Jim

I'm not sure why you think the producers are insulting your intelligence. They just wanted to change the way the game is played because the contestants were all coming in with too many assumptions. We didn't get the best competitors voted off at the beginning this time and I think that is a huge improvement.

I can see where they might have a pool of challenges to choose from depending on the situation, but I've got to think all those challenges are thought up well beforehand.

BDLOU

Yea, I agree they probably have a pool but they use different challenges to manipulate the game. Like they will have a challenge to show the pecking order of Koror as soon as there is one tribe so things get mixed up.

Its not that they changed things. It was just that they are acting like this one sided tribe is something to be amazed about. If they don't tweak in previous seasons then it would happen every year.

Fok

Is it me, but I'm finding her more hot every week. I'm rooting for her as well.

Maxflier

It's not just you.For someone who has been on the island 21+ days,she sure doesn't look the worse for wear like the other women usually start looking.

lucasorion

I'm not even sure I took much notice of her when I was evaluating the women in the first episode, but now... god she looks good in that bra.

Patman

Thanks for the photoshop job, that was great.

I think Jenn said more than 10 words this episode.

auto

Does anyone have that pic of Stephanie standing in her bra talking to Bobby Joe.

Goldberg74

No, but here's Steph's gallery at CBS:


http://www.cbs.com/primetime/survivo...pgall.php?s=17

TyroneJordan

Steph is like the ideal type of girl. She's feminine, yet she's very athletic and strong. She's also strong emotionally. Any other girl in past Survivor seasons would've cracked a lot earlier than she did. She's toned like a mof* too. MMMM

Dabaomb

shoppingbear

You "feel like you've read"? lol
None of these comments make sense. Since season one, they've had several survivors claim this aspect was fixed, or the producers were picking the challenges unfairly, or the producers were interfering with unfair game play, and every time, with one small exception (a trivia challenge where the producers didn't know a personal detail about one of the survivors that changed the numerical answer to a trivia question about the survivors), the producers have been found to NOT be fixing the game, NOT interfering... what you guys are suggesting would be like the producers of "Jeapardy" changing the topics or the Final Jeapardy question to make sure Ken Jennings won. This is a game show, not a sit-com; if producers mess with the game play to boost a team's chances, that's throwing the game, they will get sued, and since some spectacular scandals in the 1950's, game show producers wouldn't be that stupid.

shoppingbear

Maybe, but I think I remember last week, noticing that Tom and Ian sat out both of the challenges (because that was so noteworthy), and then they did the first challenge this time. I think they HAVE been cycling through fairly, it's just that even as great competitors, Steph and Bobby Jon are just more tired, less well-fed, and more down-trodden... I think from even before last week and onward, they almost haven't had a chance. It's hard to be the ones running your entire camp AND having to compete in every challenge... not "most" or every-other (like when Ulong had four, and Koror sat out half their team each challenge), but every single challenge.


Our bad luck that he chose to wear black underwear... I WISH it were a real speedo, it's getting saggy... lol

Roto

I'm sick of the Stephanie love fest. She put herself in this situation with her voting decisions. Everyone in Ulong had a chance to take a leadership role and the only one willing to try was James. She voted Angie out instead of James! That was one of the biggest blockhead moves I can remember. She's a great competitor and excels at physical challenges, but she couldn't recognize who would help her tribe win.

I'm not sure if she's horrible at puzzles or if Coby is just that good at them. That was the second time in a row he just skunked them on a puzzle. People like to laugh at whomever he beats at physical challenges, but I think he can be physically competetive against anybody there other than Tom. Tom will probably have to sweep the immunity challenges to the end to avoid getting voted off. Right now I think Coby has the best chance to win the whole thing, though I'm not sure how he'd do with the jury.

Maxflier

I dunno,maybe your right,but in the past it just seems like some of the team switch-ups and challenges (like the ones that show pecking order) were a little too conveniently timed.

Gil Jawetz

A very non-commital way of saying "I vaguely remember..."

clckworang

I find it very interesting that I hear so many people saying that this kind of thing would happen every year if the producers didn't switch up the teams.

Doesn't anybody remember the earliest seasons of Survivor, when they didn't switch the tribes until the merge? There was never a tribe that was so far out in front. When the merge arrived, the tribes were always at least close to being even. What usually happened was a tribe would win two or three in a row and then the other tribe would win one or two back.

And as for this season not being too big on the physical challenges: I can think of two challenges in particular that were very physical that Ulong lost: the one where they had to carry those weights and catch the other team (granted, Ulong probably would have won this one had that one guy not been injured) and the one where contestants had to knock each other off the platform.

If I remember correctly, there were many people who thought that Ian made some horrible choices when he picked his team in the first episode. I know I remember people thinking that Ian's tribe was too old, not athletic enough and would get trounced. Well, that obviously has not been the case.

It's also interesting that people are talking about how later challenges being more mental is showing favoritism for Koror. Then, you also have people complaining about the rotation of people participating in the challenges and how tired the Ulong members must be. Well, couldn't it be said that the less physical challenges are giving those poor, exhausted Ulong members a better chance to compete? We can't have it both ways: wee shouldn't complain that the challenges aren't physical enough while also saying Ulong is too tired to compete in physical challenges.

I have really enjoyed this season. I have gotten a real kick out of watching the absolute domination of Ulong. It's like a car wreck; you want to look to see just how bad it is. The one twist that I do think helped Koror was getting the chance to vote out Willard. He was by far the weakest physically on that tribe and not having to worry about him competing in challenges gave Koror a huge boost I think.

GuessWho

Bill Needle

Has anyone else noticed that two of Steph's tribal assets are blurred during the night vision shots? I'm ashamed to say I have...

Dabaomb

she's got a very impressive six-pack. It's much much much harder for a girl to get a six-pack than a guy so I'm very impressed.

She's by far the best female athlete ever on Survivor.

Bigsierra

I hope we don't find out Steph is really a guy.

Josh-da-man

Anyone seen the new TV Guide (with Star Trek on the cover)?

They have an article handicapping the four top contestants (Tom, Greg, Ian, Steph) and give a preview

TheGodfather

Bravo!
Well F'n said! I strongly disagree with most of the negative comments made about this season and whole-heartedly agree with this post. A point to remember also is that this season's physical challenges have been, IMO, much tougher than in years past. And every season starts out with a majority of physical challenges and the physicality gets less and less as the time goes by because after 18 days of eating crumbs you lose energy. Period. So it is not to help one tribe dominate, but more to help the survivors survive.

I think also someone said Tom hasn't really been tested. If that is how you feel then I must assume we have been watching 2 entirely different shows. I'll put Tom and Steph up there with Rupert, Ethan, and Boston Rob as some of the best challenge performers ever. With Tom possibly the best.

Lastly, I thought Steph was hot from the beginning, but I think most of the hot survivors somehow get hotter on the island. Just a guess, but I'm thinking it's because the scurvyer the ugly ducklings get, the hotter the hotties look? Just a theory.

Patman

In TV Guide, Mark Burnett said that some of the challenges were designed for last season, but since it got split along gender lines, they couldn't use them in light of fairness due to the physicality needed for the challenges.

B.A.

Thanks for the in-depth thread, Talkers - I have been watching this season of Survivor at my parent's house, but somebody deleted this ep off of the Tivo before I had a chance to watch it.

And thanks for the pics of Steph.

and one more:

bub2000

For some reason, the infrared light turns the camera into xray specs. The night vision shots have been blurred for a while now.
I remember reading a while ago you could do this with the old Sony Handicams that have nightvision. I think you need the nighvision mode, a UV filter (or some other filter) and the extra infrared light.