Board 8 > CBS Reality Topic 3.5: Purge-free through BB24, Survivor SA9, and Challenge USA

(+) Yeah! (+)

• Derek X and Claire on Amazing Race together
• Omar accusing Drea of making malicious racist remarks at Ponderosa and CBS subsequently covering the entire thing up to confirm its truthfulness
• Survivor 43 continuing with the stupid "Monster format" with Shit in the Dark, Do or Die, "earn the merge" and other rubbish the fans dislike all returning
• Tough as Nails has been ordered for two more seasons; season 4 is probably starting production now that Phil's back from TAR34
• Nobody still gives a shit about Beyond the Edge
• Other things I'm probably missing

Already can't stand Kyle

Bleh. Giving Pooch power on day one isn't amazing.

You made me curious, and now I find out that Love Island didn't only get a fourth season, but it's scheduled to get a fifth as well. How?

• I have no idea who TJ Lavin is but he certainly knows how to make an entrance
• Alyssa saying she wants to destroy the Cookout while Xavier doesn't see her vengeance was not a good look for him. I think she does have more loyalty to him than she's letting on. She wants him to be the last Cookout left standing so he can be putty in her hands.
• They did a good job explaining things we needed to know, particularly Love Island since nobody cared about that show. It was a lot of info though.
• The Love Island players felt clueless compared to players from the more strategic shows. Love Island is about fucking. Survivor and BB involve breaking hearts. Shannon was in over her head. If you're gonna be labeled the "dumb blonde from Love Island," play that up! You WANT to be underestimated for long periods of time. Annihilating that first challenge and gloating doesn't work with that.
• Fuck Shan.
• I can't do math as quickly as the edit is presenting it and it's not PEMDAS, it's left to right, so I'm only half-watching this.
• I'm glad some people I really enjoy are here. Tyson and Danny are already delivering. AND they left an uncensored Tyson F-bomb in there! HOLY SHIT
• Honestly, I hate how this "CBS Diversity Initiative" thing is all black and white, and then they just throw in "Token Asian" and "Token Hispanic." It's not true "diversity" if some groups are still excluded as much as they were before.
• Angela most definitely has a thing for long-haired blonde dudes. She married the one from her season and wants Tyson as her ride-or-die here.
• Cely saying "I know I'm good" was such a warning sign. Was obvious that the edit was building tension between Shannon/James and Cely/Javonny for the decision. Did the latter pair not figure out that Tyson and Angela would protect those from their own shows, which meant the Love Island people were in the crosshairs? James and Shannon deduced that quick! Cely/Javonny were shocked because they just presumed. This should be a wake-up call to all the Love Island crew.
• Azah made a fantastic point in that Javonny was expending energy by showboating instead of focusing. Kyland and Azah had a distinct advantage with over a day to prepare. That and Cely/Javonny being morons were why this ended the way it did.
• I did like this enough to watch it again next week. I think the format is promising for drama between the different factions and the factions within those factions. But we'll see. Gotta watch another two episodes to see how long I'll be invested for.

I have a feeling two Houseguests won't pass up the opportunity to make an alliance called Turner & Pooch.

45 year old tyson

Honestly, I hate how this "CBS Diversity Initiative" thing is all black and white, and then they just throw in "Token Asian" and "Token Hispanic." It's not true "diversity" if some groups are still excluded as much as they were before.

Paloma is fantastic.

Evidently this post did not age well.

I could listen to Jasmine talk all day.

Meanwhile it takes me about six seconds to get sick of hearing Kyle.

This season has had a really unpleasant first week.

So I think it's basically confirmed at this point that Survivor 43 and 44 are both all-newbie casts. If this pans out, 41-44 will be the first set of four consecutive all-newbie seasons since 12-15. (Unless you count 28-30+32, which I don't because they intentionally disrupted it).

I just got freaking tired after we got Paul's Cult, the Gr8ful H8ful, the Committee, and the Cookout in a five-season span.

I have to admit, BB18 (the first season I watched) was actually interesting because there wasn't really "an" alliance. There were little pairs/trios and the power shifted pretty much week to week. So it was pretty intriguing to watch even though there were so many unpleasant assholes (the fact that I was actually rooting for fucking Frank at the point of his elimination says a lot)

• Tyson is doing a terrible job at managing his threat level. At this point he'll be sent into the arena every time he doesn't win, just to exhaust him (he'll still win those). If he gets a dead weight partner (like Azah), he may be in trouble.
• James should've insisted on Azah/Xavier, because when's the next chance they'll get to take out two of the Cookout? (Now? Never.) But... I can buy Tiffany being the glue that holds the Cookout to Alyssa/Derek/Enzo/David (with Angela already in Tyson's corner). Good to get rid of any Cookout since they HAVE to align because people were always gonna presume they're together again.
• What was that weird Shan newscast setup? Bizarro editing. Also, fuck Shan.
• Alyssa is here to PLAY. I love it. Only saw shades of it last year due to the Cookout narrative but she's always been a lot smarter than she lets on. She's adjusted to a different ruleset while Tiffany attempted to be the mastermind she was last year... and this group wasn't gonna fall for that.
• I think the team that loses the daytime challenge has a distinct advantage because they already know they're going into the fray. The team that gets blindsided only has a short window to prepare for battle. Ergo, there's no reason to not blindside them, since they'd be the ones with a vendetta.
• In the preview, Tyson saying "we have to get rid of the weakest people" is smart because those people could cost him a challenge.
• Honestly, this show is alright. As the name blatantly implies, the focus is on the extreme competitions, which makes me hesitant to watch anything further because this feels like it'll quickly get as stale as Survivor challenges. I want to see the drama that happens because of challenges. And not knowing a thing about Love Island is damaging to my enjoyment, because I don't know those relationships, and all I have to go on is what little they tell me here. There's a lot to take in.
• The other issue is that there are 28 people to start and only two go home per episode. I presume there's gonna be a mass exodus later when TJ asks them to pony up. The game design for that works because of the random partners and $5K prizes.
• Faves are still Tyson, Danny, Alyssa, Cayla, and Angela... and of course Desi is nice to look at too. LOVED Lacina saying she'll have to pay her son a dollar for saying "ass" (holy shit he's 7 y/o already!?) even though she IS a certified badass. She'll get her $5K eventually.