Yay!! The new season of Survivor starts tonight! Actually, it's airing right now. Just waiting for its TV broadcast to end so that I can watch it via CBS on Roku.

So long....

...Marissa. Kinda. Redemption Island returns this year which means everyone that is voted off at Tribal Council will get to compete against two others with the chance of staying on the show. So, she will battle against Ruppert and Candice. This is both a interesting and a 'Jumping the shark' season for Survivor.

With 10 returning players from previous seasons, each will battle against a love one of theirs. That's the interesting twist. The thing that kinda bugs me about this premise is that even if they are on opposing teams, each one already has a built in alliance which makes "figuring out" the vote somewhat anticlimatice, especially when it gets to the merge. Well, we are a long way off from that, so no need to really pick that apart....yet.

Anyway, my enthusiasm for the new season dropped a few notches and it had nothing to do with the premise and EVERYTHING to do with who was brought back: Colton. I hate this guy with a passion. He is a disgusting, vile, viscous sub-human. He is mean just for the sake of being mean....to prove that he can be a colossal dick to other people. I want him gone. NOW! First episode was okay for me. Nothing superb or noteworthy.

So long...


....Ruppert. Ya know, I actually knew it would be him going home, even if he was the only dude in the Redemption Island show-down. I knew the two girls would rise to the occasion because they would stay calm, cool and collected and that Ruppert would do exactly what he always does....fail. Look, he is a fun person to watch on the show and he seems like a genuinely nice guy. But the reality is, he's not a very good player, other than the first time he was on the show. Since then, he for whatever reason has taken on this sort of mystical Survivor Guru, which is unwarranted.

Next up is Rachel who was voted off her tribe and is now heading to RI. It will be interesting to see if Tyson does in fact take her spot during the challenge. Speaking of that, it's a nice twist which is something that was definitely needed this season. My biggest fear is that with this whole relatives / significant other's addition would be too predictable in how things play out. Adding the ability to step in for your significant other does mix it up a bit, which I am 100% okay with.

So long....

....Rachel. No competition whatsoever. I knew she would be the odd woman out, based on who was left at Redemption Island. I also knew that Tyson would not trade places either. It was the smart move to make. You're trying to keep your tribe strong and get to the merge. The biggest "move" was by Colton....who quit. Again. The guy is the biggest p*ssy on the planet and I for one am extremely happy the little whiny brat is gone. He is not fun to watch. He's annoying and a waste of space. I hope the show-runner has learned their lesson and will never invite this piece of sh*t back on the game. Give it to someone else more deserving.

I'm really starting to enjoy this season, more so than I originally thought. It's starting to heat up and the blindsides are coming sooner because of RI, which does in a way dictate how you vote. Now next week we will get Candace and John going head to head along with Marissa. Should be fun. Personally, I'd like to see John get his ass kicked by two girls.

So long....

....Marissa. I actually thought she would go a bit farther in the game. I actually picked John to lose the Redemption Island challenge. Well, that didn't happen and Candice and John could do some serious damage if they can make it to the merge. But they are going to have their hands full now that Brad (in one of the biggest blindsides in Survivor history) will be going up against them on RI. This season is turning out to be awesome and as I said before, it's because of how they are voting, how their votes will affect the other tribe and not just their own. Loved this episode. I still don't have a front runner to make it to the Top 3. If I were to go out on a limb, I hate to say it, but I see Tina definitely getting there. She is staying under the radar, just like she did when she won Survivor Australia. The other person I see making it into the Top 3 is Rupert's wife Laura. How awesome would it be for her to win it all the first time she plays the game. That would be salt in an open wound to Rupert, the man that gets worst and worst each time he has played the game (4 times....so far).

So long....

....Candace. She put up a good fight till the very end. I actually thought that she would pull it off and send Brad home. Didn't quite work out that way. She's a competitor and she will be missed. So, we get a huge blindside at Tribal Council in which Laura M. is sent packing and heading to Redemption Island. The odds are stacked against her going up against two big dudes. If it's a puzzle challenge, that will level the playing field and she may just have a shot of extending her stay a little bit longer.

I was certain that Laura B. (Rupert's wife) was going to get the boot based on her very awkward scramble to save herself before heading to Tribal Council. When she was telling Kat about the other girls not liking her, Laura was making all sorts of weird looking faces, which is how someone looks when they don't know how to lie....or sell a lie. So, she was very transparent right there. Her words at Tribal Council were also weird...and very telling as well.

So long....

.....Brad. Hahahahahaha. You just got OWNED by Laura M. Big Time! If she can keep that up throughout Redemption Island, she can go pretty far in the game. What a great episode and this season is turning out to be much better with each passing week. I was concerned from the start that it just wouldn't be able to deliver with each person already having a built-in alliance. The Tribal Council was very unpredictable and I didn't know one way or another who would be sent packing to head to Redemption Island. You gotta hand it to Vytas for playing Kat and the rest of the Tribe like a fiddle. He waited for just the right time to come in and point out all of Kat's flaws and it worked. Hahahahaha.