SURVIVOR: CHINA

Another Survivor season! Nice to see fellow conservative Survivor fans.

I didn’t like the last three seasons very much. No one good to root for. Guatemala was the last good season for me - Danni definitely floated my boat right. Hopefully, China will turn things around.

My take on the contestants:

Dave: Model/actor type, but older, outdoorsy, and mature. He could do well if he doesn’t act like a model.

Jaimie: Sorority girl is a negative, but (like me) she’s into softball and kickboxing, so I give her props for that. I think she’ll go far in the game.

Erik: Wannabe Ethan type (the hair), combined with wannabe model. He doesn’t have any of Dave’s maturity. Don’t think he’ll do too well.

Peih-Gee: She seems to have gotten past her Hollywood infatuation stage and has settled into a serious career. Plus, she (like me) “thinks like a guy,” which is a refreshing change from Lindsey (or Flaming Arrow Brandon) type girly whining. I think she’ll go far.

Sherea: She can probably get along with others well, but I don’t think she’ll be very comfortable with the outdoors. Makes the merge, but not much farther than that.

Ashley: The WWE diva. Surrounded by the “it’s all about me” culture, but she has done visits with the troops, so maybe she understands. However, the other women will be jealous of her and boot her early.

Chicken: Token old guy, odd man out. He’s similar to Rodger and Big Tom, who went far, but I don’t think Chicken has their charisma. Early boot.

Frosti: A wild card. Could be annoying as hell, could be entertaining as hell, and probably will be both. Likely pre-merge boot.

Jean-Robert: The poker player. Great at reading and manipulating other people. I think he’ll do well and he’ll probably be a lot like Brian, the used car salesman.

James: The gravedigger. A refreshing change from all the wannabe model “men.” He’s a strong guy who’ll probably be well-liked by his tribemates. He’ll go far in the game.

Todd: Gay “Mormon” who is impressed by the Spice Girls and calls himself “fantastic, amazing, awesome and super-original.” He’ll likely be this season’s Flaming Arrow Brandon, as well as the Castaway Who You Most Want To Punch In The Mouth.

Amanda: Another kickboxer chick, so props to her. But which side of her is stronger, the beauty pageant girl or the Montana cowgirl? If it’s the latter, she’ll do well. If it’s the former, she’s leaving early.

Denise: The lunch lady/martial artist. Like Frosti, a wild card. If she can make an alliance with the other elders, she should go far. If she becomes isolated, however, she’ll be an early boot.

Leslie: I think she’s stronger than she looks, but it remains to be seen if her religious personality will have a unifying effect, like Rodger’s, or a dividing effect, like John’s (Thailand) or Dirk’s. She probably won’t be the first to go but I don’t think she’ll make the merge.

Aaron: Another bartender. Sigh. His cooking skills should help him make the merge, but I think he’ll be too annoying to go much further. From the look on his face and his home remodeling background, he might be gay. (Eek! She said gay! Call the PC police!)

Courtney: Gossipy and bitchy. I get a vibe of her being very arrogant and a control freak. She reminds me of Stacey Stillman. Her unpleasant personality combined with her lack of athleticism will lead to an early exit. She wins the Most Likely To Be A DUmmie award, and the title of Most Annoying Female to go with Todd’s Most Annoying Male.

I like the women better this season - only half of them are Hollywood wannabe actresses. With the men, pretty much all of them are blargh Hollywood types except the chicken farmer, the gravedigger, and maybe the poker player.

Prediction for first boot: Courtney

Prediction for Final Four (assuming 7-member jury and Final 2): Jaimie, James, Jean-Robert, Peih-Gee

Prediction for winner: Jean-Robert

Greeting Survivor FReeks,

The new season of Survivor starts in just under 84 hours!
So as promised, here is part 2 of a Media Conference that Survivor Host Jeff Probst held on 9/12/2007.
For part 1 see post number 58 above.
Again, many thanks to the folks over at SurvivorFever.net for transcribing the conference.

Question: Now that you have the perspective of China and you used "The Art of War", do you think that the show's philosophy has change?

JP: No. I think that subconsciously we always knew that "The Art of War" was playing a part. It might have reminded us a little more in storytelling. This is a good angle. Leaders that aren't first liked by their tribe. I think it formed the questions that producers would ask on the beach and things like that. It certainly reminded me that this is a game of strategy. Sometimes I forget and think it's a game of arguing. It's a game of strategy. Sometimes the strategy is to argue. We have a guy this season, Jean-Robert, who actually came in with a pretty interesting strategy which was, I'm going to come in and not be liked. I want people to not like me and then I'm going to become likeable. His reason was, psychologically, and we talked about this to our psychologist and she said, it was absolutely correct. Psychologically if you meet somebody and the first time you meet them you don't like them very well, the minute you get to know them, you do like them. You end up liking them more than you would have had you liked them initially. That was his philosophy. I'm going to be the guy that everybody thinks is a big chump and doesn't pull my weight and is lazy. Then I'm going to start pulling my weight. Then I'm going to become funny and people are going to like me more than they ever would have. That kind of strategy, while not exactly out of "The Art of War," is part of it. It's how do you get to know your opponent and play them in a way that will let you win. I thought it was a pretty good idea.

Follow-up: Did Julie come with you to China?

JP: No, she did not. She's deep in school and it was a long ways away. There's just nothing out there. Nothing to do other than sit in your little room and twiddle your thumbs.

Follow-up: We're you able to contact her?

JP: Oh yeah. We have the internet and phones. They take really good care of us.

Follow-up: There seem to be a couple of rumors going around, are you guys engaged?

JP: No. I don't know where that started. But I know I've heard it as well.

Question: What was the thought process about bringing people that already had a notoriety? Such as Leslie being a radio talk show host and especially Ashley from the WWE. Like Survivor needs any help bringing people in?

JP: It was actually a bit of coincidence. We didn't go out and say, "Hey let's get some people that are known." In the last few seasons, really since Cook Islands, we started looking for people as much as we do take applications. That, I think, has lent itself to seeing people and saying, "Hey, they might actually be a good contestant on our show." Jean-Robert probably would not have applied. Once we approached him his ego was like, are you kidding me, that's what I do for a living, I play poker for a living. Ashley, I think, certainly it's a platform for her but for us, it was a really good character when we met her. She is a ...crazy. She's altered her body in a way that it's hard not to notice her. She's got a wrestler's mentality when it comes to challenges. She's very physical. She said, "I make my living throwing people around. I love this idea." In both cases I think those guys were naturals for the show that we only found because we went out looking for them. It just so happens they had a professional career. As far as Leslie, a Christian radio talk show host. I think that's a slam-dunk. That plays out in the first four minutes of episode one when she's forced to go inside a Buddhist temple and she's a Christian talk show radio host. Anytime you have any of those hot buttons, if you have a gay person and a homophobe, you have a Christian, somebody that's very religious, we had a woman, I think in The Amazon, that wouldn't touch the Immunity Idol because she says, "I will not bear down to any other idol" or whatever. She wouldn't even touch that. She couldn't get her mind into the fact that this was just a silly piece of wood. For her, you called it an idol. That's money in the bank.

Follow-up: There's a lot of people out there that kind of boycott reality as a whole viewing thing but those same people always tend to be Survivor fans. What makes you think Survivor speaks to those people?

JP: I think Survivor, slap me if I'm being presumptuous, I kind of feel like Survivor has earned a little respect. We're not the new kid on the block. We're not on the cover of In Touch anymore but we're still here. I'm pretty sure it's because we're telling good stories. We have the same group of people busting their ass to give good real drama in a contrived situation. I think when a person says, "I don't watch reality but I watch Survivor", I think what they're saying is, "Survivor is it's own form of storytelling. It's good storytelling." Reality has become, I don't even know the word, I was going to say, crap.

Question: The show has been a long time... that if you have a contestant like you did this year, who is 20, he could have been watching it since he was 13. Does that change people who have sort of grown up with the show? Do they come in and really think they know how to handle everything?

JP: Absolutely. There's a guy on this season, Todd, he's one of the biggest fans ever. The first day he says something like that to me. He goes, "Jeff, I've been watching this show since I was 16. I've been waiting until I could apply." This kid couldn't drive when we started. He did know the game. It's because he's been watching since he was a kid. I'll tell ya, in his case, it pays off. He knew going in how to start the game. He had a gameplan how an alliance best worked and how you worked people. Versus a guy like, I keep bringing up Jean-Robert, I don't' know why. But Jean-Robert, who didn't have a clue about Survivor but was so certain that just the fact that the was a professional poker player would take care of itself. That dude had a quick learning curve. He did. He started realizing, okay, I don't know what the hell is going on out here. The people are all talking behind my back and I don't know what they're saying. Hello, Jean-Robert. You should have watched a couple of episodes, you numbskull. So, yeah, I think we're starting to get young people who have really become fans of the game. I like that.

Question: With someone like Ashley I'm curious, did other contestants know who she was, did it change things if she was someone who was famous to them.

JP: I don't know the answer to that. I'm not sure if that ever came up. I think, I'm guessing, knowing Ashley, she probably told people, four minutes in. You'll see in the very beginning, we only let them wear the clothes on their back. They go from Shanghai, the ultra modern city of the world and then they go backwards from a high speed train to a truck and then they end up in rural China where we're going to do this show at this Buddhist monastery. After lugging their luggage around for however long, I tell them part of the culture of China, Buddhism philosophy, a part of that is leaving behind all worldly possessions. That includes your suitcases. You're not going to be needing them. Cut to Ashley who is wearing fishnet stockings, knee-high leather boots, tattoos on both elbows, rings on either side of her bottom lip. She's got huge implants and she's physically fit. She's lean and strong. You cannot miss her. I'm guessing that she said, "By the way, I'm a wrestler, I'm on television."

Follow-up: I wanted to ask a little bit about last season and what was your reaction to the huge Dreamz/Yau-Man situation.

JP: It was mixed. I get it. If I'm Dreamz I don't have the life experience, the wherewithal for the...greed is too big of a word in my life when I'm smelling a shot at a million dollars. I don't have the capability to get it that by betraying Yau-Man I've just cut my own throat. So, I get Dreamz. Dreamz was just an excited kid who never, ever had a shot at something like this. He didn't know what to do. As a guy on the show, as a producer I'm looking at it going, Dreamz make the right decision and your life will change. I would do the Colby Donaldson, I would lay down and say I kept my word and I hope you guys will reward me. Ultimately I was sad because people don't give you a second chance. All they see is a greedy kid and can't put themselves in his shoes.

Follow-up: There have been rumors that there might be another All Stars next season.

JP: I've come around to understand that even though the All Star that we did was a pain in the ass from a production point of view, it was one of our best seasons because we had our best people back. I get that. I wouldn't be looking forward necessarily to doing another 20 All Stars because I know how the minute you call them an All Star, suddenly the contract has a four page rider on it where they need their green M&Ms removed. We're in our 16th season, going into our 16th season, it wouldn't be a bad idea.

Question: What does a typical Survivor day for you look like? Obviously, you're off doing other things while everybody else are in their tribes.

JP: I took a camera around and did a behind the scenes thing and one of the things I did was a day in the life. I don't know when that gets released. They're dumping one every day for the next week. Waking up at 5:30. So the days are very different. Some days I don't work at all. If it's a down day or a merge day and maybe there's no challenge and we don't have a rehearsal and there's no tribal, I could have the whole day off. Then the next day might be a day where you have a rehearsal in the morning and a challenge in the afternoon and then Tribal Council at night. Maybe that doesn't even sound like a lot but by the time you factor in travel to there, especially if you're on boats. Like in Palau, it will take you an hour to get there and an hour to get back. Most of the day is spent preparing either through a rehearsal or creative meeting or we're talking through the switch and how we're going to execute it. The least amount of time is actually spent on camera. What you see is what you get on the show. We show up, we do a challenge. I talk some nonsense at the challenge and then it's over. For a challenge we have it on the grid, we have a drawing of it, we talk through it as a group, then we go out and start to build it. We have a test with no cameras, we run it with the dreamteam. We make some changes then we rehearse it with cameras. Then we look at tapes and say, "Okay, here's where I should be on this. Get a good shot here." We have a long process to make sure that when it actually runs, we get it right.

Follow-up: Have you guys ever considered doing a season in a cold location?

JP: Not in winter. We talked about it. I think Mark is pretty against winter simply because if you're talking like snow and cold, from a production point, it would be very difficult. As human beings you tend to just hibernate. You're not going to frolic around in the water. We have talked about going to somewhere in the spring that might be rolling hills of grass or like somewhere in British Columbia where you get just a completely different look. I think that has a chance of happening.

Question: This is the first season in awhile where there has only been 16 castaways. I was wondering if that had anything to do with ratings declining over recent years or if it was a creative decision.

JP: Let me be really clear how I feel about the ratings. I've learned now in 8 years that the only thing people report is ratings going down. Our ratings have gone down since season two. We were the number one show and we've gone on down since then. Ratings are relevant compared to who you're next to. Who's in that block next to you at 8 o'clock? We're still winning. Ugly Betty gets all the press in the world, she'll probably win another Emmy but we're still winning [the timeslot]. Our ratings are declining. A lot of shows are declining because of the internet. We're still a very profitable show for CBS. We've done 20 people a lot. 20 people are really hard to get to know. We like having 20 or 18 people in the sense that we can do a double tribal, we can put somebody off in the middle of an episode. If somebody quit or got sick we're not in trouble. There's a lot of pros to having more people. We went back to season one in this way, 16 people, every three days is an episode. What happened is that when we got to 20 people we had to get rid of more people. We needed an extra episode, we would do a one day episode. We would actually shoot an entire episode with a challenge and a Tribal in one day. That's really tough to tell the story. We went back to our old schedule. We had time off, we had afternoons free to go kick around. I think the 16 people is something we might stick with for a little while.

Follow-up: How many episodes is Survivor: China? Is it 13 or 14?

JP: I think it is 13 with a clip show on Thanksgiving.

Follow-up: And were there alternates this year?

JP: We always have alternates.

Follow-up: I'm asking because last season you guys ended up having 19 when Melissa dropped out.

Colleen Sullivan: That was Fiji.

JP: We didn't bring an alternate with us. We had an alternate in Cooks because we had somebody we weren't sure of so we brought somebody. We had an alternate for Fiji but when we got out there she [Melissa McNulty] quit like five hours before we started. There's just no way. There's no way to get anybody there. Had she quit three days before we would have probably brought an alternate out. It's a little bit of a guessing game. We don't typically bring anybody to location that's not going to be on the show because you're getting their hopes up. We did do it in the Cooks, it's a good thing we did. We didn't do it in Fiji.

Question: Talking about great bodies and great shape. Some are making a mistake. They get there and want to look good the first week. Then the guys would come up with excess body fat and gradually lose it during the hungry time and are faring better by the middle of the thing. If you were a contestant would you go in a little overweight on purpose?

JP: Yeah and it would be hard because, vanity, man. I don't want to show up with 20 extra pounds. From a nutrition point of view, we have this guy, James, who, we've never had anybody as big or as ripped as James. He struggled early because he talked about how much he eats a day. He said, "Jeff, I eat all day. I'm eating nothing now." The impact on him versus say, the impact on Courtney, who weighed maybe 90 pounds when we started, is very different. Jean-Robert is like a grizzly bear. He's got this big roll of fat. He had a lot for his body to chew on. I would definitely put on about 15 pounds and start eating less before I got there. I'm amazed people don't do that, go to a nutritionist and say, "Look, here's what my body is going to undergo." They eat big steak dinners the night before and then they're in pain the next morning.

This is the end of part 2. Tune in tomorrow for part 3.

Take Care,

P.S. Thanks for everyone who posted and reminded me that even though they may not comment, they still read the info I provide. I’m a little dense from time to time and have a tendency to fergit.

FReepmail me if you want added to (or removed from) the Survivor Ping List.

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Notable Survivor Quote:
"People are changing their minds like they change their underwear."
Frank Garrison, Survivor Africa

Greeting Survivor FReeks,

Just under 60 hours to go!
And finally, here is part 3 of the Media Conference that Survivor Host Jeff Probst held on 9/12/2007.
For part 1 see post number 58 above.
For part 2 see post number 74 above.
Again, many thanks to the folks over at SurvivorFever.net for transcribing the conference.

Colleen: At this time, Jeff, if you wouldn't mind, could we just run down the 16 and give a couple sentences on your thoughts on each one of them.

JP: Jean-Robert [Bellande], extremely confidant to the point of cocky arrogance. Part of that is his plan, part is just natural personality. In terms of somebody you want to have on the show, he's gold.

JP: James [Clement] is a grave-digger from Louisiana. Physically, the biggest guy we've ever had on the show. Surprisingly one of the most agile. I thought that James might be a guy who couldn't really stretch or move and was just all muscle. You see in the very first challenge, he goes up against Frosti, this young parkour kid. They go head to head and Frosti's got nothing on James. James is kind of like a gentle giant in that he's pretty quiet unless you rile him up and then he has no filter and he will say whatever he is thinking at whatever volume he wants to say it. That was interesting and a bit of a liability for him out there.

JP: Dave Cruser is nuts. Dave works to the point of exhaustion, then loses his mind and continues to try to contribute. He's just zany enough to be entertaining and annoying if you have to live with him. At the heart of Dave is a big heart. The guy works so hard from the second he gets out there. He really wants to build something. He really wants to have a group of people but he's a guy that is going to need to study "The Art of War" early if he's going to stay long.

JP: Jaime Dugan is an interesting combination of sorority girl and honor student. She's very pretty and she's from South Carolina. She's got a pretty good head on her shoulders especially when it comes to being with people. Jaime factors into the strategy of her tribe quite a bit.

JP: Todd Herzog is the guy I was talking about earlier. He's very young and never missed an episode of Survivor. He's studied it from when he was a kid. Of all the people on the show this season, Todd knew Survivor the best. Todd knows what to expect. He knows the odds of there being a merge or a loved one visit or an auction. He can tell you based on what day it is what we're probably doing back at base camp. It's kinda scary how much he knew about the show. He's a great storyteller. Like Jean-Robert, Todd is somebody you go to all the time because he always gives you something good.

JP: Eric Huffman is a little bit like Ethan in that Eric is a very quiet polite kid. He's a quite talented musician but out in Survivor he was definitely a follower for most of it. He just wanted to get along. I was a little suspect that maybe there was a little something else going on. His game was from the beginning, I'm a nice guy and that's how I'm going to play it.

JP: Amanda [Kimmel] is a former Miss Montana. She's beautiful. Great physical body in terms of athlete. She's very strong and can pull her own weight at camp and at challenges. She knows the game very well. She totally gets how Survivor is played. She is playing to win. Amanda is somebody you look around and think she's a little like Amber, keep her around until you don't need her anymore. Good luck.

JP: Peih-Gee [Law] has a very strong opinion about everything and that is going to be her biggest obstacle to get over is to not tell you what she thinks...and often it's negative...and often it's delivered in a negative way. What Peih-Gee has going for her is willpower. She will not go away. You're going to have to really want to get rid of her.

JP: Sherea [Lloyd] is a fourth grade teacher. She is out of her element. She ends up with the clothes on her back and quickly finds herself in her bra and underwear and is not that comfortable and then amazingly very quickly begins to sort of embrace it. Sherea, much like Peih-Gee, has a strong point of view. She loves to talk about it. She loves to mix it up. She loves to go head to head with you about anything. It makes for good television.

JP: Denise Martin is a lunchlady. She is one of the most endearing people we've had on the show in a long time. She has an unmistakable haircut, a mullet. It's a fascinating piece of hairstyle, you can't help but ask her about it. Her answer was so charming. She said, "I work with food so I have a need to keep my hair short to keep it out of the food. I'm also a woman and I'm a wife and I want to be sexy for my husband so I want some length in the back. What you see is what you get.

JP: Ashley [Massaro] is a wrestler. Ashley has one of the most unique looks of anyone we've ever had on the show. She's altered her body in many ways from piercings to tattoos to breast implants. On top of it all she's very physically fit. She makes her living throwing people around. I think Ashley's strength is going to be that she's a strong woman. I think her liability is she's one of the divas of the WWE. That diva part of her is going to have to go.

JP: [Steve] Chicken Morris is a one of a kind. He is a chicken farmer. He doesn't know Sur...he doesn't...Chicken is the oldest guy out there. That's the toughest thing for Chicken the first few days, figuring out the balance between being Chicken, the guy who knows how to build a shelter and being this guy that's playing the game that needs to blend in with all these younger people that only think they know how to build a shelter. That's his big struggle. This is a guy who has lived on his own for so long and does things his own damn way. That doesn't work on Survivor. Chicken found himself in a situation of either "stick to my roots and be the first one gone or adapt and learn how to deal with these younger people."

JP: Leslie Nease, Christian radio talkshow host. Leslie is a really nice woman. She's a mother. She's very accomplished. She's done a lot in her life. Her current occupation is she hosts a talk show. For her, religion will play a part. Early on she's forced to go to a Buddhist temple which was not a worshipping ceremony but has a worship element to it. That was difficult for her. Right away she's exposed as somebody who has a strong faith. The question is, will people manipulate her and her faith or will she use her faith to manipulate others. Where is her line? Will she cross it to win a million dollars?

JP: Surfing instructor Aaron [Reisberger]. I describe Aaron as kind of cold and steely. Aaron told us when we first met him, "When I bartend, I can read people so fast that I know what to say to them and how to treat them to get the maximum tip." I thought that if he's telling the truth he's going to do very well because that is at the essence of Survivor, reading people and knowing what makes them tick and how to get to them. I think Aaron is very good at knowing what people need and how to give it to them. Aaron is probably used to leading and that will either really work well for him or kill him. He's not a passive guy that's going to sit back and say, yeah okay whatever.

JP: Courtney [Yates] is the smallest person we've had. She couldn't have weighted 100 pounds but she passed our physical test and was cleared by the doctors. She is one of the wittiest and negative people we've ever had on the show. I really got a kick out of Courtney. I enjoyed her sarcasm, her extremely dry wit. She always had a comment about what was going on and it was almost always funny and simultaneously insightful. Her liability is going to be her size. Can she contribute anything worth keeping her around? Or does she try to last long enough where her size becomes an asset because nobody thinks she can win so they keep her around. She's in a really interesting position. If I were her I'd just try to bury myself somewhere in the middle and hope I can make it so late that a combination of my personality and my lack of physical ability will make me somebody you want to keep around. Courtney was, for me, a delight because of her caustic personality.

JP: Frosti [Zernow] is the youngest kid we've ever had on the show. He does this sport called parkour. It's sort of like what they did in the latest James Bond movie where they jump over signs and jump up onto railings. He's just very physically gifted. We saw his tape and thought, this guy is great for challenges. In the very first challenge he goes up against James and there's this huge wall and it was built with a rope that you're supposed to use to climb up the wall and pull yourself over. We thought, okay, Frosti might skip the rope. Sure enough, he leaps off of a platform at this wall and pulls himself up. Right behind him is James, this 6' 4" massive guy, he does the same thing. I thought, oh my God, we have some athletes this season between Frosti and James and Aaron and ummm, I just lost the other guy...Amanda and Ashley. We've got some pretty physically fit people.

I’ll be back tomorrow with a vid cap (or two) of the tribal council set-up. So till then,
Take Care,

FReepmail me if you want added to (or removed from) the Survivor Ping List.

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Notable Survivor Quote:
"They're as nervous as a whore in church."
“Big” Tom Buchanan, Survivor Africa

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