Here's a new thread for a new season.

I'm only about 30 minutes into the first episode but hope to watch it tonight and check out the rest.

Would be incredible if we could have this thread be fairly drama free, as in talking about what's happening on the screen as opposed to what's happening in Washington DC or on Twitter.

Would also be nice for the thread to exist without anyone getting doxxed or canceled on TexAgs.

Personally, I'd like to play the Pick'em game we have in years past. If you have interest, kindly say so or blue star this post and I'll post some rules. You can make your picks right here on the thread so there shouldn't be any issues.

I like this cast way more than last season. The producers had them talk less about the "new" survivor. Not the casts fault, but yeah.

Wow, are there new editors? Last season and this so far just seem to be lacking. Just so soft. Like they are really trying not to offend anybody or something?

And to just stay there and pretty much use the same game plan as last time? Been there, done that.

Meh.

I still haven't finished the premiere but hopefully can do tonight and post some rules for a pick'em.

Watched it yesterday with the fam. Felt like a rerun of last seasons first episode.

I searched for an earlier season thread and am just copying the rules here with a few changes.

The Rules:

• Pick a team of 4 people - 2 of each gender
• How they perform throughout the game gets you points
• All picks must be posted on this thread before the 2nd episode airs on Wednesday, March 16, at 7 pm CDT
• To keep everyone invested, when the merge happens, you can "re-stock" your lineup with as many people as you've had eliminated pre-merge, but you only get 50% value on their points post-merge. I'll post a reminder when the merge happens of what to do.
• Any points accumulated in the season premiere don't count.

Pre-Merge Points

• Tribe wins immunity - 1 point
• Player finds HII - 2 points
• Player finds an advantage - 2 points
• Player uses an advantage to vote someone out (pre-merge) - 2 points
• Player uses advantage to save themselves (pre-merge) - 3 points
• Player uses HII to save themselves or someone else successfully (pre-merge) 3 points

Player makes the merge - 5 points

Post-Merge Points

• Win Individual Immunity - 5 points
• Player finds HII - 3 points
• Player finds an advantage - 3 points
• Player uses an advantage to vote someone out - 4 points
• Player uses HII to save themselves or someone else successfully: 4 points

Top 6 Bonus

• 6th place - 2 points
• 5th place - 4 points
• 4th place - 6 points
• 3rd place - 8 points
• 2nd place - 10 points
• 1st place - 15 points

Will try and post the weekly standings in the thread by Thursday afternoon.

Here's the list of players so you can pick your five.

Rocksroy
Lindsay
Romeo
Hai
Swati
Chanelle
Jenny
Tori
Lydia
Maryanne
Marya
Daniel
Mike
Drea
Jonathan
Omar

• "Pick a team of 4 people - 2 of each gender"

Like original gender?

Do you have a start date? I'm still trying to put a name on this. Crew.

Ok. I'm out.

Southlake said:

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Ok. I'm out.

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Thanks for letting us know.

bbattbq01 said:

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Watched it yesterday with the fam. Felt like a rerun of last seasons first episode.

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I don't know. They seemed way more likeable to me.

Southlake said:

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• "Pick a team of 4 people - 2 of each gender"

Like original gender?

Do you have a start date? I'm still trying to put a name on this. Crew.

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I'm pretty sure that offensive person that dared to change their gender left because their crazy pills made them sick.

Chanelle
Drea
Hai
Jonathan

Lindsay
Omar
Michelle
Daniel

Aye Davanita said:

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bbattbq01 said:

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Watched it yesterday with the fam. Felt like a rerun of last seasons first episode.

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I don't know. They seemed way more likeable to me.

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I mean as far as the stuff they made them do. I don't know the people well enough to determine if I like them or not yet.

As a fan, I really like Maryanne's personality. She's a major feeler/emoter, and she has no filter for holding it in. While I like it in the doses of the show, I don't imagine cast mates will love it as much.

Bulldog73 said:

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As a fan, I really like Maryanne's personality. She's a major feeler/emoter, and she has no filter for holding it in. While I like it in the doses of the show, I don't imagine cast mates will love it as much.

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I watched it, and days later I can't tell you which one is Maryanne.

Romeo
Mike

Maryanne
Marya

She's the one wailing when they told Jackson he had to go home. Her parents were from Kenya.

Bulldog73 said:

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She's the one wailing when they told Jackson he had to go home. Her parents were from Kenya.

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Oh yeah. I remember commenting that she'd known this guy for all of three days to be wailing like that.

Finally got to finish the premiere. Jonathan got into Tony the cop range when he declared there were 11 triangles but there were actually 51. That guy is so much bigger than the other humans it sort of blows my mind. Love Tori's "I'm a therapist" followed by total meltdown of game play and grasping at straws.


My picks

Swati
Lydia

Jonathan
Romeo

Jonathan is like someone found the real-life version of Ogre from Revenge of the Nerds. I know he'll probably go down early, but he seems really fun.

Didn't he tell them 2 days before the game started that he was on medication? Yet he still started the game but was later deemed unfit to play? Did it take them that long to realize this or did they plan all along to take him off during a show for the drama?

Southlake said:

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Didn't he tell them 2 days before the game started that he was on medication? Yet he still started the game but was later deemed unfit to play? Did it take them that long to realize this or did they plan all along to take him off during a show for the drama?

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It was the day before they started filming, and I'm sure CBS' lawyers and risk management people were notified immediately. As someone who has to deal with those folks on a regular basis, I can assure you that they don't move quickly. Also, nothing was going to happen in that short of a time span, so they did have some time to figure things out.

It should have been as simple as "you violated a term of the contract by not disclosing this, so you're out" the second production was notified he was still on medication. It should strictly be a legal issue, not a medical one. Given what everyone has to go through to get onto the show, it should be very simple to remove someone for violating a term of the contract, when everyone else is toeing the line.

I'm guessing a couple of days in Probst had one of the interns Google "what happens if you stop taking lithium for a month" and saw that they might have a serious medical risk or a serious behavioral risk on their hands and pulled the plug.

Definitely think they edited the **** out of that segment to make the guy seem cool with it.

I knew a guy at A&M who took lithium and he took himself off it for a few days and his mood swings were some scary *****

^ this

Omar
Mike
Swati
Lindsay

I have to assume it was way too late to get an alternate in there, given quarantines and whatnot. Maybe they gave it a shot, knowing they'd probably have to pull him if he showed any signs, and decided to make lemonade out of some lemons.

it had to have known the boot was coming or one of the producers did- why else give that boring fire side reveal story the first episode-

very unsurvivor like

My guess is CBS legal is who pulled the plug. The "oh yeah, I've weaned myself off" got the big X from risk management. There's definitely a stigma for lithium, for solid reason. In the end, he knew his days were limited, so he had to get the message out there quickly.

The story I have heard is that Jackson told them he was weening himself off of lithium a day or two before filming right after they had sent home the alternates so I think their choices were limited. They could either start with 17 or give one of the season 41 cast another shot because they were still on the island at that time. I figure they were just going to see how things went. Right before Jeff came in on the boat, Lindsay mentioned that Jackson being dizzy for about 10 hours so I'm guess he was already getting dehydrated so producers plugged the plug at that point.

I don't know how Jackson could be mad because I have to think it was no coincidence, he told them when he did. I don't blame him for that seeing how being on the show was a dream for him. The one person who could be mad is the person who was his alternate.