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Survivor Season 40 Premiere Episode Recap: ‘Winners At War,’ Legacies On The Line

by Tom Santilli on February 12th, 2020

What an absolute dream come true. After 20 years on the air, and now into its 40th (!!!) Season, Survivor is back and is as good as ever. The nightmarish ugliness of Season 39 is but a distant memory, and all signs point to this season, “Survivor: Winners at War,” as being one of the best, most epic seasons of Survivor yet. It sure started off with a bang, and if you can’t keep up with the speed of the game, like Queen Sandra Diaz-Twine says, you need to just get out of the way.

Twenty previous winners have returned to compete in “Winners at War,” with a new Reality-TV record-prize of 2 million dollars waiting at the finish line. That’s a lot of money y’all. Perhaps of equal (or OK, lesser) overall importance, these winners are all placing their legacies on the line. Some that are thought of as the “greatest” may reveal – up against other winners – to be less than. While some “lesser” winners may end up truly being thought of as the greatest of all-time.

Some legacies have already began to shift, rise and slide following the first two-hour episode of Season 40, “Survivor: Winners at War.” And it’s a dream come true to be given the chance to continue to analyze and dissect this game that I love after all this time. So let’s do this, shall we?

As I do at the beginning of every recap, please heed the following: Remember that this recap assumes that you have already seen this week’s episode of Survivor: Winners at War. If you have not and don’t want to be spoiled, please come back later! It’s important to add that while we WILL hit on all of the important developments of the episode, this is not a linear “blow-by-blow” recap. It is more of a discussion and reaction of what we just witnessed together.

CLICK THE CONTINUE READING BUTTON FOR MORE, AND THIS IS YOUR LAST *SPOILER* WARNING!

Recaps,Survivor

Get Ready for ‘Winners At War’ As Survivor Kicks Off Its 20th Anniversary Season!

by Tom Santilli on February 4th, 2020

“Excitement” doesn’t quite do justice to how I’m feeling right now. We are literally just days away from the beginning on not just Survivor‘s 40th (!!!) and 20th-Anniversary Season, but the occasion is being celebrated with the long-awaited, highly-anticipated “all winners” season. Yes, “Survivor: Winners At War” will feature 20 previous Sole Survivors all vying not only for the increased TWO million dollar prize, but for the unprecedented title of “Best of the Best.”

I’m shaking just thinking about this season, and I can’t wait to bring you this special look ahead (and a look back) to the best Reality Competition Show that there ever was, or ever will be. There’s lots to get to, not just the new twists that Season 40 has in store (Fire Tokens???), but we’re going to take a look at each of the 20 returning previous winners and where they “rank” on my all-time list heading into this season…and while I’m super-ecstatic as to the 20 winners that ARE returning, we’ll also examine the ones that were left out, and whose legacies are at stake the most.

If you have “tuned out” of Survivor over the years – especially after the exhausting Season 39 this past Fall – you will WANT TO GET BACK INTO IT THIS SEASON! I’ll be right here Recapping the entire Season 40, and am happy to once again have Survivor Legend and two-time player Erik Reichenbach on-board as well contributing his unique Survivor artwork and creativity each and every week…just wait what he drew up for this special “pre-season” look ahead!

Let’s get to it, shall we?

CLICK THE CONTINUE READING BUTTON FOR MORE!

Survivor

Survivor: Island Of The Idols Finale And Reunion Show Recap: When It Rains It Pours

by Tom Santilli on December 19th, 2019

For the first time, the Season Finale of Survivor was not followed by a “Live” Reunion Show, and instead was pre-taped four hours earlier. The reasons for this were clear for anyone who has been following Season 39, “The Island of the Idols,” as this has been – by far – the most controversial season in the show’s nearly 20 year history. In a way that seemed fitting for this season, the Finale was almost preempted and overshadowed by outside news much bigger than the game, but it did air as scheduled, bringing this tough season to a close.

In true Survivor fashion, the negatives of this season were looked at as learning moments for us all, and Jeff Probst did his damnedest to turn this season’s problems into a positive. But despite all of the controversies – and potential lawsuits – swirling around this season, there was still some game to be played, and for the sake of those innocent players who didn’t sign up for all of this mess and who would rather not let the controversies define them, let us talk game, shall we?

As I do at the beginning of every recap, please heed the following: Remember that this recap assumes that you have already seen this week’s episode of Survivor: Island of the Idols. If you have not and don’t want to be spoiled, please come back later! It’s important to add that while we WILL hit on all of the important developments of the episode, this is not a linear “blow-by-blow” recap. It is more of a discussion and reaction of what we just witnessed together.

CLICK THE CONTINUE READING BUTTON FOR MORE, AND THIS IS YOUR LAST *SPOILER* WARNING!

Recaps,Survivor

Survivor: Island Of The Idols Episode 13 Recap: Another ‘Incident’ Overshadows The Game

by Tom Santilli on December 12th, 2019

Please, make it stop. This season of Survivor has been a painful one to watch from an entertainment standpoint, with controversies involving inappropriate touching (among other heavy topics) clouding what should otherwise be a fun night of weekly escapism. Instead of discussing strategy or simply enjoying ourselves, we’ve been pulled into the terrible circumstances, and like it’s stuck in some sort of quicksand, the more Survivor tries to rise above the mess, the further down it seems to go this season.

Tonight was one twist ending for the ages, and we’ll get to it all. We’ll also set the stage for next week’s Finale Episode, a day that – at this point – I think we’re all looking forward to.

CLICK THE CONTINUE READING BUTTON FOR MORE, AND THIS IS YOUR LAST *SPOILER* WARNING!

Recaps,Survivor

Survivor: Island of the Idols Episode 12 Recap: The New ‘Noura-mal’

by Tom Santilli on December 5th, 2019

We’ve now sped past Thanksgiving only to find ourselves firmly in December, with the two-hour Finale Episode right around the corner (just two weeks people!). “Speed” was the name of the game tonight on Survivor, where over the course of the hour we went from a tear-jerker to a head-scratcher. It was a dizzy, messy Tribal Council and there’a a lot to unpack, so let’s waste no more time and get to recappin’!

CLICK THE CONTINUE READING BUTTON FOR MORE, AND THIS IS YOUR LAST *SPOILER* WARNING!

Recaps,Survivor

Survivor: Island Of The Idols Episode 11 Recap: Bringing Home The Bacon

by Tom Santilli on November 27th, 2019

Well there is sure a lot to be thankful for. I’m thankful for my family, I thankful for my son. I’m thankful that my Thanksgiving tradition includes going down to the Detroit Lions tailgate in downtown, but does not include actually going into the game. And I’m thankful that this week’s episode of Survivor gave us a break from the recent controversies that have surrounded this entire season, and that it didn’t contain any real “life lessons” or “learning moments.” Yes, although no one is forgetting about the ugliness that had been the past few weeks of the show, it was a nice switch-up for the show to feel “normal” again, where folks get bit by chickens, make dumb moves, or play fake advantages, and we can focus our attention on the game itself.

CLICK THE CONTINUE READING BUTTON FOR MORE, AND THIS IS YOUR LAST *SPOILER* WARNING!

Recaps,Survivor

Survivor: Island Of The Idols Episode 10 Recap: And The Game Continues On

by Tom Santilli on November 20th, 2019

This past week was maybe the most brutal in the history of Survivor. The game has a tendency to spill over into real life from time to time, as everybody always is saying how Survivor represents a microcosm of human society. But after last week’s episode, things didn’t just “spill over,” the whole dam broke wide open. The entire controversy surrounding Dan and his inappropriate “touching” of other players, including Kellee, combined with a perfect storm of misinformation regarding all sides, led to an ugly hour of television for millions that were watching.

As millions more expressed their outrage and anger on social media following last week’s airing, things have snowballed to the point that many refused to watch the show at all moving forward, and even two prominent voices in the Survivor community – People‘s Stephen Fishbach and The Hollywood Reporter‘s Josh Wigler – announced that they would no longer even cover the show (to be clear, Fishbach “retired” his blog the week prior, which is pretty coincidental timing, and Wigler – who was facing issues outside of the game, mixed with his utter disgust over last week’s episode – announced he was done with Survivor…I personally wish the both of them the best moving forward both personally and professionally).

Worst of all: Complete “radio silence” from the official CBS Survivor and Jeff Probst Twitter accounts. It seems they were just hoping this PR nightmare would die down on its own or possibly blow over, as I think it’s quite obvious at this point that the response to last week’s episode was not at all how CBS, Probst and the other producers had expected it to be.

We’ll get to all of the controversy, but with tonight’s newest episode, the game continued on, for better or worse. As I do at the beginning of every recap, please heed the following: Remember that this recap assumes that you have already seen this week’s episode of Survivor: Island of the Idols. If you have not and don’t want to be spoiled, please come back later! It’s important to add that while we WILL hit on all of the important developments of the episode, this is not a linear “blow-by-blow” recap. It is more of a discussion and reaction of what we just witnessed together.

CLICK THE CONTINUE READING BUTTON FOR MORE, AND THIS IS YOUR LAST *SPOILER* WARNING!

Recaps,Survivor

Survivor: Island Of The Idols Episode 8 & 9 Recap: Much, Much More Than A Vote

by Tom Santilli on November 14th, 2019

Well wow. What an incredible, emotional and – a word I don’t use lightly – important two-hours of Reality TV, the likes of which only a show such as Survivor can manage. Those that watch the show religiously know that the merge episode is consistently one of the best, most explosive hours of each season, and it was again…but not nearly in the way it normally is. As it has over the years – and as it has more than a few times already this season – Survivor became about much more than the game tonight, a microcosm of real-life issues that we as a society are confronting and will continue to confront into the future.

Such complexities are simply not found on other TV programs. And a two-hour episode of Survivor couldn’t have come at a better time, as the additional time was appropriately used to make sure that they didn’t rush or brush over these systemic problems that face us all.

CLICK THE CONTINUE READING BUTTON FOR MORE, AND THIS IS YOUR LAST *SPOILER* WARNING!

Recaps,Survivor

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