Duke Silver

This season proves to me that, much like the rest of American film and TV, the on-screen talent should be pulled from the U.K. and Australia. Fuck...this cast suuuuuuucks. Well, tbf, I guess I don't hate a few of them, but man, the bad ones are so fugging bad. Bhanu vs. Q in the cage match of Survivor Suck. We'd all lose having to watch that. I can't even bother to gather my thoughts beyond that. It's not worth the effort for this shit show.

I think I'm a little in love.

^^ Same. Venus comes across as a bit abrasive, but I can at times as well, and some of the best people in my life are assertive/abrasive.

It sure feels like Maria is a good position going to the merge: she seems to have Charlie on side (who is tight with Ben); Tim thinks she is his #1 based on his manly man convo w/ the other alpha males during the journey, thus, maybe a tie-in w/ Q+Tiff and Hunter+Tevin. I'm glad I actually like her.... I still don't understand what Jem thought she was gaining with the beware advantage wild goose chase. Oh well, doesn't matter as she goes home with an idol in her pocket.

If Bhanu wasn't gone after this ep, I seriously would've stopped watching. I honestly think Hunter has made a mistake showing how much of a challenge monster he is; I think he should've sandbagged a bit. YMMV. But yeah...he's gone once the merge happens; too much of a "threat" I presume, in the eyes of the weaker players. Curious to see if Jem's wild goose chase comes back to bite her. I wonder if at some point she's wondering "uhhh, maybe I shouldn't have done that. No real upside."

So....they did 8 of these, and one of them was.....Big T?? TBC, I have zero issues with her. I just don't understand why she got one of the eight out of all the Challengers we've watched over the last 2+ decades.

YES! ^^this^^. It's not him being weepy/feeling sorry for himself/thinking he's god's chosen alone that bugs. In total context, it's his quick trigger to crazed fury that makes me dislike him, not merely sideye him. More Bhanu is the last thing I want.

3 episodes in and I have had zero fun. No one for whom to root. Weepy Bhanu is already bugging the ever-living hell out of me. Gonna go back to watching S11 of the Australian Survivor; a much better show than S45 & thus far, S46, of U.S.

As a new show watcher (S45 was literally the first time I've ever watched even a single episode of Survivor): is it typically like this where one tribe is treated like a rented mule, losing all the time, and thus we don't get to see/evaluate members of the other tribes? ---- OT: it's weird for me to say, again, as a new watcher, that, based on a couple comments I've seen about the AU Survivor show, over the last few days I have binged fifteen (15 !!!) episodes of season 11. YMMV and all that, but I soooooo much prefer the AU version.

Yeah, I fully admit my bias in favor of Challengers, especially the mainstays like CT, and I am trying hard to have empathy, but I just can't get there and feel bad for MJ. She was a floater; she didn't do much of anything but hang with her fellow network friends; she contributed very little to the prize $$. Upthread I probably wasn't sufficiently precise in my evaluation?, I guess, of how the final votes/stalemate played out. As far as how CT handled it: he did exactly as he was I indicating in his talking heads, I think. He made it pretty clear (to me) that Trishelle was the only person he fully trusted, and whether it made objective sense or not, it didn't matter who the third person was: he was gonna vote them out if he could.

As an observer of CT for close to two decades, I can say that, ohhh, 10? years ago, I'd 100% agree that he played the end that way purely in order to take more $$$. However, the CT I've observed the second decade? I believe him when he says he wanted to vote MJ simply because Trischelle was sincerely the only player he fully trusted and just wasn't gonna take the chance on MJ.

Liz (I think?) really loves herself some Liz, huh? Hubris runs especially high this season... between her and Jelinsky, lots of, uhhhhhh, confidence.

Heh, the prize pot would be significantly smaller were it not for CT, so yeah, for me, based on that plus his ability to reason through things (something we Challenge fans have seen form him), he deserves the win. I just hope it's not a Bravo-lebrity.

Jelinsky might be the sweetest guy in the world, with an awful edit. However, all I'm able to see is delusions of grandeur. What exactly is he good at other than convincing himself he's a legend in the making? I'm just glad I don't have to think about it going forward.

I preface this by saying, yes, I know...sometimes I can be an asshole, but Soda is gonna get on my last nerve if she keeps up with the sing-along stuff. Seriously. It's gonna take me a while to find someone to back in this, only my second season of watching this show.

Jelinsky....LMFAO. That is all.

I've been looking ahead to S40 for what seems to be an eternity. 39 is in my rearview, and I don't plan to ever think of it again. Just piling on, but Berna....please, do not come back. Talk about unenjoyable television...she is the epitome of that.

^^^Huh, I just realized I'm more or less the same, hahaha. I'm kinda sorta rooting for Nurys, but only due to the competition; I range from dislike to utter lack of interest in the non-Nurys finalists. TBC: I'm not even, per se, a "fan" of Nurys. It's just that the others are soooooo unlikable/uninspiring/boring as fuck. Man, what a heel turn for me. I started this season thinking "hey, it'll be good for some fresh blood; a new champion." Guess I veered way too hard into the "the OGs are getting long-in-the-tooth and very predictable" lane. I'm surprised I miss the old-time regulars as much as I do. I sincerely thought I was ready to move on....but if S39's crop of Challengers is the best alternatives, fuck that. Give me more of the old Challengers. The new ones suck ass for the most part.

Cool....Jay is out; Corey was good for something. Barring a miracle Nurys win, I just can't feel at all hyped any of the others.

Reading this thread has given me enough about what happened. I might watch an (unofficial) Youtube recap vid, but no desire to watch any more episodes. I can't believe, what?, about a millennia ago, I was actually kinda-sorta excited about this season...or at least the idea of it. Now? I'm thinking ahead to S40. Jay's probably gonna win, and he is not a champion that I can celebrate.

Admittedly, my reality tv bona fides are relatively lacking, but Dan is the most mehhh "legend" I've ever seen on a screen. YMMV obviously, but "underwhelmed" would be an understatement.

Rooting for Nurys, but I can't see her lasting long, realistically. The rest of the house can fuck off. I have zero interest in any of them, even as villains. I'd rather watch 60 minutes of Bananas noodling on his guitar while telling fart jokes than watch the remaining cast (other than Nurys) in future seasons. Bunch of fucking zeros afaic.

If I never see Asaf and Jay on The Challenge again, it'll be too soon. There are others this season for whom I have zero interest, but these two guys, for me, are the worst of the lot.

I say this as someone who has only really ever watched The Challenge (mostly because of the athletic competition aspect, to be clear) out of the reality tv realm; who has never watched an episode of Big Brother; watched the most recent season of Survivor (literally the first time I've ever watched even a single ep. of that franchise,etc. : Dan's game on this show is utterly unimpressive in relation to the hype I've heard/seen about him on social media and among acquaintances who are familiar with him. It seems to me he's done the bare minimum with the awesome amount of power traitors have in this game. He's done nothing that anyone off the street couldn't have done, IMO. I blame my gf's mom for insisting I watch this show. I'm kinda hooked, in a weird way, but at the same time, not at all impressed? How the hell does that work? LOL

Part of me wants to think that Jay is hamming it up for the cameras, but I just can't get myself to believe he's that good of an actor. He really is just this much of a narcissistic asshole, isn't he? Michelle continues to get my dislike largely a/c guilt by association, but let's be real, it's also largely earned by her own merit. Moriah/James might be the most boring Challenge hook-up ever, in terms of both parties being complete zeros *to me*. I really came to like Zara, and I actually liked her plenty coming off that Challenge-Lite world thingy she was in (partnered with Wes, right?). Great attitude; great athlete, and she's only lacking in mental acuity skills that she can actually work on, even given her dyslexia, if she truly wants to. I hope she does. Also doesn't hurt that, for my tastes, she is a fine-looking human being.