Season 20: Episode 10: Going Down in Flames

The tribe has spoken and Erin is asked to leave the pool immediately.

 At Tribal Council, Rupert complains about the Villains’ lack of “banana etiquette,” claiming that Parvati and Danielle freely take ripe bananas without the Heroes’ permission.  While Jerri and Parvati claim to be on the outs with the Heroes, Russell reveals that he has had more talks with the Heroes than with his own tribe.  Courtney, sitting in the jury with Coach, observes what is really going on.  “They’re playing,” she whispers.  Courtney could not have been more right.  After all of the votes have been cast, Parvati gives one immunity idol to Sandra and, to increase her odds, she gives another idol to Jerri.  With this, all votes cast against Jerri, whom all five Heroes voted for, do not count, and J.T. is voted out with five votes cast against him.  James “J.T.” Thomas, the 25 year-old from Survivor: Tocantins, became the eleventh person voted out and third member of the jury of SURVIVOR: HEROES VS. VILLAINS. 

From Jeff: THE AFTERMATH

Oh, there will be a big aftermath with Russell and Parvati.  You saw him mouth to her at Tribal, “You got some explaining to do.”  Russell does not suffer fools lightly, especially when he is his own fool.  He’s mad.  Burn your house down mad.  This will be their first lovers quarrel.  Yes, I know they’re not technically lovers, but in the game of Survivor, they’re more than lovers, they’re married and this will result in a major spat.

The question is will it destroy their alliance or will Parvati be able to salvage it.  Any bets?

Quote of the week:  Russell to Parvati “You got some explaining to do.”

Heroes				Villains
Amanda	~	Warren		Coach	~	Dick
Candice	~	Maureen		Courtney	~	Eric
Cirie	~	Karen D.		Danielle	~	Pat
Colby	~	Christi		Jerri	~	Lauren
J.T.	~	Erin		Parvati	~	Cara
James	~	Karen R.		Randy	~	Sandy
Rupert	~	Brendan		Rob	~	Tonya
Stephanie	~	Colin		Russell	~	Kim
Sugar	~	Cheryl		Sandra	~	Linda
Tom	~	Nick		Tyson	~	Brandon

Season 20: Episode 09: Survivor History

The tribe has spoken.  Eric is asked to leave the pool immediately.

At Tribal Council, Sandra admits that the vote is between herself and Courtney since they were a part of Boston’s Rob’s former alliance.  Danielle reveals that Sandra puts false rumors into people’s minds in order to control the game, which leads to a huge argument between the two. Courtney lashes out at Jerri for flipping to Russell’s alliance just in time to save herself, but Jerri dismisses her comments, stating that she was never a part of any alliance.  “I didn’t flip quick enough, I guess, and so that’s why me and Sandra are in trouble,” fumes Courtney.  With this, the Villains cast their votes, and with five out of the six votes cast against her, Courtney Yates, the 28 year-old from Survivor: China became the tenth person voted out and second member of the jury of SURVIVOR: HEROES VS. VILLAINS.

Quote of the week: Parvati: “We’ll fill Russell in on a need to know basis.  Right now he doesn’t need to know.”

Jeff's insight: – MY ROLE AT TRIBAL COUNCIL
I’m sure most of you have noticed that I’ve been more vocal and more aggressive at Tribal Council this season.  The reason is pretty simple – these 20 players are very experienced and as a result very good.  To get anything out of them you have to be more direct and more relentless.

I hope you all understand that I never bring up anything at Tribal Council that hasn’t already been discussed or isn’t already known.  I would never betray or reveal secret information.  When you hear them fighting back with me, that’s just part of the game and often, the words they are saying to me, are actually intended to send a signal to someone else.

It’s a very elaborate game of cat and mouse and the reason this season is so good is because we started with 20 fantastic players who continue to deliver week after week.  I bust their chops on this blog every week because that’s the fun part of writing a blog, but since I’m feeling very “confessional” today – the truth is we painstakingly hand selected every person this season and we’re really pleased with the results.  Every single player gave us something, even Sugar.  Every single player left in the game has a legitimate shot at winning. Even Candace.  Ah, I love to kid Candace.

Heroes				Villains
Amanda	~	Warren		Coach	~	Dick
Candice	~	Maureen		Courtney	~	Eric
Cirie	~	Karen D.		Danielle	~	Pat
Colby	~	Christi		Jerri	~	Lauren
J.T.	~	Erin		Parvati	~	Cara
James	~	Karen R.		Randy	~	Sandy
Rupert	~	Brendan		Rob	~	Tonya
Stephanie	~	Colin		Russell	~	Kim
Sugar	~	Cheryl		Sandra	~	Linda
Tom	~	Nick		Tyson	~	Brandon

Season 20: Episode 08: Expectations

The tribe has spoken.  Dick is asked to leave the pool immediately.

After the immunity, the Villains return to their camp, and wash off their mud-caked bodies in the ocean.  While the rest of the tribe appears utterly defeated, Coach boasts on his stellar performance.  “Everybody’s down, everybody’s hurting, everybody’s nauseous, and The Dragon Slayer is just coming into his own,” says Coach.  “I feel full of energy, and it’s time for me to shine…off into the horizon,” he continues.  Although Coach ultimately wishes to get rid of his arch nemesis, Russell, he feels that is would be more appropriate to get rid of Courtney, his tribe’s weakest link.  Russell is still dead-set on ousting Coach, but Danielle advises him against it.  “We have a chance [at winning] if we have Coach,” says Danielle.  Russell yells at Danielle for being irrational, and storms off.  After allowing himself some time to vent, Russell has a change of heart, and decides that it would be best to vote off Courtney.  Parvati and Danielle are befuddled at Russell’s inconsistency, and still hope to oust The Dragon Slayer.  “You never know what’s gonna happen between now and when the sun goes down,” says Courtney.

TRIBAL COUNCIL

At Tribal Council, all eyes are on Courtney for her lackluster performances in challenges.  Courtney fights back, but harsh words are still thrown her way by Coach, who views her as the weakest link who continually demoralizes the tribe.  With this, the tribe members cast their votes, and with four out of the seven votes cast against him, Coach is voted out.  Benjamin “Coach” Wade, the 38 year-old from Survivor: Tocantins became the ninth person voted out and first member of the jury of SURVIVOR: HEROES VS. VILLAINS.

Next week on Survivor, what Jeff calls the dumbest move ever in the show's history.

Quote of the week:  from Jeff “Everybody drop your… expectations.”

Heroes				Villains
Amanda	~	Warren		Coach	~	Dick
Candice	~	Maureen		Courtney	~	Eric
Cirie	~	Karen D.		Danielle	~	Pat
Colby	~	Christi		Jerri	~	Lauren
J.T.	~	Erin		Parvati	~	Cara
James	~	Karen R.		Randy	~	Sandy
Rupert	~	Brendan		Rob	~	Tonya
Stephanie	~	Colin		Russell	~	Kim
Sugar	~	Cheryl		Sandra	~	Linda
Tom	~	Nick		Tyson	~	Brandon

Survivor 20: Episode 07: I'm Not A Good Villain

The tribe has spoken and Tonya is asked to leave the pool immediately.

Boston Rob started to get the feeling that something wasn't right following tribal council. That something is named Russell Hantz. Because Tyson basically voted himself out of the game, Rob is left wondering who betrayed his alliance and if that person is still sharing a tent with him. Oh yes, paranoia has most certainly set in at the villains' camp.

Going into the reward challenge, Colby knows he needs to step it up big time. There have been three tribal councils where he should have been the one going home but somehow, he was spared. Considering the heroes voted out James over him, they must believe that good ol' Colby still has some gas left in the tank.

In the challenge, teams faced off, three on three. They'd have to retrieve a ball and throw it into their basket, while the opposing team tried to stop them. When the villains were told they had to sit a few players, guess who had no problem taking a spot on the bench? You guessed it - Courtney! She will go down in history as the player who made it the farthest without doing a damn thing. The heroes dominate, scoring all three points in a row, and Colby responsible for two of them. Yeah, Superman! You show them that it's not just a fat suit!

For their reward, the heroes are taken to a waterfall, where the enjoy a meal that consists of more than just chocolate (and nutritionists everywhere breathed a sigh of relief). A note during their meal revealed that another hidden immunity idol has been placed back at their camp. Wait a minute... if there's an idol there... then there's an idol at the other camp which means... yup, Russell's somehow going to find it. The heroes agree to find the idol together and use it at the merge against the other tribe. Smart people.

Over at the villains' camp, Russell is working overtime to pull Jerri and Coach into his alliance full-time. He has Parvati and Danielle, Rob has Sandra and Courtney. Coach and Jerri are just sitting in the middle and suddenly find themselves the most important people in the tribe. Russell spins Jerri and she buys it hook, line, and sinker while Coach struggles with the fact that he gave his word to both Rob and Russell. How does a man of honor keep his word to two sworn enemies?

At the immunity challenge, teams will race, one at a time, across a net to retrieve a bag of puzzle pieces. Once six bags have been retrieved, two members must solve it in order to win. You better believe Rob and Sandra are solving that puzzle for the villains, with JT and Amanda going against them. Basically, everyone puts on a good show in retrieving the pieces, with the exception of Courtney, who was forced to participate because the rules of Survivor state that you can't sit out of a challenge twice in a row. The heroes got a head start on their puzzle and never looked back. They win immunity and the villains lose both challenges.

Back at camp, Rob tells Jerri that she needs to do what's best for her and she knows what's right. Does she? Coach tries to push some attention on Courtney, who is the weakest physical player but everyone is just concerned with getting one of the big guns out. Fair enough. If you're Rob or Russell, you don't want the other one getting to the merge.

At tribal council, Russell digs at Rob, saying he wouldn't have had the guys to give his idol up to a fellow alliance member the way he did. There's a debate about loyalty and what it means to everyone. Of course, everyone swears that they're really the loyal ones.  When the votes are read, Courtney is thrown a vote (thanks Coach) and with four votes, Boston Rob is sent out of this game.

Quote of the week: Rob: (to Coach) You’re a little man.

Heroes				Villains
Amanda	~	Warren		Coach	~	Dick
Candice	~	Maureen		Courtney	~	Eric
Cirie	~	Karen D.		Danielle	~	Pat
Colby	~	Christi		Jerri	~	Lauren
J.T.	~	Erin		Parvati	~	Cara
James	~	Karen R.		Randy	~	Sandy
Rupert	~	Brendan		Rob	~	Tonya
Stephanie	~	Colin		Russell	~	Kim
Sugar	~	Cheryl		Sandra	~	Linda
Tom	~	Nick		Tyson	~	Brandon

Survivor 20: Episode 06: Banana Etiquette

The tribes have spoken and Karen R. and Brandon are asked to leave the pool immediately. 

Wednesday night, on Survivor Amanda vowed to get Candace out after she gunned for James at the last tribal council. Apparently, no one seems to care that James has a busted knee and can't physically compete anymore. In case you were wondering, two weeks later, yes I'm still bitter that they sent Tom home. Over at the villains' camp, Russell tries to make Rob think he's calling a truce with him but Rob is much too smart for him. He tries to get in his head and convince him to play the idol or he'll be the one headed home next.

Tree mail arrives at both camps and it's quite vague. It doesn't say whether they'll be playing for immunity, reward, or both. When they arrive at their challenge, Probst tells them they'll play for immunity... individual immunity, that is... because both tribes will be voting somebody out.  Players will face off against members of their own tribe. They'll be hooked onto a rope that is tied to an obstacle course and they'll need to get through it the fastest in order to wear the immunity necklace. Tyson, Coach, and JT all competed in this challenge during Survivor: Tocantins and Tyson ultimately won. Little fun fact for ya.

The heroes are up first and Candace ends up winning, which dashes Amanda's dreams of watching her torch get snuffed out later on. James put on a pretty good performance, despite that injury, while Colby came in dead last. The guy does know his head is on the chopping block, right? He doesn't even seem to care! The villains are up next and I have to love them because everybody has a fight in them (with the exception of Sandra, who is out of the race pretty early on). Boston Rob walks away the winner and thankfully, he won't have to worry about Russell gunning for him, at least for now. Rob and Candace face off in a final battle, in a course that is three stories high and much more difficult than the first round. The winner will get hot dogs and soda for their tribe and they'll get to listen in on the other tribal council. Rob is the winner... are you surprised? The guy is so dominant!

At the heroes' camp, Colby tells everyone that he knows he's headed home so there's no need to scramble because he just wants to enjoy his last day in the game. The game ain't over yet for the Australian Outback all star. The heroes want to make sure that James is okay to compete so they ask him to participate in a race against JT in order to decide if they should keep him or not. Oh sure, they couldn't have done this when Tom was still there? James hobbles along while JT runs backwards... yeah, James can't compete physically right now.

While there was hardly any scrambling at the heroes' camp, the same can't be said for the villains - but would you expect any less from them? Rob tells Russell straight out to play the idol but then wonders if he took him seriously. In the event that Russell or Parvati play the idol, Rob comes up with a fool proof plan of splitting the votes to ensure that one of them goes home. This is why we love Rob. Great physical player, great personality, great strategist. He never played this game with hidden idols, yet took that into account this season and planned ahead.

At the very last minute, Russell grabs a hold of Tyson and convinces him that he'll be writing Parvati's name down. For no reason whatsoever, Tyson actually believes Russell, votes with him at tribal, and gets sent home. As Rob predicted, Russell gave the idol to Parvati. If the votes were split, it would've been a three way tie between Russell, Parvati, and Tyson. Parvati's votes wouldn't count, they'd re-vote and the majority would have sent Russell home but Tyson screwed it all up. Russell doesn't get credit for being such a great strategic player because Tyson was just so STUPID!!

The villains enjoy their hot dogs, sans Tyson, and the heroes head in to face their fate. Colby continues to admit defeat and James tells him that he was once one of the baddest Survivors of all time and is now like Superman, but when you get up close, it's just a fat suit. God, that has to hurt Colby's ego a little bit, wouldn't you think? Hopefully, Colby will prove that he's still a superhero because the tribe decided to send James and his injured knee packin'. Uh oh, who will protect Amanda now?

Quote of the week: 

James to Colby: You got slammed by the Dragon Slayer. …[You] got beat by a cripple and a fat dude on the obstacle course. It’s like finding out Superman was in a big girdle. You seem them muscles and you get up close and it’s nothing but a fat suit.

Heroes				Villains
Amanda	~	Warren		Coach	~	Dick
Candice	~	Maureen		Courtney	~	Eric
Cirie	~	Karen D.		Danielle	~	Pat
Colby	~	Christi		Jerri	~	Lauren
J.T.	~	Erin		Parvati	~	Cara
James	~	Karen R.		Randy	~	Sandy
Rupert	~	Brendan		Rob	~	Tonya
Stephanie	~	Colin		Russell	~	Kim
Sugar	~	Cheryl		Sandra	~	Linda
Tom	~	Nick		Tyson	~	Brandon

Season 20: Episode 05: Knights of the Round Table

The tribe has spoken and Nick is asked to leave th pool immediately.

At Tribal Council, host Jeff Probst points out the obvious fact that James presents a huge liability to his tribe due to his injury.  His tribemates stand up for James with the exception of Tom, Colby and Candice, who contend that he is only being kept for a loyal vote for his allies.  James accuses Tom of being the sole reason why their tribe continues to lose challenges, and proclaims that he is much stronger with a bum knee than Tom is without any ailments.  With this, the Heroes cast their votes, and with five out of the seven votes cast against him, Tom was voted out.  Tom Westman, the 45 year-old from Survivor: Palau became the fifth person voted out of SURVIVOR: HEROES VS. VILLAINS.

Quote of the week is the exchange between Russell and Parvati:

Russell: Just grab onto my coattails.

Parvati: I don’t ride coattails, baby.

Russell: You’ll ride these.

Upcoming Survivor programming: 

• Thursday, March 18: Due to the NCAA college basketball tournament, SURVIVOR WILL NOT BE ON 
• Wednesday, March 24: Survivor will be on for a special Wednesday night episode   
• Thursday, April 1: Survivor will return to it's regular time slot

Insight from Jeff Probst about the Reward challenge – SCHMERGENBRAWL

This is a challenge that was created by our grip department.  These are the guys who build the scaffolding that makes it possible for us to shoot out in the water or put cameras high in the air.  These guys are hard working and keep us all safe.

During a day off they created a simple game they named Schmergenbrawl.  It evolved into a major day-long tournament where our crew divided into teams.  They had T-shirts made and some even had their own mascots.  It was full-on.  The game was so popular with our crew that our challenge department stole the idea and with a few modifications turned it into a Survivor challenge that we premiered in Survivor: Samoa.

You may remember it as the challenge that resulted in me tossing somebody (Ben) out of the challenge for unsportsmanlike behavior and also resulted in the evacuation of Mike Borassi due to dehydration.  We should have known that it was too rough, even for Survivor.

But instead, we brought it back again this season. Once again it was physical and once again it resulted in a major injury as James was removed from the challenge after wrecking his knee.

This challenge will NEVER be played again.  It was officially retired after last night’s challenge and those of you who love justice being served will be happy to know that the grip that created the challenge was fired.

He wasn’t really fired.  He was sacrificed.  It turns out the Samoans have an ancient ritual that saved our season from becoming a disaster.  We gave him over to the Samoan gods to do with him as they must and in exchange they were able to bless us and insure us a very good finish to our 20^th season.  A small price to pay if you ask me.

One grip in exchange for a really good season of Survivor.  We’ll make that deal every year.  Plus, one of the younger guys in the grip department got to move up and take his spot.  That’s what you call a “win-win.”

Heroes				Villains
Amanda	~	Warren		Coach	~	Dick
Candice	~	Maureen		Courtney	~	Eric
Cirie	~	Karen D.		Danielle	~	Pat
Colby	~	Christi		Jerri	~	Lauren
J.T.	~	Erin		Parvati	~	Cara
James	~	Karen R.		Randy	~	Sandy
Rupert	~	Brendan		Rob	~	Tonya
Stephanie	~	Colin		Russell	~	Kim
Sugar	~	Cheryl		Sandra	~	Linda
Tom	~	Nick		Tyson	~	Brandon

Season 20: Episode 04: Tonight, We Make Our Move

The tribe has spoken and Karen D. is asked to leave the pool immediately.   (What the hell?!?!?!)

At Tribal Council, Tom and Colby reveal that members of their tribe are being voted out solely because they are on the wrong side of the numbers and not due to their ability to win challenges.  Rupert stumps Jeff Probst when he admits that he would rather keep his word rather than vote for the person he thinks deserves to go.  After the vote, Tom plays the hidden immunity idol, and J.T. kept his word with Tom and voted for Cirie.  With the three votes cast against Tom being null and void, Cirie is voted out with three out of the remaining five votes cast against her.  Cirie Fields, the 39 year-old from Survivor: Exile Island became the fourth person voted out of SURVIVOR: HEROES VS. VILLAINS.    

Quote of the week:  Boston Rob approaches Coach and assures him that he's not on the outside, that everything's OK. They exchange a hug and words of trust, but Coach isn't quite buying it. "Pick your #*%!@  head up and act like a man," Boston Rob tells Coach.

                      

Heroes				Villains
Amanda	~	Warren		Coach	~	Dick
Candice	~	Maureen		Courtney	~	Eric
Cirie	~	Karen D.		Danielle	~	Pat
Colby	~	Christi		Jerri	~	Lauren
J.T.	~	Erin		Parvati	~	Cara
James	~	Karen R.		Randy	~	Sandy
Rupert	~	Brendan		Rob	~	Tonya
Stephanie	~	Colin		Russell	~	Kim
Sugar	~	Cheryl		Sandra	~	Linda
Tom	~	Nick		Tyson	~	Brandon