First Impressions: Survivor: Redemption Island

Survivor: Redemption Island poises the question can the unredeemable actually be redeemed? For its new season Survivor brought back two of its biggest doushebags ever for another go around. Boston Rob gets his fourth go around even though he failed to make the jury on two of his previous season. Then the other contestant is the one person that can make Rob seem sympathetic, Russell who gets to play for the third time (and most likely last since it has been brought to light that he spoiled his first two seasons, which is a breach of contract that could cost him millions) who played the dumbest game ever only to repeat it on the second go-around and got completely outplayed by two girls.

Of course Redemption Island has less to do with the two returning contestants and more with the place voted out contestants go to battle in hopes to reenter the game. We will have to wait until next week to see how it fully works after a second contestant gets voted out (or possibly the third episode depending on when exactly the competition takes place). But from the preview it looks like something out of MTV’s The Challenge and it looks like Francesca Hogi will be taking on a dude (though the thick leg in the preview could be a production personal doing a run-through or someone from a later challenge) and hopefully it is Russell.

Then at some point during the season, the person left standing on Redemption Island will be released back into the game. I originally assumed that it would be around the merge, but the Redemption Moments were all of jury members who went fairly deep in the game. So I wonder when they get to the jury, will the person still on Redemption Island be able to sit in on Tribal Council? Hopefully they are not let back in late in the game because the later the less I like the idea of Redemption Island.

After a poorly cast Nicaragua season, there were plenty of standout characters from Redemption Island including redneck Ralph Kiser and an overabundance of eye candy highlighted by Andrea Boehlke but former Special Agent (?) Phillip Sheppard was the breakout star of the premiere episode. He bragged about his ability of being able to read people thanks to his federal agent (?) yet he has the social skills of Sheldon Cooper. His blowup was one of the more entertaining tribal councils in a while. Hopefully he somehow manages to stay awhile but sure dumb luck.

Contestant I’d Most Like to Have Dirty, Dirty Sex with Even if She Hasn’t Take a Shower in a Month: Andrea Boehlke

Winner: Andrea Boehlke

Back Up Choice: Mike Chiesl

Survivor: Redemption Island airs Wednesdays at 8:00 on CBS. You can stream episodes on CBS.com. You can also download Survivor on iTunes.