jeffbase34

I heard they ran out of spots. Shane Powers was bumped off the list for Russell. Twilia wanted on the show, but didn't get a spot.

Sugar was a total waste of a spot for sure.

Kelkee

Actually you don't need 4 people trying to figure out a puzzle. That's why they lost the challenge. If you noticed Rupert was actually studying the ladder rungs puzzle to get a head start for when the girls finished.

Dr. Henry Jones, Jr.

Natalie Bolton was cut in Samoa in favor of Danielle.

jeffbase34

I think the Natalie from Fans vs Faves would have been a perfect chose for a villian. I still remember her "floss my teeth with your jugular vein" comment.

Joeboo835

My $.02 (as if anyone cared )

I admit, the first season Rupert was on, I thought he was great. He couldn't get any more annoying now. His "schtick" is over and he's proving to be a very poor player this time around. Then again, maybe its editing.

Amanda's body is top notch, but Candice is easily the hottest this season.

Stephanie is RIPPED and is amazingly tough.

How the hell does someone like Courtney survive this stuff? Going INTO the season she's about 80 lbs.

Tyson would be one of the favorites of all time if he came off as just joking around. His lines are awesome, but he seems like he actually is being an a-hole rather than just messing around.

Russell is getting old FAST, but if he gets to the end again, the guy backs up his words.

I loved Randy's comment about nobody's going to get booted based on if they make a fire or not. You're right Randy, but you can get booted for telling everyone to not even try.

I have a feeling Colby, despite not living up to the hype, could last a while.

My pick right now is JT.

mwbmis

Yeah, I know who Danielle is. I'm just saying she wasn't at all memorable. Maybe she did more on the island than was shown on TV, but how are we to know b/c they didn't show it on TV. Her big villain move (according to Probst) was lying to Terry at final 3. Putting aside the unfair nature of that final 3 immunity challenge I don't think what she did was at all a villain move b/c in her mind Aras seemed more beatable (he wasn't of course).

There are just a lot of female contestants that would have been a better choice. Natalie would have been better. I know they wanted Corinne, and she certainly fits the bill, but she couldn't get off work and didn't want to quit her job a second time.

Candice has the Amber in All-Stars slot (at least she was a better player originally than Amber...who did NOTHING). I know Colleen didn't want to do it, but there are still quite a few hero gals that would have been a better choice...Danni Boatwright for example.

Sandra had the confessionals and behind the scenes stuff at camp to be "villainous". She and Courtney are kind of in the same boat. They are both villains primarily for stuff they said to the camera.

At least she's more prepared this time. She said that after ten days or so you go feral.

DRG

I think the problem is the producers wanted an equal number of males and females. Even then, I can think of several better choices for both.

JuryDuty

Just a heads-up that Jeff Probst is blogging his thoughts after each episode again this season:
http://popwatch.ew.com/author/ewjprobst/

This season, for the first time I think, at the end of his blog, he has a real-time video, shot the night of the tribal where Jeff gives his off-the-cuff thoughts. Very interesting.

superfro

With this providing context, then Courtney's comment of "Break her shoulder!" is even more of a bitch move considering it would've been after she already had her shoulder dislocated, and probably why she laughed at herself like a seven year old saying a dirty word after she said it. Oh also, I hate Courtney.

Merkin Muffley

Sugar going after Colby was one of the saddest, most desperate things I have ever seen on television.

superfro

I love the fact that Sugar is so co-dependent that she was freaking out about not having anybody on night one. Line up now fellas!

mwbmis

According to Sugar, they did her a favor by only showing that. I've heard that she was really chasing after JT.

BDB

Dalton's commentary said she went for JT first, and then moved onto Colby.

She's a sorry sight in this one.

neilo13

Alot of my thoughts about the start to this season have already been stated by others. But in summary:

-This season is awesome so far. Survivor F**K YEAH!
-Doesn't Coach have a significant other? (somone else asked this, but i did not see an answer)
-The comments others make on Russell, how do they know so much? I think its a combination of editing and the fact that they have all played the game before and are among the top players of the game, they know how to read people.
-I was sad to see Sugar go, but I can totally understand that if you are annoying your tribe 3 days in, you ain't gonna last long.

I'm not playing the dvdtalk game, but I'm gonna root for Russell, because I like him and he's the new guy. I think Sugar was my second favorite pick this season, shows what I know. I like 90% of the players this season, 2 of the girls I don't remember much about and I hate Sandra.

jeffbase34

Coach's girlfriend was introduced in his season reunion. She was quite attractive.

DJariya

I checked out Coach's CBS bio and apparently they list him as single. Now his interest in Jerri makes a little more sense. I guess his girlfriend dumped him because he is so full of himself.

dino88

I guess you've never heard of a show called The Bachelor?

Jim

Glad to see Sugar go first. She had no business being on this season. Rob was awesome as usual.

If memory serves me correctly, 5 people on this season have done back to back seasons:
Rupert - Pearl Islands and All-Stars
Stephanie - Palua and Guatamala
Amanda & James - China and Fans vs. Favorites
Russell - Samoa & Heroes vs. Villains

I think they are the only ones to ever do back-to-back seasons too.

Dr. Henry Jones, Jr.

Or maybe that was just an actress he hired for the night.

Dr. Henry Jones, Jr.

True. But they had several months in between filming dates, not the 20 days Russell had.

Ropes Pierre

Girlfriend might even be too serious a word. If I recall, the graphic under her name at the reunion was "lady friend". So perhaps he, being the catch that he is, is inclined to entertain many "lady friends" and "female callers" in his parlor.

Jim

Rupert may have been pretty close to that since All-Stars was also in the Pearl Islands. Even a few months is tough. I bet most of those people would say it takes many more months or even a year or more to get their bodies back to normal. Some have complained about parasites and/or bug bites for over a year after they got back.

mwbmis

The turn around is how they ended up with Amanda in Fans vs Favorites. They wanted Courtney, but she said no.

Jim

Courtney over Amanda?

neilo13

Thanks for the info, i was too lazy to look it up.

I wasn't, however, too lazy to look up the between seasons time for those that have done back-to-back seasons (this is off of wikipedia so I can't vouch for 100% accuracy).

Rupert - approx 3 months (Pearl Islands ended July 31, 03 and All-Stars started November 3, 03)
Stephanie - approx 6 months (Palua ended December 4, 04 and Guatamala started June 22, '05)
Amanda & James - approx 3 months (China ended August 2, '07 and Fans vs. Favorites started October 29, '07)
Russell - approx 20 days (Samoa ended July 19, '09 and Heroes vs. Villains started August 9, '09)

I'd be interested to hear Russell's comments on the short recovery time between seasons versus others who have done back to back seasons with more time.