I’m really looking forward to this season. All reports from production are that it’s a standout season. Even just looking at the casting itself it looks promising.
Survivor 44
Thursday 2 March 7:30 PM
2 hour premiere on 9Go!
The show has been renewed into season 45.
Well that would have to be the craziest first Tribal Council ever? 4 advantage played (2 shots in the dark, bank a vote and an Idol), meaning only 3 votes cast out of 6 players! Also that was the first time that someone has gotten ‘Safe’ from a Shot in the Dark.
Pretty dumb though for all these people to just throw their votes away. I don’t think an Idol would’ve been played otherwise and Maddy wouldn’t have gone.
The casting seems great this season… Lots of interesting characters. Many in the know have been saying this is the best season in a long time and after that episode I can see how it could be a wild one.
CBS has announced Survivor 44 will finish with a three-hour episode on May 24 (May 25 in Australia).
So the usual 2hr finale + 1hr reunion
Survivor really needs to change some of their puzzles in challenges. It isn’t good television when they can be memorised. I thought the tree puzzle seen tonight would be a similar concept but different design to previous years rather than exactly the same so that Carson was able to print it out and practice at home.
What is with Survivor’s obsession lately of only having a small number of people voteable at Tribal Councils? They always start with small tribes of 6. Now two weeks in a row since the tribes become 1, they’ve split them into 2 groups for voting.
I don’t mind the split as a one off but it’s happened two weeks in a row. Chaotic merge votes with 12-11 people are far more exciting than reducing it to 4 or 5 possible people on the chopping block. Also because the green tribe mostly avoided tribal councils and the split twists, some people have pretty much had a free ride to the top 10. Yet someone like Yam Yam has been fighting every time. It doesn’t seem fair.
I like this cast and season (for the most part). Just would like to see them have some normal votes with the full tribes now.
Former Survivor: San Juan del Sur and Survivor: Cambodia contestant Keith Nale has died at 62.
UPDATE
I’m not sure how I feel about this. I kind of like longer episodes when there is a need for it. e.g. the first episode, a tribe swap, the merge etc. There were some extra long episodes in season 33 (I believe towards the start of the season) that were unnecessarily long. That was an average season though that didn’t need the length. Whereas this season some episodes have felt very rushed with a lot crammed into an hour.
I welcome longer episodes in line with the Australian version. So many times that there is a lot more happening with the voting that we don’t get to see and the vote at tribal doesn’t really match what had been seen. Or there is some reward or special event and we don’t get to see what happened afterwards with the return to camp.
I also feel there should be more episodes that have separate reward and immunity challenges.
I’ve also got mixed feelings but agree some episodes this season have appeared rushed. A couple have also appeared drawn out. It’s weird but I haven’t noticed any issue with the 1hour episodes until the last couple of seasons. In early seasons the hour seemed perfect. Maybe better editing?
I also suspect that this move is also linked tot he writers strike - along with TAR - that’s one less hour of scripted TV that has to be written.
Yeah I’m with you on that one. Particularly some of the more recent seasons that it feels like they have flown by. I think it’s due to the nature of the new game which is very advantage driven, so it’s felt like a lot more is crammed into the episodes and less of a chance to get to know the contestants. It differs season to season though. This is one season that feels like it’s been flying by since the merge.
Survivor 44 Final
Thursday 25 May LIVE
10:00 am final episode
11:00 am 2 hour final/aftershow
Repeated 7:30 pm
The penultimate ep last night was an example of one that could have done with more time given it had a reward and immunity challenge. And once again we don’t really know why the tribe voted out Jamie rather than Carolyn considering the discussion shown; I suppose CBS had to keep suspense for the end of the 42 minutes of broadcast time. Good speech by Carolyn to the jury “doesn’t mean that somebody can’t be strategic who is emotional”. Second week in a row an idol was used without effect; so I don’t think that there is a lot of strategy going on with this cast despite the talk of the ‘new’ era of Survivor.
Consolidated ratings for last week show overnights are around the 50k mark.:
Well my hopes for a Tika Final 3 didn’t play out last night. I would have loved to see them all at the end. It seems like Carson would have won it if he made it to the end which is interesting.
Yam Yam was a good winner IMO - he and Carolyn were my faves the entire way through. I was disappointed that Carolyn didn’t get a single vote . She played a good game but it was hard for the jury to see past that with her quirky personality. Surely she’s someone that will be back again at some point.
The previews for each season seem the same now without the themes - there is not much they show us apart from introducing some contestants. I believe 45 only just wrapped up filming too. I really hope next season they at least shake up the 3 tribe format. We’ve had that for 4 seasons now. I would rather go back to two tribes with a tribe switch. I’m not a fan of the smaller tribes.