skybolt

I think 3 times should be the absolute max. I love Cirie, but she's had enough chances to win. I would much rather see players like Dom and Rick Devens compete a second time than anyone again from this season.

In general who would people like to see play again from the Season 40 cast. I'm pretty much done with all the old school players, unless they have an old school vs. new school themed season. Even if that happens I think Ethan, Amber and Danni are done. Sandra, Rob, Parvati, Tyson and Yul may still work in this type of season, but I'd be okay if none of them returned. Other players I'm completely done with: Ben (I think his story arc has ended to put it mildly), Denise (didn't like her checking out at the end), Wendell (didn't like his game at all this time around), Nick (just meh). I also want to add Tony and Sarah to this list just because I think they'll both be voted out right away next time around, which defeats the purpose of bringing them back. Under the right circumstances I could see a few of these players giving it another go: Jeremy - He has already played 3 times, but could benefit from being played a bit by Tony. He could use that to his advantage to get further. Kim - Hopefully she's learned from playing from the bottom, and will likely do better next time, especially if her kids are a bit older. Sophie - That's a no brainer. We need to see her play again. Michelle - I'm still conflicted with her, but she's never been voted out. She definitely recognizes her weaknesses and will likely get better next time. Natalie - Oddly enough, I think if she never made it back from EoE, she'd fly under the radar and do extremely well her next time out there (a la Tony). Still, she deserves another shot. Adam - He just embodies Survivor. Would like to see him play again just from an entertainment standpoint.

Sophie mentioned that her fiance (now husband) had brought all the food she requested to the airport, but she couldn't eat any of it. Going back to the game, she was also annoyed with all the lion / hyena references. She mentioned that some people considered themselves lions just because they had big muscles (maybe that was a dig against Ben 🙂 . In contrast, Denise had no issues with the hyena reference. She said they're smart, vicious and strong. It's not like Tony called them goats. Amber has spent the last 20 years with someone who's aggressive and manipulative in the game. She can sense it a mile away. 🙂 Judging by all the pregame planning and how the Season 40 survivors have kept in touch, I don't think I'd like seeing this group play with each other again. Michelle is hanging out at Tony's home all the time. Tony is promoting Michelle and Nick's shirts. Kim is sending wall canvases to various contestants. Michelle and Parvati are acting like sisters on Michelle's Instagram page doing meditation. Kim and Sophie are sharing cooking recipes. Rob and Wendell are commenting on each other's handyman work on twitter, etc.

Tidbits from Rob C interview with Sophie: - She caught a virus from the production team and was throwing up for 5 days. Did not say a word at final tribal and was sick on plane coming back. - Would've likely voted for Tony to win, even if going up against Sarah. - Only pre-gamed with Yul. Michelle and Nick sent her smiley emojis on twitter beforehand and Sandra called her 2 days prior. However, she didn't make much of it since it could've been a ruse. Her and Parvati had lived close to each other and had hung out. However, she was surprised Parvati never reached out to her to pre-plan. - She couldn't fully trust Kim and Denise because she though their pitch was too perfect, even if in hindsight it might have been genuine. Sarah did a better job of appearing flawed and not as charming in her pitch to gain Sophie's confidence. - Tony would be chill around camp, but then always start scrambling before tribal to instigate things. Oddly enough, Sophie mentioned that Amber was telling everyone about Tony's strategy early on, but they all just thought Tony was being goofy and paranoid. - Parvati had told Rob to seek out Sophie as an alliance member after the swap, since they had a past relationship. She said there was an inkling of a chance that if Rob played it the right way, she could've been on board with voting out Ben, since Adam would be on board. After voting out Rob, they would all bash him for days afterwards and Adam would tell them they're being immature. - Although she knew Jeremy from outside the game, they did not get along. When she heard her name being thrown out by Tyson and Jeremy, she approached Jeremy and his only reply was don't worry about it. After the Tyson vote out she got into a tiff with Jeremy, and basically went up to him and said, look I'm still here. - Tyson was instigating things before his vote out. He told Kim that Sarah and Sophie were making fun of her, but was also throwing Kim's name around to Sarah. He was trying to deflect votes off himself. During that tribal they told Michelle to vote Denise and said not to talk to Tyson, Kim and Denise. Michelle basically just put her hands over her ears and did not listen to what Tyson was saying. Sophie said if Michelle had said something, she would've told her group to switch their votes to her (Michelle). - She bought peanut butter with her 2 fire tokens and gave some to Kim. Although she was super close with Yul during the game, I think she's a bit annoyed with him as well. For instance, he had a secret pre-game alliance with Sandra and conference called Nick and Michelle. He would also complain about EoE players not sharing their peanut butter with him and Wendell, but they could've bought some with their fire tokens. He also pulled her aside the morning after she arrived on edge and said everyone is supposed to act unfriendly to new comers, but he was not going to do that with her. She later found out he did that with each person being voted out. She was happy with the edit she received. She also noted that after voting out Amber (to weaken the poker alliance), her group of 4 (Yul, Nick and Wendell), would've likely went after Tony next to weaken the gritty group, but Tyson was stirring the pot too much.

Some tidbits from Denise's interview with Rob C. - Game moved too fast for her. All the whispering and split second decisions are not her strong suit. She's better at long therapeutic type conversations. She also regrets being stubborn and not changing her alliances. - Sandra had mentioned she had a pregame alliance with Denise, but that didn't come up in this interview. Denise said she did not trust Sandra, especially since Sandra had initially told her she's on the outs when the tribe swaps happened. She initially told Sandra she needs to think about it and then agreed with her proposal. When Denise also brought up Tony as someone Denise could vote for, Denise felt even more sure about voting out Sandra, especially if she was willing to flip on her alliance. She didn't like having to do Sandra's dirty work. - When word got back that Denise had thrown out Sarah's name after the merge, Sarah got into Denise's face and let her have it. Denise said she made things worse by basically acknowledging that she was okay with voting Sarah out. She's not a good liar. - She had really good things to say about Tony's game and would've still voted for him if he went up against Sarah. - During the Jeremy walking out tribal council, Denise was going into it wanting to vote for Tyson. The whole thing was weird, since she and Michelle just got caught up in what Tyson, Kim and Jeremy were planning. - She regrets shushing Jeremy and has sent him an apology, but hasn't heard anything back yet. When they got back to camp after the Kim vote out, Tony put his arm on her shoulder and jokingly told her that she needs to do a therapy session for everyone. Denise exploded and told him don't f'n touch me and you're all liars. After that, she mentally checked out from the game and just went along with the votes. She was glad CBS didn't air that segment. - During the tribal council that Nick was voted out, she meant what she said about being done, but may have embellished it a bit, since she knew Nick was going home. Nick was frustrated that he was so sure she was done, that he didn't even confirm with his group what was happening. At Ponderosa it got very heated. Nick was mad at her for him getting voted out. Jeremy ignored her. Rob and Adam were asking who's running the show, etc. I guess when Wendell asked if she was even trying to win the game, she told him what kind of a' hole question is that. She said Kim, Sophie and Parvati were welcoming. - Denise comes off as very well spoken with a lot of charm. She's very humble in her own way.

Hahaha.............good point. I think it was more since the show ended last July or whatever.

I think what Tony is saying is truthful in his mind. He was also convinced that he overheard Kim and Nick plotting against him while he was in the spy nest. However, since he barely slept, he now believes that was just a dream. He even called the producers to ask and they had no clue what he was talking about. On a side note, Adam was able to track down the person who won Tony's buff in an auction, so Tony was able to buy it back. Now Adam is trying to locate Tony's torch for him.

In her interview Michelle was saying that the guy doesn't leave his house unless it's for work. She goes there all the time and spends time with him and his wife. Tony mentioned that his parents immigrated to the US from Greece and were very poor. They never took vacations, so he never got the traveling bug. During the interview, Tony also promoted Nick's shirt. He seems to have a close bond with Nick as well. He mentioned that he still has close bonds with Sarah, Trish from Cagayan, etc., but it's not like they talk every day. Even with Sarah, they only talk when it's their kids birthday or something like that.

Part 3 of the Tony interview: I guess the spy nest was a bigger factor than we initially thought. Apparently, since the camera crew doesn't follow people when they go to the bathroom, Tony would decide to climb on his tree and spy on people after going to the bathroom. There is no film footage of this, but he did overhear Nick asking Ben to blindside him, but Ben was against it. This is when Tony decided to bring Ben to final 3 instead of Nick. Tony said that if he makes a pregame alliance, he won't flip on it no matter what. He said his pregame alliance was with Sarah and Sandra, and if Sandra beat him 16-0 at the end, then so be it. He told Sarah that Sandra was grimey for trying to get him out, which is why Sarah used that word against him later. Sarah was extremely mad at Tony after the Sophie vote out. She told everyone that she was willing to go to rocks, knocked his bag of the tree, pulled on his water bottle, etc. The only way he convinced her was by telling her about how Sophie spilled the beans about him playing double agent and that Sophie never trusted him to reveal that she had an idol. He also knew that due to the bonds he had created with the people on the other side of the alliance, she wasn't going to turn them against him at that point. Her only option was to work with him. Tony confirmed that prior to the Kim vote out, he had already convinced Ben back at camp to vote out Kim instead of Jeremy. However, the reason why he started the whispering was to flip Nick. He took a chance that Nick would flip after he pretended like Kim was coming after him (Tony). Tony said that Jeremy was loyal to him for many reasons. Apparently, before the Kim vote out, Tony actually gave his idol to Jeremy to save himself back at camp. However, after Michelle gave him the 50/50 advantage, he asked for the idol back. Nick was mad that his alliance went overboard with the whole Denise quitting at tribal to ultimately vote him out. Tony said that it wasn't an act and that Denise had checked out and basically told everyone just tell me who to vote for. He just didn't trust Nick at that point. Tony hates the edge. He said if he hadn't checked off all the boxes with his game play, someone playing only 5 days of Survivor could've won because of the real bonds they form there. Also, when Natalie came back she told everyone that people at Extinction disliked her and were putting rocks into her pocket to make it seem like she had an idol. He didn't buy that. Tony also used a cop trick on her, where they were having a normal conversation, and then all of a sudden he asked "do you have an idol?". When she stuttered, he knew that she did. Back to reverse psychology. When Tony told Natalie, then why don't you go up against me in the fire making challenge, he did that because he was scared of facing her, but wanted to act confident. When Natalie would walk up to him and Sarah practicing making fire, he would purposely put out his fire and pretend like he was horrible at it. This made Natalie think he was trying to hide his great fire making skills, even though he was really bad at it. When he walked up to Michelle and noticed her starting the fire very quickly, he would act confident and say that's good, but you need to get the fire going in 2 seconds. Deep down he was nervous as heck. Tony praised Michelle's game a lot. He said she should've gotten votes and was fantastic at final tribal. He also noted that the reason she was left out of decisions was because he was too afraid she would use that information to turn others against the vote. Tony was also wearing a "Meesh" shirt during the interview to support her. He said that he was able to make big moves because he never thought about the $2M. Other players had that on their mind the whole time, which led to them playing it safe. Tony does not like the excuse players use about playing the hand they're dealt. He said it's possible to win this game even with a big target on your back. You need to keep adjusting your strategy to the surroundings.

Part 2 of the Tony interview: In a addition to playing dumb and purposely running like a clown, Tony also uses reverse psychology. For example, he knew that Kim was intuitive, so when she asked him if she was safe and if she should play her idol, he purposely acted nervous, looked down and said no, no, you're good. Also, Tony was going to vote out Jeremy until Jeremy walked out attribal. However, beforehand, he had formed a second alliance with Jeremy, Nick, Kim, Tyson and Denise to vote out Sophie. When Jeremy left and looked back, Tony pretended to count on his fingers as if he was lost since they didn't have the numbers anymore to vote out Sophie. This is why Tony acted like he was upset with Jeremy when they got back to camp, and Jeremy apologized to him because he saw him doing the math when he left. Tony targeted Sophie next because of 3 things. 90% of the reason was because after the Tyson vote out back at camp, she spilled the beans to Kim and Michelle that Tony was going to vote out Jeremy from the start. He confronted her and she felt bad. Tony then ran to Jeremy and told him that the girls have turned against us and are working together before Michelle could tell him anything. He also didn't like the fact that she made the power play of calling her group to the side to make a decision, and that she had a hidden immunity idol that Sarah told him about. He wanted to flush the idol out so he can go looking for it. He hated the fact that Sophie let everyone know that she had it. On a side note, Sophie had told Rob C. that she was a little upset at Sarah because she may have known about her vote out, but was acting complacent. Tony confirmed that Sarah didn't know what he was planning and that she was loyal to Sophie. Tony didn't like the edit for Nick. He said that Nick played a really good game and did a lot of stuff at tribal like coaxing Kim to play her idol. He was also constantly looking for idols and was a great partner for him on both alliances. The night was key to Tony's game. He would pace around for a couple of hours going over all his options and figuring out how to react with respect to any scenario that comes up. He overestimated everyone's game play just to be safe. He also rebuilt his spy nest every night and looked for idols. He confirmed that initially he didn't give Jeremy back his token, but later did when winning the next challenge. Jeremy was a little upset, but Nick was all about fire tokens and it was really hard to get the token from Ben. Also, when Ben found the hidden immunity idol, he told Tony to give him his idol and he'd forgive him for the Sophie vote out. When Tony said I guess their relationship had ended, Ben ran back to him and said they were all good.

Just watched half the interview between Rob C and Tony. Definitely some great insight into Tony's game: - He hates watching himself on TV playing passive. - Would be up all night searching for idols, building spy nests, etc., but would come back to camp every 2 hours and bump into people sleeping on purpose while tending to the fire to make it look like he was doing that the whole time. - He and Sarah would walk in 2 different directions to go to the bathroom, but run to meet up somewhere to talk strategy. - Initially he wanted Tyson out instead of Amber, since he thought Amber was an awesome person. Yul did not agree, but later changed his mind when Tyson would follow him and Sophie everywhere (since they were running the show). Jokingly he told Tony to get a restraining order against this guy. - Tony would purposely act stupid and nervous so people wouldn't think he's strategizing. He would even lose games to Wendell on purpose to make it look like he was not that smart. He said the only time he was being real was when talking to Sarah. - Nick and Tony had a bond since day 1. They would even go idol hunting together all the time. Tony wanted to bring Nick to the end (because he could beat him), until Nick started throwing his name out there. - Tony had shown Sandra his spy bunker, which is why she mentioned it to the other group. His whole plan with the spy bunker / nest was to have Sandra and Sarah bring people there and pretend to go pee. He would then see if the other people talked behind their back. - Tony was sure that Denise was going to vote him out when she played the 2 idols. He said they had formed a bond beforehand, so maybe that saved him. - Tony liked Adam because he reminded him of Spencer. However, he had to gun for him to save Nick. He said if Michelle had told what Adam was planning at tribal, he would've tackled him before he got to the podium and yelled for someone else to grab the fleur de lis. He said it in a joking manner of course. - He credits his win to forming bonds with everyone and having 2 alliances. His strategy was to tell his true alliance (Sarah, Ben, Nick, Sophie) that he's going to play double agent with the others and throw their names out there to get in with that group. That way his true alliance wouldn't get suspicious if someone like Kim mentioned him playing double agent.

Not sure if anyone is still reading this thread, but just finished watching an interview with Adam. Here a few highlights: The reason why Adam was so adamant about wanting Parvati out is because the old school players were targeting Ben. Adam had a pregame alliance with Ben and did not want him out at that point. Adam told Sophie about Sarah potentially having an idol because he thought since Ben and Sarah were getting super close, he assumed that Sophie felt the same about him. Adam practiced making fire every day before going on Season 40 and had gotten really good at it. He was flabbergasted that some other players didn't do the same. He said he would've gone up against Boston Rob at fire making than taking a chance like Natalie did. When other players were talking about the trust issues they had after playing survivor, he couldn't relate. To him its always been a game and nothing else. He also didn't get that whole bit with Tyson hinting at him quitting EoE. Adam said he had no intention of doing that. He didn't like EoE because the goal there was just to be nice to everyone so you can get their vote. He also mentioned that some players were not thinking strategically, and actually believed certain advantages weren't found by anyone after being given a clue. He said in the history of survivor there has never been a situation where a clue to an advantage was handed out and no one found it. He was a bit peeved about the bottle with a message that Natalie and Parvati found. He was hinting that this was an opportunity only given to certain individuals by production to find. The EoE group did get food for the family visit.

Some tidbits from Johnny Fairplay's podcast: Tony was up all night looking for idols about 13 days into the season. However, he took naps during the middle of the day, while others spent hours talking about baseball or other non Survivor related things. That being said, he made it a habit to touch base with each player at camp for about 5 minutes each day. Tony would text Fairplay during each episode and give his 2 cents. I guess during the Tyson vote out (post merger), he and Nick were coaxing Kim during tribal to play her idol, but they only showed the whispering. Also, when Tony had the talk about voting out Sophie with Jeremy, Michelle did come over form the beach and talk to the 2 guys about the plan. It wasn't Jeremy telling her just before tribal. Sandra called Fairplay and was super upset with Denise's blindside. I guess her and Denise talked on the phone for an hour before going to the island, and had a pregame alliance. Sandra basically said that she's not playing anymore, but if she ever did again, she would fly over to the person she's pregame planning with to look in their eyes to determine if they're lying to her. Not sure that would've worked, since Denise did pull the wool over her eyes talking face to face.

You bring up a really good point. Both Natalie and Michelle were talking about this subject, but the conversation was fairly tamed. I truly believe that the new Survivor format with all the backstabbing, switching alliances, finding a gazillion immunity idols, gloating about your game play, etc. benefits the men. The old Survivor format was mostly about strategic and social game play, which IMO evened the field a lot better along gender lines. People may point to winners like Sophie, Kim and Denise as examples of how women can still play hard and win in the new school game, but IMO the game still hadn't radically changed 7-8 years ago. I honestly think if the show goes back to basics again (less hidden advantages, no tribe swaps, etc.) and doesn't tamper with the game (Chrissy should've won her season), we'll see a more even divide between female and male winners. That being said, I'm more concerned with the current format for new female players than this Winners at War season. If Tony hadn't played a flawless game, I could easily see someone like Kim, Sophie, Natalie (if she wasn't voted out), Sarah, Parvati, Denise, Sandra, etc. winning the game. All of those women are highly respected for their game play. Moving forward it's definitely a concern for the show that since Season 25 we've only had 3 female winners. Natalie went up against 2 women, so naturally the jury had no choice but to vote for a woman (although Natalie certainly deserved the win). Michelle beat Aubry (someone who was shunned for playing a strategic, cutthroat game) and Tai. Sarah did beat Culpepper who played a very aggressive game, but Sarah was also a returning player, with built-in status. If this was a season consisting of newbies, Culpepper may have won.

Listening to Michelle's podcast with Natalie, there isn't much there. The narrative appears to be more about gender and color bias as to why Natalie didn't get some votes. She mentioned that if a guy had isolated himself on EoE the last week, everyone would've seen it as good game play. I just find it interesting that getting voted out first and having all this information available to you on EoE isn't looked at as the main crutch as to why the jury wouldn't vote for her. In Wendell's interview, he was really upset at her for lashing out at Yul, who he considers one of the nicest guys in the world. Michelle had some great things to say about Tony outside the game. She said he's always checking up on her to make sure she's doing well, while he and his wife treat her like a family member when she goes to their house. Natalie said the reason she was okay with voting out Ben and Denise (instead of perhaps targeting Sarah) was because she wanted revenge for them voting her out first.