• S49 Ep11 Spoilers and Comments (12/3/2025)

    From Brian Smith@dcg_brian@hotmail.com to alt.tv.survivor on Wed Dec 3 13:45:33 2025
    From Newsgroup: alt.tv.survivor

    Tonight's episode is titled "Cherry on Top." I just watched the sneak
    peeks that Paramount posted and it looks like Kristina's kicking herself
    for wasting her idol last TC. Rizo asks why she played it on Steven and
    Steven says it was because they heard the votes were going to be on him.
    Rizo then tells them that they (Rizo, Savannah, and the Sophi(e)s^2)
    found out that Sage and Jawan wee flipping on them, so they took out Jawan.

    In another clip, Sophi says she's super tight with Riz and Savannah, but realizes she's on the bottom. I think it's a total misdirect that she'll
    try to take one of them out.
    --
    Brian
    --- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Rick@Rick@nospam.net to alt.tv.survivor on Wed Dec 3 16:18:47 2025
    From Newsgroup: alt.tv.survivor

    On 12/3/2025 3:45 PM, Brian Smith wrote:
    Tonight's episode is titled "Cherry on Top." I just watched the sneak
    peeks that Paramount posted and it looks like Kristina's kicking herself
    for wasting her idol last TC. Rizo asks why she played it on Steven and Steven says it was because they heard the votes were going to be on him. Rizo then tells them that they (Rizo, Savannah, and the Sophi(e)s^2)
    found out that Sage and Jawan wee flipping on them, so they took out Jawan.

    In another clip, Sophi says she's super tight with Riz and Savannah, but realizes she's on the bottom. I think it's a total misdirect that she'll
    try to take one of them out.


    I wonder why she would think she is on the bottom? She was with
    Savannah and Riz before Sophie was, so if anything, it's yellow Sophie
    who should be at the bottom, if being on the bottom even makes sense.
    That's the thing. Since we now have fire at F4, there's really no top
    or bottom in an alliance of four. The goal would be to get all four to
    final four and then whoever wins IC is the top dog who decides who will
    go to fire. At that point it's less about who is on the bottom but more
    about who you want to take to the finale.

    Question for tonight is who the alliance of four will target in the
    vote? My guess is that Sage is likely to go unless she wins immunity or
    finds an idol, otherwise Steven. In reality, Steven might be the best
    choice to target because he might be better in challenges, but I just
    don't think they really like Sage and they probably know how much Sage
    hates Savannah. I think Kristina will be kept around until final five
    and then cut then unless she has an idol or wins IC.

    As for Final Four, assuming Savannah, Riz and Sophie squared all make
    it, it's hard to predict who will win the final challenge (probably
    Savannah or Sophie) and who will end up in fire, etc. but it still feels
    to me that it's Savannah's season and she is going to somehow end up as
    the winner. I'm guessing (and it's just a pure guess) Savannah wins F4 immunity and takes Soph to the finale and puts Rizo and Sophie into
    fire. And given the comments Sophie made about Rizo's lack of fire
    making skills, maybe Sophie beats him and we have our first all female
    finale in a while with the three S's - Savannah, Soph and Sophie. Just
    a guess.
    --- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Brian Smith@dcg_brian@hotmail.com to alt.tv.survivor on Wed Dec 3 16:08:52 2025
    From Newsgroup: alt.tv.survivor

    On 12/3/2025 2:18 PM, Rick wrote:
    On 12/3/2025 3:45 PM, Brian Smith wrote:
    Tonight's episode is titled "Cherry on Top." I just watched the sneak
    peeks that Paramount posted and it looks like Kristina's kicking
    herself for wasting her idol last TC. Rizo asks why she played it on
    Steven and Steven says it was because they heard the votes were going
    to be on him. Rizo then tells them that they (Rizo, Savannah, and the
    Sophi(e)s^2) found out that Sage and Jawan wee flipping on them, so
    they took out Jawan.

    In another clip, Sophi says she's super tight with Riz and Savannah,
    but realizes she's on the bottom. I think it's a total misdirect that
    she'll try to take one of them out.


    I wonder why she would think she is on the bottom?-a She was with
    Savannah and Riz before Sophie was, so if anything, it's yellow Sophie
    who should be at the bottom, if being on the bottom even makes sense.
    That's the thing.-a Since we now have fire at F4, there's really no top
    or bottom in an alliance of four.-a The goal would be to get all four to final four and then whoever wins IC is the top dog who decides who will
    go to fire.-a At that point it's less about who is on the bottom but more about who you want to take to the finale.

    She was talking about the three of them: herself, Riz, and Savannah.
    Rizo and Savannah have been together from the start if not earlier.
    Sophi was adopted by them during one of the tribe shuffles, IIRC.

    I agree with you that the four of them should stick together and try to
    get to F4 and then let fire decide how the game ends.

    Question for tonight is who the alliance of four will target in the
    vote?-a My guess is that Sage is likely to go unless she wins immunity or finds an idol, otherwise Steven.-a In reality, Steven might be the best choice to target because he might be better in challenges, but I just
    don't think they really like Sage and they probably know how much Sage
    hates Savannah.-a I think Kristina will be kept around until final five
    and then cut then unless she has an idol or wins IC.

    The question for me is will anyone find the HII Kristina played and will production put another advantage into play? Also, is F7 the last time a
    SITD can be played?

    Steven's the better player, but Sage is too volatile to keep around.
    They also know that Sage was gunning for either Riz or Savannah so she's
    a natural target.

    As for Final Four, assuming Savannah, Riz and Sophie squared all make
    it, it's hard to predict who will win the final challenge (probably
    Savannah or Sophie) and who will end up in fire, etc. but it still feels
    to me that it's Savannah's season and she is going to somehow end up as
    the winner.-a I'm guessing (and it's just a pure guess) Savannah wins F4 immunity and takes Soph to the finale and puts Rizo and Sophie into
    fire.-a And given the comments Sophie made about Rizo's lack of fire
    making skills, maybe Sophie beats him and we have our first all female finale in a while with the three S's --a Savannah, Soph and Sophie.-a Just
    a guess.

    I could see things playing out that way. I doubt Rizo even practiced
    fire. Sophie very likely practiced everything for S48 and then again for
    S49. It seems like alternates do very well when given a shot to play in
    a future season.

    Of the four of them, Savannah's getting the best edit by far. It's
    really too bad we didn't see much of Sophie the first part of the game.
    She's been very impressive since the merge.
    --
    Brian
    --- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Brian Smith@dcg_brian@hotmail.com to alt.tv.survivor on Wed Dec 3 20:28:57 2025
    From Newsgroup: alt.tv.survivor

    On 12/3/2025 1:45 PM, Brian Smith wrote:
    Tonight's episode is titled "Cherry on Top." I just watched the sneak
    peeks that Paramount posted and it looks like Kristina's kicking herself
    for wasting her idol last TC. Rizo asks why she played it on Steven and Steven says it was because they heard the votes were going to be on him. Rizo then tells them that they (Rizo, Savannah, and the Sophi(e)s^2)
    found out that Sage and Jawan wee flipping on them, so they took out Jawan.

    In another clip, Sophi says she's super tight with Riz and Savannah, but realizes she's on the bottom. I think it's a total misdirect that she'll
    try to take one of them out.

    This was a disappointing episode for me. I did not want to see Sophie
    get booted and knowing about S50 made the last half of the episode anticlimactic. If we didn't know Savannah was chosen to play in S50 this episode would have been a lot better.

    Tonight's episode confirmed that Sage is a very emotional and irrational player. She lucked out big time tonight.

    The Journey on tonight's episode was great. That was a crazy hard task.
    Would Kristina have been able to do all that climbing, etc.? Including
    the word "strenuous" in the note was Sophie's downfall as far as I'm concerned. I was really surprised that they all just let Steven go for
    it. Did they forget about the Journey in S47 where Rachel said she
    wanted to go to prevent others winning an advantage? IIRC, she ended up winning a rock draw, then an advantage, and of course the game.

    Reward/Immunity Challenge

    I liked the twist they added to the "IMMUNITY" block stacking challenge.
    The challenge looked a lot harder. When Steven won immunity and chose
    Rizo as one of the people to go with him on the food reward, I knew that
    was it for Sophie.

    Tribal Council

    Unless you don't know that Savannah was asked to do S50, this was a bit
    of a waste. The "best" part for me was the look on Jeff's face when
    Kristina said she hates Savannah. Damn! I don't recall Savannah ever
    saying anything mean about Kristina.

    Next Episode

    Looks like Steven and Rizo both think they have the game on lock.

    Concerning Steven's "Block a Vote" advantage and Sophi's KIP, this tweet
    from Dalton is very interesting.

    I checked in with Probst on this to get an official ruling, and he
    confirms that once Steven gives the Block-a-Vote name back at camp, it
    can no longer be stolen with a Knowledge is Power at Tribal Council.
    More in my #Survivor49 recap! #Survivor

    https://x.com/DaltonRoss/status/1996406872107270339

    The ruling from Jeff makes it sound like the KIP is useless against the
    "Block a Vote" and "Steal a Vote" advantages as the KIP needs to be
    played at TC.
    --
    Brian
    --- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From shawn@nanoflower@notforg.m.a.i.l.com to alt.tv.survivor on Thu Dec 4 00:08:34 2025
    From Newsgroup: alt.tv.survivor

    On Wed, 3 Dec 2025 20:28:57 -0700, Brian Smith <dcg_brian@hotmail.com>
    wrote:

    On 12/3/2025 1:45 PM, Brian Smith wrote:
    Tonight's episode is titled "Cherry on Top." I just watched the sneak
    peeks that Paramount posted and it looks like Kristina's kicking herself
    for wasting her idol last TC. Rizo asks why she played it on Steven and
    Steven says it was because they heard the votes were going to be on him.
    Rizo then tells them that they (Rizo, Savannah, and the Sophi(e)s^2)
    found out that Sage and Jawan wee flipping on them, so they took out Jawan. >>
    In another clip, Sophi says she's super tight with Riz and Savannah, but
    realizes she's on the bottom. I think it's a total misdirect that she'll
    try to take one of them out.

    This was a disappointing episode for me. I did not want to see Sophie
    get booted and knowing about S50 made the last half of the episode >anticlimactic. If we didn't know Savannah was chosen to play in S50 this >episode would have been a lot better.

    That's been true for a while knowing who made it to S50 meant we know
    the risks that normally exist for two players did not exist.

    Tonight's episode confirmed that Sage is a very emotional and irrational >player. She lucked out big time tonight.

    True.

    The Journey on tonight's episode was great. That was a crazy hard task. >Would Kristina have been able to do all that climbing, etc.? Including
    the word "strenuous" in the note was Sophie's downfall as far as I'm >concerned. I was really surprised that they all just let Steven go for
    it. Did they forget about the Journey in S47 where Rachel said she
    wanted to go to prevent others winning an advantage? IIRC, she ended up >winning a rock draw, then an advantage, and of course the game.

    I worried about some of the climbing. There's a risk of someone
    getting hurt, especially given their weakened condition.

    Reward/Immunity Challenge

    I liked the twist they added to the "IMMUNITY" block stacking challenge.
    The challenge looked a lot harder. When Steven won immunity and chose
    Rizo as one of the people to go with him on the food reward, I knew that
    was it for Sophie.

    Tribal Council

    Unless you don't know that Savannah was asked to do S50, this was a bit
    of a waste. The "best" part for me was the look on Jeff's face when
    Kristina said she hates Savannah. Damn! I don't recall Savannah ever
    saying anything mean about Kristina.

    Next Episode

    Looks like Steven and Rizo both think they have the game on lock.

    Concerning Steven's "Block a Vote" advantage and Sophi's KIP, this tweet >from Dalton is very interesting.

    I checked in with Probst on this to get an official ruling, and he
    confirms that once Steven gives the Block-a-Vote name back at camp, it
    can no longer be stolen with a Knowledge is Power at Tribal Council.
    More in my #Survivor49 recap! #Survivor

    https://x.com/DaltonRoss/status/1996406872107270339

    The ruling from Jeff makes it sound like the KIP is useless against the >"Block a Vote" and "Steal a Vote" advantages as the KIP needs to be
    played at TC.

    I had wondered about that. I bet Soph isn't aware of that which would
    explain why she didn't try to use it in this episode.
    --- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Rick@Rick@nospam.net to alt.tv.survivor on Thu Dec 4 00:11:35 2025
    From Newsgroup: alt.tv.survivor

    On 12/3/2025 10:28 PM, Brian Smith wrote:
    On 12/3/2025 1:45 PM, Brian Smith wrote:
    Tonight's episode is titled "Cherry on Top." I just watched the sneak
    peeks that Paramount posted and it looks like Kristina's kicking
    herself for wasting her idol last TC. Rizo asks why she played it on
    Steven and Steven says it was because they heard the votes were going
    to be on him. Rizo then tells them that they (Rizo, Savannah, and the
    Sophi(e)s^2) found out that Sage and Jawan wee flipping on them, so
    they took out Jawan.

    In another clip, Sophi says she's super tight with Riz and Savannah,
    but realizes she's on the bottom. I think it's a total misdirect that
    she'll try to take one of them out.

    This was a disappointing episode for me. I did not want to see Sophie
    get booted and knowing about S50 made the last half of the episode anticlimactic. If we didn't know Savannah was chosen to play in S50 this episode would have been a lot better.


    I agree completely. There was absolutely no suspense at all about the
    ending.

    Tonight's episode confirmed that Sage is a very emotional and irrational player. She lucked out big time tonight.


    What struck me the most was that everyone was so fixated on Sophie's
    strength in challenges that they totally ignored Savannah, who has not
    only been strong in challenges but also very smart and strategic.
    Savannah continues to survive each episode finding some new way to
    remain safe, and it was amazing how she did it again so effortlessly.

    Sophie was undeniably very strong in challenges but she proved by her
    complete surprise at being voted out that she didn't have any kind of
    read on the other players. Ignoring what we know about Savannah's plot
    armor, it seems to me if you have a choice between taking out challenge
    beast Sophie or taking out very smart and strategic challenge beast
    Savannah, you take out Savannah.


    The Journey on tonight's episode was great. That was a crazy hard task. Would Kristina have been able to do all that climbing, etc.? Including
    the word "strenuous" in the note was Sophie's downfall as far as I'm concerned. I was really surprised that they all just let Steven go for
    it. Did they forget about the Journey in S47 where Rachel said she
    wanted to go to prevent others winning an advantage? IIRC, she ended up winning a rock draw, then an advantage, and of course the game.


    I thought the difficulty of the challenge might have been a bit
    over-hyped. The target was actually several feet over the water and I'm sorry, but tides don't rise quite that fast. When he finally got back
    and put the code in, there was still a lot of room for the water to rise
    and I actually think there was a lot of time to spare, perhaps as much
    as another hour. I actually thought it was calibrated in such a way
    that any of the players, including Kristina, could have done it.

    Reward/Immunity Challenge

    I liked the twist they added to the "IMMUNITY" block stacking challenge.
    The challenge looked a lot harder. When Steven won immunity and chose
    Rizo as one of the people to go with him on the food reward, I knew that
    was it for Sophie.


    Agreed.

    Tribal Council

    Unless you don't know that Savannah was asked to do S50, this was a bit
    of a waste. The "best" part for me was the look on Jeff's face when
    Kristina said she hates Savannah. Damn! I don't recall Savannah ever
    saying anything mean about Kristina.


    That was an amazing and shocking statement. It's very rare a player
    will admit they hate another player. That made me briefly wonder if
    there was perhaps a side of Savannah we haven't seen and if she perhaps
    has made negative and nasty comments that were edited out because she is
    the eventual winner. But then I realized that if she were truly that
    nasty and negative, would the show have chosen her for S50? That makes
    me think that whatever Kristina's problem is with Savannah, it comes
    more from Kristina than from Savannah.


    Next Episode

    Looks like Steven and Rizo both think they have the game on lock.

    Concerning Steven's "Block a Vote" advantage and Sophi's KIP, this tweet from Dalton is very interesting.

    I checked in with Probst on this to get an official ruling, and he
    confirms that once Steven gives the Block-a-Vote name back at camp, it
    can no longer be stolen with a Knowledge is Power at Tribal Council.
    More in my #Survivor49 recap! #Survivor

    https://x.com/DaltonRoss/status/1996406872107270339

    The ruling from Jeff makes it sound like the KIP is useless against the "Block a Vote" and "Steal a Vote" advantages as the KIP needs to be
    played at TC.


    I wondered about that too and it strikes me that's a flaw in the game's
    rules, because the KIP didn't seem to have any exceptions. It
    certainly adds an element of confusion to the rules. Knowing that
    Steven won an advantage, I seriously wonder if Soph will try to play her advantage on him at next tribal to steal it and how Jeff will explain
    away why it won't work.

    --- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Brian Smith@dcg_brian@hotmail.com to alt.tv.survivor on Wed Dec 3 22:43:15 2025
    From Newsgroup: alt.tv.survivor

    On 12/3/2025 10:08 PM, shawn wrote:
    On Wed, 3 Dec 2025 20:28:57 -0700, Brian Smith <dcg_brian@hotmail.com>
    wrote:

    On 12/3/2025 1:45 PM, Brian Smith wrote:
    Tonight's episode is titled "Cherry on Top." I just watched the sneak
    peeks that Paramount posted and it looks like Kristina's kicking herself >>> for wasting her idol last TC. Rizo asks why she played it on Steven and
    Steven says it was because they heard the votes were going to be on him. >>> Rizo then tells them that they (Rizo, Savannah, and the Sophi(e)s^2)
    found out that Sage and Jawan wee flipping on them, so they took out Jawan. >>>
    In another clip, Sophi says she's super tight with Riz and Savannah, but >>> realizes she's on the bottom. I think it's a total misdirect that she'll >>> try to take one of them out.

    This was a disappointing episode for me. I did not want to see Sophie
    get booted and knowing about S50 made the last half of the episode
    anticlimactic. If we didn't know Savannah was chosen to play in S50 this
    episode would have been a lot better.

    That's been true for a while knowing who made it to S50 meant we know
    the risks that normally exist for two players did not exist.

    Tonight's episode confirmed that Sage is a very emotional and irrational
    player. She lucked out big time tonight.

    True.

    The Journey on tonight's episode was great. That was a crazy hard task.
    Would Kristina have been able to do all that climbing, etc.? Including
    the word "strenuous" in the note was Sophie's downfall as far as I'm
    concerned. I was really surprised that they all just let Steven go for
    it. Did they forget about the Journey in S47 where Rachel said she
    wanted to go to prevent others winning an advantage? IIRC, she ended up
    winning a rock draw, then an advantage, and of course the game.

    I worried about some of the climbing. There's a risk of someone
    getting hurt, especially given their weakened condition.

    Some spots looked very risky. It's too bad they didn't say how long it
    took Steven to finish the course and long he had before the tide ended
    the challenge.

    Reward/Immunity Challenge

    I liked the twist they added to the "IMMUNITY" block stacking challenge.
    The challenge looked a lot harder. When Steven won immunity and chose
    Rizo as one of the people to go with him on the food reward, I knew that
    was it for Sophie.

    Tribal Council

    Unless you don't know that Savannah was asked to do S50, this was a bit
    of a waste. The "best" part for me was the look on Jeff's face when
    Kristina said she hates Savannah. Damn! I don't recall Savannah ever
    saying anything mean about Kristina.

    Next Episode

    Looks like Steven and Rizo both think they have the game on lock.

    Concerning Steven's "Block a Vote" advantage and Sophi's KIP, this tweet >>from Dalton is very interesting.

    I checked in with Probst on this to get an official ruling, and he
    confirms that once Steven gives the Block-a-Vote name back at camp, it
    can no longer be stolen with a Knowledge is Power at Tribal Council.
    More in my #Survivor49 recap! #Survivor

    https://x.com/DaltonRoss/status/1996406872107270339

    The ruling from Jeff makes it sound like the KIP is useless against the
    "Block a Vote" and "Steal a Vote" advantages as the KIP needs to be
    played at TC.

    I had wondered about that. I bet Soph isn't aware of that which would
    explain why she didn't try to use it in this episode.

    There seems to be a lot of confusion now over the KIP. Has the KIP in
    the past only been used to steal HIIs?
    --
    Brian
    --- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Brian Smith@dcg_brian@hotmail.com to alt.tv.survivor on Wed Dec 3 23:17:21 2025
    From Newsgroup: alt.tv.survivor

    On 12/3/2025 10:11 PM, Rick wrote:
    On 12/3/2025 10:28 PM, Brian Smith wrote:
    On 12/3/2025 1:45 PM, Brian Smith wrote:
    Tonight's episode is titled "Cherry on Top." I just watched the sneak
    peeks that Paramount posted and it looks like Kristina's kicking
    herself for wasting her idol last TC. Rizo asks why she played it on
    Steven and Steven says it was because they heard the votes were going
    to be on him. Rizo then tells them that they (Rizo, Savannah, and the
    Sophi(e)s^2) found out that Sage and Jawan wee flipping on them, so
    they took out Jawan.

    In another clip, Sophi says she's super tight with Riz and Savannah,
    but realizes she's on the bottom. I think it's a total misdirect that
    she'll try to take one of them out.

    This was a disappointing episode for me. I did not want to see Sophie
    get booted and knowing about S50 made the last half of the episode
    anticlimactic. If we didn't know Savannah was chosen to play in S50
    this episode would have been a lot better.


    I agree completely.-a There was absolutely no suspense at all about the ending.

    Tonight's episode confirmed that Sage is a very emotional and
    irrational player. She lucked out big time tonight.


    What struck me the most was that everyone was so fixated on Sophie's strength in challenges that they totally ignored Savannah, who has not
    only been strong in challenges but also very smart and strategic.
    Savannah continues to survive each episode finding some new way to
    remain safe, and it was amazing how she did it again so effortlessly.

    The jury also seems to have forgotten about Savannah based on Nate's (?) comment that taking out Sophie was a good move. That comment could be a
    bad sign for Savannah.

    Sophie was undeniably very strong in challenges but she proved by her complete surprise at being voted out that she didn't have any kind of
    read on the other players.-a Ignoring what we know about Savannah's plot armor, it seems to me if you have a choice between taking out challenge beast Sophie or taking out very smart and strategic challenge beast Savannah, you take out Savannah.

    Sophie wasn't surprised at being voted out. It was being voted
    unanimously. She said so either as she was leaving or in her final
    words. I was surprised as well. Did Rizo do that good of a job at the
    food reward that Kristina was willing to put aside her hatred for Savannah?

    The Journey on tonight's episode was great. That was a crazy hard
    task. Would Kristina have been able to do all that climbing, etc.?
    Including the word "strenuous" in the note was Sophie's downfall as
    far as I'm concerned. I was really surprised that they all just let
    Steven go for it. Did they forget about the Journey in S47 where
    Rachel said she wanted to go to prevent others winning an advantage?
    IIRC, she ended up winning a rock draw, then an advantage, and of
    course the game.


    I thought the difficulty of the challenge might have been a bit over- hyped.-a The target was actually several feet over the water and I'm
    sorry, but tides don't rise quite that fast.-a When he finally got back
    and put the code in, there was still a lot of room for the water to rise
    and I actually think there was a lot of time to spare, perhaps as much
    as another hour.-a I actually thought it was calibrated in such a way
    that any of the players, including Kristina, could have done it.

    The tide part of the challenge was a nonfactor. It was navigating around
    the island obtaining the six numbers.

    Reward/Immunity Challenge

    I liked the twist they added to the "IMMUNITY" block stacking
    challenge. The challenge looked a lot harder. When Steven won immunity
    and chose Rizo as one of the people to go with him on the food reward,
    I knew that was it for Sophie.


    Agreed.

    Tribal Council

    Unless you don't know that Savannah was asked to do S50, this was a
    bit of a waste. The "best" part for me was the look on Jeff's face
    when Kristina said she hates Savannah. Damn! I don't recall Savannah
    ever saying anything mean about Kristina.


    That was an amazing and shocking statement.-a It's very rare a player
    will admit they hate another player. That made me briefly wonder if
    there was perhaps a side of Savannah we haven't seen and if she perhaps
    has made negative and nasty comments that were edited out because she is
    the eventual winner.-a But then I realized that if she were truly that
    nasty and negative, would the show have chosen her for S50?-a That makes
    me think that whatever Kristina's problem is with Savannah, it comes
    more from Kristina than from Savannah.

    My guess is that it's a Kristina issue. Riz and the Sophi(e)s^2 all seem
    to like Savannah. Savannah's also having too much fun online with the
    mean girl label. Kristina seems to have a big issue with Savannah being
    so direct and probably playing the game so hard.

    Next Episode

    Looks like Steven and Rizo both think they have the game on lock.

    Concerning Steven's "Block a Vote" advantage and Sophi's KIP, this
    tweet from Dalton is very interesting.

    I checked in with Probst on this to get an official ruling, and he
    confirms that once Steven gives the Block-a-Vote name back at camp, it
    can no longer be stolen with a Knowledge is Power at Tribal Council.
    More in my #Survivor49 recap! #Survivor

    https://x.com/DaltonRoss/status/1996406872107270339

    The ruling from Jeff makes it sound like the KIP is useless against
    the "Block a Vote" and "Steal a Vote" advantages as the KIP needs to
    be played at TC.


    I wondered about that too and it strikes me that's a flaw in the game's rules, because the KIP didn't seem to have any exceptions.-a-a It
    certainly adds an element of confusion to the rules.-a Knowing that
    Steven won an advantage, I seriously wonder if Soph will try to play her advantage on him at next tribal to steal it and how Jeff will explain
    away why it won't work.

    If Sophi wastes her KIP because she's not aware of Jeff's rule that will really suck. I believe F6 is the last time she can use it. I can see her
    not using it so she can use it at FTC to show how confident she was of
    her safety in the game.
    --
    Brian
    --- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Rick@Rick@nospam.net to alt.tv.survivor on Thu Dec 4 09:21:11 2025
    From Newsgroup: alt.tv.survivor

    On 12/4/2025 1:17 AM, Brian Smith wrote:
    On 12/3/2025 10:11 PM, Rick wrote:
    On 12/3/2025 10:28 PM, Brian Smith wrote:
    On 12/3/2025 1:45 PM, Brian Smith wrote:
    Tonight's episode is titled "Cherry on Top." I just watched the
    sneak peeks that Paramount posted and it looks like Kristina's
    kicking herself for wasting her idol last TC. Rizo asks why she
    played it on Steven and Steven says it was because they heard the
    votes were going to be on him. Rizo then tells them that they (Rizo,
    Savannah, and the Sophi(e)s^2) found out that Sage and Jawan wee
    flipping on them, so they took out Jawan.

    In another clip, Sophi says she's super tight with Riz and Savannah,
    but realizes she's on the bottom. I think it's a total misdirect
    that she'll try to take one of them out.

    This was a disappointing episode for me. I did not want to see Sophie
    get booted and knowing about S50 made the last half of the episode
    anticlimactic. If we didn't know Savannah was chosen to play in S50
    this episode would have been a lot better.


    I agree completely.-a There was absolutely no suspense at all about the
    ending.

    Tonight's episode confirmed that Sage is a very emotional and
    irrational player. She lucked out big time tonight.


    What struck me the most was that everyone was so fixated on Sophie's
    strength in challenges that they totally ignored Savannah, who has not
    only been strong in challenges but also very smart and strategic.
    Savannah continues to survive each episode finding some new way to
    remain safe, and it was amazing how she did it again so effortlessly.

    The jury also seems to have forgotten about Savannah based on Nate's (?) comment that taking out Sophie was a good move. That comment could be a
    bad sign for Savannah.


    In a normal spoiler-free season, I would agree. With Sophie gone
    Savannah should be the obvious target now.

    Sophie was undeniably very strong in challenges but she proved by her
    complete surprise at being voted out that she didn't have any kind of
    read on the other players.-a Ignoring what we know about Savannah's
    plot armor, it seems to me if you have a choice between taking out
    challenge beast Sophie or taking out very smart and strategic
    challenge beast Savannah, you take out Savannah.

    Sophie wasn't surprised at being voted out. It was being voted
    unanimously. She said so either as she was leaving or in her final
    words. I was surprised as well. Did Rizo do that good of a job at the
    food reward that Kristina was willing to put aside her hatred for Savannah?

    There is a reason Rizo was brought back for S50, and maybe his skills as
    a con artist are part of it. He claims to have New York street smarts,
    and I think he is right about that.


    The Journey on tonight's episode was great. That was a crazy hard
    task. Would Kristina have been able to do all that climbing, etc.?
    Including the word "strenuous" in the note was Sophie's downfall as
    far as I'm concerned. I was really surprised that they all just let
    Steven go for it. Did they forget about the Journey in S47 where
    Rachel said she wanted to go to prevent others winning an advantage?
    IIRC, she ended up winning a rock draw, then an advantage, and of
    course the game.


    I thought the difficulty of the challenge might have been a bit over-
    hyped.-a The target was actually several feet over the water and I'm
    sorry, but tides don't rise quite that fast.-a When he finally got back
    and put the code in, there was still a lot of room for the water to
    rise and I actually think there was a lot of time to spare, perhaps as
    much as another hour.-a I actually thought it was calibrated in such a
    way that any of the players, including Kristina, could have done it.

    The tide part of the challenge was a nonfactor. It was navigating around
    the island obtaining the six numbers.


    But the way the challenge was setup made it seem that the tide would be
    a kind of countdown clock, like on the Last Gasp challenge, and it was
    implied you would have to race to get the numbers and enter them before
    the target hit the water. But even on Last Gasp, the tide only rises by several inches, if you think about it. In this case, the target was
    several feet above the ground and it was still several feet when he
    finally smashed it.

    With the tide as a non-factor, this was just a one-person scavenger hunt
    with no real pressure to find the numbers quickly. They weren't even
    really hidden but seemed all out in the open and easy to find. A big
    part of why Steven got so gassed was that he was so frenetic in running
    from point to point. I think even with the rock climbing (which didn't
    look that terrible), if you took it slowly and took your time, it was something anyone could do who was careful, even Kristina.

    I thought it was a much easier challenge than that one where they had to
    move a jillion sandbags before the sand went through the hourglass.

    Reward/Immunity Challenge

    I liked the twist they added to the "IMMUNITY" block stacking
    challenge. The challenge looked a lot harder. When Steven won
    immunity and chose Rizo as one of the people to go with him on the
    food reward, I knew that was it for Sophie.


    Agreed.

    Tribal Council

    Unless you don't know that Savannah was asked to do S50, this was a
    bit of a waste. The "best" part for me was the look on Jeff's face
    when Kristina said she hates Savannah. Damn! I don't recall Savannah
    ever saying anything mean about Kristina.


    That was an amazing and shocking statement.-a It's very rare a player
    will admit they hate another player. That made me briefly wonder if
    there was perhaps a side of Savannah we haven't seen and if she
    perhaps has made negative and nasty comments that were edited out
    because she is the eventual winner.-a But then I realized that if she
    were truly that nasty and negative, would the show have chosen her for
    S50?-a That makes me think that whatever Kristina's problem is with
    Savannah, it comes more from Kristina than from Savannah.

    My guess is that it's a Kristina issue. Riz and the Sophi(e)s^2 all seem
    to like Savannah. Savannah's also having too much fun online with the
    mean girl label. Kristina seems to have a big issue with Savannah being
    so direct and probably playing the game so hard.

    Next Episode

    Looks like Steven and Rizo both think they have the game on lock.

    Concerning Steven's "Block a Vote" advantage and Sophi's KIP, this
    tweet from Dalton is very interesting.

    I checked in with Probst on this to get an official ruling, and he
    confirms that once Steven gives the Block-a-Vote name back at camp,
    it can no longer be stolen with a Knowledge is Power at Tribal
    Council. More in my #Survivor49 recap! #Survivor

    https://x.com/DaltonRoss/status/1996406872107270339

    The ruling from Jeff makes it sound like the KIP is useless against
    the "Block a Vote" and "Steal a Vote" advantages as the KIP needs to
    be played at TC.


    I wondered about that too and it strikes me that's a flaw in the
    game's rules, because the KIP didn't seem to have any exceptions.-a-a It
    certainly adds an element of confusion to the rules.-a Knowing that
    Steven won an advantage, I seriously wonder if Soph will try to play
    her advantage on him at next tribal to steal it and how Jeff will
    explain away why it won't work.

    If Sophi wastes her KIP because she's not aware of Jeff's rule that will really suck. I believe F6 is the last time she can use it. I can see her
    not using it so she can use it at FTC to show how confident she was of
    her safety in the game.


    Yes, I think F6 is her last chance to use it, though I don't recall for
    sure. There's a message from me somewhere here about that. With the
    vote potentially a 3-3 split between the two factions, I could easily
    see her trying to use it on the last allowable chance. Just saving it
    to brag to everyone at F3 that she had it all along and never used it
    seems too showboaty for her.

    Frankly the tactic of unveiling an advantage at F3 that you never used
    always seemed like grandstanding to me. It's kind of like a miser dying
    with a ton of money in the bank that he never spent or buying a brand
    new car and leaving in the garage and never using it. I realize people
    think it worked for Maryann, but I think she was going to win anyway.
    If I were Soph, I would reveal the advantage at F6 (if that's the last
    day it can be used) and try to use it.
    --- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Brian Smith@dcg_brian@hotmail.com to alt.tv.survivor on Thu Dec 4 15:39:13 2025
    From Newsgroup: alt.tv.survivor

    On 12/4/2025 7:21 AM, Rick wrote:
    On 12/4/2025 1:17 AM, Brian Smith wrote:
    On 12/3/2025 10:11 PM, Rick wrote:
    On 12/3/2025 10:28 PM, Brian Smith wrote:
    On 12/3/2025 1:45 PM, Brian Smith wrote:
    Tonight's episode is titled "Cherry on Top." I just watched the
    sneak peeks that Paramount posted and it looks like Kristina's
    kicking herself for wasting her idol last TC. Rizo asks why she
    played it on Steven and Steven says it was because they heard the
    votes were going to be on him. Rizo then tells them that they
    (Rizo, Savannah, and the Sophi(e)s^2) found out that Sage and Jawan >>>>> wee flipping on them, so they took out Jawan.

    In another clip, Sophi says she's super tight with Riz and
    Savannah, but realizes she's on the bottom. I think it's a total
    misdirect that she'll try to take one of them out.

    This was a disappointing episode for me. I did not want to see
    Sophie get booted and knowing about S50 made the last half of the
    episode anticlimactic. If we didn't know Savannah was chosen to play
    in S50 this episode would have been a lot better.


    I agree completely.-a There was absolutely no suspense at all about
    the ending.

    Tonight's episode confirmed that Sage is a very emotional and
    irrational player. She lucked out big time tonight.


    What struck me the most was that everyone was so fixated on Sophie's
    strength in challenges that they totally ignored Savannah, who has
    not only been strong in challenges but also very smart and strategic.
    Savannah continues to survive each episode finding some new way to
    remain safe, and it was amazing how she did it again so effortlessly.

    The jury also seems to have forgotten about Savannah based on Nate's
    (?) comment that taking out Sophie was a good move. That comment could
    be a bad sign for Savannah.


    In a normal spoiler-free season, I would agree.-a With Sophie gone
    Savannah should be the obvious target now.

    Sophie was undeniably very strong in challenges but she proved by her
    complete surprise at being voted out that she didn't have any kind of
    read on the other players.-a Ignoring what we know about Savannah's
    plot armor, it seems to me if you have a choice between taking out
    challenge beast Sophie or taking out very smart and strategic
    challenge beast Savannah, you take out Savannah.

    Sophie wasn't surprised at being voted out. It was being voted
    unanimously. She said so either as she was leaving or in her final
    words. I was surprised as well. Did Rizo do that good of a job at the
    food reward that Kristina was willing to put aside her hatred for
    Savannah?

    There is a reason Rizo was brought back for S50, and maybe his skills as
    a con artist are part of it.-a He claims to have New York street smarts,
    and I think he is right about that.

    I was surprised at how fast he threw Sophie UTB. She's from NYC as well.
    Where were her street smarts?!

    The Journey on tonight's episode was great. That was a crazy hard
    task. Would Kristina have been able to do all that climbing, etc.?
    Including the word "strenuous" in the note was Sophie's downfall as
    far as I'm concerned. I was really surprised that they all just let
    Steven go for it. Did they forget about the Journey in S47 where
    Rachel said she wanted to go to prevent others winning an advantage?
    IIRC, she ended up winning a rock draw, then an advantage, and of
    course the game.


    I thought the difficulty of the challenge might have been a bit over-
    hyped.-a The target was actually several feet over the water and I'm
    sorry, but tides don't rise quite that fast.-a When he finally got
    back and put the code in, there was still a lot of room for the water
    to rise and I actually think there was a lot of time to spare,
    perhaps as much as another hour.-a I actually thought it was
    calibrated in such a way that any of the players, including Kristina,
    could have done it.

    The tide part of the challenge was a nonfactor. It was navigating
    around the island obtaining the six numbers.


    But the way the challenge was setup made it seem that the tide would be
    a kind of countdown clock, like on the Last Gasp challenge, and it was implied you would have to race to get the numbers and enter them before
    the target hit the water.-a But even on Last Gasp, the tide only rises by several inches, if you think about it. In this case, the target was
    several feet above the ground and it was still several feet when he
    finally smashed it.

    We needed to given some times to judge how hard the challenge was in
    terms of need in to get the combo correct in a certain amount of time.

    With the tide as a non-factor, this was just a one-person scavenger hunt with no real pressure to find the numbers quickly.-a They weren't even really hidden but seemed all out in the open and easy to find.-a A big
    part of why Steven got so gassed was that he was so frenetic in running
    from point to point.-a I think even with the rock climbing (which didn't look that terrible), if you took it slowly and took your time, it was something anyone could do who was careful, even Kristina.

    Eventually the tide would have been a factor. If a person forgot a
    number or two they would have been screwed. I can see future players
    studying the tide schedule before they leave in case this challenge
    comes up again.

    I thought it was a much easier challenge than that one where they had to move a jillion sandbags before the sand went through the hourglass.

    That was a hard challenge. To me this one looked dangerous.

    Reward/Immunity Challenge

    I liked the twist they added to the "IMMUNITY" block stacking
    challenge. The challenge looked a lot harder. When Steven won
    immunity and chose Rizo as one of the people to go with him on the
    food reward, I knew that was it for Sophie.


    Agreed.

    Tribal Council

    Unless you don't know that Savannah was asked to do S50, this was a
    bit of a waste. The "best" part for me was the look on Jeff's face
    when Kristina said she hates Savannah. Damn! I don't recall Savannah
    ever saying anything mean about Kristina.


    That was an amazing and shocking statement.-a It's very rare a player
    will admit they hate another player. That made me briefly wonder if
    there was perhaps a side of Savannah we haven't seen and if she
    perhaps has made negative and nasty comments that were edited out
    because she is the eventual winner.-a But then I realized that if she
    were truly that nasty and negative, would the show have chosen her
    for S50?-a That makes me think that whatever Kristina's problem is
    with Savannah, it comes more from Kristina than from Savannah.

    My guess is that it's a Kristina issue. Riz and the Sophi(e)s^2 all
    seem to like Savannah. Savannah's also having too much fun online with
    the mean girl label. Kristina seems to have a big issue with Savannah
    being so direct and probably playing the game so hard.

    Next Episode

    Looks like Steven and Rizo both think they have the game on lock.

    Concerning Steven's "Block a Vote" advantage and Sophi's KIP, this
    tweet from Dalton is very interesting.

    I checked in with Probst on this to get an official ruling, and he
    confirms that once Steven gives the Block-a-Vote name back at camp,
    it can no longer be stolen with a Knowledge is Power at Tribal
    Council. More in my #Survivor49 recap! #Survivor

    https://x.com/DaltonRoss/status/1996406872107270339

    The ruling from Jeff makes it sound like the KIP is useless against
    the "Block a Vote" and "Steal a Vote" advantages as the KIP needs to
    be played at TC.


    I wondered about that too and it strikes me that's a flaw in the
    game's rules, because the KIP didn't seem to have any exceptions.
    It certainly adds an element of confusion to the rules.-a Knowing that
    Steven won an advantage, I seriously wonder if Soph will try to play
    her advantage on him at next tribal to steal it and how Jeff will
    explain away why it won't work.

    If Sophi wastes her KIP because she's not aware of Jeff's rule that
    will really suck. I believe F6 is the last time she can use it. I can
    see her not using it so she can use it at FTC to show how confident
    she was of her safety in the game.


    Yes, I think F6 is her last chance to use it, though I don't recall for sure.-a There's a message from me somewhere here about that.-a With the
    vote potentially a 3-3 split between the two factions, I could easily
    see her trying to use it on the last allowable chance.-a Just saving it
    to brag to everyone at F3 that she had it all along and never used it
    seems too showboaty for her.

    Frankly the tactic of unveiling an advantage at F3 that you never used always seemed like grandstanding to me.-a It's kind of like a miser dying with a ton of money in the bank that he never spent or buying a brand
    new car and leaving in the garage and never using it.-a I realize people think it worked for Maryann, but I think she was going to win anyway. If
    I were Soph, I would reveal the advantage at F6 (if that's the last day
    it can be used) and try to use it.

    Does the KIP holder need to identify what type of advantage they think
    the holder has? Dalton's tweet has me thinking that Jeff is changing how
    the KIP works.

    The fact that Sophi didn't use her KIP seems to confirm that she and
    Rizo were scared to face Sophie at the end. It'll be interesting to see
    how these powers play out and who gets screwed over. Also, will someone
    find Kristina's HII? It would be great TV if Rizo found it without
    anyone knowing and then Sophi using her KIP to steal his first HII
    thinking she can take him out.
    --
    Brian
    --- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Rick@Rick@nospam.net to alt.tv.survivor on Thu Dec 4 18:05:30 2025
    From Newsgroup: alt.tv.survivor

    On 12/4/2025 5:39 PM, Brian Smith wrote:
    On 12/4/2025 7:21 AM, Rick wrote:
    On 12/4/2025 1:17 AM, Brian Smith wrote:
    On 12/3/2025 10:11 PM, Rick wrote:
    On 12/3/2025 10:28 PM, Brian Smith wrote:
    On 12/3/2025 1:45 PM, Brian Smith wrote:
    Tonight's episode is titled "Cherry on Top." I just watched the
    sneak peeks that Paramount posted and it looks like Kristina's
    kicking herself for wasting her idol last TC. Rizo asks why she
    played it on Steven and Steven says it was because they heard the >>>>>> votes were going to be on him. Rizo then tells them that they
    (Rizo, Savannah, and the Sophi(e)s^2) found out that Sage and
    Jawan wee flipping on them, so they took out Jawan.

    In another clip, Sophi says she's super tight with Riz and
    Savannah, but realizes she's on the bottom. I think it's a total
    misdirect that she'll try to take one of them out.

    This was a disappointing episode for me. I did not want to see
    Sophie get booted and knowing about S50 made the last half of the
    episode anticlimactic. If we didn't know Savannah was chosen to
    play in S50 this episode would have been a lot better.


    I agree completely.-a There was absolutely no suspense at all about
    the ending.

    Tonight's episode confirmed that Sage is a very emotional and
    irrational player. She lucked out big time tonight.


    What struck me the most was that everyone was so fixated on Sophie's
    strength in challenges that they totally ignored Savannah, who has
    not only been strong in challenges but also very smart and
    strategic. Savannah continues to survive each episode finding some
    new way to remain safe, and it was amazing how she did it again so
    effortlessly.

    The jury also seems to have forgotten about Savannah based on Nate's
    (?) comment that taking out Sophie was a good move. That comment
    could be a bad sign for Savannah.


    In a normal spoiler-free season, I would agree.-a With Sophie gone
    Savannah should be the obvious target now.

    Sophie was undeniably very strong in challenges but she proved by
    her complete surprise at being voted out that she didn't have any
    kind of read on the other players.-a Ignoring what we know about
    Savannah's plot armor, it seems to me if you have a choice between
    taking out challenge beast Sophie or taking out very smart and
    strategic challenge beast Savannah, you take out Savannah.

    Sophie wasn't surprised at being voted out. It was being voted
    unanimously. She said so either as she was leaving or in her final
    words. I was surprised as well. Did Rizo do that good of a job at the
    food reward that Kristina was willing to put aside her hatred for
    Savannah?

    There is a reason Rizo was brought back for S50, and maybe his skills
    as a con artist are part of it.-a He claims to have New York street
    smarts, and I think he is right about that.

    I was surprised at how fast he threw Sophie UTB. She's from NYC as well. Where were her street smarts?!


    I don't think Sophie is a street girl. She works at Google (actually
    You Tube), so she's probably in a higher economic class than Rizo.

    The Journey on tonight's episode was great. That was a crazy hard
    task. Would Kristina have been able to do all that climbing, etc.?
    Including the word "strenuous" in the note was Sophie's downfall as >>>>> far as I'm concerned. I was really surprised that they all just let >>>>> Steven go for it. Did they forget about the Journey in S47 where
    Rachel said she wanted to go to prevent others winning an
    advantage? IIRC, she ended up winning a rock draw, then an
    advantage, and of course the game.


    I thought the difficulty of the challenge might have been a bit
    over- hyped.-a The target was actually several feet over the water
    and I'm sorry, but tides don't rise quite that fast.-a When he
    finally got back and put the code in, there was still a lot of room
    for the water to rise and I actually think there was a lot of time
    to spare, perhaps as much as another hour.-a I actually thought it
    was calibrated in such a way that any of the players, including
    Kristina, could have done it.

    The tide part of the challenge was a nonfactor. It was navigating
    around the island obtaining the six numbers.


    But the way the challenge was setup made it seem that the tide would
    be a kind of countdown clock, like on the Last Gasp challenge, and it
    was implied you would have to race to get the numbers and enter them
    before the target hit the water.-a But even on Last Gasp, the tide only
    rises by several inches, if you think about it. In this case, the
    target was several feet above the ground and it was still several feet
    when he finally smashed it.

    We needed to given some times to judge how hard the challenge was in
    terms of need in to get the combo correct in a certain amount of time.

    With the tide as a non-factor, this was just a one-person scavenger
    hunt with no real pressure to find the numbers quickly.-a They weren't
    even really hidden but seemed all out in the open and easy to find.-a A
    big part of why Steven got so gassed was that he was so frenetic in
    running from point to point.-a I think even with the rock climbing
    (which didn't look that terrible), if you took it slowly and took your
    time, it was something anyone could do who was careful, even Kristina.

    Eventually the tide would have been a factor. If a person forgot a
    number or two they would have been screwed. I can see future players studying the tide schedule before they leave in case this challenge
    comes up again.


    I just think it's a flawed concept. According to a quick Google search,
    tides generally only rise around 6" to a foot per hour in Fiji. I think
    if they do it again, they'd be better off going to the hourglass concept
    they have used before.

    I thought it was a much easier challenge than that one where they had
    to move a jillion sandbags before the sand went through the hourglass.

    That was a hard challenge. To me this one looked dangerous.


    I think it looked more dangerous than it was. The show isn't going to
    risk putting players into physical jeopardy, so there had to be a safe
    way to get from point to point. It's possible Steven was climbing rocks unnecessarily when he could have just stayed closer to ground. The
    challenges aren't intended to only be possible for someone in tip top shape.

    I do think it is ironic and funny that Sophie sat out the challenge so
    she would be well rested for the IC, and Steven ending up winning the IC anyway.

    Reward/Immunity Challenge

    I liked the twist they added to the "IMMUNITY" block stacking
    challenge. The challenge looked a lot harder. When Steven won
    immunity and chose Rizo as one of the people to go with him on the
    food reward, I knew that was it for Sophie.


    Agreed.

    Tribal Council

    Unless you don't know that Savannah was asked to do S50, this was a >>>>> bit of a waste. The "best" part for me was the look on Jeff's face
    when Kristina said she hates Savannah. Damn! I don't recall
    Savannah ever saying anything mean about Kristina.


    That was an amazing and shocking statement.-a It's very rare a player >>>> will admit they hate another player. That made me briefly wonder if
    there was perhaps a side of Savannah we haven't seen and if she
    perhaps has made negative and nasty comments that were edited out
    because she is the eventual winner.-a But then I realized that if she >>>> were truly that nasty and negative, would the show have chosen her
    for S50?-a That makes me think that whatever Kristina's problem is
    with Savannah, it comes more from Kristina than from Savannah.

    My guess is that it's a Kristina issue. Riz and the Sophi(e)s^2 all
    seem to like Savannah. Savannah's also having too much fun online
    with the mean girl label. Kristina seems to have a big issue with
    Savannah being so direct and probably playing the game so hard.

    Next Episode

    Looks like Steven and Rizo both think they have the game on lock.

    Concerning Steven's "Block a Vote" advantage and Sophi's KIP, this
    tweet from Dalton is very interesting.

    I checked in with Probst on this to get an official ruling, and he
    confirms that once Steven gives the Block-a-Vote name back at camp, >>>>> it can no longer be stolen with a Knowledge is Power at Tribal
    Council. More in my #Survivor49 recap! #Survivor

    https://x.com/DaltonRoss/status/1996406872107270339

    The ruling from Jeff makes it sound like the KIP is useless against >>>>> the "Block a Vote" and "Steal a Vote" advantages as the KIP needs
    to be played at TC.


    I wondered about that too and it strikes me that's a flaw in the
    game's rules, because the KIP didn't seem to have any exceptions. It
    certainly adds an element of confusion to the rules.-a Knowing that
    Steven won an advantage, I seriously wonder if Soph will try to play
    her advantage on him at next tribal to steal it and how Jeff will
    explain away why it won't work.

    If Sophi wastes her KIP because she's not aware of Jeff's rule that
    will really suck. I believe F6 is the last time she can use it. I can
    see her not using it so she can use it at FTC to show how confident
    she was of her safety in the game.


    Yes, I think F6 is her last chance to use it, though I don't recall
    for sure.-a There's a message from me somewhere here about that.-a With
    the vote potentially a 3-3 split between the two factions, I could
    easily see her trying to use it on the last allowable chance.-a Just
    saving it to brag to everyone at F3 that she had it all along and
    never used it seems too showboaty for her.

    Frankly the tactic of unveiling an advantage at F3 that you never used
    always seemed like grandstanding to me.-a It's kind of like a miser
    dying with a ton of money in the bank that he never spent or buying a
    brand new car and leaving in the garage and never using it.-a I realize
    people think it worked for Maryann, but I think she was going to win
    anyway. If I were Soph, I would reveal the advantage at F6 (if that's
    the last day it can be used) and try to use it.

    Does the KIP holder need to identify what type of advantage they think
    the holder has? Dalton's tweet has me thinking that Jeff is changing how
    the KIP works.


    According to the Survivor Wiki:

    "Before the votes are cast at Tribal Council, the Knowledge is Power
    advantage allows its user to ask one player one of two questions:
    whether they have a Hidden Immunity Idol, or whether they have an
    advantage. That player is compelled to answer truthfully and, if they
    happen to indeed be in possession of an idol or advantage, surrender the requested object to the user. If the user has asked the target for an advantage, and the target is in possession of multiple advantages, the
    target may choose to surrender any advantage without disclosing the
    nature of their other advantages. If the target does not have an idol or advantage, the user receives nothing and the advantage is rendered
    powerless. The advantage may be played at any Tribal Council until the
    final six."

    https://survivor.fandom.com/wiki/Knowledge_is_Power_Advantage

    So this implies that Soph only need ask if Steven has an advantage -
    she doesn't need to specify Block a Vote or Steal-a-Vote (which is what
    Riz thinks it is).

    The fact that Sophi didn't use her KIP seems to confirm that she and
    Rizo were scared to face Sophie at the end. It'll be interesting to see
    how these powers play out and who gets screwed over. Also, will someone
    find Kristina's HII? It would be great TV if Rizo found it without
    anyone knowing and then Sophi using her KIP to steal his first HII
    thinking she can take him out.


    That would be hilarious. I'm sure it was re-hidden, but I'm not sure
    any of these players has the skill to find it unless they make it very obvious.

    --- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Brian Smith@dcg_brian@hotmail.com to alt.tv.survivor on Thu Dec 4 19:19:58 2025
    From Newsgroup: alt.tv.survivor

    On 12/4/2025 4:05 PM, Rick wrote:
    On 12/4/2025 5:39 PM, Brian Smith wrote:
    On 12/4/2025 7:21 AM, Rick wrote:
    On 12/4/2025 1:17 AM, Brian Smith wrote:
    On 12/3/2025 10:11 PM, Rick wrote:
    On 12/3/2025 10:28 PM, Brian Smith wrote:
    On 12/3/2025 1:45 PM, Brian Smith wrote:

    There is a reason Rizo was brought back for S50, and maybe his skills
    as a con artist are part of it.-a He claims to have New York street
    smarts, and I think he is right about that.

    I was surprised at how fast he threw Sophie UTB. She's from NYC as
    well. Where were her street smarts?!


    I don't think Sophie is a street girl.-a She works at Google (actually
    You Tube), so she's probably in a higher economic class than Rizo.

    She does? I just discovered she grew up in the MD suburbs of DC and went
    to Columbia. Her family seems very well off.

    The Journey on tonight's episode was great. That was a crazy hard >>>>>> task. Would Kristina have been able to do all that climbing, etc.? >>>>>> Including the word "strenuous" in the note was Sophie's downfall
    as far as I'm concerned. I was really surprised that they all just >>>>>> let Steven go for it. Did they forget about the Journey in S47
    where Rachel said she wanted to go to prevent others winning an
    advantage? IIRC, she ended up winning a rock draw, then an
    advantage, and of course the game.


    I thought the difficulty of the challenge might have been a bit
    over- hyped.-a The target was actually several feet over the water
    and I'm sorry, but tides don't rise quite that fast.-a When he
    finally got back and put the code in, there was still a lot of room >>>>> for the water to rise and I actually think there was a lot of time
    to spare, perhaps as much as another hour.-a I actually thought it
    was calibrated in such a way that any of the players, including
    Kristina, could have done it.

    The tide part of the challenge was a nonfactor. It was navigating
    around the island obtaining the six numbers.


    But the way the challenge was setup made it seem that the tide would
    be a kind of countdown clock, like on the Last Gasp challenge, and it
    was implied you would have to race to get the numbers and enter them
    before the target hit the water.-a But even on Last Gasp, the tide
    only rises by several inches, if you think about it. In this case,
    the target was several feet above the ground and it was still several
    feet when he finally smashed it.

    We needed to given some times to judge how hard the challenge was in
    terms of need in to get the combo correct in a certain amount of time.

    With the tide as a non-factor, this was just a one-person scavenger
    hunt with no real pressure to find the numbers quickly.-a They weren't
    even really hidden but seemed all out in the open and easy to find.
    A big part of why Steven got so gassed was that he was so frenetic in
    running from point to point.-a I think even with the rock climbing
    (which didn't look that terrible), if you took it slowly and took
    your time, it was something anyone could do who was careful, even
    Kristina.

    Eventually the tide would have been a factor. If a person forgot a
    number or two they would have been screwed. I can see future players
    studying the tide schedule before they leave in case this challenge
    comes up again.


    I just think it's a flawed concept.-a According to a quick Google search, tides generally only rise around 6" to a foot per hour in Fiji.-a I think
    if they do it again, they'd be better off going to the hourglass concept they have used before.

    If that's the case they must have really wanted whoever did the Journey
    to succeed. The urn looked pretty high up to me.

    I thought it was a much easier challenge than that one where they had
    to move a jillion sandbags before the sand went through the hourglass.

    That was a hard challenge. To me this one looked dangerous.


    I think it looked more dangerous than it was.-a The show isn't going to
    risk putting players into physical jeopardy, so there had to be a safe
    way to get from point to point.-a It's possible Steven was climbing rocks unnecessarily when he could have just stayed closer to ground.-a The challenges aren't intended to only be possible for someone in tip top
    shape.

    Kristina would have tapped out.

    I do think it is ironic and funny that Sophie sat out the challenge so
    she would be well rested for the IC, and Steven ending up winning the IC anyway.

    So true. It was another example of how you should never pass up an
    opportunity to earn a power.

    Reward/Immunity Challenge

    I liked the twist they added to the "IMMUNITY" block stacking
    challenge. The challenge looked a lot harder. When Steven won
    immunity and chose Rizo as one of the people to go with him on the >>>>>> food reward, I knew that was it for Sophie.


    Agreed.

    Tribal Council

    Unless you don't know that Savannah was asked to do S50, this was >>>>>> a bit of a waste. The "best" part for me was the look on Jeff's
    face when Kristina said she hates Savannah. Damn! I don't recall
    Savannah ever saying anything mean about Kristina.


    That was an amazing and shocking statement.-a It's very rare a
    player will admit they hate another player. That made me briefly
    wonder if there was perhaps a side of Savannah we haven't seen and
    if she perhaps has made negative and nasty comments that were
    edited out because she is the eventual winner.-a But then I realized >>>>> that if she were truly that nasty and negative, would the show have >>>>> chosen her for S50?-a That makes me think that whatever Kristina's
    problem is with Savannah, it comes more from Kristina than from
    Savannah.

    My guess is that it's a Kristina issue. Riz and the Sophi(e)s^2 all
    seem to like Savannah. Savannah's also having too much fun online
    with the mean girl label. Kristina seems to have a big issue with
    Savannah being so direct and probably playing the game so hard.

    Next Episode

    Looks like Steven and Rizo both think they have the game on lock.

    Concerning Steven's "Block a Vote" advantage and Sophi's KIP, this >>>>>> tweet from Dalton is very interesting.

    I checked in with Probst on this to get an official ruling, and he >>>>>> confirms that once Steven gives the Block-a-Vote name back at
    camp, it can no longer be stolen with a Knowledge is Power at
    Tribal Council. More in my #Survivor49 recap! #Survivor

    https://x.com/DaltonRoss/status/1996406872107270339

    The ruling from Jeff makes it sound like the KIP is useless
    against the "Block a Vote" and "Steal a Vote" advantages as the
    KIP needs to be played at TC.


    I wondered about that too and it strikes me that's a flaw in the
    game's rules, because the KIP didn't seem to have any exceptions.
    It certainly adds an element of confusion to the rules.-a Knowing
    that Steven won an advantage, I seriously wonder if Soph will try
    to play her advantage on him at next tribal to steal it and how
    Jeff will explain away why it won't work.

    If Sophi wastes her KIP because she's not aware of Jeff's rule that
    will really suck. I believe F6 is the last time she can use it. I
    can see her not using it so she can use it at FTC to show how
    confident she was of her safety in the game.


    Yes, I think F6 is her last chance to use it, though I don't recall
    for sure.-a There's a message from me somewhere here about that.-a With >>> the vote potentially a 3-3 split between the two factions, I could
    easily see her trying to use it on the last allowable chance.-a Just
    saving it to brag to everyone at F3 that she had it all along and
    never used it seems too showboaty for her.

    Frankly the tactic of unveiling an advantage at F3 that you never
    used always seemed like grandstanding to me.-a It's kind of like a
    miser dying with a ton of money in the bank that he never spent or
    buying a brand new car and leaving in the garage and never using it.
    I realize people think it worked for Maryann, but I think she was
    going to win anyway. If I were Soph, I would reveal the advantage at
    F6 (if that's the last day it can be used) and try to use it.

    Does the KIP holder need to identify what type of advantage they think
    the holder has? Dalton's tweet has me thinking that Jeff is changing
    how the KIP works.


    According to the Survivor Wiki:

    "Before the votes are cast at Tribal Council, the Knowledge is Power advantage allows its user to ask one player one of two questions:
    whether they have a Hidden Immunity Idol, or whether they have an
    advantage. That player is compelled to answer truthfully and, if they
    happen to indeed be in possession of an idol or advantage, surrender the requested object to the user. If the user has asked the target for an advantage, and the target is in possession of multiple advantages, the target may choose to surrender any advantage without disclosing the
    nature of their other advantages. If the target does not have an idol or advantage, the user receives nothing and the advantage is rendered powerless. The advantage may be played at any Tribal Council until the
    final six."

    https://survivor.fandom.com/wiki/Knowledge_is_Power_Advantage

    So this implies that Soph only need ask if Steven has an advantage - she doesn't need to specify Block a Vote or Steal-a-Vote (which is what Riz thinks it is).

    That's what I thought. I guess Jeff's ruling/clarification is basically
    saying that if a player gives production a name to use the Block a Vote
    or Steal a Vote against, that means the advantage has been used and thus
    can't be stolen. For those two advantages, they should allow the KIP
    holder to go to a field producer and say they want to use it
    preemptively stop those powers from being played.

    The fact that Sophi didn't use her KIP seems to confirm that she and
    Rizo were scared to face Sophie at the end. It'll be interesting to
    see how these powers play out and who gets screwed over. Also, will
    someone find Kristina's HII? It would be great TV if Rizo found it
    without anyone knowing and then Sophi using her KIP to steal his first
    HII thinking she can take him out.


    That would be hilarious.-a I'm sure it was re-hidden, but I'm not sure
    any of these players has the skill to find it unless they make it very obvious.

    At this stage of the game that is all I would focus on. It's too late to
    make new alliances that are going to be effective in getting you to the end.
    --
    Brian
    --- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Rick@Rick@nospam.net to alt.tv.survivor on Thu Dec 4 22:53:19 2025
    From Newsgroup: alt.tv.survivor

    On 12/4/2025 9:19 PM, Brian Smith wrote:
    On 12/4/2025 4:05 PM, Rick wrote:
    On 12/4/2025 5:39 PM, Brian Smith wrote:
    On 12/4/2025 7:21 AM, Rick wrote:
    On 12/4/2025 1:17 AM, Brian Smith wrote:
    On 12/3/2025 10:11 PM, Rick wrote:
    On 12/3/2025 10:28 PM, Brian Smith wrote:
    On 12/3/2025 1:45 PM, Brian Smith wrote:

    There is a reason Rizo was brought back for S50, and maybe his
    skills as a con artist are part of it.-a He claims to have New York
    street smarts, and I think he is right about that.

    I was surprised at how fast he threw Sophie UTB. She's from NYC as
    well. Where were her street smarts?!


    I don't think Sophie is a street girl.-a She works at Google (actually
    You Tube), so she's probably in a higher economic class than Rizo.

    She does? I just discovered she grew up in the MD suburbs of DC and went
    to Columbia. Her family seems very well off.


    Yup. She also has an MBA from Columbia University which shows she has a brain. More info here:

    https://moviedelic.com/sophie-segreti/

    and here:

    https://www.linkedin.com/in/sophiasegreti/

    The Journey on tonight's episode was great. That was a crazy hard >>>>>>> task. Would Kristina have been able to do all that climbing,
    etc.? Including the word "strenuous" in the note was Sophie's
    downfall as far as I'm concerned. I was really surprised that
    they all just let Steven go for it. Did they forget about the
    Journey in S47 where Rachel said she wanted to go to prevent
    others winning an advantage? IIRC, she ended up winning a rock
    draw, then an advantage, and of course the game.


    I thought the difficulty of the challenge might have been a bit
    over- hyped.-a The target was actually several feet over the water >>>>>> and I'm sorry, but tides don't rise quite that fast.-a When he
    finally got back and put the code in, there was still a lot of
    room for the water to rise and I actually think there was a lot of >>>>>> time to spare, perhaps as much as another hour.-a I actually
    thought it was calibrated in such a way that any of the players,
    including Kristina, could have done it.

    The tide part of the challenge was a nonfactor. It was navigating
    around the island obtaining the six numbers.


    But the way the challenge was setup made it seem that the tide would
    be a kind of countdown clock, like on the Last Gasp challenge, and
    it was implied you would have to race to get the numbers and enter
    them before the target hit the water.-a But even on Last Gasp, the
    tide only rises by several inches, if you think about it. In this
    case, the target was several feet above the ground and it was still
    several feet when he finally smashed it.

    We needed to given some times to judge how hard the challenge was in
    terms of need in to get the combo correct in a certain amount of time.

    With the tide as a non-factor, this was just a one-person scavenger
    hunt with no real pressure to find the numbers quickly.-a They
    weren't even really hidden but seemed all out in the open and easy
    to find. A big part of why Steven got so gassed was that he was so
    frenetic in running from point to point.-a I think even with the rock >>>> climbing (which didn't look that terrible), if you took it slowly
    and took your time, it was something anyone could do who was
    careful, even Kristina.

    Eventually the tide would have been a factor. If a person forgot a
    number or two they would have been screwed. I can see future players
    studying the tide schedule before they leave in case this challenge
    comes up again.


    I just think it's a flawed concept.-a According to a quick Google
    search, tides generally only rise around 6" to a foot per hour in
    Fiji.-a I think if they do it again, they'd be better off going to the
    hourglass concept they have used before.

    If that's the case they must have really wanted whoever did the Journey
    to succeed. The urn looked pretty high up to me.


    It really did. In fact, comparing the beginning of the challenge to the
    end, it doesn't seem the tide really increased all that much if at all.
    After seeing the overhead view of the island and how fast he was
    running, I'm willing to bet that challenge went relatively quickly (say,
    under a half hour). The fact that he looked so gassed at the end was
    probably a combination of the heat, the fact that he was running around
    on an empty stomach, and maybe some play-acting to make everyone think
    it was more grueling than it really was. He certainly recovered in time
    to win a challenge that required intense concentration and steadiness.

    I thought it was a much easier challenge than that one where they
    had to move a jillion sandbags before the sand went through the
    hourglass.

    That was a hard challenge. To me this one looked dangerous.


    I think it looked more dangerous than it was.-a The show isn't going to
    risk putting players into physical jeopardy, so there had to be a safe
    way to get from point to point.-a It's possible Steven was climbing
    rocks unnecessarily when he could have just stayed closer to ground.
    The challenges aren't intended to only be possible for someone in tip
    top shape.

    Kristina would have tapped out.


    But that's maybe more a reflection on Kristina than anything else. I'm guessing the rest of the current cast could have done this challenge
    with minimal effort.

    I do think it is ironic and funny that Sophie sat out the challenge so
    she would be well rested for the IC, and Steven ending up winning the
    IC anyway.

    So true. It was another example of how you should never pass up an opportunity to earn a power.


    Someone should go back and check every one of these individual
    one-person challenges where the player's vote is at risk and calculate
    how often it works out that a player actually loses their vote. I have
    a feeling players are statistically more likely to keep their vote than
    lose it when they do one of these challenges.

    Reward/Immunity Challenge

    I liked the twist they added to the "IMMUNITY" block stacking
    challenge. The challenge looked a lot harder. When Steven won
    immunity and chose Rizo as one of the people to go with him on
    the food reward, I knew that was it for Sophie.


    Agreed.

    Tribal Council

    Unless you don't know that Savannah was asked to do S50, this was >>>>>>> a bit of a waste. The "best" part for me was the look on Jeff's >>>>>>> face when Kristina said she hates Savannah. Damn! I don't recall >>>>>>> Savannah ever saying anything mean about Kristina.


    That was an amazing and shocking statement.-a It's very rare a
    player will admit they hate another player. That made me briefly
    wonder if there was perhaps a side of Savannah we haven't seen and >>>>>> if she perhaps has made negative and nasty comments that were
    edited out because she is the eventual winner.-a But then I
    realized that if she were truly that nasty and negative, would the >>>>>> show have chosen her for S50?-a That makes me think that whatever >>>>>> Kristina's problem is with Savannah, it comes more from Kristina
    than from Savannah.

    My guess is that it's a Kristina issue. Riz and the Sophi(e)s^2 all >>>>> seem to like Savannah. Savannah's also having too much fun online
    with the mean girl label. Kristina seems to have a big issue with
    Savannah being so direct and probably playing the game so hard.

    Next Episode

    Looks like Steven and Rizo both think they have the game on lock. >>>>>>>
    Concerning Steven's "Block a Vote" advantage and Sophi's KIP,
    this tweet from Dalton is very interesting.

    I checked in with Probst on this to get an official ruling, and >>>>>>> he confirms that once Steven gives the Block-a-Vote name back at >>>>>>> camp, it can no longer be stolen with a Knowledge is Power at
    Tribal Council. More in my #Survivor49 recap! #Survivor

    https://x.com/DaltonRoss/status/1996406872107270339

    The ruling from Jeff makes it sound like the KIP is useless
    against the "Block a Vote" and "Steal a Vote" advantages as the >>>>>>> KIP needs to be played at TC.


    I wondered about that too and it strikes me that's a flaw in the
    game's rules, because the KIP didn't seem to have any exceptions. >>>>>> It certainly adds an element of confusion to the rules.-a Knowing >>>>>> that Steven won an advantage, I seriously wonder if Soph will try >>>>>> to play her advantage on him at next tribal to steal it and how
    Jeff will explain away why it won't work.

    If Sophi wastes her KIP because she's not aware of Jeff's rule that >>>>> will really suck. I believe F6 is the last time she can use it. I
    can see her not using it so she can use it at FTC to show how
    confident she was of her safety in the game.


    Yes, I think F6 is her last chance to use it, though I don't recall
    for sure.-a There's a message from me somewhere here about that.
    With the vote potentially a 3-3 split between the two factions, I
    could easily see her trying to use it on the last allowable chance.
    Just saving it to brag to everyone at F3 that she had it all along
    and never used it seems too showboaty for her.

    Frankly the tactic of unveiling an advantage at F3 that you never
    used always seemed like grandstanding to me.-a It's kind of like a
    miser dying with a ton of money in the bank that he never spent or
    buying a brand new car and leaving in the garage and never using it.
    I realize people think it worked for Maryann, but I think she was
    going to win anyway. If I were Soph, I would reveal the advantage at
    F6 (if that's the last day it can be used) and try to use it.

    Does the KIP holder need to identify what type of advantage they
    think the holder has? Dalton's tweet has me thinking that Jeff is
    changing how the KIP works.


    According to the Survivor Wiki:

    "Before the votes are cast at Tribal Council, the Knowledge is Power
    advantage allows its user to ask one player one of two questions:
    whether they have a Hidden Immunity Idol, or whether they have an
    advantage. That player is compelled to answer truthfully and, if they
    happen to indeed be in possession of an idol or advantage, surrender
    the requested object to the user. If the user has asked the target for
    an advantage, and the target is in possession of multiple advantages,
    the target may choose to surrender any advantage without disclosing
    the nature of their other advantages. If the target does not have an
    idol or advantage, the user receives nothing and the advantage is
    rendered powerless. The advantage may be played at any Tribal Council
    until the final six."

    https://survivor.fandom.com/wiki/Knowledge_is_Power_Advantage

    So this implies that Soph only need ask if Steven has an advantage -
    she doesn't need to specify Block a Vote or Steal-a-Vote (which is
    what Riz thinks it is).

    That's what I thought. I guess Jeff's ruling/clarification is basically saying that if a player gives production a name to use the Block a Vote
    or Steal a Vote against, that means the advantage has been used and thus can't be stolen. For those two advantages, they should allow the KIP
    holder to go to a field producer and say they want to use it
    preemptively stop those powers from being played.

    The fact that Sophi didn't use her KIP seems to confirm that she and
    Rizo were scared to face Sophie at the end. It'll be interesting to
    see how these powers play out and who gets screwed over. Also, will
    someone find Kristina's HII? It would be great TV if Rizo found it
    without anyone knowing and then Sophi using her KIP to steal his
    first HII thinking she can take him out.


    That would be hilarious.-a I'm sure it was re-hidden, but I'm not sure
    any of these players has the skill to find it unless they make it very
    obvious.

    At this stage of the game that is all I would focus on. It's too late to make new alliances that are going to be effective in getting you to the
    end.


    --- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Brian Smith@dcg_brian@hotmail.com to alt.tv.survivor on Fri Dec 5 18:29:24 2025
    From Newsgroup: alt.tv.survivor

    On 12/4/2025 8:53 PM, Rick wrote:
    On 12/4/2025 9:19 PM, Brian Smith wrote:
    On 12/4/2025 4:05 PM, Rick wrote:
    On 12/4/2025 5:39 PM, Brian Smith wrote:
    On 12/4/2025 7:21 AM, Rick wrote:
    On 12/4/2025 1:17 AM, Brian Smith wrote:
    On 12/3/2025 10:11 PM, Rick wrote:
    On 12/3/2025 10:28 PM, Brian Smith wrote:
    On 12/3/2025 1:45 PM, Brian Smith wrote:

    The Journey on tonight's episode was great. That was a crazy
    hard task. Would Kristina have been able to do all that
    climbing, etc.? Including the word "strenuous" in the note was >>>>>>>> Sophie's downfall as far as I'm concerned. I was really
    surprised that they all just let Steven go for it. Did they
    forget about the Journey in S47 where Rachel said she wanted to >>>>>>>> go to prevent others winning an advantage? IIRC, she ended up >>>>>>>> winning a rock draw, then an advantage, and of course the game. >>>>>>>>

    I thought the difficulty of the challenge might have been a bit >>>>>>> over- hyped.-a The target was actually several feet over the water >>>>>>> and I'm sorry, but tides don't rise quite that fast.-a When he
    finally got back and put the code in, there was still a lot of
    room for the water to rise and I actually think there was a lot >>>>>>> of time to spare, perhaps as much as another hour.-a I actually >>>>>>> thought it was calibrated in such a way that any of the players, >>>>>>> including Kristina, could have done it.

    The tide part of the challenge was a nonfactor. It was navigating >>>>>> around the island obtaining the six numbers.


    But the way the challenge was setup made it seem that the tide
    would be a kind of countdown clock, like on the Last Gasp
    challenge, and it was implied you would have to race to get the
    numbers and enter them before the target hit the water.-a But even
    on Last Gasp, the tide only rises by several inches, if you think
    about it. In this case, the target was several feet above the
    ground and it was still several feet when he finally smashed it.

    We needed to given some times to judge how hard the challenge was in
    terms of need in to get the combo correct in a certain amount of time. >>>>
    With the tide as a non-factor, this was just a one-person scavenger >>>>> hunt with no real pressure to find the numbers quickly.-a They
    weren't even really hidden but seemed all out in the open and easy
    to find. A big part of why Steven got so gassed was that he was so
    frenetic in running from point to point.-a I think even with the
    rock climbing (which didn't look that terrible), if you took it
    slowly and took your time, it was something anyone could do who was >>>>> careful, even Kristina.

    Eventually the tide would have been a factor. If a person forgot a
    number or two they would have been screwed. I can see future players
    studying the tide schedule before they leave in case this challenge
    comes up again.


    I just think it's a flawed concept.-a According to a quick Google
    search, tides generally only rise around 6" to a foot per hour in
    Fiji.-a I think if they do it again, they'd be better off going to the
    hourglass concept they have used before.

    If that's the case they must have really wanted whoever did the
    Journey to succeed. The urn looked pretty high up to me.


    It really did. In fact, comparing the beginning of the challenge to the
    end, it doesn't seem the tide really increased all that much if at all. After seeing the overhead view of the island and how fast he was
    running, I'm willing to bet that challenge went relatively quickly (say, under a half hour).-a The fact that he looked so gassed at the end was probably a combination of the heat, the fact that he was running around
    on an empty stomach, and maybe some play-acting to make everyone think
    it was more grueling than it really was.-a He certainly recovered in time
    to win a challenge that required intense concentration and steadiness.

    Was the RC/IC the same day as the Journey? I think he had a day to recover.

    What do you think of this tweet from Steven?

    It was surreal watching this journey from a third person vantage point.
    All I remembered was chanting those numbers, channeling my inner Spider
    Man, and smashing that pot like it held the $1M inside. Truly a life
    changing moment that IrCOll never forget #survivor49 #survivor

    https://x.com/SpaceRamm/status/1996689670873416089

    I thought it was a much easier challenge than that one where they
    had to move a jillion sandbags before the sand went through the
    hourglass.

    That was a hard challenge. To me this one looked dangerous.


    I think it looked more dangerous than it was.-a The show isn't going
    to risk putting players into physical jeopardy, so there had to be a
    safe way to get from point to point.-a It's possible Steven was
    climbing rocks unnecessarily when he could have just stayed closer to
    ground. The challenges aren't intended to only be possible for
    someone in tip top shape.

    Kristina would have tapped out.


    But that's maybe more a reflection on Kristina than anything else.-a I'm guessing the rest of the current cast could have done this challenge
    with minimal effort.

    Especially Sophie. Did she say if she regretted not volunteering to go
    on the Journey in her exit interviews?

    I do think it is ironic and funny that Sophie sat out the challenge
    so she would be well rested for the IC, and Steven ending up winning
    the IC anyway.

    So true. It was another example of how you should never pass up an
    opportunity to earn a power.


    Someone should go back and check every one of these individual one-
    person challenges where the player's vote is at risk and calculate how
    often it works out that a player actually loses their vote.-a I have a feeling players are statistically more likely to keep their vote than
    lose it when they do one of these challenges.

    They probably do keep their vote the majority of the time. Sometimes
    though the challenge is super random. I can't recall the season, but do
    you remember the Journey with the dice? IIRC, the dice determined what
    would happen. If I was prepping to actually play that challenge would
    always be in the back of mind as something that could screw me over.
    --
    Brian
    --- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Rick@Rick@nospam.net to alt.tv.survivor on Sat Dec 6 22:11:39 2025
    From Newsgroup: alt.tv.survivor

    On 12/5/2025 8:29 PM, Brian Smith wrote:
    On 12/4/2025 8:53 PM, Rick wrote:
    On 12/4/2025 9:19 PM, Brian Smith wrote:
    On 12/4/2025 4:05 PM, Rick wrote:
    On 12/4/2025 5:39 PM, Brian Smith wrote:
    On 12/4/2025 7:21 AM, Rick wrote:
    On 12/4/2025 1:17 AM, Brian Smith wrote:
    On 12/3/2025 10:11 PM, Rick wrote:
    On 12/3/2025 10:28 PM, Brian Smith wrote:
    On 12/3/2025 1:45 PM, Brian Smith wrote:

    The Journey on tonight's episode was great. That was a crazy >>>>>>>>> hard task. Would Kristina have been able to do all that
    climbing, etc.? Including the word "strenuous" in the note was >>>>>>>>> Sophie's downfall as far as I'm concerned. I was really
    surprised that they all just let Steven go for it. Did they >>>>>>>>> forget about the Journey in S47 where Rachel said she wanted to >>>>>>>>> go to prevent others winning an advantage? IIRC, she ended up >>>>>>>>> winning a rock draw, then an advantage, and of course the game. >>>>>>>>>

    I thought the difficulty of the challenge might have been a bit >>>>>>>> over- hyped.-a The target was actually several feet over the
    water and I'm sorry, but tides don't rise quite that fast.-a When >>>>>>>> he finally got back and put the code in, there was still a lot >>>>>>>> of room for the water to rise and I actually think there was a >>>>>>>> lot of time to spare, perhaps as much as another hour.-a I
    actually thought it was calibrated in such a way that any of the >>>>>>>> players, including Kristina, could have done it.

    The tide part of the challenge was a nonfactor. It was navigating >>>>>>> around the island obtaining the six numbers.


    But the way the challenge was setup made it seem that the tide
    would be a kind of countdown clock, like on the Last Gasp
    challenge, and it was implied you would have to race to get the
    numbers and enter them before the target hit the water.-a But even >>>>>> on Last Gasp, the tide only rises by several inches, if you think >>>>>> about it. In this case, the target was several feet above the
    ground and it was still several feet when he finally smashed it.

    We needed to given some times to judge how hard the challenge was
    in terms of need in to get the combo correct in a certain amount of >>>>> time.

    With the tide as a non-factor, this was just a one-person
    scavenger hunt with no real pressure to find the numbers quickly. >>>>>> They weren't even really hidden but seemed all out in the open and >>>>>> easy to find. A big part of why Steven got so gassed was that he
    was so frenetic in running from point to point.-a I think even with >>>>>> the rock climbing (which didn't look that terrible), if you took
    it slowly and took your time, it was something anyone could do who >>>>>> was careful, even Kristina.

    Eventually the tide would have been a factor. If a person forgot a
    number or two they would have been screwed. I can see future
    players studying the tide schedule before they leave in case this
    challenge comes up again.


    I just think it's a flawed concept.-a According to a quick Google
    search, tides generally only rise around 6" to a foot per hour in
    Fiji.-a I think if they do it again, they'd be better off going to
    the hourglass concept they have used before.

    If that's the case they must have really wanted whoever did the
    Journey to succeed. The urn looked pretty high up to me.


    It really did. In fact, comparing the beginning of the challenge to
    the end, it doesn't seem the tide really increased all that much if at
    all. After seeing the overhead view of the island and how fast he was
    running, I'm willing to bet that challenge went relatively quickly
    (say, under a half hour).-a The fact that he looked so gassed at the
    end was probably a combination of the heat, the fact that he was
    running around on an empty stomach, and maybe some play-acting to make
    everyone think it was more grueling than it really was.-a He certainly
    recovered in time to win a challenge that required intense
    concentration and steadiness.

    Was the RC/IC the same day as the Journey? I think he had a day to recover.

    Right, the challenge was Day 20 and the IC was Day 21. That's all the
    more reason that some of the other players - like Sophie - should have
    pushed to do the challenge

    What do you think of this tweet from Steven?

    It was surreal watching this journey from a third person vantage point.
    All I remembered was chanting those numbers, channeling my inner Spider
    Man, and smashing that pot like it held the $1M inside. Truly a life changing moment that IrCOll never forget #survivor49 #survivor

    https://x.com/SpaceRamm/status/1996689670873416089


    That's Steven enjoying his moment of attention on the show by engaging
    in hyperbole. The fact remains that the tide barely moved at all during
    the challenge, and as a space scientist, he certainly would have known
    how tides work and how slow rising they really are.

    I thought it was a much easier challenge than that one where they >>>>>> had to move a jillion sandbags before the sand went through the
    hourglass.

    That was a hard challenge. To me this one looked dangerous.


    I think it looked more dangerous than it was.-a The show isn't going
    to risk putting players into physical jeopardy, so there had to be a
    safe way to get from point to point.-a It's possible Steven was
    climbing rocks unnecessarily when he could have just stayed closer
    to ground. The challenges aren't intended to only be possible for
    someone in tip top shape.

    Kristina would have tapped out.


    But that's maybe more a reflection on Kristina than anything else.
    I'm guessing the rest of the current cast could have done this
    challenge with minimal effort.

    Especially Sophie. Did she say if she regretted not volunteering to go
    on the Journey in her exit interviews?


    Not in the interview I heard. She seemed to say that she and others
    were put off by the word "strenuous" because she remembered how gassed
    MC was after the sandbag challenge. As I said previously, I think that sandbag challenge was several times harder than what Steven had to do.

    I do think it is ironic and funny that Sophie sat out the challenge
    so she would be well rested for the IC, and Steven ending up winning
    the IC anyway.

    So true. It was another example of how you should never pass up an
    opportunity to earn a power.


    Someone should go back and check every one of these individual one-
    person challenges where the player's vote is at risk and calculate how
    often it works out that a player actually loses their vote.-a I have a
    feeling players are statistically more likely to keep their vote than
    lose it when they do one of these challenges.

    They probably do keep their vote the majority of the time. Sometimes
    though the challenge is super random. I can't recall the season, but do
    you remember the Journey with the dice? IIRC, the dice determined what
    would happen. If I was prepping to actually play that challenge would
    always be in the back of mind as something that could screw me over.


    That was just last season, and I agree it was a terrible challenge -
    maybe the worst ever.
    --- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Brian Smith@dcg_brian@hotmail.com to alt.tv.survivor on Sun Dec 7 17:47:17 2025
    From Newsgroup: alt.tv.survivor

    On 12/6/2025 8:11 PM, Rick wrote:
    On 12/5/2025 8:29 PM, Brian Smith wrote:
    On 12/4/2025 8:53 PM, Rick wrote:
    On 12/4/2025 9:19 PM, Brian Smith wrote:
    On 12/4/2025 4:05 PM, Rick wrote:
    On 12/4/2025 5:39 PM, Brian Smith wrote:
    On 12/4/2025 7:21 AM, Rick wrote:
    On 12/4/2025 1:17 AM, Brian Smith wrote:
    On 12/3/2025 10:11 PM, Rick wrote:
    On 12/3/2025 10:28 PM, Brian Smith wrote:
    On 12/3/2025 1:45 PM, Brian Smith wrote:

    The Journey on tonight's episode was great. That was a crazy >>>>>>>>>> hard task. Would Kristina have been able to do all that
    climbing, etc.? Including the word "strenuous" in the note was >>>>>>>>>> Sophie's downfall as far as I'm concerned. I was really
    surprised that they all just let Steven go for it. Did they >>>>>>>>>> forget about the Journey in S47 where Rachel said she wanted >>>>>>>>>> to go to prevent others winning an advantage? IIRC, she ended >>>>>>>>>> up winning a rock draw, then an advantage, and of course the >>>>>>>>>> game.


    I thought the difficulty of the challenge might have been a bit >>>>>>>>> over- hyped.-a The target was actually several feet over the >>>>>>>>> water and I'm sorry, but tides don't rise quite that fast. >>>>>>>>> When he finally got back and put the code in, there was still a >>>>>>>>> lot of room for the water to rise and I actually think there >>>>>>>>> was a lot of time to spare, perhaps as much as another hour.-a I >>>>>>>>> actually thought it was calibrated in such a way that any of >>>>>>>>> the players, including Kristina, could have done it.

    The tide part of the challenge was a nonfactor. It was
    navigating around the island obtaining the six numbers.


    But the way the challenge was setup made it seem that the tide
    would be a kind of countdown clock, like on the Last Gasp
    challenge, and it was implied you would have to race to get the >>>>>>> numbers and enter them before the target hit the water.-a But even >>>>>>> on Last Gasp, the tide only rises by several inches, if you think >>>>>>> about it. In this case, the target was several feet above the
    ground and it was still several feet when he finally smashed it.

    We needed to given some times to judge how hard the challenge was >>>>>> in terms of need in to get the combo correct in a certain amount
    of time.

    With the tide as a non-factor, this was just a one-person
    scavenger hunt with no real pressure to find the numbers quickly. >>>>>>> They weren't even really hidden but seemed all out in the open
    and easy to find. A big part of why Steven got so gassed was that >>>>>>> he was so frenetic in running from point to point.-a I think even >>>>>>> with the rock climbing (which didn't look that terrible), if you >>>>>>> took it slowly and took your time, it was something anyone could >>>>>>> do who was careful, even Kristina.

    Eventually the tide would have been a factor. If a person forgot a >>>>>> number or two they would have been screwed. I can see future
    players studying the tide schedule before they leave in case this >>>>>> challenge comes up again.


    I just think it's a flawed concept.-a According to a quick Google
    search, tides generally only rise around 6" to a foot per hour in
    Fiji.-a I think if they do it again, they'd be better off going to
    the hourglass concept they have used before.

    If that's the case they must have really wanted whoever did the
    Journey to succeed. The urn looked pretty high up to me.


    It really did. In fact, comparing the beginning of the challenge to
    the end, it doesn't seem the tide really increased all that much if
    at all. After seeing the overhead view of the island and how fast he
    was running, I'm willing to bet that challenge went relatively
    quickly (say, under a half hour).-a The fact that he looked so gassed
    at the end was probably a combination of the heat, the fact that he
    was running around on an empty stomach, and maybe some play-acting to
    make everyone think it was more grueling than it really was.-a He
    certainly recovered in time to win a challenge that required intense
    concentration and steadiness.

    Was the RC/IC the same day as the Journey? I think he had a day to
    recover.

    Right, the challenge was Day 20 and the IC was Day 21.-a That's all the
    more reason that some of the other players - like Sophie - should have pushed to do the challenge

    100%! Sage saying she was 50-50 on doing the Journey was crazy. Why
    would she think she was good after her bud Jawan had just been taken out?

    What do you think of this tweet from Steven?

    It was surreal watching this journey from a third person vantage
    point. All I remembered was chanting those numbers, channeling my
    inner Spider Man, and smashing that pot like it held the $1M inside.
    Truly a life changing moment that IrCOll never forget #survivor49 #survivor >>
    https://x.com/SpaceRamm/status/1996689670873416089


    That's Steven enjoying his moment of attention on the show by engaging
    in hyperbole.-a The fact remains that the tide barely moved at all during the challenge, and as a space scientist, he certainly would have known
    how tides work and how slow rising they really are.

    I was focused on the "life changing moment" of his tweet. Smashing a pot
    is not life changing. Winning $1 million is. At least for most people.

    I thought it was a much easier challenge than that one where they >>>>>>> had to move a jillion sandbags before the sand went through the >>>>>>> hourglass.

    That was a hard challenge. To me this one looked dangerous.


    I think it looked more dangerous than it was.-a The show isn't going >>>>> to risk putting players into physical jeopardy, so there had to be
    a safe way to get from point to point.-a It's possible Steven was
    climbing rocks unnecessarily when he could have just stayed closer
    to ground. The challenges aren't intended to only be possible for
    someone in tip top shape.

    Kristina would have tapped out.


    But that's maybe more a reflection on Kristina than anything else.
    I'm guessing the rest of the current cast could have done this
    challenge with minimal effort.

    Especially Sophie. Did she say if she regretted not volunteering to go
    on the Journey in her exit interviews?


    Not in the interview I heard.-a She seemed to say that she and others
    were put off by the word "strenuous" because she remembered how gassed
    MC was after the sandbag challenge.-a As I said previously, I think that sandbag challenge was several times harder than what Steven had to do.

    Okay, so I was right that "strenuous" got in their heads.

    I do think it is ironic and funny that Sophie sat out the challenge >>>>> so she would be well rested for the IC, and Steven ending up
    winning the IC anyway.

    So true. It was another example of how you should never pass up an
    opportunity to earn a power.


    Someone should go back and check every one of these individual one-
    person challenges where the player's vote is at risk and calculate
    how often it works out that a player actually loses their vote.-a I
    have a feeling players are statistically more likely to keep their
    vote than lose it when they do one of these challenges.

    They probably do keep their vote the majority of the time. Sometimes
    though the challenge is super random. I can't recall the season, but
    do you remember the Journey with the dice? IIRC, the dice determined
    what would happen. If I was prepping to actually play that challenge
    would always be in the back of mind as something that could screw me
    over.


    That was just last season, and I agree it was a terrible challenge -
    maybe the worst ever.

    Feels like it was five years ago. I do recall now commenting how the S48 challenges tended to lack the creativity shown in S47. Rachel's Journey challenge was super creative.
    --
    Brian
    --- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Rick@Rick@nospam.net to alt.tv.survivor on Sun Dec 7 22:55:23 2025
    From Newsgroup: alt.tv.survivor

    On 12/7/2025 7:47 PM, Brian Smith wrote:
    On 12/6/2025 8:11 PM, Rick wrote:
    On 12/5/2025 8:29 PM, Brian Smith wrote:
    On 12/4/2025 8:53 PM, Rick wrote:
    On 12/4/2025 9:19 PM, Brian Smith wrote:
    On 12/4/2025 4:05 PM, Rick wrote:
    On 12/4/2025 5:39 PM, Brian Smith wrote:
    On 12/4/2025 7:21 AM, Rick wrote:
    On 12/4/2025 1:17 AM, Brian Smith wrote:
    On 12/3/2025 10:11 PM, Rick wrote:
    On 12/3/2025 10:28 PM, Brian Smith wrote:
    On 12/3/2025 1:45 PM, Brian Smith wrote:

    The Journey on tonight's episode was great. That was a crazy >>>>>>>>>>> hard task. Would Kristina have been able to do all that >>>>>>>>>>> climbing, etc.? Including the word "strenuous" in the note >>>>>>>>>>> was Sophie's downfall as far as I'm concerned. I was really >>>>>>>>>>> surprised that they all just let Steven go for it. Did they >>>>>>>>>>> forget about the Journey in S47 where Rachel said she wanted >>>>>>>>>>> to go to prevent others winning an advantage? IIRC, she ended >>>>>>>>>>> up winning a rock draw, then an advantage, and of course the >>>>>>>>>>> game.


    I thought the difficulty of the challenge might have been a >>>>>>>>>> bit over- hyped.-a The target was actually several feet over >>>>>>>>>> the water and I'm sorry, but tides don't rise quite that fast. >>>>>>>>>> When he finally got back and put the code in, there was still >>>>>>>>>> a lot of room for the water to rise and I actually think there >>>>>>>>>> was a lot of time to spare, perhaps as much as another hour. >>>>>>>>>> I actually thought it was calibrated in such a way that any of >>>>>>>>>> the players, including Kristina, could have done it.

    The tide part of the challenge was a nonfactor. It was
    navigating around the island obtaining the six numbers.


    But the way the challenge was setup made it seem that the tide >>>>>>>> would be a kind of countdown clock, like on the Last Gasp
    challenge, and it was implied you would have to race to get the >>>>>>>> numbers and enter them before the target hit the water.-a But >>>>>>>> even on Last Gasp, the tide only rises by several inches, if you >>>>>>>> think about it. In this case, the target was several feet above >>>>>>>> the ground and it was still several feet when he finally smashed >>>>>>>> it.

    We needed to given some times to judge how hard the challenge was >>>>>>> in terms of need in to get the combo correct in a certain amount >>>>>>> of time.

    With the tide as a non-factor, this was just a one-person
    scavenger hunt with no real pressure to find the numbers
    quickly. They weren't even really hidden but seemed all out in >>>>>>>> the open and easy to find. A big part of why Steven got so
    gassed was that he was so frenetic in running from point to
    point.-a I think even with the rock climbing (which didn't look >>>>>>>> that terrible), if you took it slowly and took your time, it was >>>>>>>> something anyone could do who was careful, even Kristina.

    Eventually the tide would have been a factor. If a person forgot >>>>>>> a number or two they would have been screwed. I can see future
    players studying the tide schedule before they leave in case this >>>>>>> challenge comes up again.


    I just think it's a flawed concept.-a According to a quick Google >>>>>> search, tides generally only rise around 6" to a foot per hour in >>>>>> Fiji.-a I think if they do it again, they'd be better off going to >>>>>> the hourglass concept they have used before.

    If that's the case they must have really wanted whoever did the
    Journey to succeed. The urn looked pretty high up to me.


    It really did. In fact, comparing the beginning of the challenge to
    the end, it doesn't seem the tide really increased all that much if
    at all. After seeing the overhead view of the island and how fast he
    was running, I'm willing to bet that challenge went relatively
    quickly (say, under a half hour).-a The fact that he looked so gassed >>>> at the end was probably a combination of the heat, the fact that he
    was running around on an empty stomach, and maybe some play-acting
    to make everyone think it was more grueling than it really was.-a He
    certainly recovered in time to win a challenge that required intense
    concentration and steadiness.

    Was the RC/IC the same day as the Journey? I think he had a day to
    recover.

    Right, the challenge was Day 20 and the IC was Day 21.-a That's all the
    more reason that some of the other players - like Sophie - should have
    pushed to do the challenge

    100%! Sage saying she was 50-50 on doing the Journey was crazy. Why
    would she think she was good after her bud Jawan had just been taken out?

    What do you think of this tweet from Steven?

    It was surreal watching this journey from a third person vantage
    point. All I remembered was chanting those numbers, channeling my
    inner Spider Man, and smashing that pot like it held the $1M inside.
    Truly a life changing moment that IrCOll never forget #survivor49
    #survivor

    https://x.com/SpaceRamm/status/1996689670873416089


    That's Steven enjoying his moment of attention on the show by engaging
    in hyperbole.-a The fact remains that the tide barely moved at all
    during the challenge, and as a space scientist, he certainly would
    have known how tides work and how slow rising they really are.

    I was focused on the "life changing moment" of his tweet. Smashing a pot
    is not life changing. Winning $1 million is. At least for most people.

    I thought it was a much easier challenge than that one where
    they had to move a jillion sandbags before the sand went through >>>>>>>> the hourglass.

    That was a hard challenge. To me this one looked dangerous.


    I think it looked more dangerous than it was.-a The show isn't
    going to risk putting players into physical jeopardy, so there had >>>>>> to be a safe way to get from point to point.-a It's possible Steven >>>>>> was climbing rocks unnecessarily when he could have just stayed
    closer to ground. The challenges aren't intended to only be
    possible for someone in tip top shape.

    Kristina would have tapped out.


    But that's maybe more a reflection on Kristina than anything else.
    I'm guessing the rest of the current cast could have done this
    challenge with minimal effort.

    Especially Sophie. Did she say if she regretted not volunteering to
    go on the Journey in her exit interviews?


    Not in the interview I heard.-a She seemed to say that she and others
    were put off by the word "strenuous" because she remembered how gassed
    MC was after the sandbag challenge.-a As I said previously, I think
    that sandbag challenge was several times harder than what Steven had
    to do.

    Okay, so I was right that "strenuous" got in their heads.

    I do think it is ironic and funny that Sophie sat out the
    challenge so she would be well rested for the IC, and Steven
    ending up winning the IC anyway.

    So true. It was another example of how you should never pass up an
    opportunity to earn a power.


    Someone should go back and check every one of these individual one-
    person challenges where the player's vote is at risk and calculate
    how often it works out that a player actually loses their vote.-a I
    have a feeling players are statistically more likely to keep their
    vote than lose it when they do one of these challenges.

    They probably do keep their vote the majority of the time. Sometimes
    though the challenge is super random. I can't recall the season, but
    do you remember the Journey with the dice? IIRC, the dice determined
    what would happen. If I was prepping to actually play that challenge
    would always be in the back of mind as something that could screw me
    over.


    That was just last season, and I agree it was a terrible challenge -
    maybe the worst ever.

    Feels like it was five years ago. I do recall now commenting how the S48 challenges tended to lack the creativity shown in S47. Rachel's Journey challenge was super creative.


    What made Rachel's challenge so good was that she had a true ticking
    clock with the weights falling into the ocean - you could see how much
    time she had left and you could feel the stress as she raced to finish
    the challenge. With Steven, there was no real ticking clock. If they
    really wanted to use the tide as a timer, they had to have hung the
    target much closer to the water, maybe just a foot above it or less. Or better, use an hourglass timer with sand running down or maybe even
    setup speakers along his path and just have it to a time countdown, like
    a 30 minute timer where a voice would announce remaining time left.
    --- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Brian Smith@dcg_brian@hotmail.com to alt.tv.survivor on Sun Dec 7 21:15:05 2025
    From Newsgroup: alt.tv.survivor

    On 12/7/2025 8:55 PM, Rick wrote:
    On 12/7/2025 7:47 PM, Brian Smith wrote:
    On 12/6/2025 8:11 PM, Rick wrote:
    On 12/5/2025 8:29 PM, Brian Smith wrote:
    On 12/4/2025 8:53 PM, Rick wrote:
    On 12/4/2025 9:19 PM, Brian Smith wrote:
    On 12/4/2025 4:05 PM, Rick wrote:
    On 12/4/2025 5:39 PM, Brian Smith wrote:
    On 12/4/2025 7:21 AM, Rick wrote:
    On 12/4/2025 1:17 AM, Brian Smith wrote:
    On 12/3/2025 10:11 PM, Rick wrote:
    On 12/3/2025 10:28 PM, Brian Smith wrote:
    On 12/3/2025 1:45 PM, Brian Smith wrote:

    Someone should go back and check every one of these individual one- >>>>> person challenges where the player's vote is at risk and calculate
    how often it works out that a player actually loses their vote.-a I >>>>> have a feeling players are statistically more likely to keep their
    vote than lose it when they do one of these challenges.

    They probably do keep their vote the majority of the time. Sometimes
    though the challenge is super random. I can't recall the season, but
    do you remember the Journey with the dice? IIRC, the dice determined
    what would happen. If I was prepping to actually play that challenge
    would always be in the back of mind as something that could screw me
    over.


    That was just last season, and I agree it was a terrible challenge -
    maybe the worst ever.

    Feels like it was five years ago. I do recall now commenting how the
    S48 challenges tended to lack the creativity shown in S47. Rachel's
    Journey challenge was super creative.


    What made Rachel's challenge so good was that she had a true ticking
    clock with the weights falling into the ocean - you could see how much
    time she had left and you could feel the stress as she raced to finish
    the challenge.-a With Steven, there was no real ticking clock.-a If they really wanted to use the tide as a timer, they had to have hung the
    target much closer to the water, maybe just a foot above it or less.-a Or better, use an hourglass timer with sand running down or maybe even
    setup speakers along his path and just have it to a time countdown, like
    a 30 minute timer where a voice would announce remaining time left.

    Great explanation of what made Rachel's challenge so iconic. I remember
    being so stressed out watching her race to finish that before the table
    went flying into the ocean. With Steven's challenge we had no idea about
    time as when they showed the pot it always looked the same height above
    the water as the last shot. The fact that they didn't say how high above
    the water the pot was, the distance around the island, etc. is a good indication Steven finished with hours to spare.
    --
    Brian
    --- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2