‘Survivor Caramoan: Fans vs. Favorites’ rankings: Cochran’s victory changes nothing

Even though we saw a pretty epic blindside on “Survivor Caramoan: Fans vs. Favorites” this past episode, we really don’t find that our top contenders have really changed that much. Why? In the post-merge game, it’s all about getting rid of the big threats, and while some of these players are busy cannibalizing each other, the under-the-radar gamers are managing to stick around for a while.

Are you new to the rankings? If so, be sure to know this: we’re basing this on strategy, challenge ability, social game, and whether or not the person is a big threat to go to the end.

11. Phillip Sheppard (last week: 7) – So what’s the logic behind putting Phillip last here, given that he is in the majority alliance? Consider it the immunity idol effect. With Malcolm and Reynold each having an idol that no one else knows about, they can each use them in order to protect who have to be the two biggest threats on that side of the game. Therefore, Phillip becomes a sitting duck.

10. Eddie Fox (10) – Mostly by virtue of being the only one of these three alpha males on the outside without an idol, Eddie has to be in some pretty serious trouble.The only thing really going for him is that he’s an immunity threat.

9. Michael Snow (12) – Michael is luckily not going to have to face much trouble this week, since he’s hardly the sort of target that people need to worry about. However, he seems like the perfect person to boot from the game after one or two of the bigger targets go home.

8. Reynold Toepfer (6) – We’re giving Reynold the of benefit of the doubt in that he is a smart enough player to know when to play an immunity idol, but even if he does protect himself this week with it, how much longer in the game does that really buy him?

7. Andrea Boehlke (3) – Andrea seems to just suffer from a continuous case of flirting too much and being friendly with the wrong people It’s one of the reasons why Boston Rob targeted her during her first season, and much like Michael made Corinne a bigger target, we’re sure that some people are not going to appreciate Andrea seemingly spending time with Eddie Wednesday night.

6. Erik Reichenbach (5) – Sooner or later, someone has to get frustrated with Erik, right? While he’s not a social or strategic threat, he is capable of pulling a Fabio, winning his way to the end, and then making the argument of not stabbing many people in the back. Therefore, he has to be somewhat of a threat.

5. Malcolm Freberg (4) – We may perhaps be giving Malcolm too much of our confidence here, but he’s a good player. We just can’t imagine him laying down and dying despite the Corinne debacle, since he is still a strategist and has an idol in his pocket.

4. Sherri Biethman (9) – Even though she nearly went home this past episode, we have a hard time imagining her being a target anytime soon now. She’s not much of a player at this point, and she isn’t really that well-liked to want to take out before we get closer to the end.

3. Brenda Lowe (8) – Brenda’s invisible edit is for one of two reasons: she either has no significant role to play in the show at all and is going to go with a whimper, or the best is yet to come. Either way, we can’t imagine her being voted off at any point in the next few weeks given that no one is targeting her.

2. Dawn Meehan (2) – The main difference between our #2 and #1 players this week comes down to one question: who would win at the end? Right now, Dawn seems to be making people who leave the game very angry over her lies, and this could mean that if she makes it to the final three, there could be a bitter jury who won’t send any votes her way.

1. John Cochran (1) – Meanwhile, Cochran really doesn’t seem to have that problem, and maybe it’s not completely fair: he’s done his fair share of lying, but maybe the expectation is different from a young self-professed superfan than a mother of six who has this sort of sweet demeanor. The truth about Cochran’s safe status in this game comes via his recent immunity challenge celebration: he could do that, and still not get a target on his back.

Who do you think is in the best position to win “Survivor Caramoan”? As always, be sure to share your thoughts below, and you can watch a preview for Wednesday’s episode over at the link here.

Photo: CBS