Pedro and the Watcher - OCRegister.com posted by The Watcher

Here’s the news the Watcher desperately didn’t want to pass along: It’s all but official that the 16th season of “Survivor” will be the second All-Star extravaganza.

Or perhaps we should call it “Survivor: Second Chance,” as the lineup may be a little light in the star department.

Everything is still in the rumor stages, but with filming under way in Palau, all indications are that the cast will be made up of familiar faces - at least in part.

According to several reports, producer Mark Burnett’s team and CBS execs debated whether to cast all second-timers or to pit returners against rookies. The results of that debate remain unclear.

So far, the only participant to be named by multiple reliable sources is Eliza Orlins, the charming chatterbox who made the final four of Vanuatu.

One of the best sources of information about the season has been ex-castaway Coby Archa. You may recall Coby as a member of the highly successful Koror tribe on “Survivor: Palau” - and as the only juror that season to vote for runner-up Katie Gallagher rather than winner Tom Westman.

According to posts by Coby on the fanatics chat board Survivor Sucks, many of the people we might think would be shoo-ins for an all-star cast will not be there - including all the winners and such popular also rans as Ian Rosenberger, Terry Dietz, Cirie Fields or Rafe Judkins.

Two names continually popping up are two bad boys: Jonathan Penner from Cook Islands and - gulp - Jon Dalton from Pearl Islands. We must point out that most reports limit the stars to seasons 9-15, and Dalton appeared in season seven. But if there was ever a castaway for whom an exception should be made, it’s Johnny Fairplay.

Our forums have been pretty upset with the last two episodes also. What do you think? Are they idiots? or clever? Tell us.

Survivor: China - James, Peih-Gee and Jaime - Reader Reactions -Oscar Dahl, BuddyTV Senior Writer

Survivor: China has been through a tumultuous two weeks, creating a large schism among viewers or at least among BuddyTV readers and generating heated discussion. First, Peih-Gee Law and Jaime successfully threw a challenge and voted off Aaron Reisberger, who previously seemed poised for a long run on Survivor: China. James Clement appeared next in line to fall victim to Jaime and Peih-Gees next thrown challenge, but fate smiled upon the grave digger. In a sudden turn of events, James was kidnapped, Todd found the hidden immunity idol and Peih-Gee/Jaime decided not to throw their next challenge. Todd and James made a deal, Todd giving the James the immunity idol and James half-heartedly tried to throw his challenge, but couldnt go through with it and led his team to victory. Eventually, it was Sherea who was voted out, but the discussion among fans revolved around the relative merits of Jaime, Peih-Gee and James strategies. More… »

The girl with attitude goes home tonight when the twist is twisted. James is kidnapped back home, where he gives the clue to Todd, who then finds the immunity idol and gives it to James. The plan is for James to throw the immunity challenge, have the stupid girls all vote for James, so he can pull out the immunity idol and send one of them home. Denise can’t get down the chick embryo with feathers in the gross food challenge, so the plan fails. The votes comes down to JR or Sherea. She’s one the of the “others” and Courtney is her only friend, so she’s tapped to go home. Attitude to the end.

AK Survivor Rant - the Rant - my way or the highway

Man, has that girl got a tude or what? I’d had enough of her going all silent and then - WHAM - eruption. Sherea’s got one major nasty case of the bad attitude. I was glad to see her go. Her head bobbing and weaving had worn slick on me. I don’t remember my school teachers being like that. Hey - I hope they have large tops back at the CBS hotel - for goodness sakes cover yourself.

James could not throw it. As hard as he tried, he could not throw the challenge. Like I said in my last post - he’s old school Survivor. He now has some life left - with the help of Scott’s Boy Todd. That little weasel may prove to be a good player after all. I won’t go as far to say - good pick - but he has some potential.

Amanda is running the ship if you ask me. She may be letting Todd think that, but she had her mind up on who she was voting out and you will notice what they all did? Voted her way. Hot and powerful. Daddy like.

I am looking forward to the day when Pei-Wei or whatever her name is - goes to the house. The tribe has spoken - goodnight - that’s what I want to hear as Jeff snuffs out her freakin’ torch. She’s really getting on my nerves. I don’t often get someone under my skin like this - but she’s done it. More… »

Go to BuddyTV for the .mp3 file.

Exclusive Interview: Sherea Lloyd of Survivor: China - Gina Scarpa, BuddyTV Staff Writer

On this week’s episode of Survivor: China, Fei Long helped James find the immunity idol so that Zhan Hu could throw the elimination challenge and James could get rid of one of them. Unfortunately, thanks to a tough eating challenge, things didn’t go according to plan. Fei Long ended up winning immunity and had to decide to vote someone off. Todd’s alliance made a plan to get rid of Sherea while she and Courtney lobbied to get rid of Jean Robert. Though Todd wavered for a minute before tribal council, his alliance stayed true to each other, and got rid of Sherea, who was an original Zhan Hu member. Today, Sherea talked to BuddyTV about whether or not she ignored Peih-Gee at the reward challenge and whose side she was really on.

Below, you will find the complete transcript and mp3 of the interview.

Hey everybody, this is Gina from BuddyTV and I’m talking to Sherea from Survivor: China.

Good morning.

Can you tell me if you were a fan of Survivor in the past? Have you watched if before?

Yes, actually that’s the greatest part about it, that I’ve been a fan since the first season.

Yeah, there’s some people who go on the show who have not really seen it, and then there’s people like Todd who are obsessed with it. Does it help you to have watched the show over the years?

You know, it did help me to watch the show. But watching it and being out there are two different things, you never know what you’re really getting into. They show the good stuff on TV, but it actually is really hard and it’s very real.

How did you feel on the Zhan Hu tribe in the beginning?

In the beginning of the Zhan Hu tribe, I was very excited about the people that I had on my team. I was like, “Yeah, I have the young people on my team.” A couple of them, anyway. And I had Jaime and people like that, that I had spotted ahead of time. So I was really happy about my team, at first. More… »

Survivor: China: Week 6 Recap: Perfect Plan … Genius Idea … Smashed. « Channel Guide Magazine by Zhillbear

This episode had: Schemes! Thwarted schemes! Nudity! Product placement! Snarky quotes! Brutal honesty! The eating and spitting up of gross food! Even a commercial showing an animated bear getting scraps of toilet paper (Charmin Ultra Strong toilet paper — as used by the Survivors!) vacuumed off his butt! Behold — reality TV at its finest:

* Todd tells Amanda that there’s a hidden immunity idol, and that he knows three clues as to its location.

* The Fei Long tribe wins the reward challenge and kidnaps former tribemate James. On the reward (which takes place at the Charmin TeaHouse. This inspires me to start calling my bathroom the Charmin PeeHouse), Jean-Robert comes off as crude by commenting on how he’d like to jump in the tub that Courtney and Amanda are in, while James remains dignified even when showing his butt while showering.

* Todd convinces James to give him the fourth clue for the immunity idol, and Todd now realizes where it is. I’ll use Todd’s words to describe its location: “It’s those stupid bats above the freakin’ thing!” More… »

Blog Cabins: Insanely Important Film Reviews: Survivor: China - Episode 6 Recap

Say what you will about the lame special effects and questionable moves made by the producers (I surely have), but you or I would be hard-pressed to complain that this has been a boring season of Survivor. Generally, the show holds your interest for the first two shows as you’re trying to get to know who the hell these 16 (or 18 or 20) people are, but it slows down to a snails pace up until about the time the jury is formed. In that limbo period, you kind of already know who you do or don’t like, but the alliances have yet to be formed and not much wildly shocking happens.

And that hasn’t necessarily happened this time, either. But I guess having such a high number of strong personalities can indeed make the show better (who’da thunk it?). That’s not to say that I like them all, just that they’ve been hard to ignore. Whether it’s been DJ Jesus (Sister Christian Leslie) ingratiating herself to everyone in the first five minutes, or Jean-Robert slowly destroying the wills of his tribe mates and the audience with his snoring and self-congratulatory speech, or Courtney’s inborn ability to piss off the world with her upturned nose, a number of contestants are hard to miss (Lunchlady Land obviously excluded).

As for tonight’s episode, we start off where we left off last week, with John Coffey (James) stuck in hell (aka Zhan Hu) with PG, Jamie and Erik, just waiting for them to throw another challenge and knock him out as well. But then… More… »

Survivor China: Episode 6, “Thats Love, Baby It Makes You Strong” Live Thoughts - Gina Scarpa, BuddyTV Staff Writer

It’s been one week since Jaime and PG hatched a dirty plan to throw the immunity challenge on Survivor: China in order to get rid of Aaron. I’m still steaming. Judging from tonight’s previews, it seems PG isn’t quite done playing dirty yet. If James goes home, I’m going to have some serious bones to pick! Erik needs to step up and play a clean game. Somehow, I think it’s a lost cause. Tonight’s episode will be a hard one to stomach as the contestants must eat Chinese delicacies but I could barely watch the commercial. With my eyes mostly covered, I’ll be here for the next hour doing live thoughts so keep refreshing and post your thoughts, too!

PG talks about throwing another immunity challenge. Really? Two in a row? What kind of tv is that if tribes are just going to throw every challenge? James does all the work around camp to try to prove how valuable he is. The only problem is: they got along without him before and they probably can after. He’s in trouble. More… »

Reality News Online by David Bloomberg

It’s like rain on your wedding day. It’s a free ride when you’ve already paid. It’s the good advice that you just didn’t take. Who would’ve thought? It figures. Well, maybe it doesn’t figure. How does irony turn the game upside down? Who is saved by it? Who suffers?

Last week, the original Zhan Hu members decided to throw the immunity challenge and boot off the newbies (well, technically Erik didn’t take part in the throwing, but he went along with the plan once he was told about it). And so, Aaron was sent packing. Will the plan continue with another thrown challenge and James being voted out? Or will he find a way to overcome it? Let’s find out! More… »

Giving a hoot about balut on Survivor: China - It Happened Last Night - Zap2it By Daniel Fienberg

World Series game? A Top 10 college football match-up? A gross foods eating challenge on Survivor: China? Gosh! Thursday (Oct. 25) night’s TV has something for everybody.

Pre-credit sequence. It’s early morning at Zhan Hu and fixers Jaime and Peih-Gee are still resting, as James putters about the camp. Peih-Gee is convinced that throwing the last immunity challenge was the right decision. Not only that, but she’s ready to throw the next challenge as well. Then she figures they’ll boot James and pray for a merge. Is anybody else praying that the merge doesn’t happen at 10 and that Zhan Hu has to compete with their weakened team? I sure am. James, unclear on the concept of “fixing,” is working extra hard so that nobody on his team can complain about being tired in their upcoming challenges.

Sharing is caring. With Jean-Robert doing his usual snoring at the shelter, Todd calls Amanda aside. He has three clues now for the hidden Immunity Idol, but he’s utterly flummoxed and needs some help. Amanda is more than happy to lend a hand, or a brain. For a self-professed master of Survivor strategy, Todd isn’t all that clever. More… »

Aaron Goes Home As Jaime and Peih Gee Throw The Challenge. I can not believe the the tribe with 5 members threw a challenge against the tribe with 7 members. Tonight had each tribe swapping two members to the other tribe. Their logic was to get rid of the members that were originally on the other tribe now, so that when the merge happened, they would be at 5 to 5 original members. That works only if the other tribe gets rid of their “others” also and if the merge happens at the right time.

Stupid, stupid girls. They both need to go home. Read more details below.

Survivor China: Episode 5, “Love Is In The Air” Live Thoughts - Gina Scarpa, BuddyTV Staff Writer

On tonights episode of Survivor, love blossoms between two tribe members and perhaps its Jaime and Erik, as Dave told us in his BuddyTV interview last week. It must be since the romance leads to the revelation that an idol exists, which Jaime knows about. Time for some live thoughts so keep refreshing and post what you think, too

Heres the love connection and indeed, it is Jaime and Erik. They learn about each other and then tell them how much they like each other. What? Eriks a virgin? Thats surprising. Jaime repays the secret by telling him that theres an immunity idol.

Something must be in the air in China because James just said that if Denise was a few years younger, shed be in trouble. She just said shes happy to ride his coat tails all the way through the game. Ugh, I hate people who ride coat tails. More… »

A showmance and a fix on Survivor: China - It Happened Last Night - Zap2it By Daniel Fienberg

Jaimedugan_survivor_china_240I’m not a Survivor purist necessarily, but I do think there’s a right way, a wrong way and a right-wrong way to play the game. Thursday (Oct. 18) night’s Survivor: China provided me with several players to root against for the rest of the season.

Pre-Credit sequence. Like the lounging stock footage panda (probably photographed at the San Diego Zoo), the remaining members of Zhan Hu are just chillaxin’ now that Dave’s reign of hard-working terror is over. Explaining the new ethic around the tribe, Sherea says, “We sleep late and then we have a lot of relaxation time.” Although Sherea may have survived last week’s Tribal Council, though, her position is far from stable. The other four members of the tribe are cliquishly strategizing, while Sherea shows off her armpits to the camera and prays for a change to come in the game.

Virgin territory. Jaime and Eric are in loooove and it’s like totally meant to be. Eric’s middle name is Taylor, which is awesome, because Jaime once had a friend named Taylor! Jaime’s middle name is Nicole, which rules, because Eric’s neighbor’s high school boyfriend had a hunting dog named Nicole. Kismet, maybe! Eric is feeling so open with his new BFF that he tells her that he’s a virgin. She’s clearly perplexed — he says he just hasn’t met the right person — but she views this as a sign that he’s trustworthy. She doesn’t detail her sexual history, instead playing for his trust by telling him about the hidden Idol. More… »

Survivor China: Recap October 18, 2007 by honeySC

On day 13, twelve are left. Sherea says that she had the best sleep ever and is not at all concerned that she slept late. Frosti feels that they should have a strong team now, but Fei Long works well together and they are very strong. Peih Gee thinks that James is their strongest player and it doesn’t help that he is on the other team.

Jaime spends time with Jaime and they share intimate details of their lives. Erik tells her that he is a virgin because he wants to share that with someone he really cares about. Jaime is interested. She shares what she knows about the immunity idol, and lets him know how they get their clues.

James thinks that Denise is attractive because she works well and they have similar work ethics. Denise says that she knows she can trust him. James is doing the fishing and the cooking. They get a message delivered.

Fei Long is delivered a message by boat from the Chinese boatman and they are told to choose two warriors from the opposing tribe to join them. They are told to choose people who would do well in challenges and work well in their tribe. They choose Frosti and Sherea. More… »

Crazy Dave, Former Model, Voted Off

Apparently being hard working and annoying is worse than being lazy and annoying.

His final words? Dave says that he “was humble and offered a lot to the tribe”. There are “pieces of him that are priceless”. Yeah, Dave. You’re a humble guy.

AK Survivor Rant Posted by: AK in Survivor

Maybe it was the dancing around camp that rubbed people the wrong way. Maybe it was his over the top bossy nature. Maybe it was the way he talked down to people. I am not sure what it was - but Dave was crazy. To top it off - Dave was a hugger. It’s like 1,000 degrees out there with no showers - no hugs Dave. I wouldn’t even want a side hug - just don’t touch me already. All that was a big strange. He lists his occupation on the CBS website as a “former model”. That is really not a job Dave - that’s a former job. I think Dave suffers from an identity crisis. Check out the bio - he’s now a bartender but has previously worked in construction, advertising and as a model/actor, having lived in South Africa for an extended period of time. He attended one year of college at Moorpark Community College and one quarter at ITT studying computer drafting. That is quite a jump. From “hand me the styling brush” to “hand me a protractor”. Dave - I won’t miss you. I guess computer drafting does not involve protractors huh?

I was happy to see Courtney could lift the helmet during the Chinese warrior challenge. I mean, if that helmet does not go on she could lose an eye. I also saw her throws never made it past the other team’s line. Wow - big surprise there. At least her bones held up - being a bone rack and all. More… »

This guy is hilarious.

Survivor…Im Not talking about the guys who sang Eye of the Tiger

Man, I love this show. It’s so full of the things I love – like action and humor and suspense and heart…and there is always a lesson somewhere. You can always walk away from it having learned something. And, I don’t know, I just feel so connected to everyone on it. Whenever the credits roll, I find myself already awaiting the next installment. Plus, it has a robot. Oh, hey…I didn’t see you there. I was just watching an episode of Riptide. Survivor? Oh no, that show is god awful. Riptide, though. Man, Riptide is da bomb. Riptide. ROBOZ!!!111

The show last night opened with the early morning goings-on at the Fei Long camp. Jerk-Fatgut was all happy about not going home the night before at tribal council. He feels like he has really stepped up his work ethic and that people are seeing that. What am I seeing? The blur above his waistband. Eww. Jerk-Fatgut? More like…oh wait, Jerk-Fatgut fits pretty good here. Also, he pissed Ally McAnnoying off by yelling at her to NOT BURN HERSELF! Yeah, she almost burned herself on a pot, so JF warned her not to touch it. So she wouldn’t burn herself. Be careful, Jerk-Fatgut. She seems full of defiance. I heard her Dad once yelled at her to eat a cheeseburger and we all can see how that turned out. I wish someone would yell at her to stop being alive. More… »

Survivor China: Recap October 11, 2007 by honeySC

It is day 10 on Survivor China and Jean Robert feels confident that although he barely escaped eviction, he is stepping it up. He feels that Courtney will always be in line ahead of him to go. Courtney says that she doesn’t give a crap about who goes as long as it isn’t her, but Jean Robert gets in her face and she is sick of it, and wouldn’t mind if he is the next to go. Day 10 on Survivor China is full of conflict.

At Zhan Hu they discover that their rice has molded, and they pick through it to save the rice that has no mold. Sherea and Dave have words when Dave asks Sherea not to get rid of the other rice, that he will take care of it. When Sherea is asked by Dave to not toss the oysters she gets upset and won’t let him run over her. Frosti tells Dave that although he has done a lot of good stuff for the tribe, but he is rubbing everyone the wrong way. Frosti is concerned that Crazy Dave has worn out his welcome at Survivor China. More… »

Survivor China: Episode 4, “Ride The Workhorse Till The Tail Falls Off” Live Thoughts - Gina Scarpa, BuddyTV Staff Writer

On last week’s episode of Survivor: China, Zhan Hu won both their reward and immunity challenges. For their reward challenge, they won kerosene, rope, pillows, and a tarp. Fei Long was sent to tribal council and it came down to Jean Robert or Leslie for elimination. Fei Long chose to send Leslie, the Christian radio host, home.

It’s time for a new episode of Survivor, and I’m here with live thoughts for the hour! Feel free to post your thoughts during the hour and we’ll see whose torch goes out tonight.

Jean Robert kicks his plan into gear and starts helping out around camp. Maybe some of his tribe members notice, but Courtney isn’t falling for it. More… »

It Happened Last Night - Zap2it By Daniel Fienberg

We’re a month into Survivor: China now and every episode has come down to tight votes between two equally annoying castaways. Thursday (Oct. 11) night is no different.

Pre-Credit sequence. Courtney doesn’t like Jean-Robert. Jean-Robert doesn’t like Courtney. Yawn. Really, Survivor producers! You’re going to have to do better if you want to prevent Ugly Betty migration. Has Lunch Lady Denise said a word on camera since the premiere? I imagine this is one of those situations like with Darrah from Survivor: Pearl Island, whose Mississippi accent was so thick that they edited around her for weeks at a time.

Also from the ‘No Duh’ department. The warm feelings between Courtney and Jean-Robert are nothing compared to the bad blood between Dave and Sherea. At least the Fei Long rivalry is based on a mature set of differences — She’s a snarky little weakling, he’s a giant, snoring mule. Dave and Sherea just like to bicker for no reason. Dave doesn’t like the way Sherea separates moldy rice. Dave doesn’t like the way Sherea ignores him when he asks her not to throw out his shell collection (Shell collection?!?!?). Dave thinks Sherea’s the one people will blame until Frosti assures him that they hate him too. “Crazy Dave may have just worn out his welcome,” Frosti says. More… »