First Impressions - Survivor: Exile Island

Ever year since Africa, Survivor like to tinkle with the rules just to keep the contestants on their toes, but no shake up is bigger then the two big changes on the most recent Exile Island edition. First is the look of the tribes, now there are four teams of four that were divided by age and gender. One of the young bucks even labeled the female groups “The Spice Girls” and “The Golden Girls.” I loved how two of the “older” contestants complained about their labeling. The other big shocker, and by shocker I mean it was when they unveiled it at the reunion show, is the inclusion of an exile island. One person will be banished their, it seems like if their team loses the reward challenge, and will have to stay there until the immunity challenge.

If there was one thing that really stuck out at the beginning of this season it was, well, Danielle’s breasts. Not since Eliza from Vanuatu has a contestant utilized the push-up bikini to its fullest potential. And the cameramen, who I think work for Club MTV in the early 90’s bringing the up-shirt shot to cable, were more than happy to focus in on her every time she bent over. And I’m sure they were happy when her team picked her to do the running in the first challenge.

But Danielle lost for her team and Misty got the short end of the stick and ended up having to be the first to stay on Exile Island. This didn’t bode well for me as Misty was my preseason pick to win this season. But one thing that Misty had on her side was that there is an immunity idol, which the finder can use at anytime, even if they are voted off, hidden somewhere on the island. Apparently Jeff gave her a hint that totally went over my head but somehow Misty was smart enough to read into the “fate left you behind” statement. And even if you don’t find it, it’s a good thing to let everyone else think so, much like Misty seemed to do when she rejoined everyone. If people think you have the idol, they may not vote you off think you will use it. Of course this could backfire if there is anyone smart enough to force someone to use their idol early, so they can vote them off early. This new twist should make the physiology of the game more interesting.

The early loss along with Misty being exiled didn’t seem to hurt the Spice Girls as they ended up coming in first in the immunity challenge while the Golden Girls came in last and voted off the stronger Tina. Brilliant move on the Golden Girls’ part as with the small groups it is safe to assume it won’t be long until there is some sort of merge (and if you paid attention to the preview, it isn’t hard to figure out when that will happen; or if you read the new evil TV Guide, you will even learn how. I really hate the new evil TV Guide). So it won’t really hurt too much to get rid of the strong player early.

Now on for some predictions and observations:

Most interesting day job: Logging Sports Promoter/Performer
Most Likely to Pull a Judd: Shane
Will be most loved: Bruce
Most likely to quit: Cirie
Most likely to hook up: Nick & Danielle
Most Likely to be Stuck on Exile Island the Most: Bobby
Girl whom I still have dirty, dirty sex with even if she hadn’t showered for a month: Danielle
Next to be voted off: Aras (Seriously, what’s with that yoga stuff?)
Winner: I’m still going with Misty (but if I were to revise things I’d go with Terry)

Verdict: Much like a crack addict, I just can’t stop. I will still be watching this live while taping Smallville and Everybody Hates Chris.