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

(+) Yeah! (+)

She hid the advantage in her leg. I love it.

Yeah, I officially like Noelle. A lot. I'm looking forward to her having a leg up in the jokes department.

Not sure Nneka really earned that music. Especially after just three episodes.

I wonder what we're missing here. Did Noelle flash something to Jesse to make him paranoid enough to get him and Cody to vote for Nneka? Maybe...?

I really hate how every vote in US Survivor has to be a "blindside" to the viewers. Even when it's clear that Nneka was not cut out for this game.

BlueCrystalTear posted...

I wonder what we're missing here. Did Noelle flash something to Jesse to make him paranoid enough to get him and Cody to vote for Nneka? Maybe...?

I really hate how every vote in US Survivor has to be a "blindside" to the viewers. Even when it's clear that Nneka was not cut out for this game.

It made sense to me. I mean, after two weak performances from Nneka in a row, plus the threat of Noelle having an idol, Nneka was the easy choice.

I mean, yeah, that's obvious, but what I'm curious about is how Noelle knew not to play her Steal-a-Vote. There's a big gaping narrative hole there. She talked up making an epic play to regain her footing in the game, and then... didn't, and Nneka still went home.

Three episodes in...this season just feels so...it's like, weirdly LIFELESS. I don't HATE it, but I just don't CARE.

It's very MvGX/GI in that regard. Very flat.

Yeah so far this is quite the letdown compared to 41 and 42 and I blame the cast. This is just not a particularly dynamic group as a whole.

Underleveled posted...

Yeah so far this is quite the letdown compared to 41 and 42 and I blame the cast. This is just not a particularly dynamic group as a whole.

Agreed. It feels like, especially with how many goddamn sob story flashbacks we get, they cast this group based on their story, rather than their television potential.

Yup, I'm with you two. We've been getting all this backstory, and yet I don't give a damn about anyone but Karla and Noelle. While they have different backstories, they're all virtually the same on the island. There is nothing to differentiate where people's stories are going. There are bunch of people with interesting backstories. And yet all of them are being shown as gamebots.

I do second that this cast isn't very dynamic - too many redundancies and too much kumbayah. There's also how the confessionals have been soulless, save for Karla's "my wife's birthday is in February" and Noelle's "I haven't run out of leg jokes" today. It's the personalities that make Survivor pop. We're not seeing that, we're only seeing strategy strategy strategy and that's boring.

Where are my crazy people? Where are my villains? Those kinds of players create tension and drama and cause gamebots to deliver unintentional comedy in droves. Survivor SA knows this. Why doesn't Probst?

BlueCrystalTear posted...

Yup, I'm with you two. We've been getting all this backstory, and yet I don't give a damn about anyone but Karla and Noelle. While they have different backstories, they're all virtually the same on the island. There is nothing to differentiate where people's stories are going. There are bunch of people with interesting backstories. And yet all of them are being shown as gamebots.

I do second that this cast isn't very dynamic - too many redundancies and too much kumbayah. There's also how the confessionals have been soulless, save for Karla's "my wife's birthday is in February" and Noelle's "I haven't run out of leg jokes" today. It's the personalities that make Survivor pop. We're not seeing that, we're only seeing strategy strategy strategy and that's boring.

Where are my crazy people? Where are my villains? Those kinds of players create tension and drama and cause gamebots to deliver unintentional comedy in droves. Survivor SA knows this. Why doesn't Probst?

I feel like Cody and Mike are meant to be that sort of character, but they're so firmly ensconced in boring majorities that their personalities don't get to shine through. Plus, Mike is flopped way too much to maintain whatever quirkiness he has going for him.

This is basically a non-elimination leg without calling it that.

Underleveled posted...

This is basically a non-elimination leg without calling it that.

No, that's a KOR leg. This seems like there's no false pit stop in the middle (but I could be wrong on that).

Blaziken posted...

No, that's a KOR leg. This seems like there's no false pit stop in the middle (but I could be wrong on that).

It's the same thing with no pitstop basically

It would be nice if they cast MORE crazy people who would, y'know, make each other crazier. I want to see people's hinges coming off. That's when the fun happens. I think the 26 day game is very bad for the show because we don't get to see people lose their minds like we used to.

Underleveled posted...

This is basically a non-elimination leg without calling it that.

I expected there to be a "You're still racing" leg-ender at some point, because that technically doesn't count as a Pit Stop.

I feel pretty apathetic to like half of these teams too. It's definitely not shaping up to be the best fall for CBS RTV.

Underleveled posted...

I feel pretty apathetic to like half of these teams too. It's definitely not shaping up to be the best fall for CBS RTV.

Honestly, I only don't care about two of the couples (maybe three, but Luis has interesting potential). I'm enjoying most of the cast at this point.

I'm surprised to see so much love for Coco here, since they're completely irrelevant outside of Karla. I'm not sure I could tell you anything about a single one of the other five. They're definitely my least favorite, and I find it hilarious that we've now gone three seasons in a row with a narratively irrelevant blue tribe.

Coco's edit could be a lot better - I think the love is either from pre-game or being completely apathetic toward everyone not named Noelle on the other two tribes. Probably the latter. I think Coco's not getting much content because they're the Luvu this season and are gonna win many more challenges to come. That may happen more frequently in the near future given the flint confiscation... at least until they do away with that and go back to 39 days, because this 26-day product is inferior.

Also, initial ratings for last night are hilarious. Survivor got a 0.8 with 5,145,000 estimated live viewers. The Real Love Boat didn't even retain half of that, with 0.26 and 2,408,000. Amazing Race got a 0.3 and 2,376,000. In other words: Love Boat had roughly the same amount of viewers as TAR, but TAR had a slightly higher percentage of advertising demographic viewers. CBS spent a lot of money advertising Love Boat, possibly at expense of their existing shows, and its end result was predictable. The 0.26 is even lower than Love Island usually got (except on Fridays... in the summer...), though the viewer total is half a million higher, likely because it's fall. The fact that Love Boat got less than half of Survivor's scores and was about even with TAR after all that advertising is funny to me.

Survivor viewers legit do NOT care about a show about fucking. I gotta wonder how many people didn't pay attention while it was on and were just waiting for TAR (or thought that's when TAR was on, given CBS's failures to advertise its many time slot changes). But, yeah, if this premiere is any indication, this Love Boat is gonna sink.

"You can always trade your reward for a previous reward."

Wut

Drew Christy is in shambles.

Also, what is the point of a camp raid right now? The tribes have almost nothing to steal.

IMO the machete should be off limits. That's a death sentence.

I love Cody

Still hoping for Coco to win immunity.

That really sucks. It's a lot easier for the middle tribe to copy a puzzle.

That felt so unsportsmanlike.

I kinda got this vibe earlier in the episode that this was Cassidy's boot episode. Call it intuition but I still think she's going.

That scramble was a big part of why Coco is the best tribe. The original target is the biggest potential tryhard, but then you have a player get super paranoid for no reason, and the tribe still largely like each other and come across as genuinely pleasant people.

"Brutal"

There's obviously going to be a tribe swap next episode IMO.

I really hate Baka. I can't remember the last time they offered something positive to an episode.

I like Elie. The rest suck (Sami is an annoying tryhard, Gabler is a curmudgeon, and not the fun type like Randy, Owen is kinda lame and Jeanine is just kinda there).

Kinda figured it was Lindsay going for a few reasons. One, the vote should've been unanimous - voting en bloc is a way to bond the tribe together (but Geo cast an insurance vote). Two, there was that bonding scene with Karla and Geo in the premiere that hasn't had any payoff yet. And three, Lindsay is the type of player you WANT to vote out. If she's this paranoid on Day 9, how paranoid is she gonna be on day 19? She got herself cooked by showcasing how she's an unpredictable, unstable ally. Coco had a lot of interesting dynamics, but I'm still not feeling this season even though this was the best episode so far. I legit do not care for most of these people and this episode didn't do much to change that.

Lots of bad production decisions, as mentioned. Shouldn't allow someone to take a machete in a slim-pickings camp raid. And also shouldn't allow tribes to see each other's puzzles if you're gonna have three of them arranged like that. Additionally, I miss two-tribe seasons because of how that turns into an "us vs them" dynamic at a merge. We've only gotten one of those from Worlds Apart onward, and that's not exactly a very watchable season for... other reasons.

Sorry for the longer post but I wasn't able to watch live and didn't want to be spoiled.

Inviso posted...

Drew Christy is in shambles.

He tried to trade something they'd already won, as opposed to something they'd JUST won. If your tribe wins a reward challenge, you can trade the prize for anything previous (except an excursion). You can't freely go to Trader Jeff's to exchange your rewards. And this stops come merge where the rewards are absolute.

BlueCrystalTear posted...

We've only gotten one of those from Worlds Apart onward, and that's not exactly a very watchable season for... other reasons.

DvG remained so until the Carl boot at the final 9 (fifth boot into the merge) finally shook things up.

Underleveled posted...

DvG remained so until the Carl boot at the final 9 (fifth boot into the merge) finally shook things up.

I'm talking about production forcing people into three tribes. Tiva existed on DvG long before merge. I want a pure two-tribe season because there's a huge flaw in formulaic game structure in that people learn how to exploit it, which for a TV show isn't overly entertaining.

Ghost Island had an "us vs them" mindset too, but I wanna see that in the challenges. I miss the days of tribes hating each other, yet having to work across tribal lines later because it's what's best for their game. People are really starting to get too comfortable with the three-tribe format, just like they are with F3s. And that may be why this season is boring: It's following the same formula Survivor's been overusing since the move to Fiji, yet isn't doing anything new or remarkable with it since this cast is bland.

(edit added a few things)

Dom: *attempts the roadblock for literally 12 and a half seconds* I can't do this, I'm done.

I'm actually laughing that she has no idea what she's quitting (obviously she won't really but it's still comical).

Dom is such a wonderful television character.

Man...Sharik is infuriating. If only Rich & Dom weren't so aggressively terrible at all aspects of the race.

I need to rewatch the episode because I started dozing off in the second half (out of tiredness, not out of boredom). I saw the last two teams arrive and when Linton & Sharik got there I legit didn't know if they were last or not.

On Survivor, I still can't find a reason to care about anyone on Coco other than Karla. I had no reason to care about Geo or Lindsay (or Cassidy, even though she stopped being the decoy boot pretty early), so it was basically between generic guy who gets arrogant early and gets booted for it vs generic woman who gets paranoid and plays her way out of the game.

On TAR, it was frustrating to watch Sharik basically give up. For a while there, I thought they quit midway through the leg and that's why they weren't being shown anymore. On the other hand, it'll be funny to see Linton set the record for earliest time to hit the Roadblock limit if they can last a few more legs.

Just to put into perspective how long Survivor has been on, Gabler was born in the same year as Alex Bell from Amazon and Brady Finta from Vanuatu. That blew my mind.

I still really dislike Baka, but I'll give credit for making a Beware Advantage scene that feels unique and different from the prior two. All three scenes felt really different, actually. Cody enlisting his allies to keep the outsiders in the dark, Karla going solo and hustling, and now Jeanine working to get the whole tribe (who fully knows what she has) onboard with giving her an idol.

Seems like they have finally realized tribe swaps suck.

Well, looks like Ryan's going.

Im sure throwing a challenge will have no ramifications whatsoever....

Yeah, Ryan with the Drew Christy right there.

I really hope this is legitimately just an edit just clowning on Ryan, because if he DOESN'T go home...ffs.

Yeah this HAS to be one of those ones where they don't even try to hide the boot...

I can't see how he survives this unless Geo gets an advantage and bails him out.

So if Jesse loses his vote and Noelle steals it, does that just mean she wastes her advantage?

Geo faking an underdog story, getting his bluff called, and losing out on the vote, would be amazing.

The fact that his fake story was actually true but he didn't know that would make it even better.