The first thing I said about Chris Daugherty, after episode #1 was that he made a great move by surviving a vote where he had blown the immunity challenge. Turns out he made a few more good ones. When it hit the final 7 and he was the last man standing, he got with Twila and Scout, axing female powers Leann and Ami. After that it got tough for him because he had formed a friendship with Julie, his informant with the women, and made a promise to Eliza that he would take her to the finals. He lied to both and voted them off the way a good Survivor would. Then he got both of their votes.

Those were really the only ones he needed because Chad and Sarge weren't going to vote for Twila and spoil any chance a man had to win. He broke up a 3 game streak by the women after Amber won All-Stars, Sandra won Panama and Jenna won The Amazon. I don't think it proved that a women's alliance couldn't work, it only proved it was unable to produce an all-female final six.

Finally Burnett has gotten creative, calling for 20 castaways. If I'm in charge, immediately everyone would draw buffs and land at 4 different camps with 5 survivors each. After two challenges, if one tribe lost the remaining three would be forced to join the other three tribes. If there was a split, the tribes who had not lost yet would be given the choice of which tribe to disband, with the members being sent to the other three tribes, either way leaving 3 tribes of 6.

Two more challenges and the same rule applies. If one tribe loses both, those 4 members are split in half and join the other tribes. If two tribes lose, the tribe that didn't lose gets to choose which tribe is disbanded. After a lot of shuffling, you'd be left with a traditional survivor of two tribes with 8 members and could proceed in the usual way ... and now for how Chris survived.

They arrived in the usual way, by boat, only this time it was 18 of them. For the second time the tribes were separate by sex, although I have heard season 9 marks a return to "old school" Survivor. If that means early back stabbing, they were dead on.

Chris Daugherty couldn't beat an old lady across a balance beam, even when both of them were crawling. So he did what most good Survivors do, he connived the older guys into thinking they couldn't beat the young ones unless they took them out early. Great move.

Only one of the 30+ group did vote for Brook's eviction, that being FBI agent Brady Finta who turned on annoying Rory Freeman, but it mattered little in a 5-3-1 vote.

We can expect more twists and turns this season because with 2 extra members but the competition still taking place over 39 days there will surely be some surprise tribal councils and perhaps even a (this would be my idea) competition where you play for a "double" knockout of the other tribe with back to back votes. Now that would be interesting. Are you listening Burnett?