Has Survivor Jumped the Shark?

[NFL1]

I totally agree - I want to know more about the guys on Galu, they seem much more interesting than the nasty Russell who thinks he's king of the world, and doesn't play strategically - only manipulate based on someone questioning - they need people who ARE playing the game, and suspect of the others. I'd love a season of people who'd been trying to get on for years LIKE Russell H (and other regular folks like Yau Man, Ozzi, Rob C., Sandra, the Dolphin guy, Shambo) and NOT folks like Osten, Amber, Boston Rob (full of himself), Coach (wanting too much attention to create a character), Jerri, and fly under the radar types like Jenna or Heidi.

[PWS]

I actually missed most of season 1, and later bought the DVD. Best season ever. I watched religiously for the first 10 seasons or so.


Yes, but that's not really new this season. I've had trouble "getting into" survivor the past few seasons. It's just not that interesting anymore. And, as you said, the people are not as diverse - some seasons it seems like they recruit all wackos - I want some "regular people" too. The strangest thing is that I find this season's cast so BORING. I don't mind Russell H. that much because at least he's playing and he's got a personality, however unsavory. Most of them, especially the girls (excepting Shambo and maybe Betsy) are just pretty props. No strategy, no fighting to stay, just high school clique-y stuff, which is NOT interesting to watch (imo). At least if they are recruiting, they could find people with some personality.

I'll be sad when Survivor is done, but I think it's been heading that way for a long time. And I HATE the intensely physical, everyone gets hurt challenges. The challenges used to be a lot more interesting, too.

And LIZ! She was not just a pretty prop.

[holly71]

My husband & I were just talking about this yesterday. We have both grown tired of Survivor over the past couple of seasons, & this season is especially bad. Looks like we're not alone in our opinion.

[lurkinlady]

I'm really only watching now because my 13yo dd likes it and we like to watch together.

You can always tell who is going to tc by how much airtime they get. They used to have a variety of challenges and now it seems all very physical. It's a given you don't want to keep the older women because of it. Why put older women on the show in the first place then? Or anyone over 35 for that matter.

I wonder if some of the people ever even watch previous seasons. Has anyone done any private interviews besides Russel? No one is even looking or concerned about the immunity idols.

Who are the people on galau anyway? I hardly even know the dr guy on foa foa.

There seem to be no curve balls this season either. I hardly know anyone's personality, but they certainly only seem to have older workhorse woman or useless pretty girls.

[pawpaw]

OVER EDITING!

Survivor has over edited itself till it is almost a scripted show. They no longer let the action take place or let us choose over favorites or hated players, they force feed us info to make us choose by episode one then lead us by the nose the direction they choose to go.

Season #1- we were allowed 2-3 episodes to see Richard, Sue & Rudy develop and see if and who we liked. We were not forced into a decision by episode #1's end.

Season #2- by season #19 standards we would of seen 58 minutes of Jerri in episode 1&2 so we would sure to hate her as she was going to be that seasons villian instead of letting the Jerri/Colby play out over the season.

Concentration on the Hero/Villian-They have become fancentrated with the hero/villian that they have edited one in every season the last couple( even if there isn't one)
Stephanie-Paulu
Stephanie-Guatamala
Sugar-Gabon
Coach-Tocantins
Russell-Samoa

Problem is almost all of them are "fake"

Stephanie-Paulu the uber nice, never give up wonder girl.

Stephanie-Guatamala the uber bitch, stab you in the bad wench.

Sugar-Gabon the sweet girl that the whole cast ( minus Bob) said afterwards was an uber bitch.

Coach-Tocantins the arrogant man who often had nice sences in the unsence clip's but was never shown.

Russell-Samoa the uber villian who other than the force fed socks and water on day 1 hasn't really done any " villian" things.

For the most part none of these heros/villians was as bad or good as shown in real life but were made so for "the show"

Concentrating on all players:

They have to cencentrate on the losing tribe each episode because the spend 40 minutes on the hero/villian each week so we learn little on the others. I totally agree if they backed off the H/V and let things happen naturally we would see much more development of other players earlier in the season.

Suprise:

Have they forgotten what suprise was? After watching the promo's preshow and the first 10 minutes I can tell you 99% of the time who will lose the challange and who the boot is right then. No suspence anymore. Now in the previews you get " drop your buffs"--quess there's a tribe switch next week or "player needs medical attention" then show the player so we know who's getting medvaced before the show is ever seen.

Casting:

A lot of people ( me included) are tired of recruits, the problem is the pool of players is nowhere as big as it was.

According to Jeff Probst survivor gets about 10,000 application a year--that sounds great till he breaks it down.

1/3 are people who have been repeatedly rejected for one reason or another-we see what happens when they let these people finally on ( Krazy kathey from Fans/favorites or Mike this year) there's reasons there were rejected.

1/3 are the "new" Rupert, or JFP or next seasons app's will be the "new" Russell. there tape is nothing more then them imitating a previous player and how they will be the bigger, better version.

That leaves 1/3 left, sounds like a lot but what % of these are "normal" people and not hollywood wantabee's? Plus Jeff Probst says survivor demo's show survivor fans are 95% white anglo saxon--to get 5-6 minority players on the show they have to recruit 3-4 of them because since most of the watchers are white so are the app's. ( remember there were very few minorities pre Fiji)

They need to just back the hand off the throttle and let things happen instead of shaping the show AFTERWARDs on the editing room floor, if a player is boring they are boring, don't reshape them by clever cuts and edits into something they never were.

Sorry so long winded.

[Wind Dancer]

IMO no "normal" person would want to be on this show. If that's their major criterion no wonder they have problems getting people who make a good show.

[PWS]

I don't know... back when it started (and I was younger and in better shape, so not necessarily the first boot!) I would have done it if I hadn't had kids/job restrictions. I'm pretty "normal"....of course I also had a normal life and job that I couldn't just drop and leave. Maybe that's part of the restriction...only pharma sales reps and bartenders (excuse me, mixologists) have the freedom to apply.

[Wind Dancer]

I don't know... back when it started (and I was younger and in better shape, so not necessarily the first boot!) I would have done it if I hadn't had kids/job restrictions. I'm pretty "normal"....of course I also had a normal life and job that I couldn't just drop and leave. Maybe that's part of the restriction...only pharma sales reps and bartenders (excuse me, mixologists) have the freedom to apply.

PWS--hi--very good points.

I am thinking about what I mean by "normal" person and hope to post about that soon.

BTW--you left out law students and "oil company owners" (who really only own some trucks that haul various oil-type products.)

[PWS]

Yeah, actually the most "normal" people we've gotten have been students and teachers on summer breaks. Which should mean that the seasons filmed in the summer are better than the seasons filmed at other times of the year. Since I never recall how far in advance a season is filmed that's too hard for me to figure out! Are the fall seasons filmed in summer?

[lopevian]

It's still my favorite show, but it has gotten a bit ho hum the last few seasons. I wish they would have more challenges at night, those were always pretty cool. I also liked it when part of the reward was sending one or two of the winning tribe over to the loser camp to raid it. Don't think the show has jumped the shark so much as its become "same old same old". I knew my attention was wanning when my cable was shut off a couple of weeks ago (hard times) and I didn't completely freak out. I watched the last two episodes online, and actually it looks 100% better than the TV ever did (plus only one short commercial). I liked the "Survivor Trivia" challenge they did in F -vs- F. Wish they'd do more of that. That would make the recruitees stand out for more than just their pecs or their boobs. I'd like to see them scratching their heads. "Uh? What? I've never seen the show". UGH!