The tribe has spoken and Brendan 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: Loved this episode, but I want to start
with a procedural question for you about the reward challenge. We saw
the purple team throw first, and the purple team was the first one to
get to four points and were then declared the winners. But shouldn’t the
orange team — since they were shown as having gone second — have been
allowed one more throw to match and tie and possibly send the contest
into another tiebreaker round? Or was there more to the competition that
didn’t make it to the final edit?
JEFF PROBST: Good eyes. That match was originally played to
five but due to so much great stuff happening in the episode we shaved
it down to four points! You bring up an important point — there are
times where we might reduce the number of total points played in a
challenge but it obviously never changes the outcome. Whoever wins,
wins. Sometimes we just have too much show and in this case, that’s a
good thing!! I love how closely you watch our show and I always love it
when you love an episode!
EW: Wow, this badass performance by Brenda in the immunity
challenge was really the first we’ve even noticed her this season since
we have barely heard two words out of the woman. What’s surprising about
that is that she was considered the big breakout character from her
previous season of Nicaragua. When you guys started putting these episodes together, were you surprised at how little she kept popping up?
PROBST: This season has been really tricky because we’ve had so
many stories dominating the tribes. First we had Shamar, straight out
of the gate being argumentative and then evacuated. Then we had Brandon
with a somewhat similar story. All along we’ve had Phillip as the leader
of Stealth R Us taking up a lot of screen time. So it’s really an issue
of real estate in the show. I think you can always argue that we don’t
include enough people in the stories and it would always be a fair
argument. We love Brenda and though she has been quiet, she is still in
the game so more opportunities to hear from her are coming!
EW: Okay, tell us your reaction when Malcolm — who is already
sitting on one hidden immunity idol of his own — convinced Reynold (who
was walking up to play the idol for himself) to give it to him instead.
PROBST: Brilliant. This is one of the big differences between
Malcolm and Ozzy, with whom he is often compared. He learned a lot from
playing the first time and he’s putting it to use. I don’t think it says
anything negative about Reynold. Reynold, Malcolm and Eddie are
scrambling, and from Reynold’s point of view it was a risky but worthy
move. I love it when Tribal gets crazy. This isn’t the last crazy Tribal
Council we’ll have!
EW: Uh-oh, previews for next week make it seem like Dawn’s
emotional roller-coaster ride continues. What can you tell us about the
next episode?
PROBST: Dawn has a very emotional situation in the next
episode. It’s a situation that I think a lot of people, if they are
truly honest with themselves, will be able to relate to. For Dawn it was
a very tough afternoon.
The tribe has spoken and Warren 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 was never a fan of the smoothie food
challenge because I felt putting the contents into liquid form toned
down the gnarly factor a bit. So I was very happy to see the contestants
back to suffering while attempting to put down the food in its original
form. But why the decision on your end to go old school as opposed to
smoothie style?
JEFF PROBST: Typically it goes like this — if we have great,
organic, unusual types of food for them to eat then we do it “old
school.” Sometimes we want to do a gross food eating but we only have
typical sea creatures like octopus or squid — not unusual enough to
warrant the old school approach so we try the smoothie. I do agree with
you however and think the smoothie approach may be retired. Once again,
Dalton Ross impacting the future of Survivor. Now if we could just get rid of that final three.
EW: If only! Now there are certain moments that are hard even
for a jaded know-it-all like myself to not enjoy. Which brings us to
Cochran’s Muhammad Ali impersonation after winning his first ever
individual immunity competition. What was your take on that and his
tribe’s reaction to it?
PROBST: I’ve never hidden my pleasure or displeasure of
individual moments. I loved it. He’s one of the most unlikely…fish out
of water…underdogs to ever play Survivor. He won an individual
immunity challenge. It doesn’t matter what kind of competition it was —
he had the necklace and nobody else did. What’s next? He scores on
Malcom in a one on one showdown? Come on! This is an epic
moment. Anybody who isn’t rooting for Cochran on some level doesn’t have
a soul. They’re soulless I tell you, soulless!
EW: Nothing against Sherri because I actually like her quite a
bit, but Corinne has been on fire these past few weeks with her
commentary. When it comes to a situation like with this last vote, on a
personal level in terms of what serves the show best, do you root for
the entertainment of the blindside or for the retention of the
entertaining player?
PROBST: Okay here’s my truth. Philosophically I don’t really
care what happens at Tribal so long as the season as a whole is going
well and since we have no control of the vote it’s silly to get worked
up about it. But from a producing point of view, for a season to go
really well we need to lose the boring people and keep the interesting
people — villains or heroes. Blindsides are always great, but if they
cost us our most memorable people then there is definitely an
invoice. So separating myself from the show and just answering as a fan
of the show, I was okay with Corinne being voted out. And with that,
you can add Corinne to the list of former players who don’t like me.
EW: I have to imagine there will be a lot more scrambling going on next week. What can you tell us about the next episode?
PROBST: One of my favorite challenges — they have to float in
the water underneath an iron grate. The water rises…the space to breathe
decreases…the panic sets in.
