davidh777

This is... "Survivor: Tower of Babel"! I agree it would be interesting and different, but the CBS audience would probably hate the constant subtitles.

My guess is that they wouldn't have been allowed to do that, but who knows.

sven

I wouldn't be surprised if there was a producer there while they were making their decisions.

leeta

They could try something like 3 teams of English speakers, French speakers and Spanish speakers (this would cut down on the initial number of sub-titles). After 3 weeks have a blind draw and mix 'em up and let the chaos ensue. That is a great idea, Creekdipper.. I can't see them putting a tribe where no one speaks the same language together, but maybe they could tweak it. It would be a lot of fun.

That coconut vendor is crazier than Coach. He was already obsessing and acting jealous of that girl.

creekdipper

I agree with y'all that it would be a mess and that many in the audience would hate the subtitles (even though there would be a lot of "miming" taking place and surely there would be some quick learning of words). And it would be confusing to hear someone trying to refer to rice in multiple languages. I'd also think the audience would be leaning forward in their seats trying to "mentally" help them understand (I've seen this happen with culture-clash movies when the audience...including, ahem, yours truly...get caught up in trying to "help" the characters (sort of like wincing & squirming during recent scenes in "The Americans" ). I've seen people actually nod when movie characters "get it" when trying to communicate...almost as if the audience were right there with them.

Maybe each tribe could have one "stealth" person who was fluent in all the languages, and no one except the audience would know. Scratch that...it's probably just a loony, unusable concept anyway.

Appreciate not getting batted around for making such a stupid suggestion.

Leeta is right...Coconut Man is out there (and acting pretty creepy toward Jenn). Joe Biden needs to have a talk with that man!

Josh-da-man

That would probably be illegal by the game rules and someone who tried it would either booted or penalized. You can, to a certain degree, lie, cheat, and steal among other players, but not against production.

Like on Big Brother and you're a "have not" and have to eat porridge and take cold showers or wear a penalty costume. Or Amazing Race won't allow teams to hide clues from other teams.

hdnmickey

To put it mildly. I can't think of too many things that would kill the show given it's staying power, but players that have to be subtitled for every word would probably do it.


Hard to say... There seems to be a lot of things that are really left open, and it's just the players not looking to push things so nobody ever knows until something happens. For example, one would think dumping your tribes food in a hissy fit would get you kicked off the show. Turns out... nope. You may even get to stick around for a few more days as the elimination vote they know will likely never turn around and win.

brainee

"If I wanted to read, I'd read a book" Has anyone else gotten that exact line from someone casually dismissing the possibility of watching something with subtitles? And of course, these are the people that would never be caught dead reading a book either.

sven

Why would anyone think that?

And in reply to Creekdipper's post nobody has ever stolen an Idol either. They may have taken it out of someones bag but it still belongs to the orginal person. All they have to do is tell a producer they want it back.

hdnmickey

Seriously? If somebody threw out, or ruined the primary source of food for the whole tribe, I would be pretty pissed. Voting them out doesn't begin to cover it. It's not quite as much of a immediate "you're gone" move as physically assaulting another player, but it's sure close IMO.

Like I posted before, short of physical assault, I suspect there is very little written about the right or wrong of what players can do. It's really up to them to push the limits and see what they can get away with.

People do it on Big Brother all the time and it's one of the reasons we stopped watching that one.

DRG

Heck, I'd even like to see them have teams of different English speaking countries. How about an intercontinental battle: North American (USA, Canada, various Caribbean countries) vs Europe (UK, Ireland) vs Asia/Oceania (Australia, New Zealand, maybe Singapore?). Maybe you could throw Africa in there as well. You could also include players from non-English speaking countries who speak English fluently.

hdnmickey

Now that I could go for. But I do wonder if there isn't some issue that hasn't been posted about that keeps them from casting anybody from outside the US. I don't even remember any Canadian players or even somebody that actually lives in one of the US Territories (Guam, etc.).

davidh777

Right, throwing out food was an extreme measure for sure, but that was just against other players and can be dealt with politically. If it creates a life-and-death situation, probably not, but there were still options for getting more food.

They've always said in the intro "24 Americans" but I doubt it's a hard and fast rule, unless there are laws about hiring foreign workers and their working conditions.

creekdipper

Even if they were different nationalities, they'd still have to speak English to avoid subtitles (although that would be limited to non-English speaking tribes...at least, until the merge).

Assuming there was more than one English speaker after the merge, you'd get English conversations for the non-readers. Hey, at least you'd get to hear the inflections. Think how silent movie fans have to read title cards and "hear" the tones of the speakers in their minds.

My idea would have had one English speaker on each tribe; of course, if they got booted off, you'd be back to subtitles and miming. Of course, people encounter people all of the time & have to deal with language barriers, so I'm sure that there would be some basic terms that would be quickly learned. And, of course, the Romance languages share a commonality that would allow for some understanding, especially if the contestants know a handful of phrases. The rules would prohibit them from being fluent in the other languages, but most people understand "si", "da," "oui," "hai," etc. Just thought it might be fun watching them try to figure out shelter building, etc. and see who could bond with others who didn't speak their language.

I would prefer that to the endless "strategizing" that takes up so much of the time, especially when much of it is misdirection anyway edited by producers to try to create suspense at TC.

I sincerely doubt that anything could kill Survivor if bringing back certain contestants as much as four times didn't do it. The way the producers manipulate the show (Eat up all your rice? No problem...we'll allow you to trade for more...and then mix up the tribes to boot, so that some of the ones who rationed now get to be punished along with the ones who didn't plan ahead).

Goat3001

I like that guys on every tribe are trying to get laid. That Boston Bro using his sisters murder to get closer to that girl was awful.

hdnmickey

Jeff Probst explains the Americans only thing:

"This is a very common question, and so many of you from all over the world asked the same question! The issue surrounds the ‘rights’ to the Survivor format. Mark Burnett/CBS only have the rights to do an American version of Survivor. This means you have to be an American citizen."

Maxflier

Even though I got her with a very late pick, it is a pick I couldn't be more pleased with. I think she will do very well.

chowderhead

when Carolyn found the hidden immunity idol, there was a whole bunch of writings on the paper which I assume are the rules and logistics of the idol ... one of the items that I read was that the idol cannot be stolen.

Cardsfan111

Just watched the premiere. Of course, the gimmick will be old news within a few weeks. But I enjoyed nearly all of the folks participating. There's definitely a few nuts characters this season.

I really liked the challenge with teams being given a couple of choices. Especially the different puzzles. Practically eliminated teams from trying to "cheat" off of their competition.

It's always funny to see the how well folks spell at TC. Cherilyn. Really?

creekdipper

I caught that, too. And it was from a "white collar."

Finisher

These shows all feel like they need twists to keep things fresh. I disagree, just cast strong competitors, a couple psychos and a few hotties and see what happens. Should not be difficult.

Gonna be hard to endure more "as white collars, we hire blue collars to do this type of stuff for us" and "as blue collars we're not afraid to get our hands dirty" talking heads for much longer. And if you're going with this stupid twist you might as well cast a former CEO or billionaire or someone interesting, versus the poverty white collars they gave us.

joliom

That was by far the most irritating aspect of the show for me as well. The contestants' need to "sell" the contrived gimmick at every available turn was eye-roll inducing for me. I hope they move on soon. Just play the game and stop trying to convince me of your imagined class attributes.

brainee

Hey, white collars have secretaries for that kind of thing

davidh777

Meaning "they've sold international rights for a buttload of money."