...not all of which will be dumb, of course.

Looked for a thread for this, couldn't find it, yada yada yada.

Anyway, two questions:

1) When did the Immunity Talisman become the Immunity Necklace?
2) Did we ever find out who Outback's Token Gay Survivor is?

Africa? Marquesas? Somewhere in the early seasons not yet on DVD.

Varner's not gay?

Varner has always insisted he's not gay. Pretty hard to believe. So has Colby...
Ok I have a dumb question... why did they have to sleep in the cave this last episode of f versus f. Why didn't they have a shelter built?

Did they *have* to sleep in the cave, or did they *choose* to at least try to sleep in the cave since the rain was coming down so hard that it was probably inundating the shelter. Even the best built palm frond shelter is not going to hold up against a downpour. That's my guess.

And if we think that, TPTB probably thought that too. So gay or not, he was likely cast as the Outback TGS.

When, and more importantly, why did Probst start doing detailed play-by-play for the challenges?

I can't say why he gives so much more commentary for sure, but I've noticed that the challenges lately have been more complicated (collect the puzzle pieces, do the obstacle, complete the puzzle) in more recent seasons, whereas earlier seasons were mostly puzzles or physical challenges, so maybe he feels the need to keep people in mind of where they stand on the longer course. Or maybe he just likes the sound of his own voice.

Do the jury members hang out in loser villiage together or are they seperated until meeting at every tribal council?

They hang out, as far as I know. I remember even way back in Thailand, one of the jury contestants asked Clay about racist remarks specifically because another jury member later commented about them in the Loser Lodge. Plus, in a lot of later TCs, the jury always seems to have someone they still hate who's still playing, and they constantly signal or laugh back and forth whenever said-contestant is targeted by Jeff or the other active players. So, I assume they confer with each other about their hated people outside the game.

(1) Anyone know how long does Tribal council normally lasts?
(2) When a survivor gets voted off, is there a double cheeseburger (or similar) waiting for them? About a hot shower?
(3) Do people in the loser lodge receive mail (or similar correspondence) from family members?
(4) Does the survivor that gets voted off see the confessionals at the voting booth?

I've read many times that they aren't allowed to confer about the game, but if they are hanging out it must be damn hard to enforce.


I remember one of the Survivors on an early season saying they specified a favorite food which they got along with a prize pack when they came out.
A prize pack of promotional stuff like free doritos or whatever.

I don't know what it's like up there, but down here on our sucky local version everybody got a chocolate bar (a Mars Bar, IIRC) when they left the game.

I think Varner has always said that he was not going to confirm one way or the other if he was gay or not.



Tribal Council goes for about 1 1/2 to 2 hours. We only see a few minutes of it.
I read somewhere that the contestants are asked prior to the game what their meal request is should they get voted out. Hence Shane's "I'm going to have an ice cream in one minute".
I don't think they are allowed any contact with family unless it's an emergency.
I don't think the bootee (or anyone else) sees any confessionals until the show is aired on TV.

I know that the players who don't make the jury are sequestered together separate from the jury. But do those that don't make the jury get to talk to people who do and find out what happens, or are they totally out of the loop until the season airs?

For instance, does Ami know who makes the final 2/3, or do only the jury members know that?

I don't know if this is still the case, but in the early seasons, pre-jury boots were taken on a separate vacation away from the others. So they didn't know anything beyond the final pre-jury boot.

Can someone give the URL of the Ponderosa that was given during the show tonight. It's where the outcasts go to live while on the jury. I thought I'd remember it, but my memory has failed me.

CBS.com/PONDEROSA

Oh yeah that's right sorry. He never said he wasn't gay just won't comment.
I don't suppose anyone knows if quitters forfeit prize money? I mean the seven grand or ten grand or whatever they would have got for whatever place they came in.

From memory of what has been said (DVDs, survivors, Mark Burnett, et al) over the years;

In Borneo, IIRC, pre-merge and post-merge where allowed to mingle. Thus Romana's claim to know who won when she was on Letterman. In fact BB was allowed a quick trip home for some reason. Granted Borneo was a completely different kettle of fish to all other seasons, thus anything that happened there shouldn't be taken as a norm.

And if I recall correctly there was no pre-merge holiday et cetera for Outback & Marquesas. I recall Varner mentioning that after a night by himself at the Loser Lodge he was shipped off back to the states. Of course it might of just meant the post-merge non-juror was excluded from any pre-merge group event, but that would've been rather mean...

And of course in Marquesas, Peter was pegged as first bootee very early on because of spoilers of him reappearing in his home town only after being gone a week or so, thus forcing the producers to change the rules from then on creating the pre-jury holiday et cetera thus at least all pre-jury leave together.

Which doesn't always happen like that either.

For the original ASS season, the pre-jury boots were sent out in waves to different locations. As I recall, there was a sighting of just Tina, Rudy and Cesterino (the first 3 boots) at one location, and later sightings of other pre-jury boots in other locales.

And don't forget the Reunion, where Rich mentioned fawwing in wuv wiff the bellboy at his Loser Lodge in Buenos Aires.

A question about the food auction: Does it go on for longer than it is shown on tv? Because we only see 5-6 items, so my strategy would be to bid $500 on the first real food item I see. Yet there are always people who do not bid on anything, or are unwilling to spend their money or bid higher on an uncovered item. What is the strategy in this? Have any contestants ever talked about the auction after the show and given some insight into what really goes on?

I believe the auction does go on for longer, they just tend to show the items that come first or served with a side order of food-related drama. It does, apparently though, stop without warning, so some people have ended up without buying anything.

It wasn't mentioned really in this episode, but in eariler seasons, Probst seems to imply that the money is theirs to keep. Thus, if they do end up not bidding on anything, they at least have $500 more in their pocket when they leave the game. I think that's why the competition has so much emphasis on "You spent $280 on a hot dog." This is real money that they're given and then spending since they're that hungry.

I've only been watching since Cook Islands... has anyone ever handed off their immunity necklace?
I know hidden immunity idols have been passed around a little, but I've never seen anyone share the necklace.
Thanks!

ETA for future readers, Erick to Natalie in Micronesia. Oh the humanity!

I vaguely remember somebody giving the necklace to HeiDDi in the Amazon. I think that's the only time it's ever happened.

Jenna did. I can't remember ther reasoning though; I think she just knew she was safe and wanted to be nice.

Burton also gave Rupert (I think) a necklace in Pearl Islands because he was given a spare one for that purpose, but I don't think that counts.

This is my first season watching, so I've got lots of dumb questions.
How does production adjust to the fact that they've had 3 people leave outside the usual tribal council process? Doesn't that shorten the game by several days? Or are they having more days in between challenges to stretch it out? Even if they did this, though, it seems it would have to shorten the SEASON by 3 episodes, wouldn't it?

It depends on a number of factors: the number of contestants, pre-planned double-eliminations, and how close the atypical departure occurs to a TC day.

The show takes place over 39 days, period. Unexpected departures wouldn't change that. Typically, there's a TC every 3rd night, but that changes depending on the number of initial contestants and the number of them that will make up and face the jury. More contestants means more TCs.

This season started with 20 people, so there was likely going to be at least one day when both tribes went to TC and voted someone out. The combined RC/IC that Airai won so James could open bottles with his teeth was likely one of those planned days since both people sent to EI (Ozzy and Alexis) also got immunity for that night's TC only. With two extra departures before that challenge, the need for both tribes to go to TC was eliminated, so that particular twist was untwisted.

A previous season had one tribe unexpectedly vote out a second person right after voting at TC. No planning, no leaving TC, but an immediate second vote. TPTB might have had that plan in mind for this season too, but it too would have been deemed unnecessary by an unexpected departure.

In past seasons, people have quit or been evac'ed on the day of TC. TC has been called off in those cases. But that hasn't happened this season.

Now, we're on day 33 with only 5 people left, and a jury of 5. Presumably there will only be 2 more eliminations, leaving us with a jury of 7 and an F3. With only 2 more episodes, that's only one per. However, there typically would be 6 people left for these 2 episodes, so the final episode on Sunday will be one TC short of normal.

Season's just about as long as it should have been.

Thanks.

Bob - I agree with everything you said and thought the same way, but would never had written it as well as you. I still don't like a final 3, but it appears that's how it's going to end up on Sunday.

I don't think Jenna ever clarified for sure why she gave Heidi her immunity necklace, but I read it as some pretty clever gameplay. Rob C had recently told Jenna he wanted to bring her to the final 2 and vote out Heidi. Despite their distrust of him Jenna & Heidi had made a deal with Rob to vote out Christy that tribal council. I saw Jenna's gift of the immunity necklace at that point as a way to force Rob's hand because if he backstabbed them he'd have to vote out the person he wanted to take to F2 rather than the person he wanted to vote out next. I thought Jenna was a spoiled brat, but I found that to be a great way to use the gift of the immunity necklace, especially since it seems to be the only time that's really happened.

Thanks for answering about the necklace guys.
Here's another question, and I realise that this is pretty trivial but,
When that poor guy got booted via the purple rock of death tie breaker, in Marquesa, did Jeff actually say to him, "The tribe has spoken"? 'Cause that wasn't the tribe man, that was the rock, and acting like it was the tribe strikes me as unnecessarily cruel.
Trivial, I know, but I wonder if Jeff is able to vary his patter for occasions like that...

It's been a while, but I'm pretty sure he said, "The tribe definitely HASN'T spoken". I could be wrong, but I feel pretty confident that that was his response.

My memory is something very similar, so I don't think you're wrong.

If only this season (and several others) would be released on DVD...

Thanks again! You guys are great!

Can't remember about the purple rock, but I remember that Probst said "the tribe has not spoken, but nonetheless.." or something like that when Bobby Jon got booted at the fire-starting tiebreaker in Palau.

Is Fans vs. Faves the first all woman final four?

Yep.

Yes, I'm pretty certain it is.

S1:Sue,Rudy,Kelly,Rich (2m/2w)
S2:Elizabeth,Keith,Colby,Tina (2m/2w)
S3:Tom,Lex,KimJ,Ethan (3m/1w)
S4:Paschal,Kathy,Neleh,Vecepia (1m/3w)
S5:Helen,Jan,Clay,Brian (2m/2w)
S6:Butch,Rob,Matt,Jenna (3m/1w)
S7:Darrah,JFP,Lill,Sandra (1m/3w)
S8:Rupert,Jenna,RobM,Amber (2m/2w)
S9:Eliza,Scout,Twila,Chris (1m/3w)
S10:Jenn,Ian,Katie,Tom (2m/2w)
S11:Lydia,Rafe,Stephanie,Danni (1m/3w)
S12:Cirie,Terry,Danielle,Aras (2m/2w)
S13:Sundra,Becky,Ozzy,Yul (2m/2w)
S14:Yau-Man,Cassandra,Dreamz,Earl (3m/1w)
S15:Denise,Amanda,Courtney,Todd (1m/3w)

Yup, first all women final four! Statisticians, do with this what you will!

Thanks for all that work, svarlo. It was actually neat to see the list and history of the past. That's why I am still a fan of the show and I'm looking forward to the finale and next season in Hi-Def. I don't know how this is all going to play out, but hopefully it will be good.

Did CBS.com stream the reunion for the previous season? More to the point, will they stream it this season?

Does anyone know what the current payments are for second, third, fourth place etc? And in seasons with three finalists did the two who didn't win the million get the same amount?
Thinking about Amanda, Cirie and Pavarti's surprise last night that the jury vote would be an F2 not an F3 situation -- I wondered if the payment schedule is outlined in the contract and if something in that could have clued them in beforehand that there wouldn't be three in the final.

So...what the hell were the producers thinking?

8 member jury? What happens if there was a 4-4 tie?

Poor Cirie. Not only she got screwed by a twist...she got screwed by a twist that makes 0 sense for the end game.

I'm actually wondering this, too. If they performed a tie-breaker of some kind right there on the island, then they would, ostensibly, know the winner there, and they haven't had those circumstances since S1. The only way they could manage a viewer vote, I guess, would be to say there was a tie, and then have voting through the whole Reunion special. Revoting on the island would probably do little, because there wouldn't be many changing their votes; revoting live at the Reunion seems way too hap-hazard (and potentially unfair). The only thing I've thought of that could work would be some sort of blind tie-breaker held on the island, like Amanda and Parvati are put somewhere alone and made to do the fire challenge and timed on it so that the producers know who won it but so that they and the jury do not. This is a really interesting risk they took.

I've been wracking my brain trying to figure out what would happen in a tie, as well; I'm thinking they'd sequester the jury and have them discuss their opinions and then have a re-vote, sort of like the final jury votes in Big Brother; this could potentially cause one player to change their vote. Otherwise, I'm at a loss.

I am just guessing, but tie breaking possibilities include, adding or subtracting a juror ( maybe Ami was sitting nearby in the bushes) or adding up all previous votes.

I wonder if they thought James would be stuck in the hospital so they were preparing for a seven person jury?

I have a question about the jury comments/questions. After the final 2 make their "opening statements" are they not supposed to say anything unless asked a question? I was wondering when Ozzie was doing his "You totally betrayed me and put a price on our friendship and I don't want to hear from you at all" speech to Parvati.

In most seasons, Jeff gives the final 2 a chance to make both opening [iand closing statements. Often these closing statements address the more hostile jury members with a final apology or explanation of actions they hadn't realized would piss off the jurors so much. It's only been recently that the final 2/3 haven't made closing statements. I know there weren't any in China, but I'm having difficulty remembering if the other F3 seasons had closing statements (Cook Islands and Fiji).

Does the theory (at least, I think it's true) that the person to win FI loses to the person they take to the final? I know that Amanda has done it both in China (Todd won) and now, Micronesia (Parvati). I don't want to write a long list, but isn't true again?