One player taps out after doing hard things.
You all have a good summer?
I know, I know… kinda sucked, right?
The cast of ‘Survivor 45’.Robert Voets/CBS
TheIndiana Jonesmovie was lame.
I missedthe Eras tour.
My daughter won’t explainThe Summer I Turned Prettyto me.
The cast of ‘Survivor 45’.Robert Voets/CBS
In such troubling times, we’ll take any win we can get.
A win like, say,Survivorbeing back!
And not only back, but supersized!
Sean Edwards, Brandon Donlon, Janani “J” Krishnan-Jha, and Julie Alley on ‘Survivor 45’.Robert Voets/CBS
That’s right, none of this hourlong nonsense.
Haven’t you heard?
There’s an actors strike going on!
The cast of ‘Survivor 45’.Robert Voets/CBS
And a writers strike (thatjust ended today)!
So much striking happening!
And so many hours of prime-time television to fill.
Austin Lee Coon on ‘Survivor 45’.Robert Voets/CBS
So 60-minuteSurvivorepisodes are yesterday’s news.
It’s 90 minutes or bust, baby!
In a perfect world, they would all be back at work after being compensated generously for those efforts.
Sean Edwards, Hannah Rose, and Brandon Donlon on ‘Survivor 45’.Robert Voets/CBS
However, as noted above, this is a far from a perfect world.
No, no, no.
I’m going to keep it in check.
Jake O’Kane on ‘Survivor 45’.Robert Voets/CBS
No paragraph-long tangents onSurvivorpromos making like a Marty Scorsese movie with the “Gimme Shelter” soundtrack.
No extended asides about the perfect length knee-sock.
No throwback tales of Milwaukee’s Best-fueled high jinks.
Austin Li Coon, Janani “J” Krishnan-Jha, and Drew Basile on ‘Survivor 45’.Robert Voets/CBS
At least no more than usual.
Unfortunately, I have no on-location insight to share.
(I was able to chat with theSurvivor 45castover zoom, however.)
The Lulu tribe on ‘Survivor 45’.Robert Voets/CBS
But that doesn’t mean I don’t have behind-the-scenes stories for you.
Did youread my EW cover story on castingforSurvivor 45?
Oh my God, it’s a million times better than this go read it immediately.
Austin Li Coon of ‘Survivor 45’.Robert Voets/CBS
Which was… kinda old school.
There were no confusing game mechanics.
We learned their astrological signs.
We watched them compete and form alliances.
And, for some, we watched them struggle a lot.
I’m telling you, this felt good.
Man overboard!
(Maybe they should have?)
There have been plenty of others as well, and that list now contains the name Brandon Donlon.
Seeing as you already read myEW cover story, you already know Brandon’s story.
Been applying for the show since he was 11 years old.
Now, the dream comes true.
There’s no way to sugarcoat it.
For one thing, it was in the middle of a competition for camp supplies.
For another, he literally JUST MET HIS TRIBE.
This is definitely not the first impression you want to make to your new teammates, or to America.
The dude is ONSURVIVOR!
He’s been applying since before he hit puberty.
You want to talk pressure?
Nor did he picture somewhat embarrassingly falling down the ramp in the later immunity challenge.
“Let’s go, Brandon!”
yelled the host after Brandon hit the dirt and looked for a moment like he might not get up.
“Dig through it!
You wantedSurvivor,buddy!
You got it right here!”
Some people might see that as rude or mean.
I could not disagree more.
Because Probst is right!
Brandon wantedSurvivormore than anything in the world, but you might’t control what yourSurvivorexperience ends up being.
Brandon wanted to be challenged.
He wanted to challenge himself.
He wanted to, as they say, dig deep!
And here isthe host standing a few feet away encouraging him to do exactly that.
Brandon wantedSurvivor, and he got it.
The question is, where does his journey go from here?
It was a super tough three days for Brandon, no doubt about it.
But those three days are now done and in the books.
Sweating it out
The sweat or savvy tasks were starting to become old hat.
Thankfully, producers realized this as well.
So they changed theorto anand, making the two marooning challenge losers complete both tasks in an allotted time.
Not only that, but they made them do it head-to-head against each other.
Winners got supplies, losers got nothing.
Sucks for them, but good for us.
The fact that both tribes lost shows viewers just how difficult these competitions are.
No free rides here!
Anyway, a nice wrinkle.
I would still probably phase these comps out after season 46.
ButSurvivoris an ever-evolving show, and it’s time to move on to something else.
Speaking of which, we should move on ourselves to some thoughts on each of the tribes.
But we saw enough.
(I guess his martial arts training did not emphasis stealth in their teachings?)
Oh, and he couldn’t vote at Tribal Council until he located the idol.
But holy moly was this tribe fascinating to watch.
That would be Hannah.
“It’s probably the nicotine withdrawal.”
I watched Powers up close put down two packs of cigarettes in Panama the day before theExile Islandseason began.
(He was also mainlining coffee.)
It’s no wonder he had a full freak-out once he hit the island.
It seems Hannah was suffering as well.
I don’t know why I added the wordsit seemsthere, because there was noit seemsabout it: Shewassuffering.
Flippin' Emily Flippen.
I love her so much.
Why would anyone do that?
And she was only getting started.
And I absolutely love her for it.
It’s a completely different energy from what we’ve seen these past few years onSurvivor.
Probst always tells peopleapplying to be on the showto be yourself.
Well, there is no doubt that Emily is being Emily.
This is exactly the way she was in our pre-game interview.
She almost says them matter-of-factly.
She just doesn’t hit the internal edit button.
And she’s self-aware.
She knows she’s a pessimist.
And in a cast full of eternal optimists, that’s fun to watch.
And then Emily was like… hold my beer.
Poor Kaleb barely registered a blip with everything else going on.
Give us an hour straight of the Lulu tribe.
I don’t just want it; Ineedit!
Which heshoulddo if he wants to convince producers to not just show us round the clock Lulu coverage.
What can I say?
I am a man of simple pleasers and simple tastes.
And awesome it was.
Sabiyah in the mud.
Dysfunction junction
Oh.
I am so obsessed with this tribe.
You had Emily working both of them to try and save her own Negative Nancy skin.
Perhaps they should have.
I’m not bringing heart to this.
I’m not mentally here."
I have to say, this surprised me.
I loved my pregame interview with Hannah.
She had spice, moxie, vim,andvigor.
There was excitement and energy pouring out of every pore.
I can’t overstate how pumped she seemed to be there.
She told me the story of freaking out after getting the call that she had made the cast.
I never would have pegged her to quit just days into the game.
Didn’t see it coming.
Emily is a gift.
But one thing she isnot, is my winner pick.
And the winner is… And they have, historically, been terrible.
But I’ve been better lately!
I nailedTommy in season 39as well asMaryanne in season 42.
Danni forWinners at WarandClaire last season?
But as Claire herself would say, “That’s showbiz, baby!”
So, here’s where I’m at forSurvivor 45with the winner pick.
I like Katurah a lot.
The way she as a lawyer asked Jake what being a lawyer was like was pretty special.
She’s smart and social and clearly has no problem deceiving people.
I also really like Kaleb’s chances.
He also appears to have a rock-solid ally in Sabiyah, which is a huge plus.
I actually thought I would pick Kaleb as my winner pick after interviewing him back in April.
But I’m not.
My pick is Austin.
The last person to make the cast will be the last one standing with the million dollars.
Only now hewon’t, because I just retroactively jinxed him to high hell.
Like the other two I just mentioned, Austin appears super likable and super intelligent.
I just feel like he might be able to hide a bit more than the others.
While it didn’t come across this episode, Kaleb can be very showy.
It’s part of his charm.
But Austin can blend in more.
And the fact that he got his hands on the first advantage could help him as well.
Okay, now that I doomed the poor kid, let’s get the hell out of here.
But first, a few programming notes.
That will be up on Thursday morning, as will myexit interview with Hannah Rose.
