Since Production couldn't know which path Jaime, Josh and Carson would choose, the only way to assure they'd wind up on new tribes was to wait and see which path each would take and THEN place the buff. That means Production actually decided where each would go.

I've always believed that many random swaps were actually fixed before hand so it's interesting to know that they actually do present pre-arranged swaps for random ones.

• RE: S44 Ep4 - The FIX was ON!,Aruba, 11:20 AM, 03-26-23
  • RE: S44 Ep4 - The FIX was ON!,michel2, 04:55 PM, 03-26-23
    • RE: S44 Ep4 - The FIX was ON!,Aruba, 05:22 AM, 03-28-23

LOL. You just keep spinning, Michel...it’s what you do best. LMAO

Listen, if you want to blast Production for arranging TWO Journey Island Expeditions within a week span in a season that starts off with three tribes of six, then go ahead and fire away. I won’t stand in the crossfire.

The whole purpose of a tribal swap is for players to SWAP tribes...hence the term tribal "SWAP." Get it??? That being said, you do not want to have a player reach into a bag and draw their OWN buff from its original tribe. That would defy the whole purpose of a "SWAP." And you don’t want the same color buff being drawn by two different players...especially if you’re so dead set against starting a game with a 5-4 gender division.

So, I’m certain when the decision was made for the swap to occur during Ep. 4, it was predetermined A player from Tika would go to Ratu; A player from Ratu would go to Soka, and A player from Soka would go to Tika. Please note the emphasis on “A,” thus I do not regard that as a “fix.” Now, do I regard starting a season with three tribes of six and then having a swap on Day 8 an imbecilic twist? You betcha.

I suppose it could have been rigged if, for the RC, Production filled ONLY Soka’s bags with photo diodes to act as laser-seekers sensitive to laser light. Then someone from Production would operate a high-intensity invisible laser beam to “paint” a target on all the structures just for Soka. As the laser beams reflected off the Soka targets, the diodes in the Soka bags would pick it up guaranteeing a hit and ensuring a Soka victory. Production would then have to place a “proverbial gun” to Heidi’s head and force her to select Josh, Jaime and Carson. HMMM, come to think of it, I might be warming up to these obnoxious conspiracy theories—NOT!!

The biggest flaw with this “fix” accusation, is you are talking about a group of decision-makers who if so bent-out-of-shape over starting a season with two tribes of nine because of 5-4 gender splits, would “rig” it so on Day 8 you would have a 4-1 male advantage on Ratu and Tika tribe going into ep. 5 with only THREE players?! Talk about a gross case of inconsistency in a monumental way.

You just keep spinning, Michel...it’s what you do best! LMAO!!

Is it hard for you to understand that the negativity for starting with tribes of 9 DOESN'T come from me but directly from Probst in an interview. As for me Guatemala is one of my favorite all-time and it did start with uneven numbers and it had a fixed swap to give an advantage to Stepheneie.

(Probst has given so many interviews that I am not even going to try to unearth it but I did read it.)

The difference between starting at nine and doing a swap with tribes of 6 comes down from what Josh said: The swapped players have value for their connections so the nuimbers don't matter as much.

The thing is it shouldn't be hard for you to understand: Just imagine a season with an ardent feminist who gathers the other 4 women and simply says: We stick together and we vote out the 4 guys one after the other. And then iumagine that's just what happens. They lose the first 4 IC, get rid of 4 guys and then they keep their numbers after the merge to have a Final 7 with only women. You would blow a gasket!

There has been very suspicious swaps over the years, starting with the first All-Stars where everyone swapped except for Amber. It was EVIDENT that production wanted to put an end to the showmance and, once that failed, they switched, probably saying: If you can't beat them, join them. Whereas they probably would have prefered a final 5 with Rob, Big Tom, Lex, Kathy and Rupert, they managed to build the season on the showmance.

If anyone is having a challenging time understanding it is YOU. I’m going to reprint from my previous post:

“The biggest flaw with this “fix” accusation, is you are talking about a GROUP OF DECISION-MAKERS who if so bent-out-of-shape over starting a season with two tribes of nine because of 5-4 gender splits, would “rig” it so on Day 8 you would have a 4-1 male advantage on Ratu and Tika tribe going into ep. 5 with only THREE players?! Talk about a gross case of inconsistency in a monumental way.”

PLEASE NOTE THE WORDS UNDERLINED IN CAPS. Even with your PhD in Spinology, how on God’s Green Earth do you twist a “group of decision-makers” as YOU??? The “group” I was referring to is Probst, Production, CBS, etc.

One of my favorite seasons S10-Palau also had two tribes of nine. Yes, 20 players were selected by CBS, but when the Koror and So-Long tribes were established, it was two tribes of nine.

The idle chatter of females joining forces to take out the males has been talked about since the beginning of Reality TV (Survivor & Big Brother.) Other than the seasons when both genders were purposely separated to start a season force-feeding the genders to bond with each other, the concept of one gender systematically picking off the other has not materialized and is...well...idle chatter. So, my “gasket” would be very well intact—thank you very much. Using THAT as an argument against two tribes of nine is about as weak and lame as it gets.