Agreed and I said something similar earlier. He probably speaks in a long winded fashion where everything is carefully articulated. I imagine his answers to questions to be very in depth and they can only squeeze in so much with this many people left in the game. No one gives a **** about that when you got bitches crying and crazies out there.

Out post merge seems likely. Drawing thin would be the proper term.

I agree with the general. Confessionals are overrated. With the Brandon drama it makes sense to focus on that. With all that said I would love some albert confessionals.

Someone said Tina didn't have a confessional in the first episode. Looking at the edit right now isnt as important as it is once they merge. If albert still doesn't get any conffesionalsonce a merge happens if he makes it, than worry imo

I'm not saying it's a good sign that Albert hasn't had a confessional, but I think people massively overrate the editing in terms of "meeting quotas" or whatever. There is no rule that says winners need to be moderately visible early on or need X confessionals in the first three episodes. Now, if Albert had gone 7-8 episodes without one (a la Purple Kelly), I'd agree with you, but three episodes in a returning player season where Lil Hantz is giving the editors hourly trainwrecks? Sorry, I just don't buy the fact that Albert is drawing dead because of that. Hell, even Coach isn't getting a ton of screen time, and we're talking about ****ing COACH WADE, camera whore extraordinaire.

Survivor editors realize that people analyze the **** out of these episodes, so they might occasionally throw in a curveball. And if, for example, Coach wins this season, they can't just edit him as some under-the-radar guy pre-merge. The editors will create a story based on the information they're given, and if Albert isn't giving them great confessionals, I highly doubt they feel the need to crowbar them in just to keep him moderately visible. If they want to make him visible, they have plenty of time to do it.

Yeah my number one beef with this season is not enough COACH. Everything the guy says is gold. The show should be like 17 minutes of Coach talking, the 10 minutes of challenges, 9 minutes of tribal, and 9 minutes of camp stuff.

Coach didn't get much screen time until the dragon slayer name was born. I am hoping he plays well like he did this episode. He might have a chance to win unless his alliance turns on him. I would still like to see coach realize when someone is trying to get rid if him so he can pull another dragon skater blindside.

That was always fantastic TV and would show coach has some learned the game a little bit

Not to mention RI is an AIDS air time hog

The previews pretty much spoiled what tribe wins the next immunity challenge.

regarding the preview:

Well, I agree with the incorrect evaluation. I did the same thing. He's in a much better spot than we originally thought. However, while your alpha male shield theory is solid, I still find his lack of a story line to be a deterrent from going all gung ho on his chances of winning. I might be willing to bump him up the depth chart, but I still don't like his chances of winning...due to lack of edit instead of being old. I would anticipate that the problem he will have somewhere down the line is that he isn't solidly 'in' with anyone. It helps to have a good position in a sub-group of the majority alliance. I doubt he has that.

Also, I don't think you can rank Coach and Brandon so far apart, VT. I agree Coach should be ranked higher than Brandon, but I think having Coach at 1 and Brandon at 15 does not account for the damage to Coach's position which I would anticipate might be caused by his close alliance with Brandon. OR, if Coach really is in such a good position to merit the #1 ranking, it probably helps Brandon's position. Until Coach cuts Brandon loose, those two are going to affect each other's equity for good or ill...imo.

How about when he runs? LOL at Elyse calling that sprinting. Picture him chasing a criminal. Criminal might get a side cramp from laughing so hard while he is running away.

ninja edit: And props to Cochran for being offended that he was being targeted before Semhar and Papa Bear. Justified imo.

Semhar is doing spoken word out of context there. Its not our cup of tea, but my friend dragged me to one of these, it was an auditorium of ppl cheering and a bunch of poets, and let me jus say it was A+

this is way off

so is it pretty clear Ozzie told his five he had the idol? Why else no back-up plan ensuring cochrane gets two votes, even if there is only a 5% chance Pappy bear actually found it?

Watch dog barkin...do he bite...kill my landlord, kill my landlord..

That was weird. Either he told them, or he knew neither Dawn or Cochran wouldn't vote with Papa Bear. It pretty much has to be the first one.

I dunno. I'm not sure Chet would've even been physically capable of making it across the bridge.

I was debating whether it'd be better to have Cochran running or on the wheel and figured that his tribe must have come to the conclusion that he lacked the nimbleness required to run the course.

Yeah, who doesn't move their arms when they run? Reminded me of Chicken George from BB.

RI has ruined survivor so much. 10 minutes on this anticlimactic bull**** again. It doesn't even feel like survivor. You seized the moment my ass. When people were voted out they felt betrayed/blindsided/devastated knowing they missed a chance to win a million dorrars. That was such a big part of the show watching them walk away (Big Tom in all-stars comes to mind). Instead we get this crap every week. I don't want to hear bitter people whine and try to ruin other people's games. For what reason? Shut up Kristina. You had your chance and Coach Benjamin Wade beat your ass. I don't care about your personal story and how miserable your life is. This isn't oprah it's survivor. When your fire's gone, so are you. Give us a 20 second confessional and see you at the reunion. Especially for early boots. You were so bad that out of a bunch of 20 people you were voted out 1st. Do you think anyone cares to see you come back?

Also I'm not sure if I'm alone on this but after season 10 or 11 somewhere around there, survivor for me became really boring/predictable up until China when it picked up again. Then they had a really good stretch of seasons (with the exception of Gabon) with the show reaching its climax with HvV. I feel after that survivor has gone downhill way faster than before. The last 2 seasons were two of the worst ever, the bringing back old players is basically recycling the same old material, we've seen every scenario and every character play before, editors trying way to much to create suspense when there is clearly not any, and basically I'm afraid Survivor is becoming stale again. Out of the new people Coachran is the only one I can root for but he is basically a Rob C alike. Sure we can't have super villains who blindside people left and right and spit on them after they are gone but they spoiled us and when a show reaches it's climax there's no turning back. Maybe a couple of years from not we'll be debating whether survivor should have ended at that x specific season.

So wish I had taken Coach in the pick em. He is going to win.

I'm not quite there, yet.
At this point I cannot see who COACH can beat in a FTC.
Assuming we get a Upolu-only final, maybe he can beat Edna who even might not wanna win with every fibre in her heart and is happy just to be in the final?
He obviously could beat Brandon but I don't see him getting there.

Well, the game is still in the early phase, stranger things have happened, I'm not discounting him.

Again, you guys underestimate how much of a jury threat Coach is. People like him, and if he can make it to the end without having to backstab people then I think he'll be able to win against almost anyone.

+1

People don't realize Coach was a jury threat even in the Tocantins - which is why Stephen voted him out. People just remember his craziness because of his edit and assume he was a goat.

Also I think Brandon is going to go far. There's just no way we would learn so much about his character, or that he would get some much air time if he didn't. I also think the people on the Upolu tribe in general will go farther than those on Savaii.

And I don't have the time to discuss til the weekend, but I've been reading some of the many posts I've missed and ftr Heidik played the greatest first time game ever, and the greatest game ever. The great thing about Heidik's game was that no one knew how much control he had. He is an UTR leader whereas Boston Rob is an OTT leader. Obviously in Survivor you want to be an UTR leader. Jenna and Heidi were fully aware of how much control Cesternino - and if they were more savvy players they would not have burned bridges with Christy & Butch earlier and they would have swayed them to their side. Helen and Ted would've done that. To say Heidik only won or was so dominant because of his cast is just ignorant. To convince intelligent people the way Heidik did with a million dollars on the line is a lot harder than people realize.

The only person who didn't have a working relationship with everyone in Thailand was Brian. Because he didn't need to. Because on a jury of seven you only need four votes to win. You don't get paid by the vote. Jake, Jan, and Ted have all said in interviews that they would vote for Brian over Clay regardless of racist comments, regardless of Clay's antics over what Jake said at Tribal. Helen said she would have voted for Brian as long as he apologized - which he did. Her vote was going to be determined by what Brian said at FTC, not what Clay said or could have said.

I would even go so far as to say that assuring yourself more votes than you need to win is a strategical mistake because then other people don't want to go up against you in the F2/F3. Like how Jenna didn't want to go up against Cesternino.

Jim voted for Cockran in case Mark had the idol so obviously he didn't know Ozzy had it.