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I maintain that this cast is just a disaster, especially if the intent of the season is to celebrate the series in its entirety. It's just basic math that not every season could've been represented, but for just 16 out of 44 possible seasons (counting only those with new castaways) to show up in an expanded cast of 24? Come on. Probst would've been better off pushing for some kind of a New Era All-Stars, Fans v Favorites, or Blood v Water type season if he was so hellbent on bringing back so many of these players so soon. The first all-stars was the show's eighth season, and the first FvF was its sixteenth. The New Era could have been slated for a big returning-player season already. But Probst gonna Probst. Angelina wouldn't have been near the top of my own list of folks to bring back, but she's one of the more intriguing players here since we don't really know how she might play differently this time. Whereas there's no reason to expect any seismic shifts in gameplay out of Ben, Aubry, Cirie, Ozzy, or Colby... They're all well-known and tired commodities.

That cast list is dreadful, and not just because of some of the names-- Greg Buis! Sean Rector! Natalie Bolton!!!-- who had been floating around until very late in the pre-game who are now out in favor of entirely too many new-era players and returnees I genuinely never wanted to see again. I wasn't thrilled about the Elisabeth "immunity headdress" Hasselback rumors, but at least she would've made for an interesting and novel addition, as opposed to seeing a fourth iteration of Aubry Bracco trying to leverage her one and only skill of Centering Herself In Literally Every Narrative. Or Ben Wade and his entire exhausting world of complete and utter nonsense. Assuming that cast list holds, this quickly went from being exciting for this "season one, episode one" fan to being something that I'm scarcely interested in watching at all.

I didn't love most of this episode, but it's mostly because I just kept waiting for a Stevie Nicks Fajita Round-Up sequel that never came...

In case anyone is curious how s37 winner Nick Wilson's first term in the KY house is going, he's the sponsor of this bill, which proposes to increase penalties for incest... while also removing first cousins from the "familial relationships" within the definition thereof: We're doing great here in KY. He ran unopposed for his seat, btw.

I'm dying here. I've been on these forums for ages, following Survivor, and I had no idea this thread exists. Jonathan from CU here. Delighted by this entire thread. Seriously. Love to see that the project is resonating and that folks are reading. We've always been a write-when-the-spirit-moves-you-and-you-have-the-bandwidth outfit, but I will say that Kevin, Zack, and I all wish that the women we are lucky to count among our crew had more bandwidth to contribute. We do pride ourselves on the diversity of our writers' bench-- especially in the country music space-- but always respect when those writers are game to join in or sit out. Which is to say I'm the hold up on the Sirius list, and we'll be back at it soon.

Read this tidbit in one of the "Inside Baseball" type Survivor blogs and found it interesting: After the first episode of "Winners At War," Brian Heidik is now the only winner never to have received a vote against them.

Kim, all the way. I think I screwed up on the survey by entering a second pick on the assumption that there'll be two EoE returns. But Kim. Always Kim.

Yes, that's correct. All intel is that Earl was asked but wasn't able to commit because he just had a baby born prematurely. I haven't read any updates on his family since those initial casting spoilers, though, so I hope everyone is healthy and thriving. I also hope he'll still get another shot someday. It's absurd that Vee wasn't even asked. I get why, say, Brian Heidik wasn't-- but part of me would love love love to see that raging sociopath play again-- but Vee has never seriously been in the running time return. Neither has Chris Daugherty, who had one of the all-time best end-games and FTC performances. It's a shame that the producers short-shrift so many early players who weren't necessarily flashy in their gameplay.

I loved it. Yes, there are always going to be countless nit-picks-- Edge of Extinction, obviously, some of the editing choices based on what we know now was cut from the episode, a few casting decisions-- but I felt that the episode delivered. The tone was celebratory-- which, at least for the first episode, was the right tone to strike-- without being self-congratulatory, and the series, at its best, has earned this as a victory lap. Thrilled to see the Sophie - Yul - Wendell - Nick alliance come together; as others have said, it isn't anything I knew I wanted to see, but I'm in. It allowed Yul to find a way to get his footing in the game, which was one of my main concerns, and it got me invested in three other players I was otherwise indifferent toward. Loved seeing Danni's pragmatic social game on display so quickly; she knew exactly how to handle the situation with Rob in a way that defused his volatility and potentially turned it to her own advantage. Such an underrated winner, and I hope she's able to correct that this season. I appreciated that, unlike on previous returnee seasons, the editing leaned into the significance of pre-existing relationships. That was unavoidable with the casting of both Rob and Amber-- and it's sad that we didn't really get a chance to see her play without him, but surely they both knew that was a risk coming in-- but the "poker alliance" figured prominently in the decision-making, and of course Yul had done his homework on that front. It was jarring to see Kim completely out-of-position and struggling, but I also think she's fully capable of changing that. It was also wonderful to see how enthusiastically Ethan embraced the modern game; it remains to be seen if he's good at it, but he sure seemed eager to give it a go. Ben was the only one who seemed completely out of their depth; he's a bottom-tier winner and not someone I would have cast, but maybe he'll realize his early mistakes and get it together. Even Adam, who I also would never have cast for this, was able to course-correct and move the target off of himself and Denise and onto Jeremy and Natalie, neither of whom had a good read on the social dynamics in their tribe.

Jenna has had struggles with substance abuse in recent years; as was the case with Todd, the consensus is that the producers did not want to put anyone in recovery at risk of relapse.

I'm in! I picked Tyson, Kim, Denise, and Yul!

I'm a s1ep1 veteran of the PlanetSucks and TWoP and Realiiity games and forums, and I've never seen the level of belligerence surrounding spoilers and spoiler sources as has been on display for this season. I know fans feel passionately about this season, but the vitriol about spoilers is bizarre. I've always been pro-spoiler, but wading through Sucks and Reddit to try to find them this year is a chore.

Ha! I said arguably, not that it was the argument I would necessarily make! Bob would be my personal choice and Adam's a bottom-tier winner for me, too, but Jud does come up in that discussion pretty regularly.

Chase Rice, who parlayed his stint as the runner-up to arguably the worst winner in Survivor history into a career as the most overtly sleazy of the "Bro-country" Bros, has apparently taken his sleaze to another reality franchise: https://people.com/tv/bachelor-star-victoria-fuller-faces-ex-chase-rice-on-peter-weber-date/

Was nice to see that she reached out to Brian Corridan from her season for some insight. He's always been at the top of my list of players from Guatemala who deserve a second chance.