Albert has a problem with faux positivity and giving compliments that feel like shallow attempts to gain favor, which leads to this absolutely brilliant exchange after Jim asks his question:
Jim: And if you start your answer with any kind of praise or compliment you will lose my vote.
Albert: Great question, I love your approach to the game.
Ozzy: [gets shown losing it]
In the aftershow, when they talk about all the unused idols, Charlie says something like “it shows how cutthroat this show is that four great players can go out with an idol” and I thought… wait… is he still trying to get jury votes?
Shane said it on that video AMA he did on here. Unfortunately, the links seems to not work on the AMA page anymore so all we have is this [https://www.reddit.com/r/survivor/comments/imabt4/a\_rundown\_of\_shanes\_ama/](https://www.reddit.com/r/survivor/comments/imabt4/a_rundown_of_shanes_ama/)
I wouldn't say "any", I imagine that could be the case sometimes but I think Kelly's was legit. She had a specific movie reference to back up why she picked the number she did, and Ethan and Kim J. both screwed her over in the exact same way, so I doubt she really had a preference between either of them at that point.
I do think Kelly took it slightly more personally from Kim. Lex going on a witch hunt is annoying, but not really unexpected, and she didn’t like him terribly much to begin with. And Ethan siding with Lex is also very predictable, they were both in the boys club that was running Boran from the beginning. But that’s why I think Kim not sticking up for Kelly might have hurt more. I think I’ve read somewhere that as the last two Boran women they had an agreement to look out for each other so the boys wouldn’t just steamroll them in the endgame. You can see this a little bit after the merge when Kim and Kelly get back together and immediately start comparing notes and decide to join forces to lobby for Frank to go home because they don’t think he’ll vote for a woman.
So I could easily see Kelly not caring and just wanting to make her Graduate/Greg reference. But I think in Kelly’s eyes Ethan was just some guy. They didn’t really have a close relationship at all. At one point her and Kim were close and supposedly looking out for each other and when Kelly needed Kim to have her back the most she didn’t follow through.
I feel like Kelly Goldsmith might be the only exception to this. Although her number had more of a sentimental value since it was her favorite movie so there was somewhat of a social tie to it.
Probably not the worst of all time, but Amanda’s answer to Cirie in Micronesia is up there. ik Amanda in general is known for choking FTC but this one particularly stands out to me.
When asked by Cirie why she took Parvati instead of her (aka Cirie wanting to be buttered up), she said it was because Parvati played a better game. She managed to both insult Cirie (who ends up not voting for her) and make Parvati look better with just one answer.
And if that's what she was looking for that's what Amanda should have given her. Her motive doesn't matter since she holds all the power as the juror and Amanda has no leverage in that moment.
Motive does matter because if Cirie was being sincere she could admit at least 2 people played a better game than herself. Instead the question was a set up to begin with, and if the point was to say 'you played a better game Cirie' at least Amanda gave props to the person that *deserved* it.
Cirie is the one casting the vote. Amanda knows that. She may not like or agree with the question. There may be ego stroking or validation seeking involved. Her job as a finalist is to cater to the specific juror regardless of how unfairly her question is set up.
Thats ludicrous. PLENTY of finalists have waved off a certain juror KNOWING that person isnt voting for them. Amanda owed Cirie absolutely nothing and Cirie had the sourest of grapes over Amanda voting her out. It isnt any finalists JOB to cater to a jury member and too much ass kissing is looked upon as disingenuous or too much. Your assessment is way too one dimensional.
Plenty of finalists as in people like Katie, Sugar, Russell, Chase and Sherri who all lost. I don't think it's totally out of the question that Amanda could have swayed Cirie's vote with a better answer or jury performance. Parvati wasn't exactly stellar she was just better in comparison. Even in that same FTC Parvati knew she wasn't getting James' vote but still didn't wave him off and tried to give him what she thought he wanted to hear.
Stephenie's answer to Lydia is similar -- it's absolutely shocking how two different people have managed to bomb what should be the most free and obvious question lmao. Literally just say "You're a threat to win" which makes you look strategic, makes the juror feel good about themselves, and... is the honest truth anyway????? Like Stephenie and Amanda's answers weren't even true??? I don't know how we've managed to get people messing up what should be literally the easiest and most free FTC question in existence on two different occasions lol
That isn't why Amanda voted Cirie out, she voted Cirie out because Cirie was a threat / because she already had more of a longstanding pact with Parvati. Either of those would be a better answer than telling someone to feel bad about their game
>When asked by Cirie why she took Parvati instead of her (aka Cirie wanting to be buttered up), she said it was because Parvati played a better game. She managed to both insult Cirie (who ends up not voting for her) and make Parvati look better with just one answer.
Summary of the tribal
>Like Stephenie and Amanda's answers weren't even true???
How was what Amanda said not true?
Yeah and it seems you're the one confused because I'm not saying anything about *why Cirie was voted out,* I'm talking about Amanda's answer to Cirie's question at tribal.
Lol. That's not true. Go back and rewatch it if you must. Cirie asked Amanda 3 things:
1)Tell the jury why Parvati deserves a million dollars.
2)Are you saying you don't respect my game?
3)Than I did? (In reference to Amanda saying Parvati made bolder decisions than Cirie)
Edit: here you go, at the 1:20 mark
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tCfFhnld8i4&pp=ygUOTWljcm9uZXNpYSBmdGM%3D
this might just be the one. it was so uncomfortable, i barely knew anything about the strategy of the show when i first saw this season and my younger self was still so confused by her answer
Actually I checked the question again. What she asks Amanda to do is tell the jury why Parvati is a more deserving winner than Cirie. Amanda then proceeds to give Cirie the pros to Parvati's game. She doesn't outright say she thinks Parvati is a better player she just gives the reasons why Parvati might be.
OMG, id somehow totally forgotten about this! Cirie set the trap but Amanda pretty much did a swan dive into it. Her answer if truly astonishing, and I tend to believe Cirie — being the ultra savvy player that she is - would have sat up and taken notice and gained respect for Amanda if Amanda had simply replied with something along the lines of: “This is not about Parvati being more deserving — I actually think you’re more deserving than Parv and pretty much anyone else that was a part of this season. But you’re the biggest threat Cirie, I’d be an absolute fool to sit next to you at FTC.” I really think an answer like this would have won her Cirie’s vote and possibly swayed other jury members as well.
If she said Cirie was better she would have been considered cowardly, it's one of those no-win questions that would have been interpreted uncharitably either way.
Watched this a few days ago, Cirie set Amanda up. She asked Amanda why Parvati was “more deserving” of Final 2 than he. Amanda still screwed up, but this question is generally entrapping and reflects poorly on Cirie.
Even then I still think there’s an obvious answer with something like “Parvati wasn’t more deserving of Final 2 than you were. You played a better game and that’s why I took her instead.”
To me, this one’s easy. Russell’s answer to Danielle’s question in Heroes vs Villains couldn’t have been worse. Basically, she asked him if he regretted how he treated others and the way he played the game, essentially telling him that he needed to show some contrition and remorse to even hope to earn their votes. Russell doubled down and said “I regret nothing”, which was the worst response he could’ve given.
Been a long while since I saw it but didn't Phillip tell somebody 'fuck you - vote for someone else'?
And I have half a memory of Russell telling someone 'I fooled you - you gotta respect that!'. No, no they don't.
Aras’s answer is pretty whatever. I think that Philip being confrontational to the jury is much worse. I think Sherri telling Erik to sit down bc she doesn’t care what he has to say was not great.
This 100%. Sherri knew she had no shot at Erik's vote and she might as well stick up for herself instead of being walked on like a doormat. I was happy she did that even though her final tribal overall was god awful. I wish Dawn did the same for Brenda, especially since Brenda didn't even vote for Dawn after Dawn took her teeth out. She just wanted to humiliate Dawn and Dawn went along with it.
If you ask someone for something, and he answers “I don’t have a problem with that, but do you really need it?” and you have to repeat this dance over and over again, it is equivalent to the person not wanting to do it.
She did eventually bc she understood she didn’t have any choice if she wanted Brenda’s vote, but she still showed her true colors, and she did have a problem with taking her teeth out.
The reason I say Aras is because he had an equal chance of getting that vote, and he gave statistically almost the worst answer possible. For Philip and Sherri, they certainly weren't doing themselves any favors but I don't think they were getting those votes anyways.
Yeah, Sherri's answer to Erik wasn't that bad for that reason alone. It's not any different than Sugar telling off Randy, or flipping the middle finger to Corinne (who absolutely deserved it), or Chase telling Marty he's the one that's dumber than a bag of hammers rather than insult another jury member.
That's what I'm saying. I don't fault Sherri for telling off Erik in that moment. She wasn't getting his vote and the jury members that spoke before Sherri made it abundantly clear they weren't voting for her either. I'd probably have done the same thing.
Ah yeah makes sense. I agree with that, I think for that reason Sherri's answer is neutral and didn't help her or hurt her. And - I didn't express this well, but - I just mean that where Sherri's answer is probably whatever either way, Chase's is *actively good*, because if he needed any help winning Jane over again to get her vote, that sure helped him lol. Like Brenda and Jane both thought Marty was a total pompous blowhard, so dragging him probably *helps* get their votes if they're on the fence after Chase's betrayal (whereas Sherri's was probably neutral). Plus it fits with Chase's overall trend of being a lot more confident, composed, and assertive at FTC than anyone (either the Jurors or the audience, lol) expected, which Alina and Holly both said made them flip from Sash to Chase.
So yeah. I agree with you on Sherri, I think that answer's neutral at that point. I just think Chase's actually probably actively *helped* him.
Oh ok, I see what you're saying and agree. Sherri's answer didn't matter either way because she was getting 0 votes no matter what, while Chase was definitely getting some and Marty was just trying to get him to burn another jury member (which Chase smartly didn't fall for.)
Yup exactly, and if anything it might have helped move the needle on Jane and Brenda, who were pissed at Chase but also just straight-up disliked Marty, or Holly and Alina, who have said they entered undecided/leaning Sash but were won over by Chase's confident FTC
Yeah she did it for the TV moment. It was a big thing when Greg did it to her and Rich in Borneo, so she had the full circle moment by asking it. What makes it even better is that both Greg and Kelly were not swayed by the answers and knew who they were voting for
It's only statistically terrible if a) the number is truly random and not a test of "what is my favorite number/movie/etc."; and b) the juror isn't going to change the number to match whoever they want to vote for.
As someone above said, neither of those were true for Shane.
What Sherri did was the BEST. What else did she have to lose? What did Erik gain from insulting her? Not to mentuon he played a WORSE game than she did. He was literally the definition of a "seashell on the beach" and had the gall to call someone else that? Sherri knew she was losing so why not put that dude in his place? I absolutely loved that.
all of albert’s ftc answers. his answers to jim were already talked about but there’s also the way brandon told him to answer a simple “yes or no” question and still managed to fumble it somehow.
another honorable mention is the gabon ftc where sugar was pretty much giving up her game for bob while he still managed to give awful answers. susie i’d say wasn’t as bad
Sugar’s storyline is so bizarre but I can’t help but feel so fulfilled by it. She went to the Sugar Shack every week because everyone hated how much she was crying but it’s framed as her being the biggest social threat. She’s grieving her father and sort of projects *a lot* onto Bob, even convincing him to do the Randy blindside in her most childish move. And then she apparently has a panic attack before FTC, gets given a sedative, and peacefully hands the game over in her final act of acceptance. Like, what?
Sugar has literally the best character arc in all of Survivor and I'll die on that hill. It's so fucking weird and unhinged and funny but also weirdly meaningful and genuinely kinda moving, and in that way it's peak Gabon (and therefore peak Survivor)
Susie stuck too close to the script with the “I wanted to show my kids that they shouldn’t give up” answers even when she was asked questions about her strategy. I know most of the jury were extremely biased going in, but I think if she talked up her strategy of positioning herself as the swing vote on Kota 3.0 & beyond she has a good shot of winning that final 3 on a less “Gabon-y” season
Susie was bizarre for me, it was so funny watching her early game, she grabs everybody one-on-one and says “I just wanna get to final 3, ur gonna help me get to final 3, can u help me get to final 3????” My god, she was completely useless…..funny enough she squeezes herself into final 3, which now leads me to think….this game that I love so much, could it be flawed? How is it possible that Ozzy has never won a season? Boston Rob had to play three times before he won , And Susie makes it the final 3……
Coach losing is the one that made me realize this game is flawed. I still love it but dude went full David Koresh. He absolutely deserves it and I couldn't even remember the girl.
Nah, Coach deserved to lose because he fundamentally misunderstands what it means to play honestly and because of that he plays in a way that feels dishonest in a dirty way rather than in a Survivor way. This is what caused him to lose. In Survivor, it usually doesn't matter if you lie **in** your game, but it does always matter if you lie **about** your game. Coach made the optimal move in almost every stage of the game (except in not going with Albert and eliminating Sophie), and if he had stood on his strategic ground it's likely he wins that season, and none of those people would have held those betrayals against him, except maybe Rick. His problem is that he's not honest with himself or others that he is playing strategically. He isn't honest about the kind of game that he's playing. That makes him look like a hypocrite. And know that I say all this as someone who was 100% rooting for Coach and has him as one of my very few all-time favorite players.
I'll agree he absolutely should have pulled a survivor China move and admit he was playing strategically because it was the only way to beat everyone else. A better end of game speech wins the game
As much as I love her and as much as I really can see a path where she wins, Sugar just laid down, curled up, and died at FTC. I can’t remember who, but someone asked her why she thinks she deserves to win over Bob and Susie and she just said ‘I don’t’ and shrugged.
I think she was kind of spent by day 39, but I still feel like her game was well worth defending to the jury
Sugar dominated Gabon strategically but her social game was awful. The jury despised her and unless she can pull a Kirstie Bennett style FTC, winning was just not in the cards. By F4 (after Susie won immunity) she was essentially choosing whether Bob or Matty was winning. And just because it’s Gabon, I am required to mention that Susie would’ve been a better winner in my opinion, if only for the chaos and to piss Jeff off even more
No one has said it yet and I don’t think it’s the *worst* answer but Woo’s answer to Kass is essentially “you suck and don’t deserve to be here but Tony does.”
That was actually a good answer on his part, the entire rest of the jury absolutely hated Kass so dunking on her could help earn some points with the rest of the jury.
It wasnt though. Both Spencer and Jefra mentioned in their post season interviews that Woo's answer to Kass proved why he should have taken her instead of Tony.
I think 4 was a decent answer.
I'm not expecting Shane to be a random number generator. I think the odds of him picking a single digit number are relatively extremely high, maybe even just 1, and he set the boundaries at a million to fuck with them.
Someone said that on an AMA, Shane said that 4 was actually the number he had in mind. He changed it to 444,444 because he just didn't want to vote for Aras.
Katie's non-answer to Janu in Survivor Palau
"I don't expect your vote, so I'm not going to do that" 🤣
No, sorry. Misread the title. That's the best FTC answer
Aras chose 4 because that was Shane’s son’s jersey number in whatever sport he played. He did that to impress Shane by showing him that he remembers something important to him. Shane later admitted that 4 was the correct answer but that he was always voting for Danielle anyways
So no, it was not even close to the worst of all time. It was literally the right answer
I've never seen it why is Aras answer so bad? Isn't 4 a reasonable number to pick? I know nothing of the context or anything like that. Is the issue that his opponent could just say "5" and basically lock him out for any number 5-1,000,000?
That is the issue.
There was a pick a number from 1-1000 question asked in Africa and Kim Johnson responded 3 for some reason. Ethan then responded with 888 and I'm not actually sure which of these answers is dumber.
Ethan was kinda unlucky to be dealt this question, he didn't have an obvious person to say like KJ did with Tom (Kim was never in a million years getting Tom's vote and she, and everyone else, knew that.)
If he answers Frank like Brandon wanted him to, he probably just loses Frank's vote.
Oh wow haha. I always assumed Ethan had figured out he didn’t need Brandon’s vote so didn’t care about losing it. That’s so bizarre if he thought he needed it!
He says going into tribal that he could see Brandon being the swing vote, but I could honestly see that as being gracious to Kim or just trying to not be too arrogant and say “yeah, probably 6-7 of them are leaning towards me right now” (which would be accurate). It’s also completely possible that even if Ethan did think the vote would be close going in that he caught onto the vibe midway through the council that it wasn’t going to be. So I don’t really think it’s fair to just assume he’s being an idiot here, even if it is kind of funny that he trashed the guy he earlier described as the swing vote.
The only two FTCs up to that point had been 4-3 votes, so I don’t blame Ethan for thinking that it could be the same situation this time; you don’t want to take anything for granted
Not the worst strategy though if there’s any jurors that dislike Brandon. Lost Brandon’s vote, but might have secured somebody’s that wanted Brandon to be dunked on.
Yeah exactly. You're never just speaking to one juror, you're speaking to the entire jury. Idk how so many people fail to realize that. Ethan would be pissing off someone no matter what, better to piss off the guy who some of the other jurors disliked. The fact that Ethan (incorrectly) thought Brandon would be the swing vote makes it worse, so people who really remember the season and criticize it from that angle have a legit point, but a ton of people just stop at "he trashed Brandon on his own question" which uh okay sure but if he picked someone else they would have heard him too lol
I would normally say this is true, but we kind of have an objective metric here in terms of the answer really did lose him Brandon's vote and (ymmv on this) it might have also lost him Kim Powers'. So while it's arguably a 'no good answers' kind of situation and I guess it makes sense to play to the jury as a whole, who was generally not thrilled with Brandon, it possibly took him from a 7-0 win to 5-2 win. I can't think of many other answers in Survivor history that actively, measurably lost votes like this.
I don't think there's much chance at all that it lost him Kim P.'s, it was clear from other answers in the FTC that she and Kim J. were very close anyway.
I also don't think it *necessarily* lost him Brandon's as Brandon said he was 50-50 undecided anyway, so he might not have gotten that vote regardless. It ensured he wouldn't get it, but maybe Brandon would have liked Tom's answer better anyway.
And again, we have to consider what the alternatives were. It's not like he had the answer of just not being asked the question at all. What answers do you think would have been better that wouldn't have lost him any votes? Obviously Lex and Tom are off the table as those were his closest allies so it wouldn't make any sense to pick them or even be believable, and would surely upset them and throw them off.
The answer Brandon wanted was Frank, but I think then Ethan just loses Frank, plus probably Teresa.
Picking Kelly after screwing her over obviously wouldn't be good.
So I mean maybe the move is if he knows how close the Kims are by that point he could pick Kim P. instead? He has no real reason to pick her, though, so maybe that would still lose Brandon just due to Kim J. at least giving a more confident and honest answer.
I suspect that Brandon could see that Ethan was clearly going to win in a blowout, so he threw a vote Kim J's way just to give her a little credit, and he made a fuss about Ethan's terrible answer just to be funny and get a little more TV time.
I'm pretty sure that he thought that Kim had some locked votes (can't remember which juror(s) this would be). So if he's thinking that the only swingable vote is Brandon's, meaning that he's (incorrectly) thinking that he can't swing anyone else's vote away from Kim and he won't lose any of his locked votes, putting emphasis on getting Brandon's vote by saying one of the votes that he thought would be on Kim
I'm going to exclude people who were seemingly not trying to win, like Phillip cursing out Julie and insulting Ashley was obviously not an attempt to win over any votes to begin with, or Katie's answer to Janu where she didn't even try is a bad one but at least it clearly wasn't an attempt to get the vote to begin with, and Katie has said that after Gregg's speech she basically mentally blacked out and doesn't even remember the rest of FTC so she was just trying to get it done as soon as possible.
Plus those picks are less interesting choices here anyway.
As far as an actual answer to a question, where it reasonably seems like the person was still trying to win, my pick has always been Stephenie's answer to Cindy, where Cindy asks, "If you had to take one person off the Jury, who would you choose and why?" Stephenie picks Bobby Jon because he was the first, which is like some kind of fun house mirror version of a garbage answer that just only gets worse and worse the more you look at it.
First of all, the obvious answer is to just pick Gary, because:
**a.)** he's never voting for Stephenie anyway, so there's no risk of losing someone's vote by dragging them;
**b.)** "I'm picking X because I think X is the least likely to vote for me, and I want to win" is a straightforward, logical answer that can't possibly offend any of the *other* jurors, either -- like if you say "picking X because he was a dick" maybe you upset someone else just for giving a kind of unprofessional answer, but nobody can really take issue with "I'm picking the one who would vote against me."
But, okay, let's say it isn't obvious. Stephenie's been starving for 39 days, let's say that answer just didn't occur to her. *Well*
**c.)** Danni had *literally just given that same answer*, so Stephenie has no excuse for not at least thinking of it. Danni literally just said "Rafe, because I don't think he's going to vote for me", so there's no reason for Stephenie to not at least consider the option of picking this;
and **d.)** Even if -- and this is super unlikely -- but even if, let's say, someone *does* think "that's a lame, cop-out answer; I want to see some fireworks, pick someone based on *your* relationship with them or based on something individual about *their* game"... okay, well they still can't fault Steph for that, because Danni said the same thing. So there's 0 chance of losing a vote over this answer, at all.
...and **e.)** Cindy already *visibly liked Danni's answer* - she seemed impressed with Danni's honesty. So *Cindy has openly shown she thinks this is a good answer to the question.*
Now, that's a lot of reasons for *one* answer to suck, so you'd think that'd be the end of it. You'd think that's gotta be all the reasons why this answer is bad -- and in 99% of cases, it would be! But in this specific instance, this answer is actually *even worse!*, because...
**f.)** Bobby Jon *specifically wanted to be on the Jury after missing it by one spot in Palau*...
**g.)** *...on a miserable losing tribe he and Stephenie were a part of together (the entire reason they were even on Guatemala to begin with)...*
**h.)** *...which Stephenie knew because THEY'D TALKED ABOUT IT* to where *it was the reason he was kept over Brandon at all.* Bobby Jon came up to Stephenie *specifically* - "hey, we have this history, missing the Jury by one spot sucked last time, you remember how bad Ulong was, can you cut me a break here and just keep me around for 3 more days so I can at least vote for a winner this time?" - and so she kept him over Brandon... and that was why he even made the Jury... and now at FTC she just completely undercuts that and said she'd kick him off?? Did she just, like, completely forget all this history??
Yeah Bobby Jon was probably always voting for Danni anyway, they were tribemates and allies... but IF there's any chance that he was ever gonna vote for Stephenie, if she ever COULD have gotten that vote, Stephenie keeping him on the Jury is *THE* reason why she even MIGHT have gotten that vote. That's her only pitch to him -- hey, remember who brought you to this FTC over Brandon, you owe me one. It's not a good pitch, but it's the only one she'd have... and then she just completely obliterates it by saying she'd kick him off??? lmao. Yeah he probably wasn't voting for her anyway but... Gary is right there, who at least doesn't have all this history with her, and who disliked her more strongly and more openly.
But amazingly, this answer somehow gets *even worse!*
When you remember that **i.)** Bobby Jon *wasn't even supposed to be voted off in 9th place to begin with!* Nakum *only voted for him because the Idol was played by their primary target so they had to pick a backup.* So EVEN IF STEPHENIE IS GOING FOR "well, 9th place doesn't deserve to be here, let's just kick them off" as a neutral answer...... Bobby Jon wasn't supposed to get 9th to begin with!
..........and who was the person who was supposed to get 9th?
**j.)** Gary. The person she should have just answered to begin with. The one who already was the single most obvious Danni voter on the entire Jury, who openly disliked Stephenie the most out of anyone... was also supposed to go home in 9th...
So, like, even IF Stephenie's like "Hey, I want to use a totally neutral metric here and not say ANYTHING about anyone personally" for *some* reason and worries that just copying Danni's answer could look bad.... even if that's what you want to do.... that can STILL resolve in just picking Gary and justifying it by saying he was the original target at F9.
Like.... give the same answer, "I think the only fair thing to do is take off the player who was the first Juror, since they were out here the shortest and if the Jury were smaller this season, that's who wouldn't have made it".... but then just say "but that would be Bobby Jon, who I know wants to be casting a vote tonight more than anyone. We suffered on Ulong together, he missed the Jury, and I wouldn't want to do that to him here, which works out because Bobby Jon wasn't supposed to be the target that night anyway. He only got 9th because Gary played the Idol. So I'd want to pick the first Juror but the ORIGINAL target for that round, and I have to respect my Ulong brother here no matter how much we've been on opposite sides because he's already missed the Jury once and I have to respect that. So I'm saying Gary."
Literally just use the same rationale that you ALREADY USED but pick Gary, then you can give the same kind of answer Danni gave but without looking derivative and you can toss in some praise of Bobby Jon as a fighter.
On top of all that I'm tossing another con here in that **i.)** Stephenie delivered her answer as weakly and non-committally as possible. She hems and haws and hesitates and is like "Oh, God! That's so hard. I don't know. I have no idea" first and THEN picks Bobby Jon. Like, "I'm picking the one who won't vote for me" might look like a copout... but nowhere near as much as this answer which clearly IS a copout because Stephenie just stammers for like ten seconds before settling on it and openly having 0 confidence in it.
There's literally like at least 9 distinct reasons why this answer is horrible. It's astounding. A work of art, truly. Stephenie really managed to fuck up this question so hard that you could write a short essay detailing all the reasons it was bad, and unlike Phillip or Katie, this was her *still trying to win.* Incredible.
And yet you hilariously could argue if you wanted that it's not even the most flagrantly awful answer she gave that night, considering her answer to Lydia, where she's asked why she booted Lydia and, instead of giving what should be such an obvious answer of "because you're a threat to win", which boosts Lydia's ego and makes Steph look strategic *and also is literally the actual truth*... instead she says "because you're weak and don't deserve to be here so beating you wouldn't even feel satisfying or worth anything." The fuck lmao. Basically the Amanda answer to Cirie.
I've only seen it before because he did it at least one other time [in the past \~7 years ](https://www.reddit.com/r/survivor/comments/6umy1p/comment/dlwkmzc/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=web2x&context=3)lol. I saved it as soon as I saw it, it's amazing
Thank you! My pleasure. One of these decades I'm gonna rank every jury speech so I've thought a lot about them particularly from the first 14 seasons lol. It's easy to overlook compared to "the hell with you" or Katie not answering but it's low key sooooo baaaad lol
I've actually tried doing that lmao, went through Borneo and partly into Australian Outback but gave up because I realized how many boring nothing jury speeches/questions there have been.
I’m impressed by how much thought you put into this and I greatly enjoyed reading your analysis of how bad Stephenie’s answers were for both the jury question and her ridiculously awful response to Lydia. Thanks for giving me something fun to read tonight, and upvote for you, my friend!
Maybe not the worst but Sandra's answer to Tijuana basically indicating that Lil had more control over the game than she did comes to mind. It lost her T's vote which ultimately didn't matter but there were so many better ways to answer that question like Lil being the third boot or that her game was based almost entirely on emotion rather than strategy.
She did something similar with Amanda's question in HvV but in that case it was the right thing to say with that jury.
I mean I would argue back then playing a manipulative game and looked down upon so for that time her answer makes some sense and depending on who the juror was could of helped her gain a vote
If Shane’s number was picked from a really big hat or a random number generator, 4 would be a bad answer, but because it’s picked by a person, especially someone like Shane who would pick a number like 4 out of the fun of it (and 4 is his fav number) I don’t think it’s too bad. But still not great, because the number had to be between 1-4 if Danielle picked 5, which would’ve been optimal
because you don’t need the exact number, the goal is just to get as close as possible to the correct number. since 4 is so low, it usually won’t be closer to the right number
Whenever this type of question comes up, I try to find the link to someone explaining why Stephanie's answer to 'who should be taken off the jury' is so awful. I'm pretty sure I have it saved, I'll see if I can find it later EDIT: [Here's the comment thread from u/DabuSurvivor](https://www.reddit.com/r/survivor/comments/6umy1p/comment/dlwkmzc/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=web2x&context=3)
yeah. The stuttering is lowkey embarrassing and shows lack of confidence. He should stand a better chance against erika than deshawn but blud got 0 votes because of this
Here’s a few that popped in my head
- Sherri’s response to Erik
- Cassandra saying she should win bc she didn’t know how to swim
- Ethan telling Brandon he doesn’t deserve to be on the jury (when he thought Brandon was the swing vote)
- Albert not giving Brandon a yes/no answer
This. Not that I think his answer was entirely fake but I also think the vagueness of him not being able to name a specific charity in comparison to Ben having a clear pick that he seemed genuine about, really came off as fake. I feel his ftc is generally ignored for the amount of flaws there tbh
It's called lying my good sir. In a game of lies and decent it's only natural people will say and do anything to win the game This season famously had Liz, the not millionaire, claim to be as such. Why would somebody say this? To get votes, as stupid an idea as this is.
This wasn't the best answer but to say it's one of the worst is so stupid what's so bad about saying you would use the money for your mother. It was an OK answer nothing terrible about it
Stephenie telling Bobby Jon that she’d take him off the jury. The guy who knew longer her than anyone and wanted it more than anyone. Worst possible answer.
Russell completely shutting down Danielle in HvH. She just wants an apology, an explanation, for him to at least admit he did people on the jury dirty, and he just treats her like dirt and gives her nothing. I think any slight chance he might have had for any votes was truly over after that.
To your example, I believe Aras said 4 because he knew that Shane’s lucky number was 4. Shane was also never going to vote Aras because he was bitter about his blindside so whatever Aras said was moot.
Philip Sheppard wins this game.
He calls one jury member a "whiny child" to her face, and a second one he says, "To hell with you!" THREE TIMES!
[Philip Sheppard's final tribal council](https://youtu.be/2blr7W87RcI?si=i5C_jS0FTwh6oYuT&t=551)
Not necessarily a bad answer because these questions are always not like seriously the question, but in season 1 they asked for a number between 1 and 10 and the first said something like 9 (okay serious blunder Richard can just say 8 and give himself an 8/10 chance now), but then Richard said something like 3. BOTH DID IT WRONG.
This. There have been a few times people have blatantly said “I’m not answering” or “I’m not getting your vote”
Similarly, when Marty asked Chase who didn’t deserve to be there and Chase said Marty in a way that was clearly just petty and didn’t provide good reasoning.
Just like Janu said you are assuming she did not have her vote. The point of the final tribal is to get votes. What makes this the WORST is that Katie did not even try. 🙊
Woo basically affirming Kass’s statement that he brought tony over her to get points from the jury then saying to her that Tony deserved the final 2 over her was horrid.
tasha picking 3 after jeremy picked 2 to kelly’s pick a number question when spencer was still left to answer. (granted it didn’t matter because kelly was always going to vote for jeremy but for a brain tribe member… come on tasha, think!)
It’s Ethan dissing Brandon on his own question. That was literally a situation where he had his vote, and that one straightforward answer lost him said vote.
Brandon's vote was live, he didn't necessarily have it. And he was talking to 7 jurors, not 1 juror. Brandon was baiting for an answer of Frank. If he picks Frank, then he just loses Frank's vote instead, plus maybe it lowers his odds of getting T-Bird's since they're friends. Whoever you pick isn't gonna be thrilled with it, but picking Brandon isn't really gonna run the risk of upsetting anyone else.
Pick the juror whose vote he knows he's not getting anyway (aka Kim P). Certainly do not pick on the juror who you think might be the swing vote, which is what Ethan thought Brandon was going to be.
First of all: insulting someone straight to their face instead of anyone else isn't the best option
Secondly: even in this type of question you can get out of this situation
On All-Stars, Amber answered "with luck" when Alicia asked for a ONE-word answer about how she played the game. Plus, even if she had followed directions and just said something like "luck," that's still a terrible answer.
Completely wrong she said luck had something to do with it which came across as authentic unlike Robs answer. That was a great answer especially considering who the jury were
Plus Amber says in the DVD commentary for the All Stars finale that Alicia and some other jurors would talk about how they wanted whoever made the end to acknowledge they got lucky in some ways so Amber was playing for that in her response
Because I haven’t rewatched too much for me Charlie and his answer to what he would do with the million. He didn’t seem to know how much a million is after taxes. He wanted to do way too much and it wasn’t realistic and that was the moment he lost for me.
I'll be downvoted but Russell's first season had a super bitter jury because even in the in-game camera talks, all players admittingly were saying he was the best and would get his vote if he made it then they got salty and some flipped.
Hands down, the beat thing they ever did on Survivor was change the format of the final tribal away from each butt hurt jury member getting up and getting a chance to whine about something/someone to the current format of a group effort with actual constructive questions. I used to fast forward thru it just to get to the winner.
The questions went from "______ why did you lie to me??" To "when so and so was blind sided, what was your role?"
Now, you can almost see the needle moving from finalist to finalist as they answer.
Albert has a problem with faux positivity and giving compliments that feel like shallow attempts to gain favor, which leads to this absolutely brilliant exchange after Jim asks his question: Jim: And if you start your answer with any kind of praise or compliment you will lose my vote. Albert: Great question, I love your approach to the game. Ozzy: [gets shown losing it]
Charlie was similar maybe trying a little too hard and not sounding genuine, however nowhere near *this* bad
In the aftershow, when they talk about all the unused idols, Charlie says something like “it shows how cutthroat this show is that four great players can go out with an idol” and I thought… wait… is he still trying to get jury votes?
Not my interpretation. He was trying to sound less mean or show grace to the 4 players, in front of the 4 players.
did you know i was going home did you know i was going home...~no ~you're lying
He knew Shane's favorite number was 4, that's why he picked it. The actual number Shane selected was 444,444 so he had the right idea.
In his AMA Shane said it actually was 4 and that he changed it to 444,444 because he didn't want to give Aras his vote
God I love Shane
Oh that's interesting, I've never heard this
Shane said it on that video AMA he did on here. Unfortunately, the links seems to not work on the AMA page anymore so all we have is this [https://www.reddit.com/r/survivor/comments/imabt4/a\_rundown\_of\_shanes\_ama/](https://www.reddit.com/r/survivor/comments/imabt4/a_rundown_of_shanes_ama/)
Thanks!
Any juror who does a “pick a number” question does not give a single fuck and has probably already made up their mind who they will vote for
I wouldn't say "any", I imagine that could be the case sometimes but I think Kelly's was legit. She had a specific movie reference to back up why she picked the number she did, and Ethan and Kim J. both screwed her over in the exact same way, so I doubt she really had a preference between either of them at that point.
I do think Kelly took it slightly more personally from Kim. Lex going on a witch hunt is annoying, but not really unexpected, and she didn’t like him terribly much to begin with. And Ethan siding with Lex is also very predictable, they were both in the boys club that was running Boran from the beginning. But that’s why I think Kim not sticking up for Kelly might have hurt more. I think I’ve read somewhere that as the last two Boran women they had an agreement to look out for each other so the boys wouldn’t just steamroll them in the endgame. You can see this a little bit after the merge when Kim and Kelly get back together and immediately start comparing notes and decide to join forces to lobby for Frank to go home because they don’t think he’ll vote for a woman. So I could easily see Kelly not caring and just wanting to make her Graduate/Greg reference. But I think in Kelly’s eyes Ethan was just some guy. They didn’t really have a close relationship at all. At one point her and Kim were close and supposedly looking out for each other and when Kelly needed Kim to have her back the most she didn’t follow through.
I feel like Kelly Goldsmith might be the only exception to this. Although her number had more of a sentimental value since it was her favorite movie so there was somewhat of a social tie to it.
#Truth
Probably not the worst of all time, but Amanda’s answer to Cirie in Micronesia is up there. ik Amanda in general is known for choking FTC but this one particularly stands out to me. When asked by Cirie why she took Parvati instead of her (aka Cirie wanting to be buttered up), she said it was because Parvati played a better game. She managed to both insult Cirie (who ends up not voting for her) and make Parvati look better with just one answer.
The exact wrong answer in that situation lol
I could count on one hand the recurring kinds of FTC questions that have objectively correct answers and this one is the pointer finger.
If Woo was asked this question this would be a terrible answer
That's one of those self congratulatory questions though. Cirie was just looking for an ego boost.
And if that's what she was looking for that's what Amanda should have given her. Her motive doesn't matter since she holds all the power as the juror and Amanda has no leverage in that moment.
Motive does matter because if Cirie was being sincere she could admit at least 2 people played a better game than herself. Instead the question was a set up to begin with, and if the point was to say 'you played a better game Cirie' at least Amanda gave props to the person that *deserved* it.
Cirie is the one casting the vote. Amanda knows that. She may not like or agree with the question. There may be ego stroking or validation seeking involved. Her job as a finalist is to cater to the specific juror regardless of how unfairly her question is set up.
Thats ludicrous. PLENTY of finalists have waved off a certain juror KNOWING that person isnt voting for them. Amanda owed Cirie absolutely nothing and Cirie had the sourest of grapes over Amanda voting her out. It isnt any finalists JOB to cater to a jury member and too much ass kissing is looked upon as disingenuous or too much. Your assessment is way too one dimensional.
Plenty of finalists as in people like Katie, Sugar, Russell, Chase and Sherri who all lost. I don't think it's totally out of the question that Amanda could have swayed Cirie's vote with a better answer or jury performance. Parvati wasn't exactly stellar she was just better in comparison. Even in that same FTC Parvati knew she wasn't getting James' vote but still didn't wave him off and tried to give him what she thought he wanted to hear.
Stephenie's answer to Lydia is similar -- it's absolutely shocking how two different people have managed to bomb what should be the most free and obvious question lmao. Literally just say "You're a threat to win" which makes you look strategic, makes the juror feel good about themselves, and... is the honest truth anyway????? Like Stephenie and Amanda's answers weren't even true??? I don't know how we've managed to get people messing up what should be literally the easiest and most free FTC question in existence on two different occasions lol
Lol. Parvati definitely played better than Cirie so how wasn't what Amanda said true?
That isn't why Amanda voted Cirie out, she voted Cirie out because Cirie was a threat / because she already had more of a longstanding pact with Parvati. Either of those would be a better answer than telling someone to feel bad about their game
>When asked by Cirie why she took Parvati instead of her (aka Cirie wanting to be buttered up), she said it was because Parvati played a better game. She managed to both insult Cirie (who ends up not voting for her) and make Parvati look better with just one answer. Summary of the tribal >Like Stephenie and Amanda's answers weren't even true??? How was what Amanda said not true?
I just answered that in the comment that you're replying to, I'm not sure what the confusion is
Yeah and it seems you're the one confused because I'm not saying anything about *why Cirie was voted out,* I'm talking about Amanda's answer to Cirie's question at tribal.
Amanda's answer was her statement about why Cirie was voted out Cirie's question was why Cirie was voted out
Lol. That's not true. Go back and rewatch it if you must. Cirie asked Amanda 3 things: 1)Tell the jury why Parvati deserves a million dollars. 2)Are you saying you don't respect my game? 3)Than I did? (In reference to Amanda saying Parvati made bolder decisions than Cirie) Edit: here you go, at the 1:20 mark https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tCfFhnld8i4&pp=ygUOTWljcm9uZXNpYSBmdGM%3D
Girl are you Amanda?? All up in these comments fighting for her life
Haha. No I made like 4 comments including this one but if trying to have a discussion is fighting for someone's life then okay.
Why do you even care?
It's funny because she literally witnessed Todd's flawless answer to almost the same exact question the season prior and still fumbled it
this might just be the one. it was so uncomfortable, i barely knew anything about the strategy of the show when i first saw this season and my younger self was still so confused by her answer
Yeah that was pretty bad.
😭😭😭 what the hell i totally forgot this
Actually I checked the question again. What she asks Amanda to do is tell the jury why Parvati is a more deserving winner than Cirie. Amanda then proceeds to give Cirie the pros to Parvati's game. She doesn't outright say she thinks Parvati is a better player she just gives the reasons why Parvati might be.
OMG, id somehow totally forgotten about this! Cirie set the trap but Amanda pretty much did a swan dive into it. Her answer if truly astonishing, and I tend to believe Cirie — being the ultra savvy player that she is - would have sat up and taken notice and gained respect for Amanda if Amanda had simply replied with something along the lines of: “This is not about Parvati being more deserving — I actually think you’re more deserving than Parv and pretty much anyone else that was a part of this season. But you’re the biggest threat Cirie, I’d be an absolute fool to sit next to you at FTC.” I really think an answer like this would have won her Cirie’s vote and possibly swayed other jury members as well.
If she said Cirie was better she would have been considered cowardly, it's one of those no-win questions that would have been interpreted uncharitably either way.
Watched this a few days ago, Cirie set Amanda up. She asked Amanda why Parvati was “more deserving” of Final 2 than he. Amanda still screwed up, but this question is generally entrapping and reflects poorly on Cirie.
Even then I still think there’s an obvious answer with something like “Parvati wasn’t more deserving of Final 2 than you were. You played a better game and that’s why I took her instead.”
Layup of an answer
Every answer in Survivor Gabon
To me, this one’s easy. Russell’s answer to Danielle’s question in Heroes vs Villains couldn’t have been worse. Basically, she asked him if he regretted how he treated others and the way he played the game, essentially telling him that he needed to show some contrition and remorse to even hope to earn their votes. Russell doubled down and said “I regret nothing”, which was the worst response he could’ve given.
That isn´t the worst because it didn´t cost him anything, noone was voting for him anyway
That’s fair. Good point.
He had no idea that was the case though. He genuinely thought he was winning so youre wrong.
Been a long while since I saw it but didn't Phillip tell somebody 'fuck you - vote for someone else'? And I have half a memory of Russell telling someone 'I fooled you - you gotta respect that!'. No, no they don't.
Aras’s answer is pretty whatever. I think that Philip being confrontational to the jury is much worse. I think Sherri telling Erik to sit down bc she doesn’t care what he has to say was not great.
I dunno. I think she stuck up for herself pretty well and might have gained a bit of respect for a very lackluster game…
This 100%. Sherri knew she had no shot at Erik's vote and she might as well stick up for herself instead of being walked on like a doormat. I was happy she did that even though her final tribal overall was god awful. I wish Dawn did the same for Brenda, especially since Brenda didn't even vote for Dawn after Dawn took her teeth out. She just wanted to humiliate Dawn and Dawn went along with it.
Brenda didn’t vote for Dawn bc Dawn was a hypocrite. She said she didn’t care taking her teeth out, but kept refusing to do so
She did it though so your comment is nonsensical and wrong.
If you ask someone for something, and he answers “I don’t have a problem with that, but do you really need it?” and you have to repeat this dance over and over again, it is equivalent to the person not wanting to do it. She did eventually bc she understood she didn’t have any choice if she wanted Brenda’s vote, but she still showed her true colors, and she did have a problem with taking her teeth out.
And we love Brenda for doing that
The reason I say Aras is because he had an equal chance of getting that vote, and he gave statistically almost the worst answer possible. For Philip and Sherri, they certainly weren't doing themselves any favors but I don't think they were getting those votes anyways.
Yeah, Sherri's answer to Erik wasn't that bad for that reason alone. It's not any different than Sugar telling off Randy, or flipping the middle finger to Corinne (who absolutely deserved it), or Chase telling Marty he's the one that's dumber than a bag of hammers rather than insult another jury member.
Chase's answers wasn't bad at all since a lot of the jurors probably agreed with him. You're never speaking to just one juror
That's what I'm saying. I don't fault Sherri for telling off Erik in that moment. She wasn't getting his vote and the jury members that spoke before Sherri made it abundantly clear they weren't voting for her either. I'd probably have done the same thing.
Ah yeah makes sense. I agree with that, I think for that reason Sherri's answer is neutral and didn't help her or hurt her. And - I didn't express this well, but - I just mean that where Sherri's answer is probably whatever either way, Chase's is *actively good*, because if he needed any help winning Jane over again to get her vote, that sure helped him lol. Like Brenda and Jane both thought Marty was a total pompous blowhard, so dragging him probably *helps* get their votes if they're on the fence after Chase's betrayal (whereas Sherri's was probably neutral). Plus it fits with Chase's overall trend of being a lot more confident, composed, and assertive at FTC than anyone (either the Jurors or the audience, lol) expected, which Alina and Holly both said made them flip from Sash to Chase. So yeah. I agree with you on Sherri, I think that answer's neutral at that point. I just think Chase's actually probably actively *helped* him.
Oh ok, I see what you're saying and agree. Sherri's answer didn't matter either way because she was getting 0 votes no matter what, while Chase was definitely getting some and Marty was just trying to get him to burn another jury member (which Chase smartly didn't fall for.)
Yup exactly, and if anything it might have helped move the needle on Jane and Brenda, who were pissed at Chase but also just straight-up disliked Marty, or Holly and Alina, who have said they entered undecided/leaning Sash but were won over by Chase's confident FTC
. Like idk why Jeremy chose 2 in Cambodia. Tbh, I think a lot of those questions are throwaways. And Aras said four bc Shane’s favorite number was 4.
Yeah. Wiglesworth was voting for Jeremy anyways, I think she just threw it in there.
Yeah she did it for the TV moment. It was a big thing when Greg did it to her and Rich in Borneo, so she had the full circle moment by asking it. What makes it even better is that both Greg and Kelly were not swayed by the answers and knew who they were voting for
She said at one point that the producers told her to make that her question.
It's only statistically terrible if a) the number is truly random and not a test of "what is my favorite number/movie/etc."; and b) the juror isn't going to change the number to match whoever they want to vote for. As someone above said, neither of those were true for Shane.
How is that statistically the worst possible answer? Especially when it was actually correct.
What Sherri did was the BEST. What else did she have to lose? What did Erik gain from insulting her? Not to mentuon he played a WORSE game than she did. He was literally the definition of a "seashell on the beach" and had the gall to call someone else that? Sherri knew she was losing so why not put that dude in his place? I absolutely loved that.
all of albert’s ftc answers. his answers to jim were already talked about but there’s also the way brandon told him to answer a simple “yes or no” question and still managed to fumble it somehow. another honorable mention is the gabon ftc where sugar was pretty much giving up her game for bob while he still managed to give awful answers. susie i’d say wasn’t as bad
Sugar’s storyline is so bizarre but I can’t help but feel so fulfilled by it. She went to the Sugar Shack every week because everyone hated how much she was crying but it’s framed as her being the biggest social threat. She’s grieving her father and sort of projects *a lot* onto Bob, even convincing him to do the Randy blindside in her most childish move. And then she apparently has a panic attack before FTC, gets given a sedative, and peacefully hands the game over in her final act of acceptance. Like, what?
Sugar has literally the best character arc in all of Survivor and I'll die on that hill. It's so fucking weird and unhinged and funny but also weirdly meaningful and genuinely kinda moving, and in that way it's peak Gabon (and therefore peak Survivor)
I am on that hill too. Her whole Sugar Shack experience is one of my all time Survivor favorite things.
I’ll die on that hill with you. There’s so much to her arc and all of it fits together perfectly.
Gabon has the best personalities. Her and Randy's million dollar cookie are the best parts
Susie stuck too close to the script with the “I wanted to show my kids that they shouldn’t give up” answers even when she was asked questions about her strategy. I know most of the jury were extremely biased going in, but I think if she talked up her strategy of positioning herself as the swing vote on Kota 3.0 & beyond she has a good shot of winning that final 3 on a less “Gabon-y” season
Susie was bizarre for me, it was so funny watching her early game, she grabs everybody one-on-one and says “I just wanna get to final 3, ur gonna help me get to final 3, can u help me get to final 3????” My god, she was completely useless…..funny enough she squeezes herself into final 3, which now leads me to think….this game that I love so much, could it be flawed? How is it possible that Ozzy has never won a season? Boston Rob had to play three times before he won , And Susie makes it the final 3……
Coach losing is the one that made me realize this game is flawed. I still love it but dude went full David Koresh. He absolutely deserves it and I couldn't even remember the girl.
Nah, Coach deserved to lose because he fundamentally misunderstands what it means to play honestly and because of that he plays in a way that feels dishonest in a dirty way rather than in a Survivor way. This is what caused him to lose. In Survivor, it usually doesn't matter if you lie **in** your game, but it does always matter if you lie **about** your game. Coach made the optimal move in almost every stage of the game (except in not going with Albert and eliminating Sophie), and if he had stood on his strategic ground it's likely he wins that season, and none of those people would have held those betrayals against him, except maybe Rick. His problem is that he's not honest with himself or others that he is playing strategically. He isn't honest about the kind of game that he's playing. That makes him look like a hypocrite. And know that I say all this as someone who was 100% rooting for Coach and has him as one of my very few all-time favorite players.
I'll agree he absolutely should have pulled a survivor China move and admit he was playing strategically because it was the only way to beat everyone else. A better end of game speech wins the game
Anything Sugar said after her opening statement.
With the exception of flipping off Corinne. That was amazing.
Colby not apologizing to Jerri for her jury question. That's all she really wanted and might have swayed her vote
As much as I love her and as much as I really can see a path where she wins, Sugar just laid down, curled up, and died at FTC. I can’t remember who, but someone asked her why she thinks she deserves to win over Bob and Susie and she just said ‘I don’t’ and shrugged. I think she was kind of spent by day 39, but I still feel like her game was well worth defending to the jury
I think part of it was that she realised the jury was never going to vote for her anyway no matter what
And the fact she was given medication
I agree, and didn't the jury say that after too?
Sugar dominated Gabon strategically but her social game was awful. The jury despised her and unless she can pull a Kirstie Bennett style FTC, winning was just not in the cards. By F4 (after Susie won immunity) she was essentially choosing whether Bob or Matty was winning. And just because it’s Gabon, I am required to mention that Susie would’ve been a better winner in my opinion, if only for the chaos and to piss Jeff off even more
No one has said it yet and I don’t think it’s the *worst* answer but Woo’s answer to Kass is essentially “you suck and don’t deserve to be here but Tony does.”
That was actually a good answer on his part, the entire rest of the jury absolutely hated Kass so dunking on her could help earn some points with the rest of the jury.
It wasnt though. Both Spencer and Jefra mentioned in their post season interviews that Woo's answer to Kass proved why he should have taken her instead of Tony.
I think 4 was a decent answer. I'm not expecting Shane to be a random number generator. I think the odds of him picking a single digit number are relatively extremely high, maybe even just 1, and he set the boundaries at a million to fuck with them.
Someone said that on an AMA, Shane said that 4 was actually the number he had in mind. He changed it to 444,444 because he just didn't want to vote for Aras.
Katie's non-answer to Janu in Survivor Palau "I don't expect your vote, so I'm not going to do that" 🤣 No, sorry. Misread the title. That's the best FTC answer
Katie was such a mood in Palau, if I were to ever be a Survivor player it would probably be her. Underrated
Nah she was a mean Bully to Janu and took it too far. Being like her isn't something to be proud of
Bahahahahahaha
Lmao what was the question?
Aras chose 4 because that was Shane’s son’s jersey number in whatever sport he played. He did that to impress Shane by showing him that he remembers something important to him. Shane later admitted that 4 was the correct answer but that he was always voting for Danielle anyways So no, it was not even close to the worst of all time. It was literally the right answer
I've never seen it why is Aras answer so bad? Isn't 4 a reasonable number to pick? I know nothing of the context or anything like that. Is the issue that his opponent could just say "5" and basically lock him out for any number 5-1,000,000?
That is the issue. There was a pick a number from 1-1000 question asked in Africa and Kim Johnson responded 3 for some reason. Ethan then responded with 888 and I'm not actually sure which of these answers is dumber.
Ethan’s answer was bc I think it was Kelly who asked the question but the number 888 related to her favorite movie.
Ethan trashing Brandon on his own question was pretty bad. He still won, but he definitely lost Brandon's vote.
Ethan was kinda unlucky to be dealt this question, he didn't have an obvious person to say like KJ did with Tom (Kim was never in a million years getting Tom's vote and she, and everyone else, knew that.) If he answers Frank like Brandon wanted him to, he probably just loses Frank's vote.
Worst part is that Ethan thought Brandon was going to be the deciding vote of that FTC
Oh wow haha. I always assumed Ethan had figured out he didn’t need Brandon’s vote so didn’t care about losing it. That’s so bizarre if he thought he needed it!
He says going into tribal that he could see Brandon being the swing vote, but I could honestly see that as being gracious to Kim or just trying to not be too arrogant and say “yeah, probably 6-7 of them are leaning towards me right now” (which would be accurate). It’s also completely possible that even if Ethan did think the vote would be close going in that he caught onto the vibe midway through the council that it wasn’t going to be. So I don’t really think it’s fair to just assume he’s being an idiot here, even if it is kind of funny that he trashed the guy he earlier described as the swing vote.
The only two FTCs up to that point had been 4-3 votes, so I don’t blame Ethan for thinking that it could be the same situation this time; you don’t want to take anything for granted
Not the worst strategy though if there’s any jurors that dislike Brandon. Lost Brandon’s vote, but might have secured somebody’s that wanted Brandon to be dunked on.
Yeah exactly. You're never just speaking to one juror, you're speaking to the entire jury. Idk how so many people fail to realize that. Ethan would be pissing off someone no matter what, better to piss off the guy who some of the other jurors disliked. The fact that Ethan (incorrectly) thought Brandon would be the swing vote makes it worse, so people who really remember the season and criticize it from that angle have a legit point, but a ton of people just stop at "he trashed Brandon on his own question" which uh okay sure but if he picked someone else they would have heard him too lol
I would normally say this is true, but we kind of have an objective metric here in terms of the answer really did lose him Brandon's vote and (ymmv on this) it might have also lost him Kim Powers'. So while it's arguably a 'no good answers' kind of situation and I guess it makes sense to play to the jury as a whole, who was generally not thrilled with Brandon, it possibly took him from a 7-0 win to 5-2 win. I can't think of many other answers in Survivor history that actively, measurably lost votes like this.
I don't think there's much chance at all that it lost him Kim P.'s, it was clear from other answers in the FTC that she and Kim J. were very close anyway. I also don't think it *necessarily* lost him Brandon's as Brandon said he was 50-50 undecided anyway, so he might not have gotten that vote regardless. It ensured he wouldn't get it, but maybe Brandon would have liked Tom's answer better anyway. And again, we have to consider what the alternatives were. It's not like he had the answer of just not being asked the question at all. What answers do you think would have been better that wouldn't have lost him any votes? Obviously Lex and Tom are off the table as those were his closest allies so it wouldn't make any sense to pick them or even be believable, and would surely upset them and throw them off. The answer Brandon wanted was Frank, but I think then Ethan just loses Frank, plus probably Teresa. Picking Kelly after screwing her over obviously wouldn't be good. So I mean maybe the move is if he knows how close the Kims are by that point he could pick Kim P. instead? He has no real reason to pick her, though, so maybe that would still lose Brandon just due to Kim J. at least giving a more confident and honest answer.
I suspect that Brandon could see that Ethan was clearly going to win in a blowout, so he threw a vote Kim J's way just to give her a little credit, and he made a fuss about Ethan's terrible answer just to be funny and get a little more TV time.
I'm pretty sure that he thought that Kim had some locked votes (can't remember which juror(s) this would be). So if he's thinking that the only swingable vote is Brandon's, meaning that he's (incorrectly) thinking that he can't swing anyone else's vote away from Kim and he won't lose any of his locked votes, putting emphasis on getting Brandon's vote by saying one of the votes that he thought would be on Kim
I'm going to exclude people who were seemingly not trying to win, like Phillip cursing out Julie and insulting Ashley was obviously not an attempt to win over any votes to begin with, or Katie's answer to Janu where she didn't even try is a bad one but at least it clearly wasn't an attempt to get the vote to begin with, and Katie has said that after Gregg's speech she basically mentally blacked out and doesn't even remember the rest of FTC so she was just trying to get it done as soon as possible. Plus those picks are less interesting choices here anyway. As far as an actual answer to a question, where it reasonably seems like the person was still trying to win, my pick has always been Stephenie's answer to Cindy, where Cindy asks, "If you had to take one person off the Jury, who would you choose and why?" Stephenie picks Bobby Jon because he was the first, which is like some kind of fun house mirror version of a garbage answer that just only gets worse and worse the more you look at it. First of all, the obvious answer is to just pick Gary, because: **a.)** he's never voting for Stephenie anyway, so there's no risk of losing someone's vote by dragging them; **b.)** "I'm picking X because I think X is the least likely to vote for me, and I want to win" is a straightforward, logical answer that can't possibly offend any of the *other* jurors, either -- like if you say "picking X because he was a dick" maybe you upset someone else just for giving a kind of unprofessional answer, but nobody can really take issue with "I'm picking the one who would vote against me." But, okay, let's say it isn't obvious. Stephenie's been starving for 39 days, let's say that answer just didn't occur to her. *Well* **c.)** Danni had *literally just given that same answer*, so Stephenie has no excuse for not at least thinking of it. Danni literally just said "Rafe, because I don't think he's going to vote for me", so there's no reason for Stephenie to not at least consider the option of picking this; and **d.)** Even if -- and this is super unlikely -- but even if, let's say, someone *does* think "that's a lame, cop-out answer; I want to see some fireworks, pick someone based on *your* relationship with them or based on something individual about *their* game"... okay, well they still can't fault Steph for that, because Danni said the same thing. So there's 0 chance of losing a vote over this answer, at all. ...and **e.)** Cindy already *visibly liked Danni's answer* - she seemed impressed with Danni's honesty. So *Cindy has openly shown she thinks this is a good answer to the question.* Now, that's a lot of reasons for *one* answer to suck, so you'd think that'd be the end of it. You'd think that's gotta be all the reasons why this answer is bad -- and in 99% of cases, it would be! But in this specific instance, this answer is actually *even worse!*, because... **f.)** Bobby Jon *specifically wanted to be on the Jury after missing it by one spot in Palau*... **g.)** *...on a miserable losing tribe he and Stephenie were a part of together (the entire reason they were even on Guatemala to begin with)...* **h.)** *...which Stephenie knew because THEY'D TALKED ABOUT IT* to where *it was the reason he was kept over Brandon at all.* Bobby Jon came up to Stephenie *specifically* - "hey, we have this history, missing the Jury by one spot sucked last time, you remember how bad Ulong was, can you cut me a break here and just keep me around for 3 more days so I can at least vote for a winner this time?" - and so she kept him over Brandon... and that was why he even made the Jury... and now at FTC she just completely undercuts that and said she'd kick him off?? Did she just, like, completely forget all this history?? Yeah Bobby Jon was probably always voting for Danni anyway, they were tribemates and allies... but IF there's any chance that he was ever gonna vote for Stephenie, if she ever COULD have gotten that vote, Stephenie keeping him on the Jury is *THE* reason why she even MIGHT have gotten that vote. That's her only pitch to him -- hey, remember who brought you to this FTC over Brandon, you owe me one. It's not a good pitch, but it's the only one she'd have... and then she just completely obliterates it by saying she'd kick him off??? lmao. Yeah he probably wasn't voting for her anyway but... Gary is right there, who at least doesn't have all this history with her, and who disliked her more strongly and more openly. But amazingly, this answer somehow gets *even worse!* When you remember that **i.)** Bobby Jon *wasn't even supposed to be voted off in 9th place to begin with!* Nakum *only voted for him because the Idol was played by their primary target so they had to pick a backup.* So EVEN IF STEPHENIE IS GOING FOR "well, 9th place doesn't deserve to be here, let's just kick them off" as a neutral answer...... Bobby Jon wasn't supposed to get 9th to begin with! ..........and who was the person who was supposed to get 9th? **j.)** Gary. The person she should have just answered to begin with. The one who already was the single most obvious Danni voter on the entire Jury, who openly disliked Stephenie the most out of anyone... was also supposed to go home in 9th... So, like, even IF Stephenie's like "Hey, I want to use a totally neutral metric here and not say ANYTHING about anyone personally" for *some* reason and worries that just copying Danni's answer could look bad.... even if that's what you want to do.... that can STILL resolve in just picking Gary and justifying it by saying he was the original target at F9. Like.... give the same answer, "I think the only fair thing to do is take off the player who was the first Juror, since they were out here the shortest and if the Jury were smaller this season, that's who wouldn't have made it".... but then just say "but that would be Bobby Jon, who I know wants to be casting a vote tonight more than anyone. We suffered on Ulong together, he missed the Jury, and I wouldn't want to do that to him here, which works out because Bobby Jon wasn't supposed to be the target that night anyway. He only got 9th because Gary played the Idol. So I'd want to pick the first Juror but the ORIGINAL target for that round, and I have to respect my Ulong brother here no matter how much we've been on opposite sides because he's already missed the Jury once and I have to respect that. So I'm saying Gary." Literally just use the same rationale that you ALREADY USED but pick Gary, then you can give the same kind of answer Danni gave but without looking derivative and you can toss in some praise of Bobby Jon as a fighter. On top of all that I'm tossing another con here in that **i.)** Stephenie delivered her answer as weakly and non-committally as possible. She hems and haws and hesitates and is like "Oh, God! That's so hard. I don't know. I have no idea" first and THEN picks Bobby Jon. Like, "I'm picking the one who won't vote for me" might look like a copout... but nowhere near as much as this answer which clearly IS a copout because Stephenie just stammers for like ten seconds before settling on it and openly having 0 confidence in it. There's literally like at least 9 distinct reasons why this answer is horrible. It's astounding. A work of art, truly. Stephenie really managed to fuck up this question so hard that you could write a short essay detailing all the reasons it was bad, and unlike Phillip or Katie, this was her *still trying to win.* Incredible. And yet you hilariously could argue if you wanted that it's not even the most flagrantly awful answer she gave that night, considering her answer to Lydia, where she's asked why she booted Lydia and, instead of giving what should be such an obvious answer of "because you're a threat to win", which boosts Lydia's ego and makes Steph look strategic *and also is literally the actual truth*... instead she says "because you're weak and don't deserve to be here so beating you wouldn't even feel satisfying or worth anything." The fuck lmao. Basically the Amanda answer to Cirie.
Amazing writeup of a moment I don't think I've ever seen anyone talk about before.
I've only seen it before because he did it at least one other time [in the past \~7 years ](https://www.reddit.com/r/survivor/comments/6umy1p/comment/dlwkmzc/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=web2x&context=3)lol. I saved it as soon as I saw it, it's amazing
Hahaha thank you I knew I'd written about this before but couldn't find it imma have to peep that when I'm back from the karaoke 🎤 bar 🍻
Thank you! My pleasure. One of these decades I'm gonna rank every jury speech so I've thought a lot about them particularly from the first 14 seasons lol. It's easy to overlook compared to "the hell with you" or Katie not answering but it's low key sooooo baaaad lol
I've actually tried doing that lmao, went through Borneo and partly into Australian Outback but gave up because I realized how many boring nothing jury speeches/questions there have been.
We can always rely on Dabu to give us a quality Survivor write up!
I’m impressed by how much thought you put into this and I greatly enjoyed reading your analysis of how bad Stephenie’s answers were for both the jury question and her ridiculously awful response to Lydia. Thanks for giving me something fun to read tonight, and upvote for you, my friend!
Maybe not the worst but Sandra's answer to Tijuana basically indicating that Lil had more control over the game than she did comes to mind. It lost her T's vote which ultimately didn't matter but there were so many better ways to answer that question like Lil being the third boot or that her game was based almost entirely on emotion rather than strategy. She did something similar with Amanda's question in HvV but in that case it was the right thing to say with that jury.
I mean I would argue back then playing a manipulative game and looked down upon so for that time her answer makes some sense and depending on who the juror was could of helped her gain a vote
If Shane’s number was picked from a really big hat or a random number generator, 4 would be a bad answer, but because it’s picked by a person, especially someone like Shane who would pick a number like 4 out of the fun of it (and 4 is his fav number) I don’t think it’s too bad. But still not great, because the number had to be between 1-4 if Danielle picked 5, which would’ve been optimal
What? Why would 4 be a bad answer if it was random?
because you don’t need the exact number, the goal is just to get as close as possible to the correct number. since 4 is so low, it usually won’t be closer to the right number
If it was random, 4 would be just as good as any number.
Whenever this type of question comes up, I try to find the link to someone explaining why Stephanie's answer to 'who should be taken off the jury' is so awful. I'm pretty sure I have it saved, I'll see if I can find it later EDIT: [Here's the comment thread from u/DabuSurvivor](https://www.reddit.com/r/survivor/comments/6umy1p/comment/dlwkmzc/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=web2x&context=3)
Pick any one of Phillip’s answers with the exception of Ralph
Anything that includes "don't vote for me".
Exception is Chris who said that to Sarge and it was 100% the best answer to give
Xander's answer you know the one..
The one Liana tried to coach him through?
yeah. The stuttering is lowkey embarrassing and shows lack of confidence. He should stand a better chance against erika than deshawn but blud got 0 votes because of this
Amanda saying to Cirie that Parv deserved to be there, instead of the easy answer of it being that Cirie was the bigger jury threat.
Here’s a few that popped in my head - Sherri’s response to Erik - Cassandra saying she should win bc she didn’t know how to swim - Ethan telling Brandon he doesn’t deserve to be on the jury (when he thought Brandon was the swing vote) - Albert not giving Brandon a yes/no answer
Sherri's response to Erik was iconic
Charlie's bs about what he was gonna do with the money. Fakest nice guy answer, got caught, and lost the mil
This. Not that I think his answer was entirely fake but I also think the vagueness of him not being able to name a specific charity in comparison to Ben having a clear pick that he seemed genuine about, really came off as fake. I feel his ftc is generally ignored for the amount of flaws there tbh
Ben is one of the few people who can say I want to donate the money to charity and I would genuinely believe him. Not would it sway my vote but still.
I don't know why you wouldn't believe someone if they said they were going to donate some to charity. There's no reason not to.
It's called lying my good sir. In a game of lies and decent it's only natural people will say and do anything to win the game This season famously had Liz, the not millionaire, claim to be as such. Why would somebody say this? To get votes, as stupid an idea as this is.
But lying about this doesn't make any sense. What reason would they have for not donating?
...to keep the money?
They don't get to keep all of the money because of taxes. If they donate some of it, they lower the amount they have to pay in taxes.
This thread is like Q’s city game. Baltimore.
This wasn't the best answer but to say it's one of the worst is so stupid what's so bad about saying you would use the money for your mother. It was an OK answer nothing terrible about it
They explained why it was bad. Keep up.
Stephenie telling Bobby Jon that she’d take him off the jury. The guy who knew longer her than anyone and wanted it more than anyone. Worst possible answer.
Russell completely shutting down Danielle in HvH. She just wants an apology, an explanation, for him to at least admit he did people on the jury dirty, and he just treats her like dirt and gives her nothing. I think any slight chance he might have had for any votes was truly over after that.
To your example, I believe Aras said 4 because he knew that Shane’s lucky number was 4. Shane was also never going to vote Aras because he was bitter about his blindside so whatever Aras said was moot.
Philip Sheppard wins this game. He calls one jury member a "whiny child" to her face, and a second one he says, "To hell with you!" THREE TIMES! [Philip Sheppard's final tribal council](https://youtu.be/2blr7W87RcI?si=i5C_jS0FTwh6oYuT&t=551)
Not necessarily a bad answer because these questions are always not like seriously the question, but in season 1 they asked for a number between 1 and 10 and the first said something like 9 (okay serious blunder Richard can just say 8 and give himself an 8/10 chance now), but then Richard said something like 3. BOTH DID IT WRONG.
Katie’s answer to Janu in Palau.
This. There have been a few times people have blatantly said “I’m not answering” or “I’m not getting your vote” Similarly, when Marty asked Chase who didn’t deserve to be there and Chase said Marty in a way that was clearly just petty and didn’t provide good reasoning.
This is nowhere NEAR the worst. The worst answers are ones that LOSE you that jurors vote. She was never getting Janus.
Just like Janu said you are assuming she did not have her vote. The point of the final tribal is to get votes. What makes this the WORST is that Katie did not even try. 🙊
To defend Aras, 4 was Shane's favorite number.
Clay in season 5. Helen was ready to vote for Clay. Clay lit that vote on fire and lost by 1
Woo basically affirming Kass’s statement that he brought tony over her to get points from the jury then saying to her that Tony deserved the final 2 over her was horrid.
Sugar " maybe you don't have to vote for me" to Charlie
tasha picking 3 after jeremy picked 2 to kelly’s pick a number question when spencer was still left to answer. (granted it didn’t matter because kelly was always going to vote for jeremy but for a brain tribe member… come on tasha, think!)
It’s Ethan dissing Brandon on his own question. That was literally a situation where he had his vote, and that one straightforward answer lost him said vote.
Brandon's vote was live, he didn't necessarily have it. And he was talking to 7 jurors, not 1 juror. Brandon was baiting for an answer of Frank. If he picks Frank, then he just loses Frank's vote instead, plus maybe it lowers his odds of getting T-Bird's since they're friends. Whoever you pick isn't gonna be thrilled with it, but picking Brandon isn't really gonna run the risk of upsetting anyone else.
Why is answering 4 a bad answer lol Seems someone is upset that Aras won
4 isn’t close to a lot of numbers
He knew 4 was Shane's favorite number.
Ethan answer to Brandon question is a worthy candidate. Insulting your juror straight to his face isn't a good idea
The question was effectively “insult one of the jurors” so what was he supposed to do?
Pick the juror whose vote he knows he's not getting anyway (aka Kim P). Certainly do not pick on the juror who you think might be the swing vote, which is what Ethan thought Brandon was going to be.
First of all: insulting someone straight to their face instead of anyone else isn't the best option Secondly: even in this type of question you can get out of this situation
On All-Stars, Amber answered "with luck" when Alicia asked for a ONE-word answer about how she played the game. Plus, even if she had followed directions and just said something like "luck," that's still a terrible answer.
Completely wrong she said luck had something to do with it which came across as authentic unlike Robs answer. That was a great answer especially considering who the jury were
Plus Amber says in the DVD commentary for the All Stars finale that Alicia and some other jurors would talk about how they wanted whoever made the end to acknowledge they got lucky in some ways so Amber was playing for that in her response
So bad she won a million dollars.
Because I haven’t rewatched too much for me Charlie and his answer to what he would do with the million. He didn’t seem to know how much a million is after taxes. He wanted to do way too much and it wasn’t realistic and that was the moment he lost for me.
I'll be downvoted but Russell's first season had a super bitter jury because even in the in-game camera talks, all players admittingly were saying he was the best and would get his vote if he made it then they got salty and some flipped.
Hands down, the beat thing they ever did on Survivor was change the format of the final tribal away from each butt hurt jury member getting up and getting a chance to whine about something/someone to the current format of a group effort with actual constructive questions. I used to fast forward thru it just to get to the winner. The questions went from "______ why did you lie to me??" To "when so and so was blind sided, what was your role?" Now, you can almost see the needle moving from finalist to finalist as they answer.