Okay, first let me address Survivor not being on the air during theNCAA Basketball tournament. On behalf of our entire crew I’d like tosay…"We hate being interrupted!! We feel your pain. We have absolutelyno say. It’s a network decision and college hoops are big business, sothat’s that.
Moving on….
I’m gonna start with Coach. Tonight Coach got to me. Coach has a hardtime accepting any kind of blame yet he is always the first to blameothers. Tonight, had I been on his tribe, Coach would have irritated meto the point of me saying something that I would no doubt later regret.
Like, "Coach, shut up." Or, "Coach, kiss my ass." Or some otherunprintable but quite colorful fifth-grade schoolyard verballaceration.
Coach is also a martyr. Whoa, I thought my mom had that market cornered. Move over Barbara, Coach wants the throne. When they lose half a pot of their beans, it’s a big damn deal. There isn’t a craft services counter just around the corner with Red Vines and donuts. But Coach can’t just say, "my bad" and get on with it. When Coach says he’ll take full blame he doesn’t mean it for one second.
Nonetheless, Coach once again wins the quote of the night:
Coach: "I probably won’t make a second pot…for my beans."
I know many of you hate that I love Coach, but you gotta admit that was a funny line. And hey, for at least one week maybe we can all come together and hate Coach equally. Okay, I’m done with that.
SMART PLAYER UPDATE:
Brendan is now my pick as the smartest player left in the game. Brendan is one smart dude. Brendan could win. Brendan’s fate will come down to how he fares with Coach ’cause Coach wants him gone. Beware granola boy…the Dragon Slayer lurks….
Tyson is also a very smart player. He’s trying to hover in the middle and stay out of the way. It’s a good overall strategy but not for him. He’s too much of a threat. He needs to make a big move very soon and try to take this game over or he’ll get his throat cut.
J.T. is smart and certainly playing a very different game under the heading of "good ole country boy" but he almost blew it tonight. Voting out Taj would have been a huge mistake. You do not vote out someone from your alliance this early in the game. I now have to knock him down a couple of pegs. That was almost a fatal mistake.
Stephen is right there too, playing his own version of "Who me? I’m just happy to be here." The jury is still out on exactly how shrewd he is, but one thing is clear…Stephen is a lousy liar. That conversation with J.T. about the immunity idol was uncomfortable to watch.
Taj is second tier smart. I know that reading this will irritate her but it’s how I feel. She’s very good, but she will only win if the others destroy themselves. And Taj, are you out of your mind giving up the idol? Of course you are. You are out of your mind woman. I am 99% certain that your man Eddie George was on the couch tonight saying, "You did what, baby?!!" That was a big time mistake and you better find a way to get that idol back A.S.A.P., ’cause your alliance partners are just dumb enough to vote you out.
In case you were wondering, yes, those pigs were ceramic and yes, they hurt when you caught them.
Damn, Joe’s knee. Whoa. That is ugly. Could anyone still doubt this game is for real? Just look at that little tiny nick and how bad it has gotten in just 72 hours. Joe is a hurtin’ dude right now. I felt for him so much that it made it hard to laugh when he found the fake idol. I really like Joe. Joe likes Sydney. Sydney has a boyfriend. Joe has a bad knee and a fake idol and likes a girl who has a boyfriend. Joe is in trouble. He’s on the outside of the alliance that he should be a part of. Poor Joe.
INSIGHT: At the end of the waterfall reward, you see a very big shot from high above looking down on the Survivors swimming in the water. That shot comes from our helicopter, which is standing by, ready for action 24/7. When a producer needs a shot, they call the chopper crew. Our helicopter cameraman, Mark Hyrma, and the helicopter pilot are up and spinning within 10 minutes. They communicate via walkie-talkie and within 20 minutes they have the shot and are heading back to base camp. This is a major luxury. It comes from Mark Burnett insisting from day one that this show have an epic look. The helicopter shot is a staple of Survivor and one of the many reasons the show looks so good season after season.
PERSONAL SHARING: Last weekend, I had dinner with Mark Burnett and his beautiful wife, Roma Downey. They invited some people over to their house and it was quite nice. Okay, reallllly nice. I mean the dude is quite successful, and Roma… anybody remember Touched By An Angel? Yeah, it was a little hit show that she starred in for over a decade, so they’re doing fine and what’s really cool is that they are good people. They’re fun to be around. They know how to throw a dinner party. In fact, they throw such a good dinner party that they even hired some musical entertainment for the night. But here’s the best part…they hired a piano player and singer named Mike Darnell to entertain us all. Now to most of you that name might not mean anything, but to Hollywood industry folks, Mike Darnell is a HUGE name. Darnell runs FOX reality. He’s the network head of American Idol and every other reality show on Fox. Talk about successful. Darnell is a major player in the entertainment world…and here he is playing piano at Burnett’s for tips. He said he just really enjoys entertaining people, but I wonder if maybe he lost a bet or something. I can’t tell you who else was there, but suffice it to say that I was the answer to the question, "Who in this room does not belong?" Oh, I almost forgot one last part to the story – I wrote this part of the story on Wednesday.
Okay, back to Survivor. Joe is a major flirt. First Sydney, now Erinn, and Erinn likes it. Did you see that hug on Exile? If there wasn’t a camera, I think that hug had a chance to become a bit more intimate. Am I reading into it? What do you think?
NOTE TO ALL FUTURE SURVIVOR CONTESTANTS: We LOVE fake idols. We "decorate" your camps and tree mails in a way that there are always plenty of "items" you can use to get creative. So do it. It’s so enjoyable to see somebody think they have the real idol when we all know they don’t.
Finally we come to Tribal Council – you knew it was only a matter of time. Sydney is this season’s beautiful blonde who no one will remember by the end of the show. I’m sorry, Sydney, just being honest. She was destined to leave early. I’m not sure why but it always goes this way; the beautiful blonde always leaves too soon. We loved having you on the show and our crew HATED seeing you leave, but let’s face it, you never really had a shot at winning so it’s just as well before the bugs did too much damage.
I’m done. Talk next week everyone.
Now check out our exclusive deleted scene below and then read Dalton’s ‘Survivor’ recap.
Comments (1-30) of 295 Add your comment
I still enjoy Survivor, but I used to be an insane Survivor fan. As in, I’d tape every single episode, and watch them several times in the next week as motivation during my exercise routines. As in, I’d pass on Thursday night dates or nights out with the buddies if I’d miss the show. Now? Not so much. The point is, I want the show to return to its former greatness — these comments are made out of love…
…Jeff, I know Survivor’s been on for about a decade now, and it’s easy to blame falling ratings on its longevity. But American Idol and The Bachelor have been around almost as long, and they are still at the top of the ratings chart. In fact, Bachelor and Dancing with the Stars had their highest ratings ever this season. So Survivor is doing something wrong. I think a lot of Survivor fans are too excited to “chat” with you or see you, and they aren’t willing to tell you this to your face… but, frankly, you guys have managed to screw up a wonderful show…
Yay, Jeff’s here!! It almost sounded like you were trying to encourage Stephen and T.J. not to vote out Taj. Stephen is kinda creepy in a sneaky way. I’m glad Taj stayed for the good of their tribe. Didn’t know Roma was married to Mark, good for them. LOL @ “decorating” for take idols, priceless!
MORE DIVERSITY PLEASE. Look, one of the problems with Survivor has always been that it’s hard to remember who the people are or tell them apart during the initial episodes. Viewers don’t have any loyalty or interest in any of the characters, because we can’t even tell them apart. Sadly, this has always been a problem, but it’s an especially big problem when the entire cast is a group of white twenty-somethings with the same accents. It took weeks for me to figure out who was Brendan versus Spencer versus Joe versus Tyson versus JT versus Stephen — and that’s just the men. And, PLEASE, PLEASE, don’t misunderstand me: We do NOT want the other extreme, like the awful Fiji season or the extremely uncomfortable Cook Island’s tribes based on race. Yes, more racial diversity, but not as a gimmick. And please, let’s go back to having a range of ages represented too. It’s hard to tell people apart when they’re all the same age.
Coach is an ass.
Sad to see you go Sydney
.
Jeff – You were right, the clips episode was great! Everyone who worked on it should be proud. I feel like I know all the survivors better now. And of course last night’s episode was awesome as usual, and it’s a joy to have you blogging again. Since you know what my hair length preference is, what’s yours? What’s Serena sporting these days? And exactally how much does she like Jack Bauer? Surely not more than she likes you. My offer still stands if you ever need a traveling companion.
– “A” is for A “Nice Woman” guess they didn’t like my quotes last time.
The current version of Survivor would never cast someone like Rudy Bosch or Kentucky Joe. Those were great characters. This season, you had one older contestant (Psycho Sandy) and you yourself asked her in a tribal council whether it was tough being on a tribe with all these younger, attractive people. Um, Jeff, see, that’s a problem. It’s like you’ve decided to cast for “America’s Top Model Goes Camping” instead of Survivor.
…The lack of older contestants hurts the show because you lose the opportunity for a lot of those fascinating relationships, like Kentucky Joe’s touching father-daughter relationship with Elizabeth Hasselback, or (to take a very different example), the wonderful Amazon season, when the young players teamed up to kick out the older tyrants. Nowadays, it seems the only relationships we watch for is “I wonder if any of the wannabe models and actors Survivor cast will end up making out with each other…”
I’m a bit troubled by some of your comments this week. The FAKE IDOLS are becoming so predictable/repetitive now it’s ridiculous. Anyone should know to expect this now so there’s no element of surprise or novelty. Every time I see it on TV now, I just yawn. Been there, done that. Move on. It was interesting the first time, worked well the second time, but now it’s played out. Keep the game FRESH!
Also why are you casting people who you know have no chance of winning and are destined to be voted out early and not remembered? You want people who will be MEMORABLE, and are competitive: people who will do anything to win and have strong personalities. P & A (Personality & Attitude, not T & A!) Sadly Sydney was a waste of a spot and that’s ebcause she was cast based on her look. And was nothing but boring the entire time. So I’m extremely troubled that you & the crew hated seeing her go. I’d have been cheering that she was booted instead of someone like Taj who is way more interesting!!!
Also, please have more diversity of body shapes. You know, some of your greatest characters have been Richard Hatch or Rupert — people who were not just another skinny / fit model-type. AGAIN, I’m not saying to go overboard and cast an entire season based on Rupert look-alikes (cough Vanuatu cough), but it would be nice if there was somebody other than Taj who didn’t look like an acting reject.
…Diversity of geography would be great too. You’ve taken to casting half the show from California (mostly friends of your casting department or people you meet within 4 blocks of work). Cook Islands had 9 castmembers from California, and a 10th member who was picked by casting while visiting California. On Survivor All-Stars 2, Eliza complained that it was hard to forge relationships with the other All-Stars, because they all lived in the same places and went to the same stores, and had so much in common already. Look, bring back the “Big Tom” type of characters — fat, old, deep south.
So could a woman ever be “first tier” smart, Jeff?
This is one season that is living up to the early hype. Two people on Exile is a brilliant idea and really makes odds after the merge much less predictable.
This could be anyone’s game. Even Joe and Erinn, who seem on the outs, could potentially hang on with the Exile + JT alliance, seinding Coach, Debbie and Tyson home first.
I think The Exile alliance’s smartest move is to stay covert. Let Joe get voted off, then turn on Coach, Tyson and Debbie. Though Brendan and Sierra will never let JT hang on with them, so he’ll have to go somewhere in there as well.
No matter how you cut it, Brendan and Sierra are looking pretty untouchable right now. Maybe if Brendan pulls off a win he’ll drop the price of his ridiculously good but SO EXPENSIVE granola
Thanks for your show insight about the helecopter shots. Whenever those shots come on my screen, I always wonder how they capture that. Burnett must know ahead of time there’s a great shot to be had. Love that Roma Downey is his wife; she’s a doll. Coach is still annoying and Tyson is teetering on Coach’s personality. Taj is a smart woman but incredibly stupid when it comes to the idol. You find that thing, you keep it with you! PERSONAL SHARING: Loved seeing you on “I Get That A Lot.” Yours was the segment that got the most laughs at our house.
STOP LYING TO YOUR VIEWERS. It’s really unfathomable to me that you will lie so often to your viewers — it’s a great way to alienate your Superfans and drive away the most loyal viewers of the show. For example, in Fans v. Favorites, you cast Natalee as a “Superfan” even though she was a recruited contestant who had never seen the show. (Watch the final 5 episode where they had to recognize scenes from past Survivors — she didn’t know a single answer.) Why would you do that? You just want to give a big middle finger to all the actual Superfans of the show? If you needed a last-second casting replacement, why couldn’t you just randomly pick one of the thousands of people who apply year after year? Or when you pretend Bobby Jon was a waiter from Alabama when he was trying to make it as an actor in California, or when you pretend that this season’s Joe or last season’s “pin-up model” are anything other than failed actors… Stop it. Stop lying to the people who support the show.
“And please, let’s go back to having a range of ages represented too. It’s hard to tell people apart when they’re all the same age.”
I’d also like to weigh in on this. I’m extremely sad about the lack of older people on the show as well. The last time u had a woman over 50 make the merge was Scout in Vanuatu – that was NINE seasons ago. What are you doing about finding a STRONG older woman who can physically compete with the young people instd of being voted off like Sylvia/Gillian/Sandy?
Scout/Bruce/Yau-Man/Bob are the only 50s+ players to make the merge in the post-AllStars seasons. Pre-AS u had Rudy/Rodger/Kim J/Paschal/Jan/Jake/Butch/Roger/Lil: at least 1 over 50 every season!!
I know that Jeff said u wanted more players over 50 after Bob won. How about more players in their 60s, another senior citizen? Please add more age diversity to Survivor and old people are capable of keeping up. with the young ones. Its sad to see old people who u know have no chance
Here’s why it’s bad to lie to your viewers… Look, if I’m watching the show and rooting for someone only to find out that I was lied to about basic information, such as… oh, whether or not that person was really a Superfan or really a poor waiter or really living in South Carolina, then I stop emotionally investing in the show. I don’t believe in it anymore, I don’t care about it anymore, and I can stop watching it. That’s the problem.
…The other problem is that you’re passing up a great opportunity to gain viewer interest. Think about how American Idol grabs viewer interest during the opening weeks, before its viewers have invested in any of the singers. They show auditions at a number of cities, and repeatedly ask questions like, “Does the city that gave birth to Motown have any great singers left?” or “Is there anybody from Atlanta who can excite the judges?” In other words, they use geographical loyalties to excite viewers.
Jeff, you really love your job and really love Survivor and that’s what makes your blog so entertaining to read. Perhaps you may want to give TAR’s Phil a few pointers…
I’m glad Taj didn’t get voted out because it would have led to a very anti-climatic second half of the season. No way Brendan continues to ally with Stephen and he’d likely just join his team in picking off Timbura (or Jalapao…I honestly do not know which one is which) and then they’d cannibalize one another. That is not entertainment. Anyway, I was glad cooler heads prevailed. Plus, Taj is one of the few truly entertaining characters left. Her, Brendan, Stephen and Sierra are the only one’s worth watching. Incidentally enough, they are also in an alliance together.
You know, kind of like how we root for local sports teams who have no connection to us other than geography? We have a natural tendency to want to root for people in similar professions or backgrounds or cities as we are… But if you’re casting everyone from California, and you then lie and claim that they are a bartender from North Carolina (Gabe in Marquesas) based on the fact he once lived there, then the viewers stop paying attention to the contestants’ backgrounds and stop investing in these characters.
…With the original Survivor, one of the things people liked was that it was an adult version of that children’s fantasy — “Who would win in a fight, Superman or the Invisible Man”… Or, to put it another way, it was similar to what initially interested people in Ultimate Fighting Championships — would a karate fighter or a judo master win in a fight? We liked the idea of the lawyer versus doctor versus farmer versus bus driver. When you start lying about who people are..
nice recap probst. by the way, saw you in ‘i get that a lot’. very funny. nicely done
Just want to say, Mr. Probst, that I am really impressed that you can keep writing these blogs as if you don’t know who the final 2 or 3 are. Really. I love your impressions of the show each week, and your ability to reveal information about each person without giving away how successful or not each person is in the show as the cast is winnowed down.
…When you start lying about who people are, we lose interest. Go back to the original media coverage of Survivor’s first season. There was a lot of fascination with the idea of a corporate type (Richard Hatch) outlasting a rafting guide (Wigglesworth) in the wild. This kind of fascination lasted for a few seasons before it was destroyed (in part) by producers being dishonest about the people they cast.
Also, stop it with all these D-list or F-list would-be kinda maybe pseudo-celebrities, like Eddie George’s wife or the back-up actor in the Shield or a would-be model or the guy who started a granola company. If I wanted to see pseudo-celebrities lose weight, bicker, and do physical challenges, I’d watch VH1’s Celebrity Fit Club. Are you Survivor or “I’m A Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here!” Unless it’s an A-list celebrity, we’re not interested. Jeff, you seem to be thrilled to have cast Eddie George’s wife, since you mention it every post. What’s next, Tiger Woods’ third cousin?
This is something I’ve noticed season after season lately. Don’t answer but think to yourself: Assuming u’ve never read the CBS bios, just from what’s on TV: name 3 things about each of the remaining survivors – not things like Coach is an idiot. Actual personal details about the contestants’ lives. You can’t do it, can you?
Survivor is not a story about the people anymore. It’s too much about the game, Exile and Hidden Immunity Idols, the challenges, the strategy and the voting. We don’t get to see these people beyond just being players in the game.
How many viewers actually know that Brendan is a multimillionaire? It’s never been mentioned on the show.
It was several episodes before Debbie had a solo interview. How would viewers have learned anything about her? Why can’t she talk about being a school principal and mother and how those skills help her in the game: dealing with young children, trying to please people, conflict res, negotiation.
We still no nothing about Joe, Sierra
Jeff, loved last night’s episode. This show always gets better after the merge but this season has actually been pretty freaking good from the get-go. Thanks for the inside scoop from the production side of things. Always interesting reading.
Go Blues!
Did anyone catch the “let’s put it BACK in my pants pocket” line last night? Luckily, JT didn’t pick up on it. Stephen is truly a lousy liar.
I also like how you write it as though you don’t know what’s going to happen. Impressive. Glad you also don’t care what the contestants think of you and tell us like it is. Thanks!
I’ll also put my vote in for less actors and more real people, as well as less fake idols. You guys may love them, but they are getting a little old.
STOP WITH THE RECRUITS! We hate recruited contestants. OK, actually, probably about half of Survivor fans hate recruits, while the other half doesn’t care. But the only people who like recruited contestants are the casting department and the recruited contestants themselves. In your last blog, you were so thrilled that when Taj got her letter from home she initially thought it was a gift certificate, and when Joe got his, he thought it was a menu. “This is a lady who gets lots of gift certificates!” you wrote. No, Jeff, this is a lady who has never watched Survivor. And the fact that somebody has never seen the show and doesn’t understand what’s happening ceased being amusing years ago. Actually, it’s kind of insulting to the people who watch the show. It’s like hiring a basketball play-by-play man who doesn’t know how basketball is played and who would rather talk about cars. If your own contestants aren’t interested in the show, why should we watch?
Who is Sidney? Who is Joe? These recruited contestants have the personalities of lumpy tofu. I can’t tell you a single thing about “who” they are. Recruits usually are bad at strategy (cause they’ve never seen the show), and they’re usually bored or uninterested in the show (look at Fiji, where 18 of 19 were recruits). They also quit a lot. (Look at Fiji, where the 20th player — a recruit — quit the game BEFORE IT BEGAN.)
…Look, I’ll be the first to admit that some recruits have actually been great characters. I love (to hate) Johnny Fairplay. Great villain. Great, great strategist. He was a recruit. But, here’s the thing, on the Audio Track to the Pearl Islands DVDs, Fairplay explains how he came up with his “Dead Grandmother” trick. He said that he bought on Ebay tapes of all the seasons and watched them all, including watching Amazon twice. After studying the show, he came up with ideas on how to trick the other players. In other words, HE TURNED HIMSELF INTO A FAN
The greatest strategists have always been students of the show — whether it be applicants like Rob Mariano and Rob Cesternino, or a recruit like Johnny Fairplay, who studied the show carefully after being recruited. But a lot of recruits don’t study the show and provide absolutely nothing of interest to viewers. Same old non-existent strategy of playing a “social game.” Yawn.
…Also on the Pearl Island’s Audio Track: Burton said that he was recruited to be on Pearl islands by a casting department person who bumped into him. The ironic thing, Burton said, was that he had actually applied to the show, but got no response. Yes, that’s right — Burton was rejected when he APPLIED, but was picked for the show when a casting person bumped into him. This tells you something! If you would actually make an effort to consider the people applying to the show, you would find people worthy of being cast. But those people aren’t getting a chance.
I for one agree with nearly everything 3 Awful Things has said. About the recruits, its true tht they do have to study the show beforehand, they are forced to watch dvds in there hotel rooms which defeats the purpose of recruiting them? Arent they recruiting to find people who arent versed in the game who will bring different ideas and strategies so the game can be kept interesting? So y do they have to spoonfeed them past episodes, i no they gave sidney 2, 8, 15, and 16 to watch; the seasons with amber and amanda. obviously trying to influence her to pick there strategies.
One thing about recruits though; some really can come to care about the show and wonder why they never thought about doing ti on their own, but alot of them do have ulterior motives such as getting noticed in the acting busness.
To 3 awful things: I pretty much agree with all you’ve said, but you’re getting pretty redundant. My favorite Survivors still remain the first one; Africa and Australia. Interesting people. I don’t understand why recruits could possibly be necessary as the thousands who apply must have all the diversity you could need.
3 Awful Things 11
I have a solution for you. Stop watching the show and stop reading about the show.
There! That was simple, wasn’t it?
Jeff, still love the blog. Also liked you on ‘Get that a lot’. But you know what else you get a lot, more and more each week in fact? It’s the complaints from real fans about the casting. Now I know you have to maintain the company line (show rocks, etc), it’s your job! But with the ratings continuing to slip every season (down 5.16M across all episodes this season as compared to the the awful Gabon) why not try something ‘different’ and go with what made the show spectacular to begin with with REAL people on your REALITY show? Maybe you can mention this next time you have dinner with Mark. I’ve only applied twice and plan to keep trying. I know the odds are long; getting on it tough, viewing is easy, but I really want to view people I can relate to and root for and not these psuedo-celebs who are doing Survivor because they are bored with their regular lives. Astronauts, Gold medalists, millionaires, actors/models, etc are not REAL people to us commoners who watch the show. Thoughts?