Board 8 > darkx ranks Winter '21-Summer '22 Survivor/TAR/BB/TAN contestants

(+) Yeah! (+)

I'd personally rather put the people that I had net negative feelings about below the "whatever"s.

Anyway, we're inching into "mildly annoyed me" territory with the next few entries.

Inviso posted...

I can't imagine disliking Jackson this much. He seemed like a nice guy, and it wasn't like he was still taking drugs...he had started kicking the drug several weeks in advance and thought he would be okay in time for the show. It just didn't work out, and he wasn't aware that there was a possibility of lingering effects, combined with the dehydration and starvation.

He literally hid it from production until they sent the alternates home. He knew they weren't going to let him on the season if they knew about his lithium, and waited until they had no choice but to still put him on the season to tell them. I'm not going to give Jackson credit just because the best case scenario happened (medivaced day 3 before anything bad happened), and I think all of Jeff's anger towards him was completely justified. Jackson lied to production and put them at risk, and they honestly should've just gone with 17 people (Taku has Jonathan so they'd still be the strongest tribe even with 5 people).

Without spoiling anything on my list I'll contribute to the current discussion by saying I don't think they should send the alternates home before the game has started. It's not like they haven't had people drop out after they were sent home before.

My guess is that the weird quarantine situation meant they had to send the alternates home early, and they got caught off guard on Day 0 with the Jackson lithium thing.

bwburke94 posted...

My guess is that the weird quarantine situation meant they had to send the alternates home early, and they got caught off guard on Day 0 with the Jackson lithium thing.

Yet the alternates had already been sent home in Fiji and San Juan del Sur when players dropped out of those seasons.

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101. Daniel Strunk (Survivor 42, 13th place) [17/18]
Daniel is another example of a person that in a boring season I could have maybe appreciated as a trainwreck but in Survivor 42, which was excellent and had a pretty decent cast overall, I found him to be annoying. Right out of the gate he seemed like a camera whore and then he got a dislocated shoulder in the first challenge and while Im sure it was still painful even after they relocated it, he milked the hell out of it for the rest of his time in the game. He used it as an excuse to get out of work at camp and for sitting out/performing poorly in challenges while simultaneously suggesting challenge performance as a reason to get rid of people. He then went on to be an abysmal social player, constantly annoying his tribemates (and the viewers) and an even worse strategic player by repeatedly blowing up his and his allies games by turning on people for weird reasons and then showing his hand entirely too soon at a critical tribal council. All this from a superfan who clearly wanted to be the breakout star of the season. Thankfully his tribe finally got sick of him and booted him pre-merge, so he doesnt wind up lower. While I can appreciate an entertaining trainwreck player (and many will rank highly on this list), Daniel in Season 42 doesnt do it for me at all.

100. A female juror

I really enjoyed Daniel, in large part because he didn't make merge. His self-imposed Charlie Brown tragic storyline was pretty hilarious (it was like 90% his fault), and I MUCH prefer him to almost anyone from S43 so far. It was players like him who made S42's start so electric. While he's not my favorite trainwreck ever, I still was very entertained by the unintentional comedy that was his storyline. He thought he was a genius, but he was really just a twit. I don't like camera whores usually, but Daniel made up for it by failing so hard. If he got twice as far, he'd have gotten annoying and would've been edited as less likable.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/4/5/6/AAaSYmAADwlw.jpg
100. Cynthia Bailey (Celebrity Big Brother 3, 3rd place) [9/11]
I WANTED to be able to root for Cynthia (or more specifically, her side of the house because lets face it, she was the weakest member of her alliance) because I hated Miehsa and Todrick so damn much, and for the first half of the season that was pretty easy, but holy shit she blew it in the second half. She totally fell for Todrick and Mieshas gaslighting of Shanna, and so did Carson and Im going to hold him accountable for that as well, but Carson was at least diplomatic about it, while Cynthia got way too personal about it and really made Shanna feel awful. She really believed Miesha and Todrick were her friends and looking out for her when really they just wanted to go deep in the game with her because shed be easy to beat in the endgame challenges. I do think she just got caught up in the game, and in post-game press, after she got to watch the season play out, she seemed to feel really bad and was honestly apologetic, but in the moment it was SO uncomfortable to watch. She then proceeded to be completely useless for the rest of the season, going up as a pawn round after round and miserably failing every challenge, which was particularly frustrating because there were SO MANY TIMES in the back half of the season where the Miesha/Todrick F2 could have been avoided by her pulling out JUST ONE WIN and it NEVER happened. Even Todd managed to pull out a couple of crucial victories. She then cast the sole jury vote for Todrick (as I mentioned in that write-up, she was the only juror who didnt get to watch the season before voting due to being booted on finale night) so she wound up being, as Inviso said in the moment, clueless to the very end, and arguably the worst all-around player in CBB3 (if youre not counting Chris Kattan and even then you could probably at least make an argument). As I write this I remember just how frustrating she made the final few episodes of the season and retroactively think I should have had her below a moderately-annoying pre-juror but whatever.

99. Won at least two of whichever is relevant: Individual Immunity, Leg, HoH, or Individual TAN comp

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/1/2/9/AAaSYmAADwwR.jpg
99. Monte Taylor (Big Brother 24, 2nd place) [11/16]
I kinda didnt want to put Monte this low because he just doesnt exude the qualities that usually make me hate/dislike an RTV character, and he definitely did some good for the season, but he has some distinctly negative aspects that forced me to knock him off the list before we move into the mildly annoying tier. Lets start with those. Early in the season he turned on Taylor very quickly just out of hearsay, and even though she had been honest with him he believed the people who said she wasnt. And a lot of people were in this same boat but he made it personal by saying that he didnt want to target any other black houseguests but now he felt like he had to, and also saying that she wasnt a good representative of black women. His relationship with Taylor ended up having its ups and downs that eventually led to a short-lived showmance that he called off because she. took headphones off his head because she thought he had fallen asleep and even though he hadnt they were hers as HoH anyway. And he basically this is why no one likes youd her for it and opened old wounds that had sort of healed as much as they could. All this while he brod around with Turner for the final few weeks of the game acting like they were the ones to beat and totally counting Taylor out of it and just generally being a bit of a chauvinist. But as I said, it wasnt all bad with Monte. He played a huge part in forming the Leftovers alliance, which was built around protecting and standing up for Taylor. Out of all the people still in the game at the time, I thought he was the best at handling the Kyle situation. He was neither too diplomatic nor too damning. He won some crucial challenges that helped get many of the truly awful people out of the house. And at the end of the day, it was ironically that chauvinism that gave us the best ending the season could have had - he won the final HoH, took Taylor to the end considering her an easy person to beat, and she DEMOLISHED him in the jury vote. And for everything Monte did, both good and bad, I think he was treated fairly in the edit, by the jury, and by the fans/critics, so despite the bad I cant say he got away with stuff or got rewarded for poor behavior like a lot of the people below him.

98. Played their Shot-in-the-Dark

betting on sydney

Zach Wurt or 2nd boot Mariah, probably the former. Mariah is just forgettable in a stacked cast.

Should be Tori, but it won't be.

Mewtwo59 posted...

Should be Tori, but it won't be.

bad mewtwo

bad

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/4/1/7/AAaSYmAADw0x.jpg
98. Zach Wurtenberger (Survivor 42, 17th place) [16/18]
So now were entering the range where I cant say I hated these people because they either didnt last long enough, werent relevant enough to the edit, or their offenses werent egregious enough, but they still just mildly rubbed me the wrong way for one or more reasons. In Zachs case, he basically came onto the show as the new Ryan Ulrich, and while I love me some season 35, Ryan is NOT the castaway you want to emulate - hes got this misplaced cockiness about him and just kind of weasels his way in and out of alliances and blows challenges yet somehow surviving while better characters get picked off. Zach begins doing this as he becomes close to Tori (who finds his nerdiness endearing) but then grows paranoid about her so he tries to throw her under the bus, but luckily his tribe catches onto what hes doing and gives him the boot in episode 1 after a tribal council where he really just did not look good. The best thing that came from his time on the island was Maryanne revealing she had a crush on him after he was booted and having a pretty great and relatable moment about her love life. As for Zach, we were most likely spared of a very weak challenge competitor and unpleasant trainwreck of a player.

97. A finale boot

Tag

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97. Swifty Sanders (Tough as Nails 2, 4th place) [10/12]
Swifty ranks this low because of his misplaced cockiness. Almost every episode he talked about how good he was and how he was going to get things done, and yet he wasnt a particularly strong contributor in the team challenges and generally placed in the lower end of things in individual challenges, going into overtime three times. Two of these were in the final two episodes and in the first one he actually did well for once and in the process took out one of the better characters left in Iraida (list spoilers I guess) and in the second he lost to Zeus which I mean on one hand Swifty winning would have prevented the predictable Scott/Zeus showdown but on the other hand it would have made the final challenge even MORE boring than it was because the only person giving Scott any competition would have been gone (not that it ended up mattering). So it was just annoying to see someone consistently be a below-average performer. yet always talk themselves up and never come through, especially in a season where a few people were so much stronger than the rest of the pack.

96. Generally went by their last name

Called it.

Voce from S41 is next.

Underleveled posted...

Ryan is NOT the castaway you want to emulate - hes got this misplaced cockiness about him and just kind of weasels his way in and out of alliances and blows challenges yet somehow surviving while better characters get picked off

This is why I liked Ryan's story to some effect. His over-inflated sense of self was actually kind of amusing, and even though I see him as a similar archetype to myself, I would put him as the weakest character of that final 7. (Ashley Nolan gets huge points for her Ponderosa video alone, one that amounted to perfect self-deprecating satire of those. This is one of few instances where Ponderosa impacts anything for me.)

I don't really mind Ryan that much but I certainly didn't want to see a poor man's version of him, when Ryan himself is basically already a weaker, nerdier Adam, who is already a weaker, nerdier Spencer.

Underleveled posted...

I don't really mind Ryan that much but I certainly didn't want to see a poor man's version of him, when Ryan himself is basically already a weaker, nerdier Adam, who is already a weaker, nerdier Spencer.

Yeah, Adam and Spencer are far better characters. And keep in mind I distinguish Spencer from Survivor and the current-day nutcase Reiman. Spencer 1.0 was Charlie Brown: Nothing he did went well due to absolutely horrible luck and having Lucy (Chaos Kass) snatch the ball from him landed him on his back, yet he kept fighting. Spencer 2.0 was still amusing at points, namely thinking Lucy was going to snatch the ball from him again, only this time she didn't. The storyline with him not being able to admit to his girlfriend that he loved her felt awkward, but I think it was meant to - because it's a very awkward thing to discuss.

Adam's storyline about his mother was epic - that ending still gives me chills ;_; And then, when he returned, we put a bow on that, and him trying to play the podium as an idol because of Survivor SA events was hilarious.

Ryan had nothing like that. His most amusing moment was talking about the idol being in his pink shorts while pandemonium unfolded in front of him. And that's about all I can remember.

Akbar & Sheri (59/142): I definitely GET the hatred for Akbar, because his attitude towards Sheri often became very uncomfortable. It's the same reason I got really BAD vibes from Travis & Nicole towards the end of TAR23. However, the reason I still rank them high is because, despite Sheri constantly getting berated by Akbar...she really WASN'T the albatross on their neck...so watching them fail because of AKBAR? That was a satisfying end to their story. Plus, the thing about TAR33 was that, as a season, it was really predictable...so having ANY team with some interesting interpersonal feuds just spiced the show up a little bit. TAR33 wasn't BAD...it just was very flat. I feel like the COVID stoppage really fucked it up, tonally...and it made everything feel so safe and nice and sanitized. Akbar being a dick was at least somewhat amusing, and the season needed that, in my opinion.

Paloma Aguilar (111/142): This is another one I absolutely get, and I think if I take out the Challenge players from my list, she ranks almost exactly the same spot for me. Paloma's a tough one, because she is aggressively and actively awful in her time on the show...BUT it was really interesting to watch her go full Vanessa Rousso in week one, only to have a mental breakdown and quit the game that same week. She's absolutely one of the biggest personalities of the season, and as horrible as she is, I'd argue that a solid 3/4 of the house was awful in those first 2.5 weeks, and most of them didn't have the decency to be interesting about it. Most of them were just low-key, boring dickbags. Paloma going insane was at least entertaining...plus she probably would've failed regardless, due to the backstage boss twist. If anything, her week one set the stage for the season, and BB24 wound up having perhaps the strongest overall STORY of any Big Brother season as a result. Paloma's still awful, but she's a major part of why BB24 succeeded, rather than failed.

Nicole Layog (131/142): She's not as awful as Daniel, but I just couldn't enjoy Nicole. Even her downfall wasn't pleasant, because as much of a raging bitch as she was, her defeat came at a time when we'd just seen the Leftovers form and take out Ameerah as one of the strongest women in the house...and then they targeted Nicole for similar reasons. I'm gonna be honest...I never really liked the Leftovers as an overall alliance, outside of the fact that they were suddenly protecting Taylor (because they needed numbers). I think Monte/Kyle were always in the majority due to multiple alliances, so forming the Leftovers and acting like they were the underdogs (without TRULY reconciling the fact that they were just as awful to Taylor those early weeks as everyone else) just rubbed me the wrong way. So then the Leftovers taking out the only real competitive threats on the other side in back-to-back-to-back weeks just didn't satisfy me as much as I would've liked. That's ultimately why Nicole ranks this low. I think under different circumstances, a cocky character like her getting blindsided two weeks in a row could be amusing (particularly at the hands of her best friend in the house), but at the time, it just felt like eliminating one of the only USEFUL members of the opposition (as opposed to Daniel, who was even worse than Nicole).

Daniel Strunk (119/142): Yeah, I agree with darkx's assessment. Even though Daniel was a pre-merge boot, he was just SO focused-on during the pre-merge, and he was this obnoxious superfan-type character who was a bumbling idiot half the time. It's just really hard for me to appreciate those types of players in general, since aside from like, Jacob Derwin, it always feels like superfan flops are given a LOT more leeway in their terrible gameplay than others...so it always annoys me when you have someone like Daniel outlasting Jenny, or surviving to episode 5 because his tribe is just strong.

Cynthia Bailey (133/142): Like I said when discussing Miesha...it says a lot when, by the endgame of CBB3, I was genuinely rooting for Miesha Tate over most of the rest of the cast. Cynthia Bailey is a large part of that. Not only was she completely useless as a player, but she was so mean-spirited and nasty towards people, largely because she tucked herself under Todrick's arm and decided to play as like his extra appendage. She/Carson/Shanna FINALLY had a chance to turn the season around at the final seven, and because Cynthia had this do-or-die bond with Todrick, she got suckered in and this led to her trashing Shanna. Not just betraying her, but genuinely treating Shanna like shit for NO justifiable reason. She was just so aggressively clueless about the game that it infuriated me to watch her try to act like she had any idea what was going on. The fact that she was the sole vote for Todrick speaks volumes about her game overall.

Monte Taylor (125/142): The ONLY reason Monte even ranks this high for me is because he was so blinded by his own misogyny that he threw away $675,000 in order to save BB24. Monte was not a good character on the season. He was the most standard "athletic dudebro" in the cast, which had been the default winner for the prior several seasons, but he largely didn't DO anything. He got into a big alliance, as is tradition, then rode that out without making any difficult moves until the double eviction, where Taylor had to convince him how stupid it would be to take Michael into the final five. Then he just comped out from that point to guarantee a spot in the final two. I appreciate him taking Taylor, instead of sticking with his dudebro attitude and taking Turner...but that doesn't make up for the general lack of respect shown to Taylor throughout the season. Monte was right there alongside Paloma in turning the house against Taylor...on the basis of Taylor trying to help him out. And then by the endgame, he just treated her like shit, despite her finally giving in and hooking up with him. It was really unpleasant, and I cannot tell you how much I dreaded him being given a default win and facing no real comeuppance for his actions.

Zach Wurtenberger (110/142): Everything I said about Daniel being annoying applies here...but Zach had the decency to be SO pathetic (on an already physically-lacking tribe) that he got booted in episode one. He was trying WAY too hard to be a memorable superfan character, and I hated that. People like Zach were why I was so nervous about the S42 cast in the first place, because it felt SO superfan heavy (compared to the more normal S41 cast). But yeah, he got booted early, so I'm okay with that. And he's fun enough on Twitter, so whatever.

Swifty Sanders (121/142): Darkx, you nailed it with this guy. Swifty talked SUCH a big game in this season about how awesome he was, despite doing very little in terms of actual performance. He was always on the cusp of elimination until there was no fodder left (and holy shit did TaN2 have) a lot of fodder, and he was just grumpy and unpleasant about it. It didn't help that he was buoyed so hard by how much stronger Savage Crew was than Dirty Hands, so he constantly succeeded in spite of himself, rather than because of his actions. Also, he injured his foot very early on, yet still managed to last a long time, and he wasn't even a lovable underdog because of it. Swifty was just lame and not at all fun to watch on a season that had an absolutely AWFUL boot order in terms of keeping likable players in contention.

And finally, just to catch up, there's still one entry ranked below this one, but I have 28 Challenge characters to rank in total, so whatever.

James Wallington (The Challenge: USA, 23rd Place) - I think it says a lot, in a season of television that produced the absolute worst character of my list (and another of the finalists was second worst), that a seemingly-inconsequential episode three boot winds up just barely missing out on my bottom ten overall. Going into the season, this cast isn't the best on-paper. I can't comment on Love Island (so that's 8/28 cast members I had no opinion on), but Sarah, Domenick, Enzo, Angela, Ben, Leo, Tasha, and even David were not characters I needed to see back on my TV screen. They'd all either been severely untelegenic in one season (Angela/Domenick), or actively ruinous to multiple seasons (everyone else). However, James Wallington was one of the players I least wanted to see back, and it was frustrating, because he was one of only THREE Amazing Race players in the entire cast.

In his three episodes on-screen, James was awful each and every time. Episode one, he had a particularly weak showing in the daily challenge, and because he was paired up with a Love Islander, his team was on the chopping block to be sent into the elimination. But fear not, because we got a whole segment about how James is this amazing strategic mastermind, and he convinced Tyson/Angela to target Javonny/Cely instead. Big whoop...there were a fuckton of teams available and you convinced people to target one that would only upset one group (Love Island). But yes, James was the big narrator and big strategist of that first episode, getting the most confessionals (8) in a 28-person cast, despite neither winning the first challenge, nor ending up in elimination.

Episode two, James/Cayla lost the daily challenge outright and were sent into elimination against Tiffany/Cashel. Again, James got to make a big thing about how smart and strategic he was to try and get the Big Brother alliance broken up, by having Tyson turn against Tiffany. And despite the fact that Tiffany is a FUN character and James is a shitlord, James/Cayla won the elimination. It was literally the worst possible outcome at that point, because James was far and away the worst character of those first two episodes, yet he'd managed to survive elimination and take out one of the best characters of those first two episodes instead.

Episode three...wouldn't you know it, James OUTRIGHT LOSES the daily challenge ONCE AGAIN. Hmm. It's almost like, when you don't have an entire cast of players forming a massive alliance and giving you all the answers, you're not a good competitor, James. But yeah, after flopping on the challenge, James is scrambling and keep in mind, there are only three Amazing Racers in the entire cast, and they've been watching each other's backs as is reasonable. James, desperate to save his ass since he's kinda pathetic as a competitor, tries throwing Leo/Justine under the bus for seemingly NO reason. For fuck's sake, Cashay was weak as hell up to that point, and Domenick was so pathetic he was all but ready to go into elimination...why would you throw your ally under the bus for no reason, James? Anyway,James goes into elimination against Cashay/Domenick and LOSES, thankfully sparing us more of him, but at the same time...you couldn't have done this LAST round and kept Tiffany in the game? Ugh, James sucks so bad, but at least he didn't ruin a season by winning, like in TAR32. Nope, only Sarah did that this time around.

It doesn't even surprise me a little bit that James was awful. I wouldn't have Domenick and David in my list of people I wouldn't want to see again though. Domenick was entertaining enough on Ghost Island (granted, mostly by virtue of being one of the only electric players/personalities in an extremely lifeless cast) and David was at least a very nice, funny guy, even if he is a bit of a trainwreck of a BB player (a lot of which isn't his fault... I think he ends up in unwinnable scenarios a lot).

Underleveled posted...

It doesn't even surprise me a little bit that James was awful. I wouldn't have Domenick and David in my list of people I wouldn't want to see again though. Domenick was entertaining enough on Ghost Island (granted, mostly by virtue of being one of the only electric players/personalities in an extremely lifeless cast) and David was at least a very nice, funny guy, even if he is a bit of a trainwreck of a BB player (a lot of which isn't his fault... I think he ends up in unwinnable scenarios a lot).

I don't hate Domenick in Ghost Island (because, as you said, that season is so supremely lifeless), but he's very much in the vein of "over-strategic gamebot". He was absolutely cast to be like a diet Tony...and I just didn't want to see that on another show. As for David, we'd gotten two seasons of him at that point, and I just didn't feel like I needed to see him again. It's not that he's bad...I just don't know if he was ever going to make a big contribution to the show.

Inviso posted...

It's just really hard for me to appreciate those types of players in general, since aside from like, Jacob Derwin, it always feels like superfan flops are given a LOT more leeway in their terrible gameplay than others...so it always annoys me when you have someone like Daniel outlasting Jenny, or surviving to episode 5 because his tribe is just strong.

I don't think I'll ever understand how the two worst players on Vati (Daniel and Chanelle) managed to get in the swing position. They even would've gotten away with it if Chanelle could've kept her hand out of the cookie jar.

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96. David Voce (Survivor 41, 16th place) [18/18]
Survivor 41 finally shows up nearly 20 entries in and its an episode 2 boot, and its because that cast is just so damn good (theres actually still one other season being considered here that hasnt reared its head yet but thats more due to an abnormally high degree of ambivalence to that cast rather than it being good like S41). Voce was cast to be the highly-intelligent Ivy Leaguer of the season and as such the odds of him ever amounting to anything more than a painfully boring gamebot were slim to none. He spent the entire first two episodes just talking strategy in confessionals (I guess its kind of amusing how he constantly talks with his hands, having such an incredibly Italian last name) and making alliances on the beach. He was so blinded by his own strategy that he couldnt see Evvie turning against the men and siding with the women, and due to fear of Xander playing an advantage, the women elected to boot Voce instead, which is just as well since, while Xander was far from perfect, he turned out to be almost certainly much better TV than Voce would have been.

95. An M/M TAR team

Inviso posted...

Sarah, Domenick, Enzo, Angela, Ben, Leo, Tasha, and even David were not characters I needed to see back on my TV screen

Angela turned out to be amazing on The Challenge (and, if I did a ranking here, she'd be in my top 20, possibly top 10 - a shock to me given how I didn't like her much in BB20, which says a lot coming from me), so I'm glad they gave her another shot. I'm with darkx on Domenick and David, though with them it's ambivalence - give them a chance to show they have something more to give (neither of them really did tbh). I also didn't have much of an opinion on Leo due to skipping his seasons of TAR; I just knew he and Jamal were the "Afghanimals" and had a few dozen cats between them, that's it.

Karen is insufferable. Enzo just sucks. Ben had no business being back. Tasha sucks too. But, going in, Will and James were the LAST Amazing Racers I wanted to see, given how they pretty much broke the game and acted all arrogant about it. I only lasted an episode of that nonsense. I really do come and go with TAR....

TAR had an AMAZING stretch from 25-30, with 25, 27, 29 and 30 all being tippy-top tier seasons, and 26 being surprisingly not awful (I won't deny 28 sucks). Since then, 31 was a disappointment, 32 was horrendous, 33 was a bit boring and predictable (though I put a lot of the blame on the break) and 34 seems very mid-tier so far.

I'm a lot higher on 31 than you, but that's probably because I really enjoyed Colin & Christie's redemption story.

As for my guess, I'd be shocked if this isn't Ryan & Dusty. I'm actually surprised they haven't shown up already.

BlueCrystalTear posted...

Angela turned out to be amazing on The Challenge (and, if I did a ranking here, she'd be in my top 20, possibly top 10 - a shock to me given how I didn't like her much in BB20, which says a lot coming from me), so I'm glad they gave her another shot. I'm with darkx on Domenick and David, though with them it's ambivalence - give them a chance to show they have something more to give (neither of them really did tbh). I also didn't have much of an opinion on Leo due to skipping his seasons of TAR; I just knew he and Jamal were the "Afghanimals" and had a few dozen cats between them, that's it.

Karen is insufferable. Enzo just sucks. Ben had no business being back. Tasha sucks too. But, going in, Will and James were the LAST Amazing Racers I wanted to see, given how they pretty much broke the game and acted all arrogant about it. I only lasted an episode of that nonsense. I really do come and go with TAR....

Yeah, Angela was the only real positive surprise for me. The Challenge seems much more designed for someone like her than Big Brother.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/8/3/3/AAaSYmAADw7R.jpg
95. Ryan & Dusty (The Amazing Race 33, 3rd place) [10/11]
TAR33 was absolutely killed by the break. From the very start there seemed to be a pretty significant rift between which teams were stronger and weaker, but once we saw who was back from the break and who wasnt, the final three teams were pretty much locked barring a catastrophic leg by one of them. And Ryan & Dusty almost managed to pull that off. They (along with Anthony & Spencer who didnt return post-break) were obviously intended to be the very strong type of M/M team that constantly places high and is one of the favorites to win, but end up being rather boring in terms of entertainment value. The funny thing is, they didnt even do all that well. On paper they have a fairly high average leg placement, but its very deceptive since the race was whittled down to 7 teams much earlier than it normally would be, and because the four weakest and most incompetent teams of the season all came back from the COVID break. Prior to the break, and for the first two legs post-break, Ryan & Dusty dominated with 1st and 2nd place finishes, but then fell into 3rd place and never did better than that for the rest of the race and the ONLY reason they didnt do even worse was because the other teams aside from Kim & Penn and Raquel & Cayla were just that bad. These guys were CONSTANTLY fucking up either going to wrong locations, doing tasks incorrectly, or picking the worse side of the Detour. And they were so nonchalant about it because they knew that they were still among the stronger teams in the race despite these blunders. They even came in last on a non-elimination leg, which was incidentally the only episode in the back half of the season where I had positive feelings towards them because Dustys inner monologue while struggling with the rock hunting Roadblock really humanized a team that desperately needed some character development beyond Ryans I was in jail for 10 years for something I didnt do. They ended up not even being remotely in it in the final leg and while this could be largely attributed to the staggered departure times throughout the race, a much better team probably could have made up that time once or twice.

94. One of the four guys labeled a "meathead" by Frenchie

I'm surprised you didn't mention Dusty being the personification of this meme for the second half of the season:
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/8/4/1/AADEHdAADw7Z.jpg

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94. Travis Long (Big Brother 23, 16th place) [14/16]
I feel like Travis was probably cast to be the salesman-type of the season, since Christian was almost certainly the one cast to be the Tyler-type (known on Survivor as the Freelancer), yet it seems like Travis thought he was the new Tyler. He kinda just brod around the house thinking he was going to be some comp beast, being vaguely misogynistic, and just having this air to him like he thought he was better than everyone else. I think the one time I got a little bit of a chuckle out of him was when he gave Kyland a striptease for his birthday, because it was kind of amusing to see that happen as an obvious joke between two heterosexual men, but otherwise every single moment he was on screen I was just kind of low-key hoping hed be the first boot. And in fact, he ended up being the victim of the most insane first week of BB Ive ever seen, and nothing of value to the season was lost.

93. Was on an orange tribe/team

Just for future reference, do you count TAR for these color teams, since they make all of the teams wear a certain color?

If a clue refers to a single person but describes at least one member of a TAR team, they are fair game in my mind. Take that as you will.

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93. Sarah Burkett (Tough as Nails 2, 3rd place) [9/12]
Sarah was the first female to make the finals of Tough as Nails (Season 1 had an all-male final three) and honestly that actually HURTS her on this ranking due to a very degrading comment she made earlier in the season. When Savage Crew was on a losing streak she hotly told Dirty Hands that they were winning because they had 3 men and 2 women to her teams 3 women and 2 men (as Mikey from Savage Crew had been ejected and Tara from Dirty Hands had been medevaced). Aside from being outright untrue (as Savage Crew was in fact the stronger team and losing because of Scotts piss-tier leadership and teamwork skills), it was more or less a declaration BY A WOMAN that, in a show that is almost 100% based on physical challenges, women were inferior and implied that they essentially had no chance against the men. It did NOT go unnoticed by the other women and when Knuckles called her out on it she at least seemed apologetic but it still felt kinda icky to have her rewarded for that comment by being the first woman ever to make it to the finals. Aside from that, Sarah was just kind of a grouchy person in general - she wasnt mean or anything but she had this perpetual scowl and an aura of grumpiness about her, making her not very fun to watch in general.

92. Was the oldest person on their season

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92. Terrance Higgins (Big Brother 24, 7th place) [10/16]
Were still in the doldrums of this list and almost halfway through the BB24 cast, and if that doesnt tell you how bad that cast was, then Terrance ranking 10th from it ought to. I really dont have much good to say about him. I found his camera whoring to be more awkward than anything (I guess I can say that there were far worse camera whores on that season), and, like Monte, he treated Taylor poorly early on and brought race into it. He constantly tanked his own game by aligning himself with the most troubling contestants, first Nicole and Daniel, then Kyle, and then complained that he kept going up on the block. I can KINDA forgive his disastrous HoH because of the odd circumstances surrounding that week but it still wasnt a good look on him to side with Kyle there in the end. Then after Kyles racial remarks were made public to the house, Terrance actually still fought to keep Kyle. I actually saw someone on social media say in response to this, What if I told you I hate Terrance more than Kyle? and honestly I wouldnt blame them too much. I dont really blame Terrance for walking out without saying goodbye the way he did at his eviction because nobody left in the house at the time, other than maybe Alyssa, was really all that close with him or respected him as a player, but at the same time he never gave them much reason to. The biggest thing keeping him afloat is that he wasnt an outright vile person like so many people on BB24 were, so he looks KINDA better in comparison to, say, Daniel.

91. Either their first or last name begins with the letter T, but not both

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91. Todd Bridges (Celebrity Big Brother 3, 4th place) [8/11]
Todd checks a lot of the boxes that the last several eliminations to this list have checked. Loafed around and did nothing for the first half of the season? Check. Unearned cockiness? Check (mostly in the form of celebrating every time he so much as earned a point in a challenge). Needlessly argumentative with others? Check (Im referring primarily to getting into it with Cynthia back when Cynthia was rootable). Helped pave the way for an obvious and awful final two? Check. There are a few things keeping Todd aloat here. First, he DID legitimately become a challenge threat late in the season, so his cockiness wasnt quite as bad as, say, Swiftys, but it was too little too late. Second, even though I thought he was too confrontational with Cynthia early on, at least it led to him properly calling her out for not having Shannas back, so theres that. And third, he was VERY vocal about changing his mind on Todrick (and consequently his jury vote) having seen the edit. These were all very late game improvements for a character that was not great for most of the season though.

90. A Tough as Nails woman

Underleveled posted...

Were still in the doldrums of this list and almost halfway through the BB24 cast, and if that doesnt tell you how bad that cast was, then Terrance ranking 10th from it ought to.

Didn't BB24 have a great cast? It had people to root for (Taylor, Joseph), people to despise (Daniel, Nicole, later Michael), people who frustrated you (Terrance), people who were interesting... from everything I read, it reminded me of BB15. There were a bunch of assholes giving each other comeuppances. And then someone who's not an asshole won. Though Andy Herren is a weasel, sure, but I don't think he's a mean-spirited person like many of his castmates. Taylor is a much, MUCH more satisfying winner.

BB24 has the kind of cast I like to see. Drama, betrayal, power moves, people to love to hate, interesting personalities... I really should watch through it but I don't have time.

BB24 is a weird season that had a good story but a bad cast.

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90. Tara Alverson (Tough as Nails 2, 12th place) [8/12]
Its not easy to rank somebody who was only in two episodes and had very little impact within those two episodes. Something seemed a little off about Tara from the beginning. She kinda reminded me (right down to her appearance) of a coworker who is extremely awkward, but in an off-putting way, not like in a charming Christian Hubicki way. She seemed to act a lot tougher than she really is despite being pretty clearly one of the weakest members of the cast from the get-go, then went into overtime with Swifty and despite Swifty struggling and acting like a wimp over untying knots, Tara managed to injure herself in that challenge and kind of threw a fit about it, allowing Swifty to win by default while Tara ended up being medevaced. I found her presence to be somewhat annoying and she ended up adding nothing of value to the season since she couldnt even participate in the team challenge.

89. From the Yase tribe

Given your tastes, I'm going to guess Xander, but it really should be Liana for how unpleasant she was post-merge.

Could also be first boot Abraham.

Oh good it hasn't purged

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89. Eric Abraham (Survivor 41, 18th place) [17/18]
Sorry for the delay. Was a little busy and also I'm at that sloggish part of the list where I don't have a lot to say on most of these people so it was tough to work up the motivation to get back into it. Most Survivor first boots are either what the fuck ever or characters who could have been decent had they lasted, or at the very least were great flameouts. But every now and then you have someone like Abraham who I was both satisfied to see go first but not so much so that it made me appreciate his story. He was just kind of a mildly sexist jerk throughout the first episode, targeting Tiffany for being the weakest woman, and pressing this point so hard that he couldnt even imagine himself being the one voted out. Even in post-game interviews he said that he was totally blindsided because he thought he was too valuable to be the first one voted out, despite Tiffany boldly campaigning against him at tribal council. So he got voted out first and wasnt missed among the excellent cast that was Survivor 41.

88. Has a southern accent

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88. Jackson Fox (Survivor 42, 18th place) [15/18]
Im torn on what to do with Jackson, similar to how I was torn on Paloma. On one hand, he didnt last very long (and by that I mean barely half an episode), so its tough to judge exactly how his story could have turned out. On the other hand, for that half an episode he seemed like a very nice guy and I appreciated how open he was about his story. Heck, he even shared pre-transition photos of himself which was fascinating to me because I thought that was generally considered taboo among trans people (not meaning to sound insensitive or ignorant here, that has just been my perception based on trans people Ive known and known of). On the other other hand, Ill admit that it DOES seem sketchy that he didnt disclose his being in withdrawal until after the alternates were sent home, which he almost certainly knew increased his chances of not being sent home before the game even started. On the other other other hand, I also still partially blame production because if it were up to me I would have just said no, sorry, you didnt disclose this information to us when we first asked for it, wed be happy to have you back in the future but we cant do it today and found a way to make the season work with 17 people. I want to like him but the weirdness of the situation leaves too much in the air for me to not put him in the mixed/neutral range.

87. Competed in exactly two episodes

Yeah, Abraham was a pretty whatever first boot despite his arrogance reigning over the tribe. The "shut up, I'm in charge here" alpha male jerk had been done much better in the past.

Jackson really was sketchy with the whole lithium thing. Deliberately withholding that information until the alternates left was a dick move, even for someone who seems like such a nice guy.

Guessing Jackson's tribemate Morya next, because she was pretty forgettable in her two episodes. I don't know who else it could be but I haven't watched Tough As Nails yet.

It could also be Michael & Moe, but this is way too early for them.

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87. Michael & Moe (The Amazing Race 33, 7th place) [9/11]
I can absolutely see what casting was going for with these two, which is exactly what makes it all the more frustrating that they turned out to be one of TARs biggest duds in recent memory. The cops went viral on the internet for their singing videos, which potentially made them a really fun team, yet this fun didnt come out in their only two episodes. They were barely shown in the premiere and were eliminated with very little drama, then when the race resumed post-COVID, the two eliminated teams re-entered the race to fill in the gaps caused by the four teams that had to drop out. While Arun & Natalia certainly made something out of their second chance (and had been far more entertaining pre-COVID anyway), Michael & Moe were AGAIN eliminated after just one leg with very little entertainment provided. I do partially blame production here; I think that the first leg back should have been an NEL to let everyone, especially the two returning teams, get their footing back, but that doesnt change the fact that Michael & Moe were not entertaining at all when by all rights they probably should have been.

86. Was blindsided