‘Survivor: Kaoh Rong’ rankings: Where Peter, Joe, Aubry, and more stand within Brains tribe
Now that we’ve had a chance to see 90 minutes of “Survivor: Kaoh Rong,” we’re thrilled to begin today what is a seasonal tradition at CarterMatt: Contestant rankings! We’ll be doing these from start to finish to size up where the remaining castaways stand both in terms of in their tribes, and eventually in terms of everyone left in the game. (We chooses to divide these articles up before the merge, since it’s super-tough to compare someone on one tribe to someone on another.)
We’re starting today with Chan Loh a.k.a. the Brains, mostly for no other reason than that this is Brains vs. Beauty vs. Brawn and it comes first on the list. In terms of our criteria, here’s what we are considering: Screen time, overall edit, strategy, challenge ability, effectiveness around camp, and overall threat level.
6. Debbie Wanner – Debbie may be #1 on the entertainment rankings for her tribe, but we already get the sense that some people in the Brains are a little annoyed with her antics. She claims that she knows how to do almost everything, but she’s struggled practicing what she preaches around camp. Sometimes being an outsider makes you endearing, but in context of life around camp, it makes you an easy target.
5. Joe Del Campo – Strangely, we didn’t get much of Joe in the premiere despite him being quite possibly the Most Interesting Man in the World. (Take that, Dos Equis guy!) What we do know is that he seems to be close with Debbie, and as a result of that potentially on the outside looking in. He’s also got a certain threat level about him; if he makes it far into this game, who wouldn’t vote for a former FBI agent in his seventies to win?
4. Aubry Bracco – What she helped to do with the puzzle in the first challenge was impressive; unfortunately, we were not nearly as impressed with her at camp. Maybe she suffered a little bit from early-season-meltdown syndrome (we’ve seen people like Holly suffer from this as well) and she’ll get it together; however, having to rely on other people for help early in the game is never a good look if you’re looking to win.
3. Neal Gottlieb – Neal’s position in the game is rather hard to read. We get the sense that he’ll really enjoy the strategic part of the game, but he’s also a little bit goofy and we’re not sure after a tribe swap how well he’ll fit in with the Brawn and the Beauty. When we’re looking at some of the players in better positions at this point in the game, we have to start looking a little down the road.
2. Liz Markham – We were very impressed by what we saw from Liz in the premiere; she’s smart, savvy, has the numbers seemingly, and was good in the challenge. The only reason we have her #2 is because we’ve already seen a preview for the upcoming episode, and it suggests that Joe doesn’t like her communication style around camp. Even if Joe seemingly doesn’t have the numbers, you don’t want anyone targeting you this early.
1. Peter Baggenstos – Peter is almost the perfect “Survivor” pre-merge player. He’s smart, but not over-analytical where he gets in his own way. He’s physical, but he’s not like a Joe Anglim where he is the most obvious threat in the world to win every challenge. He’s social enough to make allies, and he’s resourceful around camp and a good person to have around thanks to his job. Do we think he can win the game? It’s going to be hard on him since he is a big threat, but out of everyone on this tribe he’s probably in the best position after one episode.
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