Quoting from Survivor Tocantins: Premiere Recap Written by honeySC

Survivor Tocantins opens with a peek at the [spoiler] sixteen contenders [/spoilers] for the title of Sole Survivor. The group is broken into two tribes, Jalapao and Timbira. Their first task is to work together to gather in just one minute as many supplies as they can to make their life easier in the wilds of Brazil. The two tribes in just one minute empty the truck. One tribe got all the water and beans, while the other tribe has gathered no water or beans. The items must be carried four miles inland. Items include watermelon and cooking supplies, ropes, and other camp items.

Survivor TocantinsThe first twist comes immdiately when Jeff Probst, the host informs the tribes that two members will not be making the journey. Sandy is the first selected and she goes to stand next to Jeff. Timbara tribe almost unanimously votes for Sierra with only one vote going to Erinn. Sierra is upset and informs the tribes that she is on antibiotics and has a fever of 102, but is up for the game. When Jeff announces that the two chosen members will fly to the site rather than carry the camp supplies on foot, Sandy cheers. Jeff warns her that she has made a strong first impression and one of the important challenges is to work on interpersonal skills, which traveling separately won’t help.

Jalapao uses the compass to figure out where they are going. They decide to cut the trip by traveling across the land. Timbira finds that they have a lot to carry. Benjamin, a coach who also conducts a symphony, decides to share his theory of the game, which is to look for a strong opponent worthy of beating. He feels that the tribe is only as strong as its weakest link, so they must work to make the weakest stronger.

Arriving first, Sandy reads a tree mail message that tells her that she can either work on the camp to curry favor or she can search for a clue to a hidden immunity idol. Her clue leads her to the beach and she decides to search for the idol. Sierra decides to forego the search for the hidden immunity idol and begins to build the shelter for their camp. She says that first impressions last forever, but she hopes to change their first impressions by showing some of her many strengths.

Quoting from Survivor: Let’s Get Rid of the Weak Players Before We Even Start (season premiere) - TV Squad by Jackie Schnoop

(S18E01) Yep, we’re into the 18th season of Survivor. Why, it seems like it was only yesterday that Richard Hatch was wandering about Borneo naked. Now, don’t get me wrong — I’m a big fan of the show. But what can they show us that’s new and fresh after so many seasons, so many strategies? You see, I want to be entertained. I want fresh castaways, fresh locales, fresh challenges … and even fresh monkeys! After all, no season of the show is complete without a monkey. If I had my way, every reality show would have a monkey.
They’ve hyped this season as one which is all about first impressions. Okay, I can go with that. This review will be all about my first impressions of the season premiere. It’s hard to get a grasp on most of the castaways when only a handful get any real camera time in the first hour. The ones I’m leaving out are ones I really have no first impression of yet. I’ll have to wait until my second impression to give you my first impression.

The castaways

Sandy: She’s one OLD 53, isn’t she? Not only that, she’s a bit whacked and dumb as a rock all at the same time. I’m floored that anyone over the age of seven or so doesn’t know what a “pace” is. I guess it’s a good thing she’s strong and can be energetic.

Ben “Coach”: The sooner this man is out of there, the better. He doesn’t seem to get that the show is as much about surviving the interactions with the people as it is about surviving the elements. If he has his way, the alpha males will be grunting and flexing their way to the final four.

Carolina: Hmmm … a helium-voice, cowboy boots with shorts, and a need to boss everyone. That just ain’t gonna work. (And didn’t as she was the first one voted out this season.)

Quoting from reality blurred + Survivor Tocantins debuts tonight as several twists have already been revealed

Tonight at 8 p.m. ET, CBS debuts the 18th season of Survivor. Set in the Brazilian Highlands, Survivor Tocantins features a cast of 16 likable people; the most annoying among them, Sierra, has nothing on the worst of Survivor Gabon’s group.

Can Coach change Survivor forever? Will Spencer’s age help or hurt him? What about Taj’s fame or Brendan’s millions? And can cowboy JT and crazy bus driver Sandy overcome others’ negative impressions of them?

In advance of the new season, CBS has revealed a surprising number of details, including about some twists. The opening vote has been featured in several ads for the show, and in one overly dramatic preview, Probst says, “We’re going to have our first vote. One person from each tribe is not going to make this journey.”

Quoting from Survivor:Tocantins, Surviving Survivor Written by honeySC

Jeff Probst, is set to host, of Survivor: Tocantins - The Brazilian Highlands, the eighteenth installment of the Emmy Award-winning TV Show reality series premieres Thursday, February 12(8:00 - 9:00 PM ET/PT)

One of the first hurdles a fan has to cross is avoiding the spoilers that have become all to prevalent on the net.  It has become almost impossible, go to almost any fan web site and you are likely to find spoilers.  Why these people post spoilers beats me, don’t they appreciate they are spoiling the fun for many fans that just want to enjoy the show?

Survivor has morphed over the years, some it has been good and some of it really bad.  This season the morphing continues with a new twist. Prior to the tribes embarking on a grueling first challenge where they have the opportunity to impress their tribe mates, the castaways are faced with a surprise vote based solely on first impressions.

It is understood the hidden ‘immunity idols’ will play a significant roll in Survivor Tocantins’ first episode.

Quoting from Survivor: Tocantins - Completely Arbitrary Pre-Season Predicitions, 16-9

Still the best reality show on TV (save any arguments you might have – if you disagree, you are wrong), Survivor: Tocantins boasts an intriguing cast of beautiful people, seemingly likable people, along with a few wild cards.  We have a Grammy nominee, the wife of a former NFL running back, a couple of models, a multi-millionaire and a bona fide cougar. With mere days before the premiere, it is that time again for I, Oscar Dahl, to make some totally arbitrary pre-season predictions.  I’ve long been in the prognostication business, and though my failures have been miserable and fairly well-documented, I will not give up.  I will never surrender.  I think Jeff Probst would approve. 

#16 – Sandy Brugin – Jalapao Tribe

Sandy on Survivor Tocantins

#15 – Sierra Reed – Timbira Tribe

Sierra on Survivor Tocantins

Quoting from Survivor: Tocantins - Completely Arbitrary Pre-Season Predictions, 8-1

When making silly Survivor predictions, as I have done below with Survivor: Tocantins, it is important to remember that making large, sweeping judgments about people you know little to nothing about is the most desirable path.  Someone’s photo rubs you the wrong way?  They are clearly a terrible human being.  You think one of the girls is hot?  Well, you should predict her to make it deep into the game, if only for the sake of wishful thinking.  Now that I’ve let you into a few of my secrets for Survivor predicting, let’s get on with it.  To The Predictions: Part 2.

Candace on Survivor Tocantins

Candace is a model/event planner (probably a graduate of UC-Irvine’s vaunted School of Modeling and Events) who one could only describe as “bosomy.”  I don’t have a great read on her, but it looks like she may have athleticism on her side.  She seems like a lone wolf, perhaps capable of playing things up behind the scenes.  She’ll be caught eventually, and will be one of the first to go after the merge.  

#7 – James Thomas Jr. - Jalapao

James Thomas on Survivor Tocantins

Quoting from The ‘Survivor’ and ‘Amazing Race’ Guide to Dealing with the Economy

Survivor: Tocantins kicks off the reality treats at 8pm Thursday on CBS by placing 16 castaways in the wilds of the Brazilian Highlands. Even before they can meet and make alliances that can carry them past the merge, these unsuspecting souls get divvied up into two separate tribes and immediately have to cut two tribe members.

It’s sort of like the last round of layoffs at any given work place. The tribe has spoken - now let the security guard waltz you off the premises. No, we don’t care that you weren’t given a shot at proving your worth, we just need you to be elsewhere. And don’t try to grab any E-Bay worthy souvenirs on your way out of the jungle.

That’s life in the downsized lane. But maybe they are just getting a work furlough. A little note in the press release mentions that “one person from each tribe will be chosen to remain behind and will not continue with their group on the journey that lies ahead. Will this mean the end for these two individuals or will they get a second chance to make a first impression?”

Interesting.

We all know what happens when people come back after getting the boot. There’s a collective foot stomping amid cries of “This isn’t fair.” Oh, we know what isn’t fair my friend. It’s watching the banking industry take our hard earned dollars and whizz it away on bonuses for people who think that nothing less than a million dollar addition to their pay is even worth the effort to cash the check.

Quoting from reality blurred + Spencer Duhm: “I want to be a follower, because that way they just overlook me”

When discussing his strategy, he talked about how Brian on Survivor Thailand “was able to manipulate” those around him, but said that’s not always possible. “You get a season like last season [Micronesia], where everybody seems to think they’re a target, they’ll flip left and right. It really depends upon the people you’re with; it’s really luck of the draw that way, but it also probably depends upon how well you can manipulate people. I don’t know. I’ve never been in a situation where I had to manipulate people,” he said. “I could be screwed in Survivor.”

As a superfan, Spencer has strong feelings on a number of contestants. He admires Rob Cesternino, but said Rob’s “one person I know I won’t be like but it would be incredible if I was like him” because Rob “was very witty, he had great one-liners, and he had the ability to convince anybody that he was suddenly on their side after betraying them the rest of the season. I don’t know if i could do that, but I would be honored to be compared to him.” He also respects Todd’s game play, and Spencer told me that he would like to have “one person you can trust, loosely. … You can’t ever completely trust somebody, but you want to have somebody that you can work with to kind of watch their back, you watch theirs.”

He wanted Cirie to win Survivor Micronesia and said Johnny Fairplay was on for “one episode too many.” As to its winner, Parvati, he said, “It’s not that I don’t like her … I just feel like, after seeing how she played the first season, it was hard to get that out of my head. I appreciate what she did the second season, but it seemed like she was sort of reckless.” Spencer also said “Chet was just pathetic,” and “I think Eliza’s hilarious. I love when she rolls her eyes; I love her big reactions. I hope I wouldn’t do that, but I love to watch that, and I agree with everything she did. And I hate Ozzy. I don’t like Ozzy. My mom loved him. He feels entitled to things, especially last season.”

Quoting from Metro - On set with ‘Survivor: Tocantins’

 “Survivor” returns to Brazil for its 18th season, but it’s not the tropical Brazil from “Survivor Amazon.”

Instead, “Survivor Tocantins” takes place in brutal high desert conditions that make equatorial African Gabon, which hosted last season, seem even more like Eden.

On the morning production began last fall, temperatures were around 110 degrees, and it was brutally hot — even for those of us standing under a tent, waiting to watch the 16 contestants be marooned and have their surprising first vote based only upon their first impressions of one another. After that, contestants had to hike for hours to their camps as the heat only got more intense. But at least they’ll have torrential downpours to cool them off, along with a river. The Rio Novo will host many of the challenges and flows past both tribes’ camps.

Quoting from Illness creates opportunity for youngest ‘Survivor’ : TV : The Rocky Mountain News

Spencer on Survivor Tocantins

When a medical condition forced one cast member to drop out, Duhm became the youngest person ever to compete on Survivor, the culmination of his near-obsessive passion for the show since age 11.

“I was like a 5-year-old on Christmas morning . . . I basically said, ‘(forget) school,’ ” said Duhm, who is already back at classes in Gainesville, waiting for the show to debut Thursday.

“It’s a mental game and a physical game, which made it one of the toughest things you could do. I really wanted to do it myself and see what I could do.”

Quoting from By Mark Washburn

Season premiere at 8 p.m. Thursday.

Jerry on Survivor Tocantins

Sims, 49, of Rock Hill is one of 16 contestants on the popular CBS reality series, which returns for its 18th installment Thursday.

He’ll mark 27 years of service in the S.C. National Guard this year, an experience that he says came in handy during taping of the show, set in the Brazilian highlands.

“The military teaches us a lot of outdoor survival skills and I’ve developed a skill to relate to anybody,” says Sims, a first sergeant in the 1222 Engineering Battalion in Rock Hill.

Sims says to be successful in “Survivor,” which offers a $1 million prize to the winner, you need physical ability, mental strength and social skills.

“You can be a Hulk Hogan-type person, but if you don’t have social skills, you’re not going to last too long.”

Sims, a native of York, S.C., grew up on a chicken farm, one of 10 children in his family. He graduated from York Comprehensive High School in 1978. He and his wife of 25 years, Valerie, have two grown children. His full-time job is operations specialist at Duke Energy’s Catawba Nuclear Station.

Quoting from JG-TC.com > Features > EIU alumna to be on ‘Survivor’

Debbie on Survivor Tocantins

“They were led to believe I was going to take leave without pay in order to visit other countries to examine their school systems,” Beebe said. “Luckily, (the board members) trust me. They thought I was out to change the world.”

And why wouldn’t they? Beebe, a 1985 graduate of Eastern Illinois University, had been employed in the Auburn school district for 16 years, working her way from junior high physical education teacher to principal of J.F. Drake Middle School. In addition, she was named Alabama’s 2007-2008 middle school principal of the year by the National Association of Secondary School Principals.

There was absolutely no reason for board members to suspect that their valued employee was, in reality, competing against 15 other individuals in Brazil for the title of “Sole Survivor.”

“I had no choice,” Beebe said about her lie. “We were forbidden to tell anyone.”

So how did the board react when they found out the truth?

“They laughed. They know me, and they know I’m a little out there. And that means they never know what I’m going to do next,” Beebe said, chuckling.

Quoting from Lakeland Native Ready to Shine When ‘Survivor’ Begins | theledger.com | The Ledger | Lakeland, FL

Spencer on Survivor Tocantins

“I’m going to be the answer to a trivia question pretty soon,” Duhm said last week at his parents’ home in Lakeland. “I’m pretty excited about that.”

Those who know him say excitement comes readily to Duhm, a 2007 graduate of Bartow’s International Baccalaureate School and now a sophomore telecommunications major at the University of Florida.

His early enthusiasm for “Survivor” reflected his intense personality. “Whatever he likes, he likes intensely,” Cindy Duhm said.

Quoting from Duhm Wary of Being Defined by His Sexuality | theledger.com | The Ledger | Lakeland, FL

Spencer on Survivor Tocantins

Duhm, 20, projects mixed feelings about being included in that list. Though open about his orientation with his family and friends, he is wary of being pigeonholed as “the gay guy.” He said it bothered him to hear show host Jeff Probst summarize Herzog at the beginning of the China series as “the gay flight attendant.”

“It’s inevitable that somebody will do that,” Duhm said. “The bios come out before anybody’s seen anything, and (fans are) going to say, ‘You’re the black one. You’re the old woman.’ I didn’t want people on TV right off the bat to go, ‘OK, here’s our homo.’”

Duhm said he’d rather be known as the young guy or the “Survivor” fanatic. In reality, though, a Google search on the word combination “Spencer Survivor gay” already turns up 798,000 hits, before the first episode has even aired.

Quoting from SBU Soccer Coach Takes on “Survivor”

Ben Wade on Survivor Tocantins

    Going into the game, Coach decided not to go to survivor school, and he certainly didn’t pack on the pounds. “You only have one chance to make a first impression,” insists Wade, “and my first impression on Survivor was not going to be somebody that was fat, I’m a soccer coach, I gotta look in shape.”

    He says he can’t wait to show 13 million viewers what kind of shape this soccer coach is in. “Of course I like watching myself, I’m a type A personality! I’m in front of people all the time, I like performing,” says Wade. “It sounds trite, and it sounds arrogant, and I’m going to throw fuel to the fire to all of the people who think I’m narcissistic, but I feel like I’ve always been famous.”

Quoting from reality blurred + Candace Smith: “I don’t want my strength or confidence to be blatant”

Candace laughed at CBS bio’s description of her as “brutally honest” and “a total bitch,” but said they’re accurate. However, she added, “I’m not planning on coming out of the gate as a ruthless bitch everyone hates. It’s going to be subtle. I don’t want my strength or confidence to be blatant; I want it to be subtle.” There are other strengths she brings to the game, too. “I can be a diplomat, I can negotiate. I think that I’m pretty analytical, I know how to reason with people very well. Some people may look at that as manipulating. Maybe. Who cares?” Candace said.

As to her fellow competitors, she was already annoyed by some, like the people who were “cutting lines, spilling stuff and not picking it up. I notice everything and little things like that says something: lack of respect, lack of consideration. Will that wear on me and will I end up sticking my foot in my mouth? Probably. Probably.”

That will challenge her in the game, as Candace said that “some people’s air of entitlement is going to be hard for me—and I’m getting a little deep here, I don’t know if you mind—but I’ve noticed in past seasons that sometimes people who’ve had to endure more in their life have a more difficult time in this environment because people who haven’t had to experience much, it becomes really obvious in an environment like this.” That’s one of her challenges in the game: “I know that’s going to be really hard for me … to deal with the people who’ve been sheltered and babied their entire life.”

Quoting from reality blurred + Sierra Reed: “I’ll be the most opinionated one”

But from all that, she learned how to manipulate younger Survivor contestants. “The younger they are, the better, because the less of a guard they have, the less jaded they are,” Sierra said. “It happened to me; it goes in a full circle.” However, she then lamented a recent example of older contestants manipulating a young one, when Erik gave up immunity. “That’s because he has heart. Fuck. At that moment, right there, I don’t think I could have taken it from him, knowing that we would backstab him. I couldn’t,” she said.

When I asked her what lines she wouldn’t cross, Sierra gave an excellent example of the way she contradicts herself a lot, or at least rationalizes her contradictions. She told me, “The lines that I won’t cross are, people who worked hard for shit like that, who worked their ass off, and you’re going to go fuck them over? I don’t know if I could do it. I guess I’m going to have to do it and it sucks, but it’s going to hurt. It’s not who I am fully. I have definitely been a manipulator since I was a kid. I wouldn’t call it manipulation, I would call it knowing how to play her cards.”

In other words: She won’t cross that line until she does; she’s not that person but she’s a manipulator; but what she does isn’t manipulation. What?

Quoting from reality blurred + Taj Johnson-George: “I’ll [be nurturing] while I stab them all in the back–they’ll love me for it”

Taj was recruited because “they were casting for an NFL wife; I fit the profile” mentioned in an e.mail sent to NFL teams that was forwarded to her and that she responded to. She didn’t hesitate to do Survivor—even though “I’ve never watched an episode before in my life; never,” she said. Ironically, fellow SWV member “Coko loves Survivor; she’s watched every episode, I’ve never watched a show in my life,” Taj said, noting that SWV’s members “support me completely.”

Why be on Survivor Tocantins? “I just think it’s a great show. In this age where reality is just ridiculous right now, I don’t want to watch it because it’s buffoonery,” she told me. “When I got the call to be on this show, I didn’t feel I would be jeopardizing my reputation or doing anything foolish by coming out here, or looking like a fool for participating. This is real. I think I’ll probably gain respect once I win—because I’m winning this.”

As you can see, she’s very competitive, and said that she and her husband “compete over everything. We race to the bathroom.” Her husband helped her to prepared for the show by running and lifting weights; he also “took me to a sweat” to prepared for the heat,” Taj said. She also impressively learned how to both fish and swim just because she was going to be on Survivor.

Quoting from reality blurred + Stephen Fishbach: my “goofy, benign demeanor” is “going to serve me very well”

Stephen worried that he may have been “coming off as too geeky” in front of the other contestants, and the Yale-educated corporate speechwriter and marketing consultant also fears he might run up against the other contestants’ “anti-Ivy bias” and “anti-elitist” sentiments, although Stephen said his job “seems like such an unimpressive job that I’m definitely going to mention it.” He does sound somewhat academic and is obviously smart, but there’s no arrogance or elitism at all, and that’s part of what makes him so engaging.

He’s also straightforward and seems incapable of being fake, and honesty is part of that. “I’ve always thought that people who went on reality shows were idiots, because you have no control over your own image,” Stephen said. “And I’m obviously afraid of that; I’m sure everyone’s afraid of that.” He cited the part of the contract that “even explicitly says they can make you look stupid if they want, which is kind of incredible that they include that line.”

So why did he sign such a contract? Stephen was “recruited a week before the final round” when someone who worked in casting (who knew him when they were kids) saw his picture on Facebook and said “we need his type,” Stephen said. Although he initially thought “absolutely not” and simply “went through with it on a lark,” the “opportunity it presented” was something he “couldn’t possibly turn down.”

Quoting from reality blurred + Brendan Synnott: “I want to win; when I play games, I love to win”

Brendan’s cautiousness came into play as he answered a few questions When I asked him about impressions of others, he said he has a “pretty good sense of how pecking orders work and how personalities are,” but although I asked multiple times, he wouldn’t identify those people, and eventually cited the rules about not communicating with others (“I don’t think we’re supposed to do that”).

However, he went on to say that pre-judging others would be a bad idea, as would having “too much of a game plan, because ultimately if you stick to that, and you’re blind to what you should be doing, then I don’t think you’re going to get the right outcome.” He said that “so much of it’s just reading people, and how you play the game’s going to depend upon the dynamic you enter into depending upon what your tribe looks like.”

While he said “I like to take leadership roles,” whether or not he steps up as a leader “depends upon the dynamic of the tribe.” Still, Brendan insisted, “if I need to be [a leader], I will; I don’t have a problem with it.” Brendan also told me, “I think the best strategy is to make your tribe as comfortable as possible and provide leadership where they need it, and to ultimately win the immunity challenges where you can.” He’s not worried about the physical challenges (“I’m pretty confident in that part of my game”), but “[doesn’t] want to seem threatening, I guess.”