[quote name=\'starcade\' date=\'May 11 2004, 07:32 PM\'] 1) This is SO manipulated that Rupert get a million for himself that it's not even funny. He's been the most popular Survivor and essentially took two consecutive series out from his wife (discussed on the first reunion special last Sunday) to do this... [/quote]
I completely agree with you that Rupert is going to win the "home viewer" million, and that everybody who has more than a passing interest in the series thinks so too. (Well, maybe a couple of really deluded castaways think they have a shot.)
Still, dude, the public is voting and the one with the most votes wins. How is that
manipulated? And how do you know that this bonus prize wasn't planned all along from the beginning of the season, long before any viewer favorites had been established? You don't. You've got a hunch, an instinct, a gut feeling about these things based on rumors you've read. The FCC won't have any interest in that.
2) I sense this is a response to a fairly open collusion on the part of Amber and Boston Rob, which would be in violation of the (VERY few) rules of the game... They were openly referring to "their money" and "their future" on the 2nd to last show last Thursday...
Um...OK, I'll give you this one. Even before the proposal (and since the votes hadn't been read, the game was technically not over in my mind) I wondered about the whole collusion issue, and what (if anything) Burnett would do to enforce it. I even entertained in my mind for a moment that the "shocker" CBS promised would be to disqualify them both from getting any money. Hey, THAT would have gotten some attention!
Still, I'm a little unclear on how easy it would EVER be for Burnett to stop collusion from happening. What stops a duo -- ANY duo -- from coming up with a pact that says a year from now, after all the attention has died down and no one's paying any attention to us anymore, we split whatever we make? Just another example of how sixties-era scandal-based rules and regulations for traditional game shows just don't matter to this new breed.