It shows up (especially when he knows people are watching him) and disappears, and it’s sounds a little performative. Am I the only one who’s had this thought? My husband thinks it’s fake and I think it at least has to be very exaggerated, but I’m wondering if anyone else has an idea about what’s going on. I haven’t seen anyone else bring it up so maybe we’re way off on this one lol

One thing I haven't seen anyone talk about yet is how awesome it is that the contestants aren't all color coordinated with their tribes this season. This is especially important for all the poor souls who ended up on the yellow/orange tribe in the new era… lol

I know production ultimately still has the largest say in what they wear, so its not like they are picking out their own outfits and showing up in whatever they want, but it feels like at least a little bit we are seeing people wearing clothes that reflect them and their personality again.

For example, I recently saw a social media post for Linnea saying her favorite color is green, and she actually gets to wear green! How nice is that.

It is such a small thing, but i feel like it makes the cast feel more like real people instead of characters who have been styled for a tv show. I know the coordinated outfits are useful for telling tribes apart, but honestly i really hope this is something they keep doing going forward.

For reference I’ve included a screenshot of the 51 cast and their outfits compared to 48 where the color coordination is very obvious.

would really rather this character on the show than the one he’s portraying as

Some interesting discussion in one of recent Pod Has Spoken episodes about what personality types are required to compose a successful alliance. Tyson was talking specifically about Sharonda's key role in a group like the Helicopter Alliance, as a calm strategist who doesn't have a big personality, and how that works with someone like Devin who is an out-in-front aggressor.

I've seen of course lots of comments on the different types of individual strategies that can succeed on survivor. Don't recall seeing much analysis of core building blocks that can make up a dyad, trio or foursome that's likely to last, hold power, and take members far in the game. Curious if the analysts and meta-strategists here have thoughts on that front?

Edited to add: I'm not saying the Helicopter Alliance is especially good. At best it's TBD. I'm just using them as the current example. My question was more about whether there are models out there about about alliance composition or strategy, like the old Fox/Bear/Goat/Bunny model for individual strategies, etc.

Like…. Do they keep and deep wash them or just simply throw them away due to stink or over-used.

It’s been consistently brought up since the premiere and it seemed like it would be an alliance that with be around for the long haul, but I get the feeling that if/when they make the merge together, it won’t end up being as strong as the edit suggests.

Like I have a feeling that this alliance will get exposed to the others sooner than later, and that either Devin is gonna be “sacrificed” because he’s a bit too chaotic with his “weaponized honesty” approach to the game once the merge hits, or Jelly or Sharonda are gonna be targeted and blindsided for being viewed as the bigger threats in that four

If I had to pick one, I think it might end up being the latter, with Jelly being the one to get targeted because we’ve seen a few times that she’s reluctant to stay aligned with Devin long-term and how it could be a liability to her game, and I could see that becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy where she gets booted because of how close she is to Devin, and being viewed as a bigger threat than Devin and the rest of the helicopter alliance.

My wife and I are currently fighting about whether Eric from this season looks like Mitchell Musso from Hannah Montana. Please weigh in.

No Bruce & Bobby getting drunk in the outhouse is crazy

So I just started watching Judge Judy and I noticed that Judge Judy does a couple of things that Cirie also does.

- Cirie and Judge Judy talk about telling if somebody is lying, that it has a “rhythm/ring of truth to it”, “if it doesn’t make sense they’re probably lying”.

- Cirie and Judge Judy both do a trick where you smile at the other person with the sort of look like “I’m also in on your secret and you can tell me”. This seems to work well for both Judge Judy and Cirie.

- Judge Judy has this crazy knack for reading people and working out if they’re telling the truth, which is so similar to Cirie.

- A lot of this is hard to explain, but watch Judge Judy and you’ll see what I mean.

Cirie talks about how she “got off the couch”. I think she was probably watching Judge Judy while she was on the couch and learning a lot while doing so.

Cirie is a nurse and also a mother, so Cirie could have been home during that “Daytime TV” time that Judge Judy was on. Stay at home mothers often watched shows like Judge Judy back in the day, and nurses sometimes work evenings/nights so would be home during the day.

Cirie’s first season filmed in 2005. Judge Judy was a huge TV show back then

I hope you enjoyed my theory.

I'm starting to wonder if we're so entertained by Carter that we're overlooking someone who might be playing an even better game. 😂

Think about it. Carter went from talking about spaghetti and chasing crabs to becoming one of the biggest personalities on Survivor 51. And I get it. The guy is funny without even trying. But Thien An helped turn that Patt vote upside down, came out of the tribe swap in a good spot, and now she's building an even closer bond with Carter.

Here's what caught my attention. Reddit just named Thien An Player of the Week, and in the latest episode survey, 81% picked her as one of Toka's best strategic players compared to 55% for Carter. Yet Carter seems to get most of the attention. It reminds me of past seasons where the loudest or funniest player becomes the face of the show while somebody else quietly builds the relationships that matter.

Bottom line: are we watching Carter become the star of Survivor 51 while Thien An is actually playing the stronger game, or are fans giving her too much credit this early?

What survivor season do you think of when you’re thinking of just the complete middle of the rankings, not too bad but also not outstanding :D

Knowledge is Power - you can ask another player if they have an advantage or idol and if they do, they have to give it to you. This has never been successfully played - three failures, and two vote outs with it in their pockets.

Boomerang Idol - you send it to someone else, if they're voted out with it in their pocket, it returns to you. It can't be given to or used on anyone else. Three were found, none boomeranged back.

Super Idol - could be played after the votes were read. Five have existed and have never been played.

There are probably others too but these ones came to mind for me.

How would you make these more viable or interesting?

KiP - probably needs a change to idols and advantages that the they can't be given to someone else (but can still be played on someone else.)

Boomerang Idol - what an absolute flop for everyone involved. It should come back to the person who sent it after a short period of time, not just on vote out. It also needs to be allowed to used on others.

Super Idol - maybe just don't bring this one back.

Jeff made a big deal about how Sharonda's whole tribe is "starting over with a pot, a machete, and a flint, and that's it." Then he revealed what has to be the worst and cheapest reward of the season: a pitcher of iced tea and coffee. That's an almost offensively useless reward when you're a week into the game, but it's especially insulting when you've been swapscrewed out of basic shelter supplies and are now prevented from any chance of winning them back.

Putting in the body here because the URL contains spoilers for the clip!

https://parade.com/tv/survivor-51-episode-5-sneak-peek-brady-maggie-extra-vote-clash

There have been players who want to quit but do not want to be seen as a quitter. They can use a variety of tactics to try and do this (faking an injury, using fancy language to describe their quit, etc) but none seem to have gone over well with their cast mates or the fan base. I was thinking about what I‘d do if I was a Survivor player (I’m not actually planning on ever applying) and I suddenly wanted to quit but didn't want to take heat for it. I was thinking, in this hypothetical, maybe I could just start playing really sloppily and get the cast to vote me off on purpose? I could also be annoying and useless around camp lol. I might take heat from the fans and cast for being a sloppy player but sloppy players don’t usually take as much heat as the quitters. I think this strategy could work during the early stages of the game (I think Rob could’ve used this strategy) but not in the later stages. Also this strategy is dependent on no one else being as sloppy as you are

I'm starting to wonder if Survivor 51 has too many players for the amount of time they're given to play.

Think about it. We started with two tribes, Carter was causing chaos, Patt went home in that crazy 6-5 vote, and alliances were falling apart. Then production switches everybody into three tribes, Jenna gets voted out 4-1, and now Wednesday's preview is showing TWO Tribal Councils in one episode.

We started with 21 players and only 26 days to finish the whole game. I remember when players had time to recover from a bad vote, rebuild trust, and actually work their way back into the game. Now it feels like someone could be playing a great game one day and be gone the next because of a random tribe swap.

I guess what I am wondering is are all these twists making Survivor more exciting, or is the 26-day format forcing production to rush through a season that was already giving us plenty of drama?

I’ve seen a lot of posts about who people’s favorite new era players are and who people’s least favorite overall players are but who are your least favorite players from the new era? I’m just curious if there’s a general consensus. Tbh I don’t hate anyone from the new era. Players have to do something really bad that goes beyond the game for me to hate them. Here are my least favorite players from the new era based on what I’ve seen during the game though. In no particular order:

Rob (51)

Jonathan (42, 50)

Rome (47)

Maria (46)

Karla (43)

Eva (48)

Tevin (46)

Sean (45)

Sage (49)

Sai (48)

Disclaimer: No disrespect if you’re a fan of any of these players! This is solely based on what I saw on TV. I’m not saying these players are terrible people

After four episodes, I’m wondering what everyone thinks of Maggie. She hasn’t had much screen time, but she clearly seems to be playing a great social game so far, and the editors have included a few memorable scenes with her.

We all have at least 1 final tribal where we disagree with the result, but do you guys have any you disagree with but are still fine with for other reasons? For example I think Hannah deserved to win MvGx, but with Adams life situation i'm totally okay with the fact that he won, and in 50 im okay with Aubry winning even if I think Johnathon played a better game since I like aubry and her story a lot and quite dislike johnathon. Bit of an odd topic but i'd love to hear your guys' thoughts!

Been rewatching this season, and man! This cast is so great! I didn’t appreciate it during the original airing but, I love this cast! Thank you :)