Survivor: Nicaragua Finale

Spoilers ahead

I’m in the process of watching the finale right now and writing this right after the tribal council where Holly got voted off. I really have to hand it to Fabio, he really poured it on in the last three challenges. That really surprised the alliance of Sash, Holly and Chase.

I’m a little surprised that they didn’t get rid of Sash instead of Holly. One thing is sure, though… Fabio really saw through everything Sash was saying.

Sash certainly played the hardest during the whole game.

Chase flipped flopped like crazy the whole game. I’m sure he won’t have Jane’s vote. She’s as mad (or madder) that anyone that’s ever been voted off.

There were a lot of smile when people saw that necklace around Fabio’s neck. He has Dan’s vote. Probably Jane’s too. Not sure about everyone else.

Now watching the final tribal council.

Chase stated the obvioius.

Fabio showed his easy going side.

Sash probably stated his case the best, saying that friendships were made, alliances were made to be broken.

What a crazy bunch of questions.

Brenda didn’t ask Fabio any question;, Marty had it in for Chase; Holly asked some good questions (and I think there were some honest answers); Jane had nothing to spew but bile at Sash and really didn’t have a question to Fabio; Benry had a good question to Sash and Sash answered as honestly as he could; Dan had it in for Sash too – “spineless”, he had it in for Chase too – he was very animated, no question for Fabio either; Purple Kelly gave 60 seconds to Sash how he outwitted and outplayed – sure sounded like she was going to vote for Sash; Nayanka asked Fabio a GREAT question about his mom… very surprised to her such a great question from her… I really give her a lot of credit for that one; Alina just straight out insulted Fabio by calling him a boy, and gave Sash an opportunity to slam the other two…. Chase basically said that he had to survive, and slammed Fabio too.

I’d say odds were pretty good that Sash will take it, but I think Fabio will be close in votes. I hope Fabio wins. I don’t think Chase will get it at all.

Commercial – Stunning announcement…. What is it? Is Jeff quitting? Hey, and they’re going to have a “reunion race” on Amazing Race. That should be good.

Update: Ok all caught up to the DVR.

Fabio probably has Nayanka, Benry, Jane and Dan. Whoa! Marty voted for Fabio!

Alina voted for Chase.

Another vote for Fabio – and it’s Dan

Update: Brenda voted for Chase! Kinda surprised about that.

Jeff’s grabbing the votes.

Update: Jeff walks out with the votes into the jungle ….and we get cleaned up versions of Chase, Sash and Fabio. Jeff walks out of the fake jungle on the CBS set.

Update:

Final votes

Chase: 4
Sash: 0
Fabio: 4

Wow! One vote left!

Update: FABIO WINS! YEAH!!!!!!!!!! I’m really happy about this. That’s completely awesome. I’d love to see how the final tally went. Kinda surprised that Sash didn’t even get one vote. Youngest winner ever.

Survivor – Samoa

Well, add The 19th season of Survivor started again, and this time the castaways are in Samoa. Right off the bat we can add Russell to the list of folks that people are going to love to hate.

Not only did he make a record four different Alliances on the very first show, but at the first sign of trouble, he was able to get rid of Marisa. She of course made the fatal Survivor mistake of telling Russell she was suspicious of him. That’s like painting a huge target on your back, as Marisa found out.

From what we saw on last night’s show, I think Russell is doing too much too quickly. First, making four alliances is a dumb move. It won’t take Betsy much longer to put two and two together about what’s happening at camp. Second, I have *NO* idea what Russell was thinking when he dumped out all the water. All that did was make his tribe weaker, and doing so quite possibly ended up getting them sent to Tribal Council. It’s kind of hard at this early stage in the game whether that was a contributing factor or not…but it sure couldn’t have helped.

How long is Russell going to last if he keeps this up? My guess is not much longer. He might be strong (and in that challenge, he looked VERY strong), but if he keeps up his current pace in messing with his tribe, they’re going to catch on to him fast. Especially if they realize what Marisa was talking about.

Bob Is the Winner of Survivor Gabon


Who won Survivor Gabon? Bob!

Bob Crowley not only won Survivor Gabon, and $1,000,000 but he ALSO won the favorite player of the game, which was worth another $100,000.

I have to say, I was amazed that Bob won. I was hoping he’d win, but I was still amazed that he was able to get to the final three, especially after losing the final immunity challenge. I thought for sure he was going home.

As for the final tribal council, that held a lot of surprises. Susie made a very strong case for herself (she did end up getting three votes, after all), and people were particularly vicious to Sugar. A lot of them were even mad at Bob, which a surprise to me. They shoot a lot of footage on Survivor, so maybe more was going on then they showed because some of the comments to Bob were a little surprising.

This, and the last Survivor shows were really entertaining. Let’s hope they can keep it up when they head to Brazil next season.

Survivor: I Promise…

Spoilers Ahead
A couple of rules of Survivor –


  1. If you go on a reward, don’t talk about the reward

  2. Never Trust a Deal Made During a Challenge

  3. Don’t Purposely Tick Off Your tribe mates

  4. Never Get Comfortable



All four of these rules were broken on tonight’s Survivor.

Ozzy talking about how great the challenge reward was didn’t win him any friends. I’m not sure if that helped end up leading to his downfall, but it couldn’t have helped.

What was Jason thinking? Getting a “guarantee” from your opponents during a challenge is no guarantee of any kind. Yau-Man can tell you that in great detail.

James making a lot of noise in the morning before an immunity challenge wasn’t smart to do either. Things like that add up.

Ozzy got comfortable, and didn’t work hard enough to make sure that he really was safe. That’s why he ended up getting voted up, much to his surprise, and to the surprise of his supporters. I think it’s one of the biggest blindsides Survivor has seen.

I have to say, Cirie is playing an excellent game. She’s engineered at getting at least three people getting voted off, and without people really stopping to realize she’s the one behind it. Parvati will probably take the biggest hit for Ozzie’s departure.

Should be interesting to see what happens next.

What did you think of tonight’s show?

The Year in Television 2007

The Year in Television 2007

It’s 2008! You know what that means, lots and lots of lists about various things that happened in 2007. You can add this one to the list of those lists.

January

The very popular show“24” started up again. What would Jack do this time? Who would he go after? Well it turned out that Jack did what he does best, which is shoot people, and it pretty much didn’t matter who it was. What else did we find out? We found out that Jack Bauer’s tears cause nuclear weapons to go off, and that after seeing that at the very beginning of the season, the show pretty much went down hill from there. I mean, how do you top that? Let’s hope 2008 is a better year for Jack.

February

With football season at an end, and the Superbowl right around the corner, most of the country found out that teams that didn’t come from either coast of the United States were about to be locked in battle. I speak of course, of “Survivor”. This go ‘round, they are in Fiji. In this all new “Survivor”, they sat around and complained about each other, ate really nasty things, and voted each other off the island, which was completely different every other “Survivor”.

America was further astonished to find out about two teams that are just over 200 miles away from each other, in mysterious places called “Illinois” and “Indiana”, and which reside someplace called the “Midwest”. Americans are even more surprised that these places have football, and that, somehow, they are both going to the Superbowl.

After getting over this whole “Midwest” thing, organizers logically held the Superbowl in Miami, Florida. Miami is basically very much like New York, except New York cab drivers are scared to drive there. Many, many people came to the Superbowl, and advertisers spent millions of dollars on ads. There was also a football game. The Indianapolis Colts won.

March

In March, a show about a bunch of people who have done terrible things and lie about it came on television. It looked like it was going to be a hit, until everyone realized it was just the presidential candidates starting up earlier than ever before.

Someone in Hollywood must have had the inside scoop on this, since they were able to create a show based around a similar set of circumstances, where people pretend to be someone else: “The Riches”. The show starred that great comedian Eddie Izzard, who creates great dramatic performances while still making things funny at times, all while not wearing a dress.


April

In April, shows that started in the Fall of 2006 were already starting to end. The shows “30 Rock” and “Studio 60” both started in the fall were each about late night comedy shows except that one was actually good, and lived through the entire season.

“The Sopranos” returned in April, and people were very anxious to see how, in just a couple of short months, Tony Soprano’s fate would be resolved in a nice uncomplicated and unambiguous way.

May

The season finale of “Lost” came in May, and as usual, everything that happened in the show was completely crystal clear. That is, if you wash your crystal with butter. After audiences had gotten used to seeing a lot of flashbacks, this time the writers turned things around and did a flash-forward. I look forward to the next season of Lost when they start doing flash-sideways.

A show called “On the Lot” debuted. It aimed to find the next Steven Spielberg, and it turns out that people were pretty much satisfied with the Steven Spielberg they already had and didn’t watch the show.

A nation was shocked to find out that Rosie O’Donnell was leaving “The View”. A nation asked, “That show is still on?”


June

People were very upset when “Jericho” was cancelled, and they decided to send CBS a message. After thousands of pounds of nuts were sent into CBS headquarters, the network said that they understood, and were going to take immediate action: They announced that Dan Rather was coming back. This announcement was short-lived when CBS realized that what people really wanted was Jericho back. CBS agreed, and later in the year said that it would be back in 2008. Dan Rather lobbied to be on “Jericho” as a newscaster, but executives thought it would be completely implausible.

“The Sopranos” ended, and someone thought it would be a good idea to end the show by abruptly going to black. Most of The Sopranos audience thought it would be a good idea to go see the writers of the last episode and abruptly make them black and blue.

Take a group of people, have them dress up funny, do strange tasks and pay the winner million dollars at the end. “Survivor”? No, unfortunately, it was “Pirate Master”, and it made its debut in June. To say this show stunk like Limburger cheese would be just mean and nasty to Limburger cheese.

July

CBS, hoping to appease the steaming, frothing mouths of “Jericho” fans, started rerunning the show in hopes it will buy the network some time until new shows can be produced.

Final episodes of the show “Drive” started to air. The show tried to be mysterious as “Lost”, except without the island, weird smoke monster, and the excitement.

August

“High School Musical 2” debuted, and thousands of teenagers fainted in all the excitement. Parents everywhere were bewildered how a musical could do that to today’s youth.

Bob Barker said goodbye to “Price is Right” after approximately one million years of hosting the show. He will be missed.

September

Millions of “Lost” fans started searching their dials for where “Lost” was. That answer: January 2008. The writers for the show struck a deal in which they could run all the shows back to back, without doing any reruns. Everyone seemed to be satisfied by this, and the only thing that could through a wrench in those plans would be a writer’s strike, which seemed HIGHLY unlikely.

A nation watched as Whoopi Goldberg joined “The View”. A nation asked, “I really wasn’t kidding last time, the show isn’t really still on is it?” A nation would be disappointed by the answer.

“Moonlight” premiered. This was a show about a brooding vampire that helps people instead of sucking their blood. This show was much better the first time around when it was called “Angel” and had different actors and characters.

Heroes season 2 debuted, but started somewhere in the middle of the story which confused the living heck out of people. Most of the new characters are interesting and include live versions of the Wonder Twins from the old Justice League cartoon. Instead of having the ability to morph into different objects, when their Wonder Twin powers give the brother the ability to make his sister stop crying, which is a good thing since her tears are black and kill people. Another new character seemed to have a mysterious stalking ability which he used on the cheerleader, Claire, but it was later revealed that was wrong. He could fly AND stalk her.

“Chuck” debuted. This show was about a clerk at a big box store that had all of the national intelligence secrets downloaded into his brain, leaving him a complete moron. Well, that’s want would happen if that were really true. What happened on the show was he, naturally, becomes a spy and helps the real spies thwart bad people from doing bad things, all while retaining his original job.

“The Office” debuted, and we finally found out that Jim and Pam were dating. Not in the open, (at least at first), but dating none the less.


October

Everyone was waiting for a new program people will be talking about all week after each show. That program was: “Cavemen”. The things people were saying were, “Urgh, Wurf, and Blech”. Those aren’t cavemen words either. Fortunately, by now most of those people have finished having their stomachs pumped, and are now able to watch regular programs again. They have, however, been asked to step away from any shows with the words “cave” or “men” in them.

“Big Bang Theory” was another new show, this one about a group of nerdy types that hang out with a girl that lives across the hall. The entire basis of this program was to show that making jokes about topics in nuclear physics, Greek philosophers, and chemistry was a completely untapped resource… and for a good reason. It was hard to tell which was more implausible, that people with high IQs could be so social unaware, or that the socially aware could have such low IQs.

“The Next Great American Band” was a show in search of the next great American band. There are many talented people on the show, just chomping at the bit for an opportunity to be taken to the cleaners by the record industry.

Drew Carey started on “Price is Right”, taking over from Bob Barker. Drew was on a lot of game shows this year, including the “The Power of 10”, “Whose Line is it Anyway”, and the newly announced, “The Power Price is 10 Right Lines Anyway”.

November

The Writer’s Strike started. The writers were trying to get a little more money for each DVD sold, and, horror of horrors, they want to get paid for programs that others were making millions from. With everyone in Hollywood making money on shows, it is hard to believe that the writers are usually the low people on the totem pole. Even the sewer cleaners in Hollywood advised the writers, “You really need to get a better contract”.

Having no new shows struck fear into the hearts of the Hollywood moguls, and they’ve already taken steps to deal with the strike. Most had already switched from lighting cigars with $100 bills to $20 bills.

What this meant was shows that should have been off the air sooner than they were (like “Cavemen”) stayed on longer than they should have.

December

Many TV shows came out on DVD in time for the Christmas season, and even TV shows that were made into movies and then put on to DVD, to later be put back onto TV after DVD sales die out. This includes “The Simpsons” Movie, which asks the question: What does a spiderpig do?

David Letterman made an end run around CBS which doesn’t actually own “Late Night with David Letterman”, and struck a deal with his writers to come back to work. The other late night shows are going to try and do this without writers, and we’ll just have to see how that’s going to turn out when they debut in 2008.

With Thanksgiving and Christmas over, and a lot of football still to play, most of the programs that have already gone into re-runs because of the writer’s strike have gone unnoticed, and probably will do so until the beginning of 2008 when people start to realize what a real horror this could all be. There is going to be a lot more reality programming headed our way, so be careful not to step in it.

The Winner of Survivor China is Todd

Todd Wins Survivor
The winner of Survivor: China is Todd Herzog

The memorable events in this season were this was the first time someone pulled out something they thought was an immunity idol but wasn’t, the first time someone ended up with TWO immunity idols and still got voted off. Having said that, it definitely wasn’t the most memorable Survivor.

Before tribal council, I thought that Amanda went in with a good chance to win because Courtney and Todd ticked so many people off.

During tribal council, it came out that it was Amanda’s idea to get rid of James, which I think was a surprise to him. I think James would have liked to have found that out before he had a chance to ask question (he was first, so he didn’t get to ask anything afterwards).

Jaime, Denise and Peih-Gee were especially upset at the final three.

I think it would have been better for them to ask the questions in the order they were voted off.

Anyway, afterwards it looked to me that Todd would probably win. From the way people reacted, Denise addressed Courtney, it sure seemed like Denise would vote for her. I didn’t think Jean-Robert would vote for Todd, and I don’t think James would vote for Amanda.

They revealed a few of the votes beforehand:

Jaime voted for Todd.
Erik voted for Amanda.
Denise voted for Courtney.
Jean-Robert told the camera “You just stole a million dollars. Well played.”

They switched to Jeff live:

The Votes Went:
Courtney
Amanda
Todd
Courtney
Todd
Todd
Todd

Todd wins. It almost ended in a tie… what if it had ended in a tie? Anyone know what they would have done in that case?

During the reunion interview Jeff asked Jean-Robert about the vote he made for Todd (!), and Jean-Robert said that his mind was changed because it was the best move to vote him out. The Jeff asked Todd, and Todd admitted that he did play on Jean-Robert’s ego.

Various things that came out during the final interview:

Jeff asked James about “the biggest blunder in the history of this game” asking why he didn’t use the idol, and James said that he made the mistake of trusting his alliance.

Courtney started the game at 93 pounds and ended at 86 pounds.

James said that he’s had a lot of people that came up to him telling him that they liked him on the show. The craziest thing that’s happened afterwards and that after a funeral a couple of ladies were excited that they were able to meet him.

Denise’s return was a lot different. They didn’t rehire her after the show was over, saying that she would be too much of a distraction for the kids. She now has a job as a janitor at the school, but she has to work the night shift. She asked that if anyone had a lunch lady job, she’d like to hear from.

I have to say I think it’s pretty crappy that the people at Denise’s school treated her this way. I think that’s pretty petty.

Jaime and Erik are dating.

Chicken said, “If I didn’t win the money, I wanted to go first”.

The Sprint $100,000 prize went to the most popular survivor: James. The other two most popular people were Peih-Gee and Denise.

And talk about a live show: Mark Burnett, creator of Survivor, after listening what happened to Denise, told Jeff during a commercial break to tell Denise that he’s going to give her $50,000!

The next survivor starts in February: Survivor Micronesia: Fans vs. Favorites They’re taking fans of the show and pitting them against survivors of seasons past. One of those survivors will be someone from this season.

Survivor items will be up for auction at http://www.pedaids.org/.

What did you think? Did the right person win?