S38.E15: Survivor: Edge of Extinction Reunion

[Lantern7]

10 hours ago, hoosiermom said:

Thanks to all the posts I saved 3 hours of time tonight by not watching.

"The more you suffer / The more it shows you really care" - The Offspring, "Self Esteem"

4 hours ago, phlebas said:

I didn't appreciate how uninterested I was in seeing Rob again until I saw Rob again.

I guess 2 million dollars doesn't spread all that far across 422 children.

Heh. I understand why he would be asked to come in a special role, but I still think he's the most overrated player Survivor has ever cast. He and Amber were far better Racers than castaways.

On the other hand, Sandra is awesome. Gone too soon in Game Changers, but she made sure she outlasted Tony and JT, ensuring she would be the only two-time winner in series history . . . and I think that was one of her main goals.

5 hours ago, KimberStormer said:

Jud as in Fabio?  Why on earth should he have an asterisk?  He won fair and square, indeed he ran rings around the two morons he was at the end with.

First of all, I think the contestants were cast for their ability to be dumb. The following season was "Rob vs. Russell," and I'm convinced Burnett and/.or Probst gave us an inferior edition to make the next one worth waiting for. Jud/Fabio won by one vote . . . but two of his votes came from Naonka and Kelly, and they both quit the game. If they had been expelled entirely, Jud loses to . . . someone else. Seriously, that cast was a dud.

1 hour ago, Ms Blue Jay said:

Chris asked Gavin a question, even though he's on "Trial", not the jury.  Kelley said "Could you let US ask the questions, I'm offended" and Lauren chimed in "Yeah that was really rude".  😂  Uhhhhh.  This isn't actual court and Jeff isn't an actual Supreme Court Judge.

Greta, now I'm imagining him in a robe, with RBG trying to kill him with her mind.

[Nashville]

A couple of thoughts:

1. So the “Sia Award” - which used to be the Survivor PETA Award for Animal Awareness - is now simply for whoever entertains Sia the most.  Sorry, Wendy; shoulda ate those chickens.  Better luck next time. 🐔🐔🍗
2. Probst is usually moderately savvy about his on-camera presentation- so wtf was going on in his head to start ad-lib joshing Joe about his hair on live TV?  Speaking as someone who wore my hair long from high school until well on into my 30s, what the HELL did Jiffy expect to come up with that Joe hadn’t already heard - and responded to - a few thousand times in his life?  That was Peachy carrying a pocketknife to a gunfight, right there.  😄 

[ByaNose]

And, then Joe promptly cut his hair. 

[gesundheit]

10 hours ago, 30 Helens said:

So I guess the abbreviated 30-min reunion show means that the producers already recognize that there was very little to celebrate about this season? I hope so.

One thing I always like about the reunion episodes is the chance to see what the contestants look like in “real” life. And yet, it’s always surprising to see how much better most of them look on the island! Especially the women. How is it that a shower and makeup manage to age some of them so much?

The 30-minute reunion show has been standard for a few seasons now. I'm not a fan of it, but at least it means fewer lengthy promos of new CBS game shows.

A lot of the women really do look much better on the island. For instance I thought Game-Victoria was very pretty, Jury-Victoria was hot as hell, and Reunion-Victoria was.... fine. I do think a big distinction, though, it that for the reunions they have pros doing their makeup and hair and is probably not a fair representation of how they normally look. (Gavin is an example of a man I thought looked way better during the game.)

I don't think I understand why people are angry about the Sia award. Since they obviously cut the budget for the Fan Favorite Award and they have a celebrity just handing a player $100K that's at zero expense to production, why the hell wouldn't they include that in the reunion show? They'd be idiots not to include it!

[Nashville]

6 minutes ago, ByaNose said:

And, then Joe promptly cut his hair. 

From Jack SpareMe to drugrunner in one easy step.

Edited May 16, 2019 by Nashville

[Cutty]

He'd look better if he lost the stupid facial hair.

[fishcakes]

Even though the reunion was short, Jeff did a better job of talking to everyone. He only missed Keith, who probably would have dithered through an answer anyway, and Eric, but since he talked to Chris, it's basically the same thing as talking to Eric. The low point was getting Julia to talk more about her father; EoE was such a dud that they had to turn it into The Island of Healing All Our Emotional Wounds, which was bad enough during the finale. We really didn't need to see it again at the reunion.

Wentworth wants to inspire teenage girls and show them that they too can overstay their welcome on reality TV.

2 hours ago, Ms Blue Jay said:

Why did Sia give Devens $100,000 when she only gave Davie $14,000?  What the fuck is going on here?   I want her to answer to this.  

The Sia award is all over the place. Tai got $50K because he loves animals and Sia loves animals. Then Donathan got $10K because he loves his grandma and Sia loves her grandma, but five times less than she loves animals, I guess. Later, Sia discovered that under U.S. tax law, she can give away $14K without paying tax on it, so she gave Donathan another $4K and gave Davie $14K because ... something. Now Devens gets $100K because she thought he was entertaining and Joe gets $15K for cutting his hair and ending up looking like he's dying of some kind of wasting disease. Whatever. As long as they do it backstage and we don't turn 5 of the now 20 minutes allotted for the reunion show to her, I don't care.

2 hours ago, Ms Blue Jay said:

Chris is so beautiful.

I'm not entirely convinced that he's not the husband in the Papa Murphy's commercial:

[iMonrey]

If I live to be a thousand I will never understand this show's obsession with Joe. Is he really that popular? With children? Why? Aside from the hair he's pretty ordinary looking and he has zero personality. I just don't get it.

And ugh, enough with Boston Rob already. You just know they're going to let him and Sandra back into the game. I will most likely be skipping next season. I need a long break.

I like Chris but his win does feel like a cheat. I would be interested to know who would have won if Rick had been in the final two with Chris. Would Chris still have won? 

[ProfCrash]

1 minute ago, iMonrey said:

If I live to be a thousand I will never understand this show's obsession with Joe. Is he really that popular? With children? Why? Aside from the hair he's pretty ordinary looking and he has zero personality. I just don't get it.

And ugh, enough with Boston Rob already. You just know they're going to let him and Sandra back into the game. I will most likely be skipping next season. I need a long break.

I like Chris but his win does feel like a cheat. I would be interested to know who would have won if Rick had been in the final two with Chris. Would Chris still have won? 

If the Ponderosa video is anything to trust, Rick wins in a landslide.

[Bryce Lynch]

54 minutes ago, Nashville said:

A couple of thoughts:

1. So the “Sia Award” - which used to be the Survivor PETA Award for Animal Awareness - is now simply for whoever entertains Sia the most.  Sorry, Wendy; shoulda ate those chickens.  Better luck next time. 🐔🐔🍗
2. Probst is usually moderately savvy about his on-camera presentation- so wtf was going on in his head to start ad-lib joshing Joe about his hair on live TV?  Speaking as someone who wore my hair long from high school until well on into my 30s, what the HELL did Jiffy expect to come up with that Joe hadn’t already heard - and responded to - a few thousand times in his life?  That was Peachy carrying a pocketknife to a gunfight, right there.  😄 

Wendy not getting the Sia Money for pretending to care about the chickens, when she really only cared about drawing attention to herself was the one redeeming outcome of this horrible season.   

[Wandering Snark]

1 hour ago, fishcakes said:

Wentworth wants to inspire teenage girls and show them that they too can overstay their welcome on reality TV.

This made me LOL.

Also, I'm guessing that the 'Idols' will only communicate with the survivors through one of those glass tubes like at a bank. Write your question on a parchment and wait for the answer while fireballs shoot out of the eyes of the stone idols to invoke the proper respect from the lowly newbies.

Edited May 16, 2019 by Wandering Snark

[vb68]

1 hour ago, Nashville said:

Probst is usually moderately savvy about his on-camera presentation- so wtf was going on in his head to start ad-lib joshing Joe about his hair on live TV?  Speaking as someone who wore my hair long from high school until well on into my 30s, what the HELL did Jiffy expect to come up with that Joe hadn’t already heard - and responded to - a few thousand times in his life?  That was Peachy carrying a pocketknife to a gunfight, right there.  😄 

The sad thing was that Joe thought Probst was actually sincerely giving him advice. Joe kept saying. " Wait. Wait! You really think THAT's the reason?"  After Joe wasn't going to let it go, you could tell Probst slowly realized that it was a big mistake to go there.

Quote

Aurora also got Sia money.  They need Oprah to narrate the reunion shows: "YOU get a wad of dough, YOU get a wad of dough, YOU get a wad of dough."

They had a version of that the early season where Rosie O'Donnell hosted the Reunion and gave everyone a car.

Edited May 16, 2019 by vb68

[Tryangle]

12 hours ago, SnideAsides said:

Better shot of the logo for next season. I like the colour scheme, I guess? It's certainly one of the less hideous logos we've had recently.

The name is clutzy, but the colour scheme is cool.

1 hour ago, gesundheit said:

A lot of the women really do look much better on the island. For instance I thought Game-Victoria was very pretty, Jury-Victoria was hot as hell, and Reunion-Victoria was.... fine.

This. Victoria after one night of Ponderosa was *smashing*.

I think they're all cleaning up quite well for the reunion show. Reem's hairstyle works amazing for her, for example. Lauren looked great. Wendy, also gorgeous. Props to whoever above compared Aurora to Ronda Rousey, but Aurora looked quite beautiful.

As for Probst and that all-too-awkward BROS moment with Joe, yeah you'd think after all those years he'd figure out how to handle chatting with his man-crushes.

Sandra and Rob as mentors for next season is intriguing, although I don't rate Rob as highly as Sandra on the skilled Survivors meter. Hopefully they won't manipulate outcomes to suit whatever TPTB deigns as their golden child(ren).

On Joe (and Kelly Wentworth)... they'd probably be suited for the next Amazing Race Reality Crossover season - they'd be MILES more pleasant to watch than Corinne and Eliza, and tons more competent too. Let's not further damage Joe's legacy with another Survivor run.

Edited May 16, 2019 by Tryangle
added Amazing Race bit

[30 Helens]

2 hours ago, ByaNose said:

And, then Joe promptly cut his hair. 

There goes his vast prepubescent following. Children love pirates!! Short haired hipster douches...meh.

Seriously, nobody had a razor?

[LadyChatts]

2 hours ago, ByaNose said:

And, then Joe promptly cut his hair. 

There goes my fantasy season: Team Joe vs Team Ozzy vs Team Malcolm-Island of Manbuns

[blackwing]

11 minutes ago, LadyChatts said:

There goes my fantasy season: Team Joe vs Team Ozzy vs Team Malcolm-Island of Manbuns

Oh, don't worry.  In two seasons or so when they have Survivor: Fourth Chance I'm sure his hair will be back to long and flowing pirate status.

I actually think that a Survivor: Last Chance season would be great.  Invite Joey Amazing, Kelly Wentworth, Ciera Eastin, and all of the other multiple time losers with the caveat that if they lose, they will NEVER appear on a CBS reality show ever again.

Is Island of the Idols a test to see which of Rob or Sandra might take over hosting duties from Jeff?  I know it's been 20 years, but Jeff is just looking so old.  Rob doesn't look that great either... I know he was never buff but was his face always so puffy looking?

[tvfanatic13]

2 hours ago, gesundheit said:

The 30-minute reunion show has been standard for a few seasons now. I'm not a fan of it, but at least it means fewer lengthy promos of new CBS game shows.

A lot of the women really do look much better on the island. For instance I thought Game-Victoria was very pretty, Jury-Victoria was hot as hell, and Reunion-Victoria was.... fine. I do think a big distinction, though, it that for the reunions they have pros doing their makeup and hair and is probably not a fair representation of how they normally look. (Gavin is an example of a man I thought looked way better during the game.)

I don't think I understand why people are angry about the Sia award. Since they obviously cut the budget for the Fan Favorite Award and they have a celebrity just handing a player $100K that's at zero expense to production, why the hell wouldn't they include that in the reunion show? They'd be idiots not to include it!

A thousand likes for this. I posted on the episode thread that Victoria was gorgeous, but I agree that on the jury was her best, smoking hot, look.

ETA- what the hell was going on with Jeff's reunion hair??

Edited May 16, 2019 by tvfanatic13

[Haleth]

5 hours ago, blackwing said:

  I am hoping that the "Idols" refer to the two huge heads and that there are in fact zero hidden immunity idols.  Everyone will spend hours looking for something that doesn't exist.

Maybe Rob and Sandra will hide in the jungle and the players will have to search for them. Hidden idols. 

Eh, Sia can give whatever money she sees fit, for whatever reason she wants. Not sure it should be part of the show though. 

I think Joe has gone from looking like Jack Sparrow to looking like Ozzy.  

[mikewho]

3 hours ago, fishcakes said:

Even though the reunion was short, Jeff did a better job of talking to everyone.

I watched the final episodes online, and the reunion show clocked in at 16 minutes and change.

At first I was pissed, 'cause I miss the days of the finale being an hour long and everybody got a chance to speak.

Then I was over it. 'Cause it seemed like EVERYBODY Jeff spoke to initially had the same answer. Because he basically asked the same question: What has this Survivor experience meant to YOU?

'I went on Survivor to prove to my husband, wife, girlfriend, children, my 1st grade teacher (RIP), my old paperboy, the lady that did my Granny's hair (RIP), my grandchildren and their friends and my cat...that you can be Anything you want to be and accomplish whatever you think you can't do and I proved that to myself so everybody else should be able to, too. I'm a changed person!'

I had to laugh a little when he went to Wardog and asked him a question. You could tell that Wardog was all ready to answer it, but before he got to even squeak one out Probst said, 'Now moving on to this other chick, what did you?...Blah blah blah.' Stole Wardog's thunder.

I have to admit, this was the most interesting episode of this season. Until the Final Tribal Counsel. That was a yawner.

And somebody got another SIA award. Is that supposed to be some kind of accomplishment?

Rick was fishing for a better job as a news caster. I hope he doesn't get one in my area. The news programs around here are fucked up enough as it is.

9 minutes ago, Haleth said:

I think Joe has gone from looking like Jack Sparrow to looking like Ozzy.

Agreed.

[Special K]

1 minute ago, mikewho said:

Rick was fishing for a better job as a news caster. I hope he doesn't get one in my area. The news programs around here are fucked up enough as it is.

LMAO.

[ByaNose]

2 hours ago, tvfanatic13 said:

A thousand likes for this. I posted on the episode thread that Victoria was gorgeous, but I agree that on the jury was her best, smoking hot, look.

ETA- what the hell was going on with Jeff's reunion hair??

Jeff is trying to remain eternally young looking with his Botox and dyed hair. The high def was really picking up the hair like never before. He’s 57 now and older then most the contestants cast. Even the sweatshirt and jeans looked kind of ridiculous on him. He’s like Ryan Seacrest and trying to remain young when they aren’t in their 20’s and 30’s anymore. The TV hosting struggle is real. 

[green]

5 hours ago, Nashville said:

From Jack SpareMe to drugrunner in one easy step.

I went with pirate to 70's lounge lizard but yeah you were closer.

Actually I think Rob and Sandra returning look like a breath of fresh air after this season.  And I like Rob's snark and love Sandra and her winning twice so I'm okay with those two living on Isle of Giant Idol Heads formerly called Isle of Totally Failed Concept ... err ... Extinction.

This season was so bad that Probst was trying desperately to "save it" on the live show by endlessly calling it a great social experiment and using filler crap here (and in the episode) about how Extinction Isle changes lives forever.  It sure changed mine as regards to liking Survivor going directly from the Nick/Christian season to this train wreck. 

That along with the Un-Epic Interview About Joe's "Unbalanced" Hair and Probst stealing my dirty old gray sweatshirt from my laundry basket made this the worst live show ever.  (Gimme me back my sweatshirt, Probst.  I actually wear these things in real life.  Not prance around in them on national TV).

[GenerationX]

I've seen every episode since season 1, and this season was easily near the bottom for many reasons - terrible gimmick, thoroughly unsatisfying conclusion - to name two.

If (and this is a really big "if") the idiot producers don't litter the Island of Idols with another shitload of immunity idols, next season could be interesting.  The coach idea is new, and Rob and Sandra are excellent players who have also always been very entertaining in their interviews.

I will not watch another season with a loser's bracket.

[ratgirlagogo]

When the season started one of my main questions was exactly this - would all the booted players go to jury?   Because they did, overall this season ended up being much worse than I thought it might be.  Edge of Extinction beach was mostly a big nothing.  But the worst thing was that every single person kicked off was on the jury, and just as I thought would happen in that case - almost everyone on EoE (except Wentworth, I think?) voted for Chris, since as he was the third boot, and the 2nd boot raised the flag, only Reem had been voted out before him.  He had played no role at all in ANY of the other boots and had had a whole month to curry favor with them.  The jury members who had remained in the game mostly went with Gavin.  I really hope Edge of Extinction goes into the shitcan along with the Medallion of Power.

13 hours ago, Wandering Snark said:

Also, I'm guessing that the 'Idols' will only communicate with the survivors through one of those glass tubes like at a bank. Write your question on a parchment and wait for the answer while fireballs shoot out of the eyes of the stone idols to invoke the proper respect from the lowly newbies.

LOL.  And as somebody said above, with Sandra and Rob maneuvering gears and levers behind the Big Giant Heads, like in the Wizard of Oz.  I love Sandra and I don't hate Rob - and as long as they're not playing again I actually think this might be very entertaining.  They both really shine as narrators of the show (unlike for example fucking COCHRAN), which I hope is the main role they will be playing

Edited May 17, 2019 by ratgirlagogo

[Kenzie]

I half expected Wardog to reveal at the reunion that his comical athletics in the challenges was all a part of his game strategy to stay under the radar. But apparently the truth was that his basic training was at Camp Jerry Lewis.

[ljenkins782]

On 5/16/2019 at 10:40 AM, blackwing said:

I truly hope that this is the last we ever have to see of Joey Amazing.

I truly hope that this is the last we ever have to see of Kelly Wentworth.

Unfortunately, I am sure they will be back AGAIN for their fourth failed attempts.  Joe wants to do it for his fans and Kelly seems to think she has become some sort of feminist icon.  Barf.  They are both horrible players.  Joe is good in challenges but has learned absolutely nothing about how to play a social game in all of the times he has played.  Kelly has now had two dud seasons where she was pretty much a non-entity.  Her only decent season was in Second Chances and that was only because she found two idols and played one memorably.  I can't believe she thinks she is anything worthy of being admired by teenage girls.  

I'm eternally baffled by Jeff's/the show's fascination with Joe. He's played 3 times, never changed a damn thing about his gameplay and went out in a similar spot each time. Why on earth do we need to see a 4th round? I have zero doubt that we will see him again, but I really do not get the hype. 

Quote

That is a horrid look for Joe.  He went from pirate to sleazy looking lounge lizard.

Quote

And aged twenty-five years.

I think he's going to need to change up his wardrobe with that haircut. Somehow the flowery blouses and necklaces look odder against the short hair. And yeah, he appears to have aged rapidly. I think he's lost too much weight, I remember him having kind of a baby face in his original season.

I used to really like the Survivor reunions back when they used to actually discuss things that happened on the season. Now they're just 15 minutes of nonsense that seems completely unrelated to the season we just watched.

[dsteele]

23 hours ago, blackwing said:

Invite Joey Amazing, Kelly Wentworth, Ciera Eastin, and all of the other multiple time losers with the caveat that if they lose, they will NEVER appear on a CBS reality show ever again.

Fabulous idea. And it would be an excellent rule for other reality shows, as well.

[Richness]

19 hours ago, GenerationX said:

The coach idea is new, and Rob and Sandra are excellent players who have also always been very entertaining in their interviews.

Not really. Any time they've mixed newbie and veteran survivors together, there's been an unofficial coach situation. (Not to be confused with "the" Coach, AKA Dragonslayer AKA whatever.) This very season saw them using the veterans knowledge in the beginning to build up their tribes, only to cut them loose as soon as they could. And this has been true all the way back to when they brought back Stephanie and Bobby Jon.

The only difference this time is that Rob and Sandra won't be participating as Survivors for the million dollars. So in that regards, they're serving in the same capacity as Cochran did with they flew him out to serve as an advisor/coach during a reward on Ghost Island(?). But given they're making them camp on the island like regular Survivors,

Spoiler

I  suspect there's going to be a twist at some point that reveals they were playing for an additional prize, or that they're gonna be tossed into the merged tribe. This thought just came to me as I was writing this comment, as it seems to mirror the way they kept the EOE players on as similar a playing field as they could to the main players (limited food, occasional challenges, etc.)

And they might have been entertaining at some point, but I'm so tired of seeing the same people over and over again. One return visit is about all I can tolerate before a players starts to overstay their welcome.

Edited May 17, 2019 by Richness
Placing the spoiler tag since that's speculation, and I see others have thought similar in the specular thread.

[mikewho]

1 minute ago, Richness said:

The only difference this time is that Rob and Sandra won't be participating as Survivors for the million dollars.

One thing I feel sure of. No matter how they figure into the game, I'm sure they were paid a butt-ton of money just for BEING there.

[Maverick]

Are David and Cochran writing for Star Trek Discovery or Picard?   If the former, I'm not sure that's anything to brag about. 

[Brookside]

On ‎5‎/‎16‎/‎2019 at 6:53 AM, Ms Blue Jay said:

 This year was creepy in general.  Way too many people in their underwear at all times.

It's been like this for as long as I can remember.  Granted, I'm old and feeble minded, but I don't think it's anything new.

[Ms Blue Jay]

7 hours ago, Brookside said:

It's been like this for as long as I can remember.  Granted, I'm old and feeble minded, but I don't think it's anything new.

I randomly Googled pictures of Cagayan, the season that got me back into this show, and the first picture here, everyone but 1 person is fully clothed, and in the second picture, the entire tribe is given proper bathing suits.  I disagree.

[Special K]

13 minutes ago, Ms Blue Jay said:

I randomly Googled pictures of Cagayan, the season that got me back into this show, and the first picture here, everyone but 1 person is fully clothed, and in the second picture, the entire tribe is given proper bathing suits.  I disagree.

They used to give them their bathing suits around the time of the merge, if I remember correctly, about when their underwear was getting too gross or saggy.  It's only been the past couple seasons that they haven't given them proper bathing suits at all.  Which I think is ridiculous.