... and this is something I wholeheartedly agree with, point by point:

http://truedorktimes.com/s26/recaps/e14.htm

I thought S26 was pretty decent once we got past the crap with Brandon and Shamar plus the way the early boots were edited - it became a season worth watching once Brandon left the game.

You're past your expiration date, Jiffy. Time to GO, or at the very least, turn over control of the decisions back to Burnett or whoever the producers were earlier, and let someone else run the reunion show. You've proven you can't run a talk show and you've also proven you suck at hyping the show as well. Go back to hosting, nothing more, or get out.

Your thoughts?

• RE: TDT calls out Probst,PepeLePew13, 10:47 PM, 05-16-13
  • RE: TDT calls out Probst,PepeLePew13, 05:58 AM, 05-17-13
    • RE: TDT calls out Probst,PepeLePew13, 03:29 PM, 05-17-13
      • RE: TDT calls out Probst,udg, 01:46 AM, 05-18-13
        • RE: TDT calls out Probst,dabo, 03:45 PM, 05-18-13
          • RE: TDT calls out Probst,udg, 05:39 PM, 05-19-13
            • RE: TDT calls out Probst,michel, 03:09 PM, 05-20-13
              • RE: TDT calls out Probst,dabo, 03:28 PM, 05-20-13
• RE: TDT calls out Probst,dabo, 11:35 PM, 05-16-13
  • RE: TDT calls out Probst,SOAR64, 08:11 AM, 05-17-13
    • RE: TDT calls out Probst,Estee, 02:10 PM, 05-17-13
  • RE: TDT calls out Probst,PepeLePew13, 01:44 PM, 05-17-13
    • RE: TDT calls out Probst,SOAR64, 03:21 PM, 05-17-13
    • RE: TDT calls out Probst,dabo, 03:57 PM, 05-17-13
• reality blurred,dabo, 06:49 PM, 05-17-13
• The perpetual problem.,Estee, 07:45 AM, 05-18-13
• More Suggestions,dabo, 04:43 PM, 05-18-13
  • RE: More Suggestions,michel, 04:30 PM, 05-19-13

And Probst's response to TDT?

About an hour ago:
@truedorktimes So grateful I saw this! Thank you! I've made notes. Hopefully we'll do better next time. Thanks for the guidance. Indebted.

I really can't tell if this is sarcasm or not or simply a "thanks but F you all the same".

Here's TDT's response:

@truedorktimes: @JeffProbst You're welcome, I think? If not, I guess I'll look forward to Redemption Island 3: Shamar vs Brandon in the spring.

LAST EDITED ON 05-17-13 AT 03:29 PM (EST)

More from Probst:

I see your tweets.I want u to feel heard. It's basically the same few :)-bad live show, non jury unhappy, fire Probst. :) Any other topics?

Here's the truth about the reunion show - may be hard to accept - but ratings went up.

Ok, I listened patiently, heard yr complaints. S26 is officially done. S27 will be next. Can't wait to hear what you'll hate about that one!

In other words... don't hold your breath, TDT, and we're all basically told to go do the anatomically-impossible by Jiffy.

Here's the truth about the reunion show - may be hard to accept - but ratings went up.

Is that actually true?

Also, does it reflect on the format if people didn't know about the format change before the show?

Not unless you compare it with One World last May.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivor_(U.S._TV_series)

viewership in millions     finale  reunion
Survivor: Nicaragua         13.58    11.19
Survivor: Redemption Island 13.30    10.97
Survivor: South Pacific     13.07     9.92
Survivor: One World         10.34     7.72
Survivor: Philippines       11.46     8.77
Survivor: Caramoan          10.16     8.13

Thanks, Dabo! So in other words, this was the second worst reunion show ever? Good job, Jiffy.

No, this was the worst. The ratings only tell us that more viewers tuned in and were disappointed!

Another way of looking at it:

Viewership for the Philippines reunion dropped 2.69m from the Philippines finale, whereas viewership for the Caramoan reunion dropped only 2.03m from the Caramoan finale.

That smaller drop could be considered going up in Jiffyspeak despite the fact that the Philippines finale had a much higher viewership total than the Caramoan finale and the Philippines reunion still had a higher total viewership than the Caramoan reunion.

"Mama Carlson: Dr. Fever, in every business, there are not pluses and minuses, but pluses and pluses... but only if the minuses are played correctly.
(Fever looks at Mama Carlson, bewildered)
Mama Carlson: You don't understand, and I don't expect you to...
Johnny 'Dr. Fever' Caravella: No. No, I understand. This is so deeply warped that even I can make sense of it.

Many of the problems with the season were the direct consequences of ridiculous casting choices

True. The fans tribe was doomed from the start, but the faves tribe also promised to be disfunctional from the getgo. Putting Fran and Phillip on the same tribe again was a dead give-away.

unfortunate production decisions, tone-deaf editing, or all three.

All three.

reunion show was, like much of the early season, a bizarre series of irrelevant sideshows that managed to ignore and insult the pre-jury contestants and longtime fans alike

Obviously.

Probst's response to his critics was, as it usually is to any attempt to point out easily fixable failings of the show, "Go f### yourselves."

Not the way I would have stated it, but okay. In my opinion Probst is saying stuff that is just the BS company line. He stated somewhere that he is no longer going to try to sell each season with pre-airing hype as he always does as the best ever blah blah blah, but let the viewers let them know what they think and determine for themselves (which, frankly, at least he's honest there about what he cannot control, in a left-handed sort of way) where things stand -- but I'm not banking on it.

On the "Fans" side, only four of the ten people on the tribe applied, and it showed. Some fans (Hope, Shamar) did not appear to have even watched the show before, and had no idea what they were in for. ... their tribe sucked

True. They had people scouring NYC and LA for suckers to appear on a TV show.

contestants who shouldn't have been there in the first place: Brandon and Shamar.

Obviously.

The exiling of the pre-jury contestants into the audience during the reunion show, ostensibly because "the stage was too small" (despite, as Mike Skupin pointed out on twitter, the entire 18-person cast of Philippines--which was the same number present here--fitting on the same stage mere months earlier), was the crowning, tone-deaf achievement of the season.

Yup.

The one thing I disagree with is "The chosen one winner," I don't think Probst or anyone in production really gives a damn who wins. They don't give a damn about people, period. It's all smoke and mirrors.

This discussion thread and subject matter is a breath of fresh air in the world of Survivor. No one loves Survivor more than me. But the final straw for me was when Jeff said in response to comments from fans "If you disagree with the decisions being made, then you were not really fans of Survivor" These may not have been his exact words, but they are close enough.
At that moment, Jeff was giving the middle finger to everyone who did not agree with him.

It seems to have come down to 'If you love me, you'll agree you have no right to your own opinion.' Jeff's reply to TDT might just be saying that as far as he and the show are concerned, they can afford to lose one columnist and those who follow that page. Hardly the first series to say that. A few of those are still around...

The question here may be 'who are Survivor's frau?' What is the core audience who will only leave if irritated beyond all rational thought -- and what would it take to do it?

Maybe the core is Cochran. And he pretty much admitted he's going into next season looking for the train wreck.

>The one thing I disagree with
>is "The chosen one winner,"
>I don't think Probst or
>anyone in production really gives
>a damn who wins.
>They don't give a damn
>about people, period. It's
>all smoke and mirrors.

I'd agree for the most part in most seasons, but it's clear that things were set up favourably for a Boston Rob win in S22 - he was surrounded with young, impressionable sheep-types and non-game players on his tribe, while Russhole was placed on an older tribe with 2 or 3 players who openly said they disliked him on their CBS site profiles (Steve Wright was one). We've seen over the years that there were certain challenges that were obviously set up to favour a particular contestant, and I do believe that things were set up favourably for Cochran to do well this season, even if they might not have envisioned him winning the whole thing.

As to favour a particular player. Don't forget them placing a hidden immunity idol at the top of a tall tree that only Ozzie could climb.

LAST EDITED ON 05-17-13 AT 05:07 PM (EST)

That may be true. I think in RI they mainly wanted Rob to beat Russell. There was no way they could create a Russell friendly tribe, they certainly did have a Rob friendly tribe.

What is clear in Caramoan is they cast the favorites to go big and make show. The two who didn't, Brenda and Erik, got the ignore edit. They also cast for immediate conflict, Francesca v Phillip, Cochran v Dawn. One of those conflicts panned out, the other didn't. And then there was the unpredictable wildcard Brandon. And Corinne who could be relied upon to start flinging zingers. The fans were doomed from the start unless they could find a way early to be a solid team and play smart and hard.

Of the three returning player formats, fans v faves is clearly the worst. Starting with one per tribe, obviously the new players still have a chance.

there were certain challenges that were obviously set up to favour a particular contestant, and I do believe that things were set up favourably for Cochran to do well this season

The more physically demanding challenges were the tribe competitions this season. The food eating individual challenge and others were more the evening the playing field type. It is noteworthy that, even though neither Cochran or Dawn participated in it, the F5 IC turned F4 RC was from their season in South Pacific. Cochran certainly watched it when it played on television then and noted the pitfalls inherent in that one (and this time they didn't have the weight on the other end of the totter).

Survivor Caramoan: the best worst season in Survivor history

Survivor Caramoan was a s### sundae: Several scoops of feces covered with enough whipped pleasantness to make us forget what we were eating, topped with a maraschino cherry of a reunion that didn’t even resemble the real thing.

Shouting out 'The emperor has no clothes!' requires you to have an emperor who didn't already convince himself that everyone enjoys seeing him nude.

Unfortunately, not in the form of a rant. (To win Internet Jeopardy you must remember to put it in the form of a rant.)

http://cartermatt.com/62103/survivor-blood-vs-water-five-ways-to-improve-for-season-27/

1. Story arc concentration – ... “Survivor” did not bother to show us the actual injury that caused Erik Reichenbach to start to wither away ... Brenda Lowe was ignored for so long, we thought that she had been replaced by that rock Francesca threatened to eat. We know that there are some characters meant to be larger than others, and we’re not looking for parity. We are at least hoping for justification on alliances, strategies, and if someone does leave due to injury, more insight into what actually happened. “Survivor: Philippines” was fantastic with its balance, but the first part of “Caramoan” was almost insufferable.

2. Rethinking the swap – ... the whole drawing eggs and smashing them, which cool visually, is terrible for fairness. Do a schoolyard pick, or have the contestants all rank each other! There’s drama to be had here,

3. The jury should start at the merge - Enough said.

4. Scrap the whole final 4 double-immunity – While it’s possible (see Malcolm) that someone can win an advantage and still lose that last immunity challenge, we still think that having someone with an edge ruins some of the tension that is otherwise there by four competitors entering the last challenge with equal footing.

5. Never do a reunion show like Sunday’s ever again ... to shaft the pre-jury people from being on stage, whatever the reason for it, felt like a sham and a travesty ... A terrified little girl had more airtime than Matt, Corinne, or Francesca ... and the fact that Erik didn’t get to update anyone on his health was pretty horrible, as was almost entirely ignoring Sherri despite her finishing third.

From the comments

somehow Dawn was villified for forming a deeper relationship and then playing it. In that sense she did so well at Survivor that even Jeff Probst basically castigated her on the reunion show for playing the game instead of honoring what he asserted somehow transcended the game? ... Dawn's game play didn't get anything near the credit it deserved. She was solely instrumental in several key betrayals whereas Chocran just went along and played the chessmaster while not really doing much.

I agree that it doesn't have to be exactly equal screentime between everyone, however more balance would certainly also add far more to the suspense of possible winners. The 'story arc' edit clearly elminitated so many contestant from being winners

Philippines was absolutely phenomenal. This season was complete garbage.

Survivor used to be the gold standard of reunion shows. Great closure and made every person feel important to the game somehow. Now it's become as pointless as the Big Brother finale.

1. It would be great if each player was given a role. That's how it used to be.

2. The best swap was in Amazon. It led to new alliances that survived the merge. Strange that we haven't had that "ambassadors" twist again. Jenna and Dave's talks led to a strategic swap instead of a random one.

3. I think it's better to have 1 post merge boot before the jury. It can give a smart player an occasion to get rid of someone that would never vote for him just like Jenna got rid of Rodger. The side benefit is a reduced jury pool.

4. Scrap the Final 3! Go back to a Final 2 and then really have a tense final challenge.

5. That was the worst reunion ever. I have to believe it was an aberration due to Brandon's ban. Then again, even people on stage were ignored so it reflects Jeff's preference for certain players and that won't change.