Survivor Gabon Premiere Tonight

Season 17 of Survivor begins this evening beginning at 8:00 on the East Coast. I hope you have a "smart" DVR, because it's on the schedule as running until 10:01, which means that it'll crash into the first minute of the "ER" premiere. (I seem to remember ABC pulling that stunt a lot for "Lost", making it tough to record whatever the hell I was watching next.)

I don't know about how this one will be the "best ever" or whatever, but I'm pretty sure we're going to find ourselves once again laughing at people who act as though they've never seen the show (and, as I understand it, some of them haven't), trying to cast themselves in certain roles and failing or worse, succeeding, and just generally turning into Human Train Wrecks. Fun times!

Watch this space for a detailed recap of the episode. I hope to be finished with it by the time the weekend's over. 

Survivor Previews Online and Off

There are a bunch of preview videos for Survivor Gabon over at Cnet TV.

The first one is the opening three-and-a-half minutes of the show, which would be the teaser, the opening credits and then maybe the first thirty seconds of the show itself, as the contestants schlep toward a welcoming Probst.

The next batch of videos appear to be mostly the same footage that's incorporated into the preview program that's been airing on TV Guide Network. The best part about watching the videos here is that you don't have to deal with watching Parvati Shallow standing in a zoo and trying to read the cue cards with nearly-cute jokes.

The first video is a tour of the Tribal Council set, along with a couple of weird stories regarding problems they had getting it built.

Next up is a "Castaway Preview", where Probst gives us his early impressions of this season's cast. This video is over seven minutes long and is broken into many pieces on the TVGN show.

Next is about three minutes of gorgeous footage from Gabon. Don't forget that this season is shot in High Definition, so it should be something to see. Speaking of which...

Finally there's a piece about the technical end of shooting the show in HD. Some of this footage, but not all of it, was in the TVGN preview. It's kind of interesting to see just how close the cameras and boom mikes are, sometimes.

Fair warning: a couple of the videos could be considered a little spoilery, since you do see the way the tribes are divided up, and a little bit of stuff from challenges, but there are no big secrets given up here.

There's footage in the TVGN preview that doesn't appear in the Cnet videos, so if you can deal with Parvati trying desperately to sound natural (not to mention the commercials), look it up. They're showing it about a million times between now and the 25th.

Cnet videos can be found here.

Survivor Premiere Pushed Back; Meet the Cast

Two bits of Survivor news this week.

First, the premiere episode will be pushed back a week, to September 25. There's also word that this first episode will be two hours long, although it's not known whether this will simply be a two-hour version of the first three days, or if there will be two eliminations during the course of the show.

In addition, the cast for this season, which was filmed in the African nation of Gabon, was announced this week. Andy Dehnart, of the Reality Blurred website, was on-hand for the first few days to meet the cast and see some of the production. Obviously he can't say much about the episode he saw until after it airs, but it'll be interesting to see his reactions to the various cast members over the next several days.

Here's the rundown of the cast, listed alphabetically by first name, per CBS' website:

Ace is a 27 year old Jewelry Salesman who lives in Naples, Florida. The best part about his biography is the quotation about his education. Even CBS saw fit to insert a "[sic]" into the quote because it's just this side of nonsensical.

Bob hails from Portland, ME and is a Physics Teacher. I get the feeling that he'll be an early favorite, sort of a Caucasian Yau-Man. At 58, he's not quite the oldest of this bunch.

Charlie is a lawyer from New York City, but apparently we shouldn't hold either of those against him. My first reaction to his photo was "Oh, he's this season's version of Todd Herzog." THEN I saw the part of the bio that stated that he's gay. Whether the others have learned from Todd's actions...nah, never mind. Nobody behaves as though they'd seen the show before.

Corinne is a 29 year old Pharmaceutical Sales Rep from Los Angeles. She's being cast as the catty bitch type who manipulates everyone. Dehnart didn't think much of her either, apparently, but he hasn't gone into detail yet.

Crystal won the Gold Medal in the 2004 Olympics, in the 4x400 meter relay. Which is probably more than you've done. Although her bio notes that she "currently works as childcare teacher, high school track coach and a professional athlete", the tag we'll be seeing on-screen is "Former Olympic Athlete." Go figure.

Dan is Attorney Number Two in our gang this season, and he's also from the East Coast, but it's Boston this time. His biography is HUGE. I think someone at CBS is sweet on him.

Danny "GC" is this season's version of James. He's a Maintenance Man from the Other Portland (Oregon). Don't know if they'll be calling him "Danny" on the show, or "GC". The bio refers to him constantly as "Brown", his last name. I have to wonder if this is a clue to early elimination, as though the producers never really found out.

Gillian is a 61 year old librarian from Temecula, CA, which makes her the oldest Survivor this season. Based on the bio, she's a pretty tough old lady, though. Who knows, she may go far.

Jacque comes from Santa Barbara, CA. It doesn't say, but I'll bet her name is pronounced "Jackie". If so, then I hate her already.

Jessica is a Pin-Up Model from Brooklyn, NY. Even the photo on CBS' website is tarted up. It turns out she's done a little acting, too.

Kelly works in retail sales up in Buffalo Grove, IL. I get absolutely no vibe from her bio. Dehnart hates her, although again he hasn't really said why, yet.

Ken is a "Professional Gamer" from Westminster, CA. He's hoping to be a secret Challenge Monster, but for how long can you keep that a secret?

Marcus is a doctor from Atlanta, GA. He's hoping to charm his way into winning. OK.

Matty is another California dude, this time from Pacific Palisades, where he's a personal trainer. One of his biggest accomplishments in his 29-year life is apparently pissing away a sizeable inheritance from his grandparents. Party on, dumbass!

Michelle is a Music Producer from Los Angeles. From her bio, she hasn't had a lot of stability in her childhood, and it's beginning to show in how she handles her personal affairs. Look for her to hook up with some guy on the show, only to break up with him shortly after the reunion.

Paloma is a student from California (surprise!). If she wins she's hoping to use the money to open an orphanage, or a school, or some such, in Kenya. What's wrong with opening an orphanage right here in the USA?

Randy is a 49 year old Wedding Videographer who comes from Missouri. Based solely on his bio, I get the feeling that he's going to piss a few people off.

Finally, we have Susie, a hairdresser from Iowa. For whatever reason, I'm willing to bet that she goes far this season.

So that's the eighteen cast members. You can catch individual interviews here. In the meantime, here's a quick preview of the group:

Watch CBS Videos Online

Season 13 Teams Announced

The Amazing Race is coming back, and the teams were announced this week. In fact, CBS has already posted biographies to their TAR website.

The show premieres Sunday, September 28 beginning at 8:00, which means you're going to have a hard time programming the DVR because of football. As usual.

A quick summary of the teams here:

Mark & Bill: have been friends for over 20 years, ever since they met in a science fiction club. They acknowledge their geekiness, and they're hoping to be considered the most strategic team ever.


Anita & Arthur is the older beekeeping hippie couple you may have heard about. According to the bio, they're ready to go see the world together. For my money, they're going to go down earlier than they should because they're going to spend too much time sightseeing.

Terence & Sarah is this season's Dating Couple. With any luck we'll see their relationship come completely unraveled as the race progresses.

Marisa & Brooke: on the surface they appear to be a slightly younger version of Season 9's Glamazons/Frosties. Then they break out the "we're not just cute blondes, we're cut-throat competitors, we're not above flirting to get ahead" clichés, and we realize that they're more like a slightly older version of Team Pink, also from Season 9.

Andrew & Brad, while fraternity brothers, are reportedly called "Team Superbad" by other teams. This is according to the bio. According to the "meet the teams" video on the CBS site (embedded at the end of this post), this this is the name they've given themselves. These aren't the frats we're used to seeing. In fact, these guys might actually be a little bit fun, so long as they don't use the word "awesome" too much, which unfortunately doesn't seem likely.

Aja & Ty is this season's Long-Distance Couple. Enough said about that. It's fun to note that in the bio, Ty "looks forward to the Race as a chance to explore other cultures". Has he not watched this show? Only way you're gonna get some culture is if they feed you yogurt, dude.

Toni & Dallas: this season's cross-generation couple. Toni was apparently a single mother who views raising Dallas as her biggest accomplishment. I don't know why I'm getting this vibe, but I'm kind of hoping to get a couple of uncomfortable, too-much-information kind of moments out of their relationship.

Nick & Starr are the siblings of this season. Supposedly they each have a very competitive streak in them, but it's usually with each other. It'll be interesting to see if this dynamic causes them to spiral in, or if they can turn it into a kind of synergy. Starr's big "hook" is that she's a former Dallas Cowboys cheerleader. But she's not alone in that, because we have...

Kelly & Christy: one's a former collegiate cheerleader, the other is a former collegiate dancer. They're best friends and they want to be the first all-female team to win. And in their spare time they solve crimes! OK, maybe I made that last part up.

Ken & Tina: this is the couple that's using a game show to see if they can reconcile their marriage. Because a month of Killer Fatigue is the perfect environment for this sort of thing.

Finally, we have Anthony and Stephanie, another separated couple who are using a television show to put their relationship back together. Again, people who haven't been watching the show.

The "Meet the Cast" video:

Watch CBS Videos Online