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.
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.