ONE MAN SHOULD NOT HAVE THIS MUCH POWER ON AN ISLAND, BUT I'M GRATEFUL THAT I DO: While you should listen to every episode of the Firewall & Iceberg podcast, of course, you should especially listen to this week's edition because Dan and Alan discuss my question -- should he win, where does Boston Rob's performance on this season of Survivor rank among the all-time performances on reality competitions?
Part of why I asked is because so many of the performances I think of as dominant -- Stefan Richter (Top Chef 5), YaYa DaCosta (ANTM 3), Colin and Christie (TAR 5), Kris and Jon (TAR 6), Eric and Jeremy (TAR 9), Daniel Vosovic (Project Runway 2), Adam Lambert (American Idol 8) and Rob himself (Survivor All-Stars) -- are from folks who ended up as runners-up. In terms of folks who dominated and won, the list is narrower -- Richard Hatch (Survivor 1), Hung Huynh (Top Chef 3), J.T. Thomas (Survivor: Tocantins) and Michael Voltaggio (Top Chef 6) come to mind, but only the first two come close to the "no one else deserves to win this thing" sense of control that Mariano is now.
Of course I'm forgetting someone, which is why I have y'all.
Ingrid Weisse on "Last Chance for Love?"
ReplyDeletePerhaps not the most memorable competitors, but what about Nick and Starr on TAR 13? Finished first 6 out of 10 legs (not including the final leg), a higher percentage than Colin and Christie (6 of 12), Eric and Jeremy (6 of 11), or Kris and Jon (4 of 11).
ReplyDeleteNaima (C4 ANTM) and Ann (C 15..?) both had tons of first call outs, little to no time in the bottom, and were presumed favorites for a long time before they won.
ReplyDeleteIf we're including "Idol" folks, Carrie Underwood and Fantasia were both basically wire-to-wire winners, with exhaustive pimping even in the advertisements before the very first episode. Earl from "Survivor: Fiji" was also mighty dominant.
ReplyDeleteIn terms of losing teams that clearly dominated right up until their loss, Romber won five legs in "Amazing Race 7" and played in a way that no team subsequently has ever been able to match. They also won the first three legs of the first All-Star season before bombing out, which was pretty amazingly dominant for a short burst.
Clearly there must be more good examples...
-Daniel
Original Survivor frontrunner-up Colby Donaldson. Poor guy won 3 of the 5 individual reward challenges and the last five immunity challenges in a row, and the only time he received elimination votes at tribal council was the week of the merge when all five members of the other tribe tried/failed to get rid of him.
ReplyDeleteRandal Pinkett from Apprentice s.4 comes to mind.
ReplyDeleteI wonder how Yul fits in here-- he's a master of strategy, didn't make mistakes to my recollection, and consistently performed physically as well as he needed to. He didn't dominate with his personality like the Robfather, but that's arguably one reason he won where Rob has lost in the past. Compared to JT, I think Yul is an all-around better player. If JT is on this list, I don't see why Tom Westman isn't also. They are both physically dominant and charismatic, with a couple key, well-timed strategic moves.
I think Fantasia's apt, but I'm not as sure about Carrie. I know that after the fact, either Nigel or Simon confirmed "oh, yeah, she dominated the vote the whole time," but I don't think that's how we as fans experienced it -- wasn't it more of a Bo-Carrie duopoly?
ReplyDeleteColby proved you could lose a dominant season of Survivor by not being ruthless enough; Russell, by being too roothless. So give due credit to Fireman Tom, whose tribe put down the ultimate beatdown pre-merge, then won 5/7 individual immunities en route to a 6-1 jury win.
I thought about Naima, Caridee and Jaslene when I wrote this. Thx.
ReplyDeleteAgreed. They are a great example of how young brother/sister teams tend to do tremendously well on the show.
ReplyDeleteI think the show tried to use Bo to create the illusion of a competition when there really wasn't one. Carrie never made the bottom grouping (and it's here that I'd dispute Dan's mention of Fantasia, since she was in the bottom twice), while Bo almost went home the week before the whole "Disco Night/70s Dance Night/Whatver Bo Wants, Bo Sings" ridiculousness.
ReplyDeleteAs a guy who greatly preferred Bo's style of music and his vastly superior stage presence, I wanted to believe at the time that it was closer than it was. But looking back on it, this is one instance where I have no problem believing Uncle Nigel.
Plus, they didn't have snacks.
ReplyDeleteThe first name that comes to my mind when we talk about players who dominated a season of Survivor is Brian Heidik. Dude had complete control in Thailand.
ReplyDeleteAnother vote for Tom Westman here, and not only because he's from Sayville, N.Y.--one of the three places I claim as a hometown. I think he's the only "older" person who made it to the end through winning challenges and not being pulled along as insurance like Rudy in Season 1.
ReplyDelete(I really hope someone gets that.)
ReplyDeleteI can't disagree. I just hated that season and chose to ignore it in writing this post.
ReplyDeleteI did. We would have also accepted a complaint about him having to wear flip-flops.
ReplyDeleteAgree - always hard for me to give Brian the credit he deserves b/c of how awful that season was overall.
ReplyDeleteFollow-up question: do seasons with one person who's super awesome make the show more fun to watch due to the awesomeness of said person or less fun due to the lack of competition? I'm having a hard time with this season of Survivor because, despite my immense love for Boston Rob, it feels like everyone else is just falling in line with what he wants, which is boring. Yul - who I also love to death - at least had Ozzy has a strong physical competitor to contend with.
ReplyDelete(that reply was me)
ReplyDeleteI think it depends on the personality. I'd watch Boston Rob scheme every season, even without a decent foil. Because Yul was more of a straight-up strategist and not a schemer, I think Yul's season would have dragged without Ozzy there to provide some competition. I keep watching the show for instances like where Boston Rob pulls the strings to get Matt out not once, but twice(!), while making everyone else in the tribe think it's a good idea. It's a TERRIBLE idea for everyone else in the tribe! Of course, Matt is incapable of keeping his big trap shut, which doesn't help his cause.
ReplyDeleteWhether it was a pure Carrie monopoly or a duopoloy, you could have written Carrie into the Finals that season, in pen, before a single episode aired. And as Alan said, Bo was a red herring, since he was the first contestant of his type to ever exist on "Idol" and everybody was just so giddy to have him around. As for Fantasia, she was in the Bottom Two twice because she was an African-American female on a show that has had issues with both African-Americans and females. Nobody else, including Jennifer Hudson and Jasmine with her Mystery Hawaii Powers, was *ever* going to win that season...
ReplyDelete-Daniel
There's something to be said for admiring mastery for its own sake -- the Tom Westman season comes to mind. The other thing that makes Boston Rob eternally watchable is that he's a fantastic narrator -- he knows how to give good side interviews to make the show more fun.
ReplyDeleteI hate to even bring this up, but what about Taylor Hicks? He was pretty much a wire-to-wire winner, too, wasn't he? I think perhaps even more obviously than Carrie or Fantasia.
ReplyDeleteAs far as "Top Chef," I think Richard dominated his season more than Stefan dominated his, and also finished second. (Up until the finals, I'd argue that he also dominated the All-Star season, but I think Mike Isabella was strong enough in the last couple of rounds to put the final result in doubt.)
ReplyDeleteOn the flip side, I have trouble referring to Michael Voltaggio as dominant. Kevin, Bryan and Jennifer won a fair share of elimination challenges, too. It wouldn't have been a shock to see any of them win.
The Man in Black mostly dominated Season 6 of LOST, but then Jacob had that weird, posthumous, come-from-behind victory. That's why I love reality television.
ReplyDeleteI haven't watched Survivor in years, but Rob Mariano is my all-time favorite reality show player. So do Survivors come out on DVD?
ReplyDeleteIn hindsight, sure. At the time, though, Chris Daughtry was the dominant narrative of that season, even more than the producer's attempt to prop up Bo the year before.
ReplyDeleteMore and more seasons are available.
ReplyDeleteI only have ever watched the Yul/Ozzy season of Survivor all the way through but I have caught Boston Rob on Amazing Race and a few episodes of Survivor here and there, I like the guy he's entertaining but I'm not much on reality TV as a whole. Maybe Rob can go on Danacing With the Stars and other realit shows and see how he fares :)
ReplyDeleteFor anyone who doesn't know what we're talking about, see this scene from Curb Your Enthusiasm: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69Qf6vGixy8. The background is this: Larry is hosting some sort of dinner (maybe a Seder?). A rabbi friend asks whether he can bring along a "survivor." Larry, believing that the rabbi is referring to a Holocaust survivor, says of course, and notes that his father's friend Solly (sp?) will be there, and is also a survivor. This scene starts at the beginning of the dinner.
ReplyDeleteThe Amazon "print on demand" has proven to be quite nice for folks looking for TV shows that have smallish but devoted followings and minimal music rights issues, since it eliminates the overhead of printing/promoting thousands of copies.
ReplyDeleteDisagree. In elimination challenges, Stephanie won 3x and placed high 6x. Richard won 3x and placed high 3x. (Admittedly, Richard was in the bottom 1x to Stephanie's 3.
ReplyDelete