Fantasy Survivor - Winner!

Last Sunday was one of the best nights of the year... and that's because there's THREE HOURS OF SURVIVOR!!

Of course when it's over it's all sad because I'll have to wait until September for a new season, but three hours of amazingness trumps that.

Before I get into the meat of the post, Survivor is really one of my favorite shows on TV.  I have watched every single season, and I believe I've seen every single episode (maybe missed one in a time before DVR).  It really is the greatest reality show on television.  Survivor truly changed the way people think about television shows.

I could make the argument that Survivor really brought on the reality TV trend - and I could make that argument, however Real World was around before Survivor... but Survivor really did bring out the competition reality shows.  Before Survivor there wasn't any (or any famous ones) and after Survivor - well that's a lot of shows.  I don't know if you can remember but right after Survivor premiered in 2000 the competition reality show was on every channel.  I think it's relatively cheap to produce this stuff.  Survivor has stood the test of time and just completed it's 26th season.

If you go back and watch the first season (which I have) it's quick a stark difference from today's episodes.  I mean for one an alliance was looked down upon.  How it's shot (cinematography-wise), what they concentrated on (story-line wise) and competitions are all so different than today's Survivor.  I wouldn't recommend going back to that first season b/c it's slightly hard to watch.  It's like watching an old movie that's been parodied a thousand times so the original seems like a parody of itself when in reality it was around first... if that makes any sense at all which it probably does not...

I am a true fan of the show, and I get that some people don't like it... but honestly I don't get why.  I think a lot of it has to do with preconceived notions or ideas about the show.  But whatever, it's a great show, easy to get into and fun to strategies and discuss.

Which brings me to Michelle and my competition!  This year we did a Fantasy Survivor competition which I talked way back in February about.  We didn't really have a prize, but bragging rights will do and it just got us more invested quicker in all the players.

This past season was great - lots of moves and likable people.  It was one of the better seasons!

The vote out order was this (I put who had this person in parenthesis)

Francesca (neither - we picked after the first episode)
Allie (Michelle)
Hope (me)
Shamar (me)
Laura (me)
Brandon (me)
Matt (Michelle)
Julia (Michelle)
Corinne (Michelle)
Michael (me)
Phillip (neither - he was an extra since we picked after the first episode)
Malcolm (Michelle)
Reynold (me)
Andrea (Michelle)
Brenda (me)

So going into the last episode Michelle was up 3-2... and wouldn't you know about 5 seconds into finale Erik got hurt and medically evacuated from the game... so it was down to 3-1... sheesh

Eddie went next - which was Michelle's

The final three was Cochran, Sherri and Dawn...

And at that point we knew who was going to win... and if that person had not won I would have been irritated at the season... not from this competition standpoint but from a Survivor fan standpoint.

The winner was clearly COCHRAN.  While I technically picked him third in our choices, I knew I was going to and played the odds that Michelle would not pick him.  (My first choice was Brenda)  I'm really happy he won b/c he's a big fan of the show too, and I just love that.  And he's fun to watch, and a seemingly nice guy.  Plus this season he played a great game, and was actually good at challenges... a complete 180 from his last season (I liked him on his last season too)

So that wraps up another season of Survivor... I can't wait until September to do it all over again!!