed that the castaways aren't told when the game will actually start. I'm sure they have a rough idea, but perhaps they're thinking they'll have a chance to change clothes/shoes before the game officially begins. And perhaps that chance never presents itself... until it's too late.

If that's the case, then as soon as I found out I was picked, I'd start wearing REI clothing every day to work! And for sure, I'd wear a sports bra!! :)

If he makes it to the finale, it will only be because he's bait for the jury and his competitors will know it. But I think he'll be gone 2/3 of the way thru.

I agree about the bait part, but I doubt any good player would want him on the jury (too much of a wild card), so I'm going to guess he'll be gone before the merge.

Who knows,maybe Coach and Russell are related?

It seems to me, that Survivor is getting some "cheap entertainment thrills" in by having a lot more rough, and borderline violent challenges than in previous seasons of the show.

I would like to see more that involve brains. I do remember one challenge (it was in the Thailand season that had "Shii-Ann" in it...it was where you had sticks and you could remove 3, 2 or 1, but whoever had 1 left would be the winner. Anyhow Shii-Ann was one smart cookie and she won it for the team by figuring out mathematically which were the best moves to make, strategically speaking....)

I will look for it online (that episode).

I hate to say this, but I have to hand it to Russell. It seems like he's got this show figured out. If I hadn't seen the first episode, I might actually not dislike him. I still hope he goes down the road of being blindsided with it still sitting in his bag, though.

I thought Yasmin would actually get to see the vote. What good is being able to go to Tribal with the other team when you don't get to see the vote? Jeff asks questions because he doesn't know what's been going on at camp (supposedly - some of his questions are so on point that I can't believe he doesn't have SOME knowledge), but whoever goes to Tribal with them has already been around camp for 2 days, so they know what's been going on.

Ditto. I still dislike him, but he's got some stiff competition at this point: Ben is a jerk. I don't think he needed to have apologized for knocking Yasmin down (Yas was really grating on my nerves during that whole exchange), so my dislike for him isn't really connected to the challenge. He's just so... what's a good adjective here?... thoughtless? inconsiderate? mean-spirited? I'd love to see a good Ben/Russell showdown at Tribal.

What's the story with the hidden immunity idol? Does Russell know that he found the other tribe's HII? Can he use the other tribe's HII?

He has to know what's been going on.

Wasn't it Good Russell that he tripped?

I thought he should have apologized (whether he really needed to or not), but the apology should have been to his tribe. Jeff had given them a warning, he ignored it, he got pulled and his team lost. He should have apologized to them.

What is it about the social aspect of this game that some of these people (Ben, Yasmin) don't understand? "That's just the way this outlaw rolls" won't cut it, because even if they keep him around for now, that's just the way that outlaw alienates the people who have the power to (1) vote him off or (2) vote against him on a jury.

I wondered the same thing.

Is there even another tribe this season? Besides showing up for the immunity challenge, there wasn't much shown of them - except for Shamu losing the snorkel mouthpiece.

By the time there's a merge, we'll all be asking who those folks are!! ;)

It was his tripping of Good Russell that got him ejected from the game, but Yasmin was going off on him for tackling her "like a dude."

I agree - I thought he should have apologized to his tribe (and, possibly, to Good Russell) for flagrantly breaking the rules Jeff had just warned about. But I don't think he owed an apology to Yasmin for tackling her (and that's what I think she wanted from him).

I gotcha, and I agree.

But at the same time, he shouldn't have gone off on Yasmin's grammar and the like. And she shouldn't have arrived in Foa Foa's camp and announced that she was there to help them so that beating them in challenges to that it wouldn't feel like taking candy from a baby.

To paraphrase Shii Ann: clueless, clueless people.

ETA: About the HII RussHell found, the strategic overview of last night's episode at Reality News Online says this:

What would help Jaison even more is if he could discover that Russell’s non-hidden immunity idol cannot help Russell. As was revealed in this episode, for it to work in a particular tribe it must be from the other tribe’s camp, which only Yasmin appears to know (then again, given her acumen, maybe not). Jaison is the only other one who knows of its existence and now who has it, so if he needed to dislodge Russell for some reason, he could bait him into it if he ever discovers this truth about hidden idols this season.

I have to say I didn't hear that point clearly made last night, but maybe I missed it. (Or maybe they're reading too much into something.)

I know! After Betsy made her comment about how Ben shouldn't look for help if he gets pulled over in NH, I looked up the cast information to see exactly where she was from in the state (because I grew up there). Well, I started looking at all of the cast members, and I didn't even recognize half of the names... or faces, really. In two episodes, we haven't seen much of the other tribe at all.

I just don't get the tirade from Yasmin. Sure, at the moment they couldn't do anything to her, but what happens if they do a tribal switch (hello, Yas, have you never watched the show - it happens often) and she ends up with a bunch of FoaFoa. Or, FoaFoa could get their act together and end up ahead of the numbers game at the merge - and she would be an easy target, since they don't really "know" any of the other people.


Speaking of tribal switches - I don't remember one last season. It feels like thy only do it when the pecking order has become blatantly obvious.

Yasmin completely blew it when she went over to Foa Foa. Instead, she could have put her differences aside and try to get into some pre-alliances (kind of like what Brendan did at Exile Island), but nope, she pretty much had to antagonize the other team.

Pretty dumb and short-sighted, considering the history of Survivor and how they like to mix up the teams, prior to the merge.

Sigh......

Yasmin is the one from Detroit, right? If so, they interviewed her on the radio before the season premiere and they specifically asked her about Russell. They said something along the lines of "We hear there's the biggest villain ever on the show this year, did you get to know him?" and her response was "I met him, but I never had to live with him" That seems like she leaked some info to me because that would mean 1) One of them didn't make it to the merge 2) They were not on the jury together and 3) they were booted off far enough from each other that they weren't at loser lodge together either. That makes me think that either one of them gets to the jury (assuming the jury folks are kept separate from the other losers) and the other leaves much earlier or one of them leaves early and the other makes it to the final 2/3.

Good for Foa Foa for voting off Ben.

I can't tell what's going on in their heads about Russell - do they know he's tribal cancer or has he really succeeded in pulling the wool over their eyes? I'm torn between wanting them to win the next immunity challenge so they're spared from the next tribal council and wanting them to lose the next immunity challenge so they can get rid of Russell. For whatever reason, they seem to be unaware of his tactics (go figure), so I'm afraid they wouldn't think to vote him off. This tribe has some seemingly smart people on it - why can't they see what's going on?

You know, there have been many unlikeable contestants throughout Survivor's history. Typically, those people were obviously disliked by the tribe (in addition to the viewers). This is the first time I recall really disliking one of the contestants while the tribe seems/acts unaware of how unlikeable that contestant is. Why can't they see this? They live with the guy! I'm truly puzzled by this.

okay - I dozed off and missed who got kicked off tonight....:(

I truly think that Russell has everyone thinking that he's a good guy. Honestly, when does he say things like "the dumb girl alliance" and "these people believe anything I say"?... it's only when he's in front of the camera by himself. Every other time, he seems like any other person, strategizing just like everyone else. I trust that eventually they'll see what he's trying to do, but right now, I think everyone's simply focused on winning immunity challenges, and they're voting off people who are keeping them from doing so.

Which is why I was kind of puzzled by the vote tonight. I guess because Galu hasn't had to vote anyone off up until tonight, they were back and forth as to whether or not to vote off the person who was stronger in challenges, or the person who contributed more at camp. Plus, friendships have been formed this far into the game, so I think them voting off Yasmin wasn't TOO surprising. Although, I would have liked to see them vote off Monica first (which would have been the smarter thing to do).

Btw... I hate how Survivor sometimes makes it obvious as to which tribe is going to tribal council. We haven't seen much of Galu in the first few episodes, then all of a sudden they were the main tribe shown in the first half of the episode tonight, and they were talking about who they might vote off if they had to go to tribal council. It takes the suspense out of the whole thing.

Good decision. She would have been a complete liability at the merge, with as much as the other tribe hated her. I can't wait to see the looks on the faces of Foa Foa next week.

My TV Guide thingy said that someone makes a shocking revelation. I missed that?? What was it?

And how in the world did Yaz think that doing nothing around camp was a good strategy to not get singled out?? At least LOOK busy, even if you're not actually accomplishing anything!