Surviving Barstool: Preview
It seems like a lifetime has past since the last time we saw our favorite social experiment game show close its doors on a 40th season back in May 2020. The coronavirus pandemic was in full effect. Sports were on hiatus and Survivor was there to fill the void. Even if Jeff Probst’s offer to 16 year olds to audition for season 41 seemed strange.
Fast forward to now. Nearing the 1 year anniversary of the “Rudy Gobbert” game that began the pandemic, sports are back, but the future of Survivor is still very much in jeopardy. Survivor has seen people deep dive into binge watching previous seasons, expanding their streaming presence, and constant chatter of what is next for the CBS flagship game show.
Paramount+
Will there be a 41st season? Will we hear Jeff Probst ever tell castaways that immunity is “back up for grabs”? Will the only new Survivor content be the show finding new streaming platforms and Probst leading the charge up the Paramount+ mountain? These are all pressing questions backed by an uncertain Survivor future.
Until now!
The Survivor fans have no need to worry about the future of the show, (well maybe they still do) because thanks to the great people of Barstool Sports and New Amsterdam Vodka, we have our answers and savior, Surviving Barstool!
Survivor fans are always flooding reddit boards, favorite castaways social media comments, and online fan communities (like this one) about new ideas for Survivor. People love to throw out ideas of different themes for seasons like Survivor: Fire Tokens after their introduction in season 40, Survivor: Runner Ups to see their favorite castaways who got to Final Tribal Council but didn’t get the votes, or even Survivor in cold weather.
Nobody talked about an abbreviated season inside an office building, but hey, I’ll take it!
Surviving Barstool seems to me like a combination of 1, the power of Barstool Sports, 2, the creativity of Barstool Sports, 3, Tommy “Tommy Smokes” Scibelli’s (Survivor Fan Boy) wet dream come to life, and an “XFL” type version of Survivor that many, like myself, would be happy to tune in for. Trading in the beautiful landscapes and sights of the Mamanuca Islands of Fiji for some shameless New Amsterdam Vodka promotion and the unkempt offices of Barstool Sports is definitely worth a watch.
WHAT TO EXPECT?
My mind goes a lot of places but here are a couple of expectations for Surviving Barstool.
1 - BUY IN
No matter how much Surviving Barstool is not Survivor, I still very much expect the 8 bloggers to be completely bought into the idea of competing for the $10,000. The show would never have come to actually happened if something went so haywire and ruined it or if the structure sucked. Plus, I know that the people involved are all trying to have fun and generate traffic on the website and various platforms that Surviving Barstool will be promoted and viewed on. In the end, this will be taken seriously.
2 - R RATED LANGUAGE
Barstool doesn’t have the same rules that CBS does. That’s part of what makes Barstool, Barstool and what makes this more enticing. Expect F bombs on the regular. Haven’t you watched Survivor and said to yourself “How come nobody curses?” Now, we will get to see that. Now, we will see it.
3 - ALCOHOL
Surviving Barstool has a title sponsor of New Amsterdam Vodka. There will be drinking. There will be drinking challenges. There will be a “frat house” feel to it and that involves alcohol. Again, haven’t you watched Survivor and said to yourself “What would happen if alcohol was involved?”. We kind of have our answer from MTV’s The Challenge, so maybe we will see something between the two, minus the millions in the budget. Nonetheless, expect alcohol to be involved.
4 - QUALITY CONTENT
Barstool is great at branding their content or gimmicks and making them bigger than they are. I expect great content and all aspects of Survivor to be in play. Twists, surprises, confessionals, buffs, advantages, challenges, tribal council, and everything in between. Again, Barstool has the means to make something like this happen and to make it really good.
5 - RANDOM CAMEOS AND POP INS
I think I’ve seen enough videos at the Barstool offices to know that at anytime random people who either work there, celebrities, or whoever can and will be dragged into what people are doing are dragged in. I’m sure that people around the office will play a role in the competition at some level. Plus, Barstool has power and influence to get people in the reality tv world to be involved, if they wanted to.
6 - SEASON 2
May be getting ahead of myself here but I think this will work. I do. I have such confidence in Barstool and their ability to move the needle and create content that engages people and especially a fan base like Survivor’s. I expect there to be a great season 1 and then in turn will lead to season 2.
7 - TOMMY SMOKES LOSES
I know that he is the one spear heading this whole thing. I applaud him. I know he is a big fan and likely took this idea to Portnoy or KFC or whoever. Having said all that, I got to believe that the other 7 bloggers will know his fandom and eventually vote him out or in the end not give him the votes to win. Assuming that the structure of the game mirrors Survivor.
LET’S MEET THE BLOGGERS
Barstool Sports
BRIANNA CHICKENFRY - Tik Tok Star
“I want to take this opportunity for people to get to know me and see I’m not some stupid drunk bitch”
DAVE WILLIAMS - White Sox Beat Reporter
“$10,000 is $10,000, everybody can use an extra $10,000”
DONNIE - Travel Expert
“It’s easy to survive a week in the office. It’s not easy to survive living amongst conniving people that don’t want you to win.”
TRYSTA KRICK - Investigative Journalist
“I’m hyper competitive so money plus competition, ‘Why the f@#! not?”
ZAH CHIMEDZA - International Icon
“I gave 49 NOs and on the 50th one I broke and said f@#! it”!
KELLY KEEGS - Hopeless Romantic
“Normally I would never say yes to something like this.”
NICK TURANI - Storyteller
“My strategy is to make people too guilty to vote me off”
TOMMY SCIBELLI - Reality TV Enthusiast
“This is my dream. My dream since I’m 4 years old is to win a show like this. I’m gunna make sure I make that happen.”
Overall, like I said earlier, Tommy is the one who will be the most bought in, trying to win because he loves Survivor, and will probably be the most skilled. That makes him the favorite. But, even though he will think of himself as King Tony, he will also put a target on himself. The question becomes how much will the rest of the bloggers buy in as well and will they navigate the game to get to the end and win the $10,000.
Pre-Season Rankings
1 - Tommy - Survivor Fan Boy
2 - Trysta - competitive, feisty
3 - Donnie - good outlook/mindset coming in
4 - Kelly - fun, likeable, but definitely a quiet feistiness
5 - Nick - seems likeable
6 - Brianna - will lay low and stick around
7 - Dave - too money driven
8 - Zah - doesn’t even want to be there
8 bloggers, 7 nights, 1 Surblogger!
The blog has spoken!
