Survivor: Palau may not kick off for another month, but that doesn't mean we can't start looking ahead a little early. The show premieres Thursday, February 17th, and welcomes 20 (yes, 20!!) new castaways. In a new twist...*Spoilers in white font* 3 people will be eliminated in the first show. The show will end on May 15th with its usual two hour finale and live reunion show. Here now are the participants:

COBY ARCHA
32
Athens, Texas
Hairstylist

ASHLEE ASHBY
22
Easley, S.C.
Student

GREGG CAREY
28
Chicago
Business Consultant

BOBBY JON DRINKARD
27
Santa Monica, Calif. (originally from Troy, Ala.)
Waiter

KATIE GALLAGHER
29
Merced, Calif.
Advertising Executive

CARYN GROEDEL
46
Solon, Ohio (Originally from Yonkers, N.Y.)
Civil Rights Attorney

ANGIE JAKUSZ
24
New Orleans
Bartender

JOLANDA JONES
39
Houston
Lawyer

STEPHENIE LaGROSSA
25
Philadelphia, Pa.
Pharmaceutical Sales Representative

JONATHAN LIBBY
23
Dallas
Sales and Marketing

JENNIFER LYON
32
Encino, Calif.
Nanny

JAMES MILLER
33
Mobile, Ala.
Steel Worker

KIMBERLY MULLEN
25
Huber Heights, Ohio
Graduate Student

IBREHEM RAHMAN
27
Birmingham, Ala.
Waiter

IAN ROSENBERGER
23
Key Largo, Fla. (originally from Ambridge, Pa.)
Dolphin Trainer

WANDA SHIRK
55
Ulysses, Pa.
English Teacher

WILLARD SMITH
57
Bellevue, Wash.
Lawyer

JANU TORNELL
39
Las Vegas
Vegas Showgirl

TOM WESTMAN
41
Sayville, N.Y.
N.Y. City Firefighter

JEFF WILSON
21
Ventura, Calif.
Personal Trainer

Well, this got lost in the shuffle. Either way, the premiere is ONE week from tomorrow, so get ready for yet another "Whole New Game" of Survivor. They always say that, but it only ends up being a little tweaking here and there. Here's hoping 20 castaways doesn't bog down the show.

Find the last season thread damnit. I called that twist and everyone said I was insane. :razz:

SPOILERS!!!







There are two rumors floating around as to how the three people are eliminated. The first one is that the castaways are put in small groups and aren't given any directions to find their camps, and the last two people to find the camp get voted off. The second rumor (which is most likely to happen) is that there is a challenge early on in the show. There will be two winners, who become the tribe leaders. They then pick tribemates one at a time, and the last two castaways left are eliminated.

Later, there is an immunity challenge and the third person is voted out in a normal tribal council.

I am SO glad they didn't pick Wanda. Her songs would have gotten old VERY, VERY fast. So.. I'm glad she's gone. Don't care much about the guy that was sent off, so.. yeah.

I feel the same way. Wanda reminded me too much of Lill from Pearl Islands; she would've been the first one to go even of she was picked. An annoying person who is also physically weak has almost no chance. I thought that Coby and Angie were going to be the ones that didn't get picked: They got a lot of screen time before the tribe picking, and I figured the producers would be nice and give the people booted first the most screen time. We hardly got to see anything about Jonathan; all we know is that Coby wanted to vote him out for some reason.

As for the tribal council, it's not a good sign when the leader is voted off. Unless someone replaces Jo as the tribe leader, Ulong's physical advantage won't help much.

Also, here's an interesting hypothetical: What if Ian, who got the immunity necklace first, had taken both of the necklaces when he got there? He could've used the second necklace as a bargaining chip to cement himself in an early alliance, or gain the trust of the person he gave it to. I'm not sure if it would be allowed, but it's a pretty neat idea to consider, should it ever happen in future editions.

Not surprised that Wanda wasn't selected. She was a bit too out there, I couldn't envision spending any length of time with someone as.......exhuberant as her. Surprised that Jonathan wasn't selected, he seemed to have some strength and probably would have been an asset, not sure what Coby had against him. Angie is already starting to get on my nerves. Very pessimistic, I don't think she made an attempt to ingratiate herself with other members of the tribe so of course she's going to be an outsider. Personally I'd be more upset with Coby not picking me than with getting picked last by the other tribe if I were her.

James reminds me of Dave from Paradise Hotel, it's scary. He's amusing but a bit grating.
The obstacle course was a nice start to the game, taking just the fire was a good move but I would have been tempted to take food too. Why the hell did they go to the new island? Did they expect a Holiday Inn once they got there? Plus they lost their fire, ha.

Jolanda made a large error in volunteering to be the leader at TC, that kind of stuff never works out for the best. Ulong(?) required her strength more than her leadership abilities, I just hope this doesn't turn into another edition where the weaker members take out the strong ones early on because they are afraid of immunity in the future.

A good start though, I'm back into Survivor after taking a lot of Vanuatu off.

That brought back memories of being picked last in gym class #-o .

Thank god that the kooky old gal got tossed. \:D/

My favourite is IAN at this early stage. I also like Tom and Stephenie.

Thank god they got rid of Wanda. She got on my nerves FAST. I have no idea why they did, but I'm glad they kept Willard. He seems like a pretty cool guy with an interesting personality for the show. From first impressions like Ibrehim, Ian, Willard, Tom, Jennifer, Gregg, and Ashlee (I think, don't know if I"m thinking of the right person). And yeah, Angie is a bit annoying. Coby seemed alright, but I get the impression he's not very trustworthy. Wouldn't have minded seeing why he didn't choose Angie.

No one stands out, ok episode.

Must suck to make it on the show and leave before the game even starts.

Were you watching The Apprentice? A few people stood out, actually. I'm not quite sure if you meant that like I thought, but I don't know. Coby stood out, Angie stood out, Willard stood out (that name alone makes him stand out), Wanda stood out (for bad reasons).

The comment heard in my home last night was "what a bunch of weirdos." Weird for weird sake doesn't make a reality tv contestant stand out IMO.

Coby is a copy of pass Survivors, as are Willard and Wanda. No one stood out. There's no breakout contestant or star this season.

All right, I see what you mean now.

Something I do hate about this season is what you said: a bunch of weird people. It's nice when there's two or three people who stand out, but it seems clear that Burnett and Co. thought Vanuatu lacked in any stand-out castaways, so they just went with the weirdest people they could find. It may be too much. We'll see as the show progresses. Feels like a Marquesas: good as a whole, but not a noteworthy season.

Isn't that a lot to say from one episode? :razz:

Nothing really stands out for me in this episode. It was fine and all, just nothing to really talk about (apart from the following ). I'm getting sick of having every Angie confessional end with 'I'm probably their next target' so thankfully she stopped that midway through this episode, she really did do well in that reward challenge. The highlight from that challenge was seeing that girl not make it across the rope swing for a good couple of minutes, that was hilarious. It narrowly beat out James and his spectacular wipeout on his first run through the course.

Ulong had tremendous difficulty at that immunity challenge, after such a strong start too. I wonder what happened, it's like that whole team just gave up. They did deserve to lose and I can't say that I'm particularly displeased that Ashlee is gone, as I don't know a thing about her aside from the fact that she isolated herself from her teammates, which surprisingly enough has never been a winning strategy - go figure.

Ah, an OK episode. This is one part that the Amazing Race does better. The Amazing Race is more fun to watch with a lot of teams at the beginning, while Survivor does better with 9 or less people at the end.

Alright episode, the wipe outs were EASILY the best part though, hillarious stuff. Oh, and Tom's a BEAST at the underwater rope pulling, guess that's what however many years of being a firefighter will do to ya.

Ok episode.

Got to agree. This is just an okay season so far. Nothing spectacular. I'm getting a lot more enjoyment watching the All-Stars season on DVD, and I thought that was only a bland season.

I didn't really pay attention to what was going on in the episode, since I was fixated on Stephenie's rock-hard body =P~ .

I wonder how close yesterday's episode came to being censored. This isn't Europe, there was an awful lot of DP action in that reward challenge. It was like watching a soft core gay porn.

The right person went home.

Jeff Probst gets better every year. He is so sarcastic, and takes no shit from everyone. If he wants to, he'll say and ask whatever he wants. When the other Jeff was explaining how he could have helped in the challenge, Jeff quickly replies with "What's your point?". I laughed so hard.

Probst is definitely one of the best reality show hosts, second only to Anderson Cooper in "The Mole". Judging from the preview for next week's episode, we're going to see more of that Probst sarcasm when he finds out that koror didn't pick a tribe leader.

It was actually a pretty good episode. I definitely prefer Ulong, though I feel bad for Ibrehim, though at least he doesn't have to worry about being voted off with so many other weak links. And wow at James, COBY kicked his ass! COBY! Oh, and that shelter prize was pretty neat, albeit extraordinarily obvious product placement.