Huh, thought we had one of these already. Probably mixing this forum up with TAR again in my mind.

From the Reunion thread:



Wouldn't that be the editors' problem then? These people presumably got cast for some reason other than good looks. Look at the earliest seasons of the show. Maralyn only lasted three Outback episodes, and she's more memorable than some of the people who make the finale these days. If the show was edited better, these people would be remembered more. If these people were remembered more, the show would lose its reputation for only casting boring, pretty famewhores.

Sure, the trade off is seeing less of Douche being such a nozzle, but... he's a one-joke character anyway, the way he was edited. And that joke tired after about two episodes. It'd also make the winner less obvious to predict if they didn't have so much "OMG, Yul/Earl/Todd/Bob/JT is so fucking amazing!" moments.

As an avid Survivor fan, I have to disagree.

The reason people who don't make it far in the game are ignored, by the editors, in promos, and at the reunion, is because they weren't very important to the game. The editing purposefully zeroes in on people who drive the plot of the show, and those are often people who either make it far or at least have some kind of influence on tribal council.

Sure, there are sometimes early "characters" who get some screen time before being voted off in the pre-merge period of the game. Tall Kathy sticks out in my mind. But again, that's because she contributed some plot to the show (and the editors are working to create story arcs within episodes and throughout the season). She was awkward, and outcast, and struggled, and then she quit.

Compare that to, say, Spencer from Tocantines. Some people feel that Spencer was given short shrift and that he had a story to tell, as the youngest Survivor ever and with regards to his sexual orientation. And hey, perhaps there's a real drama lurking in the cutting room floor that we missed out on. But the truth is, Spencer is far from the first homosexual contestant on the show, and he also isn't the first gay man to downplay his sexuality for game purposes. Also, the main take-away of Spencer's youth seemed to be that a very young player may not make for a very good player. He was low key, wasn't much of a power player socially, and wasn't that great in challenges. He's a classic example of a pre-merge boot -- not that interesting, not that competitive, not that influential.

I understand what it's like to develop affection for certain contestants early on and then be frustrated when they're eliminated early. I was a big Michelle fan during the Fiji season, and was really disappointed when she was eliminated (particularly because it was truly due to some very bad luck). But that's the way the game works, and when the show focused mainly on players who made it farther than Michelle (Yau, Earl, Dreamz), I didn't mind.

The editors do a lot to shape the show, sometimes for better, sometimes for worse. But I just can't get on board with the idea that the editors should go out of their way to highlight (in a favorable way) competitors who are eliminated early. By the end of the season, I want to have a really good idea of who the remaining competitors are and how their games and alliances have evolved. That means ignoring some of the early folks.

I do agree with you but I feel editing has been a real problem for the last three seasons.

In China, I had a good sense of every player, including those who went off early like Leslie or Aaron.

But in Micronesia, you've had a really lopsided editing. Mary was completely left out, but that can be explained. Natalie was completely invisible but she made Final 4! How can we explain that? I mean, she was invisible, then, as if to compensate, she has had an entire episode devoted to her (the Jason Booting episode) and it was just too much of Natalie too bear. I did like her a lot, cause I could relate to her jerkiness, but I feel she would have been better used if her whole attitude had been stretched all season. We would have been spared the overdose and she would have been more fun to watch I think. And Alexis was not that much visible either...though she had "interesting" stories to tell: her relation with Ozzy and the rivalry with Amanda, her alliance with the girls...

But the worse was Gabon. Corinne sure was a total failure of a human being, but she was right: she was completely invisible in the beginning. Jacquie, Paloma, Kelly were not that much visible either (Less women, more GC and Ace, You-pee).
Then you had Susie, who finished second!!! Who was important to the storyline cause she betrayed her alliance and allowed the Fang dominance. She was also nice, a hard worker, she speak well and she was really funny (see some secret videos).

Her invisibility is inconceivable to me. I can only think she wasn't seen cause a lot of her advantages played in the same league as Bob's and she could have overshadowed him (I personnaly think she deserved the win more than him, though Sugar should have been the winner).

And that season was the worse. Sandy aside, I felt that I didn't know any of the pre Brendan bootees. They can be inconsistent to the overall storyline, it's still scandalous. I mean, Spencer, Joe and Sydney had an alliance going that we never saw. What about the whole story of Sierra's fake idol and Erinn, which could have explained the animosity between them later on? Or the friendship between Debbie and Erinn which we never saw? Debbie who has had less confessional than Joe!!!

All I've seen this season is Coach, Tyson, the secret alliance (who didn't work out either) and JT...

The difference with older seasons like Amazon or the Pearl Islands is really visible (I still remember Janet!), and in the Pearl, you had other big personalities like Rupert's or Jon's, but they didn't phagocyted the whole show.

I think part of the problem is that some people just don't give interesting interviews. In the early seasons viewers were interested to hear people talk about how hard Survivor is etc, but now viewers want drama (or at least producers think viewers want drama). Someone like Micronesia's Mary may have been giving very truthful interviews that weren't 'exciting', so they didn't make the cut. I'm not saying this is ok, but I do think it occurs.

That definitely occurs.

I agree that this is unfortunate because it gives the most screen time to the most obvious "characters" while depriving us viewers of some of the more interesting people on the show. It's no surprise that the most prevalent competitors in the most recent season were Coach (a character created by his deranged subconscious), JT (a character purposefully created by a smart guy in order to win the game), and Tyson (some combination thereof). The less contrived personalities (Erinn and Taj, in my opinion) were very overlooked in the editing.

It's also no surprise that there there appears to be a gender bias here, but that's a conversation best reserved for the gender thread, I suppose.

I do think this partly just the result of style, however. Survivor is a Mark Burnett production, and his reality shows are characterized by high conflict and big characters. A show like Project Runway, on the other hand, can better afford to spend time with quieter or less bombastic contestants, because a large part of the drama comes from their talent and skill. The structure of Survivor is all about personality, so the show will be edited to highlight it. One reason we're shown scene after scene of Coach is because it puts us in the action with the other competitors -- do you vote him off because he's a jackass, or keep him around because he's a jackass. It's a conundrum.

Strangely enough, it would be possible for people to be shown doing something other than making confessionals. Let's hear more from them just around camp. I'm sick of every season recently being one winner, one crazy, two or three other people, and a bunch of nobodies.

But... Okay this is my thing.
Survivor has this big casting call (or recruitment - let's be honest). but you would think they would like, mock interview them and see what makes them interesting. Because MAYBE before they started casting 14 models and 2 normal every day "survivor" fans" - or whatever the ratio is now, they got 16 people from all walks from life and THAT in itself was drama.

hello: Rich and Sue first episode, the Tree moment (Rich trying to be all corporate and Sue's like shaddup and come down here and work). (and you had the Greg/Colleen thing, the Gervais thing, the MoooCow thing, the Sue/Kelly thing,.... tons of little things to intrigue you; i swear it was like a soap)

Australia: "I will always wave my finger in your face" Alicia to Kimmi. and you had the fire, and the flood and the fact that Kucha got screwed... but you knew if NOT for the fire falling incident Ogakor would have been decimated. (or starved to death LOL).

Africa: Lex's constant witch hunt and EVERYONE's reaction to it...
and so on and so forth. some of this has to do how the game evolved, however, you know, you have 16 completely different people they are going to react different to one another.

Every season up until.. I would have to say Guatemala if i had to pick one (and even the Yul Season was kinda good for this) there was a LOT of stories. it wasn't. "I am the winner - show my edit standing on top of Exile Island, aren't I awesome, and this is how I did it" (unless you are Todd and still can't articulate how you did it)..

Now you pretty much have 16 pretty people, most of them do the exact same thing (lawyer, or bartender or actor wanna be), and they are ALL BORING. there is always going to be the one who stands out, because that's how the game is - but I doubt very much Suzie was ignored because she was boring. the show for whatever reason focuses on the token TNA and the alpha male. boo. BOO.

This season has got to have the worst editing I've ever seen on the show. It's just getting ridiculous. I actually miss having Rupert shoved down our throats because even during Pearl Islands, they still showed us everyone (with the exception of Darrah). But if anyone BUT Russell wins, we won't know hardly anything about them.

I agree, it's really been awful. It's the Coach Effect. Every season from now on will have one debatably mentally unstable middle-aged guy that will be shoved down our throats relentlessly at the expense of almost everyone else in the cast. Maybe it should be called the Rupert Effect. Sadly, not even Rupert or Coach were as bad as Russell.

The sad part is that some of these ignored people (by which I of course mean ignored women) had some potential to be interesting, and I could actually see myself enjoying Russell as a character if the focus on him weren't so intense and all-consuming. Samoa, so far, has been a failure in my eyes, and it's due 100% to the editing.

I think part of the problem with the last few seasons is that they've been trying to essentially recreate the awesomeness of some of the earlier seasons, but the editing has really been showing how poorly the show has fared since... I think Guatemala was the last season before they gave up on actual storylines beyond "He's crazy! She's dumb!", wasn't it?

For all intents and purposes (and IIRC Probst has said as much), they were trying to recreate the feeling we had during Outback with regards to Tocantins (which makes sense, given it's a very similar landscape), but the way the editing focused on Coach and Taj and J.T. really ruined any positive effect that may have had.

Likewise, this season seems to be trying for a Marquesas feel, but... we're ending up with Micronesia again because of the editing. And it sucks.

Okay, let's take Russell H. out of the equation (if only we could) and, we just had the current 19 others plus someone else. Who would have been the "star" or villian or fan favorites? I don't like the Russell factor either, but I'm wondering if it would have been a total bust without him. Would we have been talking about Shambo? Who is left? I don't even know half the cast and we are almost at the end.

We don't know half the cast because of Russell. Foa Foa could've been the underdogs like last season (or Cook Islands), and they show clips of the Galu boys and girls acting all haughty and cocky. It's annoying how circular this is. Russell's screentime means I barely know people like Mick, and I can't root for people like Mick since I barely know them due to Russell's screentime.

Not only that, but the people we might have left would probably be different, since so many of the early boots revolved around the magical mystical concept of Who's Dumb Enough To Tell Russhole The Don't Trust Him This Week? (Not to mention the idoling this week.)

I'm not following the argument here. Isn't this thread about how the show is edited? Are you suggesting that the editing has affected who's been voted off?