Survivor In Canada?????

Mark Burnett recently made some comments in passing when it was asked of him whether Survivor would ever go to a cold location in the future. As a frequent visitor to Canada, Burnett directly stated that he would love to someday stage a series of Survivor there. This of course would deny the audience from seeing buff, hot, sexy bodies romping on the beach for 39 days which no doubt contributes to the high ratings the show has always enjoyed. CBS owns the right to the show and have final say on locations so don't expect Burnett's wish to come true.

My View: I think it would be a TERRIBLE idea for Survivor to go to a cold location. I will make no apologies for enjoying seeing the Amanda Kimmels or Danielle DiLorenzo's strolling around in skimpy bathing suits and there is nothing sexy about seeing a chick in ear muffs and a ski jacket. The show would lose the audience quick with this. I hope we never see it and I honestly would be shocked to see CBS agree to doing it.

What do you think? Would like to see a Survivor in a cold climate? Or is it a dumb idea?

Coach Voted Most Annoying Reality Show Personality

WFMZ-TV conducted a poll recently asking responders "Who is the most annoying reality show contestant of all time?" And Survivor's own Coach Ben Wade took the top honor when the results were posted on their web site last night. Rounding out the top five were:

2. Rob Campos: For Love Or Money
3. Spencer Pratt and Heidi Montag-The Hills
4. Barbara Gates-Trading Spouses
5. Carnie Wilson: Carnie Unstapled

Now I know nothing about Rob Campos, Barbara Gates, and Carnie Wilson (other than that she was in that three person female band years ago). I do however feel that Spencer Pratt and Heidi Montag deserve the top spot and I am basing this on only approximately 2.5 minutes I caught of the Hills recently when the two of them were arguing with a think Heidi's sister about something only people on that show could argue about. Those two are truly nauseating and are a complete joke to television.

I actually dont think Coach deserves this honor. I suggest those who dislike him or call him a nut job to watch the recently released videos posted on the CBS Survivor web site covering the ousted contestants from Heroes VS Villains at Ponderosa (which is the resort the jury members are taken to when they are voted out). Coach was incredibly entertaining and down to earth in these videos and on more than one occasions Courtney, Rupert, Amanda, etc. note how cool Coach is and that he is not what he is made out to be on TV. Sure Coach can get a little loopy during the game itself but everyone reacts to the harsh conditions in different ways. Overall I think he is a good guy who is painted in a harsh light.

What do you all think? Did Coach deserve the top spot or did somebody else? And who are the other contestants that I have no clue who they are? What is their story?

Jeff Probst On "Lost"

Funny stuff on the Jimmy Kimmel show last night as he devoted one hour to the season finale of Lost which ended its run after six great years. In order to add hype to the show, Kimmel stated how there would be three alternate endings to how Lost ended. Kimmel being Kimmel, the three alternate endings were parodies based on other famous television shows with one of them being Survivor.

The scene began with the main characters of Lost sitting around a fire discussing things that took place on the island recently. At that moment Jeff Probst walks in and goes up to Sayid (to those who dont watch Lost, Sayid is the former Iraqi military office) and says "Sayid the tribe has spoken. It's time for you to go." After a look of disbelief Sayid is shown during his "Final Words" scene lamenting how he just got kicked off the show because of Jeff *&(^%* Probst. Good stuff all around and you can see that Probst has some good acting skills for stints such as these.

Did anyone else catch this? What did you think?

James Clement To Appear On Young & The Restless

Survivor veteran James Clement will make his acting debut on the June 4 episode of the Young and The Restless soap opera. James will play a police office and appear in a scene with actors Greg Rikaart, Peter Bergman, Eric Braeden, and Joshua Morrow. Its not known whether or not he has a speaking part in the scene but I would think he does since why would they bring him on if they werent going to use him and generate the publicity he will bring.

My Take: I got to say out of all the contestants on H VS V I would have guessed that James would be the last person to appear acting in a television show. However soap operas are littered with terrible actors and actresses whose only assets are their looks so I can see he got this gig.

BREAKING NEWS: SURVIVOR TO MOVE TO WEDNESDAY AT 8 THIS FALL

CBS released their fall TV schedule today and Survivor has been moved up a day from Thursday at 8 to now Wednesdat at the same time. The move was made to free up the time slot for the Big Bang Theory. CBS is trying to turn Thursday night int a comedy night and thus the switch.

My take: I dont like this move at all and I think it could have negative consequences for the show. Thursday night is the biggest night of the TV week as the highest ratings have historically been on this night. This undoubtedly have helped Survivor garner strong ratings and kept it up there for 10 years. A shift to the less watched Wednesday night will no doubt hurt the bottom line numbers. And history has shown that moving a show from a longtime slot to a new time period disrupts viewers out of their habits and causes a ratings fall. As an over 10 tear entity, any drop in ratings for Survivor could spell trouble for its life on TV. A good example of this was with the ABC hit LOST which lost (pardon the pun) a nice chunk of their audience when it moved from a Wedneday night to a Tuesday night. Let's hope the same thing doesn't happen here.

What do you all think? It is a bad move to move Survivor to Wednesday night? Or does it not make any difference?

BREAKING NEWS: DID PARVATI KNOW ABOUT RUSSELL BEFORE SEASON??????

So things got a little interesting today as it appears somne disharmony is it at hand between the cast of Heroes VS Villains based on accusations that Parvati got some inside information about Russell's season before H VS V began. Surgar was the most outspoken on this as she out and out accused Parvati of knowing all about Russell's game play and the havoc he casued in S19. It has been strongly rumored that Parvati was in Samoa when the previous season aired and she was supposedly shown video footage of his maneuverings in ths game. Of course Parvati denied it:

“That’s ridiculous. She would do anything to keep her name in the news. She was the first person voted off and she wants to extend her 15 minutes or get her picture taken or something. No. That’s the most ridiculous thing I ever heard. I don’t even go to any of the Survivor events. I’m never involved in Survivor unless I’m playing the game or at the finale. So honestly, it’s just a ludicrous claim that anyone could even say that."

Whats also interesting about this was during separate exit inteviws of both Candice and Danielle, they both were asked about this rumor and both immediately responded with a "No comment." Covering up something??????

As far as Russell's take on the issue, "I didn’t even know Parvati. I’d seen her on TV. That’s all I knew about her. And in 10 days I was back on the island. I didn’t have time to take a crap! (laughing) I didn’t know Parvati. I heard that myself. That’s bull crap,” Russell said. (By the way, he also addresses his final episode comment that suggested he knew he didn’t win the game: “When you’re sitting there at Tribal, you read people. You know what’s going on. If you’re pretty good at reading people — which I am — I knew it.”)

Of course we will never know the truth about it. The producers will never admit to anything untoward such as this. My take is that I dont put anything past the producers to do something like this. If it did indeed happen, than that once again supports my theory that the producers have a strong influence on the outcome of the show. It is a plausible theory since Russell has proven to be a ratings hit and you can see a situation develop where he is "helped" in the game in order to maximize the amount of episodes he appears in. Parvati is a very strong player and would be the perfect person to hand pick for an alliance for him. Just goes to show you that anything is possible with this and thats too bad because it would be totally unfair for the other players who didnt get the head start.

What do all think??? Do you believe this accusation? Or is this just sour grapes by the others??? Write me a response.

Survivor Finale A Huge Nielsen Ratings Hit

CBS won big on Sunday night as 13.3 million viewers tuned in to watch Sandra Diaz-Twine take home her second million dollar prize on the finale of Survivor Heroes VS Villains. The rating spiked from 9:30-10:30 when Sandra was revelaed the winner.

My View: Numbers like these are always a great thing for Survivor fans in that ratings will always determine whether a show lives to see another season. Amazingly Survivor is still going strong and that bodes well as we head into the second decade of the show being on the airwaves. Great season for sure. There will be a ratings drop no doubt this upcoming season in Nicaragua due to the raw cast and absence of former players. Let's just hope its not too steep because than that could be trouble.

Heroes VS Villains Totally Got Spoiled

As I have stated too many times to count, this is a spoiler free site and I never have went out looking for them before or during a season. Why spoil the fun???? And I certainly have the means to get them and always have but I never was interested in spoiling the suspense, especially a season like the one we just completed. Many other however just cant wait and in an unprecedented level of spoiling, the entire boot list of Heroes VS Villains was released to the public online sometime last summer, a full six months before the season began. And the kicker was that the list was 100 percent accurate all the way through the winner which has never happened before to this level in Survivor history. Sure there have always been accurate leaks but never to this degree.

So the questions that I have in all this is not why would anyone want to spoil it for themselves: thats totally up to you and if you want to ruin it for yourself than thats your choice. I am wondering A: How does such a huge leak like this get out? and B. What can be done going forward to prevent this from happening again?

Strong rumors have hinted that Russell and his wife are responsible for getting the boot list out on the web with no concrete proof. The reason he is being looked at is that S19 was also spoiled with only 2 boots being off. Coincidence???? And we all know that Russell is not the most ethical person we ever met. And that brings me to how this is allowed to take place. We all know the contestants and the crew sign page after page of confidentiality agreements so clearly someone is totally dropping the ball. This falls on the producers to police this better and they have to bring down harsh justice to anyone they find out did something like this so that a strong precedent is set that this will be enforced to the highest degree.

As far as what can be done going forward to prevent this besides what I just mentioned at the end of the previous paragraph, there really cant be much more done. Survivor will never be shot LIVE due to the fact its only a 39 day cycle. So the leaks will still be unavoidable and its just up to the individual to decide whether they want to be spoiled or whether they want to be surprised. I know this critic will also fall in the latter group.

What do you think about all this? Were you among those who looked at the spoilers? Why did you do this?

Survivor Heroes VS Villains Reunion Show

As always, the reunion show followed the 2 hour finale and I always have enjoyed this "after party." Emotions are still on high after the tribe members watch the finale together and we get to the bottom of the many strategies, conflicts, regrets, and everything else that went on. Last night's show didn't dissapoint in that matter (including the pitched Boston Rob VS Russell Hantz possible future edition of Survivor which was first pitched HERE last month.....go back and check...its there....I'll wait). Here are the highlights from this peanut gallery:

-Hands down the best part was when Boston Rob responded to Russell's dig about how he never won the game by saying that "given the opportunity I'd gladly go back kick your ass all over the island." The idiot than stands up and tried to shake Rob's hand and Boston's finest tells him "I wont shake your hand." Russell looked stupid for sure. He didnt expect that for sure. Dissed!!!!!!
-We all know Russell is a classless asshole and a huge blowhard but his actions during the beginning of the reunion show was over the top. His screaming and whining about why Sandra didn't deserve to be considered the best ever and how fans should have a say in the outcome was classic sore losing at the highest degree and made him look like such a pathetic crybaby. Jeff Probst was getting very annoyed at him and on two occasions told him to "Stop.....and breath" and to "plant it" when he continually kept standing up to address the others. No doubt Probst seemed to be tired of Russell's act and seemed VERY insulted when Russell made a dig on the show being flawed.
-As far as the flawed comment that Russell made and his desire to have the fans vote, that was the biggest joke of all. I dont want to hear anyone tell me this is a good idea because its about the worst thing that could happen to Survivor. The show was NEVER meant to have that aspect to it and 10 years in to make that kind of change would be reinventing the wheel so to speak. The show is a success and has done just fine without it. And Russell's reasoning that fans would cure the bitter jury problem is wayyyyy off line and short sighted for a number of reasons. The first reason is that whose to say that fan voting wouldn't be just as corrupt. I dont need to tell American Idol fans or Dancing With The Stars fans about the dangers of having fans vote. Too many times to count we have seen out of leftfield results week in and week out in these shows (Cloris Leachman staying for weeks on DWTS and that red haired kid making the final 5 the Carrie Underwood season in Idol???) Just as many problems and more could occur with fans voting. And last night's player of the year vote which Russell won for 100,000 shows you why this wouldn't work. You can say Russell was the player of the year (debatable.....I think Parvati was just as good if not better) but Rupert coming in a close second???? I am a HUGE Rupert fan but even I will admit he did next to nothing in the game except to piss off the others with his inconsiderate ways around camp. If anything Parvati should have been right on his tail in votes and there was no mention of that. And the biggest reason for not having fans vote is the fact that Survivor was never meant for that aspect. The whole idea of the game is to put 16-20people together in a remote location and see what transpires. The best players mix stategy and excellence in the challenges while ALSO being able to play the people game successfully enough in order to curry favor with the jury at the end of the game. This is where Russell is a complete bust and he has no one else to blame but himself.
-Wanted to get back to the Boston Rob VS Russell Hantz future edition of Survivor. I wrote about this last month and thought this would be an awesome idea. Even the biggest Russell fans have to admit he had an unfair advantage coming into this game in that no one ever saw him play before. No doubt if these players had seen his season in Samoa, he would have been the first voted out. So now that Rob has the book on him, it would be a great mano-a-mano battle between two warriors. Love to see my idea come to fruition and I honestly see this happening in the future. It would be a huge ratings hit and that the name of the game in the television business.
-We all talked about how Boston Rob transformed himself from villain to hero in H VS V but the same can be said of Jerri Manthey. As you all know I have been a big fan of hers this time around and I feel she deserves a ton of credit. Her reputation as a villain was overblown and she aquitted herself well in the game.
-Was totally bush league of Russell to embaress JT the way he did by saying he made a winner look like the dumbest player in history was just wrong. Yeah JT made a dumb move but that was a total low blow to a nice guy that didnt deserve to be destroyed like that. Probst threw JT a bone by saying strategically it wasnt that bad of a move but the fans thought otherwide as they gave him the title of making the dumbest move in Survivor history.
-Amber and Rob's baby was cute. I dont like the dark hair on her though.
-Randy's bald head made me a bit worried. I hope he is not sick. I havent heard that so lets hope he is all right.
-Amanda looked hot as always. Boy do I miss seeing her in a bikini.
-Russell saying over and over again that he played ONE GAME drove me to almost kick over my TV. What the hell does that mean anyway????
-Survivor is going to Nicaragua next which I reported last month. Yeah I love being ahead of the curve.
-So after the finale I finally opened the e-mail of the spoiled boot list someone sent me months ago and I was shocked to see it was 100 percent correct. Damn CBS must have been pissed. Major leak somewhere that needs to be plugged. I will do a post on this later.
-Oh and in a HUGE shock Russell's wife Melanie was there in the audience. It has been widely reported that she served him divorce papers but there she was in the flesh. Appearing to see how much she will ask for in the divorce settlement??? Looks like they are trying to work it out.
-Love Long Island's own Tom Westman sticking up for Sandra and saying she deserved the victory.
-The last thing that just came to mind is that when Russell said to Rob "Did you ever win the game?" and Rob said "No"; he should have answered that "I didnt win but my wife did and that million dollar check is sitting in my bank account. Do you have one?" That would have been awesome.

Thats it for now. A great season for sure. As I said before I will keep up with daily posts on the show and bring you the lastest Survivor news.

Sandra Becomes Greatest Survivor Player Ever

The debate about the greatest Survivor player ever ended at 10:05 ET when Sandra Diaz-Twine was revealed to be the winner of Survivor H VS V by a 6-3 count over Parvati Shallow and Russell Hantz. Sandra goes down as the first two-time winner in Survivor history and stakes her claim as the ultimate player ever. Lots to talk about here. We do the recap first and the analysis later. Here goes:

Things start off with the tribe back at camp after tribal council and Russell immediately acts like a baby when he says Sandra wasted her idol and exposed herself as a liar. Sandra goes right back at him and accuses him of the same thing. He than accuses Parvati of lying that she knew Sandra had the idol and you can see a major rift between the two is about to erupt. Russell than goes to Colby and Jerri and tells them Parvati is next.

The next morning the tree mail arrives describing the day's challenge and Russell's states the obvious that Colby has to go if he doesnt get the idol. He than exclaims that Jerri and Sandra are the two he wants in the final and he believes he will get the win if thats the case. The challenge itself is one where each member has to balance dishes on the end of a balancing arm. The more dishes stacked the more unstable it gets. When the dishes fall you are out. Sandra is the first out followed by Jerri and than Russell, leaving Colby and Parvati. Finally after the 17thde plate Colby's stack falls to the ground and seemingly his chance to win the game.

Back at camp, Colby tells the tribe he knows he is going and wants everyone to enjoy the day. After choking up in a confessional, Colby takes one last stab to stay in the game by confronting Russell. Russell tells him he is going but Colby tells him to get rid of Sandra and that way they stand a better chance of denying Parvati immunity and to have a chance to get rid of her next time out. Russell seems to be buying the idea and that sets the stage for tribal council.

At council, Colby exposes his plan to get rid of Sandra of which she seems surprised. The votes are cast in a non-shocker Colby gets sent home by a 4-1 vote. All villains remain in the game at this point.

Back at camp the celebration of the final four begins and they note how ticked Rupert looked. Parvati feels vulnerable after hearing comments made by Colby at tribal council and she vows a top effort in the next day's challenge. This is confirmed the next morning when Russell and Jerri discuss getting her out if she loses. Tree mail brings in the info challenge which contains a map to the journey of fallen comrades. So the journey begins to each person votes out and on and on it goes until they arrive for the last competition and burn the nametags of everyone they encountered along the way.

Its now final challenge time where a huge maze awaits. Each member must navigate their way through blindfolded and use guideposts to find four necklaces and than get out first. Winner gets to the finals. but Russell jumps put to a quick lead and despite a close finish, he wins immunity. So for the second straight season the Evil One earns his way into the finals.

Back at camp the scrambling begins as Parvait tried to curry favor with Russell. Jerri is certain Parvati is going and Russell tells Sandra she is going to the finals because he tells her he will beat her. She doesn't argue the point since she is not in a power position but secretly she feels she has a shot to win. Russell asks Jerri if she is ready to go to the final three and she seems ecstatic. Russell however tells Parvati she wants Sandra in the finals which she disagrees with. The decision comes down to Parvati or Sandra. Once at TC Jerri seems overconfident she is here to stay and Sandra reports why she should stay around. Parvati says how she has protected Russell which he disagrees with in front of the jury. She looks him in the eye and says they have been protecting each other. Once the votes are cast, Jerri goes home in a surprise by a 3-1 count. The final three is set: two former winners in Sandra and Parvati and Russell. Nothing left to do but go to the final jury.

The next day with no scheming to do the three get the tree mail and find a huge breakfast feast with fruit, wine, and the works. Parvati and Russell begin debating their games while Sandra rests. In the best moment of the season Sandra decides to burn Russell's hat. They break down the camp and burn the shelter before they go and finally begin their march to the final verdict in front of their old tribemates.

Things began with the speeches by Sandra, Russell, and Parvati. Sandra goes first and gives a great speech about she got to the end of the game on her own and scrambled on her own after her alliance was voted out. Russell than goes and in a surprise move apologizes if he offended anyone in the game but says he tried to play as best he could. Parvati was last and talked about how she put up a wall of defense and used the dragon Russell to get to the end of the game.

The jury than had their turn and they sparks began to fly. Colby goes first and tells Russell he is delusional and focuses in on Parvati and asks her about her game. He ignores Sandra which is interesting. Amanda chooses to ignore Russell and Parvati and questions Sandra with nothing enlightening coming about it. JT exclaims to Russell that he should sleep in the bed he made and not to look for excuses and applauds Sandra and Parvati for their play. Coach talks about how he has not made a decision and will be listening intently on what transpires. Danielle goes off on Russell and tells him no one respects his game and asks if he would change anything. Russell fight back and says he wont say what she wants him to say. Candice goes and tells Russell he told lies that hurt people. Jerri asks a good Q when she asks Russell to confess why he voted her out. Russell told her a lie which was exposed by Parvati. Rupert was last to go and he destroys Russell and praises Parvati and Sandra. Good stuff but not as intense as I thought it would be.

So the votes are cast and we see three votes for Sandra and three votes for Parvati. As always Jeff takes the votes with him and we are taken to a Live shot of NYC where the votes are revealed. And in the ultimate moment in Survivor history, Sandra Diaz-Twine becomes the first two time winner in Survivor history by getting 6 of 9 votes and the idiot getting zero in the ultimate form of justice.

Now for the analysis:

-I will say it again. Sandra is the best ever. No doubt about it. If you play twice and win twice the top spot is yours. I dont want to hear coattail rider or sucks at challenges etc. The fact of the matter is that she won against amateurs and than against pros. Enough said.
-Russell once again failed miserably at the jury portion of the game and will forever have that asterisk to his name. Very good player but not great.
-I can definitely hear arguments that Parvati deserved to win. She was pick and she played an awesome game. I totally buy in to her reasoning of picking Russell to align with right off the bat as a means of protecting herself against a good number of people targeting her. She was once again great at challenges in winning three immunities and she never backed down from Russell. The fact is though she didn't get the votes so the point is now moot. Number 3 all time behind Sandra and Hatch.
-Once thing that has to stop with the final episode is the nauseating match through the tags of the fallen Survivors. Its a royal waste of time and drags on and on. No one cares.
-Russell is clutch with wining the final challenge before the final jury. Thats two for two in his two seasons.
-Cant blame him for not taking Jerri to the finals. He made the right call in voting her out as I think she seriously could have stolen the game is she made it. She played a very underrated game.
-Was very disapointed to not see more vitriol thrown Russell's way. Only Danielle and Rupert really took it to him when I thought at least Courtney and Candice would have destroyed him more. All in all I think he got off easy considering all the carnage he caused.
-Russell pulled a Clay (Africa) by going back at Danielle at the final tribal council which is just dumb. But when the person doing it is a moron it makes sense.
-Colby did well in his final immunity challenge and salvaged some dignity with that performance. But he threw that out the window when he seemingly laid down for the second time in the game when he went back to camp and told everyone he knew he was going home. Never give the impression you are giving up which is what he did. He still tried a last ditch move to save himself but it was too little too late at that point. All in all it was a terrible season for him but the crazy thing is that if he did somehow make it to the final, he would have won in spite of all that.
-Sandra burning Russell's hat as I wrote before was the best moment of the season for me from a comedy standpoint. I loved it and that was totally a Sandra thing to do. Serves him right for burning Jaison's socks in S 19.
-The maze challenge was a stupid one for the last one. The last challenge should always be an endurance battle where whoever wants it takes it.
-Wow Sandra is a two-time winner. Crazy stuff without a doubt.

That's it for now. Will post a reunion show article either later tonight or tomorrow morning.

I would also love to hear from you all about what you thought about the episode and my opinions. Is Sandra the best ever? Why or why not?