S36.E15: Live Reunion Show

[Whimsy]

The castaways reunite in Los Angeles to discuss the Ghost Island season with Jeff Probst.

[Wandering Snark]

I really thought it was impossible to hear from LESS players of the game but I think this one does it. So thankful to talk to/promote some stupid gameshow instead of maybe asking someone a question or two. Hell they barely talked to Wendell who actually WON. After the vote next year I'm turning this yearly charade off, no doubt. This was beyond worthless.

[Rachel RSL]

That was utterly pointless. Less than 30 minutes for the reunion show yet we still had to spend time with Eric, James and Kevin freaking Hart? (Am I the only one who doesn't find him funny?) Why even bother with the reunion at all?

Next season looks interesting but, based on the preview, I'm going to hate everybody on each tribe. Good times!

[MissEwa]

So a half-hour reunion with so little attention paid to the current castaways that nobody even noticed one of them wasn't there - I don't get why they bother at this point. 

Erik's vote-out will never not be funny to me, and I will always feel a little bad about that. 

I was hoping it would be Wendell but thought the FTC was going all Dom's way, so happy with the result. Amazed at the tie - I feel like that's something the show would have spent more time hyping. 

Overall I liked this season a lot more than most. The editing was all over the place but it was a fun ride with a F3 I liked and a great ending, given how tight those two were the entire time. 

[LadyChatts]

I won't be surprised if in the very near future, they pick and choose who to bring out to the reunion.  So we'll get a reunion Caramoan-style, except the non-selected castoffs won't be sitting in the audience.  Since there's a $10,000 appearance fee paid to everyone, nearly all of whom get ignored anyway, they will probably just have the final 3 and a few random castaways that made an impression on the season.

Also, Kevin Hart's new show will probably be as popular as last summer's Candy Crush.

Edited May 24, 2018 by LadyChatts

[Wings]

Oh come on, don’t any of you remember us chanting, we want Kevin, we want Kevin, we want Kevin?

[LanceM]

Fun fact about the votes tonight:

The first 5 jurors (Chris, Libby, Des, Jenna, Michael) voted for Dom, while the last 5 (Chelsea, Kellyn, Sebastian, Donathan, Angela) (+ Laurel) voted for Wendell

[vb68]

I have no idea why they still have Reunion Shows. Jeff clearly hates having to ask structured questions of the casts, and keeps trying to phase them out. He can vamp with Erik and James going into and out of commercial.  

[txvoodoo]

James. Who doesn't/can't watch the show anymore.

Erik, who is all zen about his amazing balls-up. (hah)

And KEVIN HART? Why give away real estate in your own show?

Did we hear ANYTHING from the other contestants? Cripes, a great way to make me want to skip watching the reunion shows after the winner's announced, Probst. 

[vb68]

3 minutes ago, LanceM said:

The first 5 jurors (Chris, Libby, Des, Jenna, Michael) voted for Dom,

Heh. It still took me a second. Jenna? There was a Jenna? :)

[ByaNose]

What’s the 411 on the Stephanie Johnson no show?

[GenerationX]

This is just a vaguely Survivor-themed Jeff Probst talk show now.

[Souris]

Well, that was the Worst. Reunion. Ever. By FAR. It was already truncated, and then Jeff talked to Kevin Hart more than any contestant, including the winner. And I'd rather have seen this year's contestants than James and Erik. Absolutely awful.

But congrats to Wendell! He was my fave.

Edited May 24, 2018 by Souris

[mythoughtis]

This was even worse than last year. If they  need 2.5 hours to go from 6 people to a winner... then split the episodes into two weeks. The last one can be 1.5 hours and then they can do a 1.5 hour reunion. 

[Wandering Snark]

6 minutes ago, ByaNose said:

What’s the 411 on the Stephanie Johnson no show?

Sorry, I'd have to know who she was to miss her being there, let alone knowing why.

[violet and green]

Next season looks RANK!!!! It will probably make me wax nostalgic about the stupendous cast of this one.

[ByaNose]

1 minute ago, Wandering Snark said:

Sorry, I'd have to know who she was to miss her being there, let alone knowing why.

Ring any bells?

[Wings]

Oddly I do remember her. 

[TVFan1]

Was that even a reunion? This was the reunion where the least contestants spoke. Why bother with a reunion anymore? 

Kevin Hart coming on stage was pointless.

[PaperTree]

Anytime I think Survivor can't come up with an even stupider theme...of course we've had this theme before, just under a different name.

S37: David vs Goliath.  Don't like Team Goliath already and we only saw 2 people.

There will be a quick tribal swap ensuring the Goliaths majority numbers until the merge of the swarthiest.

Jeffy needs his executive time.

[LadyChatts]

Maybe Stephanie decided even $10,000 wasn't worth it to fly to LA just to sit onstage and be ignored.

And here we had a season where I thought the pre-jury actually got some decent airtime compared to other years.

[UncleChuck]

1 hour ago, Rachel RSL said:

That was utterly pointless. Less than 30 minutes for the reunion show

Dumb as it was, it was still better than the reunion shows for The Amazing Race or Big Brother...

Edited May 24, 2018 by UncleChuck

[Lantern7]

Why can't CBS be honest about how long the Reunion lasts? Better question: who cares? Probst only talks with the most notable people, and the others get less time than the girl who tried to predict who would win. And she was probably paid to show up with money and free pizza slices. Yes, I am that cynical.

Once again the upcoming season has an interesting premise that will go to shit almost immediately. Yeah, I've heard that Survivor is the highest-rated series on CBS not involving Sheldon Cooper (I could be wrong), but it's getting to a point where I barely care. But hey! We need to have Kevin Hart come out to promote his one-season wonder game show!!! And I wonder how much drugs he needed to get talked into coming to the Reunion, because it's kinda beneath him. Also, he oversells as bad as Probst.

[UGAmp]

A tie!! Yes!! I never thought it would actually happen but I’m glad it finally did. And I think Dom and Wendell were certainly more than deserving of being the first pair to force a tie. I was pulling for both but ultimately think Dom played the better game so I was a tad disappointed. He was a bit brash at TC with the fake idol play but he knew they were trying to take him out and it worked! He had serious cajones not to play the real idol. And Sebastian had some nerve to act all offend (and Kellyn can take a thousand seats as well) WHEN HE WAS TRYING TO TAKE DOM OUT. 

Wendell giving Laurel immunity was just a symbolic gesture. Only Donathan voted for her. So he played it nicely to the jury but I don’t think she thinks Wendell saved her. If anything Dom did by taking her to the F3.

I thought it was interesting that Wendell said he was “sort of” athletic. Maybe he was downplaying it but the guy was almost mesmerizing in challenges. He was almost always was out in the lead from the start and had good endurance in maintaining the lead. He also had this weird grace about him and he almost always stayed calm and collected. I enjoyed watching him compete. 

I feel like this cast has the potential for several returnees in future seasons. Dom and Michael for sure. Maybe Donathan or Libby. And unfortunately, Kellyn. 

[mythoughtis]

I’d like to see Donathon come back. Other than his tendency to blow up tribal council, he seemed to really blossom during the season. I’d love to see how he would play a second time. I loved  that he was already saying positive things even on his way to get his torch snuffed, 

Edited May 24, 2018 by mythoughtis

[30 Helens]

Goliaths will quickly pagong the Davids, leaving plenty of swarthy manly men to dominate the season and make Probst all tingly happy. I can.not. wait.  Yawn.

[Kaiju Ballet]

Dom looked so much better on the island. One of the things I look forward to on the Reunion is to see how the cast looks, months later. This was severely lacking....especially since it was already difficult to recognize them as being on the cast to begin with!

I would have loved to have heard more about why jurors voted the way they did, if they would have voted differently now that they've gotten to see it play out in the crappy edit. You know, stuff that should happen in a real reunion.

[eskimo]

2 hours ago, Rachel RSL said:

That was utterly pointless. Less than 30 minutes for the reunion show yet we still had to spend time with Eric, James and Kevin freaking Hart? (Am I the only one who doesn't find him funny?) Why even bother with the reunion at all?

 

No you are not!  I can't stand Kevin Hart.  He seems like an exhausting person to even be around.  I'll pass on his new show because I don't like him, and also because I resent the shit out of the fact that Reunion time was spent advertising another show.  Fuck you CBS.

So the days of the Reunion are over, I guess. 

How on earth did anyone even notice that Stephanie wasn't there? 

Fuck you, CBS. 

[LadyChatts]

6 minutes ago, eskimo said:

No you are not!  I can't stand Kevin Hart.  He seems like an exhausting person to even be around.  I'll pass on his new show because I don't like him, and also because I resent the shit out of the fact that Reunion time was spent advertising another show.  Fuck you CBS.

So the days of the Reunion are over, I guess. 

How on earth did anyone even notice that Stephanie wasn't there? 

Fuck you, CBS. 

It was posted in the spoiler thread, then I saw other people bring it up online.  When Jeff briefly introduced the pre-jurors and the jury, it looked like someone was missing.  I couldn't tell who at first.  

Count me in as not being a Kevin Hart fan.  Heard of him but can't tell you one thing he's done.

I think the reunion shows are going to find themselves extinct, if not scaled back, in the near future.  Even Jeff sounded like he had to pretend to act interested in being there.  Kevin Hart was a waste of time, but frankly so was talking to James and Erik.

[MVFrostsMyPie]

This season was almost more disappointing than last season, but I'm still not over ass-nugget Ben winning last year. This season sucked for being unbelievably predictable, I have never been more reluctant to bother watching the last episode of a season of this show. I realized that out of the 3, I guess I would have preferred Dom to win, so damn you Yanny, for voting for Childish Gambino. The tie may not have been predictable, but that certainly was. 

How did Sea Bass managed to sneak in 39 days worth of pot onto the island, is really my biggest question. Pretty sure marijuana doesn't grow on Fiji.

[simplyme]

2 hours ago, LanceM said:

Fun fact about the votes tonight:

The first 5 jurors (Chris, Libby, Des, Jenna, Michael) voted for Dom, while the last 5 (Chelsea, Kellyn, Sebastian, Donathan, Angela) (+ Laurel) voted for Wendell

Thank you. I was really curious who Angela voted for, but I made the executive decision to turn the TV off after the winner reveal once Probst reeled off all the crap they were going to cram in. Also, Kevin Hart.

Since Angela voted for Wendell, I'm thinking she might gave been steamed that Dom saved Laurel and sent her to make fire. Had Dom saved her and pitted Laurel and Wendell against each other (with presumably a Wendell win), the vote total probably stays the same. Five for Dom and five for Wendell. But Angela gets to be the tiebreaker, and I'm curious if she would have rewarded Dom with her vote in that scenario...

[violet and green]

2 hours ago, UGAmp said:

Only Donathan voted for her.

Nobody voted for her. Nobody! Donathan bizarrely voted for Wendell. (Just as well, imagine the sulkfest if he hadn't won...)

Dom was gracious in defeat, but looked to have aged 1000 years in the interim.

[GaT]

That was an amazing ending. I love how Wendell & Dom stayed friends. They both really understand how the game is played & played it well. I was OK with either one winning, just not Laurel (I guess the jury felt the same way). As soon as Jeff said that Laurel was going to cast the deciding vote, I knew it was Wendell.

Why are they wasting time with Kevin Hart & his new show? I want to hear from the people who played the game, IDGAF about Kevin Hart.

1 hour ago, simplyme said:

Since Angela voted for Wendell, I'm thinking she might gave been steamed that Dom saved Laurel and sent her to make fire. Had Dom saved her and pitted Laurel and Wendell against each other (with presumably a Wendell win), the vote total probably stays the same. Five for Dom and five for Wendell. But Angela gets to be the tiebreaker, and I'm curious if she would have rewarded Dom with her vote in that scenario...

Dom is probably thinking the exact same thing.

[Oscirus]

Really, you have little time as it is and now you're using Survivor to introduce shows now?  If Kevin Hart cant sell the show then pumping it up on survivor surely wont.

 

Im almost certain a davids definitely going to win. watch their be ten million puzzles. Also who the hell thinks that's a good theme for a show?
 

Quote

Since Angela voted for Wendell, I'm thinking she might gave been steamed that Dom saved Laurel and sent her to make fire. Had Dom saved her and pitted Laurel and Wendell against each other (with presumably a Wendell win), the vote total probably stays the same. Five for Dom and five for Wendell. But Angela gets to be the tiebreaker, and I'm curious if she would have rewarded Dom with her vote in that scenario...

 

In theory he's not expecting a tie. Laurel going to the jury is a for sure Wendell vote, not so much angela. But I bet that Angela likely would've rewarded him. The Seabass vote shows us they were close.

[SnideAsides]

2 hours ago, MVFrostsMyPie said:

How did Sea Bass managed to sneak in 39 days worth of pot onto the island, is really my biggest question. Pretty sure marijuana doesn't grow on Fiji.

It does, actually. Marijuana is native to India, and it was brought over in the early 1900s as part of the Hindu slave trade. (Over a third of Fiji's population is descended from these slaves, and Hindi is an official language of Fiji.)

This has been another episode of Forums Tell You More About A Survivor Filming Location Than Survivor Does.

Edited May 24, 2018 by SnideAsides

[spiderpig]

I was looking forward to seeing the overly-needy Mrs. Dom at the reunion.  Was she even there?  They had a split-second shot of Wendell's family.

Also, who was the woman in the pink and blue dress sitting in the front row of the audience?  She caught my attention for two reasons.  One, she sat there stony-faced while the rest of the audience laughed raucously.  Two, she had her feet and knees planted wide apart in a manner my mother would have strongly disapproved of.  Shoot - she got more camera time than Wendell!

[niklj]

Where was the apology Jeff kept promising? What was he going to apologize for??

[cooksdelight]

I was coming here to find out about the apology because I quit watching with 15 minutes to go.

[MissEwa]

3 hours ago, LadyChatts said:

Count me in as not being a Kevin Hart fan.  Heard of him but can't tell you one thing he's done.

I hadn't heard of him but then started thinking maybe I had and decided he was the guy from King of Queens. Was very confused by the actual Kevin Hart. 

10 minutes ago, cooksdelight said:

I was coming here to find out about the apology because I quit watching with 15 minutes to go.

Jeff "apologised" to James and Erik, in that he was like 'James, you're a bonehead, but you found TWO IDOLS so actually you're a MASTERMIND, and Erik you may have thrown the game away but you came fifth TWICE and not many people have done that so good job!' I don't think an actual apology was uttered but I may be wrong about that. 

[amazingracefan]

Laurel could have asked before she made the vote...what cut do I get?

[alexa]

I didn't want a full reunion, but I was disappointed that I actually liked the final 3 and much of this cast and they didn't get anything more than one minute of time.  Last year I hated the season so much and they spent much more time with people I didn't care to see.  It just seemed bad to have them all sitting there virtually ignored, and I would have liked for them to have a chance to say a few things.  

[amazingracefan]

At least the winner last year tended to keep quiet about his immunity idols.

[SuburbanHangSuite]

I was a big James fan when he played but I don't ever need to hear him interview again.  Ever.

Is Sia still a thing?  But nice of her to reward Donathan for his selfless concern for family.  

Funny how everyone always looks better on the island.  Except Michael.  That kid is equally cute wherever.  

I think Kevin Hart was drunk.  Again.  And his new show looks just like Wipeout (Big Balls!) which I used to love but I don't intend to watch this.  

[ProfCrash]

Lamest reunion ever. Seriously, lamest reunion ever. 

I was fine with the extra 30 minutes for the tribal council but at least spend the 30 minutes in the reunion on the current cast. The good news was that the Caps were playing so I was watching hockey and fast forwarded through the most truncated reunion ever.

[Haleth]

The good?  Wendell winning.  (I would have been happy with Dom too, but it was obvious who Laurel was going to pick.)

The bad?  Everything else.  No one getting to speak.  Time wasted on James and Eric, some random little girl in the crowd, and an overlong commercial for Kevin Hart's show (followed by an overlong commercial for Kevin Hart's show).  Why bother bringing the whole cast back if Probst is going to ignore them?

7 hours ago, Kaiju Ballet said:

I would have loved to have heard more about why jurors voted the way they did, if they would have voted differently now that they've gotten to see it play out in the crappy edit. You know, stuff that should happen in a real reunion.

Hear, hear!

5 hours ago, violet and green said:

Nobody voted for her. Nobody! Donathan bizarrely voted for Wendell. (Just as well, imagine the sulkfest if he hadn't won...)

I believe the OP was referring to the earlier vote when Donathan was booted.  He was the only one to vote for Laurel despite Wendell giving her immunity.  Who knew that this meaningless gesture would help Wendell win a million?

[kikaha]

Suppose they didn't have the fire-making challenge at F4.  How does the game unfold in that case?

I think Dom and Angela vote to boot Wendell.  So the key vote is Laurel.  She can vote to boot Wendell, putting herself in F3, handing the game to Dom.  Or she can join Wendell in voting to boot Angela.  Tie, which means fire challenge between Wendell and Angela.  i.e. exactly what actually happened. 

Laurel is safely in F3 no matter what.  At the same time she's far closer to Wendell than to Angela.  So I think she probably does force the fire challenge. 

i.e this season the automatic fire-challenge may not have changed a thing. 

[RescueMom]

I think this is where I have to discuss the winner, right? It hit me that assuming the last two jurors didn’t change their votes from how they voted on the jury, Dom wasn’t going to win in the tiebreaker no matter which of them they kept at F5, or which of Angela/Laurel he picked to go to the end. I know the action to keep them around may have triggered one of them to vote differently, but Dom sure doesn’t need to kick himself for the decision to keep Laurel - Angela and Donathan also voted for Wendell. With hindsight, his only shot was to beat Wendell in the tiebreaker himself, but I sure don’t blame him for not taking that chance.

[Lamb18]

7 hours ago, 30 Helens said:

Goliaths will quickly pagong the Davids, leaving plenty of swarthy manly men to dominate the season and make Probst all tingly happy. I can.not. wait.  Yawn.

It would be funny if the first challenge was a slingshot (catapult) challenge.

[Wings]

@MVFrostsMyPie.  Yanny.  Nice touch!   Love ❤️ it. 

[Lamima]

4 hours ago, spiderpig said:

I was looking forward to seeing the overly-needy Mrs. Dom at the reunion.  Was she even there?  They had a split-second shot of Wendell's family.

Also, who was the woman in the pink and blue dress sitting in the front row of the audience?  She caught my attention for two reasons.  One, she sat there stony-faced while the rest of the audience laughed raucously.  Two, she had her feet and knees planted wide apart in a manner my mother would have strongly disapproved of.  Shoot - she got more camera time than Wendell!

I saw her.