Maybe...maybe not. Assuming that we can judge a cast by the winner, let's see what we have.

Rich - from Rhode Island. He was a master gameplay artist and funny to listen to, but he was a lying sack of $#!*. And I don't mean that in a good way.
Tina - from Tennessee. She was a very sly player, and it struck me that she was fairly easy to get along with, but I don't know if she ever made good on her motorcycle promise to Colby.
Ethan - from Massachusetts. No one there could say anything bad about him; he was a genuine nice guy. He's probably kind of odd, but nice.
Vecepia - from Oregon. Talk about laying low. She stayed in her nice little bomb shelter, and she let other people launch nukes while she didn't get hit. Too bad she managed to be boring at the same time.
Brian - from California. Talk about manipulative. It was like sending in a Bengal tiger to fight a pack of common house flies. Of course, he's a total @$$hole, and not in the good, Dr. House way...
Jenna - from Pennsylvania. If ever there was a season tailored to a swimsuit model winning, this was it, and she ran with it. Too bad she was a spoiled princess with a sense of entitlement the size of the state of Pennsylvania.
Sandra - from Washington. State, that is. She and Rupert made this season. She also managed to avoid any votes against her the entire game. I guess no one wants to vote you out when you're so bad in challenges, it's sickening.
Amber - also from PA. She got the million bucks, the car, and the guy, PLUS she got the Amazing Race appearance. And they choked. And unlike on Survivor, she didn't do anything productive.
Chris - from Ohio. My own home state. Anyone who can break through that forcefield of a women's alliance and win gets kudos, even if it was mainly to Twila's credit. Now if he could just remember when lying is appropriate, he would still have a job.
Tom - from New York. City, that is. Perhaps the most dominant player ever. The most dominant player on the most dominant tribe, though Ulong was about as useful as a poopy-flavored lollipop, and a tribe of retarded orangutans could have run the table against Ulong.
Danni - from Kansas. Still not sure how she managed to win this one. I think it's just because everyone hated Steph. She was probably one of the friendlier players, but she won the game mainly because she's six feet tall.
Aras - from California. The proverbial cockroach of Survivor. I still can't believe he won, but he earned it. Too bad he probably still lives at home and doesn't have a job.

So the two Survivor winners from CA are Brian and Aras. Then again, PA has Jenna and Amber to its credit, so it isn't much better. The single-winner states have better winners so far.

Based on Brian and Aras, I think I'll stick with my original conclusion. Not great seasons, not great (enjoyable to watch) people and not great winners.

But, the four of us had a great time.

Well Jeff did say that the majority of contestants this year were recruited (something like 80%), and that they searched the whole USA for people to recruit. I guess by "the whole country", he means California.

I wish that the shows recuiting squad would consider people from Canada and not just from the USA although we do love you all but there is another whole country of people here who would love the chance to be on Survivor and to show the world that we are just as good if not better than some about how to survive in all sorts of situations whether it be climate,water, geography of land, fishing, hunting, skill testing whether physical or mental, building, camping - you name it-we can do it! We were raised, born and bred for this type of show and we deserve to have a chance to be on it just like other people, you know who you are. I also think that a lot of us could also use the money as a lot of us are not rich either. I know a few people who would love to be on this show (myself included) just for the challenges and the thrill of being tested for oneself...to see if we are made of the right stuff or at least close. Haha! So, if any recruiters are out there and listening please, please, think CANADA!!!
Alpado

I don't mean this the wrong way, but the primary audience for this show is Americans and it is broadcast on an American network. I don't think that it's likely that they are going to cast foriegn nationals in the show.

Sorta like American Idol - there's a Canadian idol as well. Perhaps there ought to be a Survivor Canada, but otherwise I don't see it happening.

But, the four of us had a great time.

I vaguely recall something about the legal issues of taking the poeple to other countries thing being part of the why American only. They probably wouldn't have the same issues they had with So You Think You Can Dance where you needed to have a work permit as a job was part of the final prize.

It may just be the hassle of dealing with multiple countries for visas and stuff that just makes it annoying enough they don't want to bother.

Although I can understand why there is a lot of Californians if you intend to cast a show that is 50% Asian and Latino. After all that is where you are going to find a fair number of peeps of those ethnicities (and that are legal in the case of Latinos, I know our Latino population is growing here, but I'm not sure what % is legal vs illegal and illegal immigrants aren't likely to show up for casting for a TV show, they usually try to stay away from publicity).

I also usually have a favorite tribe with every season that, even if I don't like some of the players, I tend to root for that tribe to win immunity. Now, I can't do that without appearing racist. Damn. It also makes me wonder what they intend to do about the tribe names; surely, "African-American" is a little long for a tribe name, but calling them "White," "Black," "Asian," and "Hispanic" is a bit too risky. Maybe people of each ethnic group who watch the show can use a derogatory ethnic name to describe one of the tribes, but that doesn't work for the other three...

And damnit, where the hell are the Eskimos this season? I wanted an Eskimo, and EPMB couldn't be bothered. Sheeeeeeesh.

My biggest complaint is too many from California. Guess they did not do a national casting call this season.

Here's an interesting article in the Washington Post about the make up of the new tribes...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/23/AR2006082302108.html

VERY interesting article indeed. I think that the writer hit the nail on the head. This just reeks of exploitation and has the potential to get really ugly.

I love Survivor and it's a shame to think that Fonzie may be warming his cycle for the big stunt.

But, the four of us had a great time.

So there are 20 people and 4 teams? How the heck do they divide the teams fairly? Some teams will have 3 guys and 2 girls and some vice versa. Wierd.

Darn Wacko, you beat me to the punch. I was thinking about that all day.

Personally I have more of an issue with the uneven gender count in each tribe than I do with the ethnicality. Should be interesting when a tribe goes to their first TC if the majority gender will stick together and use the numbers to vote out one of the two in the minority.

Historically the team challenges have been very physical in nature. If this holds true to form this season you would think that the tribe with three men might have an advantage. Especially the Hispanic Tribe where one of the three men is a professional athlete, one of the two women is a police officer and they are the only tribe without a castaway in the 40s+.

Stay Tuned!

Yet some seasons they pit all male against all female teams and generally the women do just fine.

Not sure why a little mis-match would be such a huge issue this season.

Also being a social game physicality often is not such a huge factor as it might otherwise be. All too often the athletic get voted off first so they can't run the table at the end.

I said it might be an issue only if the team challenges are physical in nature as they have been the past few seasons. Some of these team challenges involved hand-to-hand combat and wrestling matches.
When the season theme was Battle of the Sexes they minimized the physical nature by having balance beams in the challenge (clearly a female advantage) or making it something like a fishing contest where gender was not an advantage.

My primary issue still is when a tribe goes to TC for the first time if the majority gender will have an unfair advantage.

I guess we'll have to wait and see.

LAST EDITED ON 08-24-06 AT 09:47 PM (EST)

I wouldn't worry about that too much Aruba. A team with 2 men and three women losing the first immunity would be unlikely to go down to only 1 man especially since those four guys are impressive. Adam and Jonathan in the caucasian team look physically fit even if Jonathan is 44. The 2 African-American men also look fit even if Sekou is 45, Nathan is 26 and seems very active.

Each of the Asian and Hispanic teams seem to have male targets: Ahn Tuan (nicknamed "Cao Boi", pronounced Cow-Boy!!!) is 42 and pretty skinny although one should never underestimate a used-car salesman! Billy looks like a HEAVY metal version of Judd and Ozzy looks weak. Becky a kick-boxer and Christina a police officer may be tougher than those guys. Anyway, the 2 women on each team should know how to make an alliance to save themselves from the first boot.

Besides the previously mentioned guys, Yul and JP also look like impressive athletes. Becky an attorney and Candice, a pre-med student should have the smarts needed to Outwit.

My first concern is having 20 players will mean multiple boot episodes. Also, at merge, the decisions could be based simply on race alignment. We'll have to see a switch soon because imagine if a team loses the first few IC. Will the other teams be forced to sit 2 or 3 players? You know, this idea might have come from the fact last season's original tribes meant nothing after merge and we saw a regular pagonging. It still was interesting to have all 4 original tribes represented in the F4. Could they be forcing a situation where alliances will flip? If that is the case, the alliances would still be visible(!) and the twist lame again.

My main hope is that the F4 will be of mixed race. If not, the social experiment could be called a huge failure, something CBS is good at.

>I wouldn't worry about that too much Aruba. A team with 2 men >and three women losing the first immunity would be unlikely to >go down to only 1 man especially since those four guys are >impressive. Adam and Jonathan in the caucasian team look >physically fit even if Jonathan is 44. The 2 African-American >men also look fit even if Sekou is 45, Nathan is 26 and seems >very active.

With conventional widsom and players with half a brain, your scenerio above would be accurate. But historically the clowns they cast for these Reality Shows don't exactly get regular visits from the IQ Fairy. You don't need to go further back than Vanuatu to witness a tribe not once, not twice, not even three times...but FOUR TIMES in the beginning of the game voting off the strongest best athlete on their tribe which gift-wrapped wins to the opposing tribe in the process.

I agree that it was pretty neat that the Final Four last season just so happened to be one representative of each group. First and foremost I would want the Final Four to be the four most solid, competitive, give optimum effort and 100% players in the game regardless of ethnicality...but it would be a bonus if it turned out that the four best were one representative from each goup. If not, I can only imagine this board being littered with conspiracy theories and claims that the show is rigged.

Either way, it's a pretty brassy risk on CBS's part; let's hope it doesn't blow up in their face.

Believe me...I'm not gloating from my prophecy several weeks ago. If anything I was hoping that I was dead wrong with my prdeictions.

I realize one episode does not a season make; but so far it's been true to script. The tribes with three men placed first and second. And at the first TC the uneven gender split did come into play. Obviously the show will try to make us think otherwise with their editing,i.e., Sekou taking breaks, etc., to lead us away from the obvious. But I'm not buying it.

I hope this is the last time we start off a season with uneven genders in smaller groups.

Remember that, last season, it started out in four tribes, and a member of each of the four tribes went to the Final Four. Granted, the older women got kicked around for a while, but Cirie was good, so I think it's a pretty safe bet that each mini-tribe will have a good one in each bunch.

If they open like last time, one mini-tribe will randomly have to send someone to Exile, another tribe will lose immunity and send someone home, and a pick 'em will split teams up roughly evenly without regard to race (but with plenty of regard to age.)

The biggest question I have is with how they will manage 20 contestants. In Palau, to get it into 14 episodes, they had three people gone in the first episode, PLUS a double-boot. If they go with a three-tribe game, double-boots become more doable, since one tribe will still be able to win immunity and the other two go to TC.

I just hope it doesn't end up a duplicate of Exile island, just with more people.

>Personally I have more of an
>issue with the uneven gender
>count in each tribe

>you would think that the tribe with
>three men might have an
>advantage. Especially the Hispanic
>Tribe where one of the
>three men is a professional
>athlete, one of the two
>women is a police officer
>and they are the only
>tribe without a castaway in
>the 40s+.

History has proven both of these points wrong before.

Guatemala, we had a gender imbalance when Steph (admittedly she's practically a dude) and Bobby Jon popped out of the jack'n'box and joined their new tribes. Didn't happen where the team with the higher number of one gender teamed up to boot the one with the lesser numbers.

And as I outlined on another forum, Palau and Thailand are classic examples where older, less physically adept teams completely blew away the younger, physically strong teams -- in Thailand, a porn star, overweight ex-football player, idiot restauranteur and a crazy bat-loving teacher smoked a team with a land trader, a cop, a firefighter and a couple of buff jocks.

A Tribe siggie
"Tsk, tsk. Pepe's messing with the newbies again." Spidey, 3/30/05

I hope you're right, Pepe. But in Guatemala there were teams of Nine (5-4) as opposed to Five (3-2). It's a little different when at first TC a tribe will lose 20% of their team as opposed to just 11%.

Your examples of Palau and Thailand have merit. Although in Palau we were treated to the most perfect player in Survivor history (Tom Westman). He was an anomoly we may never see the likes of again, so this is much more than exception than a norm.

In Thailand the way I remember the younger stronger tribe started off great and was up two players very quickly. The tide turned during a challenge when the buff jocks got overzealous and kept disqualifying themselves and pretty much gave the win to the older tribe. In competetion there's something called "momentum" which is pretty tough to go up against regardless of how good your team looks on paper. Also the challenges Brian's older team won afterwards were hardly "physical" in nature. One that came to mind is he singlehandedly held his breath under water longer than the other team. And he was the MVP of another challenge when they did something goofy like solve a puzzle or something.

When you quoted me on your post you conveniently omitted a very important phrase IF THIS SEASON HOLDS TRUE TO FORM AND THE TEAM CHALLENGES ARE VERY PHYSICAL IN NATURE...
That was my one of my issues when discussing the uneven gender tribes. We'll just have to see what kind of team challenges the show comes up with this season to determine whether it will be an issue or not.

True, but as we saw last season, Terry was by far the most impressive physical player but he could only go as far as his team would take him, even with guys like Nick and Austin around. Once they were merged, it was then that Terry started to dominate physically.

Likewise, in Palau, Tom was perhaps the greatest player we've ever seen but he still needed his team in the early stages to wipe out the younger, physically stronger team (on an overall basis). The challenges were quite physical, far more so than in Thailand.

My point was that you could have all the most physical players in the world and the challenges could be as physical as you please, but there's always an evening-out factor (puzzles, balance competitions, catching coconuts shot out from a catapult) so making the argument that one team having professional athletes or cops, etc. isn't going to be a determining factor in figuring out who's going to control the game.

I think we'll see plenty of physical challenges but with an additional factor such as a puzzle to solve at the end or some balancing going on. It *always* evens out from challenge to challenge on an overall basis when we're still in the team stage.

A Tribe siggie
"Tsk, tsk. Pepe's messing with the newbies again." Spidey, 3/30/05

So if this season's contestants suck, does that mean that EPMB is trying to sabotage Survivor so that no one watches it anymore?

>So at least this season ought to be a really interesting one!

Lets hope so.

Oh and welcome to RTVW, TennTash.
Good to have ya' aboard.

There doesn't appear to be anybody interesting.

I loved Exile Island, and something tells me this season isn't going to live up to it. But we'll see. I could be wrong (and I usually am ).