Tonight's "two-hour episode" is actually two episodes according to CBS. The episode titles are as follows:

Ep4206: "You Can’t Hide on Survivor"
Ep4207: "The Devil You Do or The Devil You Don’t"

Based on a preview it looks like Mike and Chanelle have words when they get back to camp. In a confessional, Mike says "I will never trust Chanelle ever again."

I another preview, we find out what Jeff tells them after saying that they're playing individually but are not yet merged. Jeff tells them that the merge will occur at the end of the next TC.

In a clip posted to Twitter today, it looks like it's a combined RC/IC. It's a sponsored reward which we haven't seen for awhile. They're playing to win food from Applebee's including dessert. Jeff does a big plug for Applebee's and the players are super happy they have a shot to win some food. Tori even puts her head on Rocksroy chest for a sec.

There's another clip on social media which shows some of the challenge. It looks like they're competing as two teams of five. As far as I can tell. it appears that Rocksroy didn't get picked to play or didn't draw the right rocks. I'm pretty sure the big twist tonight is the hour glass one that probably saved Erika's butt last season and allowed her to go on to win the game. Based on the edit thus far, I can see the winning team sending Rocksroy to exile and having Lindsay join them for the reward and what they they think will be safety.

--
Brian

On Wednesday, April 13, 2022 at 4:03:11 PM UTC-6, Brian Smith wrote:
> Tonight's "two-hour episode" is actually two episodes according to CBS. The episode titles are as follows:
>
> Ep4206: "You Can’t Hide on Survivor"
> Ep4207: "The Devil You Do or The Devil You Don’t"
>
> Based on a preview it looks like Mike and Chanelle have words when they get back to camp. In a confessional, Mike says "I will never trust Chanelle ever again."
>
> I another preview, we find out what Jeff tells them after saying that they're playing individually but are not yet merged. Jeff tells them that the merge will occur at the end of the next TC.
>
> In a clip posted to Twitter today, it looks like it's a combined RC/IC. It's a sponsored reward which we haven't seen for awhile. They're playing to win food from Applebee's including dessert. Jeff does a big plug for Applebee's and the players are super happy they have a shot to win some food. Tori even puts her head on Rocksroy chest for a sec.
>
> There's another clip on social media which shows some of the challenge. It looks like they're competing as two teams of five. As far as I can tell. it appears that Rocksroy didn't get picked to play or didn't draw the right rocks. I'm pretty sure the big twist tonight is the hour glass one that probably saved Erika's butt last season and allowed her to go on to win the game. Based on the edit thus far, I can see the winning team sending Rocksroy to exile and having Lindsay join them for the reward and what they they think will be safety.
>
> --
> Brian

Have to say off the top that these were two great episodes. Lots of strategic game play was shown which made a huge difference.

Near the start of the episode we saw Tori pressing Rocksroy to tell her exactly what happened when he climbed the mountain with Lydia (?). He wouldn't tell her and she wasn't pleased. Her other tribemates noticed what was going on and stated that she's too in your face at times. They didn't exactly say that but it was something similar.

Reward Challenge

Before the players arrived Jeff talked to us. He said since S41 and S42 were shot back to back that the S42 players don't know about the Hourglass twist. He said they decided to make three changes this time.

1. Food reward was upgraded to Applebee's
2. The players would be told about the game changing twist
3. That the winning team in the challenge could either a send a player not chosen to play to Exile Island or they could send one of their own.

The winning team was Hai, Lydia, Maryanne, Jonathan, and Tori. Jonathan's performance was simply amazing. I thought for sure they would lose given how physical the first three sections of the challenge were. There were two parts where they had to pull people up to the next level of the challenge. Jonathan made this look easy. It looked like on the first one that he literally threw Tori up in one fast motion. Tori did great earlier in the challenge standing on a huge ball as she untied two keys so they could move on. The other tribe struggled immensely throughout the challenge. I was surprised they had Omar do the keys given how badly he sucked doing something similar a few challenges ago.

The winning team decided to choose Lindsay to join them for the reward and what they thought would be immunity. Jeff emphasized a number of times that the power was game changing but they still decided to send Rocksroy to Exile Island.

Exile Island

At one point Jeff came to EI to visit Rocksroy and to explain the twist to him. Rocks told us that Tori would factor into his decision on whether or not to break the hourglass.

Immunity Challenge (Day 14)

Rocksroy returned from EI just as the IC was about to start. He told them that he broke the hourglass and changed the game. Tori was pissed and basically said he didn't appreciate what they did for him. Someone commented she was digging herself a hole. At that moment, things did not look good for Tori.

The challenge was the one where you have to spell out "IMMUNITY" with blocks while balancing them as you walk back and forth to get them using a rope to keep the blocks from crashing to the ground. We've seen this challenge numerous times in the past. Tori won the challenge which forced the others to change up their plans. An alliance of eight people had formed earlier. IIRC, the main targets were Maryanne, Chanelle, and Tori. With Tori winning II a number of the others tried to save those closest to them as targets were shifting due to idols, etc.

Tribal Council (Night 14)

Nothing special happened at TC. No one played an idol, used a power, etc. The vote was very strange.

Rocksroy: Lindsay ("Lynzee" lol)
Romeo: Maryanne
Lydia: Maryanne
Chanelle: Jonathan
Tori: Jonathan
Hai: Lydia (really surprised with this vote)
Maryanne: Lydia
Mike: Lydia
Drea: Lydia
Lindsay: Lydia
Jonathan: Lydia

Lydia just missed out on making the merge and jury by a vote of 5-2-2-1. Omar didn't vote because he lost his vote via being backstabbed by Chanelle. FYI, he threw her UTB to a number of the others.

Next Episode

Looks like a number of people are being targeted. We also quickly saw Tori tell Jonathan she voted for him because she wants to win more challenges.

--
Brian

On Wednesday, April 13, 2022 at 9:28:31 PM UTC-6, Brian Smith wrote:
> On Wednesday, April 13, 2022 at 4:03:11 PM UTC-6, Brian Smith wrote:

> Tribal Council (Night 14)
>
> Nothing special happened at TC. No one played an idol, used a power, etc. The vote was very strange.
>
> Rocksroy: Lindsay ("Lynzee" lol)
> Romeo: Maryanne
> Lydia: Maryanne
> Chanelle: Jonathan
> Tori: Jonathan
> Hai: Lydia (really surprised with this vote)
> Maryanne: Lydia
> Mike: Lydia
> Drea: Lydia
> Lindsay: Lydia
> Jonathan: Lydia
>
> Lydia just missed out on making the merge and jury by a vote of 5-2-2-1. Omar didn't vote because he lost his vote via being backstabbed by Chanelle. FYI, he threw her UTB to a number of the others.

Vote was 6-2-2-1. My bad!

--
Brian

On Thu, 14 Apr 2022 13:16:12 -0700 (PDT), Brian Smith
<dcg_brian@hotmail.com> wrote:

>On Wednesday, April 13, 2022 at 9:28:31 PM UTC-6, Brian Smith wrote:
>> On Wednesday, April 13, 2022 at 4:03:11 PM UTC-6, Brian Smith wrote:
>
>> Tribal Council (Night 14)
>>
>> Nothing special happened at TC. No one played an idol, used a power, etc. The vote was very strange.

That vote was certainly unexpected.

>> Rocksroy: Lindsay ("Lynzee" lol)
>> Romeo: Maryanne
>> Lydia: Maryanne
>> Chanelle: Jonathan
>> Tori: Jonathan
>> Hai: Lydia (really surprised with this vote)
>> Maryanne: Lydia
>> Mike: Lydia
>> Drea: Lydia
>> Lindsay: Lydia
>> Jonathan: Lydia
>>
>> Lydia just missed out on making the merge and jury by a vote of 5-2-2-1. Omar didn't vote because he lost his vote via being backstabbed by Chanelle. FYI, he threw her UTB to a number of the others.
>
>Vote was 6-2-2-1. My bad!

I get that sometimes players want to split the vote to control the
outcome should an idol get played but this vote seems odd. I suppose
with Hai he must have become convinced of the vote going Lydia's way
so wanted to stick with the crowd even though he wanted Lydia to stay.
Why Chanelle/Tori voted together while Romeo/Lydia voted together and
Rocksroy was off by himself with his vote seems like such an odd set
of votes.

On Wednesday, April 13, 2022 at 8:28:31 PM UTC-7, Brian Smith wrote:

> Have to say off the top that these were two great episodes. Lots of strategic game play was shown which made a huge difference.

My feelings about E06 and 07 are more conflicted. I liked all the strategizing and the opportunities to see the players interacting with each other.
But I absolutely hate the "hourglass twist". I had assumed that after the tongue lashing that Probst got from Danny McCrae in S41, he would
have condemned it to the section of Ghost Island where "all the very bad ideas that should never be used again" are carefully hidden away. But no!
Instead, he not only brings it back, but tries to pitch it to the audience as "a new and improved version" of he same crappy twist that resulted in Sydney's
undeserving removal from the S41 game. IMO, precisely the same thing happened to poor Lydia this time around. If Probst had let things run their
normal course, Chanelle almost certainly would have been voted out based on her game play while on Green Tribe. Instead, she ended up being
immune, and a convenient scapegoat, who the majority could live with, had to be selected.

I was surprised they had Omar do the keys given how badly he sucked doing something similar a few challenges ago.

Actually, it was Romeo who was up on the ball getting the keys, not Omar.
> Someone commented she was digging herself a hole. At that moment, things did not look good for Tori.

Heh! And my reaction was totally the opposite. As soon as that comment was made about Tori, I assumed that she would win the challenge.
(Wisely, she removed her voluminous blue checked pants, and ran the challenge in a pair of shorts).:-)
>An alliance of eight people had formed earlier. IIRC, the main targets were Maryanne, Chanelle, and Tori.

Actually, Chanelle was the only legitimate target. Tori's name was tossed out by Chanelle, and Maryanne's by Jonathan.
However, it would be fair to speculate that, if Tori had not won the immunity challenge, she likely would have been voted
out simply because she was not a member of the alliance.

> Rocksroy: Lindsay ("Lynzee" lol)
> Romeo: Maryanne
> Lydia: Maryanne
> Chanelle: Jonathan
> Tori: Jonathan
> Hai: Lydia (really surprised with this vote)
> Maryanne: Lydia
> Mike: Lydia
> Drea: Lydia
> Lindsay: Lydia
> Jonathan: Lydia

Good job by Omar of pulling the votes away from Jonathan, and moving them to somebody who absolutely did not deserve them.
Hell, even Lydia's alliance partner voted for her.
And what's up with Romeo and Drea's votes? I thought they were supposed to be super tight.
And as for Rock Head, he was probably wishing he was still on Exile Island. ;-)

"zeppo" wrote in message
news:82c06e9f-0400-4345-9463-a272f8f4dfdcn@googlegroups.com...
>
>On Wednesday, April 13, 2022 at 8:28:31 PM UTC-7, Brian Smith wrote:
>
>> Have to say off the top that these were two great episodes. Lots of
>> strategic game play was shown which made a huge difference.
>
>My feelings about E06 and 07 are more conflicted. I liked all the
>strategizing and the opportunities to see the players interacting with each
>other.
>But I absolutely hate the "hourglass twist". I had assumed that after the
>tongue lashing that Probst got from Danny McCrae in S41, he would
>have condemned it to the section of Ghost Island where "all the very bad
>ideas that should never be used again" are carefully hidden away. But no!
>Instead, he not only brings it back, but tries to pitch it to the audience
>as "a new and improved version" of he same crappy twist that resulted in
>Sydney's
>undeserving removal from the S41 game. IMO, precisely the same thing
>happened to poor Lydia this time around. If Probst had let things run their
>normal course, Chanelle almost certainly would have been voted out based on
>her game play while on Green Tribe. Instead, she ended up being
>immune, and a convenient scapegoat, who the majority could live with, had
>to be selected.
>
Remember, S42 was filmed before S41 had aired and any backlash had occurred.
I don't remember at what point Danny McCrae made his feelings known, but S42
was probably already planned out, and maybe deep into production already or
at least beyond the point where it would be easy to throw a major part of
the scheme out the window.

* I promise I will format my posts properly in the future.
* Windows Live Mail just can't quote! Luckily, I have found this:
* http://www.dusko-lolic.from.hr/wlmquote/

On Thursday, April 14, 2022 at 9:52:39 PM UTC-6, John wrote:
> "zeppo" wrote in message
> news:82c06e9f-0400-4345...@googlegroups.com...
> >
> >On Wednesday, April 13, 2022 at 8:28:31 PM UTC-7, Brian Smith wrote:
> >
> >> Have to say off the top that these were two great episodes. Lots of
> >> strategic game play was shown which made a huge difference.
> >
> >My feelings about E06 and 07 are more conflicted. I liked all the
> >strategizing and the opportunities to see the players interacting with each
> >other.
> >But I absolutely hate the "hourglass twist". I had assumed that after the
> >tongue lashing that Probst got from Danny McCrae in S41, he would
> >have condemned it to the section of Ghost Island where "all the very bad
> >ideas that should never be used again" are carefully hidden away. But no!
> >Instead, he not only brings it back, but tries to pitch it to the audience
> >as "a new and improved version" of he same crappy twist that resulted in
> >Sydney's
> >undeserving removal from the S41 game. IMO, precisely the same thing
> >happened to poor Lydia this time around. If Probst had let things run their
> >normal course, Chanelle almost certainly would have been voted out based on
> >her game play while on Green Tribe. Instead, she ended up being
> >immune, and a convenient scapegoat, who the majority could live with, had
> >to be selected.
> >
> Remember, S42 was filmed before S41 had aired and any backlash had occurred.
> I don't remember at what point Danny McCrae made his feelings known, but S42
> was probably already planned out, and maybe deep into production already or
> at least beyond the point where it would be easy to throw a major part of
> the scheme out the window.

Danny blasted that twist during a TC if IIRC. He basically said it was stupid to have a win taken away from a team. I's say Danny had a direct influence on two of the changes: 1) everyone was made aware upfront that this was a game changing twist and 2) the winning team had the choice to send one of their own to EI keeping them all immune and guaranteeing they all make jury. Jeff also strongly hinted to them more than once that sending one of the non-selected players might not be a good thing.

--
Brian

On Thursday, April 14, 2022 at 4:09:20 PM UTC-6, shawn wrote:
> On Thu, 14 Apr 2022 13:16:12 -0700 (PDT), Brian Smith
> <dcg_...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>
> >On Wednesday, April 13, 2022 at 9:28:31 PM UTC-6, Brian Smith wrote:
> >> On Wednesday, April 13, 2022 at 4:03:11 PM UTC-6, Brian Smith wrote:
> >
> >> Tribal Council (Night 14)
> >>
> >> Nothing special happened at TC. No one played an idol, used a power, etc. The vote was very strange.
> That vote was certainly unexpected.
> >> Rocksroy: Lindsay ("Lynzee" lol)
> >> Romeo: Maryanne
> >> Lydia: Maryanne
> >> Chanelle: Jonathan
> >> Tori: Jonathan
> >> Hai: Lydia (really surprised with this vote)
> >> Maryanne: Lydia
> >> Mike: Lydia
> >> Drea: Lydia
> >> Lindsay: Lydia
> >> Jonathan: Lydia
> >>
> >> Lydia just missed out on making the merge and jury by a vote of 5-2-2-1. Omar didn't vote because he lost his vote via being backstabbed by Chanelle. FYI, he threw her UTB to a number of the others.
> >
> >Vote was 6-2-2-1. My bad!
> I get that sometimes players want to split the vote to control the
> outcome should an idol get played but this vote seems odd. I suppose
> with Hai he must have become convinced of the vote going Lydia's way
> so wanted to stick with the crowd even though he wanted Lydia to stay.
> Why Chanelle/Tori voted together while Romeo/Lydia voted together and
> Rocksroy was off by himself with his vote seems like such an odd set
> of votes.

We know from next week's preview that Tori voted for Jonathan because she wants to win more challenges. So her vote makes sense. Hai probably did find out that Lydia was toast and knowing she wouldn't make jury made voting for her that much easier. Rocksroy's vote makes the least sense to me. Does he think she's on her own?

--
Brian

On Thursday, April 14, 2022 at 9:29:57 PM UTC-6, zeppo wrote:
> On Wednesday, April 13, 2022 at 8:28:31 PM UTC-7, Brian Smith wrote:
> > I was surprised they had Omar do the keys given how badly he sucked doing something similar a few challenges ago.
> Actually, it was Romeo who was up on the ball getting the keys, not Omar.

Damn! I thought I heard Jeff say Omar.

> > Someone commented she was digging herself a hole. At that moment, things did not look good for Tori.
> Heh! And my reaction was totally the opposite. As soon as that comment was made about Tori, I assumed that she would win the challenge.
> (Wisely, she removed her voluminous blue checked pants, and ran the challenge in a pair of shorts).:-)

I didn't think she would win going in but that was before knowing what the challenge would be. That was a fair challenge for everyone.

Yes, switching into shorts was smart.

> >An alliance of eight people had formed earlier. IIRC, the main targets were Maryanne, Chanelle, and Tori.
> Actually, Chanelle was the only legitimate target. Tori's name was tossed out by Chanelle, and Maryanne's by Jonathan.
> However, it would be fair to speculate that, if Tori had not won the immunity challenge, she likely would have been voted
> out simply because she was not a member of the alliance.

Didn't Drea throw Tori under the bus pretty hard? I believe someone else did as well and we all know Rocksroy would have been on board to boot her.

> > Rocksroy: Lindsay ("Lynzee" lol)
> > Romeo: Maryanne
> > Lydia: Maryanne
> > Chanelle: Jonathan
> > Tori: Jonathan
> > Hai: Lydia (really surprised with this vote)
> > Maryanne: Lydia
> > Mike: Lydia
> > Drea: Lydia
> > Lindsay: Lydia
> > Jonathan: Lydia
> Good job by Omar of pulling the votes away from Jonathan, and moving them to somebody who absolutely did not deserve them.
> Hell, even Lydia's alliance partner voted for her.
> And what's up with Romeo and Drea's votes? I thought they were supposed to be super tight.
> And as for Rock Head, he was probably wishing he was still on Exile Island. ;-)

Omar's social game must be a lot better than the edit has indicated. How could a guy with no vote have so much influence on a key vote?

At one point during the scramble before TC we saw that Lydia was aware she was in danger yet she didn't use her Shot in the Dark. Did she use it earlier? With so much scrambling going on I'm surprised no one used theirs, or used an idol, or an extra vote.

--
Brian

On 2022-04-15 03:29:56 +0000, zeppo said:

> But I absolutely hate the "hourglass twist". I had assumed that after
> the tongue lashing that Probst got from Danny McCrae in S41, he would
> have condemned it to the section of Ghost Island where "all the very
> bad ideas that should never be used again" are carefully hidden away.
> But no!

it wasn't the hourglass twist itself that Probst presented to the
viewing audience.

What he presented and was playing to the audience was that "you've seen
it before, but the players haven't. Let's see what happens now."

That's legit.

On 2022-04-15 03:29:56 +0000, zeppo said:

> I had assumed that after the tongue lashing that Probst got from Danny
> McCrae in S41, he would
> have condemned it

frankly, the people who make boatloads of money--Survivor LLC--has some
standing to ignore whiners like that, when Survivor LLC thinks he's
wrong or there's money to be made regardless.

IOW, nobody gives a shit what a whiner Survivor loser thinks.

On Thursday, April 14, 2022 at 11:37:46 PM UTC-7, Brian Smith wrote:

> Didn't Drea throw Tori under the bus pretty hard?

You're right. I got Drea and Chanelle mixed up. But Drea was not exactly being truthful when
she talked about Tori's role on Blue Tribe. Hai and the others might have been wondering how
Tori managed to still be in the game given Drea's statement that she "had tried to blindside everyone
since Day One."
>
> At one point during the scramble before TC we saw that Lydia was aware she was in danger yet she didn't use her Shot in the Dark. Did she use it earlier?

No. The only players to use the SITD so far have been Zach, Marya, and Swati.
BTW, what did you think of that weird micro-scene during which we saw Tori suggesting to Jonathan that she was going to vote for him
so that she could win more immunity competitions in the future. That sure came out of "left field".

On Thursday, April 14, 2022 at 8:52:39 PM UTC-7, John wrote:
> >
> Remember, S42 was filmed before S41 had aired and any backlash had occurred.
> I don't remember at what point Danny McCrae made his feelings known, but S42
> was probably already planned out, and maybe deep into production already or
> at least beyond the point where it would be easy to throw a major part of
> the scheme out the window.

Good point! I had forgotten that there were only six days between the S41 FTC and E01 of S42. Given
that the two seasons were planned to have almost identical structures, I agree that it would have been
difficult to delete a major element that was to be used in both seasons, even if Production was
tempted to do so.
However, as Brian Smith said downthread, Danny McCray and Jeff Probst had a verbal confrontation about
the "hourglass twist" during the E07 tribal council. This only came to light in an interview that Danny did
with Entertainment Weekly on December 9, 2021(see link below).

https://groups.google.com/g/alt.tv.survivor/c/9pmvI4kOvDU?hl=en

This is a very long interview, so I've copied the part during which the McCray/Probst confrontation is discussed:

E.W.: "So we saw you voice your displeasure with the hourglass twist on the air, but apparently, you talked more about it with Jeff Probst at Tribal Council. What did you say there and how did he respond?"

D.M.:"We're competitors. A lot of us leave a lot of things at home to come out here and play this game. And we put a lot on the line and there's an essence to competition. You play to win so you can win something, right? That's the only reason that you would go out there to compete. And the fact that he was able to lie to us, to trick us and make us work as hard as we did just for it to be taken away from us, it just wasn't cool with me. And his response, you know, it was what it was. I won't really get into that, but it just didn't float with me. So I didn't like it."

E.W.: "I didn't like it either. I think a lot of people didn't like it. But they try new things on this show all the time and if it doesn't work, they'll get rid of it. So hopefully, we don't see it again, and hopefully, he listened to you."

D.M.: "I don't have big faith in that one. My reality TV days may just be over because that was a very, very tough situation for me to handle and process, that I was out there in a situation like that and allowed myself to be put in a game to where somebody could just look at me, tell that lie, and I just have to accept it."

If Danny had used this wording when speaking to Probst, with all the other players present, I can certainly understand why things may have gotten a little heated.

So, as Brian stated in the the post below, the incident had enough of an impact on Probst, and whoever else makes major production decisions these days, to keep
the "hourglass twist" in the game as planned, but to make the role of the person sent to Exile Island more transparent, and provide the opportunity for a member of
the group that had won immunity to go to E.I. instead. Given that taking this opportunity meant that someone would have to give up a major food reward, as well
as two days at camp during which important alliances would likely be formed, it was not surprising at all to me that nobody volunteered.

Bottom line for me: One of the rules of Survivor is that if somebody wins an advantage in the game, it can't be stolen from them However, in both S41
and S42, several players won immunity in fair competitions, only to have it taken away from them by single players who didn't even participate in the
challenges. Despite Probst's attempt to tweak this twist in an attempt to make it appear to be less unfair, it's presence continues to make a mockery
of one of the fundamental principles of the game IMO.

On Friday, April 15, 2022 at 1:01:01 PM UTC-6, zeppo wrote:
> On Thursday, April 14, 2022 at 11:37:46 PM UTC-7, Brian Smith wrote:
>
> > Didn't Drea throw Tori under the bus pretty hard?
> You're right. I got Drea and Chanelle mixed up. But Drea was not exactly being truthful when
> she talked about Tori's role on Blue Tribe. Hai and the others might have been wondering how
> Tori managed to still be in the game given Drea's statement that she "had tried to blindside everyone
> since Day One."

Drea comes across as being very sketchy to me. Tori gets in people's faces which some don't like but she seems like a straight shooter to me. Maybe the players see it the same way.

Did you notice that Tori's old tribe all voted differently? I thought Drea and Rocksroy were close but she didn't seem to bother to fill him in on what was going on. That tribe must have been more dysfunctional then the edit let on.

> >
> > At one point during the scramble before TC we saw that Lydia was aware she was in danger yet she didn't use her Shot in the Dark. Did she use it earlier?
> No. The only players to use the SITD so far have been Zach, Marya, and Swati.

And all three are out of the game! That might be why no one gambled on being saved by it.

> BTW, what did you think of that weird micro-scene during which we saw Tori suggesting to Jonathan that she was going to vote for him
> so that she could win more immunity competitions in the future. That sure came out of "left field".

I referenced that scene earlier. It's a good example of Tori being brutally honest. I'd like to see those two work together.

--
Brian

On Friday, April 15, 2022 at 2:26:27 PM UTC-6, zeppo wrote:
> On Thursday, April 14, 2022 at 8:52:39 PM UTC-7, John wrote:
> > >
> > Remember, S42 was filmed before S41 had aired and any backlash had occurred.
> > I don't remember at what point Danny McCrae made his feelings known, but S42
> > was probably already planned out, and maybe deep into production already or
> > at least beyond the point where it would be easy to throw a major part of
> > the scheme out the window.
> Good point! I had forgotten that there were only six days between the S41 FTC and E01 of S42. Given
> that the two seasons were planned to have almost identical structures, I agree that it would have been
> difficult to delete a major element that was to be used in both seasons, even if Production was
> tempted to do so.
> However, as Brian Smith said downthread, Danny McCray and Jeff Probst had a verbal confrontation about
> the "hourglass twist" during the E07 tribal council. This only came to light in an interview that Danny did
> with Entertainment Weekly on December 9, 2021(see link below).
>
> https://groups.google.com/g/alt.tv.survivor/c/9pmvI4kOvDU?hl=en
>
> This is a very long interview, so I've copied the part during which the McCray/Probst confrontation is discussed:
>
> E.W.: "So we saw you voice your displeasure with the hourglass twist on the air, but apparently, you talked more about it with Jeff Probst at Tribal Council. What did you say there and how did he respond?"
>
> D.M.:"We're competitors. A lot of us leave a lot of things at home to come out here and play this game. And we put a lot on the line and there's an essence to competition. You play to win so you can win something, right? That's the only reason that you would go out there to compete. And the fact that he was able to lie to us, to trick us and make us work as hard as we did just for it to be taken away from us, it just wasn't cool with me. And his response, you know, it was what it was. I won't really get into that, but it just didn't float with me. So I didn't like it."
>
> E.W.: "I didn't like it either. I think a lot of people didn't like it. But they try new things on this show all the time and if it doesn't work, they'll get rid of it. So hopefully, we don't see it again, and hopefully, he listened to you."
>
> D.M.: "I don't have big faith in that one. My reality TV days may just be over because that was a very, very tough situation for me to handle and process, that I was out there in a situation like that and allowed myself to be put in a game to where somebody could just look at me, tell that lie, and I just have to accept it."
>
> If Danny had used this wording when speaking to Probst, with all the other players present, I can certainly understand why things may have gotten a little heated.
>
> So, as Brian stated in the the post below, the incident had enough of an impact on Probst, and whoever else makes major production decisions these days, to keep
> the "hourglass twist" in the game as planned, but to make the role of the person sent to Exile Island more transparent, and provide the opportunity for a member of
> the group that had won immunity to go to E.I. instead. Given that taking this opportunity meant that someone would have to give up a major food reward, as well
> as two days at camp during which important alliances would likely be formed, it was not surprising at all to me that nobody volunteered.
>
> Bottom line for me: One of the rules of Survivor is that if somebody wins an advantage in the game, it can't be stolen from them However, in both S41
> and S42, several players won immunity in fair competitions, only to have it taken away from them by single players who didn't even participate in the
> challenges. Despite Probst's attempt to tweak this twist in an attempt to make it appear to be less unfair, it's presence continues to make a mockery
> of one of the fundamental principles of the game IMO.

Good digging! I also recall watching a video exit interview with Danny where he expressed the same feelings. It was pretty obvious that the Hourglass twist totally ruined the experience for him. I also think things got heated enough at that TC that production had no choice but to make changes. If they did the same and Jeff tried to spin it as if it was a huge success in S41, the S41 players at that TC would have called him out. It's good that Jeff listened but it's still a stupid twist.

I agree with you that wins should not be taken away from people. Neither should powers. The Idol Nullifier twist was/is just about as bad as the Hourglass twist. Hopefully they both get thrown in the garbage never to return to the game.

--
Brian

On Friday, April 15, 2022 at 1:57:39 PM UTC-7, Brian Smith wrote:
> I agree with you that wins should not be taken away from people. Neither should powers. The Idol Nullifier twist was/is just about as bad as the Hourglass twist. Hopefully they both get thrown in the garbage never to return to the game.

There also may be a redeployment of the despised "Do or Die" twist looming on the horizon. :-)

On 2022-04-15 20:26:26 +0000, zeppo said:

> D.M.:"We're competitors. A lot of us leave a lot of things at home to
> come out here and play this game. And we put a lot on the line and
> there's an essence to competition. You play to win so you can win
> something, right? That's the only reason that you would go out there to
> compete. And the fact that he was able to lie to us, to trick us and
> make us work as hard as we did just for it to be taken away from us, it
> just wasn't cool with me. And his response, you know, it was what it
> was. I won't really get into that, but it just didn't float with me. So
> I didn't like it."
>
> E.W.: "I didn't like it either. I think a lot of people didn't like it.
> But they try new things on this show all the time and if it doesn't
> work, they'll get rid of it. So hopefully, we don't see it again, and
> hopefully, he listened to you."
>
> D.M.: "I don't have big faith in that one. My reality TV days may just
> be over because that was a very, very tough situation for me to handle
> and process, that I was out there in a situation like that and allowed
> myself to be put in a game to where somebody could just look at me,
> tell that lie, and I just have to accept it."

That is some entitled whiner bullshit right there.

Welcome to the world, pal. Welcome to the world.

On 2022-04-15 20:26:26 +0000, zeppo said:

> Bottom line for me: One of the rules of Survivor is that if somebody
> wins an advantage in the game, it can't be stolen from them However,
> in both S41
> and S42, several players won immunity in fair competitions, only to
> have it taken away from them by single players who didn't even
> participate in the
> challenges. Despite Probst's attempt to tweak this twist in an attempt
> to make it appear to be less unfair, it's presence continues to make a
> mockery
> of one of the fundamental principles of the game IMO.

It's Survivor. There's only one fundamental principle that counts:
make profitable entertainment.

All else is sacrificed on that altar. These people are no different
from college football players--they're slaves for the altar of money,
with the church run by other people who in the end don't care about the
slaves. One of them drops dead? Replace him with another and move on.
Survivor needs good TV? Make a twist.

This whole thing about "but it's not fair!" is childish whiner
bullshit. Survivor was NEVER about being fair. You enter it knowing
you have a chance at winning a million dollars, and you have a chance
at a "reality show" career. That's it. But you're not entitled to
either. The system will throw you to the curb without a thought.
Understand that going in, set your expectations accordingly, and don't
be surprised when anything happens.

He thinks this is the FIRST time an actor in the entertainment industry
got used and abused by the people with money?????

I'm a paying customer. I thought the Outcasts was good TV, and I
thought the hourglass was good TV. Suck it up, buttercup, this whole
thing has NOTHING to do with you and everything to do with maximizing
profit.