Week 14: Last Push

After 39 days, two medical evacuations, one rice and beans pouring out meltdown, and one friendship formed and dissolved over a pair of false teeth, Survivor: Caramoan finally crowned its winner on Sunday evening. 

The tribe has spoken and Kirsten is the winner of Survivor Caramoan!  Congratulations Kristen!

Kudos also go out to those who made it to the finale, Lee Anne, Steve, and Pat!

We are looking forward to next season "Blood vs Water."  See you all in the fall!

For a recap of the episode, click here. 

Bikal				Gota
Andrea	~	Tonya		Allie	~	Karen D.
Brandon	~	Karen R.		Eddie	~	Steve
Brenda	~	Colin		Hope	~	Cheryl
Cochran	~	Kristen		Julia	~	Dick
Corrine	~	Warren		Laura	~	Mea
Dawn	~	Lee Anne		Matt	~	Cara
Erik	~	Kim		Michael	~	Brendan
Malcolm	~	Christi		Reynold	~	Alyssa
Phillip	~	Erin		Sharmar	~	Lauren
Francesca				Sherry	~	Pat

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: So Cochran wins in a landslide. This is a guy that almost talked himself into getting voted off at the very first Tribal Council in South Pacific. Is this the biggest maturation of a player we’ve seen from a first season to a second?

JEFF PROBST: I can’t think of a bigger transformation than Cochran. It was on all levels. His emotional intelligence is already very high but I think he said it best at the live show — he accepted who he was and turned what had been paralyzing quirks into devastating assets. One of my favorite winners of all time. I’m really proud of him and happy for him and I love what he represents for people brave enough to go for their dream.

EW: Give us your take on Brenda pressuring Dawn to take out her teeth at the final Tribal Council. Obviously  she was extremely hurt over Dawn voting her out, but that was a game move, while this came off as purely personal and humiliation for humiliation’s sake.

PROBST: I didn’t see it that way. It had been mere days since Brenda had been blindsided and she was clearly smarting. Brenda was making a very strong point and I felt it was relevant. Dawn was so distraught she said she would take herself out of the game before she would let anyone see her without her teeth. So Brenda asked if it was true, would she have taken herself out of the game? If Dawn had said yes, Brenda would have said then you don’t deserve to win. But instead Dawn said she would not have pulled her out of the game even if they never found her teeth. So Brenda asked her to prove it. As a jury member with a million dollar vote — I felt it was appropriate. Uncomfortable? Yes. But humiliation for humiliations sake? I don’t feel the same.

EW: I have to assume that the reward challenge we saw was originally going to be an immunity challenge until Erik got pulled from the game. But why not just have the reward be food or something? You know how much I hate giving advantages for the final immunity challenge because I firmly believe everyone should be on equal footing for the most important challenge of the season. Convince me that I’m wrong, Jeff. 

PROBST: Here’s the thing — if you produced the show it would be very different. Maybe more successful, maybe less. If I wrote your column maybe more people would read it, maybe less. Bottom line — that’s the decision we made and I can tell you that we will probably do it again. How ya like them apples?

EW: For the first time ever, anyone voted out before the jury was not invited to sit on the stage for the reunion show. Why is that and why was Brandon Hantz not invited to come to the reunion show?

PROBST: Regarding Brandon, we had a conversation and everyone, including Brandon, felt this was the best decision. Regarding the jury, the main reason was staging. We were on a new stage this year and our design couldn’t accommodate the usual enormous amount of people we have at the reunion. But having done it once, we may do this same configuration again in the future. The truth is, it’s very difficult to manage 20 people in an interview situation, and the staging last night was much more manageable. The hardest part of all of this is that it is so disappointing to the non-jury. I completely empathize with them feeling left out. Like it or not, the priority is for us to produce the best reunion show we can.  Quite often when someone is voted out early they just don’t have enough story to warrant a spot on the reunion show. It doesn’t mean they aren’t deserving people, they just didn’t get to play long enough.

EW: Okay, mister cagey. What can you tell us about Survivor: Blood vs. Water? Are vampires involved?

PROBST: No more! That’s all you get. You’ll have to wait until you visit.

Week 13: Don't Say Anything About My Mom

The tribe has spoken and Colin is asked to leave the pool immediately. 

For a recap of the episode, click here.

 

 

Bikal				Gota
Andrea	~	Tonya		Allie	~	Karen D.
Brandon	~	Karen R.		Eddie	~	Steve
Brenda	~	Colin		Hope	~	Cheryl
Cochran	~	Kristen		Julia	~	Dick
Corrine	~	Warren		Laura	~	Mea
Dawn	~	Lee Anne		Matt	~	Cara
Erik	~	Kim		Michael	~	Brendan
Malcolm	~	Christi		Reynold	~	Alyssa
Phillip	~	Erin		Sharmar	~	Lauren
Francesca				Sherry	~	Pat

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: I’ve always said there is little upside to winning the loved ones challenge. You either piss people off by not selecting to include them, or become toolikable by giving up your own visit for others. And yet people keep trying to win the damn thing! Give any future Survivor contestants reading this a compelling reason to win this challenge.

JEFF PROBST: CONTROL. And often FOOD. Two big reasons that it’s hard to pass up. I agree with you that it can be tricky to navigate and if you don’t feel comfortable with your people skills or on the fly negotiating then maybe best to not worry so much about this one. No question in my mind I would play to win and I would use my power to negotiate. Nobody ever comes out and says — “How badly do you wanna hang with mom?” While you can’t enforce any promise in this game, it’s still huge leverage. Then I’d say to my mom “Love ya, mom, but I’m trading you in for a vote!  I’ll see ya back home. Now scat!”

EW: We’ve seen 10 million sobworthy loved one reunions on this show before — including Lisa Whelchel’s emotional one last season. What about Brenda and her dad made your eye faucets finally start leaking?

PROBST: Well, probably because I am now a dad to a daughter. That connection is pretty powerful. It was also her specific exchange. Her dad had clearly given her advice before the game: “Be humble.” And she took it and she did it. She was humble. She was so proud of herself and it was such beautiful advice. It wasn’t “Play to win… or do what it takes…”  It was so simple — be humble. Still makes me well up even as I sit here typing on this cold Macbook Pro.

EW: Other than maybe Christy Smith in the Amazon, I can’t remember anyone being this distraught immediately after being voted out. Did you talk to Brenda right after and what other insight can you give us into how she was doing after being blindsided?

PROBST: Well it’s something we are going to deal with at the live show for sure. Yes, I spoke with her immediately after the vote and she was pretty upset by the betrayal, especially from Dawn. I think that Brenda played a pretty worthy game both as strategist and as human. She gave a lot of herself to other people. So, to have her entire alliance — but mainly Dawn — sucker punch her was tough to take.

EW: Okay, we’ve got a supersized three-hour finale/reunion show coming up next on Sunday night, so give us a supersized tease on what to expect. The nation is on pins and needles waiting to find out if there will be a Fallen Comrades tribute, and if so, whether it will be by land or by sea!

PROBST: Yes, there will be Fallen Comrades but I am determined to find a way to get rid of it in coming years! It’s a good finale. The game is definitely not over. We have another big turn moment. The only person who I don’t think can win in any given scenario is Sherri. Sorry Sherri, it’s not personal. I just don’t see it happening at this point. Everybody else has a shot depending on which people end up in the final!

Week 12: The Beginning of the End

The tribe has spoken and Alyssa and Tonya are asked to leave the pool immediately. 

For a recap of the episode, click here.

 

 

Bikal				Gota
Andrea	~	Tonya		Allie	~	Karen D.
Brandon	~	Karen R.		Eddie	~	Steve
Brenda	~	Colin		Hope	~	Cheryl
Cochran	~	Kristen		Julia	~	Dick
Corrine	~	Warren		Laura	~	Mea
Dawn	~	Lee Anne		Matt	~	Cara
Erik	~	Kim		Michael	~	Brendan
Malcolm	~	Christi		Reynold	~	Alyssa
Phillip	~	Erin		Sharmar	~	Lauren
Francesca				Sherry	~	Pat

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Let’s start off with a question about the first immunity challenge in which the players had to balance their feet on narrow footholds. I’m too lazy to go compile stats to back this up, but these types of challenges always seem to clearly favor women with smaller feet. Much in the way that strength challenges are now done by percentage of body weight so that bigger men do not have an unfair advantage, has there ever been any thought to evening these types of contests out somehow — especially considering how the two smallest women went for hours longer than anyone else?

JEFF PROBST: Nope. Maybe we should. Our goal is to keep the challenges uneven, unpredictable, and yet hopefully still as fair as possible. There certainly isn’t a science to it and there is always room for improvement even when things aren’t broken. I’ll bring it up to the challenge department. It’s a note worth exploring.

EW: After three hours, Andrea and Brenda added their own twist to the rules by agreeing to put one foot in the air until someone dropped. What did you think of that agreement, and would you have then called someone out if she had dropped her other foot back onto the platform?
 
PROBST: I love it when Survivors take the game into their own hands. That’s the ultimate — when the game doesn’t need any kind of host, it plays itself. It’s what we were going for when we tried “Do it Yourself” challenges. This is a better version of that. The key is that everybody has to agree. If one person disagrees then we don’t do it.
For instance, back in Palau we had a final three challenge that ended up lasting 12 hours. After about six hours, darkness set in and we needed light. So, we first brought out fires and placed them in floating bins in the water. This accomplished the goal of light and it fit our aesthetic. It was a perfect solution. Katie and Ian were fine with it, but Tom Westman was not. He said “Nobody ever said there would be smoke from fire blowing in my face during the challenge.” He was right.  So we pulled the fire bins and had to bring out generators to power lights and put them on a barge. It was a massive process but we did it because we would never do anything to risk the integrity of the game or make it unfair for someone.

It’s worth noting, that Tom Westman went on to win the game. So, yes if one of the girls had touched her foot after they both agreed to the new rules, I would have called her out, and if she was voted out of the game as a result there would be no sleep lost.

EW: Andrea’s undoing was ultimately revealing whom she wanted voted out and whom she wanted to bring to the final three. What did you think about the way she was ultimately blindsided and is this a common mistake that players make: giving away too much information instead of asking others what they would like to do, thereby gaining information instead of revealing something that might make others question you?
 
PROBST: You make a fair point, but when you’re in the middle of the game it’s so tricky because you often just don’t have enough information. I really don’t think there is any general philosophy you can count on. If she merely asked what others thought, there is no guarantee they would tell her the truth and she could still have been blindsided. One simple example of an argument for taking a stance on who to vote out is this — If I give the right people a reason to vote someone else out, they’ll go with me because it’s not them that is being voted out. I love Andrea. I would have her back again. She can win this game.
 
EW: As if Dawn hasn’t cried enough this season, now you’re bringing the loved ones in?! What can you tell us about next week’s visit and episode?
 
PROBST: Well, I can tell you this. Hang on. Wait for it. I cry. Yes. I cry. It’s that good. And… not only is it emotional, but it the loved one visit is directly connected to strategy and holy cow does it play out. I love next week’s episode.

Week 11: Come Over to the Dark Side

The tribe has spoken and Christi is asked to leave the pool immediately. 

For a recap of the episode, click here.

 

 

Bikal				Gota
Andrea	~	Tonya		Allie	~	Karen D.
Brandon	~	Karen R.		Eddie	~	Steve
Brenda	~	Colin		Hope	~	Cheryl
Cochran	~	Kristen		Julia	~	Dick
Corrine	~	Warren		Laura	~	Mea
Dawn	~	Lee Anne		Matt	~	Cara
Erik	~	Kim		Michael	~	Brendan
Malcolm	~	Christi		Reynold	~	Alyssa
Phillip	~	Erin		Sharmar	~	Lauren
Francesca				Sherry	~	Pat

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Jeff, you have to explain it to me because it drives me batty every single time. I know they are all starving. I get that. But why do people at the food auction not wait and spend every single dollar of their money on the items that can help them in the game? Malcolm and Cochran both got their idol clue and challenge advantage for less than $500! How can that happen?

JEFF PROBST: The beauty of Survivor is that there are always, I repeat, always people who are certain they are safe. For those people the auction is free food! There is also a strategy that says even though I am not certain I’m safe, if I show my alliance that I am concerned by going for an advantage at the auction they make think I am planning a move of my own and it may backfire, so better to stay with the crowd and go with the flow. As for how Cochran and Malcolm stole the clue and advantage – that is a good observation. I’m guessing people were so focused on the food in front of them they just stopped paying attention. Those who pay attention are often rewarded. Onward now, grasshopper.


EW: You have forced contestants to make certain choices at the auction before, but definitely seemed to kick up the Let’s Make a Deal aspect this time around. When you give Reynold three covered options — one bad, one okay, and one good — which item are you hoping he picks? Be honest!

PROBST: Honestly – I don’t care. I am mainly focused on remembering which order to reveal them based on which one he chooses. But if you gave me an option — I always want them to get food. I like auctions to be fun and for morale to be restored. Despite what you might believe, they are not overfed!

EW: BONUS QUESTION! What happens to the money they hand over to you at the auction? Is it used to purchase new Survivor baseball caps?

PROBST: That money goes right back into our show. It’s not real money in that sense. We just take it out of petty cash and whatever we get back goes right back into the next challenge, or reward. I am proud to say I have never pocketed even one twenty dollar bill.

EW: This group of Favorites made a lot of big time blunders their first time playing. Which player has stepped up his or her game the most the second time out? I’m thinking self-proclaimed challenge dominator John Cochran must be near the top of the list.

PROBST: I think a case can be made for a few folks. Cochran is definitely playing a major game. He has put all of his knowledge of the game together with a much bigger sense of confidence. It’s deadly. Andrea had a great teacher in Boston Rob and she is performing exactly as I knew she would. She is using her smarts of the game along with a very refined charm to put her smack dab in the middle of this whole thing. I wanted her back the moment she lost her final duel on RI the first time she played. Dawn has stepped up her game in a big way as well. She’s still crying but she’s doing it while making big moves! I think Brenda is playing a good game as well. It’s a quiet game but it’s cagey. Everybody knows that Brenda is a threat to win — it’s not sliding past anybody. Erik is playing the same kind of game and I think Malcolm played pretty close to the way he played last time. The only thing that hurt him last time was losing a challenge. He had the social game from day one. Here’s something that will make you think I’m crazy — I believe any of the remaining Favorites could still win this game. I really do. How often does that happen? Even Dawn thru the tears — if she is with the right two people could make a very good case of strategy. Erik, though quiet, is very likable. The others — it would be a dogfight and I wouldn’t want to go up against any of them. They are all super deserving.

EW: Tease us up for next week, sir!

PROBST: Oh where do I begin? This season is on such a roll. Well let’s see — we tempt them down with food and once again I am BLOWN away by decisions made during an immunity challenge.  Cochran continues to flex his muscles and Tribal? Holy cow. Awesome. Enjoy!

Week 10: Zipping Over the Cuckoo's Nest

The tribe has spoken and Erin is asked to leave the pool immediately. 

For a recap of the episode, click here.

 

 

Bikal				Gota
Andrea	~	Tonya		Allie	~	Karen D.
Brandon	~	Karen R.		Eddie	~	Steve
Brenda	~	Colin		Hope	~	Cheryl
Cochran	~	Kristen		Julia	~	Dick
Corrine	~	Warren		Laura	~	Mea
Dawn	~	Lee Anne		Matt	~	Cara
Erik	~	Kim		Michael	~	Brendan
Malcolm	~	Christi		Reynold	~	Alyssa
Phillip	~	Erin		Sharmar	~	Lauren
Francesca				Sherry	~	Pat

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: You seemed pretty appalled when Phillip announced he wouldn’t be competing for immunity. At that point, did you secretly hope that karma would come back and bite him in the butt?

JEFF PROBST: First off, some perspective… Any time Phillip says anything, anything at all, I’m interested. When he ups the stakes and declares something important or assigns a Stealth R Us name to another tribe mate, I immediately begin to zone out all other distractions. But when he shares a story of his childhood and it involves something that scarred him for life, I become 100% focused on him and only him.
Now while I most certainly have empathy for his fear of water, because it didn’t seem to bother him in earlier water challenges, I also have a healthy amount of skepticism about his true motive. Sometimes I think people just don’t think they can win and they’d rather just sit out than compete. If I had to bet my own hard earned Survivor cash, that’s what I’d bet. But let me be clear so people don’t hammer me on Twitter — I realize that I am not Phillip. I am not in his head. I am not the cells running through his body. It may very well be true that he simply cannot do certain things in the water and if that’s the case it’s a tragedy.

Did I wish instant karma? Nope. I don’t see the game that way. I never have. Karma doesn’t always play out in the 39 days. Mostly I just love it when Phillip says… or does… anything. I would like to thank Phillip for all he gave this season. There are some who think we featured him too much, some who wish he had shown more of him and still others who wish he was never on in the first place. I am firmly planted in the “love me some Phillip” camp — and I’m sorry to see him go. But boy does it open up a whole new game.

Of all your years of Survivor, where does this week’s tribal council rank on the insanity spectrum?
Ah, it’s up there for sure! I love big moves. Love them. I often reflect back on one of the great lines of cinema from the movie Wall Street. Charlie Sheen’s character is going to meet Michael Douglas. As he stands outside of his office he says to himself, “Life all comes down to a few moments and this is one of them.” The game of Survivor almost demands that you make big moves if you want to win. The key is picking the right moment… to make your move. For me, there are few greater moments than when something completely unexpected happens at tribal and changes the game. Beautiful.

Will both idols go back into play now that they’ve been played?
Good question, Ms. Shaw. We do have a method to our madness and die hard fans have probably already figured it out. So without guaranteeing anything or relating specifically to this situation — I’d say it’s a safe bet that an idol played at this point in the game will go back out.

Hints about next week! I’m curious about who will be exposed as a power player who’s possibly been hiding behind Phillip’s craziness. Who becomes the target now? The ringleader?
I’m most surprised you had no questions about the Dawn drama or the heroic gesture of humanity from Brenda. As to who is now in trouble — it’s a wide open game. I think the Three Amigos are still the obvious targets but this tribal may have opened up the crack they need to bust this game wide open.