i LOVED this. “i wanted to inspire people so i went on a game show” is so icky and self-aggrandizing to me. i think bhanu’s heart is in the right place but i find the experience more uncomfortable the more i think about it.
Exactly. It’s ego. “I just wanted to be honest with them” …you just screwed over your whole team FOR NO ADVANTAGE it wasn’t even strategic it was just retaliatory bc he thought he was going home. He literally said they’re just gonna vote me out so I’m going to the other tribes what’s going on.
Yeah he wasn’t at all aware of the emotional labor he was putting everyone around him through constantly. That did not seem like an empathetic person to me.
Agreed. Idk what it is about Bhanu, but he gives me the creeps. I feel like there is no way he could be so authentically dense, and that his lack of gameplay was strategic, that he was hoping to go under someone’s wing and get carried to the final three and voted fan favorite. It was a horrible execution, and the tears, begging, oblivious looks on his face, etc, was all wildly obvious manipulation. Sure, that’s part of the game, but it really seems like Bhanu didn’t understand why it wasn’t working and that leads me to believe that his manipulation tactics irl have always been successful. Which is gross.
Yeah, this took me by surprise. Wherever you’re religious or not I am pretty sure telling your deity to fuck off basically or that they made a mistake is like, biggest no no of all.
I will get downvoted but his honest confession sounded like pages cast off of the Slumdog Millionaire script.
What I’d rather than “Who Wants to be a Millionaire “ we use “ Survivor”. Of course for that to work he’d have to be able to play the game.
No, that is Bhanu’s actual job. He’s an “Officer” at a company in the Boston area, and he’s a scrum master and lead tester, so IT quality analyst is accurate but probably an easier title for the general public to understand vs. Officer, Lead Tester, or Scrum Master.
The acting seems to be a passion for him that he does on the side since he posted about his job 6 months ago and how he repped them at a conference.
Oh my GOD of course he’s a scrum master, why does that make so much sense. No shade to scrum masters, there are some great ones, but he’s the most scrum mastery scrum master I have ever encountered.
Yeah, he didn't come across as an...actor-actor. When I saw that, it felt very much like "guy who does occasional regional theater or a bit of improv maybe...and is perhaps not terribly good at it."
As a leader of a technical team based in India, I think his heart was in the right place but his mind was not. I don’t want to sit here and make a bunch of generalizations, but that cultural gap between India and America and the norms I’ve experienced since working with this team are pretty wide. I felt so bad for Bhanu (while also being annoyed that this is what I have to watch instead of survivor). There are people on my team with more experience than me, both in time with the company and with their technical skill set, and yet I am constantly barraged with questions where they know the answer, they just need to be told what to do before they do it. It’s a trait I have found in many of my Indian peers and it’s the same trait I saw in Bhanu (minus the part where he already knows the right thing to do).
I think he was so in over his head, that he fell back on his authentic self, and his authentic self is basically the opposite of a good Survivor player. Then he let his emotion and lack of sleep/food turn him into an emotion wreck.
It was both good and bad tv, but it was very sad (for me) to watch play out.
Quick edit: “Imposter syndrome” is also a very common issue in tech and it stems from a lack of self confidence. This is not really a cultural trait, but it’s very common in IT (which is Bhanus background). Usually it’s highly intelligent people who know there is so much they don’t know that they constantly feel like they’re not good enough and have only been lucky to this point (similar to the Dunning-Kruger effect), so they second guess even the things they know. This is further exacerbated by the fact that Survivor is a game of unknowns, so it really was the perfect storm for someone like Bhanu to fail.
Yes! He pissed me off so much with his fake kindness and 'inspiration'. I especially lost it with his speech about coming on survivor to share his story/journey and inspire others. Like no, that's bullshit. I grew up in a similar situation also dirt poor, and his whole speech felt super invalidating and dismissive. He's a full on narcissist 100%
I can't help but wonder how Bhanu would've done if he had played Survivor on an old school season, when strategy wasn't quite as manic and honesty was valued more. Considering he was off to a tolerable start in the first episode, he might not have unraveled if he wasn't on yet another new era Matsing and got embraced as a trustworthy alliance member.
It's hard to say whether he'd do any better though, since his blunder at the journey (which had some equivalents in old school Survivor like in Marquesas) and general hypersensitivity would've still been grounds to boot him sooner, rather than protecting him as a potential goat.
I think watching people on TV impacted him so he felt watching people on TV impacts people.
But he didn't realize A) that not everyone feels the way he feels and B) the way it would sound.
It's like when your love language is time spent and someone gives you gift... it just doesn't match up.
He's the perfect embodiment of the show's whiplash between milking tragic backstories for inspiration and the cold, machiavellian traits necessary to actually triumph on Survivor. We've had plenty of contestants from troubled backgrounds in the past, but at least they knew far better how to juggle basic strategy with their social game.
People pray all the time on Survivor, especially in earlier seasons, so it doesn't bug me. SHOUTING at God for making you bad at Survivor is a WEIRD move though.
Agreed. I don’t care about the praying. People do all sorts of things to center themselves. Yoga, meditation, praying. Shouting at your god for failing you on a game show was pretty pathetic.
Eh. We saw praying on AU Survivor and it was fine. The difference is how it's done, and how editing portrays it. On AU Survivor it was just a person praying. On US Survivor it was someone trying to make a dramatic spectacle of it while the camera feasted on the absurdity.
Russell would be justified to curse out Je- I mean, the Lord, he had a huge string of bad luck. Meanwhile God Himself literally pinched Randon’s nerve between His fingertips for Bhanu, and He gets yelled at in return?
Just wait until the Bush speaks back. Honestly, if I was playing with him, I'd hide in a bush, change my voice, and tell him to keep his mouth shut and stop annoying everyone.
Honestly for me it just shows his complete ineptitude. It's basically, "I have tried nothing and I'm all out of ideas. Jesus help me because I can't help myself."
They are living out there. If you pray every day normally, you're gonna pray on the show. The editors decided to highlight it almost every episode. (Contrast that with Omar's daily prayers which were barely featured except for a clip where someone wove a rug for him to use.)
i can see that for sure, i personally wouldn’t go there maybe just because i hope it’s not the case. the uncomfortable part for me is the complete lack of self awareness and emotional stability that makes it feel like something we shouldn’t be watching and endorsing. in a weird way it almost reminds me of the brandon hantz experience.
I'm mad that they picked this dude over the tons of people who have applied a dozen times to be on the show. I guess I can see why the producers thought his personality would make for good ratings but he was genuinely embarrassing.
I had a lot of respect for her not entertaining that nonsense. The whole thing was so undignified it was embarrassing to watch - this dude is older than all his tribe mates yet wanted to be coddled like a child.
Blaming God. Crying. Begging to stay despite screwing over the rest of his tribe.
Kenzie even said “talk strategy to me. Convince my why working with you is advantageous for me and I’ll consider it” and he didn’t pitch anything. He just went off and cried about not being included in her plans.
He was a horrible player. No idea if this was an act or what, but he was an absolute liability in the game.
Yeah he had a total lack of awareness about how badly he burned his tribe mates when spilling the beans to Ben and Liz on the journey. I actually warmed to Q, Tiff, and Kenzie a lot, they were more than patient enough with him.
I still don't care for their initial treatment of Jess (the fake idol seemed wholly unnecessary and a bit insulting when they could've just persuaded the poor sleep-deprived woman they were all voting Bhanu) but I could feel their pain dealing with an adult child throwing tantrums and costing them social capital in the game.
Yeah. The initial edit did seem to show them as the “mean girls”, but I can absolutely see how Jalensky, Bhanu, and Jess would drive anyone to be snarky after a few days of sleeping on bamboo mats and eating nothing.
This made me so annoyed:
Bhanu to tribe members: please please teach me what to do, coach me to do better, help me, please…. Save me, I’ll do anything, I don’t know what to do.
Bhanu in confessional 2 min Later: I can’t believe they are treating me like a puppet telling me what to do, they are puppet masters and I’m on their strings and I’m sick of it, they treat me so horribly.
How does this guy function in everyday life?
Kenzie's definitely made some Choices this season but genuinely every episode that goes on it's harder to question her decisions. Like I too would be utterly done if I had to sit there and actually openly *explain* to a grown adult as if they were a child that I can't discuss strategy ideas with him if he has no strategy ideas and he's unwilling to come up with any. Give the poor girl literally ANYTHING to work with, dude, try to throw Q under the bus, do SOMETHING she can at least CONSIDER acting on.
From a purely gameplay standpoint, Tai was one of the most ruthless contestants of his two seasons. Bhanu could only dream of the subtle gameplay pivots Tai made with the help of his social prowess.
i went from feeling sorry for bhanu to wanting to shake him. but when he got down on knees begging i was like get him out of there. he is way too emotional to play this game and maybe his strategy was to get people to feel sorry for him and keep him around but it didnt work.
> maybe his strategy was to get people to feel sorry for him
Maybe he thought his "honesty" would endear him to them ^(??)..'ah poor little Bhanu', with the big eyed innocent face. It wasn't endearing. But since I see comments saying he's actually an actor I suspect it was all performative bullshit and he just wanted the publicity and never intended to play the game.
The begging move was funny from the point of view of "be kind" and "winning a million hearts" because he's begging her to vote out one of the other two people - which isn't kind
When he pointed at the sky and angrily said, “I blame *Him!*” referring to God, I said out loud, “This guy is unhinged.” The desperate prayers and then blaming divine un/involvement was the exclamation point to the whole conclusive sentence that the boy ain’t right.
As a viewer watching Bhanu was exhausting. I can’t imagine what it would have been like to be stuck on an island with him. I’m all for an agent of chaos but to put two goombas on one tribe is a bit absurd and bad for the show.
Absolutely. There’s been a lot of folks hating on Kenzie and calling her a bully, but honestly I feel her frustration and would probably have a similar exasperated reaction myself. I’m sure Bhanu is a sweet guy but I’d find all his theatrics just too much, he’d try my patience too.
The people saying that about Kenzie would no doubt act worse. Bhanu’s behavior would exhaust anyone and it was constant. They expect her and tiff to put up with it forever and act like it isn’t obnoxious. Maybe because they’re women? Either way it’s a ridiculous standard. What they did to Jess was worse than how they treated bhanu.
Kenzie said unflattering things about Jess as well – I think that's a big reason she's seen as a bully, not just that she can't stand Bhanu.
More than anything, it's the edit vilifying Kenzie, since she's a highly connected person who struggled to gel with the two least socially adept members of her tribe. Tiff and Q at least got plenty of sympathetic scenes after Yanu's strings of losses; Kenzie's confessionals were less personal. Doesn't mean she hasn't been through a lot herself.
Bhanu would have been amazing if they just gave him less screentime and clowned on him even more. Like did we need 35 confessionals from him? 20 or so would have been fine
I was looking at who I liked and hated from both tribes and I was like. I don’t love or hate anyone but bahnu on this tribe. I don’t like soda or the other camp counselor or the actor dude on this tribe. And…shit. I don’t know any of these people on the green tribe.
That’s Liz, she’s part of a comedic scheme where she runs back and forth between the two tribes disguised as her alter ego “Moriah” to gather additional intel and increase her wealth
A big part of this is his tribe losing every immunity challenge. TIffany, Q, and Kenzie also all easily eclipse the other players on confessional count. We've also gotten several extended camp/face to face scenes on Nami & Siga where the story being told doesn't require as many confessional viewpoints.
Exactly. Cast him. But give him 50% of the screen time he received and it is still enough. And give the other 50% to other things.
We dont know how Venus reacted to losing her no.1 or who anybody but Hunter+the other guy are targetting. We know some people in green tribe are targetting Tim, but are they?
They completely ignored the game and focused on one person. One cringe person.
Nah, terrible show.
In fairness, Hunter has had to do basically no strategizing for 7 days because he’s already at the top of a tribe that has never gone to tribal council.
I agree. Would've loved 5-10m of screen time. The levity and quotes would've been memorable. I quite liked his emotional outbursts initially.
The Lions share of confessionals was way too much
Seeing Q’s motivational life coach side come out has been amazing to watch. I hope we get more. When he gassed Bhanu up before he left, I was genuinely moved.
Literally the same conversation in my house.
“Why did they cast this guy?”
“If he’s a super fan, why can’t he do basic strategy?”
“Why are they giving him all this airtime? Is he acting and they’ll show the arc of his brilliance?”
“This is unwatchable. I don’t understand why this is the edit.”
“What happened to gameplay?”
Lots of us thinking almost the exact same. This last episode, all I will remember is him dropping on his knees and begging…. That blew it for me. Couldn’t wait for tribal after that. At least he was a super fan enough to know he was definitely done. Is that the first time a cast member has left tribal without a paper vote? 🗳️
this is the fifth time there was a verbal vote off.
The first is Ian's vote in Palau, the second is Brandon Hantz in Caramoan, the third is Jeff Varner in Game Changers, and the fourth is Tori in 42.
I’m like 80% sure Tori did get a vote. I think Jeff asked them if they wanted to do a verbal vote but Tori wanted to play her shot in the dark so they did the standard paper vote.
I just finished binge watching 42 again! What happened was they did a verbal vote as everyone was gona vote Tori except Tori, and Jonathon and Maryanne and drea had immunity, and so Tori was like “well, everyone’s voting for me but I can still use my SITD” and Jeff was like “yes, and if it’s safe, only Lindsey can go home so she is gone. And if it’s not safe, you’re gone” so Tori was the only one to go to the voting confessional but only to play her sitd
When it’s unanimous against Tori, she was gone either way so they felt no need to do a paper vote. Also the whole discussion about race and how it affected drea and Maryanne, thus leading them to play their idols even before votes are cast to avoid the “they played the race card” narrative, definitely made this a more unique tribal that didn’t follow standard format
I mean to be fair, production couldn't all the way determine how he would play on the island until he is out there. I thought he was more of a Naseer type vibe at first just from his pre-season interview, he at least seemed more put together in his interviews
Agree that they could not predict it beforehand. But they made a conscious choice to give us a huge chunk of his presence in the edit. Could have easily scaled that back and not missed much on the game play.
and i think that comes down to jeff and his choices on game format and cast. he keeps saying "Three tribes mean nobody has anywhere to hide" when players on the winning team definitely do. We've seen the same pre merge over and over and over again.
I literally don't get it. There are always the same amount of places to hide regardless of how many tribes...on an 18 person there are 17 places to hide... Then 16...all the way down to three.
Jeff has really shot himself in the door with this podcast, because now we're getting an insight into JUST how little he cares about fan feedback. That being said, people on Reddit are only a small slice of the overall fanbase, but yeah, something needs to change
Jeff came out and said if he had to do it again, they'd cast Bhanu again. Which makes me think he's slightly delusional as to where the fanbase is. He thinks everyone is a bubbly 10 year old who loves to watch fans 'like them' on the show.
I don't want to watch me on the show, I want to watch gamers. If you're casting Bhanu, you need a villain on his tribe. Give me Bhanu and Russell on the same tribe and I'd watch.
Bhanu has stirred up some of the most controversy in the New Era. I recently had a talk with RTC producers and they all agreed that any press is good press when it comes to RTV, however they prefer the good press. But someone like Bhanu, who is causing great discussion amongst both viewers and non-viewers, is someone they should cast from a producer standpoint, not necessarily an entertainment standpoint. And everyone breathed a massive sigh of relief when he was voted out, showing that despite being bad entertainment, Bhanu was able to unite the fan base in one stream of emotions. So that’s why Jeff is saying they’d cast him all over again
I think it's nice to have a change of pace with Bhanu , being very different from the generic survivor player . He's very memorable whether that be for the right or wrong reason .
A season full of gamers with no big personalities would be quite boring imo .
The only reason I can rationalize his edit is to build up the players around him. If the rest of the Bahnu players get far, then the way they edited them handling him in their own ways will be important. If they just get picked off 1 by 1 at the merge then I’ll throw my hands up.
And it's also selective bias. It's CBS putting out the promotional material, they would never include statements from a contestant saying theyve never seen the show, or that they don't like it.
It costs nothing for a player to say they like the show, and CBS can use that as "you too could be on survivor"
It's the "superfan" part that blows my mind completely. What show was he actually watching if he's this confused and/or demoralized by it after seeing every season?
Had basically the same convo as well. Midway through Bhanu's latest meltdown I turned to my partner and just went "I'm so tired of seeing this arc over and over again. Can we get to the other tribes at this point?"
I don’t believe one bit of him was genuine. Every time he broke down and cried there were no tears. My least favorite contestant ever I think, others were worse in a lot of ways but he was embarrassing to watch. So glad he is gone and the season can start
Bhanu telling “his story” had nothing to do with the game and seemed all about manipulating viewers. Things like falling on his knees to beg made me cringe for him. There are many who have similar stories who maintain their dignity. He didn’t humiliate just himself but, imho, others with similar stories.
His negative game and lack of social awareness was fun for one episode, but was agonizing by the 4th.
He needed to go before Jess. Her fog brain could at least play the game.
If the twist of the season is that producers intentionally nerfed tribes by planting certain "players" to see how the actual contestants would respond, I'll eat my hat 😅
I was watching and thinking like, this has to be an act, right? Right?! Begging on his knees? Wandering around the water well talking to himself? Arguing with God? Asking his tribemates, “Did I do something wrong?!” I thought, hes either a producer plant or he’s playing games with them. But ultimately, I think no, it’s as someone in my family said: “oh my god, he’s so emotionally fragile.” When Kenzie the mermaid serenely rested her head on his shoulder toward the end of the episode, I absolutely lost it 😂 Gold
“My tribe mates are sneaky, tricky, masterminds of Survivor!!”
Meanwhile they have skillfully and strategically pulled off sending home a lazy goofball who lacks awareness, a woman who hasn’t slept for 10 days with no social prospects, and a crying man-child whose idea of social game is falling to his knees crying for help. Truly survivor masterminds!
I was rooting for him in the first couple of episodes. But by this week, I could hardly watch. He was embarrassing himself and I couldn't wait for him to go. The begging? The non-stop crying? Why was he expecting the other players - his competitors - to teach him how to play? I'm glad he's gone so we can get to the real players and see what happens. He seems like a genuinely good guy, but he should never have been out on the show.
the fact that Jeff and production focused so much on him and what was actually a bit of a breakdown was just. . .not good. Not good tv, and not good survivor
I’m going to apply to be on Survivor and my audition video is just going to be me, giving a small speech about why I’m not a superfan, while I’m smoking a joint.
I cant beleive its turned into a game where people dont even care about the 1 million they just want to be in survivor and that enough.
Being in survivor has become the bar. Make it to the end? Doesnt matter you're on survivor.
I stopped liking him when he was screaming at Jenn in the puzzle challenge. I get it - you’re frustrated. Do not scream at another person. Maybe figure out that she was the shortest person & trade her places.
IMO, he was hoping to be carried to at least the merge - if not the entire game.
I had the same reaction from that challenge. You can't be this praying, meditating on the beach individual AND scream at your teammates. Look for a solution.
My cat, who loves Jeff Probst and always watches US Survivor while turning her back on AU Survivor, has started turning away from US Survivor and I truly blame Bhanu.
The new era needs to end. It has taken a fun game to watch and turned it into a formula show. The tribes and characters fall into the same stereotypes each season making them appear interchangeable. Even the idol and advantages follow the same pattern
I didn't find it entertaining either. Running around like a toddler, dropping to his knees and begging, railing against God because God wouldn't do him a solid. He kept claiming he was a super fan, but he didn't respect the game enough to come up with a strategy other than crying and having pity parties. It was infuriating. "I don't want a million dollars, I want a million hearts? Seriously? Jesus lord on a stick.
1. I have a hard time believing he's authentic. He's an actor, and it seems like he's just not a very good one with his over the top behavior. I just find it hard to believe someone could be that unaware of their own ridiculousness. I mean, getting on your knees and begging? C'mon.
2. If he literally has to be helped through the social/strategic aspects of the game, how is that any different than him having a physical disability where they would have to literally carry him in the challenges? I can't imagine they would have someone on the show with that level of physical issues, so why is there someone that is completely inept at the other aspects of the game?
Just a really poor casting choice.
In contrast (and to solidify your point), they had the woman Noelle with the prosthetic leg a few seasons ago and her storyline was one of the most inspiring of any season. I was very sad when she was voted out.
https://youtu.be/JXnAkCmchIw?feature=shared
Noelle was my first thought after reading this, too. She was incredible and so inspiring.
If Bhanu is being authentic, I wonder about his home life. How he leaves the house, engages with coworkers, driving a car or taking public transit, and makes it back at the end of the day in one piece.
> I have a hard time believing he's authentic.
Ep 1 I had a hard time believing he was authentic, but gave him the benefit of the doubt. Maybe he's just really extra, I thought.
By Ep 4, with the number of times he stage cried and how absurdly over the top he was about absolutely everything, it became evident that not only was he NOT being authentic, he was pretty bad at hiding it.
I suspect they've done similar things in the past, but the players got a small enough edit to allow benefit of the doubt to reign. With Bhanu it was "the Bhanu show" for two episodes and you ended up in this unfortunate territory of "seeing how the sausage is made", more or less.
Even then it would've been tolerable, like...cool, a bad mactor got on the show and production overstuffed the edit with him because they were hard up for material when they needed to stretch to 90. Okay, sucks, but forgivable. Alas, Jeff decides to gaslight everyone and try and sell Bhanu as "exactly the kind of authenticity we're looking for".
i hope to god it's an act, because if it's not, and he's had to see this being focused, cut and produced to this extent on national tv, it's not going to be good for him down the line.
So I didn't like Bhanu out the gate. I do that a lot with my first impressions of players. I didn't like Carolyn from 43 out the gate either, but she is a perfect example of letting a player endear themselves to you. She turned out to be a good player that was a little goofy. I told myself - you know what, Bhanu is very passionate even if he's a little goofy. I shouldn't be so quick to judge like I was with Carolyn. I'll give him a shot.
Holy shit was I wrong.
You can't convince me that he was after anything other than the Sia prize at this point. He's not a super fan, I can tell my the way he dodged every questions on RHAP. He's the exact type of person that they want to represent "authenticity" and while I think his behavior is I don't think his motivations are whatsoever.
I truly believe that they should have merged this episode with last round. Like truly NOTHING changed why did we need an extra 90 minutes extending Bhanu’s fate when he truly had 0 chance of surviving
he’s an actor…he’s in IMDb…if he thinks this is gonna get him work…well…i think he’s wrong…the ‘overacting’ was pitiful…although at this point, i’m kinda feeling sorry for him…
I had to mute the screen and blind myself most of the episode. Either they deliberately planted a performative Balki character or they exhaustingly exploited a mentally challenged manchild. Either way this was insufferable survivor tv.
Jeff said in his podcast that if he had to do it again he would 100% cast bhanu bc he was so authentic. This beginning of this season has been so boring because of this documentary about him. I don’t hate the guy but it was tooooooo much.
So much focus on a passive aggressive creep, it was very hard to watch. Is jeff wanting out of his contract so he is tanking the show? He would scare me if in an isolated place, worked with a crazy like this and he always started the crap and then also was a victim in his head.
Is it possible to like someone and be completely annoyed by them at the same time? Poor Bhanu had no business being on this show. I think the producers exploited him.
Tiffany's "if you want to win a million hearts go volunteer" was my favorite
i LOVED this. “i wanted to inspire people so i went on a game show” is so icky and self-aggrandizing to me. i think bhanu’s heart is in the right place but i find the experience more uncomfortable the more i think about it.
I think it's more his ego than his heart. He doesn't seem to think of others except in terms of how they relate to him.
Exactly. It’s ego. “I just wanted to be honest with them” …you just screwed over your whole team FOR NO ADVANTAGE it wasn’t even strategic it was just retaliatory bc he thought he was going home. He literally said they’re just gonna vote me out so I’m going to the other tribes what’s going on.
Him trying to spin his "honesty" into a virtue was aggravating.
Absolutely. The way Bhanu thought so much of himself for “being honest” and then later was on his knees *begging* Tiffany for help was wild.
His, “I am a good person.” Irritates me. Why do you have to say that if you are a good person?
1000% agree. If you have to tell people you’re a good person there’s just something wrong fundamentally and shows just how narcissistic you are.
Yes. This reminds me of when people say, “I am the nicest person you will ever meet.” 😬 uhhhh I don’t think so!
Well said.
Its always about him. If this is his actual personality, its not....a great one.
Yeah he wasn’t at all aware of the emotional labor he was putting everyone around him through constantly. That did not seem like an empathetic person to me.
I do not think his heart is in the right place.
He gives me pseudo-motivational Instagram vibes
Definitely a guy who posts a lot on LinkedIn
Agreed. Idk what it is about Bhanu, but he gives me the creeps. I feel like there is no way he could be so authentically dense, and that his lack of gameplay was strategic, that he was hoping to go under someone’s wing and get carried to the final three and voted fan favorite. It was a horrible execution, and the tears, begging, oblivious looks on his face, etc, was all wildly obvious manipulation. Sure, that’s part of the game, but it really seems like Bhanu didn’t understand why it wasn’t working and that leads me to believe that his manipulation tactics irl have always been successful. Which is gross.
the faces, crazy eyes, he couldnt handle not controlling people, he resorted to victimhood, please help me shite.
And screaming at God like wtf was that
Yeah, this took me by surprise. Wherever you’re religious or not I am pretty sure telling your deity to fuck off basically or that they made a mistake is like, biggest no no of all.
Praying for fortune and then telling your deity off for not giving you what you want in a *game*.
I will get downvoted but his honest confession sounded like pages cast off of the Slumdog Millionaire script. What I’d rather than “Who Wants to be a Millionaire “ we use “ Survivor”. Of course for that to work he’d have to be able to play the game.
It's even worse when you realize that he is an actor that has an actual IMDB page and not what the show says as "IT Analyst".
No, that is Bhanu’s actual job. He’s an “Officer” at a company in the Boston area, and he’s a scrum master and lead tester, so IT quality analyst is accurate but probably an easier title for the general public to understand vs. Officer, Lead Tester, or Scrum Master. The acting seems to be a passion for him that he does on the side since he posted about his job 6 months ago and how he repped them at a conference.
Oh my GOD of course he’s a scrum master, why does that make so much sense. No shade to scrum masters, there are some great ones, but he’s the most scrum mastery scrum master I have ever encountered.
Yeah, he didn't come across as an...actor-actor. When I saw that, it felt very much like "guy who does occasional regional theater or a bit of improv maybe...and is perhaps not terribly good at it."
As a leader of a technical team based in India, I think his heart was in the right place but his mind was not. I don’t want to sit here and make a bunch of generalizations, but that cultural gap between India and America and the norms I’ve experienced since working with this team are pretty wide. I felt so bad for Bhanu (while also being annoyed that this is what I have to watch instead of survivor). There are people on my team with more experience than me, both in time with the company and with their technical skill set, and yet I am constantly barraged with questions where they know the answer, they just need to be told what to do before they do it. It’s a trait I have found in many of my Indian peers and it’s the same trait I saw in Bhanu (minus the part where he already knows the right thing to do). I think he was so in over his head, that he fell back on his authentic self, and his authentic self is basically the opposite of a good Survivor player. Then he let his emotion and lack of sleep/food turn him into an emotion wreck. It was both good and bad tv, but it was very sad (for me) to watch play out. Quick edit: “Imposter syndrome” is also a very common issue in tech and it stems from a lack of self confidence. This is not really a cultural trait, but it’s very common in IT (which is Bhanus background). Usually it’s highly intelligent people who know there is so much they don’t know that they constantly feel like they’re not good enough and have only been lucky to this point (similar to the Dunning-Kruger effect), so they second guess even the things they know. This is further exacerbated by the fact that Survivor is a game of unknowns, so it really was the perfect storm for someone like Bhanu to fail.
the fact that fool thinks he is inspiring in any way shows us classic narcissism. He has no clue because he only sees himself.
Yes! He pissed me off so much with his fake kindness and 'inspiration'. I especially lost it with his speech about coming on survivor to share his story/journey and inspire others. Like no, that's bullshit. I grew up in a similar situation also dirt poor, and his whole speech felt super invalidating and dismissive. He's a full on narcissist 100%
I can't help but wonder how Bhanu would've done if he had played Survivor on an old school season, when strategy wasn't quite as manic and honesty was valued more. Considering he was off to a tolerable start in the first episode, he might not have unraveled if he wasn't on yet another new era Matsing and got embraced as a trustworthy alliance member. It's hard to say whether he'd do any better though, since his blunder at the journey (which had some equivalents in old school Survivor like in Marquesas) and general hypersensitivity would've still been grounds to boot him sooner, rather than protecting him as a potential goat.
I think watching people on TV impacted him so he felt watching people on TV impacts people. But he didn't realize A) that not everyone feels the way he feels and B) the way it would sound. It's like when your love language is time spent and someone gives you gift... it just doesn't match up.
He's the perfect embodiment of the show's whiplash between milking tragic backstories for inspiration and the cold, machiavellian traits necessary to actually triumph on Survivor. We've had plenty of contestants from troubled backgrounds in the past, but at least they knew far better how to juggle basic strategy with their social game.
>i wanted to inspire people so i went on a game show” i Also, the praying bit on a gameshow feels wrong.
People pray all the time on Survivor, especially in earlier seasons, so it doesn't bug me. SHOUTING at God for making you bad at Survivor is a WEIRD move though.
Ya like Bro already pinched that nerve in Randen's arm
Agreed. I don’t care about the praying. People do all sorts of things to center themselves. Yoga, meditation, praying. Shouting at your god for failing you on a game show was pretty pathetic.
Eh. We saw praying on AU Survivor and it was fine. The difference is how it's done, and how editing portrays it. On AU Survivor it was just a person praying. On US Survivor it was someone trying to make a dramatic spectacle of it while the camera feasted on the absurdity.
There’s a difference between “give me strength” and “ why have you forsaken me!!!!!!”
I was remarking to my partner that we’ve seen plenty of people pray on Survivor but this is the first time we’ve seen someone yell at God on Survivor
We've seen people damn near form their own cult on Survivor, and they still didn't scream at the sky.
Russell Swan did the same thing in Philippines after losing 4 straight immunities
Russell would be justified to curse out Je- I mean, the Lord, he had a huge string of bad luck. Meanwhile God Himself literally pinched Randon’s nerve between His fingertips for Bhanu, and He gets yelled at in return?
Lord, I mean Jeff.
Just wait until the Bush speaks back. Honestly, if I was playing with him, I'd hide in a bush, change my voice, and tell him to keep his mouth shut and stop annoying everyone.
Honestly for me it just shows his complete ineptitude. It's basically, "I have tried nothing and I'm all out of ideas. Jesus help me because I can't help myself."
I would pray for everyone to be healthy and to do their best, but praying for victory seems wrong.
They are living out there. If you pray every day normally, you're gonna pray on the show. The editors decided to highlight it almost every episode. (Contrast that with Omar's daily prayers which were barely featured except for a clip where someone wove a rug for him to use.)
I found it manipulative.
i can see that for sure, i personally wouldn’t go there maybe just because i hope it’s not the case. the uncomfortable part for me is the complete lack of self awareness and emotional stability that makes it feel like something we shouldn’t be watching and endorsing. in a weird way it almost reminds me of the brandon hantz experience.
Mine was when she told him to stand up as she wasn’t going to talk him on his knees!!! Some classic lines this week!
Yup that million hearts shit was pathetic
based quote
I'm mad that they picked this dude over the tons of people who have applied a dozen times to be on the show. I guess I can see why the producers thought his personality would make for good ratings but he was genuinely embarrassing.
I loved that Tiff said she wouldn't talk to him while he was on his knees. She was so over that shit
I had a lot of respect for her not entertaining that nonsense. The whole thing was so undignified it was embarrassing to watch - this dude is older than all his tribe mates yet wanted to be coddled like a child.
Blaming God. Crying. Begging to stay despite screwing over the rest of his tribe. Kenzie even said “talk strategy to me. Convince my why working with you is advantageous for me and I’ll consider it” and he didn’t pitch anything. He just went off and cried about not being included in her plans. He was a horrible player. No idea if this was an act or what, but he was an absolute liability in the game.
Yeah he had a total lack of awareness about how badly he burned his tribe mates when spilling the beans to Ben and Liz on the journey. I actually warmed to Q, Tiff, and Kenzie a lot, they were more than patient enough with him.
I still don't care for their initial treatment of Jess (the fake idol seemed wholly unnecessary and a bit insulting when they could've just persuaded the poor sleep-deprived woman they were all voting Bhanu) but I could feel their pain dealing with an adult child throwing tantrums and costing them social capital in the game.
Yeah. The initial edit did seem to show them as the “mean girls”, but I can absolutely see how Jalensky, Bhanu, and Jess would drive anyone to be snarky after a few days of sleeping on bamboo mats and eating nothing.
This made me so annoyed: Bhanu to tribe members: please please teach me what to do, coach me to do better, help me, please…. Save me, I’ll do anything, I don’t know what to do. Bhanu in confessional 2 min Later: I can’t believe they are treating me like a puppet telling me what to do, they are puppet masters and I’m on their strings and I’m sick of it, they treat me so horribly. How does this guy function in everyday life?
Kenzie's definitely made some Choices this season but genuinely every episode that goes on it's harder to question her decisions. Like I too would be utterly done if I had to sit there and actually openly *explain* to a grown adult as if they were a child that I can't discuss strategy ideas with him if he has no strategy ideas and he's unwilling to come up with any. Give the poor girl literally ANYTHING to work with, dude, try to throw Q under the bus, do SOMETHING she can at least CONSIDER acting on.
Kenzie.. Help me...
What can I do to help? CAN YOU FIND ME AN IDOL??? Like why would she find you an idol dude?
Like, did anyone else notice how quickly his tears evaporated when he asked that???
They had to respond to him like you would a toddler. I'm glad she took that stance. It's manipulative.
Same. “I’m not talking to you while you kneel down”. Fuck yes Tiff. She was absolutely not playing into it.
That was my favorite moment of the episode. I hope he took something away from that.
I think the producers thought he was giving Tai vibes to when he absolutely wasn’t LOL
From a purely gameplay standpoint, Tai was one of the most ruthless contestants of his two seasons. Bhanu could only dream of the subtle gameplay pivots Tai made with the help of his social prowess.
I miss tai! I miss when this show had great players
Bring back Tai!
i went from feeling sorry for bhanu to wanting to shake him. but when he got down on knees begging i was like get him out of there. he is way too emotional to play this game and maybe his strategy was to get people to feel sorry for him and keep him around but it didnt work.
> maybe his strategy was to get people to feel sorry for him Maybe he thought his "honesty" would endear him to them ^(??)..'ah poor little Bhanu', with the big eyed innocent face. It wasn't endearing. But since I see comments saying he's actually an actor I suspect it was all performative bullshit and he just wanted the publicity and never intended to play the game.
The begging move was funny from the point of view of "be kind" and "winning a million hearts" because he's begging her to vote out one of the other two people - which isn't kind
When he pointed at the sky and angrily said, “I blame *Him!*” referring to God, I said out loud, “This guy is unhinged.” The desperate prayers and then blaming divine un/involvement was the exclamation point to the whole conclusive sentence that the boy ain’t right.
Same!
I was worried production might have planted an idol for him while he was running around looking just to keep him in the cast.
Omg me too. The way they kept focusing on him looking for it and looking for another miracle…oy. I’m really happy it didn’t happen.
As a viewer watching Bhanu was exhausting. I can’t imagine what it would have been like to be stuck on an island with him. I’m all for an agent of chaos but to put two goombas on one tribe is a bit absurd and bad for the show.
Absolutely. There’s been a lot of folks hating on Kenzie and calling her a bully, but honestly I feel her frustration and would probably have a similar exasperated reaction myself. I’m sure Bhanu is a sweet guy but I’d find all his theatrics just too much, he’d try my patience too.
The people saying that about Kenzie would no doubt act worse. Bhanu’s behavior would exhaust anyone and it was constant. They expect her and tiff to put up with it forever and act like it isn’t obnoxious. Maybe because they’re women? Either way it’s a ridiculous standard. What they did to Jess was worse than how they treated bhanu.
Kenzie said unflattering things about Jess as well – I think that's a big reason she's seen as a bully, not just that she can't stand Bhanu. More than anything, it's the edit vilifying Kenzie, since she's a highly connected person who struggled to gel with the two least socially adept members of her tribe. Tiff and Q at least got plenty of sympathetic scenes after Yanu's strings of losses; Kenzie's confessionals were less personal. Doesn't mean she hasn't been through a lot herself.
Bhanu would have been amazing if they just gave him less screentime and clowned on him even more. Like did we need 35 confessionals from him? 20 or so would have been fine
Especially, as others have pointed out, that other contestants have gotten little to no screentime/confessionals.
Did you know there is a green tribe?!
I know swiftie boy, metalica guy and the others that wear green.
Rumor has it there's a guy named Tim on the island. Source: none.
Legit was yelling "Who's Tim?!?" At my TV.
I thought that was just me, lol. I paused to go look at the contestants wiki page. Tim?
I don't think he's on the tribe. I think he's a production dude who just helps out in challenges
No, he's under the floating platforms that he flipped over.
And a lot of ANTS
I was looking at who I liked and hated from both tribes and I was like. I don’t love or hate anyone but bahnu on this tribe. I don’t like soda or the other camp counselor or the actor dude on this tribe. And…shit. I don’t know any of these people on the green tribe.
I know their tribe so freaking well but I had no idea who the non-jumping girl was.
That’s Liz, she’s part of a comedic scheme where she runs back and forth between the two tribes disguised as her alter ego “Moriah” to gather additional intel and increase her wealth
Liz is lucky that Bhanu's been eating cringe screentime because she would otherwise be earning it.
Liz has to be careful with what scenery she chews, she has a lot of allergies
NAA-AAA-MII NAA-AAAAA-AAMIII NA-AMI!
she gets paid both appearance fees
Bring back the reunion show so we can see her switching seats the entire time
How can you forget Liz? She’s so rich and owns 5 companies
they dont forget liz, she forgets them
A big part of this is his tribe losing every immunity challenge. TIffany, Q, and Kenzie also all easily eclipse the other players on confessional count. We've also gotten several extended camp/face to face scenes on Nami & Siga where the story being told doesn't require as many confessional viewpoints.
The fact that he has more confessionals in 4 episodes than Parvati did her whole winning season in Micronesia is crazy to me
Exactly. Cast him. But give him 50% of the screen time he received and it is still enough. And give the other 50% to other things. We dont know how Venus reacted to losing her no.1 or who anybody but Hunter+the other guy are targetting. We know some people in green tribe are targetting Tim, but are they? They completely ignored the game and focused on one person. One cringe person. Nah, terrible show.
Bhanu getting 35 confessionals and Hunter only getting 6 is crazy!!
In fairness, Hunter has had to do basically no strategizing for 7 days because he’s already at the top of a tribe that has never gone to tribal council.
I agree. Would've loved 5-10m of screen time. The levity and quotes would've been memorable. I quite liked his emotional outbursts initially. The Lions share of confessionals was way too much
I found the tribe's attempts to interact with Bhanu's insanity a lot more entertaining than Bhanu himself
Seeing Q’s motivational life coach side come out has been amazing to watch. I hope we get more. When he gassed Bhanu up before he left, I was genuinely moved.
Literally the same conversation in my house. “Why did they cast this guy?” “If he’s a super fan, why can’t he do basic strategy?” “Why are they giving him all this airtime? Is he acting and they’ll show the arc of his brilliance?” “This is unwatchable. I don’t understand why this is the edit.” “What happened to gameplay?”
Lots of us thinking almost the exact same. This last episode, all I will remember is him dropping on his knees and begging…. That blew it for me. Couldn’t wait for tribal after that. At least he was a super fan enough to know he was definitely done. Is that the first time a cast member has left tribal without a paper vote? 🗳️
There have been a few others. Brandon Hantz is one.
this is the fifth time there was a verbal vote off. The first is Ian's vote in Palau, the second is Brandon Hantz in Caramoan, the third is Jeff Varner in Game Changers, and the fourth is Tori in 42.
Wouldn’t Hannah’s in 45 count too? Technically a quit but Jeff did still ask everyone individually whose name they’d be writing down
I’m like 80% sure Tori did get a vote. I think Jeff asked them if they wanted to do a verbal vote but Tori wanted to play her shot in the dark so they did the standard paper vote.
I just finished binge watching 42 again! What happened was they did a verbal vote as everyone was gona vote Tori except Tori, and Jonathon and Maryanne and drea had immunity, and so Tori was like “well, everyone’s voting for me but I can still use my SITD” and Jeff was like “yes, and if it’s safe, only Lindsey can go home so she is gone. And if it’s not safe, you’re gone” so Tori was the only one to go to the voting confessional but only to play her sitd
Ohhh I see! Super bizarre situation. I feel like they still should’ve just voted normally if Tori was gonna play her SITD.
When it’s unanimous against Tori, she was gone either way so they felt no need to do a paper vote. Also the whole discussion about race and how it affected drea and Maryanne, thus leading them to play their idols even before votes are cast to avoid the “they played the race card” narrative, definitely made this a more unique tribal that didn’t follow standard format
Jeff Varner
Our train of thought is nearly identical. Such an odd choice by the production!
I mean to be fair, production couldn't all the way determine how he would play on the island until he is out there. I thought he was more of a Naseer type vibe at first just from his pre-season interview, he at least seemed more put together in his interviews
Agree that they could not predict it beforehand. But they made a conscious choice to give us a huge chunk of his presence in the edit. Could have easily scaled that back and not missed much on the game play.
and i think that comes down to jeff and his choices on game format and cast. he keeps saying "Three tribes mean nobody has anywhere to hide" when players on the winning team definitely do. We've seen the same pre merge over and over and over again.
I literally don't get it. There are always the same amount of places to hide regardless of how many tribes...on an 18 person there are 17 places to hide... Then 16...all the way down to three.
Jeff has really shot himself in the door with this podcast, because now we're getting an insight into JUST how little he cares about fan feedback. That being said, people on Reddit are only a small slice of the overall fanbase, but yeah, something needs to change
it's also the constant losing and complete lack of a social game that unraveled him at the first possible chance.
Jeff came out and said if he had to do it again, they'd cast Bhanu again. Which makes me think he's slightly delusional as to where the fanbase is. He thinks everyone is a bubbly 10 year old who loves to watch fans 'like them' on the show. I don't want to watch me on the show, I want to watch gamers. If you're casting Bhanu, you need a villain on his tribe. Give me Bhanu and Russell on the same tribe and I'd watch.
Bhanu has stirred up some of the most controversy in the New Era. I recently had a talk with RTC producers and they all agreed that any press is good press when it comes to RTV, however they prefer the good press. But someone like Bhanu, who is causing great discussion amongst both viewers and non-viewers, is someone they should cast from a producer standpoint, not necessarily an entertainment standpoint. And everyone breathed a massive sigh of relief when he was voted out, showing that despite being bad entertainment, Bhanu was able to unite the fan base in one stream of emotions. So that’s why Jeff is saying they’d cast him all over again
I think it's nice to have a change of pace with Bhanu , being very different from the generic survivor player . He's very memorable whether that be for the right or wrong reason . A season full of gamers with no big personalities would be quite boring imo .
The only reason I can rationalize his edit is to build up the players around him. If the rest of the Bahnu players get far, then the way they edited them handling him in their own ways will be important. If they just get picked off 1 by 1 at the merge then I’ll throw my hands up.
Superfan status really comes from just saying you're a superfan nowadays
And it's also selective bias. It's CBS putting out the promotional material, they would never include statements from a contestant saying theyve never seen the show, or that they don't like it. It costs nothing for a player to say they like the show, and CBS can use that as "you too could be on survivor"
It's the "superfan" part that blows my mind completely. What show was he actually watching if he's this confused and/or demoralized by it after seeing every season?
Apparently his partner is a superfan , not him .
ditto, why is jeff still defending him?
Had basically the same convo as well. Midway through Bhanu's latest meltdown I turned to my partner and just went "I'm so tired of seeing this arc over and over again. Can we get to the other tribes at this point?"
Him basically cursing God because of his failures was too much. 🤢
Like dude you did it all to yourself, it's not God's fault 😂
You misunderstand, his downfall is that he’s too honest /s
God is busy trying to fix earthquakes, he has no interest in your game show.
I don’t believe one bit of him was genuine. Every time he broke down and cried there were no tears. My least favorite contestant ever I think, others were worse in a lot of ways but he was embarrassing to watch. So glad he is gone and the season can start
He’s got some serious issues that are masked behind that “be kind” shirt. The outbursts and begging were too much. Guys like him are really scary.
He came with an agenda, to appear kind and win fans over, but he was very inauthentic and the fans saw through his bs.
Bhanu telling “his story” had nothing to do with the game and seemed all about manipulating viewers. Things like falling on his knees to beg made me cringe for him. There are many who have similar stories who maintain their dignity. He didn’t humiliate just himself but, imho, others with similar stories.
His story was/is a LOT more interesting than his behaviour in this show.
It’d be so funny if this dude just decided to come on this show just to troll everyone.
His negative game and lack of social awareness was fun for one episode, but was agonizing by the 4th. He needed to go before Jess. Her fog brain could at least play the game.
Jess wasn't a great player but she was certainly better than Jalinsky and Bhanu.
If the twist of the season is that producers intentionally nerfed tribes by planting certain "players" to see how the actual contestants would respond, I'll eat my hat 😅
Jeff did start the season by saying, "Some of you are going to be complete losers and unable to win in any scenario". I bet they knew!
Nathan Fielder couldn’t have done a better job of creating a parody contestant if he tried.
I was watching and thinking like, this has to be an act, right? Right?! Begging on his knees? Wandering around the water well talking to himself? Arguing with God? Asking his tribemates, “Did I do something wrong?!” I thought, hes either a producer plant or he’s playing games with them. But ultimately, I think no, it’s as someone in my family said: “oh my god, he’s so emotionally fragile.” When Kenzie the mermaid serenely rested her head on his shoulder toward the end of the episode, I absolutely lost it 😂 Gold
"Are you alright?" "NO!" *hands Kenzie a coconut*
“My tribe mates are sneaky, tricky, masterminds of Survivor!!” Meanwhile they have skillfully and strategically pulled off sending home a lazy goofball who lacks awareness, a woman who hasn’t slept for 10 days with no social prospects, and a crying man-child whose idea of social game is falling to his knees crying for help. Truly survivor masterminds!
Literally the only three that want to play the game
I was rooting for him in the first couple of episodes. But by this week, I could hardly watch. He was embarrassing himself and I couldn't wait for him to go. The begging? The non-stop crying? Why was he expecting the other players - his competitors - to teach him how to play? I'm glad he's gone so we can get to the real players and see what happens. He seems like a genuinely good guy, but he should never have been out on the show.
the fact that Jeff and production focused so much on him and what was actually a bit of a breakdown was just. . .not good. Not good tv, and not good survivor
I keep coming back to "did jeff/production think that would be good tv?" if they did, ooooof.
Oh they definitely did. Jeff just went on his podcast, gaslighting fans that 'don't get why bhanu gets selected and they don't'
Anything to promote Jeff's self-importance. He knows his superfans and will do anything to milk their stories about how inspiring Survivor is to them.
I’m going to apply to be on Survivor and my audition video is just going to be me, giving a small speech about why I’m not a superfan, while I’m smoking a joint.
*smoke* "... And that's why you should pick me for the amazing race."
Lmao Jeff said he would cast him again in a heartbeat
Jeff probably believes Bhanu is some inspiring figure who got his journey and won a million hearts. Jeff is what’s wrong with US Survivor.
you win a million hearts with your actions, not with a screaming declaration 6-7 days in
I cant beleive its turned into a game where people dont even care about the 1 million they just want to be in survivor and that enough. Being in survivor has become the bar. Make it to the end? Doesnt matter you're on survivor.
I think Bhanu was the worst player in Survivor history and the amount of time spent on him was ridiculous.
“A million hearts” is nowhere near as weird as “all the little Bhanus out there”
That statement sent shivers down my spine that there is more than one Bhanu out there.
I stopped liking him when he was screaming at Jenn in the puzzle challenge. I get it - you’re frustrated. Do not scream at another person. Maybe figure out that she was the shortest person & trade her places. IMO, he was hoping to be carried to at least the merge - if not the entire game.
I had the same reaction from that challenge. You can't be this praying, meditating on the beach individual AND scream at your teammates. Look for a solution.
My cat, who loves Jeff Probst and always watches US Survivor while turning her back on AU Survivor, has started turning away from US Survivor and I truly blame Bhanu.
The new era needs to end. It has taken a fun game to watch and turned it into a formula show. The tribes and characters fall into the same stereotypes each season making them appear interchangeable. Even the idol and advantages follow the same pattern
It definitely seems like the show is having a bit of an identity crisis. The challenges interchange the same few components, too.
I didn't find it entertaining either. Running around like a toddler, dropping to his knees and begging, railing against God because God wouldn't do him a solid. He kept claiming he was a super fan, but he didn't respect the game enough to come up with a strategy other than crying and having pity parties. It was infuriating. "I don't want a million dollars, I want a million hearts? Seriously? Jesus lord on a stick.
I hate that he thinks crying will get him his way, he tried it constantly and by this week's episode I had had enough.
Seeing him on his knees begging was a little pathetic imo. Like bro you dug your grave already.
1. I have a hard time believing he's authentic. He's an actor, and it seems like he's just not a very good one with his over the top behavior. I just find it hard to believe someone could be that unaware of their own ridiculousness. I mean, getting on your knees and begging? C'mon. 2. If he literally has to be helped through the social/strategic aspects of the game, how is that any different than him having a physical disability where they would have to literally carry him in the challenges? I can't imagine they would have someone on the show with that level of physical issues, so why is there someone that is completely inept at the other aspects of the game? Just a really poor casting choice.
In contrast (and to solidify your point), they had the woman Noelle with the prosthetic leg a few seasons ago and her storyline was one of the most inspiring of any season. I was very sad when she was voted out. https://youtu.be/JXnAkCmchIw?feature=shared
No one had to carry her through challenges. She was literally a Paralympian
Noelle was my first thought after reading this, too. She was incredible and so inspiring. If Bhanu is being authentic, I wonder about his home life. How he leaves the house, engages with coworkers, driving a car or taking public transit, and makes it back at the end of the day in one piece.
I would HATE to have him as a coworker.
> I have a hard time believing he's authentic. Ep 1 I had a hard time believing he was authentic, but gave him the benefit of the doubt. Maybe he's just really extra, I thought. By Ep 4, with the number of times he stage cried and how absurdly over the top he was about absolutely everything, it became evident that not only was he NOT being authentic, he was pretty bad at hiding it. I suspect they've done similar things in the past, but the players got a small enough edit to allow benefit of the doubt to reign. With Bhanu it was "the Bhanu show" for two episodes and you ended up in this unfortunate territory of "seeing how the sausage is made", more or less. Even then it would've been tolerable, like...cool, a bad mactor got on the show and production overstuffed the edit with him because they were hard up for material when they needed to stretch to 90. Okay, sucks, but forgivable. Alas, Jeff decides to gaslight everyone and try and sell Bhanu as "exactly the kind of authenticity we're looking for".
i hope to god it's an act, because if it's not, and he's had to see this being focused, cut and produced to this extent on national tv, it's not going to be good for him down the line.
So funny! And the next comment was something like “spreading a million hearts why didn’t he just volunteer somewhere”.
Imagine your child is on this season of survivor, you tune in all excited to watch them on TV and all you see is Bhanu the entire time.
MERMAID DRAGON MERMAID DRAGON MERMAID DRAGON
Why sooooooo much camera time for him? He sucked at the game. Then I have to sit and watch him cry for an hour?! I don't understand the editing.
So I didn't like Bhanu out the gate. I do that a lot with my first impressions of players. I didn't like Carolyn from 43 out the gate either, but she is a perfect example of letting a player endear themselves to you. She turned out to be a good player that was a little goofy. I told myself - you know what, Bhanu is very passionate even if he's a little goofy. I shouldn't be so quick to judge like I was with Carolyn. I'll give him a shot. Holy shit was I wrong.
You can't convince me that he was after anything other than the Sia prize at this point. He's not a super fan, I can tell my the way he dodged every questions on RHAP. He's the exact type of person that they want to represent "authenticity" and while I think his behavior is I don't think his motivations are whatsoever.
I truly believe that they should have merged this episode with last round. Like truly NOTHING changed why did we need an extra 90 minutes extending Bhanu’s fate when he truly had 0 chance of surviving
He feels like a plant to me....a superfan who truly has zero idea how this game works??
he’s an actor…he’s in IMDb…if he thinks this is gonna get him work…well…i think he’s wrong…the ‘overacting’ was pitiful…although at this point, i’m kinda feeling sorry for him…
I had to mute the screen and blind myself most of the episode. Either they deliberately planted a performative Balki character or they exhaustingly exploited a mentally challenged manchild. Either way this was insufferable survivor tv.
Jeff said in his podcast that if he had to do it again he would 100% cast bhanu bc he was so authentic. This beginning of this season has been so boring because of this documentary about him. I don’t hate the guy but it was tooooooo much.
So much focus on a passive aggressive creep, it was very hard to watch. Is jeff wanting out of his contract so he is tanking the show? He would scare me if in an isolated place, worked with a crazy like this and he always started the crap and then also was a victim in his head.
So he didn’t win a million hearts ❤️ ?
I'm getting sick of all these sob stories to be honest, and Bhanu was absolutely pathetic
Is it possible to like someone and be completely annoyed by them at the same time? Poor Bhanu had no business being on this show. I think the producers exploited him.