Real World/Road Rules: The Island - Spoilers

Game on! (and time to start the spoiler thread.) Original (long) thread: http://vevmo.com/f187/real-world-road-rules-challenge-panama-2008-a-1692/ Full confirmed cast: Ashli Robson Kelly Anne Judd Colie Edison Johanna Botta Robin Hibbard Tonya Cooley Jennifer Grijalva Evelyn Smith Paula Meronek Rachel Robinson Ryan Kehoe Cohutta Lee Grindstaff Dunbar Flinn Johnny Devenanzio Dan Walsh Derrick Kosinski Dave Malinosky Kenny Santucci Tyrie Ballard Abram Boise Let's hope BMP was just trying to save a few bucks with the mass departure date (i.e. buy all the tickets and then just pay the change fees rather then booking on a need basis and paying full fare) and doesn't sequester the cast after they are eliminated. That would take all the fun out of trying to sight the known cast over the next month (and establishing their eliminations!) I guess now it is time to try and narrow down the exact location of the challenge. There were three Survivors in Panama: Pearl Islands (7) - All-Stars (8) - Exile Island (12) All three were in the Pearl Islands.

The Pearl Islands (Spanish: Archipiélago de las Perlas or Islas de las Perlas) are a group of 100 or more islands (many tiny and uninhabited) lying about 30 miles off the Pacific coast of Panama in the Gulf of Panama.

I am still researching, but I do know that All-Stars was held in part on Saboga Island. Tthe odds are very good that this is the location of the RW/RR Challenge (2008) as well because we know BMP is cheap and would rather fall back on a previously scouted location than do their own leg work (at a premium.) Once we have the area narrowed to a couple square kilometers I'll get my source over at the Pentagon to divert a KH-13 Imaging Satellite to the area as well as any other assets he can spare (e.g. Predator drones, Global Hawks, Recon Marines et al.) Update: Attached are the maps from the three Survivors held in Panama. They seem to be spread out all over the archipelago. In each case, Production was based on Contadora Island which has an airstrip for ferrying in cast members. It is considered a hub to the nearby uninhabited islands and has a variety of hotels, restaurants and 13 beautiful beaches which encircle it. That being said, they could be on any number of small islands dispersed throughout that region within a short boat ride of "Base Camp."

Bacchus;14887 wrote:
Once we have the area narrowed to a couple square kilometers I'll get my source over at the Pentagon

Why am I not surprised?? ;)

OtherPplsDrama;14897 wrote:
Why am I not surprised?? ;)

Yes, my sources run far and wide. Actually, the first images are streaming in now.....lets take a look! Ah-ha! The Pearl Islands. A little closer...you can see the suspected peninsula. ....and even closer! You can make out something in the rocks. Wait, What the....JOHANNA! STEP AWAY FROM THAT GUINEA PIG!

You just can't let that one go can you? :)

whats that greenish blue stuff in the water? would that be the current?

renaldob;14909 wrote:
whats that greenish blue stuff in the water? would that be the current?

The visible color gradient is caused by the color and depth of the sea floor. The water near the islands is very shallow compared to the deeper waters further out and it has very white or light-colored sand. This combination reflects the sunlight back up more effectively. Also, reefs just below the water line diffuse the light to offer a different hue - although in actuality the water is the same color. Sometimes, algae and plankton will also cause a similar green hue to the water, although that is not the case in these photos. My favorite water in the world is near the Cayman islands. It looks like Frost (electric blue) Gatorade!

Lmmfao At The Guinea Pig!

Bacchus;14912 wrote:
My favorite water in the world is near the Cayman islands. It looks like electric blue Gatorade!

I agree. It's my favorite place to dive on the over 1000 shipwrecks in the Cayman basin.

EastNY;14914 wrote:
Lmmfao At The Guinea Pig!

I did say I would let it go, but she is away and I just couldn't help myself. It is a sickness I say, a sickness!

Bacchus;14920 wrote:
I did say I would let it go, but she is away and I just couldn't help myself. It is a sickness I say, a sickness!

hehehehehe

Are we positive that Colie is on this Challenge because she was signed on to her MySpace today?

Dartagnan;14933 wrote:
Are we positive that Colie is on this Challenge because she was signed on to her MySpace today?

her family prob has her password to sign on

Dartagnan;14933 wrote:
Are we positive that Colie is on this Challenge because she was signed on to her MySpace today?

We have 100 percent confirmation of the cast list.

maybe they DO have internet cafes, or Colie was sent packing.

renaldob;14936 wrote:
maybe they DO have internet cafes, or Colie was sent packing.

C. None of the above.

Okay. I was just making sure. Somebody most likely signed on for her. Is that the full cast or is there more that you have not heard of yet?

Dartagnan;14938 wrote:
Okay. I was just making sure. Somebody most likely signed on for her. Is that the full cast or is there more that you have not heard of yet?

The full list is posted.

Does anybody know if they are sticking to 1 hour episodes? I believe it has helped a lot more.

They probably will stick with the one hour format since they did it with Hollywood too.

goldenwarrior63;14943 wrote:
They probably will stick with the one hour format since they did it with Hollywood too.

An MTV press release also said TRW: Brooklyn would also be broken into hour long episodes (even before filming has begun.) I have a feeling they found the formula worked better (with a full hour to engage the audience.) My best guess is we see hour long episodes of the next challenge with the good boost in ratings (over I3) and audience retention they saw with G3.

Bacchus;14946 wrote:
An MTV press release also said TRW: Brooklyn would also be broken into hour long episodes (even before filming has begun.) I have a feeling they found the formula worked better (with a full hour to engage the audience.) My best guess is we see hour long episodes of the next challenge with the good boost in ratings (over I3) and audience retention they saw with G3.

Yeah it adds a certain freshness to it and also they have more time to work with storylines instead of trying to jam it into a half hour pr spread it over too many weeks. Plus I think they have done a better job at the editing with it too. Not to say that the other seasons weren't good(Thank Sydney for giving us a certain persian)

awesome.

renaldob;14948 wrote:
awesome.

MTV looked around at its competition (VH1, BRAVO, Oxygen, Lifetime, etc) and realized that everyone but E! had moved to the hour reality format some time ago. One problem with being on top for so long is not realizing the advances in programming made by your competition. As you can tell from the early episodes of Hollywood, the editors were still thinking in half hour blocks, also, while Gauntlet 3 played as an hour show, it was planned an produced in Mexico with the expectation of being a 30 min show. Now that MTV has dictated 60 min challenge episodes, production must orient its thinking to an entirely new production dynamic, otherwise it's just two 30 min shows glued together. Innovation and progress from, imagine that.

V1man;14949 wrote:
MTV looked around at its competition (VH1, BRAVO, Oxygen, Lifetime, etc) and realized that everyone but E! had moved to the hour reality format some time ago. One problem with being on top for so long is not realizing the advances in programming made by your competition. As you can tell from the early episodes of Hollywood, the editors were still thinking in half hour blocks, also, while Gauntlet 3 played as an hour show, it was planned an produced in Mexico with the expectation of being a 30 min show. Now that MTV has dictated 60 min challenge episodes, production must orient its thinking to an entirely new production dynamic, otherwise it's just two 30 min shows glued together. Innovation and progress from, imagine that.

Ah very well said there

Dartagnan;14938 wrote:
Okay. I was just making sure. Somebody most likely signed on for her. Is that the full cast or is there more that you have not heard of yet?

On some things we will simply have to trust Bacchus because if he tried to explain how he knows what he knows, his sources would be obvious to MTV and the production company. It's one thing to have a little fun with this and see what we can collectively discover as people do with The Amazing Race, but it is quite another to expose the sources to potential retaliation by saying too much. Sometimes questions can be answered privately, by PM, and need not be made completely public. I'm always more comfortable providing more information privately. There are some things I just won't post on any message board. Personally, I've been impressed with how responsible Bacchus has been with information that has come his way. It is one of the principal reasons I found my way here, and the most important reason that I've stayed.

Nice, I can't wait. So are we thinking late this year or early next year for the first episode?

Challenge_Fan;14952 wrote:
Nice, I can't wait. So are we thinking late this year or early next year for the first episode?

I wish I could read minds inside MTV. The have all gone a little cloudy as ratings overall have dipped and people have been told to produce or get the Hell out. One interview in a NY paper said Brooklyn will air in January or at least after the first of the year. That leaves November sweeps currently uncovered on Wed at 10 pm without a traditional Bunim/Murray produced show. If I were programming for MTV, that is when I would air the show, but I would not program a start date until I knew where in the sequence of episodes are the most dramatic/salable ones (aka Beth/Coral during sweeps for Gauntlet 3). Then I would schedule that episode in the middle of sweeps and take home the best ratings possible. Why are sweeps ratings important? They are the benchmarks for future advertising revenue. Many people forget that TV is first and foremost a business with investors who demand results or new management who will deliver the biggest profits soonest.

So then, are we certain that the upcoming Challenge is a new competition style, or are we just assuming so? Cuz I would think that the challenge will be something new that we haven't seen before, but obviously others would know better than I.

Challenge_Fan;14954 wrote:
So then, are we certain that the upcoming Challenge is a new competition style, or are we just assuming so?

I don't make any assumptions, but I do assess probability. I think I wrote elsewhere that the challenge was advertised to the cast as being different; "Survivor Style" were the exact words used by a producer when the invites were issued. The cast was totally in the dark when they left, or so they told their families/significant others. In fact, speculation among the cast ran even wider than the most crazed fan speculation with one cast member suggesting that all the old Survivor immunity challenges from 'Pearl Islands' could be reused for this challege. That, of course, is a little silly, since CBS as a company was spun off from Viacom which owns MTV networks. MTV would have to buy the rights to portions of Survivor, and since they barely pay they cast anything, I can't see them forking over big bucks to CBS and Mark Burnett. Based on the cast not knowing the format of this challenge, and the fact that going back at least six challenges in my work experience the cast has known every format before leaving home, I assess the probability as high that this challenge is different. The few hundred people on message boards who care about spoilers don' t rate BMP working so hard to keep the format quiet if they are simply redoing the same old, tired stuff. I mean, why go to the trouble of hiding "sliders?" JMO

Challenge_Fan;14954 wrote:
So then, are we certain that the upcoming Challenge is a new competition style, or are we just assuming so?

All we can do is take what we know thus far: 1. The Challenge takes place in Panama where three previous Survivors have been filmed. 2. The cast was told not to bring basic electric grooming products as they would be of no use (i.e. blow dryers, curling irons.) 3. Some cast members were told that watching previous Survivor seasons would be a good idea. 4. The smaller cast is in line with a more standard reality show (like Survivor) and much less than the 32 in The Gauntlet 3. We will have to continue to piece this together before anything can be said definitively. I've used the term "Survivor Inspired" in the past and that does fit in well with my above points , but that in no way should preclude the entirely realistic chance that this challenge is just a sequel to a pedigreed show in the BMP stable with a rebooted conceptual leaning. (Although I still have a strong belief that it will have a new moniker and be a different type challenge.)