Survivor Episode 1: The Old Man Has Been Eliminated

Season 10 of Survivor began last night with a new twist to the game. Former contestants Steph and Bobby John from Season 9, the last two members of their ill-fated tribe that never got to merge with the stud tribe, have been given a second chance to make it big. Steph went with one tribe last night, Bobby John with the other.

Both were popular players from last season. Steph is a cop from New York, Bobby John a buff waiter from Alabama. Steph is both strong and smart. Bobby John is just ... strong. Last season, you felt sorry for each because their tribe lost every single immunity challenge, a first for a Survivor season.

This first show was all about the challenge of hiking 11 miles in the Mayan jungle to find their base camps. The show producers made a point of filming the strongest men (including Bobby John) on their knees coughing up their guts, while the lithe women merrily walked along. I suspect part of that is the women carried the light canteens and drank out of them. The men carried the 20 pound fruit bags and declined the water. It's called dehydration, boys.

The tribe that completed the hike first got to stay in the better camp -- a Mayan temple. The "losers," as master and commander Jeff Probst put it, had to go find a spot on the jungle floor. Bobby John's group won, Steph and her band of Survivors was sent packing.

Next up -- immunity. The challenge was to pull a boat out of the water and onto the beach. With Bobby John's group all cramped up from dehydration, thSteph's tribe won immunity.

At tribal council, it was dicovered that the old man fire chief Jim has somehow torn a muscle in his arm. Jim showed up at tribal council wearing a sling. Well, you know who's going home ... Jim got every vote but his own. Very predictable, and the right call for both Jim and the tribe. Nothing else of consequence was shared at tribal.

This first show was a little boring, given the fact that halfway through it was obvious that Jim would be voted out if his tribe lost immunity, and it was very likely that his tribe WOULD lose. I like the Steph/Bobby John wrinkle. I promise you right now that neither will make it to the finals. Some greedy tribemates will stir a stink about this being the second chance for those two to win the million, and how that isn't fair, and blah, blah, blah.

Oh, and one other fun twist -- former Dallas Cowboys back-up quarterback Gary Hogeboom is on the show. He knows that if his tribemates knew he was an ex NFL guy, they'd give him the quick fire-snuffing. So he's pretending to be "Gary Hawkins." He certainly doesn't look like a former professional athlete, so the ruse is working so far. Someone will figure him out though, and I garantee he won't make it to the finals either.

So that leaves 17 in the game, with 3 having no chance. Next week I'll pare out a few more obvious early exits, and I'll try to remember to write down the tribe names :-)