He’s received more money from the show than 90% of contestants.
2 3rd place finishes. I think 3rd place gets 85,000. Probably more for returnee seasons. He’s received at least 170,000 from the show. That’s more than most.
Not too shabby honestly.
Key word is “hindsight.” You are given the grace of knowing how they played on 50 to make this decision.
My ask is that you only replace people with those who were cut from the casting pool.
If I’m being completely honest, only 2 players dropped the ball this season. Everyone else played in accordance with their character, or surpassed their previous reputation.
Those two players for me are Chrissy and Angelina. Mainly Angelina.
I never thought Chrissy was an interesting choice in the first place. Thought she was “overhyped” by the fact that many thought she should have won due to the last minute fire-making twist on her season (even though Ben ran that season front to back). She was still interesting, but the outcry for her return never matched how impressive she actually was in my eyes. Still, I expected more than for her to be a non-factor.
Angelina really, REALLY disappointed me. Angelina had a schtick, then decided “I’m a better person so I’m going to be mature now and drop everything that made me famous.” That’s fine to mature, but you could at least act it up a little because you are on a reality show. She was basically just playing dead the entire time. I don’t even know why she was cast. If she told producers that she was going to take everything that made her fun in her first season and erase all of it, why would she be cast? I thought the producers asked these players something along the lines of “how are you going to play this time around?”
The last one I’ll mention is Tiffany. I never thought she should’ve been cast for a season of this scale. However, she doesn’t match the criteria for this post. She hasn’t dropped the ball. In fact, she’s impressed me.
So first, I’m replacing Angelina. 3 people from season 47 seemed top heavy anyways, and Angelina was doomed to be uninteresting on this season from the start. Her replacement is the very obvious choice of Jerri Manthey.
I’d cut Chrissy too. Not 100% confident who I’d replace her with. I guess seasons 20-30 have no representatives, so I’d replace her with Abi-Maria or Kass.
What would you consider to be the top 10 new era casting finds?
I can only think of 8 that I would definitely put on the list, and all but one are there because of season 50:
Emily - Hilarious, strategic, but also terrible at keeping a secret.
Q - Literally everything about him.
Genevieve - One of the nicest people ever with a cunning side that rivals players who have played multiple times.
Rizo - Outgoing and great at the game. Over the top.
Jonathan - Muscles.
Dee - Incredible player.
Joe - You may be surprised by this but I think Joe is awesome. In season 48 he was beloved for being likable and down-to-earth. In season 50 he is pretty disliked for being unwilling to adapt despite being around better players. His insistence on playing the same game despite losing with said game in a previous season is genuinely hilarious.
Carolyn - Her being authentically herself all the time is why many love her.
Other potential picks:
Shan - The evil pastor. Very strategic player. Her convincing JD to give her his advantage, and then voting him out was insane.
Omar - Incredibly strategic.
Jesse - Who many thought should have won. Great backstory.
Cody - Funny and lovable surfer dude.
Kaleb - Incredibly outgoing. Gone too soon.
Jake - Had many hilarious moments and it was fun watching him fail upwards.
Bhanu - Him yelling at God will never not make me laugh.
Liz - Applebee’s.
Andy - Great character arc.
Kamilla - I’m not a big fan but I know I’ll get hate if I don’t mention her.
Savannah - Just an all around great player who is very competitive.