Survivor: Nicaragua Roundtable Part One
By BOP Staff
September 15, 2010
BoxOfficeProphets.com
Kim Hollis: I think we all agree that the upcoming season of Survivor (beginning Wednesday, September 15th) faces the same difficulty that Top Chef has had this season. The prior season of the show offered such spectacular television that a new season is going to pale in comparison. Now that you know the concept for Survivor: Nicaragua - Old vs. Young - how much does this concept engage you?
Jim Van Nest: After last season, I'm a little disappointed that the best they could come up with for a follow-up was "Old vs Young." However, they made one brilliant move in casting, if he can hang around. Jimmy Johnson has the potential to make this a fantastic season, if he can find a way to stay alive.
They've had rich guys on the show before and semi-famous people (Hogeboom, Taj George)...but they've never had someone that is very rich and very famous. There's no way to hide that you're Jimmy Johnson. So, I'm very interested to see what this casting choice does to the dynamic of the show, if anything at all.
Unfortunately, there is little to no chance that it lives up to Heroes vs. Villains...and I think we should all be ready for a slight disappointment in Nicaragua.
Kim Hollis: Like Jim, I think it's going to be very difficult to live up to the very, very high standard set by Heroes and Villains. My main problem with this upcoming season is that we have to do the recaps for it on Wednesday night, which means it's going to conflict with my only two shows that are actually "watch it now TV" in Modern Family and Cougar Town. Thus, I'm already resenting this season of Survivor just a little bit. Okay, a lot.
With that said, there is no Russell, which can only be a good thing as far as I'm concerned. I just hope people don't try to emulate him. As far as this season's "theme," while I do feel like they were probably looking for a theme just to have a theme, it does seem to be the way the show probably should have moved naturally. Every season, the young whippersnappers vote out the older folks early if they can. Why not pit them against each other and see if the "old" folks really can stand up to the "kids"? I *think* it's a good idea, but I do reserve the right to change my mind if the "young" contestants just dominate physical challenges (which you would expect) and the "old" contestants are forced to pick themselves off one by one.
David Mumpower: The quality of the Heroes vs Villains season is not something that can be micro-managed by the production team. It has to happen organically. The two sides were already engaged in bone breaking battle (literally) within moments of their arrival. The Rob vs. Russell feud was one based in jealousy and disrespect. In that moment when Tyson lost his damn mind and effectively voted himself out of the game, I have to believe everyone on the crew that day was fist bumping. Similarly, they wound up with a finale featuring as disliked a player as they have ever had and his presence negatively impacted one worthy winner in her debate against the other worthy winner. None of that can be artificially manipulated (unless Tyson was bribed or something). Any attempt to duplicate it will fail. I have confidence that the Survivor production team recognizes this and will avoid that temptation.
In terms of what to expect from the battle of the ages, I see a lot of potential here. I understand why there is the perception that this is gimmicky. Still, I am not bothered by it. One of my biggest gripes about the show is the way that weaker players get propped up in order to eliminate greater threats earlier. Theoretically, a lot of those potential players will be on one team this season, but I don't expect it to play out that way. Instead, I fully expect that a tremendous amount of thought has been placed on the correct older players chosen for the competition. These will be unusually fit, driven participants whose age belies their overall skill set. Conversely, I would imagine a lot of the younger players selected will be hotheads who immediately presume that their path to the merge is a done deal. I will not be the least bit surprised if this season of Survivor subverts expectations by having the older tribe prove surprisingly competitive in early challenges. Do I think they'll be cranky and combative among themselves? Absolutely. Do I think the elder tribe will be nearly eliminated by the merge? Absolutely not. I don't see this playing out the same way that most media coverage thus far has predicted.
Daron Aldridge: Personally, I guess I am heading into the season with the same mindset that it has an uphill climb to live up to the last season. It probably won’t happen but I think that even a bad season of Survivor (I am looking at you Africa, which followed the great Outback season) still has plenty of entertaining and memorable moments. As Kim pointed out, I am curious if the switch to Wednesdays will factor into ratings, especially now competing with the critical and audience-favorite Modern Family. This season already has two strikes against it, so if it turns out to be boring or full of no one to root for, then that would be a third strike and I could be out for the season.
I understand the complaint about the age separation being a gimmick but this show has never tried to hide its affinity for a gimmick. Just look at the much-discussed season where the teams were divided along racial lines or the "haves" and the "have-nots" season. I am actually looking forward to seeing the younger (probably cockier) team getting knocked down a few pegs. Since the "Old" team covers a pretty large age span (I assume that 40 is the line of demarcation), I don’t think the physicality will be as big of a factor. I believe this team ranges from a 41-year-old to a 67-year-old. It’s not like the team consists of a bunch of Scouts and Rudys (who still could destroy me even into his 80s).
Let's try not to kill someone in the challenges this year, hmm?
Kim Hollis: In recent seasons, the producers of the show have really ramped up the difficulty in the challenges. How successful do you think they will be at balancing the challenges in such a way that it will be evenly divisible between the older contestants and the younger contestants?
Jim Van Nest: Challenges are the one area where the show has gotten annoying for me. Every challenge is exactly the same. Lots of strength required at the start, then a puzzle to even things out. I have no doubt this horrible trend will continue as it will give the older, "wiser" tribe a chance to be in every challenge at the end.
Kim Hollis: I'm hoping they re-examine the challenges this season, because I do think they need to be balanced. Obviously, any physical challenge is likely going to favor the "young" tribe. If you want people to keep watching (and let's face it - CBS's demographic is probably going to be rooting for the elder team), you're going to have to construct the challenges in such a way that one week, the older tribe should *theoretically* win. Another week, the younger tribe should. The hope would be that the contestants will bust up those expectations and prove more formidable in either strength, wisdom, or puzzles than you might have believed.
Regardless, Jim is right. The challenges have gotten repetitive. I also think they've gotten too violent. I don't have a problem with a challenge being easy, necessarily. I just really hate seeing people getting hurt in these things - it's generally an instant (or episode later) ticket home.
David Mumpower: We joke about this in the recaps a lot. There are some challenges that as soon as they are described, you know that a petite woman is going to win them. We'll call them Parvatis. I have no doubt that the first half of this season will be chock full of Parvatis that guarantee the older participants win. I'm not talking about ones where it's a possibility that the younger group could theoretically win like "Chess Matches" or "Name the CBS Fall lineup" (I think I'm co-opting Kim's joke there). I'm talking about challenges that give the younger team no chance whatsoever like: "Name every episode of Matlock", "Name some things that happened in 1955", "Name the various types of arthritis medication" and "Name every player on the 1993 Super Bowl champion Dallas Cowboys - only Jimmy Johnson may answer". They can't let this be a competition that skews toward athleticism and energy. Instead, there will be stronger aspects of team work and mental acuity required, but I also believe a lot of the challenges will be constructed in a manner that rewards planning. That's what needs to happen for the elder tribe to have a chance at having numbers at the merge.
Tony Kollath: I'm interested to see if one of the challenges involves the old person tribe growing a lawn in front of their camp, and then inevitably yelling at the younger tribe to get off of it.
Daron Aldridge: I haven’t thought too much about it but the challenges have gotten very violent lately, especially last season. (Maybe the geek in me will examine the amount of injury and injury-related departures from the game...but that's for another time). Because I inherently like to think that things that I trust (like TV) are on the up-and-up, I hope that they don't construct the challenges so it is disproportionately lopsided for one team. Like I mentioned earlier, I don't think the "Old'"team will be as physically weak as their name implies and if the "Young" team has a couple of Rob Cesterninos on it, then they won't have the physical challenges all sewn up either. By the way, David, I think that I might be able to own that Matlock challenge.
Jim Van Nest: Thanks for mentioning the violence Kim...I completely forgot that point in my post. The knock-down drag-out challenges have gotten WAY over the top. It used to be they'd have some sort of tackling type challenge in waist deep water, so even if you totally owned someone, they were thrown into water and were not in too much danger of being hurt. I would hope they would go back to that type of physical challenge instead of some of the blood baths we've seen in recent seasons.