RHAP Cast Wishlist for Survivor 50: Guatemala, Panama, Cook Islands, Fiji
Welcome back to another week's summary for the RHAP Wishlist series, where Mike Bloom and guests discuss past seasons of Survivor and hypothesize about contestants who should be included in a fan poll to cast for a hypothetical season 50. With Guatemala, Survivor enters its 11th season, and an era where a number of high profile survivor players emerged. Lets see who made the short list this week!
You'll see the summary for Cook Islands is sparse for the individuals, due mainly to them being high profile, multiple-time returnees to Survivor. As I did for a couple of the Pearl Island players, if someone is a highly well known and prolific player and they are selected for the poll, their write up may be a little sparese unless something interesting is brought up.
Here are the links to previous summaries:
Borneo, The Australian Outback, Africa
The Amazon, Parl Island, All-Stars, Vanuatu and Palau
Episode 11: Survivor: Guatemala
Summary: In the season that saw the birth of the hidden immunity idol, Stephanie and Bobby Jon returned from Palau to play in the jungles of Guatemala after plans to go to Sri Lanka fell apart due to the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquakes. Here's a fun fact for the season: Three contestants (Cindy Hall, Judd Sergeant, and Jamie Newton) have identical twins.
Rafe Judkins: Paired with Stephanie and worked behind the scenes to help run deep in the game, falling just short of making the final two, and can be seen as the kind of social and strategic player who, due to a miscalculation, fell just short of a victory, with many thinking if he'd made it to final two, he could have won. He has gone on to have a writing career in Hollywood, being a showrunner and head writer for Wheel of Time, and is working as part of Amazon's Warhammer project, so he might be a tad busy to return.
Judd Sergeant: The big, bombastic, belligerent personality of the season, Judd was reportedly difficult to work with by production due to his temper but was allegedly invited for Heros vs. Villains and Blood vs. Water. According to Mike, he wants to come back and play again, even though he wasn't necessarily a fan of his edit.
Amy O'Hara: The Boston cop who Robo-cop'd her way through a badly rolled ankle early in the season to play hard in the challenges but fell just short just before the merge. She was considered for Heros vs. Villains (reportedly, if Candice couldn't play, she would have been put in).
Brian Corridan: A superfan in the vein of Rob Cesternino, he came up with the "bait Blake" strategy to get another contestant eliminated, but unfortunately ended up getting a swap screwed, resulting in his elimination. Brian has still been heavily involved in the general Survivor fan and RHAP communities.
Considered but not selected:
Danni Boatwright: Won with a strong under-the-radar game, stonewalling Jeff and production for reactions during the game. Danni returned for Winners at War (and had been asked to play on Game Changers) but did not perform well in the all-winner returnee season, where she didn't play as much of a subtle game.
Gary Hawkins: The humble landscaper from Michigan who isn't former NFL quarterback Gary Hogeboom, Gary found the ever-hidden immunity idol, even though he didn't have a clue for it. However, he is not as involved in the Survivor community, and compared to some of the other bigger personalities on the season, he was not selected.
Bobby Jon: Returning from Palau, Bobby Jon brought more of his energy from the season but in a slightly more subdued fashion for the season, although his rivalry with Jamie did bring out some fire in him. While he did make the jury and was a big personality for this era of Survivor, untimely, compared to some of the other big personalities of the season and his archetype being more of the physical challenge kind of person, Bobby Jon was not selected.
Summary: The season that introduced Cirie. This season, also known as Exile Island, introduced the eponymous twist to the game and saw the unique set-up of four tribes of four for the starting episode, though those were quickly folded into two tribes in the next episode. As Mike points out, the Casaya tribe was full of goofy personalities that somehow managed to pull together to run deep into the game, even though by appearance, they almost had disaster tribe energy.
Danielle DiLorenzo: The runner-up for the season, Danielle did whatever she had to do to get to the end of the game, turning against many of her former allies in multiple votes to advance her game. Danielle returned for Heros vs. Villains (which was considered questionable, both her general appearance in that season and being on the Villians tribe) and had a deep run in that game but was overshadowed by her allies Russel and Parvati. Now that some time has passed and she has a family, it might be interesting to see how differently she would play with those factors.
Terry Deitz: The former fighter pilot fought hard in the challenges but fell short of the final two. He returned to Cambodia before leaving the game because his son needed open heart surgery. As a potentially older character, it would be interesting to see him fall back more on a social game rather than going hard in challenges like he did before.
Cirie Fields: One of Survivor's legends, she has returned for multiple seasons but still has not won a game of Survivor.
Shane Powers: The guy who quit smoking right before the game and who had infamously had a short temper (telling Courtney he'd go to her "shitty" apartment and kill her if she betrayed their alliance). He was allegedly considered for several seasons (Micronesia, Heroes vs. Villains, South Pacific, Cambodia, and Blood vs. Water). He was one of the driving antagonistic forces in the season due to his abrasiveness, and for someone who almost returned so many times, it may be interesting to see someone like him finally return.
Considered but not selected:
Aras Baskauskas: Despite being the winner for the season (despite Jeff calling him a boring winner) and coming back for Blood vs. Water, Aras has gone on record and said he does not want to play again. He also opted out of playing Winners at War when he was invited.
Episode 13: Survivor: Cook Islands
As mentioned before, considering all the selectees for this season's episode are well-known, multiple-time returnees to other Survivor seasons, I will only have a little write-up for their selection since they're pretty known quantities. Instead, if there are any exciting notes or discussions, I'll bring them up for their post.
Summary: The race war season. The season that famously (or infamously) started the game off by splitting up the tribes along racial lines in the era before the diversity initiative and, despite the potentially shaky premise of that, yielded several Survivor legends who have appeared across multiple seasons of the show. Mike and Maryanne have a couple of good discussions, too, about the nature of Season 50 and what CBS might be looking for, and the consideration that more high-profile returnees might have for coming into the season (if it is an all-star/legends-esque season or more of a Game Changer style). Maryanne also said she probably would if asked to come back and play.
"Ozzy" Lusth: Mike and Maryanne had a good and forth on whether production would have Ozzy come back in light of him being on Only Fans. Since Jeff was overwritten before on having Ozzy came back before and considered his name recognition, he was put on the fan consideration.
Parvati Shallow: In interviews, she's said she has some reluctance to come back on Survivor since she's a more prominent name on the show and is worried she'd get eliminated quickly due to that (like how the older season winner got picked off on Winners at War). However, she might want to play if many of her friends are playing.
Jonathan Penner: Tragically lost his wife Stacy to ASL in 2021, Yul went on to Winner at War to donate his winnings to ASL charity and raise awareness for the condition.
Candice Cody (née Woodcock): Did not tell Brad Culpepper to "go fuck himself" in Blood vs. Water, but did flip him off.
Considered but not selected:
Yul Kwon: Despite his strong run in Cook Island and returning for Winners at War, Yul has said in interviews that he would likely not play Survivor again unless it was a charity season.
Summary: Survivor's very first time coming to Fiji, long before the nation became the official home of the show. This season is somewhat considered to be a forgotten season, partially due to its place between Cook Islands and China, two of the more well-regarded seasons in the show's history, and partially due to the season twist of the "haves vs. have nots" where, to no one's surprise, the tribe that didn't get any supplies got decimated in the pre-merge. Still, this season had some unique outcomes: it started with an odd number of people due to one player dropping out before the show began, it had the first all-POC Final Three, and it saw the show's first unanimous vote winner.
Earl Cole: A man who had only seen one episode of Survivor before playing and went on to become the show's first unanimous winner, Earl was fairly regarded for the season and has almost returned to play a couple of times. In Game Changers, he nearly played, but a work commitment forced him to back out, and for Winners at War, he likewise had to bow out to the premature birth of his child.
"Dreamz" Herd: A funny, big personality from the season who played hard to reach the end. He started at the bottom of the Moto tribe, but after the swap to Ravu, he ended up in a dominant alliance before switching again to an alliance with Earl. After Yau-man won a car, he brokered a deal with Dreamz to give him the car in exchange for not voting him out, forcing Dreaz to figure out how to get out of that agreement. He currently coaches UFC fighters, so he might be in great shape for challenges.
Michelle Yi: A strong social player who went out in the early jury phase due to an early split vote tribal council where the losing team immediately went to the tribal council without time to scheme or plan, and due to the team composition, she went without her allies. Some see Michelle (who goes by Piper) as someone with a lot of untapped potential for Survivor and could go deep in the game if she can play again. She also suffered from a random brutal anti-Asian hate crime in 2021, where she was stabbed and bludgeoned.
Anthony Robinson: Anthony, the pre-merge boot, had a rocky time on the island (partly due to his bad relationship with Rocky). After the tribe swap, he was isolated and voted out just before the merge. A strong confessionalist for the season and someone who might vibe better with folks in a newer era.
Considered but not selected:
Yau-Man Chan: The only returnee from Fiji, Yau-Man played later on Micronesia but was an early boot that season. Yau-Man went on a surprisingly deep run in Fiji, outsmarting and outplaying many of the younger contestants. Unfortunately, his poor performance in Micronesia due to his strong reputation and the fact that he had a heart attack due to atrial fibrillation likely means he wouldn't be able to play for health reasons.
One again the link to the spreadsheet
It was a pretty dense week, even with Mike taking a day off. Many heavy hitters were included for this cast, and some of the discussions for some seasons had some cool insights into what production could be looking for in cast members for 50, depending on the themes. See you all next week.
Posted Jun 21, 2024, 9:39 PM UTC