Survivor UK

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Sir Bagalot

Original Poster:

6,608 posts

187 months

Saturday 28th October 2023
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Finally the return of Survivor to UK screens (incidentally the first UK TV Prog to award £1M to the winner Charlotte Hobrough, a nice Quiz Night question there that many get wrong).

Nice to see Joel welcome them by saying "Guys" (watchers of the US version will realise why)

There will be a core of 5/6 players who will understand the game very well, and will aim to outplay, outwit and hopefully outlast the rest to become sole survivor.

I do hope we have a great season


Edited by Sir Bagalot on Saturday 28th October 20:41

Sir Bagalot

Original Poster:

6,608 posts

187 months

Saturday 28th October 2023
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Oh dear. Not a good start.

Where do I start?

Joel. Did he bother sitting down and watch the US and AUS versions? ATM a very weak host who could kill the game

Challenge. Surprised they didn't have a team challenge instead of more of a individual one. At 45mins before the second person quit the weight obviously wasn't enough. Two teams atm so they should play at a team, not help your neighbour.

Tribal. Joel fell flat on his face here. Certainly didn't receive as near as much direction as he should. Very weak tribal

Vote out. Oh. Have these guys not realised that at the beginning you play as a team, therefore you cut the weakest physically players. Richard wasn't one of them

DSLiverpool

15,065 posts

208 months

Sunday 29th October 2023
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Just seen number 1 - what a travesty the big guy went! Shocking

Sir Bagalot

Original Poster:

6,608 posts

187 months

Sunday 29th October 2023
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Day 6 and they still aren't looking for Hidden Idols.... have they never heard of Russell Hantzlaugh

At least the challenge was team based and the right person went home.

It's gonna be a brave person who votes/Blidesides Leeyes

The Jury is still out on Joel as a hostyes

P1Fanatic

930 posts

19 months

Monday 30th October 2023
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I am a massive fan having watched every season of US survivor and more recently Australian (which imho is now better as went back to the older US hardcore formats).

2 episodes in and I am not convinced this is going to be reviving it in the UK. Everything feels off and its almost like its unrelated to the US / OZ versions which is crazy bearing in mind how successful they are. From the music, the tribe names, the buffs look naff (joel called them colours and I presume they arent made by buff), the cheap looking immunity idol and ultimately the contestants and Joel do not seem to be survivor superfans. I will give Joel a few more episodes as I will admit I didnt warm to Jonathan LaPaglia straight away but he won me over, especially with his ability to as the awkward questions.

tribalsurfer

1,161 posts

125 months

Monday 30th October 2023
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Sir Bagalot said:
Finally the return of Survivor to UK screens (incidentally the first UK TV Prog to award £1M to the winner Charlotte Hobrough, a nice Quiz Night question there that many get wrong).
Edited by Sir Bagalot on Saturday 28th October 20:41
Not true Judith Keppel won £1m on WWTBAM the year before.

I'll keep with it and give it more than a 1 episode try but the challenge seemed to drag on for too long.

Sir Bagalot

Original Poster:

6,608 posts

187 months

Tuesday 31st October 2023
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tribalsurfer said:
Sir Bagalot said:
Finally the return of Survivor to UK screens (incidentally the first UK TV Prog to award £1M to the winner Charlotte Hobrough, a nice Quiz Night question there that many get wrong).
Edited by Sir Bagalot on Saturday 28th October 20:41
Not true Judith Keppel won £1m on WWTBAM the year before.

I'll keep with it and give it more than a 1 episode try but the challenge seemed to drag on for too long.
I stand corrected. I genuinely thought Charlotte won a few months before Judith.

One episode? You missed EP2 then....?

tribalsurfer

1,161 posts

125 months

Thursday 2nd November 2023
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Sir Bagalot said:
I stand corrected. I genuinely thought Charlotte won a few months before Judith.

One episode? You missed EP2 then....?
Yep absolutely missed episode 2, thought it was only weekly on a Saturday, thanks for the hint or i would have been bloody confused come Saturday.

P1Fanatic

930 posts

19 months

Sunday 5th November 2023
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3 episodes in and I am finding it very hard to warm to this version. From the tribe names (Joel says Caleton and all I hear is Peleton), weird choices of music, budget prize pot through to Joel who just seems lost as the host. They seem to have ignored what makes US and AUS survivor so good and decided they can do better - and they cant.

MiniMan64

17,428 posts

196 months

Monday 6th November 2023
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P1Fanatic said:
3 episodes in and I am finding it very hard to warm to this version. From the tribe names (Joel says Caleton and all I hear is Peleton), weird choices of music, budget prize pot through to Joel who just seems lost as the host. They seem to have ignored what makes US and AUS survivor so good and decided they can do better - and they cant.
What did make their series so much better?

P1Fanatic

930 posts

19 months

Thursday 9th November 2023
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MiniMan64 said:
What did make their series so much better?
A combination of things but the biggest is the host as they drive the show. Big charisma and willing to grill the players at tribal council and able to add drama to every reward / immunity challenge. Joel just lacks something for me and every episode talks about inane stuff like how tree mail works. I don't get the feeling he is a fan of survivor. I will admit I wasn't keen on the Aussie version host as he seemed a little stiff / wooden in the first few episodes (I think it was Series 3 which was when the started doing it properly) and I was probably way to used to the charm of Jeff Probst on the US version (who has hosted it from the start (so over 23 years and 45 seasons) but he grew on me quickly and I think he may have overtaken Jeff for me.

Then there is budget. US is still and always has been a $1m prize for the winner with other stuff like cars to be won on the way to the final. Aussie is A$500k so £250k and we have a paltry £100k.

Even the players - you would think when casting they would be looking for survivor superfans who know the game inside out but it doesnt appear they do.

Then there is difficulty. I know we are only 4 episodes in (only 16 in total) but they dont seem very hungry and the weather has been fine. Not sure how long they are there for but presume 4 weeks for the winner. Aussie started at 55 days and has dropped to 47 days.

Rewards. So far only one food based one - the BBQ. Which looked rubbish. US/AUS put on a banquet or bring something in like a huge Burger King / KFC sponsored feast.

Phrases / Music / Buffs. There is a lot of tradition with survivor which is why its been on so long and so successful. Yet every time the UK do it its some half arsed effort.

Pitre

4,955 posts

240 months

Thursday 9th November 2023
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I remember the early version being pretty good, but it was a novelty then as it was pretty much the first show of its type.

Tamer this time round (and the host is a bit camp IMHO), but I'm sure the prize money may increase and trials etc will get harder in future series, although it's the Beeb so it may not!

P1Fanatic

930 posts

19 months

Thursday 9th November 2023
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Sir Bagalot

Original Poster:

6,608 posts

187 months

Thursday 9th November 2023
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P1Fanatic said:
It does.

Even in S1 of US there were characters. I do wish they wouldn't do Sat/Sun.... Perhaps Sat or Sun and Wed?

Sir Bagalot

Original Poster:

6,608 posts

187 months

Sunday 12th November 2023
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OK, so the teams are now realising how to play the game.

This programme doesn't always get going until the merge.

What a challenge that was. Remember the US one when they used wooden poles..... until one had so much weight that it actually snapped!!

Tribal is still poor due to lack of probing from Joel.

Next week looks like Chris makes a major error. Talk of throwing a challenge. It never works. Never

P1Fanatic

930 posts

19 months

Sunday 19th November 2023
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What was the deal with last weekend giving them a draw on the challenge? Never seen that before. Fair enough round draw move on to next pairing.

As for Chris trying to throw the immunity challenge last night - I laughed so much when they still won. From the preview clip of tonights episode it looks like the boxer chat calls him out on it.

Sir Bagalot

Original Poster:

6,608 posts

187 months

Sunday 19th November 2023
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Several shows in now and Tribals are just so so weak. Joel hasn't a clue how to really probe.

At least they merge soon as this is when it moves up a couple of gears.

P1Fanatic

930 posts

19 months

Monday 20th November 2023
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The music is doing my head in almost as much as Joel. As for his tribal council probing….”so who is sticking to the plan and who has changed since they came in?”. Like anyone is going to admit they changed their agreed plan. I swear he has never even watched survivor before taking this role.

As for Christopher - what an absolute tool. Hope he goes soon.

Jordie Barretts sock

6,018 posts

25 months

Monday 20th November 2023
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I watched this last night.

What an absolute pile of tripe! Letters from home. You've only been there 18 days, not 18 months.

Whole thing could easily have been compressed into 30 minutes.

Nothing 'reality' about it. They all seem far too well groomed and fed.

P1Fanatic

930 posts

19 months

Monday 20th November 2023
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Letters from home was rather lame. Normally in US/AUS they save that for much closed to the end and they do a few highlights. It felt like everyone got read out in full and took up a 1/3 of the entire episode - by which time I was drifting off out of boredom.