Survivor 48 First Impressions and Predictions

We're so back baby. My opinion of new era Survivor has never been higher. There's no reason to think we don't have another banger in store. I'm hoping for a messy messy cast. Survivor 47 was all gameplay, let's change the pace a little bit. From what I've seen, I think we got that in store for us.

Zero Chancers

Kamila has all the makings of a messy queen. In her interviews she’s basically admitting she can’t win. It’s pretty hilarious, I just can’t see Kamila fitting in. Honestly, I’m assuming a lot about her here, but everything she has chosen to show us is very messy but very self-aware. I’m putting Eva in the same category, I don’t think her social game will be strong enough. New era Survivor just hinges on relationships too much.

I’m excited to watch David play, because apparently he’s not even a Survivor fan. We get a lot of people on the cast that can recite every winner's middle name in chronological order. David will not be this. He will be terrible. And it will be great TV.

Long Shots

This is always the hardest category to write about because I’m basically guessing for these ones. Generally, I think someone’s a longshot because they don’t blow me away in their interviews. I’d say this holds true for Cedrek, Mitch, Chrissy and Justin.

Star is probably going to be too much. Her personality is quite… distinctive. I don’t want to discount her entirely, Star could win. There’s no reason she couldn’t just based on her personality. But I also don’t know if I saw much underneath the surface of that.

Dark Horses

The golden rule in Survivor is that the most obvious winner never wins. Kevin and Bianca fall into this subsection for me. There’s no reason to think they’ll do poorly. No reason to think they’ll wipe the floor with anyone either. I fear if either wins, it’ll be boring.

The opposite scenario is Stephanie and Shauhin. I adore both. These guys are loud and obvious game players. If they do well in the game, the path they carve will be exquisite. The risk of them getting sniped is also stupidly high. It would be foolish to predict either of them, but I would love to see it.

Winner Picks

Joe is the most charismatic castaway on Survivor 48. Fuck that guy is cool. People will be breaking their backs to be in an alliance with Joe. This guy is going DEEP. Can he clutch the endgame? It’ll be hard but it’s not too much to ask.

Kyle was the biggest surprise to me. I thought he was kind of boring at first, but I understand the appeal now. He has a calm charisma that’s very endearing. I think his social game will be great, but he won’t be at Shauhin levels of obvious target. I think Kyle can slip through the cracks and really lock in a solid alliance.

I’ve made a lot of prediction posts, and I might just be repeating myself every time. That being said, my stances haven’t changed. Survivor is a social game. And I think Thomas will play the best social game out of anyone on this cast. He is incredibly charming, but similar to Kyle, it’s really not overt or exhausting. Thomas has the perfect bubbly and likeable personality that all Survivor winners have. My fear is he’ll overplay and get branded as schemey, but I just love his social chops too much.

Contenders:

1. Thomas
2. Kyle
3. Joe

Dark Horses:

4. Stephanie
5. Shauhin
6. Kevin
7. Mary
8. Bianca

Long Shots:

9. Cedrek
10. Charity
11. Chrissy
12. Star
13. Mitch
14. Justin

Zero Chance:

15. Sai
16. Kamila
17. David
18. Eva