First ep or two of last season sucked as well. Hated all the cast. Turned into a decent season. Have hopes for same here.

That guy seems more self deprecating than Yam Yam and I find him much more tolerable, at least initially.

Probst revealed on RHAP that the changes in casting were a result of a top down mandate from CBS...

https://youtube.com/clip/UgkxLEwxWZl...JN9gWZvYC2Qg1y

Or be remotely likable.

Dude, no. Bhanu is super sweet. Way too nice to be a fierce competitor. Of course he can get people to like him, but Yam Yam has a sneaky little devilish side who would probably giggle while he cut your survivor throat. Pretty sure Bhanu is way to nice to be very comparable to yam yam...not that Yam Yam is some @$$hole.

She gives off that "she's been told her whole life how hot she is and now aggressively hates it and anyone who suggests it". She's the exact opposite of Parv who leaned into it.

Tevin is a dead ringer for Lamar from Revenge of the Nerds

I do think this cast has some people who could end up being likeable. Hunter seems like a very nice guy. Bhanu may get tiresome but I like his enthusiasm. Tiffany seems pretty cool as does Soda. I like Q's work ethic.

Also, with all the love for Venus, I think most of you guys are sleeping on Jemila who is low-key just as hot imo.

Story checks out

I do not feel the cast this season is representative of our country. Maybe of a city like New York or San Francisco.

I don’t see any homeless castaways.

Couple of days behind but my updated Australian Survivor power rankings after the merge week.

Will leave in Spoilers for anyone who wants to watch the season late

I only watched it this weekend, and yeah, this does not look like a strong group. And at 90 minutes an episode (after this week's one last 2 hour one), it could really drag.

I has similar thoughts, plus one where they wrap the buckets with clothing. It might have indeed been to underscore Jelenski's overall ineptitude.

To be clear, this isn't Survivor specific. It's all reality shows.

Good change or bad? I dunno, no one really "deserves" to be on Survivor so the network should do whatever they think will draw the biggest audience. If they think a more diverse cast will appeal to a larger demographic, it's just smart business.

going for a higher percentage of a minority seems like a Disney move and not necessarily smart business as it does not guarantee larger audience

Well there's 8 white people by my count. 5 blacks, 1 South American, 1 Indian, 1 Chinese, 1 Hispanic. Maria I'm not sure... maybe Middle Eastern ancestry? Seems pretty representative overall.

At any rate I have zero problem with the racial or ethnic makeup of the cast. Or that they have more openly gay cast members than they used to. A more diverse cast is overall a good thing imo.

My issue is that they now seem to cast a bunch of people who are just SO HAPPY to be on Survivor. They can't believe they're really there. They love Jeff. They love seeing the TC set in person, they love each other, they love everything about everything. Upbeat, fun, and above all, "quirky"!

It's hard to imagine guys like Tom Westman or JT even getting cast these days. Too regular. Boston Rob and Amber would both probably be rejected.

Valeria's lips seem to be growing like she just got a shot of Botox. Did she have filler put in awhile ago and now losing weight?

Can you talk about useless moron Survivor somewhere else

Completely agree with this. Plus the fact almost the whole the cast are now 'white collar'. How many lawyers did we have again in 45?

There's been so much great casting down the years from 'minority' backgrounds who just wouldn't get on the show today. People like Abi Maria, Sean Rector, Ami Cusack, Dreams and J'tia

Nothing "guarantees" a larger audience, but if nothing else, having a diverse casting policy does help prevent Survivor from some random woke internet movement to cancel them.

The issue with survivor casting nowadays isn't the diversity - it's Probst's desire to make survivor this societal utopia where everyone gets along. He's said they won't cast villains anymore and that changes the show way more than having a few more POCs.

https://www.usmagazine.com/entertain...ivor-villains/

Yeah it's gone from a cutthroat survival game in tough conditions to "let's all go to Fiji and root for each other while we sing Kumbaya around the campfire". Not working for me.

I think that you also now have a group of people applying who literally grew up watching Survivor. The original season was 24 years ago, so if you're now 30 you were six and maybe watching with your parents as a lot of cast members have indicated. That brings an element of people who really know the show well and are probably just astounded they made it through the casting process, which must be insane. They also know that if you aren't happy along with everyone else you put an early target on your back because with six tribe members you have to make nice right away.

Plus, you have the addition of social media, which is FAR bigger than it was ten years ago. I'm sure the cast members now are encouraged to have as much following on social media as possible, plus they are all focused on growing "their brand" so they can possibly cash in after appearing. So if you're a villain (even perceived) you're going to lose followers or cause controversy and nobody is going to want to work with you outside of the show. You'll never see a Russell again.

It usually takes a couple of episodes before we get into this exact discourse. Well done, guys. Maybe we’ll be over it by week 3