I just can't wait to see what happens tonight on Survivor: Samoa after Russell's crazy blindside last week, his second in a row.

Russell thinks it was pretty awesome, comparing himself to Picasso and telling Dave and the other folks from his old tribe that it was "almost as great as my kids being born."

Shambo calls Laura a snake, evil serpent and all sorts of things. And then she pulls her smartest move ever (sigh) and basically makes it clear to John that she has flipped. Why? Augh!

In the reward challenge, there are two teams of five. One person lies face down in a cradle, and the other four maneuver them around with ropes as they grab 15 numbered flags in order and put them in a slot. It sounds easier than it looks like it actually is. The purple group (Natalie, Russell, Dave Ball, Laura and Brett) wins. They head out to a waterfall for a picnic lunch and spend some time with a product-placed phone, using it to take pictures.

Continue reading "'Survivor: Samoa': Now what?" »

Posted by Sarah Kickler Kelber at 9:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (9)
Categories: Survivor
        

The first moment of pride in tonight's Survivor comes, surprisingly, when Natalie kills a rat for the tribe to eat. Jaison interviews how proud he is of her and how much she's changed. It's all a little ... odd. But man, they enjoy that rat!

The reward challenge is so complex that it takes even Jeff a couple of minutes to describe. The 11 people split into teams of five, with one person (Natalie) sitting out. The tribe that wins will go to a natural rock slide and eat a ton of food. Natalie has to choose a team to support, and if that team wins, she gets to go on the reward.

She picks yellow (which features Jaison and Russell and Mick). They lose, purple wins. (Shades of the rest of the entire season!)

At the reward, Kelly reveals that she is so scared of water slides. And yet, unlike some people, she goes for it anyway. At their feast, they learn that there is a new hidden immunity idol at camp. Hey, it turns out that no one from Foa Foa is on the winning team (Figures!), so they choose not to share that information with Foa Foa.  They all say they want Russell out, except that Shambo doesn't want him to leave.

Continue reading "'Survivor: Samoa': No way." »

Posted by Sarah Kickler Kelber at 9:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (12)
Categories: Survivor
        

The first thing I notice on tonight's Survivor is that Jaison so jacked up from his time on the show that he could barely walk down the stairs after tribal council during the "previouslies" footage.

The second thing I notice is that Erik say, "Sham-BO" instead of "SHAM-bo," like he just doesn't want to admit that it's supposed to rhyme with Rambo. 

Anyway, right off the bat Laura and Shambo get into this stupid fight over Laura's canteen, which had been given to Shambo when she sent Laura to the other tribe during the reward last week.

Suddenly, they're having a random meeting without Jeff, where they open a treasure chest, find blue buffs and realize it's the merge. Immediately, Foa Foa puts its strategy into effect and begins trying to connect with the folks from Galu.

Russell thinks he's got it in the bag: "I can already see I'm going to rule this group, I mean who gets grapes fed to them? The king does." Thanks a lot, Monica, for bringing us that sound bite from Russell with your actions at the feast!

Based on Brett's suggestion, the tribe renames itself Aiga, which means "extended family." How sweet.  Erik wonders, "What's Samoan for 'get the hell off my island'?"

Continue reading "'Survivor: Samoa': It's an e-MERGE-ncy" »

Posted by Sarah Kickler Kelber at 10:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)
Categories: Survivor
        

It really looked for a bit there like Jaison was going home on last night's Survivor. In the immunity challenge, he was worn out and couldn't help push the boat or figure out the puzzle. He even admitted his weakness at tribal council, which is usually a sure-fire way to get your fire extinguished.

But Russell had his sights on Liz, and he got his way. She was a good competitor, but questioning Russell put her on his radar and a handful of moments of showing her frustration made a handy excuse for everyone else. But really, could you blame her for getting irritated when she was desperately trying to start the fire while Natalie and visiting-from-Galu Laura blabbed about Harleys and books? On the other hand, Russell wasn't wrong when he said that Natalie was doing the right thing trying to woo Laura since they're having such a severe numbers problem.

So is this alliance between Laura and Russell the real deal, or is she just stringing him along so he doesn't target him at the merge? Playing the men-are-superior card, whether she believes it or not, was probably the exact right move with Russell since he has a problem with women who question him.

So farewell, Liz. But now I can't wait to see what happens at the merge.

Posted by Sarah Kickler Kelber at 1:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: Survivor
        

Last Thursday's Survivor was crazy -- especially Russell the Unevil being medically removed from the game after fully passing out during a challenge. Usually when the game ends like that for someone and they don't do a vote at tribal council, it's pretty boring, but they came up with a new twist this time.

Even though no one was voted out, everyone came to TC and sat around the fire. First time that's ever happened, and it was a doozy of trash-talking.

I'm vacation-punting again and sending you to Jeff Probst's recap because he's got a lot more insight on all the medical drama. It's pretty interesting.

What did you think of the episode?

Posted by Sarah Kickler Kelber at 12:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
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Mmmm ... a gross food challenge, and insane rainstorm, punitive measures for chicken-losing, unexpected endurance from a petite contestant ... could you really ask for more from an episode of Survivor?

First, sorry this is a little delayed -- I spent the day traveling yesterday and now the time zones are working against me. And now I'm writing this from Salem, Ore., the hometown of two of the contestants who haven't gotten much screen time because, well, they're on Galu, which keeps winning.

The reward challenge probably showed up on the production schedules as Gross-Food Smoothie Roulette Wheel. (Maybe something by the same name will show up on Top Chef: Las Vegas next week -- somehow, someone would manage to work sous vide into it.)

Continue reading "'Survivor: Samoa': Rain, rain, go away" »

Posted by Sarah Kickler Kelber at 1:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
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I'll admit it; I was really distracted when I watched Survivor last night. (I'm doing the Baltimore Half-Marathon in the morning, and I had a lot of packing to do.)

But anyway: Wasn't it totally obvious that Galu was finally going to lose once the tribe started getting screen time?

First, there was a highly amusing reward challenge -- and finally, a separate reward challenge. Three representatives from each team showed up and found two boxes, one of which contained chickens. But: No Jeff. Totally confused, they decided they were just supposed to fight it out for the chickens. A couple of the folks decided to actually look in the other box, which had instructions. The chicken-kidnapping was put on pause, and a bocci game commenced.

Continue reading "'Survivor: Samoa': Well, finally" »

Posted by Sarah Kickler Kelber at 1:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)
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Darn you, promo-makers, giving us hope that Jaison was going to realize how much Russell is manipulating everyone and try to get him out.

No, suddenly, way after the fact, he was so determined to get rid of Ben that he threatened to leave if people didn't vote in that direction.

Sigh.

Anyway, basically, there was a combination reward/immunity challenge, Foa Foa lost again, and Shambo was sent over from Galu as an ambassador/information-gatherer. The only thing that really happened on Galu was that the other Russell had to choose between comfort items (bedding) or functional items (more food-gathering gear) as the reward, and he went with comfort. Back at camp, he said it was because he takes care of his women, which was ... weird. Oh, and at the very beginning, Shambo was just outraged at her team for doing yoga. I get that they were trying to show the divide between her and her team, but really: They were doing yoga despite the fact that there was no water and no firewood. So I don't think Shambo was wrong.

Russell was determined to make Ashley leave but bowed to the desire of the team and agreed to vote out Ben. In the meantime, he allied with Mick ("We call you Mick-Dreamy," Shambo said when she got to Foa Foa, which made me giggle, I can't deny it). So who hasn't Russell allied with? Gah, he is so slimy, but somehow it's working. Is he right? Are his fellow tribemates really this dumb?

What did you think?

Posted by Sarah Kickler Kelber at 11:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)
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Oh, that dastardly Russell, he of the striking blue eyes, unfortunate propensity to walk around camp in unfortunate underwear and the unshakable faith that he's the smartest person in the game.

Sadly, so far, none of his tribemates seem to be stepping up to prove him wrong on that last thing. At least, not yet.

His smartest move was anticipating that there was a hidden immunity idol at camp -- and actually finding it without any clues ... and without any of his tribemates noticing, even though it was inside a tree literally next to where several of them were standing around.

I'm not sure yet whether this was a dumb or smart move, but early in the episode Russell decided to ally with Jaison. He decided he wanted to prove to Jaison that he was trustworthy, so he told him about finding the immunity idol. (Glimpses of next week, though, make it look like Jaison is hip to Russell's weirdness. Whew.)

Continue reading "'Survivor: Samoa': The evil get ... eviler" »

Posted by Sarah Kickler Kelber at 10:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)
Categories: Survivor
        

There are 20 contestants of the new season of Survivor, but tonight, we really only got to know two of them: Russell from the Foa Foa tribe and "Shambo" from Galu.

Shambo is basically harmless. She's a former Marine who rocks a Rambo-esque headband and a mullet. She claims to only have street smarts, but she ended up solving a puzzle so fast that she almost caught her team up for the reward challenge win.and bringing home a win for her tribe in the first reward challenge. (Sorry bout that huge error -- blogging after a LONG work day has these hazards. I feel so dumb. Anyway ...) Later, though, she did a great job of alienating herself, opting to stay behind when everyone else was frollicking in the water, saying that she has to remind herself that this isn't the Marine Corps and that she's not used to being around all these kids in their mid-20s. Um, you mean like many of your fellow Marines? (My husband's in the USMC Reserves, and whenever we go to family events for his unit, we're usually among the oldest people there, and we're in our early 30s. But I digress ...) Anyway, she seems to have a good heart and an interesting personality, which probably means she's doomed in this game.

On the other hand, there is Russell. He's shown up in the promos being touted as the most evil character in Survivor history, so I was expecting him to be a jerk, but my word. He told his fellow tribemates a completely false story about being in Hurricane Katrina and losing his dog in the storm, which also featured a lie about him being a fireman. He made alliances with four different people in the first day or so, two of whom he called "dumbass girls" in interviews. Totally charming! Then when Marisa, one of his supposed alliance-mates, noticed him scheming with others and called him out on it, but in a very straight-forward, middle-of-the-road way, he went nuts and said she had "threatened" him. What she really said was that she was "worried" about him, meaning that she was concerned because of his actions that she couldn't trust him. Then he managed to turn the whole tribe against her, somehow. Oh, but let me not leave out that he dumped out everyone's canteens overnight and put Jaison's socks in the fire. (When these things were discovered the next day, he just grinned like a lunatic, but I guess it really was dark enough that everyone else couldn't see his total lack of poker face. Too bad.) 

Russell also calls himself the puppetmaster and says, "My tribe will believe anything I say because they're stupid." It makes me want to kick him, but they didn't do much to prove him wrong.

Chef Mike decided that his best defense was to walk around camp talking about how clearly they needed to vote out the weakest competitor. Mike is, by quite a bit, the oldest contestant at 62 and might want to rethink that brilliant strategy.

At tribal council, Ashley got called out as the weakest physically, and she freaks out, but when she kept  using the word "cardio" to defend herself, she just sounded like a gym rat with little else to offer.

Still, Russell managed to change enough minds, and when the votes came in, Marisa was out. Too bad. She seemed like the only one together enough to realize that Russell is bad news.

So far, there are far too many people to get much of a handle on in terms of game play or personality, except for Russell, who clearly wants to be the devil, and Shambo, who I fear is going to find that this experience disproves her quote from early in the episode: " People gravitate toward me, I'm a people magnet. They think, 'That chick rocks, I love her!'"

What did you think of the season premiere? Can we vote out Russell?

Posted by Sarah Kickler Kelber at 9:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (19)
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The casts of The Amazing Race and Survivor have been announced, and I don't see any Baltimore-area folks on either season. Guess those two casting calls in March and April didn't garner us any locals to root for. Bummer.

Maybe next time!

The Amazing Race starts on Sept. 27, and Survivor starts Sept. 17.

Posted by Sarah Kickler Kelber at 10:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
        

The original winner of Survivor, Richard Hatch, was interviewed on the Today Show today about his experience in prison for tax evasion. Hours later, he ended up back in jail. You can view the video above and read a full story here.

Hatch claims among other things that he is being discriminated against because of his sexuality. He also says, re: the taxes:

“Whatever they assess, I’m going to pay. Whatever is owed, I will pay,” Hatch told Lauer. “I’ve to this day never had an assessment. There were other issues on those tax returns, as there would be on any American’s return, that people would question.”

Posted by Sarah Kickler Kelber at 10:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
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So I finally got to watch Thursday and Sunday's episodes of Survivor: Tocantins.

There was much rejoicing in my household when we saw Coach get the boot. (Though we did dig how much fun the music editors had with him in his episode.)

There was much less rejoicing when we got to the part in the finale where Stephen and J.T. overthought again and ditched their longtime ally Taj in favor of Erinn. (Yawn.) But at least Erinn didn't make it to the final two. That would have been truly unsatisfying. Sad that Stephen didn't garner a single vote at tribal council, but I think he was sunk when he admitted that he probably would have taken Erinn with him to the final two.

Still, a final two of Stephen and J.T. was a good ending. Who would have predicted that at the time of the merge?

Regarding the reunion, all I can say is, lie-detector test or no, I still don't believe Coach's stories. Not to mention the fact that he did lie in the game. Augh. Also, why did he suddenly have a New England accent tonight? Always a mystery wrapped in an enigma, that Coach.

Considering how much I didn't care about this season for the first half, it sure ended up being really addictive and engaging toward the end. What do you think about the result? Or the season as a whole?

Posted by Sarah Kickler Kelber at 5:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)
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Hey, guys ... sorry I have been so out-of-pocket. I was traveling for the past week and -- who knew this even happened anymore -- didn't watch any TV and had little Internet access. But I'm getting ready to catch up on Thursday and Sunday's Survivor episodes and will be back to report.

In other news, who do you think is going to win American Idol? I can't believe the finale is this week already.

Posted by Sarah Kickler Kelber at 12:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Survivor
        

Soccer player Ethan Zohn, who outwitted, outlasted and outplayed his fellow castaways to win Survivor: Africa, has cancer, reports People.com.

People says Zohn, 35, learned he has rare CD20-positive Hodgkin's Lymphoma. It says he began chemotherapy last Friday.

"There's really only one outcome," he tells People, "and that's to win."

His longtime girlfriend Jenna Morasca, who won Survivor: The Amazon, tells People: "I will fight with every fabric of my being to get him through this."

Both Zohn and Morasca lost parents to cancer, People reports.

Read more here.

Photo of Ethan Zohn: Associated Press

Posted by Carla Correa at 1:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Survivor
        

First off, sorry I am behind on this. The rest of my job at The Sun has been keeping me pretty busy the past week.

Anyway, how about that Survivor on Thursday? I'm afraid that Coach is a little too close to the finals for my taste.

But seriously, how sad/funny was it that his "loved one" was his assistant coach (for the job he no longer holds)? And that the best part about seeing this guy (besides telling him how "they" call him Dragonslayer) was having him help pop Coach's back? Yikes.

I was much more moved by the interactions between the other contestants and their (actual) loved ones. Taj was hilarious when she was sobbing and then suddenly realized her husband had said in the video she won the right to see, "See you back at camp!" Seeing Stephen break down around his brother just made you realize how completely out of his element he is and how much of a front he must have up in order to get through each day.

Speaking of Stephen, I loved seeing him come from behind in the immunity challenge. They had to dig holes to drag themselves under a bar, run across a balance beam and then watch this rotating puzzle and memorize a series of mathematical symbols. Then, they had to go back and, remembering the symbols in order, put them on a board and solve an equation. All the others had to go back and forth several times to get all the pluses and minuses, but Stephen managed to recall them in one trip and won despite having seemingly had no chance to win.

I was disappointed that they decided to take out Debbie rather than Coach, but her scheming (promising to take JT and Stephen to give up immunity and go home from the final three) made them nervous enough to get her out now.

That leaves us with another week of International Shelter of Delusions, but what can we do? They have to get him out before the final, though, just so we can see Coach's jury question!

Posted by Sarah Kickler Kelber at 7:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
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I seem to have developed a love-to-hate-him relationship with Coach on Survivor. When did that happen?

More fabulousness from the Wadester tonight:

-- His hair color is not growing out in the most flattering way. Tough to maintain highlights in the Brazilian highlands!

-- Upon winning the immunity challenge (sigh), he shouted, "Dragonslayer!" Then, back at camp, he says to J.T., "Did you hear me say, 'Dragonslayer!'?" Yes, we all did, dumbo. Then he began to pontificate about how he won because of all his meditation and mental toughness. I actually suspect it's because he spent all his Friday and Saturday nights in high school playing Labyrinth.

-- Mr. "I Will Change Survivor and NEVER Lie in This Game" totally lied. He and Debbie asked Sierra about getting their old tribe back together in an alliance, and she basically said, "Uh, you voted for me last night; why on Earth would I ally with you?" And Debbie screamed and cried. Then he proceeded to tell J.T. about how Sierra tried to reunite and he said no, that made him sick to his stomach to even think about and blah blah blah. Meanwhile, Sierra told Stephen what really happened. Thankfully, they recognized that Sierra was probably telling the truth, but apparently she was so annoying that they voted her out anyway.

-- I think Coach might be the first person to quote Jesus' "They know not what they do" line at tribal council. Seriously? (At least, I think that's what he said. I was in the middle of a coughing fit from laughing at all the eye-rolling. And no, it's not swine flu.)

-- I adore that Coach is sure people are allying with him because he is strong and mighty, when in fact, Stephen said to J.T. it was good to keep him around because he's weak in every way. (Sadly, that was before his immunity win.)

I have to say ... when this season started, I was not really feeling it, but the past few weeks have been wildly entertaining. Darn it, Survivor, you got me again!

Posted by Sarah Kickler Kelber at 10:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)
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If you can believe it, I took an evening off from television last night (baked strawberry bread and talked to my best friend for two hours -- how refreshing!).

So I didn't see last night's Survivor until just now. And how sweet it was.

I mean, of course it would have been better to see Coach going home because I am totally over him. But having part of his so-called "Warrior Alliance" go home unexpectedly was pretty awesome, too.

Tyson is good for sound bites and entertainment around the fire, but he also seems to be a giant jerk (telling Sierra she was too dumb to have masterminded last week's failed plot? Jerky!). That wasn't why Forza took him out, though -- it was all about his physical prowess and back-to-back immunity wins.

So howzabout we get Coach next week? He tried to take out the, what? The dragon's princess bride or something? (Maybe he was comparing Sierra to Princess Peach from Super Mario Bros.) Before he leaves, whenever he leaves, we will surely be treated to him berating JT and the other members of what he thought was his alliance for being untrustworthy and liars.

I still can't believe this guy, the one who has told such outlandish stories about his past, claims to never lie. Please. But enough about that.

The game just got a lot more interesting, and huzzah for that!

Posted by Sarah Kickler Kelber at 5:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)
Categories: Survivor
        

Survivor host Jeff Probst blogged about last night's show -- OK, mostly about Coach -- for EW.com today, and it's the funniest thing I've read in a long, long time. Read it here.

Here's a snippet:

I am seriously considering a show called The Dragon Slayer. It's about a guy who lives in a world that exists solely in his own mind, and thus is invisible to the outside world. While it is the year 2009, the Dragon Slayer dresses like he's just returned from one of those Renaissance fairs where he's just finished eating a turkey leg the size of a small dog. We'll simply follow his daily life, where every time he leaves his home offers the potential for a life changing, near-death, journey. Every episode concludes with his signature line:

Coach: "Hence my name, the dragon slayer."

 It gets better; trust me. Go read now. Laugh. Laugh some more. And have a great weekend!

Posted by Sarah Kickler Kelber at 10:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Survivor
        

They were so close.

They had a plan.

They had the votes.

And for some reason, the dumbos left on Survivor lost their chance to take out insufferable blowhard Coach and took out Brendan instead.

Oh, fine. They blindsided Brendan so they could get rid of him, his likeability and his immunity idol in one fell swoop.

But why oh why do we have to keep dealing with Coach? Now he really will believe he was the mastermind -- oh, I'm sorry, I mean the dragon-slayer. How many times did he call himself that last night? At least three, if not more.

I just cannot deal with this character any more. I was bouncing in my chair with excitement, waiting for him to be blindsided, so I was really, really peeved when they flipped the script.

But honestly, does anyone believe that story he told about being airdropped in a military helicopter into the Amazon, being taken prisoner by a tribe of people about 4 feet tall, being beaten and tortured, escaping out the back door and paddling away with his life? Give. Me. A. Break.

And this is the guy who has claimed he will never lie in this game.

Coach, you are not the dragon-slayer, you aren't a samurai, and as Bucky pointed out for us last week, you don't even appear to be a coach anymore since your job as listed on the CBS website is posted as open.

Edited to add: I highly recommend following Coach on Twitter. No, it's not really him, but the hilarity factor is high.

Posted by Sarah Kickler Kelber at 12:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)
Categories: Survivor
        

I couldn't make it out to the Survivor auditions in Catonsville yesterday, but Sun reporter Scott Calvert did.

Here's his story on the event.

Were you there? What was it like? What was your pitch to get on the show?

Posted by Sarah Kickler Kelber at 1:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Survivor
        

I am starting to think there has never been a reality TV character as delusional as Coach on Survivor: Tocantins.

There have been people who have believed they were running the game and who have even declared such, but never with as much fervor as our soccer coach/conductor.

The first scene after the credits on last night's episode featured him standing in the ocean, meditating (with lots of arm gestures) while dramatic classical music played. (I should ask Tim Smith what it was, if I can find a clip!) And for the rest of the episode, every time he did an interview, there was accompanying music that really heightened how self-important he was being. It's clear the editors don't like him, and that he gave them lots to work with, but it was beyond entertaining. (It's about time -- this season had felt like a dud thus far, but I think they got me last night.)

But as for plot, well, it was merge time. And, one might have thought, time to see how the secret alliance forged at Exile Island among Taj, Brendan, Stephen and Sierra was going to play out. Except Brendan and Sierra totally failed to even speak to Taj or Stephen, so they were out in the cold. In the meantime, Coach talked to JT about forming an alliance. JT thought he could bring in Stephen, which he did, and Coach brought in Tyson and Debbie, and they were all going to target Brendan.

Stephen mentioned this to Taj, who brought up the fact that the rest of the folks were going to vote for JT, so if Brendan played the hidden immunity idol, JT would be going home. So Taj and Stephen figured out if they split the votes four for Brendan, three for Sierra, then one of them would go and JT would be safe. This was related to JT, who passed it along to Coach.

Spectacular cut to Coach, talking about how he masterminded the whole thing, and it was going to be so perfect and amazing, and how he was the dragon-slayer. (I could not make this up.) Yes, if being told about a plan is masterminding it, then yes, he sure did!

Sadly, in the end, all the machinations made no difference because Joe (Remember Joe? I almost didn't, though I did decide he reminded me of Johnny Drama from Entourage) had a cut on his leg that had gotten so infected, he had to be taken out of the game for treatment. So there was no tribal council.

Tyson probably had the most hilarious soundbites in quantity for the episode, but my favorite quote was Brendan on Coach: "He told me, 'I kind of started the whole samurai thing,' and I was like, I think they've been doing that for thousands of years!'"

All this week's plotting is probably for naught, as it looks like Brendan and Sierra will wise up and actually talk to their alliance-mates in the next episode. Whew.

(Photo courtesy of CBS)

Posted by Sarah Kickler Kelber at 12:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Survivor
        

Those CBS reality shows sure are looking closely at the Baltimore area. Yesterday, there was a casting call for The Amazing Race, and in a couple of weeks -- 10 a.m.-4 p.m. April 11 to be exact -- there's one for Survivor.

It's at Antwerpen Hyundai, 6631 Baltimore National Pike in Catonsville. WJZ has more details here.

Posted by Sarah Kickler Kelber at 6:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Survivor
        

It's still that point on Survivor where there are so many players, it's hard to keep track, but I will say this. Can Coach go home now?

I'm over Coach's schtick -- especially during tribal council, when he said that during the initial episode, he told his tribemates what to do "with his eyes" so that they gathered the correct materials off the truck. And as if he didn't have a big enough case of the icks, he totally reminds me of Mystery from The Pickup Artist. Ick redux.

Poor Jerry. Stinks when an upset stomach gets you kicked out of the game.

Posted by Sarah Kickler Kelber at 11:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: Survivor
        

-- Survivor: Tocantins kicked off last night, and I haven't had a chance to write about it until now. It's always tough to get a handle on Survivor in the first couple of episodes because there are so many people. But we did see more of the same: a twist (two people get voted out before it starts -- but psych! They are just missing the hike to camp), a naked guy (Utah cyclist Tyson), a crazy lady (bus driver Sandy), a guy who already thinks he's running the game ("Coach") a total lack of fire-making, a brutal challenge, a puzzle, a blindside (buh-bye, Carolina).

I think it's too early to tell whether it's going to be a good season, but there's definitely some potential. Also, moving to HD last season was a fab idea. That Brazilian landscape looks amazing in high-def!

-- I got a little behind on The Biggest Loser, what with the kid's hospital stay and all, but I finally got all caught up. The ousted contestants who had returned got to weigh in, and their numbers were not all that impressive. When Joelle failed to lose a pound, her fellow competitors voted her out -- and Carla, though they would have preferred to keep her.

This week was emotionally wrenching as usual. First, Kristen and Tara faced off as the final two in yet another endurance challenge (this time with their partners), and this time, Kristen was victorious, winning immunity for her and her mom. Then, at the weigh-in, Kristen was so excited because she was starting at 301 and certain she would finally be dipping into the 200s. Unfortunately, she had an unexpected 2-pound gain (thank goodness for that immunity), and she was really upset.

Bob had been pushing father-and-son team Ron and Mike, but Ron got injured and hasn't been able to work as hard as he'd like. This has put pressure on his son (at 18, the youngest contestant ever on the show), but Mike hadn't been posting big losses. He and Bob had a heart-to-heart, and Mike realized he wasn't eating enough calories to support his hours-long workouts. At long last, Ron and Mike were not below the yellow line, and Mike was thrilled. (Good to see after his breakdown during the last-chance weigh-in.)

At the end of the weigh-in, cousins Dane and Blaine were the bottom team, and one of them would have to leave. Blaine wanted to leave, since he had a newborn at home, but for some reason, the teams went through this big drama of acting like they were going to keep him anyway. In the end, Blaine was voted out and got to go home to see his baby.

Seemed like it went OK for him; he looked good in his several-weeks-later footage.

-- I totally missed Bachelor and True Beauty the past couple of weeks -- did I miss anything good?

Posted by Sarah Kickler Kelber at 2:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

It came down to one vote separating Bob and Susie from winning Survivor: Gabon.

Bob, the physics professor, who was essentially the last kid picked for the neighborhood game, found a way to win the competition. Read more here.

At 57, Bob is the oldest competitor to win the show. Way to go Bob!

Posted by John-John Williams IV at 4:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Survivor
        

Reality Check reader Rob Yunich was so kind to e-mail his thoughts on Survivor: Gabon, which I am sharing with all of you. Read on:

Last night's episode of]continued the theme of what I'm dubbing the "quiet assassin strikes again." But first (as Julie Chen would say on Big Brother), the episode began with lots of discussion of a merge. Hmmmmm.

At the reward challenge, the tribes had to use a sling shot to put a ball into a "hole" (which was more like a saucer). Kota took the first portion, but Fang captured the final two to win the reward, despite Randy and Matty loudly arguing when they were about a foot from victory.

Continue reading "Getting up to date on "Survivor: Gabon"" »

Posted by Carla Correa at 11:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Survivor
        

Ah, blindsiding the blindsiders. What a fitting end to this season of Survivor.

The final four -- Parvati, Amanda, Cirie and Natalie -- went into what they thought was their final immunity challenge. Amanda won, and stuck with her alliance, sending Natalie packing.

But then the shocker: there would be another immunity challenge, taking them to a final two. Amanda won yet another challenge and tearfully voted out Cirie.

After one last night, Amanda and Parvati then faced the jury. (And I'm going to live-blogging and switching to present tense.)

Eliza is up first. She talks to Parvati about respecting her strategic game, but not the other things she did that made her seem like a mean person. She then tells Amanda that she also respects her strategic game, but finds her to be very superficial otherwise. (Her exact words are more along the lines of: "Your voice often made me literally want to kill myself.") Nice.

Jason asks Amanda if she would have told Ozzy about the plan if she'd known about it. Amanda says yes. He asks Parvati about her redeeming qualities, and she says her protectiveness and loyalty to her main alliance (Amanda and Cirie). And also that she didn't kill Gloria the chicken.

Alexis asks Parvati what makes her a better role model than Amanda for young girls. She says she is more outspoken and bolder. She then talks to Amanda about what part of her game was genuine -- adding that they were laughing at her tears in the last TC since she acted so hard during the play of the immunity idol.

Natalie asks Parvati how playing the flirt card in the game, "How does that translate in the bedroom?" Huh? Parvati admitted to flirting with girls and guys to get her way at home and in the game. She calls Amanda out for her "glazed-over look" on her face, and was that her strategy or was that just who she was. Amanda says she is a little reserved and that she believes she played a strategic and intellectual game.

Erik says that a few days ago, he 100 percent would have been voting for Amanda, but now he has a lot of questions. He says he felt thrown under the bus at two TCs. Amanda says everything she said at the TCs was honest, that she was hurt during those times. She says she's sorry, but he says it's too late, and he doesn't buy it.

James tells Jeff is finger is all right. James says he's not going to be mean, he thinks Amanda has it in the bag. So he asks Parvati to ... be more honest? She says, "Gotcha, sucka." He says that isn't what he is looking for. Parvati says she had no chance to win sticking with James and Ozzy, so she had to make the move against Ozzy when she did.

Cirie congratulates both of them. She asks Amanda why she deserves the million more than Cirie. Amanda says she thinks Parvati made bolder decisions and "was the powerhouse." She asks Parvati why Cirie should be in the final two instead of her. Parvati says she played a brilliant under the radar game, but she couldn't compete with a mother of three. Parvati asks for like the third time if her answer was good enough.

Ozzy says he thinks he's the biggest idiot up here and that he is to the bottom of his heart hurt by Parvati's move. He says she put a price on their friendship and she discarded him like garbage. (HELLO, IT IS A GAME, OZZY.) He says he doesn't want to talk to her, but he adds that the worst thing was she took away 14 more days he could have spent with Amanda. (Oooh, showmance lives!) He tells Amanda that he was not and is not faking his feelings for her -- "I honestly feel like I started to fall in love with you." Call me callous (or burnt out), but that was kind of barfy.

The votes we see: Erik votes for Amanda, saying she played a good game; Alexis votes for Parvati; Natalie votes for Parvati; and Ozzy votes for Amanda. Eliza has to be all dramatic and not cast her vote for like seven years, of course.

To the live finale, where suddenly makeup is in abundance.

Votes: Parvati, Amanda, Parvati, Amanda, Parvati, Amanda, Parvati and Parvati.

So ... Parvati is the winner, and she is shocked. She's not the only one! What do you think?

(I'll update a little later with more from the finale.)

(Hey, there wasn't a car challenge!)

Continue reading "'Survivor: Fans vs. Favorites' finale" »

Posted by Sarah Kickler Kelber at 10:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Survivor
        

Hahahahahahahahahahaha!

OK, I think I'm ready to talk about tonight's Survivor: Fans vs. Favorites. Nope, not quite yet.

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!

Four blindsides in a row? FOUR? I just ... I mean ... Not to get all Grey's Anatomy on you, but seriously?

OK, so let's start at the beginning, where poor little Erik was feeling so bad about the strategic guilt trip that Amanda gave him at last week's tribal council. He and Natalie discussed what they had to do next, and that included him sending her to Exile Island if he won reward, so she could look for the hidden immunity idol.

Later, though, Amanda decided to work him over and offer him the chance to "redeem" himself if he would take her own reward if he won and send Parvati to Exile (since she is so weak). I thought for sure he saw through her, but ...

Continue reading "'Survivor': Did that really just happen?" »

Posted by Sarah Kickler Kelber at 9:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)
Categories: Survivor
        

What a lot of drama there's been on this season of Survivor. Thursday's episode was no exception.

James became the third person to leave this season without being voted off, thanks to an infection in his finger that could have threatened his finger, if not his entire hand, if he didn't get it taken care of. (And how dramatic was it when he showed up at tribal council to take his seat on the jury carting an IV stand pumping him full of antibiotics?)

The whole episode was just wacky. Alexis took a middle-of-the-night tumble and hurt her leg. Then, the contestants had a reward challenge that was perfect for this mean-girls group. It was the typical one where everyone answers questions about the tribe in secret and then they have to guess how the majority answered. Whoever answered correctly had to hack at the rope by a little clay statue of each contestant -- three hacks at your rope, and you were out (with a vengeance -- the wooden stake crushed the heads violently). Those challenges always reveal who is at the top and the bottom of the totem pole, and it became pretty obvious that Amanda didn't have a lot of standing with the other women.

Alexis won reward and chose Cirie and Natalie (oh yeah, and their loved ones, who showed up at the beginning of the challenge) to go with her. Amanda volunteered to be the one sent to Exile Island, where they'd been told the idol had been rehidden.

Continue reading "Another 'Survivor' blindsiding" »

Posted by Sarah Kickler Kelber at 11:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: Survivor
        

So last week on Survivor, Ozzy held onto his hidden immunity idol that everyone knew he had and then got voted out, right?

And then this week, Jason gets sent to Exile Island, where the idol has been rehidden, and he finds it, and he knows that he almost got voted out last week, but he doesn't play it? Are you kidding? He's in this season because he's a fan, so it's not like he's not familiar with the game. And, uh, he was there last week when the exact same fate befell Ozzy, who had much better standing in the tribe than Jason did. Dumb dumb dumb.

But entertaining!

So it seems the women are now running this game. Too bad they're playing like middle-schoolers. I can't stand Parvati, and Natalie and Alexis don't do much for me, either.

If I were Amanda, I would team up with James and Erik and try to convince Cirie that she is obviously No. 4 in that mean-girls alliance and form a foursome to take out those three.

It's definitely been interesting the past couple of episodes. Certainly more than I expected it to be, since early on it seemed like the fans were going to go down in flames.

Have you been watching? What's your take?

Posted by Sarah Kickler Kelber at 7:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: Survivor
        

Two weeks ago, when Ami was voted out on Survivor instead of Erik (the first time a "favorite" left when a "fan" could have been voted out), it was pretty surprising.

Last week, when Eliza was sent packing, thinking she might have a hidden immunity idol, it wasn't as surprising as the producers would have liked it to be.

But tonight? Yeah, tonight was a surprise.

For the reward challenge, they divided into two teams of four, with Cirie sent to Exile Island. The team of Ozzy, Jason, Erik and Amanda won and enjoyed a feast with native Micronesians.

Upon their return to the beach, Ozzy went on and on about how awesome the food was and totally failed to read his teammates, who were not wanting to hear it.

The immunity challenge required the contestants to stand on a log with one arm above their heads connected to a big bucket of water. If they dropped their arm, the water spilled, and they were out.

Continue reading "'Survivor' shocker" »

Posted by Sarah Kickler Kelber at 9:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Survivor
        

Poor Airai. If people didn't stop randomly leaving the tribe, they would be in massively good shape on Survivor: Fans Vs. Favorites.

But no -- last week, they lost Jonathan to an infection in his leg and last night, Kathy left because she just mentally could not handle the game anymore.

Malakal had a brief moment of glory with its reward challenge win but went back to its losing ways at immunity challenge time, despite the lead that Ozzy built up for the team during the swimming portion.

The moments that stuck out for me the most were:

* Erik's puppy love for Ozzy, and Cirie's hilarious descriptions of it.

* Even Amanda acknowledging that Ozzy's cocky attitude was getting to be a little much.

* The goofy noises the contestants made during the shampoo reward challenge, which were a little too close to sponsor Herbal Essences' old commercials to be real.

* Ozzy pretty much single-handedly deciding that Tracy would go to Exile Island, even though she seemed to want the shampoo reward more than anyone.

* The total lack of footage from Jason and Tracy's time on Exile Island.

* James perplexed by all the complaining on his tribe, when life there has actually improved markedly since some of the "favorites" joined them.

Raise your hand if you thought at all that Malakal might actually take Ozzy out last night? I almost bought into it, but Tracy's abject plea made me realize that plot wasn't going anywhere.

So farewell, Tracy. And Kathy.

Looks like we might be down to just favorites if this trend continues.  

Posted by Sarah Kickler Kelber at 1:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Survivor
        

What did you all think of last week's Survivor: Fan vs. Favorites?

It was crazy seeing Jonathan Penner have to be medically evacuated. His injury during the previous week's reward challenge seemed painful but not horrendous, but once it got infected? Yeesh. He could hardly walk, and I swear he was slurring his words at the beginning of the episode. When the doctor told him he needed to get to the hospital stat or risk losing his leg or, in the case of a blood infection, his life, he didn't have much of a choice.

And when Chet, suffering from an infected wound to his heel, heard about Jonathan's departure, well, I'm pretty sure that's exactly when he gave up and decided to ask his tribe to vote him out.

I did enjoy Jason finding Ozzy's fake immunity idol and seeming to buy into it, then later declaring at the immunity challenge that he was pretty sure Ozzy had it already. However, seeing all that on the previews did kind of ruin it.

What do you think is going to happen next?

(Photo of Jonathan Penner courtesy of CBS)

Posted by Sarah Kickler Kelber at 9:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Survivor
        

On Thursday night, it was already time to mix up the fans and the "favorites" on Survivor. Of course, they did a schoolyard pick, and of course, Chet was last.

When the reconfiguring was done, the tribes looked like this:

Malakal: Ozzy, Joel, Amanda, Erik, Ami, Tracy, Cirie and Chet

Airai: Natalie, James, Alexis, Jonathan, Jason, Parvati, Kathy and Eliza

I guess I'm going to have to learn to spell these tribe names since I can't just call them "fans" and "favorites" anymore. Aww, nuts.

For their first challenge, a pair from each team was tied together, one with a flag on its back. The flag wearers were the chasees and the others were the chasers. The goal was to get three flags off the other team. Oh, and of course, there was this (stick-filled) obstacle course, which made the whole thing pretty brutal. Ami tweaked her knee, Jonathan ripped his knee open and Parvati got a fat lip. But the person who took the most abuse was Chet, who was lashed to Joel, who, dragged him around and ran him into things and was generally a gigantic jerk about it all. So Malakal lost the reward, but they got to stay on the favorites' beach, so things weren't looking so bad after all since there was an actual shelter there. And they have Ozzy.

Over at Airai, the favorites marveled at how awful the camp was, and the new team got ready to enjoy its reward. Then, a beautiful Survivor moment. They were happily cooking their meat and veggie reward in the bad camp, when suddenly, the tide came in and wiped out the fire. Too funny. Not so surprisingly, the next thing we saw was the faves figuring out where the new camp should be and building a new shelter.

For the immunity challenge, the banged up contestants were spared a physical challenge for one involving the usual tiles and puzzle. Malakal lost.

So, of course, it seemed like Chet was going home. No question, right? Well, Cirie didn't much like the idea of the weakest going home first since she'd be considered in that category. So she ended up manipulating all the votes again. (When will her teammates figure out they are being played by her and get rid of her instead?) Anyway, Cirie teamed up with Tracy and Chet and talked to some of the other tribemates about Joel's bad attitude and temper, and apparently he'd made enough of a bad impression that plenty of others turned against him, too. Bye, Joel.

My other favorite moment of the night was early in the episode. Ozzy was shown carefully hiding away the immunity idol from Exile Island, immediately after which they learned about the switch. He looked terrified that he was going to get sent to the other beach, and it was hysterical. But he ended up back at home, back with his idol.

I was hoping that the switch would mean that the couples would be separated (especially since I didn't sign up to watch Survivor: Til Death Do Us Part), but that didn't happen. Ozzy and Amanda are still together on one team, and James and Parvati are together on the other. At least their foursome got mixed up.

Posted by Sarah Kickler Kelber at 9:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Survivor
        

Did Yau-Man really have to go so soon? Before Parvati? Before Jonathan? Sigh.

That was two episodes ago, when the faves lost immunity, and Cirie found herself caught between two alliances. The non-couple alliance thought she was with them, but she'd also joined up with the Parvati/James/Amanda/Ozzy group. She went back and forth so much that I didn't understand why the two groups of four didn't just join together and vote her out. It's sure happened before with swing voters who get a little too high and mighty. But no.

Still, the votes went down really oddly: Among other things, Ami voted for Cirie, and Eliza voted with the couples against Yau. I'm still not sure what that's about.

On the most recent episode, the faves handily won the reward challenge (Hello! There was swimming, and they had Ozzy). Speaking of Ozzy, he found the immunity idol and hid a fake one in its place, all while Kathy was right there on Exile Island, not noticing at all.

Eliza wasn't feeling well, and her amazingly sensitive teammates took the time to discuss right in front of her how they wished they'd gotten rid of her instead of Yau. (Not even by accident in front of her; they just didn't care.)

Still, for the immunity challenge, the faves pulled together and overtook the fans. It seemed like Chet was going to be out of there, but Tracy managed to convince Joel that Mikey B was still acting like he was running the game and so he should be voted out.

Somehow, that worked, and it was hasta la vista, Mikey B.

Next week, it looks like the tribes are getting mixed up. I'm cool with changing up the alliances a bit. It was getting a little stagnant already, even though I haven't even figured out all the names of the people on the fans' tribe.

In the meantime, I really wish Jeff Probst would stop calling Jonathan "Penner." Yes, it's his last name, but the audience doesn't know him by that, so it's really disorienting. I'm sure he could manage to say "Jonathan" with the same amount of condescension.

Posted by Sarah Kickler Kelber at 9:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Survivor
        

Sometimes, it's so satisfying to see a contestant who feels 100 percent safe get sent home.

That happened to Mary on last night's Survivor, but it's so early and we know so little about everyone that some of the drama was muted.

Mostly, the experienced "favorites" thrived with their awesome shelter, unstoppable fire-building skills, and, of course, Ozzy. And the flirty couplings escalated to making-out sessions, at least on the part of Amanda and Ozzy. And the non-coupled foursome (Jonathan, Yau-Man, Ami and Eliza) decided to pick up Cirie as their fifth (not that they had much choice).

On the "fan" side, things were not so rosy. Their shelter was a disaster, and even with flint, they couldn't get a fire going. The "older" crowd (Chet, Tracy and Kathleen) whined some and then started scoping out new places for a shelter. They found Jason and a couple of others cleaning out a cave and thought it might make a good spot for everyone, but Jason said, literally, that they weren't welcome.

So the trio took the machete and built themselves a pretty great lean-to, at which point most of the others realized they were being morons and asked for advice for how to expand it using their model. But not very nicely.

At the challenge (which involved locks, puzzles, swimming, balancing, breaking tiles and all the other usual Survivor accouterments), the fans were already running behind when Chet started totally foundering in the water and took forever to get back to shore. They never caught up after that, and the favorites got immunity as well as a fishing boat and gear (like they needed that, when they already had Ozzy, who caught a fish in his bare hands on their way back from tribal council).

Continue reading "'Survivor' blindsiding" »

Posted by Sarah Kickler Kelber at 2:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Survivor
        

I kind of hate to admit that I was excited about the premiere of the latest Survivor, which pits 10 superfans against 10 "favorite" players.

I was less than excited that Jonny Fairplay (in real life, Jon Dalton, he of the lying about his grandma dying to win a reward challenge) was among the favorites.

But that little thorn in my side didn't last long, since Fairplay decided he needed to go home to his seven-months'-pregnant fiancee, who happens to be former America's Next Top Model contestant Michelle Deighton. (By the way, the baby was born Jan. 16.) The editors played it up as a possibly another lie from their loose cannon, but it wasn't, and he is out. Works for me!

At this point (especially when they are starting with 20 contestants), it's hard to sort out who is who and all that, but a few things did stick out from the premiere:

It should be fun once we get to know the other players a little more and see how the faves interact with one another. I do hope they knock off the coupling. I don't watch many of the dating shows, and that's certainly not what I'm looking for in my Survivor seasons.

The one thing I will miss is watching Jeff Probst's utter contempt for Fairplay just ooze out of him every time their interacted. That was comedy.

(Photo courtesy of CBS)

Posted by Sarah Kickler Kelber at 8:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Survivor
        

Entertainment Weekly reveals the cast of the next Survivor, and in case you already forgot, it's superfans vs. fan favorites (though I feel like I should put that last part in quote marks, FAIRPLAY).

Here's the story. 

By the way, it starts Feb. 7. 

Posted by Sarah Kickler Kelber at 5:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Survivor
        

So remember Denise Martin's tale of woe, of getting demoted to janitor upon her return from China, on Sunday's reunion show for Survivor: China? A tale of woe that prompted producer Mark Burnett to promise her $50K on the spot?

According to the school district where Denise works, this is not true. From this article:

"None of that is true," said schools Superintendent Nancy T. Lane, who, like many in the rural town 50 miles southwest of Boston, had been faithfully watching the show. "It made me sit up on the couch ... flabbergasted."

Lane said Martin was hired as a cafeteria worker at $7.37 an hour in 2004, but was promoted on March 30 this year to janitor, a job that now pays her more than $17 an hour. The promotion to janitor, Lane said, came before Martin even tried out for "Survivor."

Yikes. I don't know what the deal is with this, but I have a feeling the aftermath ain't going to be pretty.

UPDATE: More details. Martin and Lane were on The Early Show this morning. Video is here, after a commercial. Denise says what Lane says is true. She says that when she returned, she wanted to go back to her old job as lunch lady because of the day shift issue. Lane says at the moment, that position is not available and that if she wants to change jobs, she knows the process for transferring jobs. Denise also apologized for being accidentally misleading and apologized to Lane and the rest of the district. Julie Chen asked her about the money from Burnett, and Denise said she didn't do this to get money, but she didn't answer the question about whether she would take the money.

== 

Also, I had been wondering whether host Jeff Probst was going to ask Todd about how he dealt with his tribemates publicly doubting whether his sister had had a miscarriage, which came up in the family visits. In this interview (which is currently not loading for me -- I will try to get to it later and update this with a quote), he says the story was true, and the Courtney gave him a heads up and called and apologized to his family the day of the show for her egregious comments.

Posted by Sarah Kickler Kelber at 11:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Survivor
        

Clearly, the producers of Survivor are done with those final-four immunity challenges that last 20 hours. On tonight's episode, the survivors had to pile dishes onto a platform and hold it steady with a handle.

It came down to Denise and Amanda, but Amanda took it. Denise desperately wrangled with her to get rid of someone else (and the editing sure made it seem like Amanda promised not to write down Denise's name), but in the end, Denise was out, leaving Amanda, Todd and Courtney as the final three.

At that tribal council, Denise said Amanda had said she had Denise's back, and Amanda tried to clarify that she had said it earlier, not that day (so not sure what gives with the whole "won't write your name down" thing). Todd pulled a face, Jeff asked him about it, and he said he was just reacting to the harshness. Back at camp, Amanda worked what became her favorite face of the evening -- pouty -- and yelled at Todd for selling her out. He said he didn't mean to, and while he and Courtney tried to celebrate, Amanda went to sleep.

The next day, there was the ritual "say something about the ousted players, even if you didn't know them" thing, this time with firecrackers instead of straight-up fire.

Then ... final tribal council.

Continue reading "'Survivor: China': and the winner is ..." »

Posted by Sarah Kickler Kelber at 11:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (19)
Categories: Survivor
        

Peih-Gee fought and fought hard, but it wasn't enough. On Thursday's Survivor: China, she made friends with Amanda but failed to persuade her to vote against Todd.

Amanda must have figured out that turning on Todd would look bad at this point, and, as he pointed out, he has made a lot of people mad, so going to the end with him doesn't look like a bad option.

But seriously, Courtney is still in this? There's always someone. I hope she looks less bony at the reunion.

Overall, though, this is not the final four I would have predicted toward the beginning. Will this be a jury that respects game-play or gets angry about being back-stabbed? Tonight, we'll see how it all plays out.

Posted by Sarah Kickler Kelber at 6:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Survivor
        

Last week's Survivor: China wasn't nearly as strategically interesting as the prior week's, but it really would have been hard to match James' Bad Move of 2007. (Although correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't the previews make it seem like Amanda was going to turn on Todd in this episode? Guess we have to wait until Thursday.)

Mostly, it was a pretty rote episode. The reward featured family visits, and we got to meet Denise's husband, Amanda's sister, Todd's sister (more on this later), Courtney's British dad, Erik's mother and Peih-Gee's father. They took part in a blindfolded maze, and Denise won. She was allowed to take two other people and their loved ones with her, and that's when Denise met rock and hard place. In the previous episode, Peih-Gee chose her to go on the Shaolin Temple reward (in an attempt to sway her to the other side). But Denise has felt very shaky in her alliance and so she took the Powers That Be (Todd and Amanda) with her. Peih-Gee? Not amused.

Continue reading "'Survivor: China' heads into finale week" »

Posted by Sarah Kickler Kelber at 8:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Survivor
        

How dumb must James feel getting voted out while holding two unplayed immunity idols? Whoops!

It was nice that he still trusted his tribe, but I think he was being a little greedy, trying to hold on to them as long as possible so he could use them as a guaranteed way into the finals. Oh, well. That's why he had to be blindsided. Kudos to Amanda for figuring it out and persuading everyone go to along with her.

For the reward challenge, three contestants got to go to the Shaolin Temple and see a martial arts demonstration. Peih-Gee won the challenge and took Erik and Denise with him. Denise, as it turns out, has been taking karate for eight years and is working on her black belt. It was great to see her reveling in a reward that was so meaningful to her. (It was particularly cool for me, too, since the reason I missed the original airing Thursday night was because I was at tae kwon do class.)

The other thing that stands out for me in the episode is how awkward it was when Pieh-Gee tried to be all cool and smooth, telling Amanda that James had an immunity idol, and did she know about it? Um, yeah. EVERYONE knows. I laughed when Amanda was basically reduced to telling her to not do anything and then she will be safe *WINKWINK* to get her point across.

Speaking of Amanda, I cannot figure out what is going on with the pixelation of her rear end. When she's far away, the editors leave it alone, but if the cameras get too close, there goes the pixelation again. There doesn't seem to be a hole in the back of her bathing suit. I guess it's just a, well, wedgie issue.

This week should be interesting, since Amanda seems done with Todd and how he's playing the game. And with the "hidden" immunity idols out of play, it's a whole different game.

Posted by Sarah Kickler Kelber at 8:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Survivor
        

I hate when I come home to a show already in progress (or, in this case, almost over) and turn on the TV, ready to power up the DVR and start from the beginning, and the first thing I see is the interview with the person who got kicked off.

That's what happened to me last night -- and yes, I know, user error for not noticing the time! But it was hard to get too involved in the episode when I already knew the outcome: that Frosti would be going home.

I mean, it was sure to happen, especially after he started his weird flirty friendship with Courtney. But I still thought Erik was in more danger, at least at the beginning. And surely Peih Gee would have been out after her fight with James if not for immunity.

The immunity challenge was a mean one. Not the actual challenge, but that if people felt safe, they could eat cheeseburgers and fries instead of taking part. Only Peih Gee, Erik, Frosti and Amanda chose to play, so they had to watch the stuffing of faces while trying to concentrate on the challenge. Mean! But that's how it goes sometimes.

So Frosti is out. It's looking less and less like anyone is going to pull a coup or rearrange alliances.

However, the show did end with host Jeff Probst cryptically saying that things weren't over and they still had business to attend to at tribal council. So who knows what will happen next?

(Photo courtesy of CBS)

Posted by Sarah Kickler Kelber at 7:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: Survivor
        

Watching Thursday's Survivor: China, all I could think was, was Jean-Robert paying attention last week?

I know that, like Jaime, he had to assume that the wood piece he found was the hidden immunity idol, but he never seemed to question that what he had was the idol -- despite seeing host Jeff Probst toss her "idol" into the fire at the previous tribal council.

Anyway, for some reason, he thought he had it made -- until Erik told him that James already had the two idols. That made me sad because by that point I was really looking forward to Jean-Robert making the exact same boneheaded move that Jaime did.

But he didn't, and yet he is out, and I am glad. Because the self-proclaimedpoker-playing "bad boy" has been bugging me for weeks, and I didn't even have to live with him.

(Photo courtesy of CBS)

Posted by Sarah Kickler Kelber at 10:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Survivor
        

All right, I'm still running behind. I haven't seen last night's Amazing Race premiere yet, and Dancing With the Stars is currently being pre-empted in my household by this painful Ravens-Steelers game. At least it's not a shutout!

Anyway, as promised, I did finally get caught up with Survivor: China. And it's been nutty lately. Two episodes ago, James got kidnapped back to his old tribe, and Todd suggested James give the clue to the hidden immunity idol to him, promising he'd protect him. So they hatched a plan in which James would get the idol, go back to his tribe, throw the immunity competition, his tribe would vote for him, he'd play the idol, and Jaime would go home.

But the challenge was the gross food one, and it threw people off big time. James' tribe won, and Todd's tribe was stuck with no immunity idols and having to vote someone out. They ended up voting out Sherea, which was hardly a shock. Somewhat shocking was Sherea's exit interview, in which she claimed that she was getting kicked out because she was such a threat. Um, no.

Despite all that, my favorite moment of the episode two weeks ago was Courtney openly laughing at John-Robert during tribal council when he claimed that he wasn't well-liked because he was a "bad boy." "Bad boy" is yet another one of those labels that you just cannot bestow upon yourself. Especially if you seem like an insecure, oblivious dork. Not to put too fine of a point on it.

Continue reading "'Survivor' ketchup" »

Posted by Sarah Kickler Kelber at 10:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Survivor
        

If you've become a fan of Erik from Survivor: China (who has done little on the show thus far but confess a crush on Jaime -- as well as the fact that he's a virgin), you might want to stop by the Lodge Bar in Power Plant Live on Nov. 3.

He's the bass player in the band FLOREZ, which is performing as part of the benefit concert ROCK B*CAUSE. It's raising money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and Lyrics for Life. Also slated to perform are Honor by August, Scott Leger and Gareth Asher.

For more, check out the event's MySpace page. You can also hear a couple of FLOREZ's songs on the band's page.

(Photo courtesy of CBS)

Posted by Sarah Kickler Kelber at 11:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

The big twist on tonight's Survivor was a double kidnapping -- each tribe had to choose two people from the other group that would best benefit them.

The brain trust over at Zhan Hu didn't even consider that the other tribe would also get to steal two people. Peih Gee just went on and on about how the power was shifting to them. Not so fast!

Zhan Hu picked James and Aaron and Fei Long went with Frosti and Sherea.

Once they realized that they were losing people, too, Sherea said it hadn't even crossed their minds, and, "That was really dumb." Good thing they realized that, at least!

Frosti interviews the morning after he joined Fei Long how excited he was to wake up to smack talk about Jean-Robert. This was because he walked up and started telling everyone what to do, which never goes over well. Still, the poker player appears unable to read his competition.

At Zhan Hu, everyone but James lazed in the river while James worked and worked and worked around camp. Peih Gee comes up with the idea of throwing two immunity challenges so that if the tribes merged with 10 people total left, it would be five from each side.

When it was time for the challenge, it appeared that the contestants have been given their bathing suits, and thank God, because the underwear was getting dicier every episode. Jaime was so obviously not trying to win, so I guess they were going for the throwing challenges idea.

And the problem with throwing it? James and Aaron end up peeeeeeeved. James yelled and said he wasn't going to support the tribe anymore with work. The other problem with throwing the challenge? Not warning Erik, who is also peeved.

Peih Gee talked to James, who said he thought Aaron should stay. She said they had hoped to keep James and sway him to their side, but after the challenge, he doesn't trust them at all. 

At tribal, Jaime couldn't wipe the smile off her face, and Jeff easily managed to get her to tell him they threw the challenge. James talked about how he couldn't stick around if people weren't going to give it 100 percent. Aaron said he wanted to stay as long as possible. It looked like James was for sure going home, but instead the tribe kicked him to the curb and kept James.

So what happens next week? Is James going to try to win the immunity challenge single-handedly? Will he just stand there and watch?

It's an interesting idea to throw the challenges in terms of numbers, but since 1) you never know when the merge is actually going to happen and 2) the tribal alliances are pretty dang fluid. It would have made much more sense to try to make really strong alliances with the new people. Oh, well.

Posted by Sarah Kickler Kelber at 11:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
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I don't think I even posted about last week's Survivor, but anyway, Leslie the Christian talk-radio host was kicked to the curb.

Poker player Jean-Robert is starting to participate after lazing around for the first few weeks. He isn't concerned that he will be out any time soon because pin-thin Courtney is the physical weak link on the Fei Long tribe. (BTW, she is tired of his yelling.)

At Zhan Hu, Dave and Sherea get into it. Shockingly, he's being a condescending jerk as usual. Frosti interviews that Dave helps out a lot at camp but is upsetting a lot of people: "Crazy Dave might have worn out his welcome."

The tribes get notice that they are going to tribal council for a challenge, and food is possibly involved. Everyone's starving, so they are thrilled. Because Survivor is all about cultural understanding, the challenge involves giant chopsticks, woks and fireworks. Subtle!

Continue reading "'Survivor': condescension brings karma" »

Posted by Sarah Kickler Kelber at 9:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
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I hate spoilers -- I don't even like reading the back of books because they give so much away. So when I heard a rumor a few weeks ago that WWE diva Ashley would be out in the second week, I wanted it to be wrong just so that the spoiler hounds would be thwarted.

But apparently, the rumor mill was right, this time.

Ashley got sent home after clashing with Dave, her team's leader. The tribe felt like they had to send one of the conflicting pair home, and they decided Dave had more value. Which is kind of too bad because Ashley was 100 percent right when she said that he was soooooo patronizing.

While all of the preshow ink was given to the environs of Survivor:China, it looks like the kidnap twist is going to mix things up more. This time around, after winning immunity challenges, the winning team gets to "kidnap" someone from the other team for a couple of days. And to mix things up further, the person who's kidnapped has to pass a clue to the hidden immunity idol to someone on the other team. So by the time the merge comes around, there will be some connections between both teams.

Another note: I love that professional poker player John-Robert thinks he is being all strategic by lying around all the time -- his lazy bum is gone as soon as his tribe loses. He is not reading this room very effectively.

Regarding that twist, Jaime was the kidnapped and went with Fei Long. She decided to give the clue to Leslie, whom she perceived to be the weakest link on the tribe. Leslie decided she wanted to ally with mastermind Todd and told him about it. He was nice to her about it, but thinks it'll be great when she's gone and he's the only one with the information. 

Posted by Sarah Kickler Kelber at 4:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
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I'm pretty tired here in Reality Check land, so the first Survivor: China post is going to be a little haphazard.

First impression of Courtney: She is neither as cool nor as interesting as she thinks she is. Being disrespectful during the temple ceremony? Not OK. Rolling her eyes all the time? Probably going to get her voted out soon.

I can't believe another season managed to get snowed by the "only the clothes on your back" twist. Ashley from the WWE has knee-high boots and fishnets, which isn't going to be too helpful at camp.

Peih-Gee is freaked out that everyone is goofing off instead of dealing with the no-food, no-fire situation, but in the midst of that, she's separating herself from the rest of her tribe.

The other tribe has a pretty good shelter going, which is fairly impressive.

I want to know how, in the 15th season, people are still showing up for this and saying things like, "I'm not outdoorsy," or "I don't want to strategize," or whatnot.

Dave talks to Ashley, who is feeling ill, and tells her that he doesn't want her to think that she would be on the block just because she's sick and then immediately interviews that he thought she would be stronger and that if she stays ill, she is out.

The Fei Long tribe starts reviewing The Art of War and decides they need a leader -- Todd immediately nominates surfing instructor Aaron. The other tribe reviews it, too, but doesn't pick a leader.

OMG, it's so different now that they're in China! This first challenge is so totally on a different level, with the locks and the poles and the puzzle and the carrying and the immunity idol. OK, just kidding.

At losing tribe Zhan Hu, Peih-Gee freaks out about not having a shelter and gets all bossy on people, which is probably not the best idea right before tribal council. Her name, Chicken's name and Ashley's get thrown out during the pre-tribal montage. But, we've learned in 14 seasons that anything can happen.

At tribal council, Jeff asks if anyone wants to be the leader. Dave the former model throws up his hand, as does Peih-Gee, and apparently, they have been anointed.

When the discussion turns to how productive people have been, Ashley gets nervous. She tells Jeff she is getting worried now. Chicken tells Jeff he doesn't fit in, but he works.

I predict Peih-Gee is going home because she nominated herself for leader after annoying everyone and after crying.

Annnd I'm wrong. Chicken is out. "The tribe has spoken," Jeff says. "I heard 'em," Chicken replies.

So they leave without Chicken, with two leaders -- and some flint.

So what did you think? Thus far, the location seems to be having little effect on the game. It feels like many other seasons at the moment, but that could change in future episodes when they don't have to spend so much time introducing everyone.

Posted by Sarah Kickler Kelber at 9:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
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Survivor: China starts on Sept. 20, and the cast was revealed today. Sure seems like they went for wackiest occupations -- grave digger! WWE wrestler! professional poker player! chicken farmer!

The only local connection I could glean from the bios on CBS was that Sherea lived in Maryland before middle school.

By the way, if you are keeping track, this is the 15th incarnation of Survivor.

Posted by Sarah Kickler Kelber at 10:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
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So now that we have the first unanimous winner in Survivor history (Earl Cole), then who of the rest of the final three gets the $100,000 second-place prize?

Jeff says Earl got only two days' notice that he was going to be on the show, and Earl adds he hadn't seen much of the show. Jeff asks him when his alliance with Yau-Man formed. He says the first day, they bonded, especially when he noticed Yau was "like the professor of Gilligan's Island." Jeff asks if they had an agreement to a certain point. Earl says to the end, but that among all the alliances, they always said at final four and final five, it was every man for himself. Yau says Earl worked very, very hard in their hard Ravu conditions and was kind to him. Earl says the key moment of the game was when he had to write Yau-Man's name down after Dreamz went back on the deal. He admits that at that moment, he thought he had won a million dollars when he looked at the jury and the other folks in the final two.

If it's a Yau Man-Earl final, the jury says six of them would have gone for Yau. So yeah, I guess Earl made the right decision.

They agree they will be friends for life and shake on it. Awww ...

Dreamz is asked for some perspective on his background and how it changes how he comes into the game. Dreamz says he never had a thought about the conditions because they weren't that bad, that he thought more about being "in or out of humanity." Jeff says he was worried about him being "socially overwhelmed." Dreamz says the first day, he talked to Earl and they wanted to be in the final five together. Dreamz says he was never in charge of anything, just slithering his way through. Jeff asks him if he knew from Day 1 what his plan was. Jeff instead asks Cassandra whether Dreamz was flying by the seat of his pants or playing the part of a guy who was flying by the seat of his pants. Cassandra says he was playing the part.

Jeff recaps the events of the truck deal. They show the deal, they show him interviewing and saying he will keep his word, then they show him going back on his word. The audience boos. (Boo jokes like they are cheering for him.) Jeff asks Dreamz whether, when he made the deal, he intended to keep his word or was he playing him from the start. He says after accepting the deal, he wanted to get Yau-Man out and didn't, so he had to renege. Dreamz said he never intended to keep his word because it's part of the game. Jeff asks whether he thought about giving back the truck. He says he would think about it, and then go back into game mode.

Jeff asks Earl about Dreamz, when he told Yau-Man he thought Dreamz would keep his word, did he mean it. Earl says he totally thought Dreamz would keep his word.

Next, Jeff turns his attention to fan favorite Yau-Man. Yau says he thought Dreamz would keep his word, but that he was impressed by his decision. He says Dreamz is a smart guy, but a totally undisciplined thinker. He has flashes of genius but doesn't know what to do with them and that with more education, he can do anything he wants to. Jeff asks why he didn't try to persuade Dreamz to live up to his word. He says it was his stubborn streak, because he couldn't admit he might have been wrong about Dreamz. Yau goes on to add that getting recognized on the street has been an adjustment since most people who call his name know him since he has a rare name.

I am tired of typing the words "keep his word."

Rocky is next under the spotlight. Jeff calls him the "go-to guy" for quotes and drama. Jeff adds that Rocky and Anthony didn't get along too well, and conveniently they are sitting next to each other. Anthony says it was part of his strategy to be non-confrontational.

Jeff asks Alex why anyone trusted Dreamz. Alex doesn't really answer, but says they were stuck with either him or Lisi, and Lisi wanted to go home.

Lisi says she isn't capable of holding her emotions in, which is why she was so crazy on the show.

Jeff talks to Boo about his injury, and he says he does indeed have a torn ACL.

Jeff then calls out Michelle for being one of the first people on the show ever to actually start a fire without help. She says her attitude was more important than age in the game.

Edgardo says he got homesick after getting blindsided, which was apparently somehow unexpected.

Jeff is going to a break and says that "Survivor takes a bigger ... awww, nice comment, I got it." Something happened off-mike, but I sure didn't hear it. Anybody else catch it?

Jeff mentions that this finale was their 200th episode of the show. He asks Gary about whether it's really that hard. He says he was done in by fire-ant bites and shows off his giant Survivor tattoo.

It's that time of the reunion show when Jeff realizes there are a whole lot of people he hasn't talked to yet, so he makes a quick run through the remainder.

Mookie says the hardest thing for him was being at almost every single tribal council.

Jeff asks Stacy about the challenge when she took a bunch of personal hits. She says it grounded her and she learned a lot about herself.

Liliana gained 20 pounds before the show to get some reserves, thinking she was going to be in it for a while.

Rita says her kids are very proud and learned to stick to their dreams.

Sylvia says a house she designed is going to be on a show on HDTV.

Erica says she was frustrated to not get to play for very long.

Jessica says she got to know everyone and made some great friends after everyone else got voted out.

The next Survivor setting is revealed: China. Not so tropical, that one!

Earl wishes his mother Happy Mother's Day and gives her half his winnings. Speaking of winnings, who is getting second place? Maybe they will say on The Early Show.

Posted by Sarah Kickler Kelber at 11:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Survivor
        

The Survivor: Fiji finale continues, and we're down to a semi-shocking final three of Earl, Cassandra and Dreamz.

Back at camp, Dreamz apologizes for breaking his word. He's apologizing to the wrong person. Earl rightly notes that the jury is going to rip him up for turning on Yau.

The final three get a clue that says gifts are going to fall from the sky. A plane drops a box, but it lands kind of far out in the water. Earl heads out to get it, and it's food, I assume so they can be coherent in the final tribal council.

They set fire to the camp, getting rid of all the old palm fronds and so on that is littering the camp, before setting out to face the jury.

Jeff makes his usual speech about the power shifting to the jury. As usual, the final folks will make opening statements and then take questions.

• Earl says he tried to make the right moves and avoid the "rats and snakes" part of the game. Yau doesn't look real thrilled about that. He says he wants the respect vote, not the sympathy vote or underdog vote.
• Cassandra says she started out really slow, but she wanted to make sure she made everyone feel comfortable at camp, and she stayed with her alliance the whole game.
• Dreamz says he knows everyone knows his life story because he's talked to everyone about it. He says he hopes everyone's vote helps him and "helps my life," because CLEARLY, as he said before, he is NOT going for the sympathy vote.

Now, it's the jury's turn.

• Michelle starts, asking what the biggest hardship or obstacle each person faced in the game. Dreamz says starving wasn't anything new, but the thirst was new. Cassandra says overcoming her inability to swim. Michelle asks if her fear of water earns her a million dollars. She says that forming an alliance was an obstacle for her, too, and she succeeded at that. Earl says the original Ravu knows about suffering, and that the addition of his multiple times at Exile Island, he thinks he suffered more than anyone in the game.
• Edgardo asks Earl how he found out who had the immunity idol in the other alliance. Earl truthfully says that Dreamz told him.
• Mookie is next, and he congratulates them all. Mookie, having not cooperated with Edgardo, asks Dreamz whether he told anyone about who had the immunity idol. Dreamz says he told Earl, and Mookie asks whether he considers that betrayal, and Dreamz says he thinks it is just "lying." "Telling the biggest secret of the alliance isn't betrayal?" Dreamz says maybe to him.
• Alex the attorney asks Cassandra to describe a moment in which she grappled the most with maintaining her integrity. She says when she wandered into a conversation between Alex and Boo about whether she should be eliminated and she had to struggle with whether to stay and listen. Alex, doing his best audition for Law & Order, says either she is lying now, or that she didn't care at all about Stacy. When she tries to say that he misunderstood the situation, he berates her to stop and says it's his turn to talk. He asks Dreamz about his goals to help kids and then he lied and betrayed. Dreamz says this is a game, not the real world, and he did what he had to do within the game. Alex is definitely the sanctimonious jerk of the jury thus far. Yeesh. Feels like mock trial up in here.
• Lisi says, "Eenie meenie miney mo, catch a liar by its toe," and then asks Cassandra about her water shoes. Lisi says they are the ugliest water shoes she's ever seen and it shows she was completely unprepared for the game. Cassandra says since she's still IN the game, she disagrees. Lisi says she must still be in the game because of greed. Cassandra says she isn't surprised to hear that from Lisi. So Lisi asks what did propel her, "your love of the outdoors?" She says of course, like everyone, winning the million, and Lisi tells her to shut up. Lisi asks Dreamz how many zeroes are in a million. He says six. She says good, and he asks if she thinks he's stupid. She asks Earl about his "show for the jury" during the vote off of Yau. Earl says he was shocked that Dreamz kept immunity, and he was shocked that they are in that part of the game. I hope the holier-than-thou attitudes chill out shortly.
• Stacy says the only difference she sees between Earl and Dreamz is that Earl is a "little more sophisticated." She says this could change Dreamz's life, and whether she should vote based on need. Earl says they all need a million dollars, and is he supposed to feel bad because he has a job and a car? He says they have all been through stuff in their lives.
• Rocky wants to know how they "manipulated" the best. Cassandra says she listened to someone who needed to be listened to. He interrupts her, and she doesn't answer to his liking, so he moves on. Dreamz says he manipulated his way off the chopping block every time his name came up. He also says he manipulated Yau to stay in the game. Earl says he manipulated everyone in the game because none of them thought he was even playing.
• Boo tells them to lose the smiles. Boo says Yau was the greatest player in the game. He asks Dreamz if, as a Christian, whether he was playing Yau when he made the deal or afterward. Dreamz says he sat in the chair and thought about whatever everyone else would have done. Boo lectures him about being an "immature Christian" and says he believes in him.
• Yau-Man says what went down the day before was "entirely my fault." He tells Dreamz to enjoy the truck and not feel guilty about it. He asks if he "has the gonads" to stand up and say why he changed his mind. Dreamz says he didn't change his mind. Yau asks if he was playing him when he accepted the truck in the first place. Yau asks whether he will admit he changed his mind. He says he didn't. He asks Earl why he didn't bring him along. Earl says "because I would not win" because Yau has played the best game.

Jeff reminds the jury that their votes are now being cast for a winner. (And apparently, the final three don't get closing statements.)

The votes are cast, and we don't see a single one this time. Jeff leaves with the votes, and we regroup in New York City, live.

The final three are sitting in the same order, but look cleaned up and happy.

The votes are: Earl, Earl, Earl, Earl and Earl. So it's looking unanimous -- and it is, Jeff reveals later.

And there it is: Earl Cole of Kansas City, Kan., is the winner of Survivor: Fiji.

Live reunion is up next.

Posted by Sarah Kickler Kelber at 10:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)
Categories: Survivor
        

And the live-blogging of Survivor: Fiji continues again, some more.

I was really thrown off by the Ameriprise commercial that starts with Dennis Hopper calling Dreamz "a delicate little flower." Oh, wait, he was talking about "dreams" in the generic sense, but coming immediately after Dreamz winning immunity, it perplexed me for a minute.

Back at camp, it becomes clear that everyone is going to vote for Dreamz. Yau-Man says, "If you change your mind, can you at least not vote me?" He admits he is totally nervous.

Dreamz says he will stick with his word because he wants to stay honorable and make his son proud. But he also says he is torn and doesn't know what he will do until it is time.

At tribal council, Jeff gets right to the topic of the immunity idol. Basically, everyone talks in circles. (Edgardo gets a good eye-roll in when Dreamz says he is a man of his word.) Dreamz says what makes it more complicated is knowing that the final three will go before the jury. Yau is asked if he has final words for Dreamz, and he says he hopes he will live up to his word.

Dreamz covers his face and decides to keep immunity.

Yau doesn't look too happy about this development. Neither does Dreamz, who cries. A lot. I hope people at least vote for Cassandra and not Yau, but yikes, who knows?

Votes: Cassandra, Yau-Man, Yau-Man and Yau-Man, so Yau is out.

(And he doesn't have a truck! Doh!)

In his exit interview, Yau expresses disappointment that Dreamz didn't live up to his end of the bargain and surprise that Earl voted against him. Not Yau's best day in the game.

Posted by Sarah Kickler Kelber at 9:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Survivor
        

The live-blogging of the Survivor: Fiji finale continues some more ...

Dreamz says he will be sticking with his word if he wins the immunity challenge.

Next, it's time for the "honor the memories of your fallen comrades" part of the finale. Which is also known as the part when you realize how little you remember the first few people on the show. Lilliana? Jessica? And all I remember about Rita is that she talked about lip gloss. (Also along the way, we get treated to a clip of Rocky wearing someone's bikini top.) Dreamz calls Alex his "brother for life," but I find it hard to believe that Alex reciprocates those feelings. Then they burn the boat full of the other teammates' torches. Are you full of wistful, introspective feelings now? You are supposed to be, lest there be any doubt.

For the final immunity challenge, the contestants will lie on a plank on their backs holding onto a wooden handle. Every five minutes, Jeff will turn a crank and increase the angle of the plank, making it harder to hold on. Plus, water will be streaming underneath them, making it slippery. According to my husband, this is the "No One Will be Able to do THIS for 12 Hours Challenge." I concur.

Again, three people will face the jury in the finals, as they did last season (but they hadn't seen last season, so they are surprised).

The challenge begins. Everyone lasts the first five minutes, but after Jeff changes it to a 40 degree angle, people start having problems and adjust. Everyone makes the next five minutes, further than I thought Cassandra would make it, frankly, and Jeff adjusts it to 45 degrees. After 15 total minutes, the angle changes to 50 degrees, and Cassandra loses her grip before Jeff even finishes resetting the angle. Dreamz starts fighting to find a place that works for him, but he does. After 20 minutes, they go to 55 degrees, and they are all struggling. Yau-Man also seems to be getting hit in the face by the water more than anymore. But Earl loses it first, so it's down to Yau and Dreamz, and theoretically, Yau should get immunity either way, right? But Yau-Man loses his grip, and Dreamz wins.

So with Dreamz having immunity, will he keep his word and give it to Yau, or will the potential million-dollar prize prove too enticing?

We'll just have to see.

Posted by Sarah Kickler Kelber at 9:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
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The live-blogging of Survivor: Fiji continues ...

Yau-Man looks pretty darned happy to be wearing the immunity necklace. It seems like everyone is targeting Boo, who they have been wanting to get out for a while. Dreamz asks if he is going and adds he is voting for Boo. Why would Yau vote Dreamz out? Dreamz said any outcome would not surprise him.

Boo takes Earl aside to say they should take out Dreamz and argues that Boo should go to the final three because he's totally beatable. Earl interviews that he could beat Boo in the final two, but Yau would get the popular vote and Dreamz would get the sympathy vote. Boo argues the "sympathy" angle with Yau, too, and it seems to be working on him.

At tribal council, Jeff asks Dreamz what kind of threat is most worrisome at this point -- someone who is a physical threat or someone who might break their word. Dreamz says being betrayed is a much larger concern at this point. Earl says there is a lot of careful thinking at this point. Boo says he is the only one who was "scrambling" after the challenge. He says he's a better final-two person than Dreamz because of the sympathy factor and than Yau because he's made no enemies. Dreamz wants to address the sympathy factor -- he says he went on the show to show how far people can make it if they try, not to get sympathy votes. He is not amused.

Boo and Dreamz argue their relative strengths. For a long time.

Time for the votes. Earl plays the last hidden immunity idol, but I don't think anyone cast votes against him. Votes are: Boo, Dreamz, Boo and Boo. (Last one isn't shown.)

So, Boo is out (and he sprints out), and the final four are Yau-Man, Earl, Cassandra and Dreamz.

Posted by Sarah Kickler Kelber at 8:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
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Somehow on tonight's Survivor: Fiji, we're going to go from the final five to the last person standing. I'll be covering it as close to "live" as I can. So let's get started.

On Thursday, Yau-Man saved himself when he played the hidden immunity idol. Back at camp, he and Earl realize they could be in trouble since they were the only ones not in on the plan to vote for Yau. But Earl has the second idol, so they might be OK.

Yau-Man is determined to win the next immunity challenge since he knows his deal with Dreamz makes him a target. (Thursday, he traded the Ford truck he won for Dreamz's promise that if Dreamz won immunity in the final four, he would give it to Yau, if they were both still around.) Earl talks to Cassandra about how he was out of the loop and not happy about it, saying he doesn't care if people take Yau-Man out, that he is all about strategy. Interesting. I'm hoping that statement was a strategic move because he's been playing the game on the up-and-up thus far. Cassandra expresses surprise, but Earl goes on to say that he wouldn't have written down Yau's name, but I can see why people wouldn't talk to him about it.

The first challenge of the evening is for immunity. It's a huge five-section maze that the contestants will have to maneuver blindfolded. It also involves keys and drawbridges (still with the blindfolds). It looks particularly problematic -- that people could fall in the water or off the drawbridge or run their ribs into the walls of the maze, but a few minutes in, they're all injury-free, and Yau-Man is in the lead. Cassandra continues to be totally useless and can't even find the first guidepost in the first section of the maze.

Yau-Man wins immunity and is guaranteed a spot in the final four, and Earl can play the immunity idol (this is the last time it can be played), so he is in the final four, too. Will the others then target Dreamz because of his deal with Yau-Man?

Let's see ...

Posted by Sarah Kickler Kelber at 8:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (9)
Categories: Survivor
        

When they introduced the hidden immunity idol to Survivor, it seemed like it would really mix up the game. But last season, that was not the case, as Yul held on to it for most of the game. This season, it's been a whole different ball game. (Some tweaks in the rules definitely helped -- there were two hidden idols, one on each beach, and after one of them was played, it was re-hidden, with new clues found on Exile Island.)

Yau Man found one (with an assist from Earl), and Mookie found the other. When the tribes merged, in one of the early votes, Mookie, Edgardo and Alex thought they were tricking the other alliance by giving Mookie's idol to Alex, which he then played. But, tipped off my Dreamz, the other group blindsided Edgardo, making the idol useless.

The next episode, fearing that Alex or Mookie had somehow found the re-hidden idol, the other alliance purposefully split its votes, thinking there would be a tie and they could revote and kick out Alex. But Alex thought ahead (must have been his self-proclaimed "ninja-like" powers) and voted for Mookie, saving himself. Then, Alex seemed to nearly persuade some people to turn against and blindside Yau-Man, but it didn't work.

Then tonight, the idol switched things up again. But first, let's talk about the deal-making referenced in the headline. At the reward challenge, Yau-Man won a truck. But he offered it to Dreamz (who had made it extremely clear before the challenge that he really, really needed a car and it could change his life) in exchange for the promise that if they were both in the final four, and Dreamz won immunity, he would give it to Yau-Man. Dreamz took it without hesitating, but later started to realize that the move could also make him vulnerable before the final four. He started working over the rest of the contestants to take out Yau while it was still an option. Meanwhile, Yau-Man sent himself to Exile Island to get another clue to the re-hidden idol and shared it with Earl, who later found the second idol.

Boo won yet another immunity challenge, leaving the tribe confused since they were going to kick him out. So the Yau option seemed like it was going to work. Several voted for him, but he and Earl voted for Stacy, and since Yau unexpectedly played his idol, Stacy got the boot.

Don't forget, the finale is on Sunday. (I almost did.)

Posted by Sarah Kickler Kelber at 9:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Survivor
        

Holy wow. I missed Survivor Thursday, but I finally had a chance to watch it yesterday. Things got so crazy, my heart was actually pounding during tribal council. (Yes, I realize how sad that is.) Let's see if I can get all of this straight.

• Alex, Edgardo and Mookie were aligned, also depending on Dreamz despite his ties to Cassandra, and thinking they could keep Stacy on their side.
• Also aligned were Earl, Yau-Man and Cassandra, and early on in the episode, Boo pledged that he would join with them.
• Yau-Man and Mookie were both in possession of the once-hidden immunity idols. Yau-Man's alliance knew about his, and the "Four Horsemen" (blech) knew about Mookie's.
• The reward challenge was of those "everyone tell painful truths about everyone else and then reveal where everyone stands when crushing structures that represent the other players." (Stacy did not fare well in that, by the way.) Cassandra won handily, answering every question right, and Dreamz came in second, probably because everyone was hoping to keep him in their own alliance.
• Cassandra got a ride on a yacht, and she brought Dreamz, Yau-Man and Boo with her, trying to solidify things with Boo and Dreamz (this was outrightly stated) and leaving Earl behind to run interference so nothing crazy happened with those left behind (this was not). She also sent Mookie to Exile Island, and he was pissed.
• After the immunity challenge (won by Yau-Man), things got out of control with all the strategizing.
• Alex, Edgardo, Mookie and Dreamz decided to go after Earl, and Alex was confident he could bring Stacy over.
• Earl, Cassandra, Yau-Man and Boo decided to target Alex. Dreamz was somewhat involved in this conversation, and he told Alex et al of this plan. Alex asked Mookie for the immunity idol so he will be protected, and Mookie finally relented.
• At some point, Earl talked to Stacy and said she was welcome to join them after she said she was nervous because no one was talking to her about what was going on. So for all of Alex's talk about being confident about being able to bring Stacy over, he never actually talked to her. Whoops.
• So Dreamz told Earl et al that Mookie had given the idol to Alex, so the Earl alliance decided to vote for Mookie instead.
• Meanwhile, the Alex alliance decided to vote for Cassandra so that if Earl had the other idol, they wouldn't be blindsided. Also, this made Mookie feel good since he was so angry about Exile Island.
• Then Stacy of all people had the wherewithal to not totally trust Dreamz and pitched the idea of voting for Edgardo and throwing them off.
• At tribal council, the Alex alliance looked so smug, especially when Alex played the immunity idol before the votes were read.
• So it was awesome when Jeff started reading the votes, and after three for Cassandra, one for Mookie came up, and they looked perplex. When the Edgardo votes appeared, they looked like Christmas got canceled. And when Jeff announced that Edgardo was out? Priceless.
• Edgardo got up, tapped Dreamz on the head and left. In his not-exactly-classy-but-hilarious final words, he said he was mad at Dreamz, but he hoped to see Cassandra out next because he doesn't really like her.
• OK, I just watched the full version of his final words on CBS.com, and he actually said there were some people who do deserve the million dollars, including Earl and Boo (but not Alex or Mookie, interesting), and then he says that Yau-Man and Cassandra will hopefully go next because he doesn't like them very much. Interesting.
• Next week, it appears that Alex and Mookie go through Yau-Man's stuff and find the other immunity idol. (And I forgot to mention that after this totally useless play of the other idol, Jeff mentioned that the idol will be re-hidden, with clues again left at Exile Island. Intriguing.)

So yeah, crazy episode! But in the best of ways.

Posted by Sarah Kickler Kelber at 3:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Survivor
        

Oh, Survivor, how I love thee. No show does mind games like this show. (The endless, dragged out results shows for American Idol and Dancing With the Stars aren't even in the same league.)

Both tribes get treemail telling them to pack up their belongings (but none of the luxury stuff) and head to Exile Island. (It's worth noting that the Have camp, Moto, immediately talks about cooking up the rice and boiling the water and bringing it with them, while the Have-Nots at Ravu discuss who each tribe member will work on on the other side to try to flip them.) At Exile, they learn that the merge is upon them, and they're instructed to return to Moto camp. Everyone is so psyched to get there, with the bed and the couch and the food and the shower and everything else ... but when they get there, all the accoutrements are gone. Vanished. Vamoosed. Awesome.

They do have fishing gear, some pots, a machete and a flint, so it's not like they're going to starve. They're instructed to pick a new name, paint the flag and "start anew." They choose "Bula Bula" based on the word for "hello" on Fiji.

Michelle and Stacy work on the flag and let the guys start posturing. Boo goes for the "good little helper" role while some of the men go fishing. Dreamz and Mookie talk to Cassandra and Yau Man about what's been going on, and immediately, they all talk about targeting Boo and Stacy. Yau Man rightly notes in an interview that you can't trust anyone.

Stacy, meanwhile, bonds with Alex and solidifies her alliance with him and Edgardo, but Alex says in interview that he's still with the "four horsemen." Oh, please don't name your alliance -- and don't name it that as it brings back bad Big Brother connotations.

But it does seem like everyone wants to get of Boo, which seems way too easy at 25 minutes into the episode, so either more angst will creep up (like Dreamz finding out about Mookie's immunity idol and realizing they didn't trust him enough to tell him) or Boo winning the immunity challenge. Or Edgardo will get really mad about Mookie talking about the idol. Or Mookie won't like the idea of bringing Stacy into the alliance because it's not in his interests.

Cassandra says she is allied with Earl and Yau Man and Michelle, and that she is hoping Dreamz will come back to her side.

This is going to get interesting!

Mookie tells Dreamz about the Stacy plan, which gives Alex and Edgardo a majority. And it makes Dreamz mad because Stacy was so horrible to him when they were on the same tribe. (As it should. Remember the whole thing where she wouldn't show him how to use the coffee press?)

At the immunity challenge, everyone draws a stone. Orange goes to the orange mat and green goes to the green mat. They all think they have been unmerged, but it's just for the challenge. Mindgames! And more: The winning team gets immunity and won't go to tribal. And they'll get to feast. The green team is Mookie, Alex, Stacy, Michelle and Dreamz. Orange is Earl, Cassandra, Edgardo, Yau Man and Boo.

The teams have to memorize the order of some symbols on a mask, row out to get puzzle pieces and assemble them and put them together with the symbols in the same order as on the mask at the other end of the water. The green team isn't able to figure out how to retrieve their puzzle pieces for a while, giving orange a nice lead. Orange's Earl and Yau Man get to work on the puzzle and have some time before green gets there. But green catches up and seems to be figuring out the puzzle faster, but it's too late. Orange wins.

Green gets a note from Jeff: You will not be going back to camp, there will be no time to strategize. They're heading right to tribal.

Back at camp, Boo says he knows the challenge saved him and that the food brought his spirits back up. The rest of orange talks about who they think is going home, and they seem to think Stacy and Michelle are in trouble.

At tribal council, Jeff asks everyone for a reason to get rid of everyone else (e.g., "Michelle, give me a good reason to get rid of Alex"). Everyone answers, and then when it's Alex's turn, he says he doesn't have a reason to get rid of: Stacy, Dreamz or Mookie. But asked about Michelle, he says he doesn't know her as well as he knows anyone else. Jeff realizes he's kind of been played and asks Dreamz if they are all speaking to one another through their answers to his questions. Well, duh! And Dreamz says basically that, adding that Alex just told him with his answers whose name he will be writing down.

Mookie votes for Stacy, Alex for Michelle. Which way does Dreamz go? Let's see the votes: Stacy, Michelle, Stacy, Michelle and Michelle, so Michelle is going home. Doh! I guess Dreamz forgot about when Stacy was mean to him, too.

Looks like fireworks next week! Woo!

Posted by Sarah Kickler Kelber at 9:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Survivor
        

Last week on Survivor, Rocky's new teammates turned on him after his obnoxiousness became too much to bear. (Note: If you want to stick around in this game, don't taunt people when they are feeling sick after eating too much. As if most people needed a reminder.)

And this week, there's supposed to be dancing. That could be entertaining!

But first, Edgardo and Alex share the information Lisi gave them about where the immunity idol could be found with Mookie and searched for it while Lisi and Dreamz slept. Cold! And they find it. Technically, Mookie does and he keeps it in his pocket for the time being. Lisi gets even more bad press when she wakes up to find Mookie smoothing the ground near where the clues said the idol might be, asks if he's digging for the idol, and then interviews about how you have to get up real early in the morning to put something past her. Whoops!

The treemail comes with island natives, who will be teaching the contestants a local dance. Nice, the reward is a dance-off! Who doesn't love a dance-off? Earl says he's got it, and he's going to lead. Meanwhile, Lisi says she doesn't take challenges seriously, which is such a fabu attitude.

At the challenge, the contestants will be judged on appearance, authenticity and spirit. The judges (three, of course, a la Randy, Paula and Simon) will decide who wins. They dance, and it's pretty clear that Moto is better -- and the judges agree. Lisi is sent back to Exile Island again, and Moto heads to the feast. They eat and dance with some Fijians and have a fantastic time.

Lisi, instead, is on Exile Island in a storm, after which she interviews about not wanting to be there and wanting to quit.

At Moto, we learn that Earl and Michelle meet every morning and assess the strategy. They are targeting Stacy and Boo, with Michelle especially going after Stacy because, as she says, "We're carbon copies of each other as far as function, and I don't think there's room for both of us."

At Ravu, Edgardo and Alex talks about his concerns that Dreamz would flip if there's a merge.

The immunity challenge involves three weapons: blowdarts, spears and a bow and arrow. Each person gets a shot at each weapon, and whichever team gets the most points wins. Moto wins one point in the blowdart round. In spears, almost everyone completely misses. Yau Man hits the second circle from the bullseye, which gets two points for Moto, since the target-missing continues. In the bow and arrow, Yau Man again hits a good mark, leaving it up to Edgardo, who had been bragging about his archery skills. He misses it completely, and Moto wins immunity.

I predict Lisi is out.

Immediately, she begins talking about everyone else being losers. Then she tells Alex she wants to go home. Guess I might be right. I'm sure the lecture from Jeff will be fun. Wait, then she has second thoughts about staying, which means Dreamz might be look really bad since he said he wasn't bringing his bag. Lisi seems to be realizing that if she leaves, her alliance is in a bad place because Dreamz will flip to Cassandra at the merge, but she brings this up 10 minutes before they leave for tribal council.

At tribal, Lisi starts wavering again, and when she fails to answer whether she wants to stay in the game, Dreamz calls her on it, telling her to answer yes or no. She doesn't, babbling about being honest and "needing to think." I hope she's out. And she is!

It could be really interesting if the tribes do merge next week. Dreamz plans to flip over to Cassandra's side. Stacy and Boo might flip back over to Alex and Edgardo. If the four original Moto persuaded Dreamz and Cassandra back to their side, they would have a majority over Earl, Yau Man, Michelle. It wouldn't really matter which side Mookie went with. Who knows what will happen?

Posted by Sarah Kickler Kelber at 9:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Survivor
        

Just FYI, I am on vacation and will posting a little more sporadically than usual. But I will be keeping up with American Idol and Dancing With the Stars, so keep checking in!

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Grease: You're the One That I Want voters, don't forget to check out Sun theater critic J. Wynn Rousuck's story previewing tonight's finale. In addition to an analysis of the show, there's also a number of experts giving their picks, plus a recap of the Sun reader survey. Enjoy. Along with the experts in the story and the readers who voted, I'm predicting Max and Laura will win it.

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I finally got to catch up with Survivor: Fiji last night, and what an interesting episode it was. The tribes got shuffled, and only one ended up getting the good camp. Plus, since there was an odd number of people left, the last person (Lisi) ended up having to go to Exile Island. Some things that struck me:

• I really like Earl, but he sure seemed to think he was running things this week. It was positively Machiavellian, and that always bites contestants in the end. (And before anyone points out Richard Hatch, let me remind you where he is right now: prison.)
• Ravu ended up being all men -- Rocky, Christopher, Dreamz, Edgardo, Alex and Mookie. And poor Christopher, who called himself a geek, did not feel comfortable among the musclebound masses.
• Next time Rocky feels like lecturing someone about their social skills, he should take a long, hard look at himself. What a jerk.
• Lisi certainly painted a huge target on herself when, upon learning she was still in the game but going to Exile Island, acted like she would rather be going straight home. What a player! Ick.
• Speaking of both of them, Rocky's going to be just thrilled to have Lisi joining his team, I can already tell.
• I'm still a fan of Yau-Man. I was so glad to see him get to eat (and have the strength to carry the flag, hence the episode title).
• That immunity challenged looked like it was going to end in some broken bones, but I guess everyone made it through all right.

It was a good time for a mixup -- the tedium of Ravu losing constantly is finally over, and things have to change. I'm ready for that!

Posted by Sarah Kickler Kelber at 5:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Grease: You're the one That I Want, Survivor
        

I still haven't seen last week's episode of Survivor: Fiji, but I went ahead and watched last night's anyway. So let me get this straight. Moto has been undefeated in the game and reveling in the luxury camp. They lost Gary to illness, won the immunity challenge and were given a bottle containing a choice: Keep your camp or go to tribal council. So these morons choose to keep their camp and vote someone off, leaving them with seven people, the same as the other tribe? What were they thinking?

Anyway, so this week, Ravu had the will to win, but not the strength. They lost the reward challenge -- wherein contestants faced off one against another atop a wooden platform armed with giant pads. Moto won every faceoff, except when Yau Man beat Stacy. Then in the immunity challenge (basically a giant game of Memory), Ravu lost after getting mixed up a couple of times, and they were devastated.

Finally, I got a glimpse into camp life at Moto (since I didn't see last week), and it wasn't pretty. Alex, Edgardo, Stacy, Lisi and Boo have an "unspoken alliance," but some of them are dealing with this alliance by being total jerks to the two other tribemates, Dreamz and Cassandra. That's just rude and unnecessary. Alex was already upset about the rude behavior, and then he finally did some math and discovered that even if Moto wins the rest of the immunity challenges and trims Ravu to three, if the tribes merged at 10, and Cassandra and Dreamz flipped over to the other side, it would be back to a five vs. five situation. Sadly, only Edgardo seemed to understand this, and the other three were content to continue the rudeness.

At Ravu, everyone was pretty bummed about the loss. It seemed pretty obvious that they would boot Anthony, since he had gotten a number of votes the last time. But when Rocky tried to talk to the team about how bad it was during the challenge when they were all talking over one another, Rita talked over him about five times. That -- and some earlier endless talk with Michelle about lipgloss --  sealed her fate right there.

I forgot to mention, but earlier, Yau Man and Earl, the only ones to have been to Exile Island, joined forces to try to find the hidden immunity idol. Earl took the rest of the tribe on an outing to look for food, so Yau Man could dig, but he didn't find it. After the reward challenge, Earl got sent to Exile Island and got another clue that didn't add anything to the previous ones. (In fact, upon reading the clue to the camera, Earl hilariously spat, "But I already know that!) I wasn't expecting to see that level of cooperation, but it was nice to see some trust between a couple of thus-far levelheaded players.

So at tribal council, Rita was voted out rather unceremoniously. Yau Man had the best response ever to Jeff's ubiquitous question about whether he trusts his tribe. He said he lives his life by this credo:  "Love many, trust few, do wrong to none." That might be the best dodge ever! Also, not too bad of a philosophy, though that last part will probably be tough to maintain in this particular game.

Next week, it looks like the tribes get shuffled, and it's random which one gets the luxe camp. I can't wait to see some of the Mototypes have to see what Survivor is really about. They'll be sitting pretty no more! And some of them might have to start talking to people they don't like. The horror!

Posted by Sarah Kickler Kelber at 11:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (1)
Categories: Survivor
        

I promised to write about Survivor on Thursday, whoops! All in all, it wasn't that eventful. Ravu kept losing -- including a reward challenge that Sylvia was completely useless in and an immunity challenge at which it appeared to some people that Anthony had given up. (The former had a slip-n-slide quality to it that looked pretty fun. That latter was a gross food challenge, and in his defense, it was pretty clear that Anthony was going to lose his round. I wouldn't necessarily have gobbled down as much pig snout as I could, either.)

(Side note: I'm watching the pre-Oscars coverage on E!, and I just saw Former Vice President Al Gore and Former First Lady Tipper Gore standing around waiting to talk to ... Ryan Seacrest. That was a little surreal. Ha! Ryan asked Gore who should play him in a movie, and he said William Hung. Nice American Idol reference, Al! Also, WHAT is Jennifer Hudson wearing on her shoulders??)

So Sylvia was sent to Exile Island and got more clues about where the immunity idol could be, and after she got back, she started trying to dig around camp for it.

About the only screen time Moto got was when Gary was having a shortness of breath issue and the medics came. Seriously, what do we know about the personalities on Moto? Hardly a thing -- I guess the down side of winning all the time is that there isn't much drama, so a lot of the footage ends up on the cutting-room floor.

The other major thing that happened was that Michelle got a fire started for Ravu. She was about the only person in the history of the show who has gotten a fire going without flint.

In the pre-tribal-council scrambling, it appears most of the tribe is leaning toward Sylvia. Then Mookie talks about being angry about Anthony's performance and persuades others to vote for him. Rita doesn't seem to like where things are going and says she won't be going along with the tribe.

When the votes came in, it was a pretty even split between Anthony and Sylvia (except for Rita's vote for Earl), with Sylvia going home. Thankfully. She was bossy and unhelpful in challenges -- not a good combination.

Here's hoping the fire begets water, which begets more energy for Ravu, so they can stop losing all the time.

Posted by Sarah Kickler Kelber at 6:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: American Idol, Survivor
        

Things that jumped out at me during the second episode of Survivor: Fiji:

• There are still so many people, I can't keep them straight. That will change soon enough.
• Ravu is so desperate for water (it's day four, after all) that they are licking leaves with condensation on them. Ow.
• Moto, on the other hand, is living it up with hammocks, pillows, silverware, a shower!
• Lisi seems like she could be on the verge of being really annoying with her cartoon voices and sometimes-exuberant attitude.
• When oh when will people learn to build a fire before they get on the show? You would be the HERO!
• This is some of the worst dehydration I've ever seen on this show, on the Ravu tribe.
• Boo is having a rough time -- he first poked his eyeball, and then axed himself through the hand and into the knee. Then the hammock falls apart underneath him. It's starting to feel like one of those Scooby-Doo cursed-island episodes or something.
• Sylvia joins Ravu and has more energy than about anybody. (Super surreptitious Yau Man peeked into her bag to see if she had the immunity idol.) She feels like she's on the edge of the tribe, and bossing them around isn't really going to help.
• Dreamz talks about being homeless and how being on Survivor is definitely easier. He tells his tribe that some people at home are watching and are jealous because the Survivors have more food than they have in their refrigerators. Most of them are incredulous.
• Erica finds a beautiful pineapple ... bush? for her starving tribe. They are so happy. Earl says they're getting married now. Heh.
• Is that a spinal column on the immunity idol thingy?
• I love that Jeff Probst uses terms like "puzzle pole" when describing challenges as if that is a daily-use kind of phrase.
• Poor Ravu -- the tribe was ahead for the entire challenge, and then lost it on the puzzle (pole). Moto chooses Earl out to Exile Island, and he claims if he sees sea snakes, he'll eat 'em.
• At Exile Island, Earl predicts Sylvia will be going home. But at Ravu, Rocky and Mookie talk about how Erica was freaking out during the challenge when people wouldn't listen to her during the challenge. They tell Anthony they want to switch to Erica instead of Sylvia, and he isn't sure.
• Why is Sylvia wearing her buff perched on her head like that?
• Anthony thinks it will be crazy if it ends up splitting 50-50 for Sylvia and Erica.
• I can't believe the tribe's boat flooded so badly right before tribal (or at least, so it seemed).
• In tribal, they kind of try to tell Sylvia that she needs to back off the bossiness. She responds by saying she is surprised and that in the morning she thinks they should assign a leader.
• Jeff explains the new rules with the hidden immunity idol, including that you have to play the idol before the votes are read and after they are cast.
• Erica looks bemused by the votes for her, but just peeved when she realizes the majority is against her.
• It's sad when Exile Island is actually a step up -- there is fire there, after all.
• Erica is shocked to be going home. But she is second out nonetheless.

Forget fire, I want to know about water. More specifically, if someone is going to find Meredith in the water on Grey's Anatomy now! Darn these three-part episodes!

Posted by Sarah Kickler Kelber at 9:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Survivor
        

Wondering why Survivor started with an odd number of players (19) last night? It appears that the 20th player, Melissa McNulty, withdrew from the show the night before the competition began due to overwhelming panic attacks. TV Guide has more details.

Posted by Sarah Kickler Kelber at 2:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Survivor
        

It has been mere weeks since the last Survivor ended, yet here we are again, this time from Fiji.

What's different so far: There are 19 castaways, they have no information and there are two hidden immunity idols. They get off the boat, realize Jeff Probst isn't going to be dividing them up into tribes and start exploring. They find their water, a cave, a banana tree.

There seem to be an undue number of nicknames in the first two seasons: James is "Rocky," the cheerleading coach is "Dreamz," not sure if Yau Man is a given name.

Speaking of Yau Man, he tells Cassandra he is from Borneo and used to the vegetation, and he's adept at getting coconuts open. He's hoping that will help keep him being the token "old dude voted off early." (My words, not his, exactly.)

A box is dropped off for them, but they can't figure out how to open it. Rocky and Edgard beat it with rocks, but Yau-Man comes over and drops it on a corner and opens it right up. They get a map and a bunch of directions that tell them how to find some supplies and to build a bunch of different things. It's clearly their first challenge, but it seems to take a while to sink in.

They find the supplies -- including food and a toilet seat -- and start bringing it back to the beach. Erica astutely realizes that a curveball is coming. Sylvia the architect looks at the "site plan" and figures out where everything should go. She starts giving a lot of orders, in possibly the most annoying intonation ever. (Also, "askew means 'not orthogonal"? It's CROOKED!) Plotting starts almost immediately during the building -- as people pair off to get supplies. They don't get things done before sunset -- and a storm -- sneak up on them.

Yau Man gets called the Professor of this Gilligan's Island. They get their shelter set up, get food, etc. etc., and people start getting worried.

Dreamz says he was homeless for a while and doesn't find scrounging to be the worst thing in the world. He says he is playful to make sure people know he is there. But he goes off when people are trying to sleep -- asking people's nationality and keeping everyone awake, not a great combination. Rocky brings him outside to talk to him, and they start yelling at each other, which doesn't help with the sleeping thing.

Finally, they meet Jeff on Day 3. Alex says Sylvia stepped up to help figure out the shelter. The team agrees that she stepped up to be the leader. Jeff brings her up and tells her to divide the people into two tribes. She divides them as follows (pardon any misspellings):

MOTO: Cassandra, Lillana, Stacy, Lisi, Dreamz, Boo, Gary, Alex, Edguardo

RAVU: Michelle, Erica, Rita, Jessica, Rocky/Boston/James, Earl, Yau Man, Anthony, Mookie

Sylvia is not in a tribe but gets sent to Exile Island, along with thousands of sea snakes. She will rejoin the game when someone gets voted out of another tribe.

The challenge: Two people on a chariot will be pulled by the rest of the tribe while they grab bags of puzzle pieces. There are three puzzles that give numbers to a combination wheel, that if you get it right, you get a knife to cut a rope and release a flag.

Winning tribe gets to stay on the fancy beach, a housewarming gift and immunity. Losers will go to a new beach with one pot and one machete -- and tribal council.

In the middle of the challenge, Rocky appears to signal to one of the guys on the other team that the third number is 22. Why would he do that? Anyway, Moto wins.

Ravu gets a map to its new beach, where they'll get to prep for tribal council. I predict the tribe is going to gang up on Jessica for seeming to struggle with the puzzle. That is based on next-to-nothing.

In good-life-ville, Moto sees their couch, dishes, hammocks, candlesticks, forks and spoons and a shower and celebrates.

On Exile Island, Sylvia realizes Jeff was not even remotely exaggerating about the sea snakes. She gets the clue to the hidden immunity idol and realizes it's at camp, not at Exile Island.

Ravu hits its new camp and decides that it's gorgeous. Except Erica is really pissed off and tells everyone. But she's already allied with Rocky and Jess. They talk about who to aim for. But a bunch of other people decide to take out Jessica because she failed at her puzzle. Erica tells Rocky that Jessica is in trouble, and they both agree not to write down her name, but it seems like the rest of the tribe is unified against her. (Well, they had to pick someone. Failing at the immunity challenge is among the best reasons to focus on a person.)

At tribal, the contestants go through the "fire is your life" deal with Probst. Yau Man says he is worried, but he hopes he is safe. Mookie says his vote is based on whether the person who gets voted out can be replaced by Sylvia. Rocky James says it's going to be a surprise because everyone is vulnerable. Jessica says she would be very surprised if it's her because she has been working so hard and conveniently forgets the whole puzzle issue.

The first four votes are for four different people, which I'm sure had Jeff wondering whether anyone talked to anyone else at all. But Jessica is out, and, as she said, she is surprised. That first-day alliance didn't get her that far.

Jessica says she guesses if she was going to get backstabbed, it might as well be right at the beginning.

As for me, time for Grey's Anatomy!

Posted by Sarah Kickler Kelber at 8:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Survivor
        

I'm a little behind on my reality viewing (blame the playoffs), but here are some headlines to hold you over for a while:

• The Special Olympics has no beef with American Idol for airing the audition of one of their athletes, Jonathan Jayne. Well, that's fine, but the judges were nice to him. To his friend and to a number of other contestants, not so much.
• In yesterday's Modern Life section, The Sun ran a Real Life column from Chris Yakaitis about his experiences as an American Idol auditioner. It's a blast. Check it out.
• Original Survivor winner Richard Hatch writes to the Boston Globe that no one has yet investigated the "abuses of power" and of the court system that he was subjected to. (He's currently in prison serving time for tax charges.

Posted by Sarah Kickler Kelber at 2:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

According to an Associated Press story (about Jeff Probst and girlfriend Julie Berry shopping in Target in Maine, awww), the new season of Survivor starts in February. I don't see an actual date yet, but once I do, I'll let you know.

In the meantime, can you all start mourning the brain cells I'll lose when watching Armed & Famous, which starts on CBS Jan. 10? The things I do for my readers ...

Posted by Sarah Kickler Kelber at 1:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (1)
Categories: Survivor
        

Someone left a link on the comments, but I couldn't get it to work. According to Wikipedia, the finale vote breakdown was:

Sundra: Yul

Adam: Yul

Parvati: Ozzy

Jonathan: Yul

Candice: Yul

Nathan: Ozzy

Jenny: Ozzy

Rebecca: Ozzy

Brad: Yul

I don't know where they got their info, since I can't find it anywhere, but there you go.

Also, I wrote in today's paper about the final three situation. In case you missed it, here's my take:

At long last, Survivor: Cook Islands is over, and it’s unclear whether the latest twist — that the final three would stand before the jury rather than the final two — made much of a difference. Even though Becky was in the final three, she received exactly zero votes to win. But her presence in the final three meant it really was a head-to-head competition between strategist Yul and challenge-dominator Ozzy — neither was tempted to take a weaker player to the final two for an easy win, as we’ve seen happen in numerous seasons before. So whether you were satisfied with Yul’s win or upset that Ozzy lost, at least none of us had to sit through a Yul vs. Becky or Ozzy vs. Becky final tribal council. That counts for something.

Posted by Sarah Kickler Kelber at 11:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Survivor
        

So Yul won this thing. Time for the reunion show, where some folks will get ignored and others will fixate on some random issue.

In case you're just joining us, my special guests tonight are my inlaws Mike and Peggy and my husband Judah.

Yul says the key to the game is maximizing the good luck and mitigating the bad luck -- he says he was lucky that he went to Exile Island when he did and that is why he got the hidden idol

Why mutiny, Jeff asks Candice, she said she had taked to Nate about working with him and Parvati, but it didn't work out. Sundra (looking amazing!) says the four worked so well together, that it was the right people with the right mindset and that that is how their alliance made it to the final four.

Jeff asks Yul about how he got Jonathan back his side. He says he approached him with logic. Adam says he told Yul he would vote for Yul if Yul got rid of Jonathan. Adam says that's true and he would have voted for Ozzy otherwise.

Jeff wants to know how instrumental Becky was -- Yul says Becky was a partner in everything he did. He said he was trying to build consensus, but that if people wanted to see him as the puppetmaster, he'd work that, too.

He asks about was Becky embarrassed about the firemaking challenge. She said they practiced but it didn't matter.

He asks Becky if she and Yul ever considered being romantically involved, she says no, that they were focused on strategy.

Yul says he wanted to get the hell out of the hot tub when he was skinny dipping with Parvati and Ozzy, but he didn't want to give them a chance to strategize.

Ozzy is looking pretty upset about not winning, especially since Adam says he would have voted for Ozzy if he hadn't promised his vote to Yul for getting rid of Jonathan.

Jeff says Ozzy is "born to play" -- how did he end up with all these skills that were so helpful? He says it started with Robinson Crusoe, then swimming before he could walk. He says he had gone spear-fishing once with a friend for his birthday. The best part, Jeff asks? "The whole damn thing," he says. He says he had fantasized about getting stuck on a deserted island his whole life, and that he could actually use all these skills. He says he fell into a deep depression back in the "concrete jungle," disconnected from life. Jeff asks if he is back in touch with his dad -- he says he doesn't know yet, but that the man who raised him is here.

Jonathan is next in the spotlight. He says he was antagonistic, but not a villian, that it's a game, that there's not a villian in Monopoly or in a poker tournament. He says his family was warned that he was going to be called some "fantastic names." It was in the context of the game, so he doesn't hold it against anyone. He says he is much more appreciative, especially of his family.

Now we're forced to listen to Sekou's song about Survivor. For about 15 seconds. Yikes.

Time to talk about Cao Boi. He says he's always been chastised, you are doing things wrong, and he says he does things his way and it's OK.

Yul says he was worried at first that this season was going to play up racial stereotypes, but that it didn't come to pass, and his final alliance was a multicultural group.

Nate says he was called a race traitor for voting against Stephannie and Rebecca -- the two women both say they were upset because they were close, not because they were of the same racial background.

Candice is asked whether it was romance or strategy? She says strategy over footage of all the macking. Adam: "Candice is a great girl." Audience: "Ugh."

Jeff wants to know about Nate and Parvati -- that there seemed to be something between them more than was shown on the show. Nate says there were some feelings. Parvati says Nate helped her get in the game and that she loves him, but like in an "I love you, dude" kind of way. Parvati is asked about the boxing, but it's "model boxing."

JP says he's become a model on the Janice Dickinson show.

Cristina says the cops make jokes with her, and were respectful and proud of her wrestling match performance.

Cecilia says it still changes you, no matter how short of a time you are on the show.

Flicka/Jessica is asked about her hair. She says she isn't stuck with her style that she loves to work it and have people recognize it.

Candice is available, Jeff says to Billy. He says he just has to ask, but did he have genuine feelings. He says something incomprehensible, finally says he put his foot in his mouth, that he just happened to do it on national TV.

The car is going to the person who played the "most clever game." It comes down to Ozzy and Yul, and Ozzy is the winner of the car.

"Next, Survivor: The Other Cook Island," Judah says upon hearing that Jeff will tell us what the next location will be. First twist: There is a camp of luxury and a camp with nothing. They will start with 19 survivors and will "battle more fiercely than ever before." Exile Island will still be out there. They are going to: FIJI!

Posted by Sarah Kickler Kelber at 10:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
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OK, so the four of us are now waiting to see the jury's votes. We're predicting 0 votes for Becky and that Ozzy's got it in the bag (especially after Becky told the jury Yul had offered her the immunity idol).

Jeff points out AGAIN that you have to vote for who you want to WIN, not vote out. Duh.

Jonathan votes for Yul.

Parvati votes for Oscar ("Well, she did get naked with him," says Mike.)

"Will anyone vote for Becky so we can show it," says Judah. "Nope."

Peggy notes that it's been a pretty feel-good jury situation. The only one these three really backstabbed is Jonathan, and he flipped on everyone, so no one cares.

Judah cheers that they got rid of the helicopters and stuff. Jeff just goes around the corner, and poof, in Hollywood with the votes.

They all look SO different, and kinda chunky.

Four Yul, four Ozzy. Winner is: Yul!

We're surprised. What do you think?

Posted by Sarah Kickler Kelber at 10:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (19)
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Oh my gosh, I still can't believe that neither of the women could start a fire for almost two hours, even with MATCHES. I'm disgusted.

We're no longer going to have a tie problem, I don't think. Who would vote for Becky after that?

Becky's proud of her "social" game. But she didn't backstab anyone. A boat rows up to the beach with two island ladies bearing food. "They brought them prostitutes," says Mike (jokingly). Ozzy says it was symbolic that Becky wasn't around when the food got there because she won't get any votes. I agree. "Hopefully people won't hold it against me that I beat them," says Yul. Sorry, dude. They ALWAYS hold it against you. Ozzy points out he's a surfer against two lawyers.

So, in this room, our money's on Ozzy.

"Who's going to have the [censored] questions?" asks Judah. Jonathan, he says. Or Pavarti, says Mike. Ohhh, Jenny.

Time for the jury. Yul explains his game, and you can kind of tell that he is used to public speaking. Becky's up next and starts talking about her "social game" again, "being fair and honest." Ozzy says he was the underdog from the beginning and kept trying as hard as he could, and that "it came down to providing. I never tried to hard who I was ... I came out here and embraced every aspect of this game." Ozzy had the most excellent speech, I think. He didn't sound defensive at all. Can't say that about Becky or Yul.

And now the questions.

Nate congratulates everyone on their game. He compares Yul to the Godfather. Ozzy he compares to the warrior but wants to know about his strategy. Ozzy says he was the Yul of his initial tribe and that he get them to throw a challenge and get rid of Billy. And that some of his "chill" persona was playing. Becky he asks why she deserves to be here with the Godfather and the Warrior; she says she helped the Godfather. Nate says he isn't satisfied. Becky says they got to the final four because she helped make decisions. She says she rejected the idol offer from Yul.

Jenny wants to know what's more important, the physical or the strategic. He says the social side and a little more.

Pavarti congratulates them. Becky, she asks to convince her that she wants to win the game. She says she wants to win it fairly.

Rebecca asks Yul and Ozzy what she doesn't know that would help her decide. Yul says he wanted to go on Survivor to see Asian American men as they truly are and that he wants to get more minorities represented on TV. Ozzy says he wants to change the stereotypes of "What is a Mexican."

Adam says they've all been painfull boring and wants them to get to the point. Ozzy is asked to talk some trash about Yul and Becky. Ozzy says he didn't try as hard as possible. I think Becky did ride on coattails. And the firemaking is something that after 39 days you have to be able to do.

Candice is up and asks Yul straight-up, yes or no only, My impression is that you have been shamelessly working this jury. Is that true. He said yes. Then he bobbled.

Brad says he only talked to Ozzy for like 15 seconds. He asks him about the most challenging experience of his life and how he overcame it. He talks about his relationship or lack thereof with his father. Then they all cry.

Sundra wants to know one thing you have discovered about yourself or life by being in this game (AKA this is the cake question). Ozzy says "pure love." Becky says she learns how to let go of time and a schedule, which had always defined her. Yul says he came here with a lot of fears and doubts and anxieties and that he has more self-confidence.

Jonathan gets snakey (you can tell because of the music, says Judah). He starts talking about polite and politics to Yul. Explain to people who vote for you -- he says outside this game, he would not manipulate or blindside people. Ozzy, he says, has been arrogant and entitled and that he acts like a prince. He wants to know how giving him a million dollars a better person and make his world a better place. "If I had a million dollars, I would go back to school and complete a higher education. Then I would love to just try to change the world for the better."

Next up: VOTES!

Posted by Sarah Kickler Kelber at 9:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
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So let's see how it goes now that it's down to the final four on Survivor.

Has an alliance of four ever made it to the final four before?

Ozzy gets up at sunrise to reflect on the day. They find out that they have to go see the torches of the final four and do the "let's remember" part of the show. "I hate this part," says Mike. I concur. Then they are told it will be the time for the final immunity challenge. Yul is the only one who notices that it's strange that it's the final immunity challenge. One challenge left with four people left. Becky thinks it's "special" that they can do the "rite of passage" of remembering everyone. She would!

"Huh," says Mike, regarding Cao Boi's weird sound bite about his experience. We all concur.

Mike recommends a seniors' Survivor for 50 and older.  CBS, are you listening?

Ozzy and the rest of the tribe thank Jonathan -- that makes sense since if he hadn't flipped, things would have been a LOT different.

And now, the burning of the torches, which is supposed to be so meaningful, but not so much. "As you do your next challenges, the smoke from these torches will be blowing in your face," says Judah. Then it really would mean something.

Another great WJZ promo: The Ravens are thinking playoffs? Uh, hi, they CLINCHED it.

"It looks like one of those stand as long as you can things," says Peggy. But Ozzy was great in the last post one, says Judah, and Becky was close, we think. Their perch gets smaller and smaller every 15 minutes. The final size of the perch is less than half the size of a post card. One person can go home, and the final three will be in the final tribal council!

We pause to discuss what could happen. Yul seems to have it made, but what if he wants to protect Becky and keep the idol. Too much to consider. Gotta watch.

Three people eligible for the final vote.

The challenge starts. Their perches are proportional to the size of their feet. Insane. Fifteen minutes in, their perch gets smaller, and everyone is still in. Another 15, everyone is still in. "Where did Sundra's head go," Judah wonders thanks to her huge hat. After releasing the next part of the perch, Becky loses her balance and falls in. The last piece of the perch is going. Ozzy almost loses his balance and gets it back. Yul falls in after trying to stand up, "after an hour of squatting?" asks Judah. What was he thinking? It's amazing how much drama they ramp up into people standing around. "How many times can Ozzy almost fall?" asks Mike. Then Sundra falls and Ozzy has it.

Most likely: Sundra is out. But we shall see. Upon talking, it sounds like it could be a tiebreaker. Yul considers giving Becky the idol, but then he will be at risk. Also, "Remember Tina," says Mike. And Judah points out that it would make people angry at Yul at exactly the wrong time.

"If he gives it to Becky, they're shooting themselves in the foot," says Peggy. So true. No one would vote for either of them in the finale. And he didn't.

So: fire-making tie-breaking challenge. Sundra vs. Becky.

"First time there's been integrity all the way through," says Mike. "But only because of Ozzy's wins," says Judah.

"What happens if neither of them can," says I. "This will be the two-hour challenge," says Judah. The screen: 30 MINUTES ELAPSED.  1 HOUR ELAPSED. HAHAHAHA! You have got to be kidding me. The jury is falling asleep. Jeff: "We're going to matches." Our room: We can't stop laughing.

Becky can't get the match lit. Both fires go out. Ozzy is shaking his head in disbelief. "They are useless girls," says Mike. 1 HOUR, 30 MINUTES. I thought we were kidding with the two hours, but sheesh. This is why you don't let Ozzy do all the fire-making. "They're going to run out of matches," says Judah. Immediately: "I'm out," says Sundra. Becky becomes the third member of the final three, and the one who is going to get zero votes because she can't START A FIRE.

"We didn't start the fire!" becomes Sundra and Becky's theme song.

Sundra unfortunately uses the word "ignite" in her outgoing interview.

"What is it they say in Survivor? 'In Survivor, fire is life'?" asks Mike. Yep. That was SAD. SAD. SAD!

Posted by Sarah Kickler Kelber at 9:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
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So, let's see how it goes now that we know that Ozzy's in the final four. ("I think Ozzy played that strategically really well doing the hardest of the eight obstacles first," says Mike.)

"They must have a whole camera team whose job must be just to get the nature shots," says Judah. "That would be an awesome job."

"I would be surprised if Ozzy doesn't win this," says Peggy.

Adam seems to want to steal the idol -- oh, no, he wants to get everyone to vote against Yul to get the immunity out of play for the final four tribal council. Oooh, intriguing. "They would be smart to do that," says Mike. Adam's going home nevertheless, right? Or "home."

Nate seems to have hurt himself -- are they going to tell us that? Did anything happen today to help change Adam's fate? "Uh, no," says Ozzy. We all laugh. Becky claims that they are going to fight harder now -- that they had let Ozzy win "for us." Ozzy says he doesn't care -- he wants to win, so if that gets him further, then fine. "I'm not sure what these two do," says Adam regarding Sundra and Becky. "The big old Raro tribe was against all of them, and they made it through, so of course they're staying together," says Peggy.

"Pavarti's wearing her last 26 days of makeup all at once," says Judah. Also, she and Candice keep making eye-rolling glances at each other, but I keep missing it, because I'm typing. "Maybe Candice is just dressing up for Billy in case he's watching," says Mike. Peggy predicts that Sundra voted for Yul, but it seems not. However, Adam voted for "Yule." It is that time of year. "And now Candice gets her boyfriend back," says Mike.

Time for more bombast and proclamations from Jeff! "Now you'll have to turn on each other. It'll be fun to watch it play out." (Dear Yul: Write your votes BIGGER, please.) It's amazing the four of them got through together to the final four, "mostly because of Ozzy," Judah says.

So what's next?

Posted by Sarah Kickler Kelber at 8:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
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OK, here, we are ... the finale of Survivor: Cook Islands is here. I'm blogging live, with special guests my in-laws Mike and Peggy and husband Judah. So here we go.

First thing everyone mentions: "The race thing sure didn't factor in at all," says Mike of the initial divisions of the four tribes. During Probst's recap of the season, everyone gets a good laugh in at Billy's expense, when he said he was in love with Candice. I don't much miss Cao Boi, I must say. Aitu looked so sad when Candice and Jonathan muntineed, but they are all still in it ("cool that they are still together," says Peggy). "He was happy about that!" says Judah, regarding Nate getting voted out when Jonathan flipped AGAIN.  Mike points out, when Jeff says that it's a well-duh that Ozzy was an unstoppable force, "someone who can hike from Panama to the United States ..." (Check out Ozzy's CBS bio for more.)

"Hey, they haven't had the car challenge yet," Judah notes. How about that. Think they've gotten rid of it because people claim it's a curse? I guess we shall see.

The bombast is pretty funny -- It's DAY 37, and the end is NIGH! It's just Survivor.

Sundra says, "There are probably going to be hurt feelings, but that's the game." Oh no doubt.

Mike and Judah point out that the Aitu Four got this far because of Ozzy and because Yul had the immunity idol. Without that, who knows what would have happened?

The Aitu Four are all upset to hear that the immunity challenge is an obstacle course -- I mean, Ozzy's happy, but the others, not so much.

It sure does look complicated, this immunity challenge, like a crazy spider web. However, it contains a very complex puzzle -- three dimensional. Ozzy's the slowest to start, which is unusual, but he went on one of the hardest ones first. "I don't think anyone's done the one Ozzy did yet," says Judah. Good point -- Adam's on it now, and it looks like a nightmare. "He's like a monkey," say Peggy and I at the same time, regarding Ozzy's acrobatics. "OH," Judah and I say when Ozzy appears to take a fall, but of course, it turns out it was on purpose. Even when he does fall, he catches himself.

The puzzle is an eight-point compass rose. Yul and Ozzy are head to head figuring out the puzzle, with Adam close behind. Jeff calls it the most difficult puzzle they have ever done. Peggy notices Adam is shaking, Judah says "because he knows he needs it more than anyone else." Ozzy and Adam are soooo close, and Ozzy wins it AGAIN. AGAIN! "Doesn't Ozzy realize his teammates would have voted him out in a heartbeat?" Mike says. Oh, yes. "I bet Ozzy's getting female fan mail like crazy," Peggy says.

CBS local news promo: "Body found on Mount Hood. Could it be one of the missing hikers?" Uh, YOU THINK? Sheesh! That is one of the worst promos I have ever seen, and there have been some doozies. But that's not why we're here.

OK, I'll be back with part deux in a bit ...

Posted by Sarah Kickler Kelber at 8:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)
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First off, boo to CBS for misspelling the name of the one of the Survivor contestants on all the ads during the Ravens game today. Per your own web page, folks, his name is Ozzy, not Ozzie. Sheesh!

Anyway, Thursday night saw Parvati voted out after Ozzy won immunity yet again.

Before that, the top three finishers in the reward challenge -- Ozzy, Parvati and Yul -- got a shower, massage, meal and a chance to sleep in a bed. Yul saw Ozzy starting to get worked over by Parvati and wondered whether staying aligned with him was a good idea since she could sway him. At the same time, back at camp, Becky and Sundra (Adam was at Exile Island) discussed how much Ozzy dominated every challenge and whether they should get rid of him.

But then, as mentioned, Ozzy dominated yet another challenge, won immunity and Parvati -- who was seen as a threat both for her flirting skills and her showing in the challenges -- was out.

Tonight, we're going into the final with five instead of four, so some kind of twist is afoot. I'm hoping to live-blog the finale, so stay tuned!

Posted by Sarah Kickler Kelber at 5:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
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Zoinks! Life and work got in the way there for a while. Sorry for the lack of posts for the past few days. Let's play catch-up, shall we?

First up, The Amazing Race. We're down to the final three teams as of last night -- Tyler and James, Rob and Kimberly and Lyn and Karlyn. If you had told me at the beginning of the season that for the first time ever, a two-woman team would make the final three, I definitely wouldn't have predicted Lyn and Karlyn, but they are doing pretty darned well late. They finished in the top two by minutes two legs in a row. Sure, they're tired and they're bickering, and they took getting yielded by the beauty queens really poorly last episode even though they planned to be the yielders if they got there first.  I'm not sure I'm rooting for them, exactly, but I'm impressed they keep on trucking. Rob and Kimberly I could do without, especially their screaming and giving up constantly. James and Tyler have been handling all the stresses pretty well. Sure, as Lyn and Karlyn pointed out, they get a little emotional here and there, but generally, they've been keeping it together.

I'm surprised Dustin and Kandice are out. They will say that they were gunned for because they were so competitive, but it was also because at times they were unnecessarily underhanded around the other teams, and rarely did it gain them any time on the teams. The only thing it did was engender distrust, which definitely did not work out for them in the end.

That final episode is always a doozy, so keep an eye out this Sunday to see who brings home the $1 million prize.

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Speaking of $1 million prizes, how about that Survivor? Jonathan flipped yet again, but he was given little choice by Yul, who would have voted him out had he not joined with the Aitu-ans. So the former Raro-ites were furious, and then everyone got furious after Jonathan acted like a selfish jerk at the reward challenge, an auction at which he won an insane amount of food and rubbed it in everyone's faces (albeit not literally). It got really ugly when Adam, Candace and Parvati were huddled in the tent, and everyone else started eating without telling them, leaving them with no fish. This carried over to an insane tribal council where everything came out in the open. It seemed like there was a chance that everyone was going to flip on Jonathan, but instead Candace went home, after making out with Adam in front of God, her teammates, Jeff Probst and the jury after the votes came in. I suspect Jonathan isn't long for this game, but I've been thinking that for a long, long time, so who knows?

=====

VH1 aired a marathon of repeats of America's Next Top Model this weekend, gearing up for the finale on Wednesday. I never end up seeing the show when it's on network TV, and it never fails that I get dragged into repeats toward the end. I don't love the show, but I love photography, and you can't see the shoots and the results of the shoots without seeing most of the episode. So yeah, that's my excuse.

It's just such a strange show. Real models get into the business early, so to have all these 18-to-23-year-olds supposedly getting their start just makes it seem even less accurate. But, as usual, there has been drama and personality conflicts and other assorted craziness to keep people tuning in. Wednesday we'll see who the big winner is. (Because we've seen oh so much of the previous six winners!)

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I'm all caught up with The Real World: Denver, which just makes me want to tear my hair out over the state of youth today, which makes me feel 947 years old instead of just pushing 30. But seriously, as of the end of last week's episode, the kids had been in the house for less than 48 hours and already Colie had made out with Alex, who promised to meet her in her room for more making out but instead had a fling with Jenn, who had already made out with Brooke in front of Tyrie and who didn't want to tell Colie about Alex, but Colie saw her hickey while talking to her in the shower. That doesn't even get into the part where Brooke basically forced Davis out of the closet after he had chosen to room with Stephen because they go to the same church, but Stephen thinks homosexuality is wrong.

It's all ever so classy. People say London was a boring season, but I really liked seeing the interplay between the roommates, who had jobs besides making out with one another. Even Jay, who sat around a lot of the time because his work visa was all messed up, was compelling because, having written and staged a play while still in high school, he was dealing with becoming a very small fish in a giant pond.

I've said it before, but I will say it again: Real World has turned into a puppy mill for creating Real World-Road Rules Challenge contestants. That's its only purpose.  Sick.

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More classy and less exploitative than I thought it would be is Beauty & the Geek. It's being rerun on MTV right now in anticipation of the third season, which supposedly starts next month. It's billed as a social experiment (exec produced by Ashton Kutcher) in which eight beauties and eight geeks team up in pairs and compete for $250,000. There are certainly humiliating moments, but generally the guys seem to gain a lot of confidence and the women seem to realize that there is more to life than looking cute. That sounds like a win-win to me. I hope the show keeps that innocence about it as it continues. Apparently, we'll see next month.

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Thursday's Survivor brought yet more surprises, but I'll get to that in a minute.

Aitu, betrayed last week when Candice and Jonathan mutinied and joined the Raro tribe, continued to kick tail. In the reward challenge, the four remaining team members swam to victory (supplemented by their ability to memorize some flags). I noticed much more commentary from the other tribe during the challenge -- "How do they keep doing that?" "I don't believe this!" "They're on their last chest, and we only have two!" -- than usual. It added a little extra sense of how much it pained Raro to lose its third challenge in a row. Aitu chose to send Candice to Exile Island again and then headed out to enjoy a local feast. The members of Aitu had a great time bonding with the locals and getting to truly eat -- and of course, dance.

Meanwhile, Candice was crying on Exile Island about how bad it is when "people that you like want to see you suffer." Oh, OK, traitor!

The karma continued at the immunity challenge when Aitu won yet again and Raro got a bottle they'd have to open after the tribal council vote. I thought for sure that Raro would go after Jonathan, even after he brought in something like 22 fish, but they'd decided to aim at Rebecca, feeling like she wasn't bringing much to the challenges.

Sure enough, at the vote, Rebecca was out and Jonathan skated by yet again. Then the tribe opened the bottle, which informed them they'd be voting out someone else immediately. I even had heard that two people were going home, but I figured the note in the bottle would say, "Go get Raro" or something. So I was shocked. Not as shocked as the Raro folks. So now, I thought, Jonathan is out for sure. But a funny thing happened when the votes came in, and most everyone went after Jenny, and she was gone -- gone and furious. I kind of didn't blame her for being mad, but by now every tribe should have contingencies for everything!

Poor Rebecca didn't even get to have her goodbye message played. CBS cut off Jenny's in the middle.

I have to say, these twists are actually working this time around, and the game is getting more interesting than it's been in a while.

Posted by Sarah Kickler Kelber at 6:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
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Hey, speaking of dish, CBS announced the cast of Survivor: Panama -- Exile Island today. Here's a link to the story. No locals, but with a yoga instructor, a fire dancer, a retired astronaut and a self-proclaimed "lumberjill" (and -- could it be? -- no models/something elses?), it sounds like an intriguing mix of folks.

More news: They'll be divided into four tribes for the first time, sorted into older and younger groups and by gender.

CBS has posted bios and such on everyone now, available here.

Posted by Sarah Kickler Kelber at 2:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Survivor