Please, please, please send this over to Mark Burnett right away!
18 people are dropped on a beach with 2 big bags of rice and some tools. At the first challenge they are divided into 3 teams of 6 players each... everyone on the team that wins gets immunity, everyone else is fair game. There are 2 immunity idols and 2 advantages (steal a vote, extra vote) hidden around camp at the start and a new immunity and new advantage are added to the camp area in each of the first 5 episodes. Other than the original 4 at the start of the game, every new idol/advantage comes with a clause that says it must be used at one of the next 3 tribal councils or it will expire.
There are other twists along the way -- sometimes the 4-6 people who have won immunity are also not allowed to vote at tribal council; sometimes the folks who win immunity are allowed to share that immunity with another player or with multiple other players (talk about gut-wrenching decisions that reveal your alliances!); sometimes you are playing for a double-immunity that will keep you safe this week and next week.
Just shake things up in a big way. Throw the kitchen sink at the wall and see what sticks. Create an advantage that allows a player to pick 2 other players and forbid them from voting for the same person (Becky plays her advantage and makes it so Tommy and Martin cannot vote for the same person, foiling their plan to form a block to vote out Becky's ally). Start the jury with a lot of players left in the game and then create an advantage called the "Juror Challenge" that allows the holder of the advantage to prevent someone from being seated on the jury when they are eliminated (that way you can keep your enemies out of the jury pool).
I agree that Survivor is becoming kinda stale... the challenges all feel really familiar (it feels like endurance challenges are featured less and less late in the game -- who did not love the keep-your-hand-on-the-idol challenge at the end of season 1??). Let's shake this sucker up a bit more!
Oh, and one more thing -- while I like cerebral and smart social players like Cerie and Sandra and others, I'd love to see one season with nothing but physically fit, challenge studs. Rather than putting a giant target on Ozzie's back on day one (which inevitably leads to his ouster the moment team immunity is done) because he is the best at challenges every time he plays, put him in a field with a bunch of other great challenge studs and let them all battle each other.
-Jason "worth noting that Brad's studly challenge run of 5 wins came against a bunch of physically weak players. By the time he started winning challenges, Michaela and Sarah were the most physically imposing players left in the game (54 year old Troyzan was never, ever a challenge threat)" Evans
Why are you wasting time here when you could be wasting it by listening to the latest episode of the DBR Podcast?
Yeah, when Probst said, "Hustlers..." I was hoping it would be used car salesmen, professional gamblers, criminal defense attorneys, PR consultants, and perhaps even a couple people who are actual convicted con-men. Now that would be an interesting dynamic. Instead "hustlers" are coffee baristas and executive assistants... boring!!
Why are you wasting time here when you could be wasting it by listening to the latest episode of the DBR Podcast?