King of the Jungle II

[Bearcata]

Hey is anyone watching this?

The first King of the Jungle was a little boring, ok it could be a lot boring. It was better watched 2 or 3 episodes at a time so you could fastforward during the slow part.

It was a surprise to see how APL has transformed KOTJ2 to resemble Survivor. Tasks are interspersed meeting animals. Watching the group feeding 2 lion cubs then having to rub their behinds so they would poop was fun. Hey, I would like to ride a camel too. I admit I am picking up animal tidbits. I now know that an elephant has 30,000 muscles in its trunk. And flamingos get there color from eating greel (sp?) It was a hoot.

The scheming of Jacob the snake and the 'voting' process that was not as 'random' as it could be was also hoot. Jacob has my vote for villain of the summer. It was funny to see how upset he was that he was beaten by 2 women in the first contest. (the sled pull)

Tony - your strategy of winning every challenge has to change it doesn't always work.

The alliance that formed of all the young alpha males and using the pretty female as their spy and making sure that none of their names was in the bag to go to the Lion Pit. How long will it last and when will the others figure it out?

[Bearcata]

Just adding a little info. The first episode was last week 7/20 at 8pm and was 2 hours. The set up is that there are 12 contestants - 6 men and 6 women competing to see who will be the King of the Jungle and win the opportunity to host their own TV special.

Lets meet the contestants:

Roberto - 31 - Painting Contractor - I am here to win not make friends
Shannon - 32 - Wildlife Instructor
Tony - 26 - Arena Football Player
Patrick - 24 - Microbiologist
Lindsay - 21 - Student
Lang - 33 - Surfing Instructor
Jennifer - 33 - Actor
Jacob - 24 - Veterinary Assistant - another I am here to win and not make
friends. My choice for Villain of the Season aka the Snake
Henry - 50 - Colonel, USAF - my favorite - this 50 yr old has a hot bod
a nice personality, wants to win but is not an ass about it
Cynthia - 33 - Bartender
Cherry - 36 - Executive Secretary
Bec - 22 - Student

Recap of first hour:
All the contestants are brought in a truck. They meet the host and the animal expert. They are told the rules. That they will call themselves a pride and that 2 of them will be going to compete in the Lion's Pit and only one will be coming back. Immediately they are given a challenge. Each person has to drag a sled loaded with sacks of something that is equivalent to each of their body weights to a finish line then grab a wooden ring off their sleds and put it on a pole. Tony the Arena Football player just explodes across the finish line with Lang the surfer a close second. Cherry the, (I don't like saying this but) lone black overweight female who obviously does not work out is last and 2 other females help her drag her sled across the finish line.

Tony is given an armband amulet (shades of survivor) that designate him the King of the Jungle. He is given his own tent with a nice bed and mosquito netting and chairs and fruit drinks.

Tony is tasked with giving out amulets to himself and the contestants. Each amulet has an animal on it and he is given a list of qualities that represent each animal. He prepares a list of questions that he asks each contestant so he can get to know each one better and give them the appropriate amulet. I have to give Tony a lot of credit for taking this seriously and trying to match each person to the correct amulet. Then we have the private confessionals where each person reflects upon the amulet and we hear some reasons why they are here. This is were I heard both Roberto and Jacob make their comments about yeah, it was nice, but I'm not here to bond with these people, to make friends with these people, I am here to win. Jacob make a comment that he couldn't believe that 2 women beat him in the sled pull. Jacob is really coming across as a conniver.

They also have a cute cockatoo fly in and deliver 'Bird Mail'. The group goes out to meet the animal expert to see a elephant and they are given facts about the size and age etc... Its amazing how people really don't listen to people cause this will bite them later. There is another segment were the group meets and plays with 2 lion cub.s (Please forgive me if I screwed up the order of the telling but it has been about a week since I watched this).

At this point Tony has to choose what 2 people will go into the Lion Pit. Now, Tony's strategy is to win each challenge, but he also does not want to alienate anyone this early in the game. So he decides to put everyone's name down on paper and have a random draw. He explains to the group what he is about to do and everyone sorta seems OK with it. Henry and Jennifer are chosen. They go with Tony to the Lion's Pit. Henry wins. Later he explains that he was not that happy with the random draw and he would have preferred a vote. Tony and Henry return to the camp and tell everyone what happened. Jacob and perhaps Roberto make comments to the effect that if they had gone they would not have told the others what had happened at the Lion's Pit they would have let them worry. Ah, indications of psychological warfare.

This happened over a 2 day period. ( I think). The next morning bird Mail arrives and the group get to look see a colony of Chilean flamingos. Then a challenge where the contestants have to stand on poles over water but on one foot aka a flamingo who can do this for 4 hours at a time. Cherry last all of 11 seconds. Cynthia 47 seconds. Shannon 1:18. Bec 2:22. Henry 2:34. Finally a man falls it is a little embarrassing to see the women fall so quickly especially on a balance exercise that I thought would naturally favor women. Patrick 2:58. Tony 3:24. Tony is upset because his strategy of winning each challenge is blown and he worries that he might be sent to the Lion's Pit. Contestants are allowed to talk to each other and make deals. Jacob is mouthing off from the get go. Other contestants are saying that Jacobs talking blew their concentration but no one is catching on that it is a strategy to get them to loose and Jacob win. Lindsey the last female goes at 5:30. Its Roberto, Jacob and Lang. Jacob is trying to broker a deal with Lang. Lang refuses and goes at 11:33. Roberto and Jacob are trying to broker a 'you go in and I won't send you the the Lion Pit' deal. Roberto agrees jumps in at 12:12 and immediately regrets the deal cause he figures he can't trust Jacob. Jacob confesses that he wasn't going to last too much longer.

Tony gives up the amulet to Jacob and Tony moves out of the King's Tent. An alliance has formed between the younger males: Tony, Jacob, Patrick, Roberto and Lindsey is their spy in the female camp. Lindsey says she won't reveal all to either group cause she doesn't want people to hate her. People are forming groups and talking about the next Lion's Pit. People are worried about Jacob, starting to think he is underhanded. Jacob has a meeting and has people vote weather they want to do a random draw or vote people into the Lion's Pit. People are given 2 colored beads, one blue and one red. Blue is for random choice and red is for a vote. Results are 7 blue 3 red. People, more so the ladies, are worried about a vote because hey don't want it to turn nasty. The ladies are worried about Jacob. Shannon knows he doesn't like her and is sure that she is going.

Roberto and Jacob have a quite chat outside a tent. Roberto asks Jacob exactly how random the draw will be. Jacob indicates that it will be as random as he will make it. Jacob will make sure that no member of his alliance will have their name in the draw. There is 'Bird Mail' and Jacob get to pick 3 other people to go on a reward with him. He picks Tony, Roberto and Patrick. Surprise. They go off and have some camel rides. Cynthia and makes a comment to the group at large that she didn't think it was fair that Roberto who was told that his name was not going to be picked got to enjoy a reward while someone who might be leaving soon will not.

Shannon and Lang are picked to go the the Lion's Pit. Lang returns with Jacob back to the camp. Suspicions are raised. Get ready for the next episode.

[Wolf]

Oh no! I can't believe I missed the premiere. This show ain't no TAR or Survivor, but I love getting all the little animals facts and I love watching the contestants interact with the animals, too. It's all about the animals, baby!

Thanks for the quick recap, Bearcata. The "Bird mail" is such a cute idea.

I'm checking the guide to make sure I don't miss the next episode, which I'm thinking is tonight (Tuesday).


Whatever happened to last season's winner? Did she ever get her own show?

[Bearcata]

Oh no! I can't believe I missed the premiere. This show ain't no TAR or Survivor, but I love getting all the little animals facts and I love watching the contestants interact with the animals, too. It's all about the animals, baby!

Thanks for the quick recap, Bearcata. The "Bird mail" is such a cute idea.

I'm checking the guide to make sure I don't miss the next episode, which I'm thinking is tonight (Tuesday).


Whatever happened to last season's winner? Did she ever get her own show?

Yeap, Last year's winner did a special in Africa showing wildebeasts crossing the river during migration and getting eaten by crocodiles.

[Bearcata]

The nice thing about cable is that they tend to shows episodes several times during the week. Episode 3 which aired at 8pm Tuesday (7/27) (repeats at 11pm) will be shown again Sat 31 at 7pm, Sun at 1am and 9pm. Mon 8/2 at 12am, and 4am.

Episode 3 recap

The pride watches for the survivors of the Lion Pit. Lang and Jacob appear. Roberto is not happy that Lang is back. ( he sees him as a threat, as competition) Lang tells the others that Shannon had said that she did not trust Roberto. Roberto was not happy about this and tried to do damage control. I think he went a little overboard as he was concerned how the others perceived him. Roberto made comments that he had not lied to the others, that he had not stabbed anyone in the back. OK, I guess that means that when the alliance he had with Jacob, Tony, Patrick and Lindsey that results in not sending any of them to the Lion's Pit without telling the rest of the pride during what they thought was a fair random drawing of names is not stabbing anyone in the back, then I guess he didn't stab anyone in the back. Even Lang took him aside and said to cool it.

Later on in the dining tent the members of the pride where making comments about how to compete in the Lion's Pit, (I am now paraphrasing) Roberto made comments that you need speed and how the men are the competition and the women do not have a chance they are not ' fast enough'. This did not go over very well with the women. Cynthia brought up the fact that since 2 women have gone that to even up the numbers that the next 2 into the Pit should be men. (I thought it had to be 1 of each but that does not seem to be the case) Again Roberto made a comment about it being a contest of survival of the fittest and that the women were not fit enough. Cynthia did make a comment about all of Roberto's 'sexist pig' remarks. In the confessionals all the women were put off by his remarks. (sidebar - don't piss off the competition even if you think they are weaker than you it makes them more determined to beat you or mess you up)

Next challenge.

Meet an arboreal anteater. Nice tidbit on a species of tree dwelling anteaters.
The pride all got to hold him and become acquainted with its strong anal scent glands.

Since the anteater eats grubs and worms and other bugs the host brought out a huge bucket of grubs and dumped them on the table implying that the contestants will now make like an anteater and eat the grubs. Now we get a whole series of closeups of faces and looks of revulsion at the thought of eating the grubs and worms.

Gotcha.

What the contestants really have to do is use a long tube that resembles an anteaters long snout and using suction suck up the grubs and dump them in a bowl to be measured by weight. No scooping allowed.

The group was divided in 2 and went 5 at a time. Lindsey was not going to do well at this. It looked as if the guys especially Tony and Lang might win. In the second group Patrick and Cherry were the leaders. Cherry really surprised me at how well she did. Out of all the contestants she comes across as the most mild and reclusive. Cynthia and Shannon were the most outspoken of the women and came across as the most aggressive and initially tend to overshadow the rest of the ladies.

Results:
Lang - 537 g
Jacob - 406 g
Lyndsey - 242 g
Roberto - 495 g
Bee - 332 g
Patrick - 639 g
Cherry - 562 g
Tony - 459 g
Henry - 355 g
Cynthia - 402 g

Patrick is crowned King and Cherry is in second place. A well deserved win.
After the commercial the judges reviewed the tape and said that Patrick and Cherry scooped some of the bugs and so Lang is the Cobra King. (the cobra is the animal on his amulet)

If he is smart he will send Jacob and Roberto into the Lion's Pit.

Lang has a confessional and states that he plans to shake things up. He then moves into the King's Tent. He is meeting and speaking to the individuals of the pride. He tells Patrick that since if it wasn't for the scooping that Patrick and Cherry beat him, that Patrick will not be sent to the Lion's Pit. Its is not shown but I think he also tells Cherry she will not be going into the Pit.

Bird Mail: There is a reward Lang has to pick 3 people and go. He picks Henry as they are tent buddies. (Previously some of the ladies, Cynthia in particular mentioned the dynamics of the pride. There are the boys group, the ladies group and Lang and Henry who seem to hang in between the two groups) Cynthia had made a pack of playing cards and Lang used them to pick the other 2 people he would be taking on the reward. Lyndsey and Cherry got the high cards. Cynthia was shown in a confessional saying she was hurt that Lang did not pick her because she works hard in the camp, cleaning and cooking and since she and Lang are the coffee drinkers she gets up early to make the coffee. I thought Lang was just trying to be fair and impartial as far as the high card wins but this just shows that no matter what you do you cannot please everybody. This also goes to show that just because you do all the work people do not appreciate it and they do not necessarily reward it as you think they should.

Lang, Henry, Cherry and Lyndsey all go have fun with some alligators. They get to ride them, Call them and generally have some fun.

Lang says that he wants to shake things up and he has it all planned out how he will make the next pick to the Lion's Pit a festival. At the start he exempts the ladies, Patrick and Henry. They will now play games with Tony, Jacob and Roberto as to who will go into the Pit. The ladies are not happy and there are a lot of side comments as to 'he does what he wants', 'he didn't plan this well', 'he didn't think this out'. We see confessionals mainly from Tony and Roberto about how worried that they will be picked. They end up shooting hoops in a bucket with a ball made of cloth. Jacob looses. Tony wins. At this point it gets very confusing as to what Lang had planned. People are getting disgruntled. Lang decides that there will be another shootout this time just between Tony and Roberto. Both men start doing really fancy approaches and rolls out of the jumps and it looks as if someone might hurt themselves. At this point Lang steps in and says don't do any fancy stuff as we don't want to see anyone hurt. Tony wins.

Lang, Roberto and Jacob all go to the Lion's Pit.

1st question - Jacob wins and answers the question correctly - he chops one of Roberto's lifelines. Roberto is safe.

2nd question - Jacob wins and answers the question correctly - he chops another lifeline. Roberto is safe.

3rd question - Jacob wins and answers the question correctly - he chops another lifeline. Roberto looses.

Lang makes a comment to both Jacob and Roberto that he picked them because he felt that they were the 2 most dangerous to him and that's why they had to go. (Lang also mentioned in a confessional that he wanted to break up the Tony, Roberto, Jacob, Patrick alliance) I don't know if it was that smart to tell them that bluntly why you did what you did. Anyway that 's the end of this episode.

[queenb]

Yeap, Last year's winner did a special in Africa showing wildebeasts crossing the river during migration and getting eaten by crocodiles.

I watched the last "King of the Jungle" but didn't even watch this show because I couldn't stand Kelly (the winner). However, it was obvious the whole time that Nigel was determined for her too win no matter how badly she screwed up! Maybe since there is a different system for elimination this time I'll start taping it again!

[Maveno]

I've been watching!!! You know it! Glad to see us "regulars" of the King of the Jungle slowly migrating back into the groove of it all!
I can't believe how much they've made it Survivor-ish either bearcata! Strange. But I'll most definitely will watch the whole thing.

Don't have much time to be online right now...but I love your recaps!!

Yeahhhhh for King of the Jungle II!!!!

I saw Kelly on Ellen, showing some animals. She's alright, but I dunno....she just doesn't "have it" for me to be interested in what she's saying.

[Bearcata]

One thing that this years contestants have is personality. After the episode on Tuesday they had an hour special on how Animal Planet did the casting. Cherry comes across better in the interview process then she has on the show. They also show Henry without a shirt and he is one hot 50 yr old.

The casting director did mention that last years shows contestants were all animal experts and this years show was just ordinary people. To me the cast of KOTJ2 has tons more personality and thats what makes it fun. That and there is much more strategy and sneakiness.

[Wolf]

I have to agree that the contestants have a lot more personality, and they seem a little bit more competetive than the last bunch. The new format is a lot more exciting, too. I even like that they each have amulets of the animal that better represents them, the bird mail, the roar of the pride, etc.... It's a little cheesy, but I love it.

I know the power went to Lang's head during the game challenges, but so far, I like him. He's got a very strong presence for TV, plus he already has a jungle hairstyle. His big hairdo could pass for a lion mane.

[Wolf]

What is up Lang's butt? I didn't hear Cherry say anything to Lang that came off as shallow. She was upfront, and didn't pretend that everything is honky dory in the camp like he does.

Now, the games that Lang had the others play to determine who he sent to the Lion Pit, that was such a cop out. He knew he wanted to send to the Lion Pit, but he wasn't man enough to just say. The "let's express our feelings" :rolleyes meeting Lang called was so silly.

I'm a sensitive person, but this guy is ridiculously super-sensitive.
For next week, it looks like his feelings are still hurt, so he's volunteering to go to the Lion Pit every time, just to show them. Oh yeah, that's such a grown-up thing to do, Lang.

The sad thing is that I like him. He's got charisma and presence, and I can see him hosting an animal special.