The Geeks Have Spoken!

Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains will be the twentieth season of the award-winning TV series Survivor and premieres three weeks from tonight. Unlike previous seasons where a break in production occurred between seasons, this season was shot 20 days after Survivor: Samoa was completed, utilizing the existing infrastructure from that season. Casting for Heroes vs. Villains was done concurrently with Survivor: Samoa.

Filming for Heroes vs. Villains was from August 9, 2009 to September 16, 2009. This is interesting because Survivor: Samoa did not premiere until September 17, 2009. This means that the cast of Heroes vs. Villains were not familiar with the spectacular Russell “Hall-of-Famer” Hantz, although I am pretty sure they quickly became aware of his awesomeness.

While the players have been classified as Heroes or Villains, Survivor's creator Mark Burnett does not expect these players to maintain these personas in this season; they will be doing whatever is necessary to survive to the end.

Rather than the usual slogan "Outwit, Outplay, Outlast", the slogan for this season is "Return, Revenge, Redemption". Another interesting angle is that all challenges this season will be based on challenges used in previous seasons.

Last Thursday in It Won't Be Long Now!, I encouraged Fellow Survivor Geeks to weigh in with the three past “Survivors” that they will be pulling for in this historic twentieth season.

The response was terrific, receiving telephone calls, facebook messages, emails and several comments on the blog. I even garnered replies from spouses of longtime Survivor Geeks. Here is who voted for who:

FSG Jamie - Rupert, Tom and Boston Rob
FSG Jeff - Russell, Stephenie and Boston Rob
FSG Patty 4-Names - Russell, Rupert and Colby
FSG Karen R. - Russell, Rupert and Coach
FSG Auntie Janet - J.T., Colby and Boston Rob
FSG Greg - Rupert, Colby and Amanda
FSG Jenny - Boston Rob, James, Amanda and Rupert
FSG Alaska Karen - Russell, Rupert and Colby
FSG Mary Beth - Rupert, Russell and Colby
FSG Paul (me) - Russell, Rupert and James

The Individual Tally:

Rupert Boneham – 8
Russell “Hall-of-Famer” Hantz – 6
Colby Donaldson – 5
“Boston” Rob Mariano – 4
James Clement – 2
Amanda Kimmel – 2
Tom Westman – 1
Benjamin “Coach” Wade – 1
James “J.T.” Thomas Jr. – 1
Stephenie LaGrossa – 1

You may have noticed that FSG Jenny, the wife of FSG Greg, could not narrow it to only three picks and gave four. That made for 31 total votes.

There were 28 votes cast for males, with only 3 for females. Surprisingly, the breakdown for Heroes and Villains was as close as it could be with 16 tallies for the Good Guys and 15 for the Bad Guys. Another shocker was that FSG Jeff, husband of veteran Survivor Geek Jamie, did not vote for his beloved Sugar.

It should be noted that Richard Hatch, the winner of the original Survivor, was asked to return this season. However, he had to apply to leave the country since he is under house arrest. A federal judge in Rhode Island denied this request.

Anyone else out there that wants to offer his or her favorites, please feel free to do so. Next Thursday I will explain the two words that separate Survivor from the rest of the “reality” TVworld. Until next time…from the booth.