One in a Series

Beyonce's a Survivor

The girl's a class act, but a guy who isn't is Richard Hatch.

Honestly, I know why they picked who they did from the Borneo (I) cast, but the Sue and Jenna thing was over by the time the first season reunion special occurred. There's a good possibility that the oppurtunity for tension may never even arise (and there's no guarantee it will even then). I guess they selected the four fiercest players from season 1, but I would have rather seen Gervase or Colleen come back for a showing. You don't have to be in constant competition to win Survivor (Tina from Australia is good enough evidence of this), so why not bring back a few more interesting/fun characters?

Anyway, the downfall of many would-be contenders is that they get to playing "the game" too early. In its early stages, Survivor is about surviving; your group needs to stay as united as is possible in order to lay the groundwork for a strong post-merger showing. If you make too many enemies too early, if you let your tribe get picked off in immunity challenges, you're not going to last. You have no immunity protection from your own tribe nor can you make actual strategic or trust alliances based on immunity. In these first stages it is about tribal unity, not individual strength.

Richard, having been gone for half a dozen seasons, is way too anxious to play. He is playing as if he were only 5 people away from getting another million dollars already, pretending to hold all the secrets and promising to muckrake. He'll have to be on his toes if his actions cause his group to shatter. Even if he's around just to have fun screwing people over, he's not going to be doing it for long. Pride is his hubris, and he appears to be blinded by it right now.

I'm rooting for any member of the Africa cast, although I wouldn't mind if Colby got his dues for losing so graciously to Tina in the Outback.