The cycle of CBS reality TV shows turns full circle tonight with the Survivor 2013 premiere of season 27 at 8PM ET, followed by the Big Brother 15 finale at 9:30 PM ET. We’ll be recapping both shows live back-to-back for our fabulous readers and hope you’ll tune in with us for all the action this evening!
We’ve already heard major possible Survivor 27 spoilers about tonight’s episode and who will reportedly be the first person evicted in the new season. If they prove to be true, it’s going to be a seriously nasty surprise for one returning veteran who was looking forward to a long game ahead. Even worse, in a new Survivor Blood vs Water twist, we hear that the castaway in question sacrificed themselves to save a loved one from possibly facing elimination — and then couldn’t save themselves from going home. Ouch!
According to a certain Big Brother 2013 HouseGuest, we also know that former BB12 winner Hayden Moss may be making it quite far this season. We won’t tell you how far, allegedly, unless you want to click over and read the Survivor 2013 spoilers about it for yourself. Let’s just say it is far enough, however, that we decided to cover the whole season right here on BigBrotherAccess.com. After all, just because you’ve moved on from BB to pursue a new reality TV crown doesn’t mean you’re not still part of the Big Brother family!
Our Survivor Blood vs Water premiere live recap starts right here, on this very page, at 8PM ET. We hope you’ll join us to watch what way be one of the craziest first episodes of any previous season yet. Plus, stick with us after Survivor ends for our live Big Brother 15 finale recap starting immediately afterward!
[Please refresh this page frequently for the latest updates in our live Survivor 27 premiere recap!]
First up tonight, of course, we have the introductions of all the Survivor veterans and their “loved ones” players. You can watch the first seven minutes of the show, including all the cast intros, in the video below. So we won’t rehash all that.
Thirty-nine days, 20 people and only one winner! The teams spend their first night on the island separated from the other teams. In the morning, they all gather together. That’s when host Jeff Probst tells the teams when they arrive on the island that they will not be competing together, they will competing AGAINST each other.
When he asks if any of them are actually looking forward to battling their loved ones, over half of them raise their hands. Quite a few of them really want to beat the heck out of their partners. On the other hand, they think it will be tough to watch a family member go home.
Jeff announces that the veterans will be in the Galang (Orange) tribe and the newbies will be in the Tadhana (Red) tribe. Then he announces that both tribes will now have to vote one of the members out right now. Big Brother 12 winner Hayden Moss says it’s shocking to have to vote so fast. The votes are counted and in the newbie tribe has decided in an overwhelming majority to vote out Laura Boneham, wife of veteran Rupert Veteran — who already won a million dollars once before on Survivor: America’s Tribal Council.
The returning players votes are more scattered with their votes. There are three votes for Laura Morett (Survivor: Samoa), one vote for Gervase Peterson (Survivor Borneo) and six votes for Candice Cody (Survivor Cook Islands and Survivor Heroes vs Villains). Candice has been voted out. Jeff Probst tells them their game isn’t over yet though because Redemption Island is coming back this season. They will be the first two people on the Island this year and compete in a duel to see who will go home tonight.
Jeff tells Rupert that he can trade places with his wife and go to Redemption Island instead to battle to stay in the game. Veteran player Tina Wesson (Survivor Australia winner and Survivor All Stars vet) begs him not to do it. Rupert steps forward immediately and asks his wife if she wants him to trade. She tells him she would like to play. She goes back into the game and joins the veteran tribe.
Tina is pissed to lose Rupert because it weakens their tribe. Jeff says Rupert will have to battle to keep from going home now. He says he will fight time after time after time if he has to. Jeff offers the same trade deal to Candice’s husband John Cody but they decide not to trade places.
Back from commercial break and we check in with the Galang tribe. They have a box with supplies and distribute them out to haul off to the campsite. Gervase is complaining about having to play with Laura Boneham instead of Rupert. Laura says being part of the veteran tribe is very intimidating. She demonstrates her lack of skills by extremely failing to whack open a coconut with a machete.
The Galang tribe works together to get a fire started and get a shelter built. We hope they build that shelter well because we remember the Philippines as a very, very rainy place from previous seasons. They are all really happy that things are going well. They have their water boiled, their fire started, their shelter being built and they are eating their rice.
Monica Culpepper trash talks some about Colton Cumbie to the cameras, who she calls one of the meanest, nastiest and most vindictive players ever in the game. She talks to Colton about their bad relationship on Survivor: One World and tells him she wants to bury the hatchet from when they played together before. She tells the cameras that he stabbed her in the back last time and she doesn’t know if a zebra can change their stripes.
Over to the Tadhana tribe and they are working on getting their shelter together. They are not looking quite so skilled as the veterans. Brad Culpepper is worried that he said something right at the beginning about wanting to help his wife and maybe not playing as hard as he could because of that. He is afraid that has made him a target, so he tells everyone that he wants to clear the air and he promises that he will go 100 percent for his tribe, even up against his wife if he has to.
Brad immediately starts campaigning to make an all guys alliance because his wife told him he needed to get in there and talk and start making buddies immediately. The other guys all nod and agree but to the cameras, they trash talk about Brad and how they know it’s all about him. Still, it looks like we have a tentative guys’ alliance now between John, Caleb Bankston, Hayden, Brad and Aras Baskauskas.
The Tadhana tribe still hasn’t managed to start a fire yet, which means they haven’t been able to boil water either. So they don’t have fire and they don’t have water and their shelter is still being worked on. Not so good. Ciera Eastin, Laura M.’s daughter, talks about being a teenage mom and how hard it was on her mom. Now she says it is all great though because she has her daughter and her husband. Vytas Baskauskas talks about being a Heroin addict when he was younger and how he spent a year in prison. Meanwhile, he says his brother, Survivor: Exile Island winner Aras, was a golden child going to college and doing everything opposite.
Back over to Galang and Colton is talking about the struggle of living in the deep South as a gay man. He tells the cameras that he was not an open person on Survivor: One World and he was mean and rude but that isn’t him. He tells his tribe members about how hard it has been. He cries, actually, he weeps and talks about missing his fiance Caleb, who is on the newbie tribe. The others aren’t sure if they should believe his vulnerability or not.
Over on Redemption Island, Rupert and Candice are pissed off at being there and not in the real game. Candice is not happy at all being there with Rupert because she says he is doing nothing while she does all the work. Rupert says to the cameras that one of the reason he never wins a challenge is that he wears himself out supporting his tribe. He says he isn’t going to do that. He’ll let Candice do all the stuff and burn up her energy while he saves up.
Time for Tree Mail! Both tribes retrieve their mail. Colton reads out the message, which seems to imply that there will be swimming, sprinting and a puzzle to solve. Very typical Survivor challenge fare. It’s time for the first immunity competition! Host Jeff Probst gives Laura B. her new colors as a member of the veteran tribe. He asks how the tribes are doing and the newbie tribe lies that they have their fire going and everything is awesome. The veterans kind of don’t believe them.
The challenge tonight is to assemble a ship’s wheel puzzle in a “Blue Lagoon Bustle” competition. The winning tribe will get immunity and a fire flint. The first leg of the challenge is a swim out into the water and a climb over a net. The new players work as a team to get all the players over the net. They have an early lead. Then they have to climb over a floating log. The newbies quickly get a system going and they are still in the lead. They all have to climb up on a platform next and then dive out into the water. Check out a preview of what the competition looks like in the preview video below.
Gervase is doing very badly and can barely get from one obstacle to the next. The newbies are already on the next obstacle, untying a series of knots under the water to release a boat. Gervase can’t swim at ALL. The newbies get all their knots untied and they all climb in. The veterans manage to catch up and it is a race back to shore. But then they can’t seem to paddle in a straight line and fall way behind. Colton screams at Kat Edorsson (Survivor: One World) that she needs to paddle harder or he will hit her with his paddle. Apparently he’s already back to his old ways.
The newbies are already putting their puzzle wheel together when the veterans finally reach shore with their trunk full of pieces. Amazingly, they somehow manage to recover at the puzzle table and speed ahead of the newbies. The Galang tribe has won! Tadhana will go to Tribal Council and someone will be voted out tonight. They will then head off to Redemption Island to compete against Candice and Laura B. Colton is all kinds of upset over his tribe losing and putting his fiance in danger at Tribal Council.
Brad is already acting like he’s the leader of his tribe. He’s pissed that they lost but he says they should be happy that they know their loved ones have fire. The puzzle girls are feeling very nervous about losing because the newbies were ahead before that part of the challenge and they pretty much lost it for the tribe. The new guys’ alliance talks about who should get voted out tonight. They bring up Monica’s name but then talk about Marissa and Katie Collins (Tina’s daughter) as well.
Vytas tells the cameras that it is probably obvious that the guys are bonding together so he says he needs to keep his ties to the girls strong. He decides to tell them that the guys have been talking about getting rid of one of the puzzle girls. Brad says to the camera that it may be Marissa or it may be Katie.
At Tribal Council, the newbies confess to not actually having fire and lying about it. Jeff asks John about not stepping up and trading places with his wife after she was sent to Redemption Island. He says it was very hard and starts crying. He says Candice is probably sitting out there thinking he let her down. He says he is going to vote tonight to do what’s best for the tribe but if it also happens to be someone that his wife can kick their butt, all to the good.
Marissa talks about how her uncle gloated after the veterans won and she was not happy about it. She says she feels like she is guilty by association and feels vulnerable right now. She says she hopes that her tribe will judge her based only on herself, not her uncle’s actions. Katie talks about being worried about the puzzle girls being targets because they failed to win the immunity challenge. Brad says they aren’t judging solely based on the performance on the puzzle makers.
Time for the votes! Katie votes against Marissa, Marissa votes against Katie. The rest of the votes are not shown. Jeff goes to tally the votes. Katie has one vote. Marissa has five votes and that is enough. She is voted out and will now go to Redemption Island. That’s the end of the episode tonight but if you want to know who reportedly will be the first person to go home on Survivor: Blood vs. Water next week, you can check out the spoilers at the link below!
>> Survivor 2013 Spoilers: Blood vs Water First Elimination!
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