After an episode airs, I always read Dalton Ross' Survivor recaps at www.ew.com Apparently he goes to the locations before filming starts and interviews players, Probst etc. So he seems to know what he's talking about. Here is his comment on the day zero thing:
I’ve been calling this the most twist-heavy season in Survivor history, and it begins with one right off the bat: Day Zero. As Probst told me, Day Zero was an idea instituted by Mark Burnett because Probst wanted to vote people off their tribe at the very start and Burnett thought it was too mean so came up with the plan to at least allow them to spend a night together with a loved one — alone.
Seems kind of silly but I guess it ate up some air time.
The recaps are interesting and usually have some info on a player or background of a challenge etc. No spoilers unless you venture to the comments which I never do, for that reason. One thing that I thought was kind of ironic in the first recap was Dalton said that in her pre game interview Candace mentioned that she detests Rupert! And then she ends up at RI with him. No wonder she was ticked off at him there. Also, she and John were very last minute replacement players for RC and her father. The father had too high of blood pressure readings at a physical so the medical staff would not let them stay.
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