For those of you who aren’t aware of this I am a huge Survivor fan and it’s one of the few television programs I watch religiously. I’m very excited that Survivor 20 started this evening and it’s probably the best first episode of any of the seasons that I’ve watched. Last season the series was weak until the merge happened and you had Russell and his followers wreaking havoc. But this season with all known entities in the game, its going to be very interesting.
Some of my favorite players are in the game. On the Heroes side you have JT, the Tocantins winner who also happens to be my seven year old son’s favorite player. Tom the firefighter is another favorite, a former winner and will always be remembered for killing the shark from a tree. James and Rupert have to be my favorite players who have ever been in the game so I’m excited to see them both back.
On the Villian side you have Russell back, which was a given when you consider he was probably the only bright spot in last year’s Survivor. Boston Rob is one of my favorites as is Tyson, who comes up with the best sound clips in the series.
The episode started with a rather physical challenge that saw players tackling each other to prevent the other team from getting a bag to the mat. Highlights of the challenge were Sugar going topless after Sandra removed her bra and a physical matchup of James and Rupert vs Boston Rob and Russell. Heroes took the reward challenge and got the flint. Didn’t matter to the Villians because Boston Rob quarterbacked his team at camp and built a fire without the help of a flint.
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Immunity challenge saw the Heroes fall apart as the team couldn’t figure out a four layer puzzle and blow a major lead. There were lots of names bandied about but Sugar was voted out, most likely because of her emotional breakdown after the challenge.
Overall I think the first episode was quite enjoyable and I am looking forward to next week’s. In the previews they show Jerri finding Rob passed out in the jungle and having medical work on him. Will be interesting to see what’s going on.
Here’s a video of Jeff Probst talking about the contestants on this season’s Survivor.