‘Survivor: Millennials vs. Gen X’ wishlist: A simple structure, a few twists, and a revamped reunion show
“Survivor” season is officially winding down. “Survivor: Kaoh Rong” officially ended last night, and we just spoke with the final three earlier today. (Cydney was traveling, and was unavailable for most exit interviews.)
So what’s left to do? Tomorrow, we’ll be updating our twice-annual season / winner rankings, and there are some interesting discussions to be had there. (Quick note: Everyone knee-jerking and saying that Michele is the worst winner ever is completely out of their mind.) Today, though, we’re giving you our brief wishlist for what we’d love to see next season on “Survivor: Millennials vs. Gen X.” It’s a pretty stupid title (though we love the logo), but we’re not going to judge the season based on a twist ahead of time. The first “Blood vs. Water” originally elicited groans, and it was great. Meanwhile, we thought “One World” would be super-chaotic, and it was fairly straightforward.
Here are just a few small suggestions to keep the quality level for next season, not knowing the cast, as high as possible.
1. Keep it simple – We don’t need a Medallion of Power, multiple advantages, or some revolutionary twist. We feel like the majority of the audience will love the season if there is a great cast, some dynamic gameplay, and a couple of twists that are as fairly-balanced as possible. Keep the tribe swap in there, and include immunity idols (just don’t make them incredibly easy to find; the way they were included in “Cambodia” was pretty great).
2. Make small alterations – For example, rather than doing a tribe swap in episode 5, do it in episode 4 or episode 6. Keep things a little bit fresh so that nobody can figure out for certain when things are happening. Another idea is to devise a way to make the advantage a little more hidden. For example, do a blindfold task, tell players that it’s hidden out on a course, and have them debate if they should go for that or immunity. That way, there’s paranoia, but no one knows for certain who has it.
3. Fix the reunion – We don’t think that this can be stated here enough: The reunion show last night was pretty close to a disaster. The winner Michele got a couple of minutes and was forgotten about, fourth-place finisher Cydney was snubbed (something Jeff Probst has already apologized for on Twitter), and other than Caleb, not a single pre-jury person got any air time. Remember how important a player Alecia was? No mention. Remember how much Peter sunk his own game at times? Completely abandoned. We even had a lengthy talk about medical evacuations while ignoring Neal, the first juror to ever be forced to give up his spot.
Also, no more celebrity appearances; we love Tai and he’s worthy of some extra cash, but the whole Sia bit (while seemingly unplanned) did throw everything off.
4. Fewer “winner quotes” – While it wasn’t 100% obvious to us that Michele was winning like it was to some people, we had a good indication she’d be an endgame player from her whole “I don’t need to be carried, bro” confessional. We would’ve preferred seeing more of people talking about her deficiencies at the time to mask her as a winner. Editing is not an easy business, and we know that; however, CBS has to be cognizant that there are people like us desperate to figure out every little thing.
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