• S49 Ep13 Spoilers and Comments (12/17/2025)

    From Brian Smith@dcg_brian@hotmail.com to alt.tv.survivor on Wed Dec 17 17:53:16 2025
    From Newsgroup: alt.tv.survivor

    Tonight's episode is the finale of S49 and it's titled "A Fever Dream."

    ***Tweet from Mike Bloom about the break after hour one.***

    Those of you recording tonight's #Survivor49 in the Eastern and Central
    time zones may want to check your settings. Some local listings are now showing two separate instances before or after the episode stops down
    for Trump's speech.

    https://x.com/AMikeBloomType/status/2001340362468769956

    If this correct, the break is 22 minutes which seems very short.
    Global's also split the finale into two parts with Part 2 starting at
    9:22PM ET for viewers in ET and CT time zones. I'm going to gamble and
    watch now praying the 22 minute figure is correct.

    More later.
    --
    Brian
    --- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Brian Smith@dcg_brian@hotmail.com to alt.tv.survivor on Wed Dec 17 21:46:12 2025
    From Newsgroup: alt.tv.survivor

    On 12/17/2025 5:53 PM, Brian Smith wrote:
    Tonight's episode is the finale of S49 and it's titled "A Fever Dream."

    ***Tweet from Mike Bloom about the break after hour one.***

    Those of you recording tonight's #Survivor49 in the Eastern and Central
    time zones may want to check your settings. Some local listings are now showing two separate instances before or after the episode stops down
    for Trump's speech.

    https://x.com/AMikeBloomType/status/2001340362468769956

    If this correct, the break is 22 minutes which seems very short.
    Global's also split the finale into two parts with Part 2 starting at
    9:22PM ET for viewers in ET and CT time zones. I'm going to gamble and
    watch now praying the 22 minute figure is correct.

    More later.

    Some quick comments for now. The finale did not play out the way I
    thought it would at all.

    --Savannah wins F5 Immunity and takes Sage on The Sanctuary reward.

    --Kristina voted out at F5 because she's good at making fire. I believe
    Rizo said he had made fire twice compared to no times for Savannah and
    Sophi.

    --Sophi makes an amazing comeback in the F4 IC and punches her ticket to
    F3. Then in a smart but very unexpected move, she tells the other three
    she's not going to talk to them and advises that they practice making fire.

    --Sophi then surprised me again by taking Sage to F3 and putting Rizo up against Savannah in fire. Rizo's cursed in anything challenge related so
    he of course lost fire to Savannah. She actually did a pretty good job.

    --I thought Sophi did great at FTC. I don't think she blew any of the questions asked of her. Kristina nailed Savannah on knowing family
    members. We also found out Sage is ex-military and was(is?) an
    intelligence analyst.

    --Sophie based on game which was expected.

    --First all female F3 (F2?) since S29 according to Savannah (Sophi?).

    --Kim Spradlin's name came up a few times.

    --Savannah won 5rCo2rCo1. Jawan voted for Sage, and MC and Kristina voted
    for Sophi.

    --Rizo was impressive at the After Show and that probably helped him get
    a ticket to S50. He also embarrassed Sophie with his exit at F4.

    --What was up with Sage at the After Show. Is this what she was
    referencing in her message from yesterday?

    Overall, I liked the finale and the season a lot.

    I was not impressed with the S50 preview. Is Mr. Beast going to be part
    of the season?
    --
    Brian
    --- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Rick@Rick@nospam.net to alt.tv.survivor on Thu Dec 18 00:44:05 2025
    From Newsgroup: alt.tv.survivor

    On 12/17/2025 11:46 PM, Brian Smith wrote:
    On 12/17/2025 5:53 PM, Brian Smith wrote:
    Tonight's episode is the finale of S49 and it's titled "A Fever Dream."

    ***Tweet from Mike Bloom about the break after hour one.***

    Those of you recording tonight's #Survivor49 in the Eastern and
    Central time zones may want to check your settings. Some local
    listings are now showing two separate instances before or after the
    episode stops down for Trump's speech.

    https://x.com/AMikeBloomType/status/2001340362468769956

    If this correct, the break is 22 minutes which seems very short.
    Global's also split the finale into two parts with Part 2 starting at
    9:22PM ET for viewers in ET and CT time zones. I'm going to gamble and
    watch now praying the 22 minute figure is correct.

    More later.

    Some quick comments for now. The finale did not play out the way I
    thought it would at all.


    Part of it went as I expected. I expected Savannah to win F5 immunity
    and I expected Savannah to win the season, both of which happened. I
    also expected Savannah to be put to fire if she lost F4 immunity, which happened.

    i did NOT expect Sophi to win F4 immunity. And while I was hoping to
    Sage make it to F3, I never really expected that to happen. I thought
    for sure Kristina would be dragged to the finals as a zero-vote 3rd placer.

    --Savannah wins F5 Immunity and takes Sage on The Sanctuary reward.

    --Kristina voted out at F5 because she's good at making fire. I believe
    Rizo said he had made fire twice compared to no times for Savannah and Sophi.


    This was a big surprise to me. As good as Savannah was in challenges
    and as good as Rizo was at general game strategy, I was shocked that
    neither was really any good at fire. Doesn't everybody practice that
    nowadays before going on the show?


    --Sophi makes an amazing comeback in the F4 IC and punches her ticket to
    F3. Then in a smart but very unexpected move, she tells the other three she's not going to talk to them and advises that they practice making fire.


    Once Sophi won immunity, I knew she would put Savannah against Rizo in
    fire. That's what I would have done because I would have assumed Rizo
    would know how to make a fire. His ineptitude at this was amazing.

    --Sophi then surprised me again by taking Sage to F3 and putting Rizo up against Savannah in fire. Rizo's cursed in anything challenge related so
    he of course lost fire to Savannah. She actually did a pretty good job.

    --I thought Sophi did great at FTC. I don't think she blew any of the questions asked of her. Kristina nailed Savannah on knowing family
    members. We also found out Sage is ex-military and was(is?) an
    intelligence analyst.


    I didn't think Sophi did that great at the final TC. I was actually
    surprised she got two votes. My prediction at the end of that final TC
    but before the vote was that Savannah would win 4-3-1 with Soph getting
    the one vote probably from Alex.

    --Sophie based on game which was expected.

    --First all female F3 (F2?) since S29 according to Savannah (Sophi?).

    I remember that S29 F3. It was Natalie the twinnie and then Missy and
    Jaclyn. The previous time was on One World (S24) which was the men vs.
    women season where Kim, Chelsea and Sabrina were the final three. That
    season also had what I think was the only all-female final five in the
    show's history.

    --Kim Spradlin's name came up a few times.

    --Savannah won 5rCo2rCo1. Jawan voted for Sage, and MC and Kristina voted for Sophi.


    Definitely didn't see MC and Kristina voting for Sophi. I thought they
    would vote for Sage.

    --Rizo was impressive at the After Show and that probably helped him get
    a ticket to S50. He also embarrassed Sophie with his exit at F4.

    --What was up with Sage at the After Show. Is this what she was
    referencing in her message from yesterday?


    That was my thought.

    Overall, I liked the finale and the season a lot.


    I did too. I think it may be the best season of the New Era.

    I was not impressed with the S50 preview. Is Mr. Beast going to be part
    of the season?


    No idea what that was. I did find it interesting that Savannah and Rizo
    were both shown in the previews with no fanfare or voice-over confirming
    their inclusion on S50. I would have thought there would have been some mention of that. I was also frankly surprised at how old some of the
    players looked. There were a couple of people I honestly didn't
    recognize at first.

    --- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Brian Smith@dcg_brian@hotmail.com to alt.tv.survivor on Wed Dec 17 23:22:36 2025
    From Newsgroup: alt.tv.survivor

    On 12/17/2025 10:44 PM, Rick wrote:
    On 12/17/2025 11:46 PM, Brian Smith wrote:
    On 12/17/2025 5:53 PM, Brian Smith wrote:
    Tonight's episode is the finale of S49 and it's titled "A Fever Dream."

    ***Tweet from Mike Bloom about the break after hour one.***

    Those of you recording tonight's #Survivor49 in the Eastern and
    Central time zones may want to check your settings. Some local
    listings are now showing two separate instances before or after the
    episode stops down for Trump's speech.

    https://x.com/AMikeBloomType/status/2001340362468769956

    If this correct, the break is 22 minutes which seems very short.
    Global's also split the finale into two parts with Part 2 starting at
    9:22PM ET for viewers in ET and CT time zones. I'm going to gamble
    and watch now praying the 22 minute figure is correct.

    More later.

    Some quick comments for now. The finale did not play out the way I
    thought it would at all.


    Part of it went as I expected.-a I expected Savannah to win F5 immunity
    and I expected Savannah to win the season, both of which happened.-a I
    also expected Savannah to be put to fire if she lost F4 immunity, which happened.

    Savannah winning the game was obvious from early on in the season. Going
    into the finale I thought either she or Rizo would win F5 immunity. When
    Sophi got the advantage I thought we might be blindsided, but that
    advantage was rather lame. Savannah's also good at puzzles.

    i did NOT expect Sophi to win F4 immunity.-a And while I was hoping to
    Sage make it to F3, I never really expected that to happen.-a I thought
    for sure Kristina would be dragged to the finals as a zero-vote 3rd placer.

    Same here. If we knew Kristina could make fire I would have thought differently about her being dragged to the end.

    --Savannah wins F5 Immunity and takes Sage on The Sanctuary reward.

    --Kristina voted out at F5 because she's good at making fire. I
    believe Rizo said he had made fire twice compared to no times for
    Savannah and Sophi.


    This was a big surprise to me.-a As good as Savannah was in challenges
    and as good as Rizo was at general game strategy, I was shocked that
    neither was really any good at fire.-a Doesn't everybody practice that nowadays before going on the show?

    Most do practice making fire. Rizo didn't appear to practice anything. I
    was surprised Savannah didn't practice.

    --Sophi makes an amazing comeback in the F4 IC and punches her ticket
    to F3. Then in a smart but very unexpected move, she tells the other
    three she's not going to talk to them and advises that they practice
    making fire.


    Once Sophi won immunity, I knew she would put Savannah against Rizo in fire.-a That's what I would have done because I would have assumed Rizo would know how to make a fire.-a His ineptitude at this was amazing.

    According to Rizo, he made fire twice at camp and Savannah never did so. Sophi's logic was correct other than for not factoring in that Rizo
    sucks at challenges and Savannah always seems to find a way to win.

    --Sophi then surprised me again by taking Sage to F3 and putting Rizo
    up against Savannah in fire. Rizo's cursed in anything challenge
    related so he of course lost fire to Savannah. She actually did a
    pretty good job.

    --I thought Sophi did great at FTC. I don't think she blew any of the
    questions asked of her. Kristina nailed Savannah on knowing family
    members. We also found out Sage is ex-military and was(is?) an
    intelligence analyst.


    I didn't think Sophi did that great at the final TC.-a I was actually surprised she got two votes.-a My prediction at the end of that final TC
    but before the vote was that Savannah would win 4-3-1 with Soph getting
    the one vote probably from Alex.

    How was Sophi bad at TC? I don't recall her stumbling like Savannah did
    on Kristina's question. I was definitely not surprised that MC and
    Kristina did not vote for Savannah. MC voting for Sophi made no sense to
    me. Were they ever close?

    --Sophie based on game which was expected.

    --First all female F3 (F2?) since S29 according to Savannah (Sophi?).

    I remember that S29 F3.-a It was Natalie the twinnie and then Missy and Jaclyn.-a The previous time was on One World (S24) which was the men vs. women season where Kim, Chelsea and Sabrina were the final three.-a That season also had what I think was the only all-female final five in the show's history.

    Kim had total control over S24. It was nice to see her getting some
    praise tonight. I was really shocked when Jeff brought Chris Underwood
    as a F4 fire example.

    --Kim Spradlin's name came up a few times.

    --Savannah won 5rCo2rCo1. Jawan voted for Sage, and MC and Kristina voted >> for Sophi.


    Definitely didn't see MC and Kristina voting for Sophi.-a I thought they would vote for Sage.

    --Rizo was impressive at the After Show and that probably helped him
    get a ticket to S50. He also embarrassed Sophie with his exit at F4.

    --What was up with Sage at the After Show. Is this what she was
    referencing in her message from yesterday?


    That was my thought.

    Overall, I liked the finale and the season a lot.


    I did too.-a I think it may be the best season of the New Era.

    For me S47 is still the best. S45 onward have been good seasons as far
    as I'm concerned with the odd bump here and there.

    I was not impressed with the S50 preview. Is Mr. Beast going to be
    part of the season?


    No idea what that was. I did find it interesting that Savannah and Rizo
    were both shown in the previews with no fanfare or voice-over confirming their inclusion on S50. I would have thought there would have been some mention of that. I was also frankly surprised at how old some of the
    players looked.-a There were a couple of people I honestly didn't
    recognize at first.

    You weren't the only one who didn't recognize some of them. I thought it
    was interesting that the first face we saw was Colby's. Cirie got the
    same old promo. I think Rizo and Savannah got no fanfare because it's so widely known that they played in S50.
    --
    Brian
    --- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From shawn@nanoflower@notforg.m.a.i.l.com to alt.tv.survivor on Thu Dec 18 02:29:45 2025
    From Newsgroup: alt.tv.survivor

    On Wed, 17 Dec 2025 23:22:36 -0700, Brian Smith
    <dcg_brian@hotmail.com> wrote:

    On 12/17/2025 10:44 PM, Rick wrote:
    On 12/17/2025 11:46 PM, Brian Smith wrote:
    On 12/17/2025 5:53 PM, Brian Smith wrote:
    Tonight's episode is the finale of S49 and it's titled "A Fever Dream." >>>>
    ***Tweet from Mike Bloom about the break after hour one.***

    Those of you recording tonight's #Survivor49 in the Eastern and
    Central time zones may want to check your settings. Some local
    listings are now showing two separate instances before or after the
    episode stops down for Trump's speech.

    https://x.com/AMikeBloomType/status/2001340362468769956

    If this correct, the break is 22 minutes which seems very short.
    Global's also split the finale into two parts with Part 2 starting at >>>> 9:22PM ET for viewers in ET and CT time zones. I'm going to gamble
    and watch now praying the 22 minute figure is correct.

    More later.

    Some quick comments for now. The finale did not play out the way I
    thought it would at all.


    Part of it went as I expected.-a I expected Savannah to win F5 immunity
    and I expected Savannah to win the season, both of which happened.-a I
    also expected Savannah to be put to fire if she lost F4 immunity, which
    happened.

    Savannah winning the game was obvious from early on in the season. Going >into the finale I thought either she or Rizo would win F5 immunity. When >Sophi got the advantage I thought we might be blindsided, but that
    advantage was rather lame. Savannah's also good at puzzles.

    Yeah, once we knew two people were going to be in S50 and who they
    were it was obvious Savannah would win if she got to the final three.

    i did NOT expect Sophi to win F4 immunity.-a And while I was hoping to
    Sage make it to F3, I never really expected that to happen.-a I thought
    for sure Kristina would be dragged to the finals as a zero-vote 3rd placer.

    Same here. If we knew Kristina could make fire I would have thought >differently about her being dragged to the end.

    Yeah, that whole bit surprised me. I never thought Sophi could pull
    off that win so congratulations to her. Kristina was always seen as
    the third wheel you bring along because there's no way she can win,
    but then the players surprised us.

    --Savannah wins F5 Immunity and takes Sage on The Sanctuary reward.

    --Kristina voted out at F5 because she's good at making fire. I
    believe Rizo said he had made fire twice compared to no times for
    Savannah and Sophi.


    This was a big surprise to me.-a As good as Savannah was in challenges
    and as good as Rizo was at general game strategy, I was shocked that
    neither was really any good at fire.-a Doesn't everybody practice that
    nowadays before going on the show?

    Most do practice making fire. Rizo didn't appear to practice anything. I
    was surprised Savannah didn't practice.

    I sort of get Savannah not practicing as I'm not sure she applied
    multiple times, but Rizzo was a long time fan. So I fully expected
    him to come on the show having practiced many of the puzzles and some
    of the challenges including fire making.

    --Sophi makes an amazing comeback in the F4 IC and punches her ticket
    to F3. Then in a smart but very unexpected move, she tells the other
    three she's not going to talk to them and advises that they practice
    making fire.


    Once Sophi won immunity, I knew she would put Savannah against Rizo in
    fire.-a That's what I would have done because I would have assumed Rizo
    would know how to make a fire.-a His ineptitude at this was amazing.

    According to Rizo, he made fire twice at camp and Savannah never did so. >Sophi's logic was correct other than for not factoring in that Rizo
    sucks at challenges and Savannah always seems to find a way to win.

    --Sophi then surprised me again by taking Sage to F3 and putting Rizo
    up against Savannah in fire. Rizo's cursed in anything challenge
    related so he of course lost fire to Savannah. She actually did a
    pretty good job.

    --I thought Sophi did great at FTC. I don't think she blew any of the
    questions asked of her. Kristina nailed Savannah on knowing family
    members. We also found out Sage is ex-military and was(is?) an
    intelligence analyst.


    I didn't think Sophi did that great at the final TC.-a I was actually
    surprised she got two votes.-a My prediction at the end of that final TC
    but before the vote was that Savannah would win 4-3-1 with Soph getting
    the one vote probably from Alex.

    How was Sophi bad at TC? I don't recall her stumbling like Savannah did
    on Kristina's question. I was definitely not surprised that MC and
    Kristina did not vote for Savannah. MC voting for Sophi made no sense to
    me. Were they ever close?

    I didn't think Sophie was bad at the TC but I didn't think she did
    enough to justify a win. That vote from MC came out of nowhere.

    --Sophie based on game which was expected.

    --First all female F3 (F2?) since S29 according to Savannah (Sophi?).

    I remember that S29 F3.-a It was Natalie the twinnie and then Missy and
    Jaclyn.-a The previous time was on One World (S24) which was the men vs.
    women season where Kim, Chelsea and Sabrina were the final three.-a That
    season also had what I think was the only all-female final five in the
    show's history.

    Kim had total control over S24. It was nice to see her getting some
    praise tonight. I was really shocked when Jeff brought Chris Underwood
    as a F4 fire example.

    --Kim Spradlin's name came up a few times.

    --Savannah won 5rCo2rCo1. Jawan voted for Sage, and MC and Kristina voted >>> for Sophi.


    Definitely didn't see MC and Kristina voting for Sophi.-a I thought they
    would vote for Sage.

    --Rizo was impressive at the After Show and that probably helped him
    get a ticket to S50. He also embarrassed Sophie with his exit at F4.

    --What was up with Sage at the After Show. Is this what she was
    referencing in her message from yesterday?


    That was my thought.

    Overall, I liked the finale and the season a lot.


    I did too.-a I think it may be the best season of the New Era.

    For me S47 is still the best. S45 onward have been good seasons as far
    as I'm concerned with the odd bump here and there.

    I was not impressed with the S50 preview. Is Mr. Beast going to be
    part of the season?


    No idea what that was. I did find it interesting that Savannah and Rizo
    were both shown in the previews with no fanfare or voice-over confirming
    their inclusion on S50. I would have thought there would have been some
    mention of that. I was also frankly surprised at how old some of the
    players looked.-a There were a couple of people I honestly didn't
    recognize at first.

    You weren't the only one who didn't recognize some of them. I thought it
    was interesting that the first face we saw was Colby's. Cirie got the
    same old promo. I think Rizo and Savannah got no fanfare because it's so >widely known that they played in S50.
    --- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Rick@Rick@nospam.net to alt.tv.survivor on Thu Dec 18 10:51:37 2025
    From Newsgroup: alt.tv.survivor

    On 12/18/2025 1:22 AM, Brian Smith wrote:
    On 12/17/2025 10:44 PM, Rick wrote:
    On 12/17/2025 11:46 PM, Brian Smith wrote:
    On 12/17/2025 5:53 PM, Brian Smith wrote:
    Tonight's episode is the finale of S49 and it's titled "A Fever Dream." >>>>
    ***Tweet from Mike Bloom about the break after hour one.***

    Those of you recording tonight's #Survivor49 in the Eastern and
    Central time zones may want to check your settings. Some local
    listings are now showing two separate instances before or after the
    episode stops down for Trump's speech.

    https://x.com/AMikeBloomType/status/2001340362468769956

    If this correct, the break is 22 minutes which seems very short.
    Global's also split the finale into two parts with Part 2 starting
    at 9:22PM ET for viewers in ET and CT time zones. I'm going to
    gamble and watch now praying the 22 minute figure is correct.

    More later.

    Some quick comments for now. The finale did not play out the way I
    thought it would at all.


    Part of it went as I expected.-a I expected Savannah to win F5 immunity
    and I expected Savannah to win the season, both of which happened.-a I
    also expected Savannah to be put to fire if she lost F4 immunity,
    which happened.

    Savannah winning the game was obvious from early on in the season. Going into the finale I thought either she or Rizo would win F5 immunity. When Sophi got the advantage I thought we might be blindsided, but that
    advantage was rather lame. Savannah's also good at puzzles.

    i did NOT expect Sophi to win F4 immunity.-a And while I was hoping to
    Sage make it to F3, I never really expected that to happen.-a I thought
    for sure Kristina would be dragged to the finals as a zero-vote 3rd
    placer.

    Same here. If we knew Kristina could make fire I would have thought differently about her being dragged to the end.


    I wonder why they didn't show Kristina making fire a few more times
    during the season so it wouldn't be such an abrupt reveal later?

    And did you notice it was Savannah who pushed the idea of voting
    Kristina out at F5 when Rizo and Sophi seemed more inclined to vote out
    Sage? We think of Savannah as the challenge beast, but this was a
    really key strategic move that she sort of bullied her alliance to go with,

    --Savannah wins F5 Immunity and takes Sage on The Sanctuary reward.

    --Kristina voted out at F5 because she's good at making fire. I
    believe Rizo said he had made fire twice compared to no times for
    Savannah and Sophi.


    This was a big surprise to me.-a As good as Savannah was in challenges
    and as good as Rizo was at general game strategy, I was shocked that
    neither was really any good at fire.-a Doesn't everybody practice that
    nowadays before going on the show?

    Most do practice making fire. Rizo didn't appear to practice anything. I
    was surprised Savannah didn't practice.


    In a way, it just adds to her performance that she was able to figure
    out a way to win at this.

    --Sophi makes an amazing comeback in the F4 IC and punches her ticket
    to F3. Then in a smart but very unexpected move, she tells the other
    three she's not going to talk to them and advises that they practice
    making fire.


    Once Sophi won immunity, I knew she would put Savannah against Rizo in
    fire.-a That's what I would have done because I would have assumed Rizo
    would know how to make a fire.-a His ineptitude at this was amazing.

    According to Rizo, he made fire twice at camp and Savannah never did so. Sophi's logic was correct other than for not factoring in that Rizo
    sucks at challenges and Savannah always seems to find a way to win.

    --Sophi then surprised me again by taking Sage to F3 and putting Rizo
    up against Savannah in fire. Rizo's cursed in anything challenge
    related so he of course lost fire to Savannah. She actually did a
    pretty good job.

    --I thought Sophi did great at FTC. I don't think she blew any of the
    questions asked of her. Kristina nailed Savannah on knowing family
    members. We also found out Sage is ex-military and was(is?) an
    intelligence analyst.


    I didn't think Sophi did that great at the final TC.-a I was actually
    surprised she got two votes.-a My prediction at the end of that final
    TC but before the vote was that Savannah would win 4-3-1 with Soph
    getting the one vote probably from Alex.

    How was Sophi bad at TC? I don't recall her stumbling like Savannah did
    on Kristina's question. I was definitely not surprised that MC and
    Kristina did not vote for Savannah. MC voting for Sophi made no sense to
    me. Were they ever close?


    It's not that Sophi was bad - it was that she had to do a lot more to
    overcome the clear lead Savannah had with the jury. All she mostly did
    was talk about her social skills and how she had survived through so
    many tribal councils, but all that did was highlight that she was never
    a threat to anyone. I like Sophi, but I just didn't find her to be persuasive.

    I also found it interesting that both Sage and Savannah mentioned their
    prior professions for seemingly the first time with no apparent impact. Savannah had one line about being a news reporter and there was no
    further comment. I wonder if by that point everyone knew about it or if
    there was further discussion that was edited out.

    And Sage's extended mention of her military background seemingly landed
    with a thud. Had we heard about any of that before? Her
    saying/claiming she was an intelligence officer evoked some memories of Phillip Sheppard. I wonder if people jut didn't take it seriously?

    --Sophie based on game which was expected.

    --First all female F3 (F2?) since S29 according to Savannah (Sophi?).

    I remember that S29 F3.-a It was Natalie the twinnie and then Missy and
    Jaclyn.-a The previous time was on One World (S24) which was the men
    vs. women season where Kim, Chelsea and Sabrina were the final three.
    That season also had what I think was the only all-female final five
    in the show's history.

    Kim had total control over S24. It was nice to see her getting some
    praise tonight. I was really shocked when Jeff brought Chris Underwood
    as a F4 fire example.

    --Kim Spradlin's name came up a few times.

    --Savannah won 5rCo2rCo1. Jawan voted for Sage, and MC and Kristina voted >>> for Sophi.


    Definitely didn't see MC and Kristina voting for Sophi.-a I thought
    they would vote for Sage.

    --Rizo was impressive at the After Show and that probably helped him
    get a ticket to S50. He also embarrassed Sophie with his exit at F4.

    --What was up with Sage at the After Show. Is this what she was
    referencing in her message from yesterday?


    That was my thought.

    Overall, I liked the finale and the season a lot.


    I did too.-a I think it may be the best season of the New Era.

    For me S47 is still the best. S45 onward have been good seasons as far
    as I'm concerned with the odd bump here and there.


    I liked S47 too, but maybe it's just recency bias that caused this
    season to engage me a bit more for some reason.

    I was not impressed with the S50 preview. Is Mr. Beast going to be
    part of the season?


    No idea what that was. I did find it interesting that Savannah and
    Rizo were both shown in the previews with no fanfare or voice-over
    confirming their inclusion on S50. I would have thought there would
    have been some mention of that. I was also frankly surprised at how
    old some of the players looked.-a There were a couple of people I
    honestly didn't recognize at first.

    You weren't the only one who didn't recognize some of them. I thought it
    was interesting that the first face we saw was Colby's. Cirie got the
    same old promo. I think Rizo and Savannah got no fanfare because it's so widely known that they played in S50.


    But it's not widely known among casual viewers, which represent the overwhelming majority of the audience. The show had not officially
    announced them as members of the cast, and even many podcasters like Rob
    and Mike Bloom were clearly told not to mention it. I just found it
    strange that there was no official mention at all about their inclusion.

    Yeah, the players definitely looked much older (other than maybe Mike
    White who looked old the first time). I was almost thinking they should
    call it Survivor 50 - Geriatric Edition. This has to be the oldest
    average cast age of any season, and I wonder if this will cause the loss
    of any younger casual viewers as the season progresses?

    Did you notice how they included a line from Savannah about how Rizo
    would probably come back and could be a winner next time?
    Foreshadowing, maybe?

    --- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Brian Smith@dcg_brian@hotmail.com to alt.tv.survivor on Thu Dec 18 15:50:56 2025
    From Newsgroup: alt.tv.survivor

    On 12/18/2025 8:51 AM, Rick wrote:
    On 12/18/2025 1:22 AM, Brian Smith wrote:
    On 12/17/2025 10:44 PM, Rick wrote:
    On 12/17/2025 11:46 PM, Brian Smith wrote:
    On 12/17/2025 5:53 PM, Brian Smith wrote:
    Tonight's episode is the finale of S49 and it's titled "A Fever
    Dream."

    ***Tweet from Mike Bloom about the break after hour one.***

    Those of you recording tonight's #Survivor49 in the Eastern and
    Central time zones may want to check your settings. Some local
    listings are now showing two separate instances before or after the >>>>> episode stops down for Trump's speech.

    https://x.com/AMikeBloomType/status/2001340362468769956

    If this correct, the break is 22 minutes which seems very short.
    Global's also split the finale into two parts with Part 2 starting
    at 9:22PM ET for viewers in ET and CT time zones. I'm going to
    gamble and watch now praying the 22 minute figure is correct.

    More later.

    Some quick comments for now. The finale did not play out the way I
    thought it would at all.


    Part of it went as I expected.-a I expected Savannah to win F5
    immunity and I expected Savannah to win the season, both of which
    happened.-a I also expected Savannah to be put to fire if she lost F4
    immunity, which happened.

    Savannah winning the game was obvious from early on in the season.
    Going into the finale I thought either she or Rizo would win F5
    immunity. When Sophi got the advantage I thought we might be
    blindsided, but that advantage was rather lame. Savannah's also good
    at puzzles.

    i did NOT expect Sophi to win F4 immunity.-a And while I was hoping to
    Sage make it to F3, I never really expected that to happen.-a I
    thought for sure Kristina would be dragged to the finals as a zero-
    vote 3rd placer.

    Same here. If we knew Kristina could make fire I would have thought
    differently about her being dragged to the end.


    I wonder why they didn't show Kristina making fire a few more times
    during the season so it wouldn't be such an abrupt reveal later?

    And did you notice it was Savannah who pushed the idea of voting
    Kristina out at F5 when Rizo and Sophi seemed more inclined to vote out Sage?-a We think of Savannah as the challenge beast, but this was a
    really key strategic move that she sort of bullied her alliance to go with,

    I wish they had shown how Savannah convinced them to keep Sage over
    Kristina. Sage was more than decent at a number of the challenges and
    could have won the F4 IC. I'd put the odds of Kristina winning at 0.05%
    at best. Is it possible Sage and Savannah bonded more at The Sanctuary
    than the edit implied, and Savannah went all out to save her?

    --Savannah wins F5 Immunity and takes Sage on The Sanctuary reward.

    --Kristina voted out at F5 because she's good at making fire. I
    believe Rizo said he had made fire twice compared to no times for
    Savannah and Sophi.


    This was a big surprise to me.-a As good as Savannah was in challenges
    and as good as Rizo was at general game strategy, I was shocked that
    neither was really any good at fire.-a Doesn't everybody practice that
    nowadays before going on the show?

    Most do practice making fire. Rizo didn't appear to practice anything.
    I was surprised Savannah didn't practice.


    In a way, it just adds to her performance that she was able to figure
    out a way to win at this.

    Or that she lucked out. It sounds like she applied in the fall of 2024
    which probably gave her around six months to practice. Or is she a
    recent fan?

    --Sophi makes an amazing comeback in the F4 IC and punches her
    ticket to F3. Then in a smart but very unexpected move, she tells
    the other three she's not going to talk to them and advises that
    they practice making fire.


    Once Sophi won immunity, I knew she would put Savannah against Rizo
    in fire.-a That's what I would have done because I would have assumed
    Rizo would know how to make a fire.-a His ineptitude at this was amazing. >>
    According to Rizo, he made fire twice at camp and Savannah never did
    so. Sophi's logic was correct other than for not factoring in that
    Rizo sucks at challenges and Savannah always seems to find a way to win.

    --Sophi then surprised me again by taking Sage to F3 and putting
    Rizo up against Savannah in fire. Rizo's cursed in anything
    challenge related so he of course lost fire to Savannah. She
    actually did a pretty good job.

    --I thought Sophi did great at FTC. I don't think she blew any of
    the questions asked of her. Kristina nailed Savannah on knowing
    family members. We also found out Sage is ex-military and was(is?)
    an intelligence analyst.


    I didn't think Sophi did that great at the final TC.-a I was actually
    surprised she got two votes.-a My prediction at the end of that final
    TC but before the vote was that Savannah would win 4-3-1 with Soph
    getting the one vote probably from Alex.

    How was Sophi bad at TC? I don't recall her stumbling like Savannah
    did on Kristina's question. I was definitely not surprised that MC and
    Kristina did not vote for Savannah. MC voting for Sophi made no sense
    to me. Were they ever close?


    It's not that Sophi was bad - it was that she had to do a lot more to overcome the clear lead Savannah had with the jury.-a All she mostly did
    was talk about her social skills and how she had survived through so
    many tribal councils, but all that did was highlight that she was never
    a threat to anyone.-a I like Sophi, but I just didn't find her to be persuasive.

    Sophi needed to emphasize a lot more how she survived a tribe that got decimated and then used her social game to link up with a strong pair
    where she was an equal contributor. Saying Rizo and Savannah adopted her really weakened her case. She was truthful in what she said but never
    made a strong enough case that they needed her to get to the end.

    I also found it interesting that both Sage and Savannah mentioned their prior professions for seemingly the first time with no apparent impact. Savannah had one line about being a news reporter and there was no
    further comment.-a I wonder if by that point everyone knew about it or if there was further discussion that was edited out.

    I thought Sage clearly stated her reveal was new info to all of them.
    Hard to say about Savannah, but you're right that no one seemed to care
    about either of their stories.

    And Sage's extended mention of her military background seemingly landed
    with a thud.-a Had we heard about any of that before?-a Her saying/
    claiming she was an intelligence officer evoked some memories of Phillip Sheppard.-a I wonder if people jut didn't take it seriously?

    Sage's info was new. To me it came across as random info and not related
    to the game.

    --Sophie based on game which was expected.

    --First all female F3 (F2?) since S29 according to Savannah (Sophi?).

    I remember that S29 F3.-a It was Natalie the twinnie and then Missy
    and Jaclyn.-a The previous time was on One World (S24) which was the
    men vs. women season where Kim, Chelsea and Sabrina were the final
    three. That season also had what I think was the only all-female
    final five in the show's history.

    Kim had total control over S24. It was nice to see her getting some
    praise tonight. I was really shocked when Jeff brought Chris Underwood
    as a F4 fire example.

    --Kim Spradlin's name came up a few times.

    --Savannah won 5rCo2rCo1. Jawan voted for Sage, and MC and Kristina
    voted for Sophi.


    Definitely didn't see MC and Kristina voting for Sophi.-a I thought
    they would vote for Sage.

    --Rizo was impressive at the After Show and that probably helped him
    get a ticket to S50. He also embarrassed Sophie with his exit at F4.

    --What was up with Sage at the After Show. Is this what she was
    referencing in her message from yesterday?


    That was my thought.

    Overall, I liked the finale and the season a lot.


    I did too.-a I think it may be the best season of the New Era.

    For me S47 is still the best. S45 onward have been good seasons as far
    as I'm concerned with the odd bump here and there.


    I liked S47 too, but maybe it's just recency bias that caused this
    season to engage me a bit more for some reason.

    Could be. For me, S47 had a lot of memorable storylines and a fairly
    likable cast with the odd exception.

    I was not impressed with the S50 preview. Is Mr. Beast going to be
    part of the season?


    No idea what that was. I did find it interesting that Savannah and
    Rizo were both shown in the previews with no fanfare or voice-over
    confirming their inclusion on S50. I would have thought there would
    have been some mention of that. I was also frankly surprised at how
    old some of the players looked.-a There were a couple of people I
    honestly didn't recognize at first.

    You weren't the only one who didn't recognize some of them. I thought
    it was interesting that the first face we saw was Colby's. Cirie got
    the same old promo. I think Rizo and Savannah got no fanfare because
    it's so widely known that they played in S50.


    But it's not widely known among casual viewers, which represent the overwhelming majority of the audience.-a The show had not officially announced them as members of the cast, and even many podcasters like Rob
    and Mike Bloom were clearly told not to mention it.-a I just found it strange that there was no official mention at all about their inclusion.

    Casual viewers probably didn't know unless they have a presence on SM.

    Yeah, the players definitely looked much older (other than maybe Mike
    White who looked old the first time).-a I was almost thinking they should call it Survivor 50 - Geriatric Edition.-a This has to be the oldest
    average cast age of any season, and I wonder if this will cause the loss
    of any younger casual viewers as the season progresses?

    I had to do a double take when it came to Coach. At least I think that
    was Coach. Other than Rizo and Savannah, did they show any other New Era players?

    Did you notice how they included a line from Savannah about how Rizo
    would probably come back and could be a winner next time? Foreshadowing, maybe?

    I noticed that. She got Rizo on S50. Did you read the Mike Bloom article
    I posted that talks about how they got selected? It was a very last
    minute thing. They were asked the morning after FTC over a Zoom call if
    they wanted to do S50. I wonder what the backup plan was if one or both
    of them had said "no"?
    --
    Brian
    --- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Rick@Rick@nospam.net to alt.tv.survivor on Thu Dec 18 18:36:41 2025
    From Newsgroup: alt.tv.survivor

    On 12/18/2025 5:50 PM, Brian Smith wrote:
    On 12/18/2025 8:51 AM, Rick wrote:
    On 12/18/2025 1:22 AM, Brian Smith wrote:
    On 12/17/2025 10:44 PM, Rick wrote:
    On 12/17/2025 11:46 PM, Brian Smith wrote:
    On 12/17/2025 5:53 PM, Brian Smith wrote:
    Tonight's episode is the finale of S49 and it's titled "A Fever
    Dream."

    ***Tweet from Mike Bloom about the break after hour one.***

    Those of you recording tonight's #Survivor49 in the Eastern and
    Central time zones may want to check your settings. Some local
    listings are now showing two separate instances before or after
    the episode stops down for Trump's speech.

    https://x.com/AMikeBloomType/status/2001340362468769956

    If this correct, the break is 22 minutes which seems very short.
    Global's also split the finale into two parts with Part 2 starting >>>>>> at 9:22PM ET for viewers in ET and CT time zones. I'm going to
    gamble and watch now praying the 22 minute figure is correct.

    More later.

    Some quick comments for now. The finale did not play out the way I
    thought it would at all.


    Part of it went as I expected.-a I expected Savannah to win F5
    immunity and I expected Savannah to win the season, both of which
    happened.-a I also expected Savannah to be put to fire if she lost F4 >>>> immunity, which happened.

    Savannah winning the game was obvious from early on in the season.
    Going into the finale I thought either she or Rizo would win F5
    immunity. When Sophi got the advantage I thought we might be
    blindsided, but that advantage was rather lame. Savannah's also good
    at puzzles.

    i did NOT expect Sophi to win F4 immunity.-a And while I was hoping
    to Sage make it to F3, I never really expected that to happen.-a I
    thought for sure Kristina would be dragged to the finals as a zero-
    vote 3rd placer.

    Same here. If we knew Kristina could make fire I would have thought
    differently about her being dragged to the end.


    I wonder why they didn't show Kristina making fire a few more times
    during the season so it wouldn't be such an abrupt reveal later?

    And did you notice it was Savannah who pushed the idea of voting
    Kristina out at F5 when Rizo and Sophi seemed more inclined to vote
    out Sage?-a We think of Savannah as the challenge beast, but this was a
    really key strategic move that she sort of bullied her alliance to go
    with,

    I wish they had shown how Savannah convinced them to keep Sage over Kristina. Sage was more than decent at a number of the challenges and
    could have won the F4 IC. I'd put the odds of Kristina winning at 0.05%
    at best. Is it possible Sage and Savannah bonded more at The Sanctuary
    than the edit implied, and Savannah went all out to save her?


    No, this was strictly about fire-making and had nothing to do with how Savannah felt about Sage or even if Sage would be harder to beat at the
    ICs. I think Savannah knew Sage would be harder to beat at the F4
    challenge than Kristina. This was clearly about the possibility that
    Savannah would be sent to fire against Kristina and her seeming fear
    that Kristina was so much better at that. It's like Savannah had more confidence that she could beat Sage in F4 and F3 IC than she did about
    beating Kristina in a sudden-death fire-making challenge.

    --Savannah wins F5 Immunity and takes Sage on The Sanctuary reward.

    --Kristina voted out at F5 because she's good at making fire. I
    believe Rizo said he had made fire twice compared to no times for
    Savannah and Sophi.


    This was a big surprise to me.-a As good as Savannah was in
    challenges and as good as Rizo was at general game strategy, I was
    shocked that neither was really any good at fire.-a Doesn't everybody >>>> practice that nowadays before going on the show?

    Most do practice making fire. Rizo didn't appear to practice
    anything. I was surprised Savannah didn't practice.


    In a way, it just adds to her performance that she was able to figure
    out a way to win at this.

    Or that she lucked out. It sounds like she applied in the fall of 2024
    which probably gave her around six months to practice. Or is she a
    recent fan?

    --Sophi makes an amazing comeback in the F4 IC and punches her
    ticket to F3. Then in a smart but very unexpected move, she tells
    the other three she's not going to talk to them and advises that
    they practice making fire.


    Once Sophi won immunity, I knew she would put Savannah against Rizo
    in fire.-a That's what I would have done because I would have assumed >>>> Rizo would know how to make a fire.-a His ineptitude at this was
    amazing.

    According to Rizo, he made fire twice at camp and Savannah never did
    so. Sophi's logic was correct other than for not factoring in that
    Rizo sucks at challenges and Savannah always seems to find a way to win. >>>
    --Sophi then surprised me again by taking Sage to F3 and putting
    Rizo up against Savannah in fire. Rizo's cursed in anything
    challenge related so he of course lost fire to Savannah. She
    actually did a pretty good job.

    --I thought Sophi did great at FTC. I don't think she blew any of
    the questions asked of her. Kristina nailed Savannah on knowing
    family members. We also found out Sage is ex-military and was(is?)
    an intelligence analyst.


    I didn't think Sophi did that great at the final TC.-a I was actually >>>> surprised she got two votes.-a My prediction at the end of that final >>>> TC but before the vote was that Savannah would win 4-3-1 with Soph
    getting the one vote probably from Alex.

    How was Sophi bad at TC? I don't recall her stumbling like Savannah
    did on Kristina's question. I was definitely not surprised that MC
    and Kristina did not vote for Savannah. MC voting for Sophi made no
    sense to me. Were they ever close?


    It's not that Sophi was bad - it was that she had to do a lot more to
    overcome the clear lead Savannah had with the jury.-a All she mostly
    did was talk about her social skills and how she had survived through
    so many tribal councils, but all that did was highlight that she was
    never a threat to anyone.-a I like Sophi, but I just didn't find her to
    be persuasive.

    Sophi needed to emphasize a lot more how she survived a tribe that got decimated and then used her social game to link up with a strong pair
    where she was an equal contributor. Saying Rizo and Savannah adopted her really weakened her case. She was truthful in what she said but never
    made a strong enough case that they needed her to get to the end.

    I also found it interesting that both Sage and Savannah mentioned
    their prior professions for seemingly the first time with no apparent
    impact. Savannah had one line about being a news reporter and there
    was no further comment.-a I wonder if by that point everyone knew about
    it or if there was further discussion that was edited out.

    I thought Sage clearly stated her reveal was new info to all of them.
    Hard to say about Savannah, but you're right that no one seemed to care about either of their stories.

    And Sage's extended mention of her military background seemingly
    landed with a thud.-a Had we heard about any of that before?-a Her
    saying/ claiming she was an intelligence officer evoked some memories
    of Phillip Sheppard.-a I wonder if people jut didn't take it seriously?

    Sage's info was new. To me it came across as random info and not related
    to the game.

    --Sophie based on game which was expected.

    --First all female F3 (F2?) since S29 according to Savannah (Sophi?). >>>>
    I remember that S29 F3.-a It was Natalie the twinnie and then Missy
    and Jaclyn.-a The previous time was on One World (S24) which was the
    men vs. women season where Kim, Chelsea and Sabrina were the final
    three. That season also had what I think was the only all-female
    final five in the show's history.

    Kim had total control over S24. It was nice to see her getting some
    praise tonight. I was really shocked when Jeff brought Chris
    Underwood as a F4 fire example.

    --Kim Spradlin's name came up a few times.

    --Savannah won 5rCo2rCo1. Jawan voted for Sage, and MC and Kristina >>>>> voted for Sophi.


    Definitely didn't see MC and Kristina voting for Sophi.-a I thought
    they would vote for Sage.

    --Rizo was impressive at the After Show and that probably helped
    him get a ticket to S50. He also embarrassed Sophie with his exit
    at F4.

    --What was up with Sage at the After Show. Is this what she was
    referencing in her message from yesterday?


    That was my thought.

    Overall, I liked the finale and the season a lot.


    I did too.-a I think it may be the best season of the New Era.

    For me S47 is still the best. S45 onward have been good seasons as
    far as I'm concerned with the odd bump here and there.


    I liked S47 too, but maybe it's just recency bias that caused this
    season to engage me a bit more for some reason.

    Could be. For me, S47 had a lot of memorable storylines and a fairly
    likable cast with the odd exception.


    I think what you call the odd exceptions were the problem for me. For
    me the big difference with S47 is that I actually liked several players
    from S49 and didnrCOt really dislike anyone that much from the current
    season. On S47 I liked Rachel and Gen and maybe one or two others, but
    there were also several players I really disliked that season,
    especially Andy, Rome and Gabe, who were all mega annoying to me in
    different ways. No one in S49 bothered me the way those guys did.

    I was not impressed with the S50 preview. Is Mr. Beast going to be
    part of the season?


    No idea what that was. I did find it interesting that Savannah and
    Rizo were both shown in the previews with no fanfare or voice-over
    confirming their inclusion on S50. I would have thought there would
    have been some mention of that. I was also frankly surprised at how
    old some of the players looked.-a There were a couple of people I
    honestly didn't recognize at first.

    You weren't the only one who didn't recognize some of them. I thought
    it was interesting that the first face we saw was Colby's. Cirie got
    the same old promo. I think Rizo and Savannah got no fanfare because
    it's so widely known that they played in S50.


    But it's not widely known among casual viewers, which represent the
    overwhelming majority of the audience.-a The show had not officially
    announced them as members of the cast, and even many podcasters like
    Rob and Mike Bloom were clearly told not to mention it.-a I just found
    it strange that there was no official mention at all about their
    inclusion.

    Casual viewers probably didn't know unless they have a presence on SM.

    Yeah, the players definitely looked much older (other than maybe Mike
    White who looked old the first time).-a I was almost thinking they
    should call it Survivor 50 - Geriatric Edition.-a This has to be the
    oldest average cast age of any season, and I wonder if this will cause
    the loss of any younger casual viewers as the season progresses?

    I had to do a double take when it came to Coach. At least I think that
    was Coach. Other than Rizo and Savannah, did they show any other New Era players?

    Did you notice how they included a line from Savannah about how Rizo
    would probably come back and could be a winner next time?
    Foreshadowing, maybe?

    I noticed that. She got Rizo on S50. Did you read the Mike Bloom article
    I posted that talks about how they got selected? It was a very last
    minute thing. They were asked the morning after FTC over a Zoom call if
    they wanted to do S50. I wonder what the backup plan was if one or both
    of them had said "no"?


    Here's what I think. I think they already had the roster of 24 players selected, divided 50-50 by male-female and 50-50 by New Era - Old Era.
    They also likely had three previous winners selected, all from the new
    era and with one prior winner assigned to each of the three tribes. We
    know two of those were Kyle and Dee. But they also had an idea of who
    the lowest ranked players from the New Era group were in case they found
    a player or two from S49 they wanted for the cast.

    When they saw how good Savannah and Rizo turned out to be, they
    displaced two previous new era players, one male and one female, and the female was a likely prior winner. I have no idea of who they removed
    from the list, but I think the female was likely Rachel, who had a
    somewhat similar archetype to Savannah. Otherwise, it could have been Maryanne.

    As to who Rizo replaced, I have no idea. Sam maybe? Sol? Andy? Your
    guess on that one is as good as mine.

    --- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Brian Smith@dcg_brian@hotmail.com to alt.tv.survivor on Thu Dec 18 17:06:57 2025
    From Newsgroup: alt.tv.survivor

    On 12/18/2025 4:36 PM, Rick wrote:
    On 12/18/2025 5:50 PM, Brian Smith wrote:
    On 12/18/2025 8:51 AM, Rick wrote:
    On 12/18/2025 1:22 AM, Brian Smith wrote:
    On 12/17/2025 10:44 PM, Rick wrote:
    On 12/17/2025 11:46 PM, Brian Smith wrote:
    On 12/17/2025 5:53 PM, Brian Smith wrote:
    Tonight's episode is the finale of S49 and it's titled "A Fever >>>>>>> Dream."

    ***Tweet from Mike Bloom about the break after hour one.***

    Those of you recording tonight's #Survivor49 in the Eastern and >>>>>>> Central time zones may want to check your settings. Some local
    listings are now showing two separate instances before or after >>>>>>> the episode stops down for Trump's speech.

    https://x.com/AMikeBloomType/status/2001340362468769956

    If this correct, the break is 22 minutes which seems very short. >>>>>>> Global's also split the finale into two parts with Part 2
    starting at 9:22PM ET for viewers in ET and CT time zones. I'm
    going to gamble and watch now praying the 22 minute figure is
    correct.

    More later.


    i did NOT expect Sophi to win F4 immunity.-a And while I was hoping >>>>> to Sage make it to F3, I never really expected that to happen.-a I
    thought for sure Kristina would be dragged to the finals as a zero- >>>>> vote 3rd placer.

    Same here. If we knew Kristina could make fire I would have thought
    differently about her being dragged to the end.


    I wonder why they didn't show Kristina making fire a few more times
    during the season so it wouldn't be such an abrupt reveal later?

    And did you notice it was Savannah who pushed the idea of voting
    Kristina out at F5 when Rizo and Sophi seemed more inclined to vote
    out Sage?-a We think of Savannah as the challenge beast, but this was
    a really key strategic move that she sort of bullied her alliance to
    go with,

    I wish they had shown how Savannah convinced them to keep Sage over
    Kristina. Sage was more than decent at a number of the challenges and
    could have won the F4 IC. I'd put the odds of Kristina winning at
    0.05% at best. Is it possible Sage and Savannah bonded more at The
    Sanctuary than the edit implied, and Savannah went all out to save her?


    No, this was strictly about fire-making and had nothing to do with how Savannah felt about Sage or even if Sage would be harder to beat at the ICs.-a I think Savannah knew Sage would be harder to beat at the F4 challenge than Kristina.-a This was clearly about the possibility that Savannah would be sent to fire against Kristina and her seeming fear
    that Kristina was so much better at that.-a It's like Savannah had more confidence that she could beat Sage in F4 and F3 IC than she did about beating Kristina in a sudden-death fire-making challenge.

    It's too bad we have no idea how Sage was at making fires. Who was
    making Savannah's tribe's fires at the start of the game? It seems like they're minimizing showing us firemaking during the season to blindside
    us at F4.

    --Savannah wins F5 Immunity and takes Sage on The Sanctuary reward. >>>>>>
    --Kristina voted out at F5 because she's good at making fire. I
    believe Rizo said he had made fire twice compared to no times for >>>>>> Savannah and Sophi.


    This was a big surprise to me.-a As good as Savannah was in
    challenges and as good as Rizo was at general game strategy, I was
    shocked that neither was really any good at fire.-a Doesn't
    everybody practice that nowadays before going on the show?

    Most do practice making fire. Rizo didn't appear to practice
    anything. I was surprised Savannah didn't practice.


    In a way, it just adds to her performance that she was able to figure
    out a way to win at this.

    Or that she lucked out. It sounds like she applied in the fall of 2024
    which probably gave her around six months to practice. Or is she a
    recent fan?

    --Sophi makes an amazing comeback in the F4 IC and punches her
    ticket to F3. Then in a smart but very unexpected move, she tells >>>>>> the other three she's not going to talk to them and advises that
    they practice making fire.


    Once Sophi won immunity, I knew she would put Savannah against Rizo >>>>> in fire.-a That's what I would have done because I would have
    assumed Rizo would know how to make a fire.-a His ineptitude at this >>>>> was amazing.

    According to Rizo, he made fire twice at camp and Savannah never did
    so. Sophi's logic was correct other than for not factoring in that
    Rizo sucks at challenges and Savannah always seems to find a way to
    win.

    --Sophi then surprised me again by taking Sage to F3 and putting
    Rizo up against Savannah in fire. Rizo's cursed in anything
    challenge related so he of course lost fire to Savannah. She
    actually did a pretty good job.

    --I thought Sophi did great at FTC. I don't think she blew any of >>>>>> the questions asked of her. Kristina nailed Savannah on knowing
    family members. We also found out Sage is ex-military and was(is?) >>>>>> an intelligence analyst.


    I didn't think Sophi did that great at the final TC.-a I was
    actually surprised she got two votes.-a My prediction at the end of >>>>> that final TC but before the vote was that Savannah would win 4-3-1 >>>>> with Soph getting the one vote probably from Alex.

    How was Sophi bad at TC? I don't recall her stumbling like Savannah
    did on Kristina's question. I was definitely not surprised that MC
    and Kristina did not vote for Savannah. MC voting for Sophi made no
    sense to me. Were they ever close?


    It's not that Sophi was bad - it was that she had to do a lot more to
    overcome the clear lead Savannah had with the jury.-a All she mostly
    did was talk about her social skills and how she had survived through
    so many tribal councils, but all that did was highlight that she was
    never a threat to anyone.-a I like Sophi, but I just didn't find her
    to be persuasive.

    Sophi needed to emphasize a lot more how she survived a tribe that got
    decimated and then used her social game to link up with a strong pair
    where she was an equal contributor. Saying Rizo and Savannah adopted
    her really weakened her case. She was truthful in what she said but
    never made a strong enough case that they needed her to get to the end.

    I also found it interesting that both Sage and Savannah mentioned
    their prior professions for seemingly the first time with no apparent
    impact. Savannah had one line about being a news reporter and there
    was no further comment.-a I wonder if by that point everyone knew
    about it or if there was further discussion that was edited out.

    I thought Sage clearly stated her reveal was new info to all of them.
    Hard to say about Savannah, but you're right that no one seemed to
    care about either of their stories.

    And Sage's extended mention of her military background seemingly
    landed with a thud.-a Had we heard about any of that before?-a Her
    saying/ claiming she was an intelligence officer evoked some memories
    of Phillip Sheppard.-a I wonder if people jut didn't take it seriously?

    Sage's info was new. To me it came across as random info and not
    related to the game.

    --Sophie based on game which was expected.

    --First all female F3 (F2?) since S29 according to Savannah (Sophi?). >>>>>
    I remember that S29 F3.-a It was Natalie the twinnie and then Missy >>>>> and Jaclyn.-a The previous time was on One World (S24) which was the >>>>> men vs. women season where Kim, Chelsea and Sabrina were the final
    three. That season also had what I think was the only all-female
    final five in the show's history.

    Kim had total control over S24. It was nice to see her getting some
    praise tonight. I was really shocked when Jeff brought Chris
    Underwood as a F4 fire example.

    --Kim Spradlin's name came up a few times.

    --Savannah won 5rCo2rCo1. Jawan voted for Sage, and MC and Kristina >>>>>> voted for Sophi.


    Definitely didn't see MC and Kristina voting for Sophi.-a I thought >>>>> they would vote for Sage.

    --Rizo was impressive at the After Show and that probably helped
    him get a ticket to S50. He also embarrassed Sophie with his exit >>>>>> at F4.

    --What was up with Sage at the After Show. Is this what she was
    referencing in her message from yesterday?


    That was my thought.

    Overall, I liked the finale and the season a lot.


    I did too.-a I think it may be the best season of the New Era.

    For me S47 is still the best. S45 onward have been good seasons as
    far as I'm concerned with the odd bump here and there.


    I liked S47 too, but maybe it's just recency bias that caused this
    season to engage me a bit more for some reason.

    Could be. For me, S47 had a lot of memorable storylines and a fairly
    likable cast with the odd exception.


    I think what you call the odd exceptions were the problem for me.-a For
    me the big difference with S47 is that I actually liked several players
    from S49 and didnrCOt really dislike anyone that much from the current season.-a On S47 I liked Rachel and Gen and maybe one or two others, but there were also several players I really disliked that season,
    especially Andy, Rome and Gabe, who were all mega annoying to me in different ways.-a No one in S49 bothered me the way those guys did.

    I thought Andy was likable. Rome I couldn't stand for numerous reasons.
    I didn't like how Kyle(?) treated Caroline and her mom. Speaking of
    Caroline, does anyone not love her? Sol and Sam were also very likable.
    This season we were lucky that Jeremiah and Jake went early in the game
    (same episode?). Jeremiah's maniacal laugh drove me crazy and Jake's
    shoe bandit bit wore thin very quickly. And a lot of people cannot stand
    Rizo nor Savannah.

    I was not impressed with the S50 preview. Is Mr. Beast going to be >>>>>> part of the season?


    No idea what that was. I did find it interesting that Savannah and
    Rizo were both shown in the previews with no fanfare or voice-over
    confirming their inclusion on S50. I would have thought there would >>>>> have been some mention of that. I was also frankly surprised at how >>>>> old some of the players looked.-a There were a couple of people I
    honestly didn't recognize at first.

    You weren't the only one who didn't recognize some of them. I
    thought it was interesting that the first face we saw was Colby's.
    Cirie got the same old promo. I think Rizo and Savannah got no
    fanfare because it's so widely known that they played in S50.


    But it's not widely known among casual viewers, which represent the
    overwhelming majority of the audience.-a The show had not officially
    announced them as members of the cast, and even many podcasters like
    Rob and Mike Bloom were clearly told not to mention it.-a I just found
    it strange that there was no official mention at all about their
    inclusion.

    Casual viewers probably didn't know unless they have a presence on SM.

    Yeah, the players definitely looked much older (other than maybe Mike
    White who looked old the first time).-a I was almost thinking they
    should call it Survivor 50 - Geriatric Edition.-a This has to be the
    oldest average cast age of any season, and I wonder if this will
    cause the loss of any younger casual viewers as the season progresses?

    I had to do a double take when it came to Coach. At least I think that
    was Coach. Other than Rizo and Savannah, did they show any other New
    Era players?

    Did you notice how they included a line from Savannah about how Rizo
    would probably come back and could be a winner next time?
    Foreshadowing, maybe?

    I noticed that. She got Rizo on S50. Did you read the Mike Bloom
    article I posted that talks about how they got selected? It was a very
    last minute thing. They were asked the morning after FTC over a Zoom
    call if they wanted to do S50. I wonder what the backup plan was if
    one or both of them had said "no"?


    Here's what I think.-a I think they already had the roster of 24 players selected, divided 50-50 by male-female and 50-50 by New Era - Old Era.
    They also likely had three previous winners selected, all from the new
    era and with one prior winner assigned to each of the three tribes.-a We know two of those were Kyle and Dee.-a But they also had an idea of who
    the lowest ranked players from the New Era group were in case they found
    a player or two from S49 they wanted for the cast.

    When they saw how good Savannah and Rizo turned out to be, they
    displaced two previous new era players, one male and one female, and the female was a likely prior winner.-a I have no idea of who they removed
    from the list, but I think the female was likely Rachel, who had a
    somewhat similar archetype to Savannah.-a Otherwise, it could have been Maryanne.

    More than likely Maryanne as she was apparently a very last minute cut.
    I've never seen anything to suggest that Rachel was even asked. If she
    was asked it must have been very early on and she said no. I think
    that's why Jeff was okay with her doing the podcast for S48.

    As to who Rizo replaced, I have no idea.-a Sam maybe?-a Sol?-a Andy? Your guess on that one is as good as mine.

    Andy was cut about a month before they finalized the cast so I doubt it
    was him. Like Rachel, I don't think Sam as asked and if he was, he said
    no. Jesse?
    --
    Brian
    --- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Rick@Rick@nospam.net to alt.tv.survivor on Thu Dec 18 19:30:27 2025
    From Newsgroup: alt.tv.survivor

    On 12/18/2025 7:06 PM, Brian Smith wrote:
    On 12/18/2025 4:36 PM, Rick wrote:
    On 12/18/2025 5:50 PM, Brian Smith wrote:
    On 12/18/2025 8:51 AM, Rick wrote:
    On 12/18/2025 1:22 AM, Brian Smith wrote:
    On 12/17/2025 10:44 PM, Rick wrote:
    On 12/17/2025 11:46 PM, Brian Smith wrote:
    On 12/17/2025 5:53 PM, Brian Smith wrote:
    Tonight's episode is the finale of S49 and it's titled "A Fever >>>>>>>> Dream."

    ***Tweet from Mike Bloom about the break after hour one.***

    Those of you recording tonight's #Survivor49 in the Eastern and >>>>>>>> Central time zones may want to check your settings. Some local >>>>>>>> listings are now showing two separate instances before or after >>>>>>>> the episode stops down for Trump's speech.

    https://x.com/AMikeBloomType/status/2001340362468769956

    If this correct, the break is 22 minutes which seems very short. >>>>>>>> Global's also split the finale into two parts with Part 2
    starting at 9:22PM ET for viewers in ET and CT time zones. I'm >>>>>>>> going to gamble and watch now praying the 22 minute figure is >>>>>>>> correct.

    More later.


    i did NOT expect Sophi to win F4 immunity.-a And while I was hoping >>>>>> to Sage make it to F3, I never really expected that to happen.-a I >>>>>> thought for sure Kristina would be dragged to the finals as a
    zero- vote 3rd placer.

    Same here. If we knew Kristina could make fire I would have thought >>>>> differently about her being dragged to the end.


    I wonder why they didn't show Kristina making fire a few more times
    during the season so it wouldn't be such an abrupt reveal later?

    And did you notice it was Savannah who pushed the idea of voting
    Kristina out at F5 when Rizo and Sophi seemed more inclined to vote
    out Sage?-a We think of Savannah as the challenge beast, but this was >>>> a really key strategic move that she sort of bullied her alliance to
    go with,

    I wish they had shown how Savannah convinced them to keep Sage over
    Kristina. Sage was more than decent at a number of the challenges and
    could have won the F4 IC. I'd put the odds of Kristina winning at
    0.05% at best. Is it possible Sage and Savannah bonded more at The
    Sanctuary than the edit implied, and Savannah went all out to save her?


    No, this was strictly about fire-making and had nothing to do with how
    Savannah felt about Sage or even if Sage would be harder to beat at
    the ICs.-a I think Savannah knew Sage would be harder to beat at the F4
    challenge than Kristina.-a This was clearly about the possibility that
    Savannah would be sent to fire against Kristina and her seeming fear
    that Kristina was so much better at that.-a It's like Savannah had more
    confidence that she could beat Sage in F4 and F3 IC than she did about
    beating Kristina in a sudden-death fire-making challenge.

    It's too bad we have no idea how Sage was at making fires. Who was
    making Savannah's tribe's fires at the start of the game? It seems like they're minimizing showing us firemaking during the season to blindside
    us at F4.

    --Savannah wins F5 Immunity and takes Sage on The Sanctuary reward. >>>>>>>
    --Kristina voted out at F5 because she's good at making fire. I >>>>>>> believe Rizo said he had made fire twice compared to no times for >>>>>>> Savannah and Sophi.


    This was a big surprise to me.-a As good as Savannah was in
    challenges and as good as Rizo was at general game strategy, I was >>>>>> shocked that neither was really any good at fire.-a Doesn't
    everybody practice that nowadays before going on the show?

    Most do practice making fire. Rizo didn't appear to practice
    anything. I was surprised Savannah didn't practice.


    In a way, it just adds to her performance that she was able to
    figure out a way to win at this.

    Or that she lucked out. It sounds like she applied in the fall of
    2024 which probably gave her around six months to practice. Or is she
    a recent fan?

    --Sophi makes an amazing comeback in the F4 IC and punches her
    ticket to F3. Then in a smart but very unexpected move, she tells >>>>>>> the other three she's not going to talk to them and advises that >>>>>>> they practice making fire.


    Once Sophi won immunity, I knew she would put Savannah against
    Rizo in fire.-a That's what I would have done because I would have >>>>>> assumed Rizo would know how to make a fire.-a His ineptitude at
    this was amazing.

    According to Rizo, he made fire twice at camp and Savannah never
    did so. Sophi's logic was correct other than for not factoring in
    that Rizo sucks at challenges and Savannah always seems to find a
    way to win.

    --Sophi then surprised me again by taking Sage to F3 and putting >>>>>>> Rizo up against Savannah in fire. Rizo's cursed in anything
    challenge related so he of course lost fire to Savannah. She
    actually did a pretty good job.

    --I thought Sophi did great at FTC. I don't think she blew any of >>>>>>> the questions asked of her. Kristina nailed Savannah on knowing >>>>>>> family members. We also found out Sage is ex-military and
    was(is?) an intelligence analyst.


    I didn't think Sophi did that great at the final TC.-a I was
    actually surprised she got two votes.-a My prediction at the end of >>>>>> that final TC but before the vote was that Savannah would win
    4-3-1 with Soph getting the one vote probably from Alex.

    How was Sophi bad at TC? I don't recall her stumbling like Savannah >>>>> did on Kristina's question. I was definitely not surprised that MC
    and Kristina did not vote for Savannah. MC voting for Sophi made no >>>>> sense to me. Were they ever close?


    It's not that Sophi was bad - it was that she had to do a lot more
    to overcome the clear lead Savannah had with the jury.-a All she
    mostly did was talk about her social skills and how she had survived
    through so many tribal councils, but all that did was highlight that
    she was never a threat to anyone.-a I like Sophi, but I just didn't
    find her to be persuasive.

    Sophi needed to emphasize a lot more how she survived a tribe that
    got decimated and then used her social game to link up with a strong
    pair where she was an equal contributor. Saying Rizo and Savannah
    adopted her really weakened her case. She was truthful in what she
    said but never made a strong enough case that they needed her to get
    to the end.

    I also found it interesting that both Sage and Savannah mentioned
    their prior professions for seemingly the first time with no
    apparent impact. Savannah had one line about being a news reporter
    and there was no further comment.-a I wonder if by that point
    everyone knew about it or if there was further discussion that was
    edited out.

    I thought Sage clearly stated her reveal was new info to all of them.
    Hard to say about Savannah, but you're right that no one seemed to
    care about either of their stories.

    And Sage's extended mention of her military background seemingly
    landed with a thud.-a Had we heard about any of that before?-a Her
    saying/ claiming she was an intelligence officer evoked some
    memories of Phillip Sheppard.-a I wonder if people jut didn't take it >>>> seriously?

    Sage's info was new. To me it came across as random info and not
    related to the game.

    --Sophie based on game which was expected.

    --First all female F3 (F2?) since S29 according to Savannah
    (Sophi?).

    I remember that S29 F3.-a It was Natalie the twinnie and then Missy >>>>>> and Jaclyn.-a The previous time was on One World (S24) which was
    the men vs. women season where Kim, Chelsea and Sabrina were the
    final three. That season also had what I think was the only
    all-female final five in the show's history.

    Kim had total control over S24. It was nice to see her getting some >>>>> praise tonight. I was really shocked when Jeff brought Chris
    Underwood as a F4 fire example.

    --Kim Spradlin's name came up a few times.

    --Savannah won 5rCo2rCo1. Jawan voted for Sage, and MC and Kristina >>>>>>> voted for Sophi.


    Definitely didn't see MC and Kristina voting for Sophi.-a I thought >>>>>> they would vote for Sage.

    --Rizo was impressive at the After Show and that probably helped >>>>>>> him get a ticket to S50. He also embarrassed Sophie with his exit >>>>>>> at F4.

    --What was up with Sage at the After Show. Is this what she was >>>>>>> referencing in her message from yesterday?


    That was my thought.

    Overall, I liked the finale and the season a lot.


    I did too.-a I think it may be the best season of the New Era.

    For me S47 is still the best. S45 onward have been good seasons as
    far as I'm concerned with the odd bump here and there.


    I liked S47 too, but maybe it's just recency bias that caused this
    season to engage me a bit more for some reason.

    Could be. For me, S47 had a lot of memorable storylines and a fairly
    likable cast with the odd exception.


    I think what you call the odd exceptions were the problem for me.-a For
    me the big difference with S47 is that I actually liked several
    players from S49 and didnrCOt really dislike anyone that much from the
    current season.-a On S47 I liked Rachel and Gen and maybe one or two
    others, but there were also several players I really disliked that
    season, especially Andy, Rome and Gabe, who were all mega annoying to
    me in different ways.-a No one in S49 bothered me the way those guys did.

    I thought Andy was likable. Rome I couldn't stand for numerous reasons.
    I didn't like how Kyle(?) treated Caroline and her mom. Speaking of Caroline, does anyone not love her? Sol and Sam were also very likable.
    This season we were lucky that Jeremiah and Jake went early in the game (same episode?). Jeremiah's maniacal laugh drove me crazy and Jake's
    shoe bandit bit wore thin very quickly. And a lot of people cannot stand Rizo nor Savannah.

    I was not impressed with the S50 preview. Is Mr. Beast going to >>>>>>> be part of the season?


    No idea what that was. I did find it interesting that Savannah and >>>>>> Rizo were both shown in the previews with no fanfare or voice-over >>>>>> confirming their inclusion on S50. I would have thought there
    would have been some mention of that. I was also frankly surprised >>>>>> at how old some of the players looked.-a There were a couple of
    people I honestly didn't recognize at first.

    You weren't the only one who didn't recognize some of them. I
    thought it was interesting that the first face we saw was Colby's.
    Cirie got the same old promo. I think Rizo and Savannah got no
    fanfare because it's so widely known that they played in S50.


    But it's not widely known among casual viewers, which represent the
    overwhelming majority of the audience.-a The show had not officially
    announced them as members of the cast, and even many podcasters like
    Rob and Mike Bloom were clearly told not to mention it.-a I just
    found it strange that there was no official mention at all about
    their inclusion.

    Casual viewers probably didn't know unless they have a presence on SM.

    Yeah, the players definitely looked much older (other than maybe
    Mike White who looked old the first time).-a I was almost thinking
    they should call it Survivor 50 - Geriatric Edition.-a This has to be >>>> the oldest average cast age of any season, and I wonder if this will
    cause the loss of any younger casual viewers as the season progresses?

    I had to do a double take when it came to Coach. At least I think
    that was Coach. Other than Rizo and Savannah, did they show any other
    New Era players?

    Did you notice how they included a line from Savannah about how Rizo
    would probably come back and could be a winner next time?
    Foreshadowing, maybe?

    I noticed that. She got Rizo on S50. Did you read the Mike Bloom
    article I posted that talks about how they got selected? It was a
    very last minute thing. They were asked the morning after FTC over a
    Zoom call if they wanted to do S50. I wonder what the backup plan was
    if one or both of them had said "no"?


    Here's what I think.-a I think they already had the roster of 24
    players selected, divided 50-50 by male-female and 50-50 by New Era -
    Old Era. They also likely had three previous winners selected, all
    from the new era and with one prior winner assigned to each of the
    three tribes.-a We know two of those were Kyle and Dee.-a But they also
    had an idea of who the lowest ranked players from the New Era group
    were in case they found a player or two from S49 they wanted for the
    cast.

    When they saw how good Savannah and Rizo turned out to be, they
    displaced two previous new era players, one male and one female, and
    the female was a likely prior winner.-a I have no idea of who they
    removed from the list, but I think the female was likely Rachel, who
    had a somewhat similar archetype to Savannah.-a Otherwise, it could
    have been Maryanne.

    More than likely Maryanne as she was apparently a very last minute cut.
    I've never seen anything to suggest that Rachel was even asked. If she
    was asked it must have been very early on and she said no. I think
    that's why Jeff was okay with her doing the podcast for S48.

    As to who Rizo replaced, I have no idea.-a Sam maybe?-a Sol?-a Andy? Your >> guess on that one is as good as mine.

    Andy was cut about a month before they finalized the cast so I doubt it
    was him. Like Rachel, I don't think Sam as asked and if he was, he said
    no. Jesse?


    I haven't paid any attention to when people said they were cut.
    Remember S49 was filmed April 20th to May 15th of this year, so you have
    to figure mid-May is when they made the call on Savannah and Rizo. It
    would be interesting to see if anyone says they were cut around that time.

    More likely is that they knew who the borderline choices were who could
    get cut and they never gave them a firm acceptance in the first place.
    So those people may or may not have been motivated to post that they
    were cut if they had never gotten a firm commitment in the first place.
    --- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Brian Smith@dcg_brian@hotmail.com to alt.tv.survivor on Tue Dec 23 18:28:36 2025
    From Newsgroup: alt.tv.survivor

    On 12/18/2025 8:51 AM, Rick wrote:
    On 12/18/2025 1:22 AM, Brian Smith wrote:
    On 12/17/2025 10:44 PM, Rick wrote:
    On 12/17/2025 11:46 PM, Brian Smith wrote:
    On 12/17/2025 5:53 PM, Brian Smith wrote:
    Tonight's episode is the finale of S49 and it's titled "A Fever
    Dream."

    --I thought Sophi did great at FTC. I don't think she blew any of
    the questions asked of her. Kristina nailed Savannah on knowing
    family members. We also found out Sage is ex-military and was(is?)
    an intelligence analyst.


    I didn't think Sophi did that great at the final TC.-a I was actually
    surprised she got two votes.-a My prediction at the end of that final
    TC but before the vote was that Savannah would win 4-3-1 with Soph
    getting the one vote probably from Alex.

    How was Sophi bad at TC? I don't recall her stumbling like Savannah
    did on Kristina's question. I was definitely not surprised that MC and
    Kristina did not vote for Savannah. MC voting for Sophi made no sense
    to me. Were they ever close?


    It's not that Sophi was bad - it was that she had to do a lot more to overcome the clear lead Savannah had with the jury.-a All she mostly did
    was talk about her social skills and how she had survived through so
    many tribal councils, but all that did was highlight that she was never
    a threat to anyone.-a I like Sophi, but I just didn't find her to be persuasive.

    I just came across this clip from Sophi's exit interview with Rob.
    Sounds like she did pretty good at FTC. Sophi: "Sav turned to me ... and
    told me 'You just won this game.'" She also says that Nate, Alex, and
    Steven told her they were 50/50.

    https://youtube.com/shorts/h_IDGWPR8ic?si=PIKNVEirfOGzbr6T
    --
    Brian
    --- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Rick@Rick@nospam.net to alt.tv.survivor on Tue Dec 23 22:16:30 2025
    From Newsgroup: alt.tv.survivor

    On 12/23/2025 8:28 PM, Brian Smith wrote:
    On 12/18/2025 8:51 AM, Rick wrote:
    On 12/18/2025 1:22 AM, Brian Smith wrote:
    On 12/17/2025 10:44 PM, Rick wrote:
    On 12/17/2025 11:46 PM, Brian Smith wrote:
    On 12/17/2025 5:53 PM, Brian Smith wrote:
    Tonight's episode is the finale of S49 and it's titled "A Fever
    Dream."

    --I thought Sophi did great at FTC. I don't think she blew any of
    the questions asked of her. Kristina nailed Savannah on knowing
    family members. We also found out Sage is ex-military and was(is?)
    an intelligence analyst.


    I didn't think Sophi did that great at the final TC.-a I was actually >>>> surprised she got two votes.-a My prediction at the end of that final >>>> TC but before the vote was that Savannah would win 4-3-1 with Soph
    getting the one vote probably from Alex.

    How was Sophi bad at TC? I don't recall her stumbling like Savannah
    did on Kristina's question. I was definitely not surprised that MC
    and Kristina did not vote for Savannah. MC voting for Sophi made no
    sense to me. Were they ever close?


    It's not that Sophi was bad - it was that she had to do a lot more to
    overcome the clear lead Savannah had with the jury.-a All she mostly
    did was talk about her social skills and how she had survived through
    so many tribal councils, but all that did was highlight that she was
    never a threat to anyone.-a I like Sophi, but I just didn't find her to
    be persuasive.

    I just came across this clip from Sophi's exit interview with Rob.
    Sounds like she did pretty good at FTC. Sophi: "Sav turned to me ... and told me 'You just won this game.'" She also says that Nate, Alex, and
    Steven told her they were 50/50.

    https://youtube.com/shorts/h_IDGWPR8ic?si=PIKNVEirfOGzbr6T



    They might have told her they were 50-50, but it could be they were just uncomfortable telling her they preferred Savannah. The fact remains
    that Savannah won the jury by a convincing 5-2-1 margin and I don't
    think it's fair to try to minimize or marginalize that.

    I would also discount Sav's comment that you just won the game because I
    think she was trying to be nice and not too cocky. I think she knew she
    had the game won.

    There's no doubt Sophi played a decent social games, did a good job
    surviving more tribals than anyone else and had one key immunity win
    near the end of the season. But that wasn't enough to overcome what was really a dominant performance by Savannah which included a record-tying
    number of immunity wins for a female, a convincing win in the fire
    challenge and a tight alliance which overcame significant odds
    post-merge to make it to final four
    --- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Brian Smith@dcg_brian@hotmail.com to alt.tv.survivor on Tue Dec 23 20:47:05 2025
    From Newsgroup: alt.tv.survivor

    On 12/23/2025 8:16 PM, Rick wrote:
    On 12/23/2025 8:28 PM, Brian Smith wrote:
    On 12/18/2025 8:51 AM, Rick wrote:
    On 12/18/2025 1:22 AM, Brian Smith wrote:
    On 12/17/2025 10:44 PM, Rick wrote:
    On 12/17/2025 11:46 PM, Brian Smith wrote:
    On 12/17/2025 5:53 PM, Brian Smith wrote:
    Tonight's episode is the finale of S49 and it's titled "A Fever >>>>>>> Dream."

    --I thought Sophi did great at FTC. I don't think she blew any of >>>>>> the questions asked of her. Kristina nailed Savannah on knowing
    family members. We also found out Sage is ex-military and was(is?) >>>>>> an intelligence analyst.


    I didn't think Sophi did that great at the final TC.-a I was
    actually surprised she got two votes.-a My prediction at the end of >>>>> that final TC but before the vote was that Savannah would win 4-3-1 >>>>> with Soph getting the one vote probably from Alex.

    How was Sophi bad at TC? I don't recall her stumbling like Savannah
    did on Kristina's question. I was definitely not surprised that MC
    and Kristina did not vote for Savannah. MC voting for Sophi made no
    sense to me. Were they ever close?


    It's not that Sophi was bad - it was that she had to do a lot more to
    overcome the clear lead Savannah had with the jury.-a All she mostly
    did was talk about her social skills and how she had survived through
    so many tribal councils, but all that did was highlight that she was
    never a threat to anyone.-a I like Sophi, but I just didn't find her
    to be persuasive.

    I just came across this clip from Sophi's exit interview with Rob.
    Sounds like she did pretty good at FTC. Sophi: "Sav turned to me ...
    and told me 'You just won this game.'" She also says that Nate, Alex,
    and Steven told her they were 50/50.

    https://youtube.com/shorts/h_IDGWPR8ic?si=PIKNVEirfOGzbr6T



    They might have told her they were 50-50, but it could be they were just uncomfortable telling her they preferred Savannah.-a The fact remains
    that Savannah won the jury by a convincing 5-2-1 margin and I don't
    think it's fair to try to minimize or marginalize that.

    I would also discount Sav's comment that you just won the game because I think she was trying to be nice and not too cocky. I think she knew she
    had the game won.

    There's no doubt Sophi played a decent social games, did a good job surviving more tribals than anyone else and had one key immunity win
    near the end of the season.-a But that wasn't enough to overcome what was really a dominant performance by Savannah which included a record-tying number of immunity wins for a female, a convincing win in the fire
    challenge and a tight alliance which overcame significant odds post-
    merge to make it to final four

    Sophi's not trying to minimize Savannah's win. She even said that
    Savannah had an amazing resume. I also don't think the three guys told
    Sophi they were 50-50 to make her feel good. They could have said
    nothing if they didn't mean it. Alex had a bond with Sophi that he did
    not have with Savannah. Nate really liked Sophi, and Steven might have
    wanted Savannah not to win.

    I'm pretty sure Savannah knew she played the best game of the three, but
    I'm not convinced she knew she was going to win. A number of the jury
    members had issues with her and bitter juries can be a thing. Who knows
    what Kristina said at Pondy to try and get people not to vote for her.
    Also, it seemed like everyone loved Sophi. Based on what a number of the players have said postgame, it sounds like we got a horrible edit of the
    FTC. Maybe Jeff was trying to cover up controversial things said and/or
    they were too focused on S50 to care. Savannah clearly deserved to win.
    I don't think anyone's disputing that. It just would have been nice if
    they had given us a more complete edit of what happened this season.
    --
    Brian
    --- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Rick@Rick@nospam.net to alt.tv.survivor on Wed Dec 24 09:42:39 2025
    From Newsgroup: alt.tv.survivor

    On 12/23/2025 10:47 PM, Brian Smith wrote:
    On 12/23/2025 8:16 PM, Rick wrote:
    On 12/23/2025 8:28 PM, Brian Smith wrote:
    On 12/18/2025 8:51 AM, Rick wrote:
    On 12/18/2025 1:22 AM, Brian Smith wrote:
    On 12/17/2025 10:44 PM, Rick wrote:
    On 12/17/2025 11:46 PM, Brian Smith wrote:
    On 12/17/2025 5:53 PM, Brian Smith wrote:
    Tonight's episode is the finale of S49 and it's titled "A Fever >>>>>>>> Dream."

    --I thought Sophi did great at FTC. I don't think she blew any of >>>>>>> the questions asked of her. Kristina nailed Savannah on knowing >>>>>>> family members. We also found out Sage is ex-military and
    was(is?) an intelligence analyst.


    I didn't think Sophi did that great at the final TC.-a I was
    actually surprised she got two votes.-a My prediction at the end of >>>>>> that final TC but before the vote was that Savannah would win
    4-3-1 with Soph getting the one vote probably from Alex.

    How was Sophi bad at TC? I don't recall her stumbling like Savannah >>>>> did on Kristina's question. I was definitely not surprised that MC
    and Kristina did not vote for Savannah. MC voting for Sophi made no >>>>> sense to me. Were they ever close?


    It's not that Sophi was bad - it was that she had to do a lot more
    to overcome the clear lead Savannah had with the jury.-a All she
    mostly did was talk about her social skills and how she had survived
    through so many tribal councils, but all that did was highlight that
    she was never a threat to anyone.-a I like Sophi, but I just didn't
    find her to be persuasive.

    I just came across this clip from Sophi's exit interview with Rob.
    Sounds like she did pretty good at FTC. Sophi: "Sav turned to me ...
    and told me 'You just won this game.'" She also says that Nate, Alex,
    and Steven told her they were 50/50.

    https://youtube.com/shorts/h_IDGWPR8ic?si=PIKNVEirfOGzbr6T



    They might have told her they were 50-50, but it could be they were
    just uncomfortable telling her they preferred Savannah.-a The fact
    remains that Savannah won the jury by a convincing 5-2-1 margin and I
    don't think it's fair to try to minimize or marginalize that.

    I would also discount Sav's comment that you just won the game because
    I think she was trying to be nice and not too cocky. I think she knew
    she had the game won.

    There's no doubt Sophi played a decent social games, did a good job
    surviving more tribals than anyone else and had one key immunity win
    near the end of the season.-a But that wasn't enough to overcome what
    was really a dominant performance by Savannah which included a
    record-tying number of immunity wins for a female, a convincing win in
    the fire challenge and a tight alliance which overcame significant
    odds post- merge to make it to final four

    Sophi's not trying to minimize Savannah's win. She even said that
    Savannah had an amazing resume. I also don't think the three guys told
    Sophi they were 50-50 to make her feel good. They could have said
    nothing if they didn't mean it. Alex had a bond with Sophi that he did
    not have with Savannah. Nate really liked Sophi, and Steven might have wanted Savannah not to win.


    I just think it is unlikely that three separate jurors would all tell
    Sophi (and apparently only Sophi, since no one else has reported hearing
    this) that they were 50-50 before the vote, and then all three would
    come around and vote for Sav. I think this is especially true for Nate,
    who always seemed closely aligned with Savannah, who didn't spend that
    much time with Sophi and who clearly isn't the type to be swayed by
    others on the jury. I will wait until the inevitable deep dive
    discussions Rob has with each juror to see if each really said that and
    if they meant it.

    I'm pretty sure Savannah knew she played the best game of the three, but
    I'm not convinced she knew she was going to win. A number of the jury members had issues with her and bitter juries can be a thing. Who knows
    what Kristina said at Pondy to try and get people not to vote for her.
    Also, it seemed like everyone loved Sophi. Based on what a number of the players have said postgame, it sounds like we got a horrible edit of the FTC. Maybe Jeff was trying to cover up controversial things said and/or
    they were too focused on S50 to care. Savannah clearly deserved to win.
    I don't think anyone's disputing that. It just would have been nice if
    they had given us a more complete edit of what happened this season.


    I don't know that we got a "horrible edit" of FTC or the season. The
    season itself made very clear that Savannah was the dominant player and
    the edit clearly suggested she would win. The final TC was much less
    clear, but that's normal, I think. The actual TC lasts at least a
    couple of hours so we are always seeing a greatly shortened version.
    The show has often, maybe usually, tried to edit the final TC in a way
    that makes you uncertain of who will win. I can't tell you the number
    of times I have thought one person made a much stronger case at TC and
    then the other person won. It is, after all, a TV show and they are
    trying to make good drama.

    That said, I am still very confused about the Sage drama, and I agree
    the show could have/should have done a better job of clarifying what
    that was all about. Her mini-meltdown at the after show, her strange,
    almost trance-like state at the final tribal, her vague comments about
    how she's not sure she can talk about certain things, and even her
    delaying her final exit interviews with the press by a full day make me
    really curious about what really happened with her at that final tribal
    and, by extension, the season at as a whole. For me, that's the one outstanding unanswered question about the season, and I wonder if we
    will ever get the full story.

    --- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Brian Smith@dcg_brian@hotmail.com to alt.tv.survivor on Wed Dec 24 14:00:22 2025
    From Newsgroup: alt.tv.survivor

    On 12/24/2025 7:42 AM, Rick wrote:
    On 12/23/2025 10:47 PM, Brian Smith wrote:
    On 12/23/2025 8:16 PM, Rick wrote:
    On 12/23/2025 8:28 PM, Brian Smith wrote:
    On 12/18/2025 8:51 AM, Rick wrote:
    On 12/18/2025 1:22 AM, Brian Smith wrote:
    On 12/17/2025 10:44 PM, Rick wrote:
    On 12/17/2025 11:46 PM, Brian Smith wrote:
    On 12/17/2025 5:53 PM, Brian Smith wrote:
    Tonight's episode is the finale of S49 and it's titled "A Fever >>>>>>>>> Dream."

    --I thought Sophi did great at FTC. I don't think she blew any >>>>>>>> of the questions asked of her. Kristina nailed Savannah on
    knowing family members. We also found out Sage is ex-military >>>>>>>> and was(is?) an intelligence analyst.


    I didn't think Sophi did that great at the final TC.-a I was
    actually surprised she got two votes.-a My prediction at the end >>>>>>> of that final TC but before the vote was that Savannah would win >>>>>>> 4-3-1 with Soph getting the one vote probably from Alex.

    How was Sophi bad at TC? I don't recall her stumbling like
    Savannah did on Kristina's question. I was definitely not
    surprised that MC and Kristina did not vote for Savannah. MC
    voting for Sophi made no sense to me. Were they ever close?


    It's not that Sophi was bad - it was that she had to do a lot more
    to overcome the clear lead Savannah had with the jury.-a All she
    mostly did was talk about her social skills and how she had
    survived through so many tribal councils, but all that did was
    highlight that she was never a threat to anyone.-a I like Sophi, but >>>>> I just didn't find her to be persuasive.

    I just came across this clip from Sophi's exit interview with Rob.
    Sounds like she did pretty good at FTC. Sophi: "Sav turned to me ...
    and told me 'You just won this game.'" She also says that Nate,
    Alex, and Steven told her they were 50/50.

    https://youtube.com/shorts/h_IDGWPR8ic?si=PIKNVEirfOGzbr6T



    They might have told her they were 50-50, but it could be they were
    just uncomfortable telling her they preferred Savannah.-a The fact
    remains that Savannah won the jury by a convincing 5-2-1 margin and I
    don't think it's fair to try to minimize or marginalize that.

    I would also discount Sav's comment that you just won the game
    because I think she was trying to be nice and not too cocky. I think
    she knew she had the game won.

    There's no doubt Sophi played a decent social games, did a good job
    surviving more tribals than anyone else and had one key immunity win
    near the end of the season.-a But that wasn't enough to overcome what
    was really a dominant performance by Savannah which included a
    record-tying number of immunity wins for a female, a convincing win
    in the fire challenge and a tight alliance which overcame significant
    odds post- merge to make it to final four

    Sophi's not trying to minimize Savannah's win. She even said that
    Savannah had an amazing resume. I also don't think the three guys told
    Sophi they were 50-50 to make her feel good. They could have said
    nothing if they didn't mean it. Alex had a bond with Sophi that he did
    not have with Savannah. Nate really liked Sophi, and Steven might have
    wanted Savannah not to win.


    I just think it is unlikely that three separate jurors would all tell
    Sophi (and apparently only Sophi, since no one else has reported hearing this) that they were 50-50 before the vote, and then all three would
    come around and vote for Sav. I think this is especially true for Nate,
    who always seemed closely aligned with Savannah, who didn't spend that
    much time with Sophi and who clearly isn't the type to be swayed by
    others on the jury.-a I will wait until the inevitable deep dive
    discussions Rob has with each juror to see if each really said that and
    if they meant it.

    I don't see why Sophi would lie. What does she have to gain by lying?

    I'm pretty sure Savannah knew she played the best game of the three,
    but I'm not convinced she knew she was going to win. A number of the
    jury members had issues with her and bitter juries can be a thing. Who
    knows what Kristina said at Pondy to try and get people not to vote
    for her. Also, it seemed like everyone loved Sophi. Based on what a
    number of the players have said postgame, it sounds like we got a
    horrible edit of the FTC. Maybe Jeff was trying to cover up
    controversial things said and/or they were too focused on S50 to care.
    Savannah clearly deserved to win. I don't think anyone's disputing
    that. It just would have been nice if they had given us a more
    complete edit of what happened this season.


    I don't know that we got a "horrible edit" of FTC or the season.-a The season itself made very clear that Savannah was the dominant player and
    the edit clearly suggested she would win.-a The final TC was much less clear, but that's normal, I think.-a The actual TC lasts at least a
    couple of hours so we are always seeing a greatly shortened version. The show has often, maybe usually, tried to edit the final TC in a way that makes you uncertain of who will win.-a I can't tell you the number of
    times I have thought one person made a much stronger case at TC and then
    the other person won.-a It is, after all, a TV show and they are trying
    to make good drama.

    That said, I am still very confused about the Sage drama, and I agree
    the show could have/should have done a better job of clarifying what
    that was all about.-a Her mini-meltdown at the after show, her strange, almost trance-like state at the final tribal, her vague comments about
    how she's not sure she can talk about certain things, and even her
    delaying her final exit interviews with the press by a full day make me really curious about what really happened with her at that final tribal
    and, by extension, the season at as a whole.-a For me, that's the one outstanding unanswered question about the season, and I wonder if we
    will ever get the full story.

    I watched some of Sage's exit interviews.She delayed doing them by a day because she was sick. It was obvious during the interviews that she was
    not feeling well. I'll give her a pass on the delays. If she was trying
    to avoid the spotlight it would have been much better for her to have
    done her interviews the same day as the rest of the F5. That one day
    delay put a ton of focus on her including all of the speculation that
    she was trying to back out so she wouldn't have to discuss what happened
    at FTC. I think she wants to talk about things but isn't ready yet to
    talk about everything. During her exit interview with Rob he brought up
    a topic to which she replied, "I could talk about that all day!" Rob
    then said something like, "We can make that happen." Sage then said "Hit
    me up, dude." I think Sage is down to do a deep dive. If Rob can make
    her feel comfortable he might be able to get her to discuss what
    happened at FTC that caused her to start crying at the After Show.

    As for FTC, we all know it's highly edited. That shouldn't mean taking
    out key and controversial moments. Sophi's not the only one who has said
    they left out a lot of good stuff. Sage, Rizo, and Savannah have also
    said we missed out on content that should have been included. For
    example, why did Sage say FTC was so brutal for her? We're people being
    mean to her? If Jeff wants drama he should have shown us how she was
    treated. Not showing Sophie Segreti calling out Kristina was a big
    mistake. Too much protection this season. Sadly, I fear the edit for S50
    is going to be even worse for different reasons. Are you ready for celeb confessionals?
    --
    Brian
    --- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Rick@Rick@nospam.net to alt.tv.survivor on Wed Dec 24 20:42:41 2025
    From Newsgroup: alt.tv.survivor

    On 12/24/2025 4:00 PM, Brian Smith wrote:
    On 12/24/2025 7:42 AM, Rick wrote:
    On 12/23/2025 10:47 PM, Brian Smith wrote:
    On 12/23/2025 8:16 PM, Rick wrote:
    On 12/23/2025 8:28 PM, Brian Smith wrote:
    On 12/18/2025 8:51 AM, Rick wrote:
    On 12/18/2025 1:22 AM, Brian Smith wrote:
    On 12/17/2025 10:44 PM, Rick wrote:
    On 12/17/2025 11:46 PM, Brian Smith wrote:
    On 12/17/2025 5:53 PM, Brian Smith wrote:
    Tonight's episode is the finale of S49 and it's titled "A >>>>>>>>>> Fever Dream."

    --I thought Sophi did great at FTC. I don't think she blew any >>>>>>>>> of the questions asked of her. Kristina nailed Savannah on
    knowing family members. We also found out Sage is ex-military >>>>>>>>> and was(is?) an intelligence analyst.


    I didn't think Sophi did that great at the final TC.-a I was
    actually surprised she got two votes.-a My prediction at the end >>>>>>>> of that final TC but before the vote was that Savannah would win >>>>>>>> 4-3-1 with Soph getting the one vote probably from Alex.

    How was Sophi bad at TC? I don't recall her stumbling like
    Savannah did on Kristina's question. I was definitely not
    surprised that MC and Kristina did not vote for Savannah. MC
    voting for Sophi made no sense to me. Were they ever close?


    It's not that Sophi was bad - it was that she had to do a lot more >>>>>> to overcome the clear lead Savannah had with the jury.-a All she
    mostly did was talk about her social skills and how she had
    survived through so many tribal councils, but all that did was
    highlight that she was never a threat to anyone.-a I like Sophi,
    but I just didn't find her to be persuasive.

    I just came across this clip from Sophi's exit interview with Rob.
    Sounds like she did pretty good at FTC. Sophi: "Sav turned to me
    ... and told me 'You just won this game.'" She also says that Nate, >>>>> Alex, and Steven told her they were 50/50.

    https://youtube.com/shorts/h_IDGWPR8ic?si=PIKNVEirfOGzbr6T



    They might have told her they were 50-50, but it could be they were
    just uncomfortable telling her they preferred Savannah.-a The fact
    remains that Savannah won the jury by a convincing 5-2-1 margin and
    I don't think it's fair to try to minimize or marginalize that.

    I would also discount Sav's comment that you just won the game
    because I think she was trying to be nice and not too cocky. I think
    she knew she had the game won.

    There's no doubt Sophi played a decent social games, did a good job
    surviving more tribals than anyone else and had one key immunity win
    near the end of the season.-a But that wasn't enough to overcome what >>>> was really a dominant performance by Savannah which included a
    record-tying number of immunity wins for a female, a convincing win
    in the fire challenge and a tight alliance which overcame
    significant odds post- merge to make it to final four

    Sophi's not trying to minimize Savannah's win. She even said that
    Savannah had an amazing resume. I also don't think the three guys
    told Sophi they were 50-50 to make her feel good. They could have
    said nothing if they didn't mean it. Alex had a bond with Sophi that
    he did not have with Savannah. Nate really liked Sophi, and Steven
    might have wanted Savannah not to win.


    I just think it is unlikely that three separate jurors would all tell
    Sophi (and apparently only Sophi, since no one else has reported
    hearing this) that they were 50-50 before the vote, and then all three
    would come around and vote for Sav. I think this is especially true
    for Nate, who always seemed closely aligned with Savannah, who didn't
    spend that much time with Sophi and who clearly isn't the type to be
    swayed by others on the jury.-a I will wait until the inevitable deep
    dive discussions Rob has with each juror to see if each really said
    that and if they meant it.

    I don't see why Sophi would lie. What does she have to gain by lying?

    I don't necessarily think she outright lied - I think she might have
    heard what she wanted to hear and filled in some blanks. For example, I
    think it's possible one of the three - say Alex - may have legit said he
    was 50-50 before the vote and the other two may have just nodded or said something vague or evasive to be nice, and she just took it that all
    three were 50-50. I just don't think all three would have said 50-50.
    The reality is that most jurors already know going into final TC which
    way they will vote or they strongly lean a certain way. For three
    jurors out of eight (nearly half the jury) to not only be 50-50 but to
    admit that to the person they DIDN'T vote for (and no one else,
    apparently) just doesn't make any sense - especially when, by so many accounts, the person they didn't vote for had the more impressive FTC responses.


    I'm pretty sure Savannah knew she played the best game of the three,
    but I'm not convinced she knew she was going to win. A number of the
    jury members had issues with her and bitter juries can be a thing.
    Who knows what Kristina said at Pondy to try and get people not to
    vote for her. Also, it seemed like everyone loved Sophi. Based on
    what a number of the players have said postgame, it sounds like we
    got a horrible edit of the FTC. Maybe Jeff was trying to cover up
    controversial things said and/or they were too focused on S50 to
    care. Savannah clearly deserved to win. I don't think anyone's
    disputing that. It just would have been nice if they had given us a
    more complete edit of what happened this season.


    I don't know that we got a "horrible edit" of FTC or the season.-a The
    season itself made very clear that Savannah was the dominant player
    and the edit clearly suggested she would win.-a The final TC was much
    less clear, but that's normal, I think.-a The actual TC lasts at least
    a couple of hours so we are always seeing a greatly shortened version.
    The show has often, maybe usually, tried to edit the final TC in a way
    that makes you uncertain of who will win.-a I can't tell you the number
    of times I have thought one person made a much stronger case at TC and
    then the other person won.-a It is, after all, a TV show and they are
    trying to make good drama.

    That said, I am still very confused about the Sage drama, and I agree
    the show could have/should have done a better job of clarifying what
    that was all about.-a Her mini-meltdown at the after show, her strange,
    almost trance-like state at the final tribal, her vague comments about
    how she's not sure she can talk about certain things, and even her
    delaying her final exit interviews with the press by a full day make
    me really curious about what really happened with her at that final
    tribal and, by extension, the season at as a whole.-a For me, that's
    the one outstanding unanswered question about the season, and I wonder
    if we will ever get the full story.

    I watched some of Sage's exit interviews.She delayed doing them by a day because she was sick. It was obvious during the interviews that she was
    not feeling well. I'll give her a pass on the delays. If she was trying
    to avoid the spotlight it would have been much better for her to have
    done her interviews the same day as the rest of the F5. That one day
    delay put a ton of focus on her including all of the speculation that
    she was trying to back out so she wouldn't have to discuss what happened
    at FTC. I think she wants to talk about things but isn't ready yet to
    talk about everything. During her exit interview with Rob he brought up
    a topic to which she replied, "I could talk about that all day!" Rob
    then said something like, "We can make that happen." Sage then said "Hit
    me up, dude." I think Sage is down to do a deep dive. If Rob can make
    her feel comfortable he might be able to get her to discuss what
    happened at FTC that caused her to start crying at the After Show.


    Hope so. I almost never listen to Rob's post-season deep dive
    interviews, because once the season is over I kind of lose interest.
    But Sage is a bit of an exception for me, and I will definitely listen
    to what she has to say. BTW, in that same interview with Rob, he
    compared her to Carolyn from S44, and I thought that was a really
    spot-on comparison I had not thought of.

    As for whether Sage was really sick, I can only say that in all the
    years they have been doing these interviews, I don't ever recall someone delaying a day due to illness. Usually when someone is sick, they just
    suck it up and do the interview, since it's basically done remotely from
    your home. Many contestants have been interviewed who had colds, sore throats, even laryngitis - and sometimes Rob or Mike or other
    interviewers do the questioning while under the weather. Keep in mind
    these interviews are required by the players' contracts and are almost
    always scheduled for the day after the finale

    You are right that delaying it a day also drew more attention to
    herself, but I just think it's another weird coincidence that after a
    meltdown and something weird happening with her on the finale, she coincidentally gets too sick to do a remote interview several months
    after the finale was filmed on a day that had obviously been scheduled
    well in advance. To me this is similar to a person calling in sick at
    work because they just don't feel like going in that day, even though
    there's really nothing physically wrong with them.

    As for FTC, we all know it's highly edited. That shouldn't mean taking
    out key and controversial moments. Sophi's not the only one who has said they left out a lot of good stuff. Sage, Rizo, and Savannah have also
    said we missed out on content that should have been included. For
    example, why did Sage say FTC was so brutal for her? We're people being
    mean to her? If Jeff wants drama he should have shown us how she was treated. Not showing Sophie Segreti calling out Kristina was a big
    mistake. Too much protection this season. Sadly, I fear the edit for S50
    is going to be even worse for different reasons. Are you ready for celeb confessionals?


    --- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2