Anyone notice that the Tour de France ran long on OLN on Sunday, so the 1st episode of Survivor season 1 aired commercial free? Since I Tivo'd the episode, I was worried the episode would get cut off, but I guess OLN has to keep their schedule in order with nothing running over time.

Since I didn't start watching Survivor until Thailand, It's interesting to see how it's evolved in the last 5 years.

The 6pm showing ran commercial free as well, IIRC.

BTW, OLN is apparently running each episode 24(!) times in a week

http://www.usatoday.com/life/televis...y-reruns_x.htm

I think it was just the premier.

There's a thread on it here:

http://www.dvdtalk.com/forum/showthr...light=survivor

I forgot how great Rudy was.

Well, I've only seen seasons 1 and 2 on DVD so I'll tune into Season three (most likely in September). Seeing the ad for this in EW saved me the $20+ that I was about to fork over for season 3 on eBay.

Boy, after watching this tonight I have to marvel at how naive most of the first season contestants were. Tonight was the first post-merger show, and Gretchen was voted out. But the interesting thing was that there were four votes for her - all from the open alliance of Rich/Rudy/Sue/Kelly. Every, and I mean every other contestant voted for a different person.

Lambs to the slaughter. Lambs to the slaughter.

I watched this one when it first aired and skipped several and started back with Amazon. I always thought Rich was full of himself and how well he played, but after watching this again, he is the man. It is so odd to see how naïve these people are and how they let some people stay while others are booted for stupid reasons. They should have kept BB around just for his work ethic alone, and voted Gervis out right after his cow comment - the women of his tribe kind of proved him right, he says they are dumber than cows and they kick the other guy off for the comment.

It is interesting to watch this first season again. Last night's vote particularly. All but the one alliance voted for a different person.

It's fun to watch this season again. Funny to see how many of them simply didn't want to look like a "bad guy" on national TV and didn't want to be in an alliance....while those that were there to actually play the game and win the million simply picked them off. Good ole Pagong...each voting for a different person after the merge. lol

Don't forget Sean and his inane alphabet strategy. I had totally forgotten about that.

Don't forget that by voting alphabetically, Sean could vote against all of the other fromer tribe rivals without voting against the Rich/Rudy/Sue/Kelly alliance, thus voting with the alliance but still able to later claim plausible deniability. I think he was hoping to later engender some favor for that. He didn't want to be part of the alliance, or they wouldn't let him, but he didn't want to cross them and risk his spot. Then he hould have had the best chance for individual immunities when it got down to the final five. I don't think it was nearly as bad a strategy as he got ripped for it.

But why these people didn't go after the obvious alliance is beyond me. They even discussed what was going on, with Gervais telling Sean what he thought was going on. He was exactly right, and Sean basically confirmed it. Then at the next council Gervais votes for Jenna. Wha-huh?

...falling in love with Colleen all over again

Last night Sean actually voted with the Alliance and voted off Greg. Sean is not in the alliance because he refused to be in one, he thought it was not ethical.

That was only coincidental. Greg was the next person alphbetically (because, as he explained, he couldn't vote for Gervase).

Alphabetically:

Colleen (when Gretchen was voted out) - Pagong
Gervase (immunity, voted Greg, Greg out) - Pagong
Greg - Pagong
Jenna - Pagong
Kelly - Tagi
Richard - Tagi
Rudy - Tagi
Susan - Tagi

And again his silly voting style coincides with the alliance, which may have gone with that to add another vote to their own, and that person is gone.

So great viewing the stupidity of Sean again. What an idiot. I never thought I'd get much replay enjoyment out of a reality show, but I was dead wrong.

One of my favorite reality challenges of all time is coming up, one involving a camcorder and Rudy.

"Ugh... I don't know."

That's the moment that my wife and I are both looking forward to. It's been fun re-watching them. And it's a shock to see how much the show has evolved. Season one is still my favorite, but it somehow feels flat compared to later seasons. Not as energenic somehow. And Jeff is constantly explaining everything.

My plan was to watch season 1 again and skip the rest. But I just might continue on. I didn't expect to get so much enjoyment from watching it all again.

I think a lot of the change has been the transformation that takes place in the production trailers between the actual events and what gets on air, especially in the music scoring and being a little looser with timelines. Also, in later seasons I think the show started mining for more drama in the "diary room" interviews. The first season had a much more of a simple documentary "you are there" feel to it.

So after seeing the first season finale rebroadcast, I learned a couple of things:

1. Richard was not as weasely nor naked as much as I remembered him to be.
2. Rudy is still my favorite player ever, and I wish Kelly would have picked him. IIRC, a poll of the jusry would have had him win 5-2 over her.
3. Susan was a far nastier bitch than I remembered her.
4. The Pagaong tribe was just dumb. I mean really, really dumb. The alliance was never on firm footing until Colleen was gone, and down to the final 5.
5. These guys were on a luxury resort compared to seasons nowadays, complete with rain gear, (relatively) plenty of rice, etc.
6. Colleen was fully aware of what was going on alliance-wise, but try as she might she was working with morons, which leads me to:
7. Sean really was an idiot. He and Colleen could have easily turned Kelly, and they never actually tried. Then when it was final five he realizes he wants to win the game. Too late! Duh!
8. Gervase "If they vote as a block three or four more times, so help me I'll be convinced something is going on" is a close second in the stupidly naive department.
9. Gretchen was kind of hot.
10. The live final results shows are much more exciting, though I do fondly remember the invention of "The Spoiler Hunt," which began with this show and now covers most all relaity TV.
11. It was kind of funny watching Richard ooze over the check for an even $1 million, given the tax trouble he was heading for for not paying on the winnings, and then claiming CBS should have withheld from the winnings if he was supposed to be responsible for the taxes owed.

There's probably more if I think about it, but 11 is a good place to stop.

Because it is one more than 10.

I still wonder why Kelly 1) didn't get invited to do All-Stars or else 2) declined the invitation. Particularly when you consider that Jenna was on it.

Great seeing Kelly blow off Sue after the vote was revealed. That's one thing you lose when you wait to tally the votes.

just a reminder, season 2 starts tonight. 7p/10p. best season in my opinion. elizabeth...