Last night was the premier of SURVIVING BARSTOOL and to no surprise the episode was an absolute masterpiece of entertainment. It was hilarious, it had drama, and the production value was through the roof. Now I knew the general details of how the original Survivor worked before watching, but I wasn’t sure how Barstool was going to model their version. It’s all there though. Challenges, immunity, alliances, vote offs, curveballs. Barstool cut no corners and this looked and felt about as legitimate of a reality series as you can create. Now add in the overall ridiculousness that is the Stool, and what looked to be simply an incredible week of content, has the prospect to be an serious juggernaut of a series.
Episode 1 started off in phenomenal fashion (no not the overflowing NYC dumpster or the XL homeless guy grocery cart, although I audibly laughed at the cut away from islands and sand). The contestants had arrived at the office for the week, bags and pillows in tow and were welcomed by host Kevin Clancy. Shout out to KFC. Hosted the SHIT out of episode 1. Guy was a natural. A good host is a key to a successful reality competition show and Kev knocked it out of the park Conor Gillaspi style. Hot Seat: Steve Harvey….At the welcoming KFC reveals the first curveball of the week. Enter, Luggage Guy Trent. No luggage is safe when Trent is called in. Talk about a perfect bombshell to kick the series off with. Mix in a be-loved Barstool character and an iconic moment in Barstool TV all while flawlessly fuckin the 8 contestants immediatly upon their arrival. That will get the people locked onto the screen early.
From there on out the antics, comedy, and competition ensued. It was game on for Tommy Smokes directly upon entry to the office. Tommy is a well documented Survivor superfan. Loves the show, knows everything about it. When I broke down the opening odds of the 8 contestants I was completely wrong in weighing this more into my (not very nice) outlook for Tommy this week. Tommy being on the soft side should not have outweighed his knowledge of the game and his ability to play it. He is playing chess while the other 7 are playing go-fish. Tommy found the clues and got the NAV (New Amsterdam Vodka) Immunity piece while all the others were boozing and schmoozing. It is a huge piece for him to have as he will for sure be a target to be voted off at some point. Smokes moved well in front of everyone as a favorite to win the whole thing after this episode.
The first competition of the show was wet and wild. No, Donnie and Zah didn’t wrestle in a pool full of jello. The contestants had to bob for NVA nips. The catch, each person had 3 nips to disperese into other players bins. Zah ended up with an absurd amount of nips, and dropped one of his own in his bin to play along. It was a savvy move, he knew he wasn’t winning, so why not play along with it and show some redeeming qualities amongst the other contestants when it’s time to vote. This was the first sign of animosity between people as Kelly Keegs and Trysta Krick started presenting their nips to each other. It was the first awkward moment of the show, the first real moment where you say, “Okay, now it’s on.” However, Trysta went on to CRUSH the competition and surprised everyone by bringing Kelly into the NAV Lounge with her for the night. I have a hard time believing a woman would play head games with a fellow woman so who am I but to say Trysta and Kelly are a genuine alliance and no backstabbing will occur from here on out.
Hilarious moments from the challenge:
Donnie knot knowing it was over until 3 or 4 more head dunks into the water. Just out there playing until the whistle and no one actually blew a whistle.
Dave went shoulders deep into the water. WSD would have gone fully submerged into the water if it was just your standard sized storage container.
Tommy not even remotely trying. Smokes had the least amount of nips and I don’t think he removed one. I haven’t seen a lack of effort like that since Came fumbled in the super bowl. But again, chess.
Tommy may have become the favorite to win and Trysta may have won the first competition, but Cowboy Dave, formally known as White Sox Dave, stole the show. Dave is so blissfully unaware, overly confident and unintentionally funny he may get a spin off after this. Self proclaimed glue guy. He was the star of the first episode. Sleepwalking one of the 7 nights you have to sleep at your office full of cameras while you’re on a reality show is just timing you cannot make up, but is so expected if you know how things work at Barstool. It’s the barstool difference. However, I’m with Feitelberg here. On Surviving Surviving Barstool, the shows aftershow, Feits said that wasn’t sleep walking. That was a blackout drunk piss that went sideways. Not literally the stream, although that can happen, but that WSD was hammered drunk from the opening night, in a place that was foreign to him, and he couldn’t execute the leave bed-piss-return to bed play. And if I have learned anything about Feits since 2009 it’s that he probably knows a thing or two about black out pisses that go haywire.
Dave was also the star of the vote itself. Yes he was voted off, almost unanimously, but that was almost expected. At Least by everyone but Dave. Cowboy sat at the tribal council with the thought that he had the same odds as everyone else to stick around for another vote and in live time we watched real life rounders play out in front of our eyes. As KFC was getting ready to read the votes, we could literally see the dots connecting in Dave’s head that he was the sucker. It was remarkable, it was kind of sad, but most importantly it was hilarious.
It was a lot to unpack for 28 minutes of TV, so here’s some bullet points for all 8 contestants after ep 1;
Tommy- Survivor Savant. Now that he holds the NAV Immunity piece he is DANGEROUS in this competition. Tommy sleeping like a baby on a couch and then saying he got a measly two hours is just big brain moves.
Tyrsta- Trysta is here to win this and doesn’t seem like she cares who is in her way. She was bobbing for those nips like her life depended on it, because it kind of did. Aside from WSD she was like first to get voted off.
Zah- Zah flew under the radar this episode (not a short joke.) Zah is super likeable, doesn’t seem to get in confrontations, and keeps to himself. I do not see Zah getting a target on his back which means he will hang around.
Kelly Keegs- Kelly may claim to be a hopeless romantic and a nice girl, but shes got a villain in her and its going to come out this week.
Donnie- Donnie is such a tough read because of his shades (also not a joke). Honestly though, shades means no eye contact and eyes are very telling. Donnie is also the vet so he just looks like he would be the one to be the proverbial leader of the tribe. I have no gauge on how long Donnie will survive the vote, but I think he will be in this for the long haul.
ChickenFry- Brianna is the new girl. Brianna seems to fully hate the situation of being locked in the office. But I do think she is going to do just fine at playing the game. I think she is going to be just enough of a girls girls to survive the Kelly/Trysta in-fight alliance, and has no problem going to kick it with the Scuzz Boys and lie to them that the other ladies are conspiring. She is sneaky dangerous.
Nick- Wild card coming in, still a wild card. Nick is a walking bit and we may never know when he’s on or off. Either way, I need that walking bit to be involved all week. Every one off line from Nick is pure gold. He is pure comedy. Ts and Ps to his cousin Rusty.
Cowboy Dave- RIP. No one knows short trips to NYC like Dave. I think Dave had the lasting power, but just was the odd man out. The first alliance was the NYC office alliance, and they booted the outsider. I still hope it isn’t the end of Cowboy footage for the remainder of the week.
All in all, episode 1 of Surviving Barstool blew away the expectations. It is not some Milton office run down, a skype KFC radio ep, or a hotel closet video blog, all of the things people love about the Stool. This is top of the line camera work, editing, hosting, production. The whole nine yards. It was truly an entertaining half hour of TV that follows with hours of hysterical twitter discussion. Surviving Barstool started off with a bang and I think it’s only going to get better.
