Survivor: Winner/gameplay analysis ft. Kos

A week after the finale of Survivor: One World, debate continues on the topic of Kim's game: is she one of the most dominant players of all time, earning a place in the pantheon of all-time greats, or is the fan community blinded by her recency and other bias, ignoring the role played by luck and the weakness of her competition? Is her game representative of her skillset as a player? And just how does she compare to previous winners? To answer these questions we are joined once again by Kos Kosdrosky for a marathon-length, in-depth podcast about Survivor strategy. We go back through all previous winners, analyzing their games on their own merits and showing how they stack up against Kim's, before discussing some of our favourite non-winners and touching on some more abstract points about general Survivor strategy. If this sounds like your sort of thing, you can listen here or on iTunes here.

We have tentative commitments from a few more former Survivors for retrospective podcasts over the next month or two; as that becomes concrete we'll give you more info. Until then, you can stay updated by subscribing on iTunes using the link above. Enjoy!

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Blog/iTunes technical problems

Some listeners reported having issues with the links on the blog posts not working. The problem seems to be to do with the file-hosting site we use, so we've emailed them to see if they can fix it; if not, we'll find an alternative as soon as possible. As far as we're aware, if you're subscribed to us in iTunes you should still get accessible versions of the episodes there.  UPDATE: FIXED!

We just finished recording a podcast with friend of the show Kos, so if the above problems are resolved then we should be able to get that to you later this week. We have no definite plan for the next few weeks yet, but we'll let you know when that changes. Until then, sorry once again for the technical problems, and we'll see you again soon!

Survivor 24: season review with Gary Wise

Another year of Survivor ended on Sunday night when, to the surprise of nobody, Kim Spradlin was crowned the winner of Survivor: One World. ESPN's Gary Wise joins us to break down the season, revisiting the judgements he made when he was on the podcast after the premiere and giving his thoughts on everything that happened since then. He tells us how he rates both Kim and this season against their respective predecessors and gives his first impressions of the S25 format based on the reunion announcements (WARNING: don't listen to the end if you don't want to know who the returnees are!).

This isn't the end of our Survivor content this season; later this week Kos returns to the show as we put Kim's win in a historical perspective, going over her game in detail and using it as a platform for in-depth discussion of both general gameplay and specific players we admire. Until then, this podcast with Gary can be found here or on iTunes here, and you can stay updated by subscribing on iTunes using that link or following us on Twitter using the icons on the blog page. Follow @colinstone Follow @MC_Usher

Survivor 24: Finale preview ft. Albert Destrade

In less than 72 hours, the winner of Survivor: One World will be crowned, and today Albert Destrade returns to the podcast to preview the finale. He gives us his thoughts on the season so far, from the dynamics on the original gender-split tribes through the fall of Colton and the merge to the rapidly approaching endgame. He contrasts this season to his own, notably assessing how Sophie compares to Kim, and makes his predictions for Sunday. This week's show, featuring all this and more, can be found here or on iTunes here.

Survivor 24: Cruel Beans

It's finale week, and in our excitement we can't think of a well-structured blurb for the blog, so here you go. Certain 'technical difficulties' meant that we couldn't record a recap last week, so today's podcast covers the last two Survivor episodes and looks ahead to the finale. Be sure to look out for the finale preview show on Thursday, in which we will be rejoined by Survivor: South Pacific's Albert Destrade. As for this week's recap, you can find it here or on iTunes here. Enjoy!

TAR, Celebrity Apprentice, & Flipped Off with Matt Rodrigues

In our first episode of non-Survivor content in far too long, we're joined by Matt Rodrigues to forecast the finale of The Amazing Race, discuss how we see the endgame playing out on The Celebrity Apprentice, and break down the pilot of Russell Hantz's new show, Flipped Off.  (Spoiler alert regarding that last bit: it's going to be the greatest house-flipping show of all tiiiiiime.)

You can stream the episode here or on iTunes here.

For those of you who don't watch all of these shows, here's a guide of where our discussion about each particular series begins within the episode (note: very thoughtful of us).

The Amazing Race-- starts 00:00

The Celebrity Apprentice-- starts 56:45

Flipped Off-- starts 141:30

The weekly Survivor recap will be up later today, and Albert Destrade joins us again next week for our Survivor finale preview show. After that, we'll have the season review episode, and we'll bring you podcasts about a range of subjects with a variety of guests over the summer. Until then, stay updated by subscribing on iTunes using the link above or following us on Twitter.

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Podcast update

Due to scheduling problems in England and internet problems in Maine, we won't be able to get this week's Survivor recap up before the new episode tonight; our apologies for that. We'll talk about that episode in shorter length in next week's recap.

If this week has been slow, next week will be just as busy, so stay tuned for lots of content as we approach the Survivor finale as well as the end of TAR and Celebrity Apprentice.