• If it pertains to season 42 but has not aired, DO NOT spoil it in this thread. Keep that poo poo to Sucks or some other dumb Survivor fan site.
  
• This show is now 22 years old and has repeatedly brought back previous contestants/winners (and had an all-winner season) so discussion of previous seasons is likely going to be rampant and un-spoiler-tagged. If you're spoiler averse to old seasons, tread lightly. and go watch the old seasons FFS, even the bad ones have good parts! (except 39 don't watch that one it sucks). Also of note, old seasons have a whole lot of people with bad takes on sexuality and race and gender, so buckle in for that if you go back a couple decades.
  
• To that end, keep any veiled racist/sexist/misogynist bullshit out of the thread. CBS has pushed to make modern seasons of their reality TV more inclusive so let's do the same and enjoy this more diverse cast! It worked really well for Survivor 41 and especially for Big Brother 23, so hopefully Survivor casting can keep it up.

• 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.

• Rob has a Podcast: Available on iTunes or YouTube 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.
  
  
• Australian Survivor - It’s out there, there are many seasons of it (one going on now as of the time of this OP) and it’s all very good! The seasons are longer, the episodes are longer, the contestants are Austrailianer and Aussie Probst is cool and good. Where do I watch it though? Ask in thread or search old threads, there’s tons of info out there, or if you’re not living in 1994 you probably have a VPN and are savvy enough to figure it out. Also, Survivor South Africa is good, particularly the last couple of seasons, so check that out too if you’re fiending for more.

• 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.

SweetJahasus fucked around with this message at 22:48 on Mar 16, 2022