Survivor 39 - Island of the Idols: Incoming message from the Big Giant Head

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > TV IV > Survivor 39 - Island of the Idols: Incoming message from the Big Giant Head

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Zesty: Jan 17, 2012; The Great Twist

Welcome, New Viewers! Bookmark the thread and chat with us during and after the new episodes!

Survivor airs Wednesday, September 25th on CBS! Check your local listings.

:siren:

If it hasn't aired in an episode, don't spoil it in this thread. :siren:

If you get a better thread title sometime in the run, post it!

Someone bought :blindside:

Thanks, Mysterious Poster! You rock!

What is Survivor?

Survivor is a reality show where a group of 16 to 20 or so contestants, from all walks of life, are stuck on a remote paradise and forced to live together for 39 days; gathering their own food, building their own shelter, and purifying their own water. The cast is split into opposing, equal teams, called tribes. The tribes must work together to form a community, in the hopes of one contestant becoming the Sole Survivor and winning one million dollars. At least one contestant is voted off every episode.

A typical Survivor season has three phases. Pre-Merge, Post-Merge, and Endgame.

Pre-Merge: Roughly the first half of the game. The tribes compete against each other twice each episode. First for a reward, and second for tribal immunity. Tribes that fail the immunity challenge will be forced to vote one of their own members out at the end of the episode.
Post-Merge: The tribes are merged together. Players are now playing for individual immunity and all players will participate in voting out a player from the tribe.
Endgame: Once 5-7 players or so remain, the show reaches the End game phase. Usually the very strong core alliances are shaken up here as people try to reach the end or placate the jury. The last nine players voted out before the final tribal council will join a Jury that will decide who will win of the final three (sometimes two) players.

What's the gimmick this time?

Boston Rob and Queen Sandra will give advice to players as a reward for challenges? They'll also provide challenges to players for rewards. Something like that. Huge busts have been constructed in their likeness. It's bonkers.

Supplemental Material

Rob has a Podcast: Available on iTunes or their website. He does a few podcasts a week discussing the latest episodes events, interviewing the player who was voted out that episode, and provides theories about strategy. This podcast provides insight into the game that was not aired on the show. It is heavily referenced in this thread.
Twitter: Survivors poo poo on each other, shill for their crap, and every once in a while tweet something that's actually amusing.
YouTube: The Official YouTube Channel occasionally puts Ponderosa videos and bonus scenes on their channel but other times they're trying to draw traffic to their CBS All-Access app so they'll put them there instead. Worst case, just search for "Ponderosa [jury member]" and you'll find someone else uploaded it so you don't have to figure that out.

Glossary of Terms

Blindside: When a tribal council seems to be set up so one or one of two possible players are getting eliminated, but somehow either a secret coalition or a surprising idol play makes it so someone else is voted out instead.
"The Edit": Survivor is a show to entertain. It is produced and edited in a way to give players a streamlined personality and to create as much tension before Tribal Council as possible.
Goat: A useless, awful, or crazy person that is not being voted out of the game specifically so a player can look like a more desirable final survivor to the jury compared to the goat.
HII: Hidden Immunity Idol. They are hidden around the island. Clues will be given that could reveal their location. One-use item that a player can use after the votes are cast (but before they are read) at Tribal Council to nullify votes against that person. They can't be used at Final Four player or later.
Mactor: Portmanteau of "Model/Actor". A player who doesn't know the game very well and are just using it to further their career.
Pagonged: Going into post-merge, it's the act of voting out the former members of your opposing tribe before voting out the former members of your original tribe. It's the reason it's important to win tribal immunity pre-merge so that you outnumber the opposing tribe members in post-merge.
Pony/Poison: After the new season's cast is announced, thread members will pick a "Pony" (someone they think is awesome and will win) and a "Poison" (someone they think will suck and/or be an annoying rear end in a top hat they hope will lose or just simply suffer)
Purple Rocks: In the event of a tie at Tribal Council, there is a revote, with only the people receiving the most votes being eligible to receive votes during that revote. If the revote also ends in a tie, Survivors draw rocks. Whichever player draws the differently colored rock is eliminated from the game.
Splitting the vote/Flushing the Idol: An alliance that splits its votes between two members to counter a potential idol play. If one of those two players plays a Hidden Immunity Idol, there will still be enough players voting for the other guy to vote them out. This strategy can be risky.

This Season's Cast

�The jury doesn�t just reward whoever plays the best game. It determines who played the best game.�

Zesty fucked around with this message at 21:15 on Sep 18, 2019

# ¿ Sep 18, 2019 21:08

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# ¿ May 10, 2024 01:10

Zesty: Jan 17, 2012; The Great Twist

Pony: Missy
Poison: Ronnie

Zesty fucked around with this message at 05:24 on Sep 26, 2019

# ¿ Sep 19, 2019 03:49

Zesty: Jan 17, 2012; The Great Twist

You guys put a lot of stock into the random quotes of theirs I find.

# ¿ Sep 19, 2019 18:15

Zesty: Jan 17, 2012; The Great Twist

SalTheBard posted:

Just for my own info...so these are all real quotes, but just found from different places?

Except for the two that were boring, yeah. RHAP interviews and their CBS bios for this batch. Almost every quote has been a direct quote from every thread I�ve made. Very occasionally I�ll cobble a quote together if it makes sense. I want to get a little snippet of their personality while it still being a goofy as poo poo thing they actually said.

Zesty fucked around with this message at 08:04 on Sep 20, 2019

# ¿ Sep 20, 2019 08:00

Zesty: Jan 17, 2012; The Great Twist

That�s the point of casting this season. They made a point of getting people for their individual stories.

I might be able to go to Vince�s watch party on Wednesday. I�m not sure I want to go to an episode 1 watch party though. Maybe if he does future episodes.

# ¿ Sep 24, 2019 19:34

Zesty: Jan 17, 2012; The Great Twist

Lone Goat posted:

well he might not get an episode 2, soooooooo

Eh. I'm not much of a social butterfly and I'd be crashing it.

# ¿ Sep 25, 2019 04:03

Zesty: Jan 17, 2012; The Great Twist

blue squares posted:

I think they sent the worst possible person to Day 1 of the Island of the Idols haha. She sucks

No doubt. I believe her and Kellee have admitted to knowing very little about Survivor beforehand. I found her surprise acting for the camera extremely disingenuous.

# ¿ Sep 26, 2019 16:37

Zesty: Jan 17, 2012; The Great Twist

Ronnie in exit interviews is such an airhead.

�People trust me in the real world. They let me hold newborns. They let me hold thousands of dollars.�

Zesty fucked around with this message at 03:11 on Sep 28, 2019

# ¿ Sep 27, 2019 19:16

Zesty: Jan 17, 2012; The Great Twist

Weird how the only watchable part of the episode is Rob and Sandra.

No one cares about spices that much. That super comes off as �take two�

# ¿ Oct 3, 2019 18:45

Zesty: Jan 17, 2012; The Great Twist

Khanstant posted:

Naw, even Jeff seemed taken aback. Maybe they were all a bit eager for a big reaction, but straight up, spices is one of the best rewards. If anything it's just kind of early, two days isn't really long enough to get sick of coconut and rice. Coconut and rice are loving delicious, but anything gets old after too much of it for a while.

Jeff knows they're making a TV Show and we always hear of ways he got really pissed at contestants for not respecting that. I can absolutely see people lightly clapping and kind of "whatever!" faced about it and then Jeff demanding another take where people actually look excited and then he reacts to that for the show.

This show is also trying to convince us Rob and Sandra are just hanging out on that island 24/7 waiting for contestants to teach. Even Rob C has said that's the case as far as he knows. :rolleyes:

Zesty fucked around with this message at 04:29 on Oct 4, 2019

# ¿ Oct 4, 2019 04:24

Zesty: Jan 17, 2012; The Great Twist

I know he's biased in his own way, but I've been listening to Shane Power's podcast for a few months now. He is not shy about dishing dirt on how much of a little shitfit Jeff gets into when people don't cooperate with what he wants. and I hear a lot of the same here and there from more recent Survivors.

# ¿ Oct 4, 2019 04:39

Zesty: Jan 17, 2012; The Great Twist

I wish I had citations for you, because it�s mostly a line or two buried in an several long hour interview. And it�s stuff contestants are mostly not allowed to talk about because its background production which has an NDA of five years.

Shane talked about a challenge they were doing where your objective was to spell out a sentence using blocks. His team�s blocks were different than the other team�s blocks and impossible to solve because of it. When his team pointed it out, Jeff went on a long angry tirade about how they�re always trying to muck up their show and never willing to play ball and yahta yahta yahta until they actually checked the blocks and realized they hosed up. He apologized.

Corinne�s podcast had a lot of hidden gems too but man the rest of that podcast was hard to sift through.

Does anyone remember who talked about Jeff cussing people out at tribal for being vague and trying to protect their games? Maybe that one just comes up a lot from so many people.

The point is is that they are making a TV show. They know they�re making a TV Show. Conversations get re-shot. Unflattering moments of production get cut. Things get edited to tell a story.

No one has ever been that excited for the spices reward and it�s not the first time this season where reactions seemed disingenuous and exaggerated.

# ¿ Oct 4, 2019 16:13

Zesty: Jan 17, 2012; The Great Twist

I like what commentator Shannon Gaitz is saying. Rob and Sandra aren�t mentors. They�re producers.

# ¿ Oct 7, 2019 19:05

Zesty: Jan 17, 2012; The Great Twist

We saw them building a shelter in episode 1, but I'm convinced they're chilling at Ponderosa or something similar together.

Spoilers for next season.
Especially considering they're going to be playing a week or so after this season wraps up filming, I'm sure they didn't want to be totally wiped out before even going out there.

# ¿ Oct 8, 2019 18:19

Zesty: Jan 17, 2012; The Great Twist

It's so incredibly stupid I can't believe it.

Thread title? gently caress that. New show tagline.

# ¿ Oct 8, 2019 18:43

Zesty: Jan 17, 2012; The Great Twist

SweetJahasus posted:

Do people really wake up in screaming fits from a bad dream?

Absolutely.

# ¿ Oct 10, 2019 19:19

Zesty: Jan 17, 2012; The Great Twist

The Bloop posted:

gross Big Brother watcher spotted

gross Big Brother watcher spotted

# ¿ Oct 10, 2019 23:16

Zesty: Jan 17, 2012; The Great Twist

Rob asked Vince if he could tell the truth to the other players about Island of the Idols. "I'm not allowed to answer that."

Speaks volumes.

# ¿ Oct 11, 2019 23:21

Zesty: Jan 17, 2012; The Great Twist

It didn't hurt Chris that Gavin was a wishy-washy loaf of wonderbread afraid to own his game at the end.

# ¿ Oct 12, 2019 05:04

Zesty: Jan 17, 2012; The Great Twist

I�m still working on that season. It�s extraordinarily bad. I must only be halfway in.

I kind of liked the challenge with the giant hunk of meat though. But even that was sexualized.

# ¿ Oct 13, 2019 17:56

Zesty: Jan 17, 2012; The Great Twist

curiousCat posted:

Literally all of that stuff is designed to be making fun of the men and what idiots they are, if it's not obvious

Yes, they got gratuitous shots of women showering to put in thought bubbles to mock the men. Sure. Okay.

I'm sure Jeff encouraging the women to strip for peanut butter in the episode titled, "Girls Gone Wilder" was also to mock the men.

Zesty fucked around with this message at 23:26 on Oct 13, 2019

# ¿ Oct 13, 2019 23:22

Zesty: Jan 17, 2012; The Great Twist

What�s the fight here?

�How dare you say sexist thing is sexist. It was in the past. It was a different time.�

Yeah, it was sexist. It was really bad. It�s time and place doesn�t excuse it.

# ¿ Oct 14, 2019 19:37

Zesty: Jan 17, 2012; The Great Twist

Drafted last night with some friends. Snake draft.

# ¿ Oct 16, 2019 19:44

Zesty: Jan 17, 2012; The Great Twist

IcePhoenix posted:

I don't know what any of this means. You drafted for fantasy survivor, that much I can get, but how do you score points/win?

1 pt for making it through a vote.
1 pt for every vote nullified with an HII
2 points for winning individual immunity.
3 points for getting to FTC
1 pt for every vote at FTC

Could give a fuuuuck about confessional counts.

# ¿ Oct 16, 2019 22:01

Zesty: Jan 17, 2012; The Great Twist

All interactions with Jeff Probst are dumb.

# ¿ Oct 16, 2019 22:55

Zesty: Jan 17, 2012; The Great Twist

Dugong posted:

Regarding Season 40:

I�ve seen a few posts flying around various networks published by users saying they have �bad feelings� about a player. The posts seem very similar to the ones floating around about Ciera before Game Changers aired so proceed with caution if you�re avoiding spoilers.

Least exciting people always win the All-Star Seasons... except Jeremy, I guess. Spoiler spoiler, they're apparently going for the title "Winners at War"?

# ¿ Oct 18, 2019 20:43

Zesty: Jan 17, 2012; The Great Twist

curiousCat posted:

She literally said "I'm not here for a showmance" though

Yeah, and all the other players saw her say that on TV and voted her out anyway. What the gently caress, right?

Elphiem posted:

The editors are really trying to pull the rug out from under the audience this season, all the strategizing they show at camp gets reversed at the vote, they shows us everyone disagreeing with Aaron and Missy's plan, and then out of the blue everyone is suddenly on board with it at the vote.

Jeez, they've never done this in editing before. Why did they start doing it this season? The nerve.

# ¿ Oct 18, 2019 20:45

Zesty: Jan 17, 2012; The Great Twist

SLICK GOKU BABY posted:

For some reason this season has been this way.

Every season. At least the past dozen.

# ¿ Oct 18, 2019 23:50

Zesty: Jan 17, 2012; The Great Twist

It throws off Dean and Chelsea.

# ¿ Oct 19, 2019 08:18

Zesty: Jan 17, 2012; The Great Twist

Sandra�s one liner about Blindsides was funnier than it had any right to be.

# ¿ Oct 19, 2019 21:26

Zesty: Jan 17, 2012; The Great Twist

Is the funny that he�s pinching pennies?

# ¿ Oct 21, 2019 09:01

Zesty: Jan 17, 2012; The Great Twist

Huh. I guess. It wouldn�t even occur to me to do something like that with toys. Ripping off parents trying to do something for their kid.

Fair enough. We already knew he was a shitheel so it tracks. He�s a landlord too.

# ¿ Oct 21, 2019 19:36

Zesty: Jan 17, 2012; The Great Twist

SLICK GOKU BABY posted:

Yea, you try to order the big christmas toys off Amazon and Walmart.com and report back. They won't be available direct from either of them and not at the MRSP.

I am trying to make a profit while also providing a service. And yes, to the wealthy parents.

Super Mega Rich -> Rich -> Landlords -> Scalpers

Guillotine order.

:sherman:

# ¿ Oct 22, 2019 21:32

Zesty: Jan 17, 2012; The Great Twist

AWarmBody posted:

Erik makes a valid point, though:

https://twitter.com/ErikReichenb4ch/status/1187381843445911552?s=09

Older Survivors are the biggest whiners?

Like Boomers.

# ¿ Oct 29, 2019 00:26

Zesty: Jan 17, 2012; The Great Twist

Applebees is a fancy sit-down for us poors.

Like, half a step above Chili's but not as ritzy as the good steakhouse you only go to once a year because you can't justify it more often.

# ¿ Oct 29, 2019 04:27

Zesty: Jan 17, 2012; The Great Twist

Thank goodness this blatant advertisement has no effect on us.

# ¿ Oct 29, 2019 09:13

Zesty: Jan 17, 2012; The Great Twist

Should I muscle through all the seasons I haven't seen before watching? It's a lot. I've only seen season 1.

# ¿ Oct 30, 2019 17:50

Zesty: Jan 17, 2012; The Great Twist

Jesus Christ Lauren saying mean poo poo about Elaine. Totally able to hold it together in tribal until the wind changes direction on her and she breaks down immediately.

Can I change my poison?

# ¿ Nov 1, 2019 03:00

Zesty: Jan 17, 2012; The Great Twist

Guy was 91. He did good.

# ¿ Nov 4, 2019 07:58

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# ¿ May 10, 2024 01:10

Zesty: Jan 17, 2012; The Great Twist

There�s no way the Rob/Sandra reveal is going to be as great as we hope, but I�m hoping it�s something a challenge that takes place immediately upon merge.

Have the merge be a special night thing. Do that night challenge where people are running through a maze in the dark collecting certain clue answers or just whatever the gently caress you have to collect. Have Rob and Sandra at separate collection stations surprising everyone that gets to them.

People who don�t know they�re on this season get shocked. The four or five others have a quick hello. Sandra and Rob aren�t letting them relish the moment and urging them to compete faster.

Jeff crowns the winner and gives them spices or whatever crap. Reveals Rob and Sandra officially.

# ¿ Nov 4, 2019 23:45

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > TV IV > Survivor 39 - Island of the Idols: Incoming message from the Big Giant Head

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