AUSTRALIAN SURVIVOR : JERICHO IS THE SOLE SURVIVOR

Australian Survivor just crowned its 4th season's sole survivor - and it is Filipino Jericho Malabonga!

Jericho beat stay home mom Tara in the final tribal council with a jury vote of 6 votes to 3. Jericho officially becomes the first Filipino to win an international franchise season ever.

As I predicted in my last blog post, Jericho's social game and under the radar strategy won over Tara's gameplay of flip flopping and risk taking. Jericho even won the last immunity challenge, outlasting Tara and Peter in the endurance challenge after more than 5 hours.

Here is the post from the show's Twitter page:

Jericho is the Sole Survivor and winner of half a million dollars! 👏 #SurvivorAU pic.twitter.com/bMVVfgutWL

— Australian Survivor (@Survivor_AU) October 10, 2017

Jericho is the Sole Survivor 💪 #SurvivorAU pic.twitter.com/VLpo8S0Ocw

— Australian Survivor (@Survivor_AU) October 10, 2017

With the win, Jericho will take home $500,000.

Congratulation Jericho!

AUSTRALIAN SURVIVOR : WHO WILL BE THE ULTIMATE SURVIVOR?

It's the finale night of Australian Survivor tonight and after a season full of blindsides, great game moves and hard challenges, who will emerge victorious tonight?

First of all, I just want to say that this is the first season that I followed Australian Survivor and I am really impressed on how this is similar and yet different from the US version. First of all, 55 days in the wild is brutal and at the same time, you have 23 other castaways to go against, this is just hard. I also like the challenges, some were also from the US version but some are original so I really like the challenges here.

So who will win tonight?

Let us look at this in 2 ways. First, let us analyze how each of the three remaining players played the game and then second, let us look at how I think the jury members will vote.

So first, let's look at the players.

JERICHO

I have a bit of bias on Jericho mainly because he is Filipino and a survivor fan as well.

Jericho I think played a good social game. Everyone likes him. He hasn't have any serious confrontation with anyone all through out the season except probably for Michelle in the last stretch before the last tribal council. He is very likeable and has created strong bonds with the other castaways.

He also has good game play. He used his cookie temptation to his advantage by getting Luke, Henry and Sarah's loyalty. He and Luke has orchestrated some of the blindsides in the season - notable once are the Jarrad and Tessa blindsides. I also think he did the right choice in eliminating Tessa since he knows she will always vote for Peter in the final two.

He also speaks well during tribal councils. He always says what the jury needs to hear - being always ready for war, doing what is best for your game and fear nothing. For me, I think he did enough to win the title.

On the other hand, he has a disadvantage on the jury since he never switched tribes until merge. He is in the Asaga tribe from the beginning and he will be in the final 2, he will be against an original Samatau and the jury will be composed of 5 Samatau and 4 Asaga. Some of the Samatau guys known him for only a short time.

Also, being the strongest physically, he will definitely be a target of both Tara and Peter and if he does not win the individual immunity tonight, he will definitely be the last jury member.

PETER

Peter is a nice guy but did he play enough to really win the title? To tell you honestly, I cannot remember a single game move that would put Peter as the mastermind. Yes, he was the swing vote in several occassions but I will not put him as one of the guys who dictated the outcome of the tribal council.

He is also a likeable person and has also made strong bonds with other contestants. As I have said, Samatau has a numbers advantage in the jury. His chance also suffered when Tessa was eliminated from the jury by Jericho - which should have been a sure vote for him.

I also don't think he will be able to beat Jericho in an endurance challenge. I do not see him winning the immunity tonight. But will he reach the final two? Yes, I think it will be the best interest of both Jericho and Tara to bring Peter into the final two because they can both beat Peter.

If he wins immunity tonight, I think he will have a better chance against Tara since she flipped a lot and that might be her downfall.

TARA

Tara also had a good game considering that she should have been voted out by Samatau in episode 8 where the first tribal swap happened. She found her niche in the Asaga Tribe. She constantly worked her way up the ladder and was the swing vote in several occasions.

Knowing her performance from previous challenge, I would not bet on her winning the endurance challenge for the final immunity. It would be wise for her just to outlast one of the boys and make a deal to give the immunity but make her safe.

She is also in a disadvantage in some of the jury members. I would definitely think Jarrad, Anneliese and Ziggy would probably not vote for her to win. Her social game is definitely has not been at par with Jericho's and will definitely play a lot in the final tribal council.

Next, let us see how I think the jury will vote based on their alliances, voting history and relationships with the remaining castaways:

Jarrad will vote for Peter if he stays. If not he will vote for Jericho.
Annelise will vote for Jericho if he stays, If not she will vote for Peter.
Henry will vote for Jericho if he stays, If not he will vote for Tara.
Sarah will vote for Jericho if he stays, If not she will vote for Tara.
Luke will vote for Jericho if he stays, If not he will vote for Tara.
Ziggy will vote for Peter if he stays, If not she will vote for Jericho.
Locky will vote for Tara if she stays, If not he will vote for Jericho.
Michelle will vote for Jericho if he stays, If not she will vote for Peter.

With that said, I think JERICHO will win this season.

But as we know, there will be a lot of surprises come the final tribal council. I am so excited to watch it tonight!

my thoughts on amazing race philippines pilot episode

being a big amazing race fan for years, i was really excited for today... the premiere of our very own version of the amazing race: the amazing race philippines.

i have watched the US version since season 5 in 2004 (when it was first aired in the philippines by studio 23 because the philippines was one of the destination - just before the finale) and it is already airing season 21 right now and i have not missed a single episode since. not only that, i have also watched all episodes of the 4 seasons of amazing race asia. with that, i am really farmiliar and a big fan of the show.

the show started with all 11 teams being transported via helicopters to the starting line of the race (though it was not shown that the helicopters landed on that exact spot); the historic paco park. the season boasts of a mix of very interesting contestants. knowing filipino reality shows, it was to no surprise that there are celebrities in the cast. there are football players, a popular actress, a noontime show dancer and beauty queens. but despite these, the teams were quite interesting.

the show is hosted by derek ramsay and the winners' price amounts to PhP2 million, which is small compared to the USD 1 million (even up to USD 2 million in season 21) for its US counterpart and even half of the guaranteed price of the asian version.

the show started very well, the ambiance and the shots is really like the US version. i was really amazed on how accurately tv5 edited the clips and make it look like the original amazing race. but my excitement died down a bit when i heard the first clue being read.

the first clue told the racers to head down to the manila yacht club, where they need to find the dock. there, they need to find the marked yacht and decode the nautical phrase from the series of flags that hangs on the yacht. unknown to the racers, there are cheat sheets scattered on several locations in the place, where they can see the equivalent letters of each flag.

when i heard the challenge, i immediately thought that this challenge has been done previously in the US version, they just modified it a bit. and i immediately remembered that this was the roadblock where the cowboys (jet and cord) had difficulty finishing. so, i went through several internet sites (thanks wiki!) and found the similar challenge. it is the first roadblock in australia in the pilot episode of the amazing race season 18: unfinished business.

here is the challenge description from wikipedia ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Amazing_Race_18 ) :

In the Race's first Roadblock, one team member had to scuba dive in the Oceanworld shark and ray tank and search the tank for a compass. The compass included a guide to decode a message hidden in series of nautical flags outside. The correctly decoded message instructed teams to go to the Manly 16 ft Skiff Sailing Club, find the Commodore, and tell him the password "I am Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea" to receive their next clue.

they just modified it but the challenge of decoding the message from the nautical flags is the same. you can also watch the video of the episode here (hope the video survives - i just found it in youtube - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZZa09Q1np0 )

refer to this part for the challenge explanation: 18:00 - 18:50.

this has been one of the pitfalls of localized versions of reality shows, recycling challenges from the US version of the show. this means lack of creativity and it sometimes turns off several fans of the show. this is also the case with survivor philippines, almost all their challenges in their pilot season were recycled challenges from the US version of survivor. i really hope they make more unique challenges in the next episodes.

the episode was finished even without anyone completing or even starting decoding the nautical message. this is what i hate when you covert a supposed to be one episode a week to an episode a day show. the suspense is killing the fans and it is really bitin. my definition of an amazing race episode  is an episode with at least a roadblock and a detour, and i think this will not happen in amazing race philippines. this is the same adjustment i had to make for survivor philippines.

and not only that, when they showed the next challenge, i immediately recognized it again - another recycled challenge! based on what i saw, the casino challenge is the chance choice in the detour of amazing race asia season 3 episode 7. here is another challenge explanation from wikepedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazing_Race_Asia_3 )

In this leg's Detour, the choice was between Dance or Chance. In Dance, the team members must correctly perform a lion dance routine to the satisfaction of the performance troupe. In Chance, teams must don formal attire and play a game of blackjack in the casino of Hotel Royal Macau; they must beat the dealer nine times (as denoted by the letters of the word COMPLETED) before receiving their next clue.

convinced?