I can't stand Ulong and their whiny-ness. Especially when discussing why Koror won the reward, it was because they were due. Because it couldn't possibly be because there's was better and had more functional spaces. That adjustable shower was neat, also neat the fact that their washroom was well away from where the sleep - smart move. The shelter that the experts built looked pretty sweet, and would make life on Palau a lot more bearable.

The immunity challenge was fun to watch if only to see Caryn get destroyed, man is she annoying. I was impressed with Stephenie and Angie, they are always impressive in challenges, but Angie lost me with her trash talk - I'd be surprised if no one on Koror remembers that and gives that as an excuse not to like her. Plus is doesn't look good after an eventual loss. Also good to see Willard and Jenn from Koror get some face time, we haven't seen them much.

So Kim is gone, that's gonna be a hell of a blow to Ulong seeing as though she was the "smart one while the rest of them are like chickens with their heads cut off". I only hope they can somehow push past this tragedy of seeing a completely useless and demoralizing being removed from their midst.

I am rooting for Koror. Usually I'm pretty good for liking the underdogs, but when the underdogs are a bunch of sore losers and whiners, it's hard to like them. Well, it's mainly James. I was laughing when he thought the other team won because it was their time to win. Right. Three straight immunity challenges (before their eventual fourth win) doesn't make them obvious winners at all. Could it be your team sucks? Angie... I don't like her. She's a very subtle kind of arrogance. She seems like she thinks she runs the ship, but she doesn't. She has just gotten lucky since the first episode. Ibrehem... too quiet. He rarely says a peep, and so far what he does say, or more rather do, is roll his eyes. Bobby Jon would have been better on Big Brother with The Meathead Gang (Jase, Scott, Michael and Drew). I was so glad that Tom (who has yet to prove to be likeable or hateable) whupped his ass twice. Bobby Jon figured he had it in the bag cause he's strong.

On the flip side, Tom is pretty good so far. He is James without the apparent arrogance, although he borders on being arrogant all the time. He's a good leader, without standing out as a leader. Ian is plain goofy looking, but he's the kind of charming guy you'd find in a romantic comedy. He's the guy who is written as a hopeless clutz in a movie, when he's rather handsome, but no one seems to know it in the movie. Haven't had much of an opinion on Coby, but he kicked James' ass, so he wins major points in my book. Willard didn't say a peep till last night. I want to like him, because he looks smart although weak in challenges, but I don't have a lot to go on. Everyone else... don't really know. With 9 strong, it's hard to focus on anyone else, I guess, which is why Ulong is easy to dissect with 6 (now 5) left.

Why is the new episode airing tonight at 7pm instead of on Thursday? What's happening Thursday?

And ooh, both teams are voting.

NCAA Basketball Tourney starts tomorrow night. CBS will be airing that.

As for this year's Survivor, I'm not sure I'm digging anybody yet. The tribe that keeps losing (Ulong) has got to be the oddest assortment of characters I've ever seen on a tribe - and not in a good way. Koror isn't much better either. Where is a Rupert, Elizabeth, or Colby when you need one?

Another Colby or Elisabeth I can take, I don't need another survivor Rupert who had to have one the larger senses of entitlement on this show. His scary rage at getting a vote or two early on in Survivor: Pearl Islands really made me dislike him.

I'm not interested in anyone either, and being unable to root for someone is really lessening my enjoyment of the franchise.

Reality shows are completely dependent on the cast. No matter how good the premises is, if the cast sucks and you don't care about any of them, there is no point in watching.

Especially reality shows that are going on their 10th incarnation. Early on in its run I could watch Survivor fervently with only a passing interest in the cast but as time went by that feeling faded. The Amazing Race is probably the only reality show that I watch more for the premise than the cast. Survivor doesn't have the same feel, so they better cast some better people for Survivor: Madagascar or wherever the hell they end up going.

Wow, they laid it on pretty thick, what a clusterfuck of voting.

That was a long drawn out Survivor. I hate it when they make somebody get voted off, even if they win. The other tribe was doing so good they had to make up an excuse to get them voted off. It really is a lackluster Survivor year... this might be my least favorite season ever.

I actually liked the twists. They were pretty clever, but I'm surprised Angie was voted off instead of the evil hick dude.

Yep, I hate that too. So much for being rewarded for doing so well in challenges. I hate them trying to somewhat level the playing field for the eventual merge. It's not Koror's fault that Ulong can't win immunity to save their lives.

Not really surprised at Willard's ouster, still perplexed over him being picked over Jonathan. Did we see Willard do anything aside from sitting out every other challenge? At least he understood that he was useless and didn't mind leaving. Also questioning Ibreheim immunity, surely a merge can't be far away and he would definitely be a threat to win some of those. He could also help Ulong in whatever team challenges are remaining, so if I were Koror I would have let Ulong take him out.


I think it has quite a bit lower to drop before it reaches Survivor: Africa levels of suck.

I don't know. I think this is a pretty good season actually and my early favourite from the first episode, Stephenie, has developed into one of the finest survivor contestants ever, male or female. I just hope she can somehow manage to get herself into an existing Koror alliance, once the merge comes.

This is shaping up to be on the bad side of Survivor seasons for me. I only really like Tom, and even he's not incredibly likeable. I think if Coby and Co. want to try and pick off the other four tribe members, they should have kept Willard, because you do not want to have a 4 vs. 4 vote at tribal councils. Ties don't always end well. Oh well, so long, Ulong.

How is this possible - Highlight to read

No merge this season

That's freaking cool! An entire team will be dissolved! This season is a lot more different from others.

I'm happy to see James go. He hides his racism well , with that Allah comment.

Rednecks should be banned from reality tv.

That's not really racism is it? It's religion, not race... but I guess he could be a little racist.

The "my god" comment didn't win any points and for him to comment on Allah, means he's been thinking a lot about it.

Putting 2 and 2 together, something about James says racist redneck to me.

That was one of the more exciting immunity challenges in recent memory, so much for James' skill with knot tying back to the Navy for him. I felt bad for Stephenie because I like her, and I think on Koror she would be doing well but thems the breaks.

Kind of worried about Janu, we don't hear anything from her after she climbed in the tree in episode 1 and now she's breaking down in the hammock? I think if she were as big a drama queen as Katie says, we would have seen at least some of that in previous weeks.
Speaking of Katie, what exactly does she contribute to Koror? I'm sure those necklaces and bracelets would come in handy if she were on Wickedly Perfect, but not so much on Survivor.

James, apparently 'his god' was out to lunch when tribal council was taking place. Can't say I blame that god because James wasn't worth saving. For all his talk of not losing and winning at all costs he sucked just as much as any of them.

I've searched all the survivor spoiler websites, and I can't find any rumors about there not being a merge. Loyal, where did you hear about this?

There has to be a merge next episode. If there isn't one, Koror has such a huge lead that they're going to be forced to sit out at least one person in back-to-back challenges (4 people sat out last time, but only 3 can participate in the next challenge).

I should have posted the source, my bad.

http://www.tvguide.com/news/askausiello/

There's also a quote from Willard about Koror never losing an immunity challenge.

http://community.realitytvworld.com/boards/DCForumID2/5814.shtml

Hope that helps.

Dalton Ross is funny

http://aolsvc.news.aol.com/tv/article.adp?id=20050324064709990003&cid=918

On 'Survivor,' the Chips Are Down for Ulong

Dalton Ross, Entertainment Weekly

After last weeks installment, which featured more twists than a Chubby Checker song, it was nice to get back to a plain-Jane Survivor: Palau episode. It felt just like old times: blatant product placement, Ulong choking at an immunity challenge, and Jeff Probst once again ignoring my fashion advice and donning a baseball cap. Actually, for a while I was wondering if we would ever even get to the episode. Just going over all those insane twists and turns led to the longest "Previously on . . ." recap Ive ever seen! Seriously, that thing lasted longer than Jonathan and Wandas stay on the island, which, granted, is not saying a whole hell of a lot.

It's funny, you would think this one-sided affair of a season, with one tribe (Koror) completely dominating another (Ulong), would get boring after a while, but you know what? I love it. I love watching James keep missing the targets in the reward challenge after claiming that he's fired off a lot of guns. I love watching Ibrehem just hang out and wade in the ocean during the immunity challenge. And I love watching James, a self-proclaimed knot expert, have his alleged masterpiece undone in a matter of seconds by a "broken-down showgirl" (Cobys words, not mine) on her last legs. I guess Im just a coldhearted bastard who enjoys seeing people get pummeled. But apparently, Im not the only one. Every week I keep predicting a merge or tribe shake-up, assuming there is no way Mark Burnett will let one team get completely destroyed, and each week he makes me look like a complete idiot. But the cagey producer has done a smart thing. Had they merged or switched things up, the Koror folks would have just picked off the Ulong people one by one. Granted, they are doing that now anyway, but at least there is still some suspense when we get to tribal council.

Its also pretty freakin funny to watch Koror have to sit out practically their entire tribe during challenges. (Ian was so bored watching the reward shoot-out that he started doing the wave in the background on the bench.) Speaking of that challenge, remind me not to piss off Stephenie whenever she shows up on "Survivor: Live," especially if she is packing a 50-caliber small class canon. She scored four of her teams eight hits to win them a box of Pringles. And speaking of Pringles, why did all of their on-air trivia questions center on Survivor's two arguably worst seasons ? Africa and Thailand? Actually, theres really no argument ? they both sucked.

There was one part of the reward I hope challenge producer John Kirhoffer took note of: when the Ulong folk started asking each other those Survivor trivia questions. Truth be told, whenever they do trivia challenges about current players, like "How many kids does so-and-so have?" it bores me to tears, but putting their knowledge of Survivor history to use would be pretty cool. (Hey, some 13-year-old girl pitched Kirhoffer a challenge idea and got it on the air, so why cant I? Who knows? Maybe they even did this on All-Stars. I cant remember ? that whole season is one big Romber blur. Or, Romblur, as it were.)

What else to say about this episode? I thought the swimming-with-jellyfish scene was pretty cool, even if Bobby Jon and Stephenie did look a bit like Marlin and Dory in Finding Nemo. (You know the scene.) I also liked the way teams were forced to be not only offensive but defensive as well in the immunity challenge. (Even if I didnt, I would say I did just so I could butter Kirhoffer up to get my challenge idea on the air.) And what of James? He seemed devious. He talked smack about people. And he kept wearing that ugly-ass tunic to tribal council that made him look like some sort of Polyphonic Spree reject. But evidently, people there liked him. Even Stephenie couldnt bring herself to vote against him the first time. Which brings us to another question. Why does this woman keep changing her votes after ties? I understand last week, because she did the math and realized Angie was going either way and she could keep her vote against Bobby Jon under wraps. But here she was clearly outed as betraying Bobby Jon and voting against Ibrehem in the first go-round. At that point, why not stick to your guns in the do-over? (And shes good with guns, remember?)

Since were discussing Stephenie and Bobby Jon, its a good time to pause for the cause and pay tribute to the unintentionally hilarious quote of the week, which comes from B.J. himself, who informed us that "it will definitely be me and Stephenie all the way to the end." Dude, do you know how to count? The score is Koror 8, Ulong 3. The end is nearer than you think. For both you and this weeks column.

Crap... I forgot Survivor was on Wed this week. #-o

From the recap above (thanks, loyal!) it sounds like the same old stuff.

It's painfully obvious that somebody is going to win from the Koror alliance of Ian, Tom, and the other 3. That's why this season is so boring to me. Let's just cut to the final 5 so we can get down to business.

While I think that's the most likely outcome, there is a chance that Gregg and Coby can put their plan into action and have an alliance of Gregg, Jen, Janu and Coby be the primary force in the game. I hope the latter comes to pass, makes it more interesting, but with Janu's emotional display in front of Koror that may be in jeopardy. At this rate Koror won't even get the opportunity to do some Pagonging

This is what plagued All-Stars: predictability. You know damn well no Ulong member will have a fighting chance at the final four, let alone be the Sole Survivor. But, I am getting a TON of enjoyment out of cheering on Koror. My dad can't see why I like them, because he's an underdog person (I usually am too), but the whole tribe is a bunch of whiny crybabies. I bet if they could, they would blame the crew on Survivor for making hard challenges and such. The first line James spoke in Episode 1, I thought "He seems cool". My tune changed fairly fast. Good riddance. Good riddance Ulong, actually. Bobby Jon is a Colby Clone (although I grew to like Colby, after re-watching Australia and All-Stars). Stephenie... she's TOO competitive, and that makes a sore loser. You can tell she is. Ibrehem is okay, but he's pretty dull, too. He's like the lonesome pup that can't find his way home.

On the flip side, there's only one major stand-out who I want to see go on: Tom. I like him a lot. Mind you, there hasn't been a lot of emphasis on him, and he could become a really hateable guy soon. Coby, you can tell, is a good player and knows the game well. Not intentionally comparing two gay guys here, but he reminds me A BIT (emphasis on that) of Richard, in his way of scheming.