Recently in Survivor Category

Great news: my favorite CBS web extra Survivor Ponderosa has returned! That's right, those IDIOTS in Brazil voted off their first jury member last night (I did not agree with the choice), and now we get to see all the behind-the-scenes action at the jury house, or as it's formally known, Ponderosa. Call me silly, but I still get a strange thrill watching these videos.

After the jump, two videos of life after Tribal...

2008 was a curious year for television, what with the writers strike and all. Seasons got messed up, late night shows went without comedy, and CBS aired a bonus edition of Big Brother — which sadly was universally loathed by pretty much everyone but me. That's okay though. I don't mind being a maverick when it comes to reality TV (hence my devotion to Greatest American Dog — one of the most underrated gems of the year).

Strike be damned, there was still plenty of great stuff to watch. My list of the best shows after the jump...

After the Survivor: Gabon finale, Andy Dehnart of Reality Blurred caught up with cast member Sugar who had these words to say about my run-in with her in traffic:

“What a psycho...I wanted to write him and say, ‘What if I just stopped you and told everybody your license plate number and said, oh, he had a bland expression on his face because he wasn’t talking to anybody because nobody was in the car, so I guess he was just driving. How exciting!”

This is amusing because a) I'm not sure that describing someone in traffic is psycho, b) she really took that "pleasantly bland expression" phrase I used waaaay too seriously. I mean, she seems offended to the core that someone would even suggest she was bland, even for a fleeting moment on Franklin Avenue. It's okay, Sugar. You're still sweet and cute. My comment did not undo your reputation. And c) the license plate issue is a bit ridiculous. I know that people deserve their just privacy, but seriously: her plates say "IM SUGA." Not necessarily the best defense against being recognized.

And so the saga continues...

To read more about Sugar and the final five, check out Andy's coverage here.

Of the many things that happened on tonight's Survivor finale, the least expected was not The Suze's near upset for the million dollars but rather Sugar's reference to this here blog on NATIONAL TV DURING PRIMETIME. Yay! Granted, she didn't state the site's name, but unless I'm mistaken, I'm the only one who has blogged about "Suga" in traffic. I must admit, I kind of feel bad because she seems somewhat self-conscious now about wearing makeup out of the house, but honestly, the issue wasn't that she wasn't wearing makeup at the time but that she was, and that was what confused me. Eh. Oh well. Anyway, sometimes when I blog, I forget these people actually read it, and considering that I called her and her actions "dumb" and "stupid," I do feel a smidgen guilty. I mean, I'm not a monster, people. (But I still do stand by my belief that she was not a good player, and her cringe-worthy responses to the jury tonight pretty much proved me right, I believe.)

A little birdie told me that Sugar actually thinks I'm psycho — because apparently being in traffic on Franklin Avenue is a psychotic thing to do — and if that's truly the case, then I'm sure she'd be most frightened to know that just last night, I was mere feet from her again. That's right, I co-mingled with the Survivor: Gabon cast this weekend, and I have the pictures to prove it.

Party photos of the cast after the jump...

Many friends and readers on this site have wondered why I seem to harbor a certain disdain and hatred for Sugar, the sweet pinup model who could find herself walking away with a million dollars this Sunday on Survivor. Even more so, people wonder how in the world I could ever root for the likes of Kenny and Crystal. Well, my friends, I'm here to explain all to you.

I'm very pleased that my one solitary journey out of the apartment today resulted in a close encounter with none other than Survivor: Gabon's chief strategical mastermind, Sugar. Yes, I was in the presence of The Great Brain, and only a few blocks from my pad. The exciting brush with extreme intelligence happened at a traffic light. I pulled up alongside an SUV, and since I'm always curious about my surroundings, I subtly turned my head to the left to peer inside the adjacent vehicle. I couldn't help but notice the driver: round cheeks, perky blonde hair, and a generally pleasant yet bland expression on the face. Why, it looked like Sugar!

But I couldn't be sure. A) This girl was wearing a good amount of makeup, and we've really only seen Sugar in her natural state; B) this girl's hair was shorter than what we've grown accustomed to seeing on Sugar; so it threw a slight amount of doubt into the proceedings; and C) my angle was not great. I wasn't actually neck and neck with the Sugar-mobile. It was more like my driver's side window lined up with her rear passenger door. As such, I had a very limited view of Sugar's entire face. Luckily, her rear-view mirror offered more angles for me to use, and at one point, she did turn around in my direction to fetch something from a bag or who knows what in the backseat. Don't worry: no eye contact was made.

Still, even though my views were limited, all signs were pointing to Sugar. Plus, her makeup was very retro/vintage etc., and given that she does purport to being a pinup model, the general look seemed about right. As the light turned green, I felt about 78.3% certain that this was Sugar. But then... but then I saw something that left me with no doubt about who I was dealing with. Sugar's car pulled away, and I glimpsed — right next to her Obama "Hope" sticker — her license plate, which was so dumb, it just had to be Sugar's work. Besides, it pretty much said so:

"IM SUGA"

I think that counts as validation. Of course Sugar would announce her presence through a stupid license plate. And of course she'd drop the "r". Ugh... If she wins this whole game, so help me God...

Team Crystal.

UPDATE: fallout from this post!

One of the criminal oversights of this blog has been my total lack of Survivor coverage this season. This does not reflect the quality of the season, but merely my middling work ethic, which has waned a bit in the post Big Brother months. Nevertheless, Gabon has been a solid addition to the franchise, with enough twists and turns and blindsides to earn it a spot as one of the more memorable seasons. Of course, it's hard to compare it to the previous two seasons, China and Fans vs. Favorites, but honestly, it stands on its own quite well.

Last night's episode saw the bittersweet departure of lunatic bitch Corinne, who was both endlessly entertaining and somewhat appalling in her own crazy way. Whether she was threatening to stab someone in the face or merely rolling her eyes at other people's lack of logic, Corinne's constant frustration was glorious (case in point: her wonderfully vindictive goodbye message at the end of last night's show). I still don't know if she's really just that awful or merely someone with a very dry sense of humor. Either way, I'll miss her kooky old ways. She and Bob almost pulled off a great scheme last night by producing a second amazing idol with which they could fool Kenny and Crystal. The plan was to get the two original Fang members to turn on Matty lest the "idol" be used against them, but the only problem was that Bob's penchant for creating stunning jewelry from nothing was already out of the bag. Kenny and Crystal decided that rather than vote explicitly for Matty, they'd merely vote for Corinne. If the idol were real, then Matty would go and the idol would be flushed out. If it were fake, then hey, Corinne would go home, no problem. Pretty smart.

But then Kenny, who's played a spectacular game in my opinion, made his first colossal screw up. He came up with some strategy to vote for Matty while Crystal would vote for Corinne. It made no sense, really. They didn't need that extra vote to send Matty home. If Kenny voted against Corinne also and her idol were real, Matty would still go home. I don't know what the hell Kenny was thinking. Of course, as it turned out, the idol was fake, which meant Corinne went home, and Kenny, well, he just turned on an alliance member for no reason. Needless to say, he's screwed. He better start lying again, and quickly...

I'm sure things will be quite dicey at Nobag next week, but for now, we can enjoy this video of Corinne at "Ponderosa" where she happily dismisses the entire continent of Africa after unsuccessfully attempting to blow out her hair. What did you think of the show? Thoughts on the season so far?

There's been so much good TV in the past few days — I just haven't had time to write about it all. So while I tend to the Hills recap, I open the floor to you all: Has Charlie found a true friend in Marcus on Survivor? Or, more specifically, how long until Marcus shatters Charlie's world? And how hard is it to find a crater in the middle of a field?

On The Amazing Race, who do we love, who do we hate? Actually, no need for that last question — Terrence is obviously this season's villain. And I love the previews for next week when his girlfriend complains that "they didn't even say HI to us!"

And let's not overlook a brilliant episode of Mad Men, the deserving winner of Outstanding Drama at this year's Emmy Awards. One word: JANE.

And lastly, Gossip Girl. This week's fashion episode (featuring Vitamin Water) seemed rather silly, but despite a general unevenness, it proved to be just as fun as always (the brooding Chuck Bass subplot was worth the price of admission alone). Was this the first semi-tolerable Dan Humphrey storyline since the pilot? And wasn't it refreshing to not have Vanessa around? Plus, how many naive adolescents are going to get in trouble at school when they do a Google image search for Mapplethorpe? (High-five, Gossip Girl).

Okay, I've started the discussion. The rest of you talk while I get back to work...

I've had quite the run of exclusive experiences of late: a meet and greet with Julie Chen, a visit to The Soup, a stroll through the Gossip Girl set, and of course, back to back infiltrations of the Big Brother finale and wrap party. Am I bragging? Indeed. (Somebody's gotta drum up traffic around here). With all this access to the glitteratti, I'm starting to feel like Perez Hilton (except funnier, I hope); so why not add one more event to the list: the Fox Reality Channel "Really" Awards.

Avid readers may remember that I attended the first ever Really Awards two years ago at Les Deux. Back then, it was a smaller, more casual affair. The network was young, the stars didn't know what to expect, and in my studly prime I was able to actually walk the red carpet. Man, those were the days. Cut to this year and holy moly, the Really Awards have gotten big. According to the brass I spoke with, there were about 300 celebrities (or rather, "celebrities") present, which meant my anonymous ass did not get to walk the carpet again, which by the way was totally cool. I completely understood. It was a zoo, and the last thing the organizers needed was me clogging up the carpet. Honestly, I was just happy to get in. This year's ceremony was apparently a hard ticket to get. Rumor amongst the partygoers was that even recent reality stars like Jessie from Big Brother 10 were denied entry. Ouch/haha.

Nevertheless, I may not have dazzled the paps awkwardly this go-around, but I certainly had my fill of reality stars. I took pictures with as many as I could, but honestly, there's only so much one man can do. Pictures and stories after the jump.

Watch CBS Videos Online

It's hard to imagine that Survivor can top the amazing one-two punch that was China and Fans vs. Favorites, but nevertheless, the veteran reality show is back, and this time, Jeff Probst & Co. are headed to the African nation of Gabon for another spirited round of fighting, bickering, backstabbing, crying, and — if the last season was any indication — injuries. Oh, and this time, it's all in HD (yes!). The show doesn't premiere until September 22nd, but above, check out a preview of the cast. It's Probst-tastic!

Via Reality Blurred

Now that Survivor: Fans vs. Favorites is over, I can get started with my favorite semiannual tradition: ranking the seasons. It's a task that seems to get more difficult every year. So many special moments, so many blindsides, so many colorful characters. How to prioritize them all? I can try to explain my thinking, but ultimately, it just comes down to that gut feeling you get when you look back and reminisce. And with that in mind, let's get this bad boy going.

We've seen a lot of crazy, deranged, unhinged, emotional, and flat-out bizarre moments at the final Survivor jury, but never one like this. Scratch that: never two like these. The first, which I've clipped above, is Natalie's mildly seductive, completely random question about Parvati's sex life. If I didn't know better, I'd think I was watching the beginning of some softcore porn on Cinemax. You could practically hear the cheap, public domain music come filtering in. Aside from the fact that the question seemed totally transplanted from some other show in some other genre, it also didn't make sense. Why would Parvati's bedroom manner be relevant to anything?

Unfortunately for Ozzy, Natalie completely stole his thunder because had it not been for her, the Internets would have been buzzing about his sudden declaration of love for Amanda. I couldn't decide if I hated his sanctimoniousness or loved his Hollywood-style speech, which seemed torn straight out of the latest summer romance. Ultimately, I decided it was a nice moment; although, I really disliked his whole bit about chastising Parvati for putting a price tag on their friendship. I mean, had he gone to the finals, would he have taken her over Amanda? Don't think so. Nevertheless, this was another great finale — even if my favorite, Cirie, fell victim to a wayward marble. I literally had no idea who would win, right up to the very last moment. Good times. What did you think?

As if anyone who's been following this suddenly awesome season would overlook this, but tonight marks the season finale of Survivor: Fans vs. Favorites. That's right: the end is here. Kind of snuck up on me. It's actually too bad. This season started off slowly as I found myself caring more about the Favorites than anything that was going on with the Fans (this despite the Fans pulling off several early season blindsides in their own right). But once Probst mixed up the teams, things started to heat up, and then once everyone dropped their buffs and started battling for individual immunity, this Fans vs. Favorites turned white hot. Dalton Ross at Entertainment Weekly proclaimed that this season has been the best since the first. I'm not sure I'd go that far, but I will concede that the past five episodes have been without a doubt the strongest five-episode run in the series' history.

Nevertheless, tonight promises to be a fascinating finale as none of the women seem to have a leg up on any of the others. They've all equally schemed, backstabbed, and fought their way to the top. How the cards will fall is anyone's guess, which leads me to wonder who's gonna win it all? Parvati, the conniving flirt? Cirie, the strategic mastermind? Amanda, the dangerous nice-girl? Or Natalie, the previously anonymous Fan who spent most of the season lurking in the background doing absolutely nothing? I'm rooting for Cirie, but part of me would like to reward Natalie for becoming such a wonderful late-season bitch and a half. Who are you rooting for?

For a season that started off on the dull side, things have been out of control the past few weeks. Last night definitely marked the dumbest move ever, ever, EVER on the show's sixteen season history. To see what happened, watch the clip above...

Well look at this giant video player.

For years I've wondered what life was like for the Survivor jury. Were the castaways allowed to talk about the game with each other? Where did they stay? What did it look like? Was it fun? Well, during last week's uh-mazing episode, I noticed an interstitial promoting something called the Ponderosa, which promised to give viewers an insider look at what happens to the jury after elimination. (I don't know if this was available during previous seasons, but if it was, this was the first time I had noticed it.) Anyway, I just checked it out, and I loved it. There wasn't anything really groundbreaking there, and the product placement is off the charts, but my curiosity was just so damn satisfied. Every inch of footage totally captivated me. Just the mere sight of a castaway chilling out in a car, walking around a normal kitchen, interacting with staff members in the background -- it was the best!

If you're equally intrigued by this parallel Survivor universe, check it all out at cbs.com/ponderosa.

Even if you don't watch Survivor, you've gotta enjoy this clip. Here's the backstory. A few episodes ago, Ozzy carved a fake, hidden immunity idol and left it under a rock. Jason discovered it, thought it was real, and on last night's show, he gave it to Eliza to protect her. That's all you need to know...