Survivor Micronesia is based on a terrible concept

Survivor: Micronesia — Fans vs. Favorites might be a good season, but the premiere practically proved that the concept itself wasn’t great.

After 15 seasons, Survivor had tried and didn’t do particularly well with bringing old players back. Yes, All-Stars had happened, but nobody really likes All-Stars, and Guatemala had not particularly gone over so well, either, with bringing Stephenie LaGrossa and Bobby Jon Drinkard back.

So Survivor: Micronesia — Fans vs. Favorites tried to split the difference and put in 10 returnees and 10 fans.

This was a bad idea from the get-go (even if Micronesia itself is actually a good season, which we will talk about more as our rewatch continues). As he usually does when he’s on Survivor, Jonathan Penner explained why before the credits even rolled:

"“You can be a fan of the Boston Red Sox, man, but you don’t want to play against the Boston Red Sox; you’re gonna get your *** handed to you.”"

Thank you, Jonathan. (In his defense, the Red Sox had won the World Series in 2007. Not saying that Jonathan is really on the Red Sox of Survivor players, either, but hey.)

Let’s put it another way. How many of the newbies in Survivor: Micronesia can you name? Erik and Natalie don’t count. If you can get beyond Jason, that’s impressive.

The returnees basically had it on lock immediately, and it started from the moment that Jeff Probst introduced them one by one for Airai to fawn over and clap for, including Jonny Fairplay, although Probst mostly snarked at him.

Oh, Survivor tried to show that the fans had a chance with an Alexis confessional talking about how much they knew about the game, but look, the clapping really did it all. At least they didn’t always talk about the 10 people they were playing against at camp. But production did contrast how well Malakal did in shelter-construction to Airai’s late-night efforts.

Despite all the “favorites are so good” hints, they did not actually win immunity in the puzzle cart challenge. Of course, they then had the easy (and unanimous) vote in Jonny Fairplay, who started talking about missing his pregnant girlfriend (and voted for Ozzy). He did get a Probst hug, though.

A couple other notes, which are mostly about the returnees because this is Survivor: Micronesia after all:

• Parvati flat-out said she wanted to be a stronger player, although we think she had already shown some flashes in Cook Islands, and Jonathan talked about it, too.
• Yau-Man started fire with his glasses. Airai did not start fire with glasses, but did win flint.

Next: Surviving Tribal ranks the first 33 seasons

As we talk more about Survivor: Micronesia, keep an eye on how production keeps contrasting the returning players with the newcomers.