“To my knowledge I don't think we've pissed anybody off”

If you get Boston Rob on I'll be eternally grateful. (I'll even hope that the Jets come 3rd & not 4th in the AFC EAST!) ;)

Plus the final 4 tie-breaker on CI is one of the funniest things in the history of the show

Wow I despise The Australian Outback. Boring characters & a winner who did very little. It may have been great when it aired but it has aged terribly

I disagree with how you view Sandra. I understand your viewpoint that she has tried to direct the flow & has often come up short. It happens. It happened with Rob on All-Stars.

The idea of the game however is to win the most jury votes at TC & I think if you look at Sandra's game, she's done a really good job of trying to make moves while also keeping her hands clean.

At this point in the game, all the villains trust her & don't realize that she has tried to vote many of them out. The Heroes like her because she has tried to vote with them but other factors have gotten in the way. I think Sandra would be the clear favourite if Parvati wasn't playing such a good game. I consider that to be good strategy: to be involved, to try & turn the tide your way but to also keep everyone on your side.

On the Coach/Courtney move, I don't recall the Immunity Challenge on Courtney's boot episode but I'd venture a guess that the Villains would have had a better shot with Coach & if they'd gone into the merge with a 6-4 advantage, Sandra becomes a lot less valuable.

By keeping Courtney, she guaranteed herself, at worst, an important spot in the Villain's alliance off the bat & at best, got herself & Courtney to the merge where they could have directed the rest of the game.

While Rob may disagree & say he & Sandra played differently in season 6 & 7 (and honestly, I think Rob's in a better place to say whether or not he did than I am), I see similarities. They both try to flip when they think their game may be in trouble, they are both very careful not to step on people's toes & they both had a pulse on the tribe dynamics.

Look at the way Sandra voted when someone else left other than the name she put down:

Danielle – Jerri & Russell changed their votes at TC because of something Parvati said.

Rob – She stuck to her alliance. Coach could have tied it up & that's what they hoped for.

Tyson – They split the votes & Tyson screwed up. She knew exactly how things were meant to play out. I don't think you can blame her for someone else making an irrational & quite frankly stupid decision.

I guess we just view her game differently but I definitely see her as a worthy & satisfying winner if she goes all the way

He said Ethan didn't deserve it not that he was the 2nd least deserving. I understand his point but seasons 2-5 are played very differently & the majority of the cast in each season is voting people out based on who they like rather than strategy. Ethan didn't do much other than be nice. I'm glad he won because of how he used his money but he wasn't a particularly good winner.

I disagree with Probst on Jenna. Again I understand his point & if the jury had realized that Matt had taken over the game & basically outplayed Rob at the end, I think he'd have won. The jury had no idea though so I'm not surprised Jenna won.

I always put Bob Crowley & Tina Wesson at the top of my lists.

Tina because she played on a season where everyone voted solely on who they liked. It had very little to do with strategy. Tina just laid back, was nice & rode Colby to the end.

Crowley because he had no clue what was going on at all in the season. He just sat back & did nothing while the rest of the tribe attacked each other. I have never been so dissatisfied with a winner than Bob. Sugar's morals got him to the end. He won simply because his old tribe wanted one of their tribe to win & there was no way Randy was voting for Susie or Sugar.

I love the “Do you have” challenges from Amazon & All-Stars. Everyone can relax & it gets both tribes getting to know one other & having fun. I wish they'd use it a lot more often

I'd like to apologize now for all the e-mails that just flooded your inbox!

I thought Billy Garcia was great. I love hearing from Survivors who are big fans of the show & I thoroughly enjoyed listening to him talk about things we didn't see on CI.

Looking really forward to KVB on the podcast. I'm a big fan of hers. I'd love it if you could ask her if she has any kind of relationship with Rob & Amber these days?

Looking forward to the live show guys. Should be a blast

They might need jerry springer to monitor that.

I think PorkStoreKiller makes a great argument… I am convinced that Sandra is a weak player strategically and that is the main reason she is going so far in this game. Either way she is still going and she did win it her last time so there must be SOMETHING she is doing correctly out there (probably a subtle social game).
I think that her near-defects to the heros may have been strategic jury vote winning moves. As someone else said, she can get them all with “I tried!” at the final tribal and pull all the hero votes.

Disagree.
FvF was great because the all girl alliance was so professional in their execution. Cirie and Parvati must be the two best social players in the game and in FvF you get to really see them doing work. Parvati is like a queen bee power player (similar to Boston Rob IMO) and Cirie is always described as having mind-control by the other players. Apparently Parvati is intimidating and Cirie is very persuasive in the social game. Amanda is just like the perfect sidekick and it takes her really far.
I completely agree with your assessment of Amazon. It was the Rob C show and he made it fantastic to watch. A great player and great television all in one person. I don't think that Jenna or Matt deserved to win at all but I do think that Jenna was a little more deserving.
Ok, Rupert was not a great character in Pearl Islands. The shoe thing was funny and then it was all pointing and laughing at that buffoon. Johnny Fairplay was almost as good as Rob C but he wasn't as funny. The outcast tribe was a terrible idea…
Tocantins was a terrible game of survivor! Coach practically handed the win to JT; he should have been voted off right after the merge. The exile island alliance was the only really interesting idea and it didn't even work out.
China was alright I guess… thank god for Todd and Courtney.

I suspect it is the “previous winner disadvantage” that Russell is hoping to exploit if he brings Sandra and/or Parvati to the top 3.

“and the underrated of the two despite his obvious support in rescuing the princess. ” ROFL

The Mixer? Thanks. Didn't know that.

Yeah Rob & Daniel Lue were the stars of that challenge

First thing Rob, great podcast. Just caught this one and bits from the other ones, and having just rewatched Amazon, felt the need to see what was up with you presently. Amazon, by the way, was a phenomenal example of a great way to play the post-merge game on your behalf, aside from letting Matt get by and considering how physically dominating he was, letting it get too late not to bump him out. But I'm sure you've heard this a million times, so moving on. Also, shout out for representing the SUNY system, as an attendee of BU and going to Cortland next year, nice to see our uh…state schools represented.

The season right now has been pretty good, but the problem with Russell is that he is far too abrupt with his actions and knowingly goes out of his way to make sure people know he is screwing them over. Russell doesn't go out of his way to get to know people, and when he decides “Okay, it's time for you to go”, he flat out tells people. It's one thing to screw people over at Tribal and show a sign of remorse for it, it's another to playfully to it and laugh at people as you do so.

Problem with this season for me is that no one seems to be wanting to make any major moves since Boston Rob was eliminated by Russell. The Heroes self destructed by holding onto James and JT making the wrong decision early on, and since then, it just fell apart. No one left at the merge made a serious move against Russell, as you have the likes of JT who is an idiot, Candice who will always be a pawn and who has been driven to paranoia over the immunity idol, Colby who just didn't care, and Rupert who means well….but that's about all. Is it really surprising that Russell and Parv have run rough shot all over the season while Sandra sits in the background, smirking as this all happens?

Anyway, great website, and you have yourself a somewhat listener.

“Sandra hasn't been lucky in this game nor has she been selected to go anywhere.”

She was selected to stay in the game by Parv/Russ when they booted Tyson, Rob and Courtney. She is to the group what Colby is to his current group. In both cases, the people in charge of the game selected the boot order and went after the better players first. The only reason she remained in the game when Rob, Tyson and Courtney left was because that's how Parv and Russell wanted it to be.

“Can you honestly think of another player in Survivor history who you deem as playing as poorly as Sandra but still being able to beat almost all 6 or 7 people left in the game?”

Yes, Cirie v1.0. The first time she played the game, she did very little and would have won the vote in the end had she made it because everyone liked her. Cirie v2.0 would have won the final vote too, but she made enough good strategic moves that season to justify winning. However, the first time she played, she was embarrassingly bad at every aspect at the game and would have take home the title. It would have been a black eye for the game.

I think it goes without saying that Parvati is the best Survivor player of all time. She is truly a triple threat with the physical, mental, and social skills that make her so powerful. I wish we could see her interpersonal interactions which determine and cement her relationships. She must be really likable and/or intimidating so everyone else must gather around her.

Yes but only of those that Parv/Russell selected, only Boston Rob is a better player. Tyson was booted because he was Rob's #2 & a physical threat, not because he's a good player. Courtney was booted because there was more chance she'd flip with JT & probably because Russell didn't want to keep someone Parvati was close to, not because she's a good player.

Sandra has successfully now infiltrated the Parv/Russell/Jerri alliance & she will still probably get Rupert's vote if she gets to the end.

I'm currently re-watching Exile Island. It's been a couple of years since I've watched it so you may be right but about 6 eps in I've been impressed with the way she has been getting the attention off of her & getting Casaya to vote out people in their alliances. Incidentally, I don't think Cirie would have beaten Terry had Terry made it to the end

Timbira tribe is was a bunch of morons, Tocantins is overrated.

only good thing about this season is the Cast.

Rob, make a podcast with Billy or any premerge boot about the petitioned Survivor 2nd Chance (allstars of premerge)