‘Survivor: Kaoh Rong’ episode 6 rankings: Are Jason, Cydney in control of Chan Loh?

In all of our years of doing contestant rankings on “Survivor,” we may be able to say here with confidence that Wednesday night’s new episode is one of the most difficult to gauge. Part of that is due to the brilliant parity of this tribe swap; while Anna was certainly screwed by it, for the most part Lady Luck did a good job of ensuring that there was flexibility in all of the tribes for something crazy to happen.

With that, we turn to the insanely-flexible Chan Lo, which is almost impossible to predict given that we’re looking at three pairs of two. We’re going to have to play out some scenarios in determining who is really on top her, and prioritize things like being a big threat and/or having immunity idols more than usual. We also don’t think that they will be going to tribal council before the merge, just because they’re on paper a stronger tribe than their counterpart in Gondol. We’ll have to wait and see what happens.

6. Nick Maiorano – Nick may have Debbie fawning all over him, but there are two reasons we’re putting him last: His edit has been at times nonexistent, and he is the only male on this tribe without an idol. It’s possible he could be targeted as a physical threat, or even in the event he’s not targeted, it’s conceivable that someone like Neal or Jason could idol him out of the game.

5. Neal Gottlieb – It may seem counter-intuitive to rank someone with an idol so low on the risk, but you have to remember at the same time that he is a very likely candidate to get blindsided with it in his pocket. Think about it: With the Brains right now having five people, it makes sense for the other members of Chan Loh to target him with the merge coming up to weaken the former tribe overall.

4. Debbie Wanner – We can’t quite figure out if her proclamations in confessionals are meant to set her up for a fall (as is typically the case for someone who claims that they are running the show), or just to show off how amazing a character she is. Debbie’s unpredictable that way! Still, we think she is in some danger just because of what we just said about numbers for the Brains.

3. Michele Fitzgerald – Michele does very much benefit from Anna going home, since suddenly the Beauty tribe isn’t the enormous threat that they once were. Still, we’re really not sure what the nature of her bond is with the other players at the moment. We just don’t see a reason why she’d be targeted over Nick.

2. Kyle Jason – We don’t think either members of the Brawn tribe are going anywhere Wednesday even in the event they go to tribal council. Even if they are, Jason has an idol, and he’s pretty good at being in tune to what’s going on elsewhere on the tribe. You can argue that he’s a polarizing character, but it’s hard to deny that he is playing the game hard. The main reason he’s #2 here is because his aggressive style may make him a target down the road.

1. Cydney Gillon – Ultimately, isn’t Cydney doing a fantastic job at the moment? Her game is a little like a better version of Natalie White’s from “Samoa.” She is excellent at making bonds, and also self-aware enough to know to let people like Jason or previously Scot be the ones to put themselves out there. She’s far more effective in challenges than Natalie was, so the challenge for her moving forward is going to be to make sure that there are some other big threats around to shield her.

Who do you think is ruling Chan Loh at the moment? Vote below, and head over here to see our rankings this week for the Gondol tribe! Also, sign up over here to get some more TV news on everything we cover, courtesy of our CarterMatt Newsletter. (Photo: CBS.)