Wednesday, August 10, 2016

Top Ten Jury Speeches

The jury is an important part of any Survivor season. And while they are practically ignored from being voted out until day 39, the jury has the final say into who will win each season. So I’m basically mentioning my favorite jury speeches from each of the Survivor seasons.

Rules: 1- Only one speech per season. One would clearly have stood out more than the others in one single season. 2- No questions allowed unless they are not the main point of the speech. 3- This one is more of a disclaimer, but due to my lack of good memory, I’m not going to have that much of a selection to choose from. But I will post videos here of each speech if I can find one. Just click the link and enjoy. There may be a lot of shade throwing going on in these, but I’m choosing the most memorable and I’ll mention why in each section. Sorry if I'm forgetful.

#10 Reed in San Juan del Sur: This is one of the meaner speeches ever given in the game. I only have it on here because of how memorable it was and not so much because I liked it. We the audience didn’t really see much of why Reed had this hatred towards Missy so it seemed to come out of nowhere. But he made his point as to why he felt that she didn’t deserve to win the game.


#9 Ozzy in Micronesia: This is a bit of an unusual choice for this list, but you tend to not see speeches like this. Basically, Ozzy gave a negative speech for the person who ended up winning and an impassioned speech for the runner-up. It normally happens the other way. Some people don’t like Ozzy and I’ll admit that he has gotten a worse edit with each season he’s been on. But this is one of the moments that I like about him as he gets fed up with the person he didn’t like even though she wasn’t actually the one who blindsided him. I like the speech a lot.


#8 Lex in All-Stars: So many finalists had already made their mistakes before the final tribal council happened. When Rob betrayed Lex after Lex had done what he wanted, Rob basically lost the vote that could have won him the game. Lex vents his frustration at Rob for doing so and thus we have this speech which explains why Rob didn’t win.


#7 Eliza in Vanuatu: Some may feel that this season has Eliza as a bitter jury member. But bitter or not, jury members need some love by the finalists or they won’t win. Chris understood that and Twila did not. Plus, Eliza was clearly more hurt by Twila throughout the game. This is a pretty good speech and Twila demonstrates what not to do to a jury member.


#6 Brenda in Caramoan: Some say that Brenda may have crossed a line with Dawn in this speech, but I still have it ranked as a good speech. Brenda did have reason to hate Dawn and Dawn also had reason to vote Brenda out. But what happens in the second part of the speech is actually an interesting moment regarding the teeth incident and Dawn does the right thing. The first part with John is actually a good thing for him as well as he explains why he helped voted out Dawn.


#5 Coby in Palau: I feel that Coby makes a good point about the final two. He speaks against both of them and basically tells them that Katie will only receive his vote if he is voting against Tom. That’s what ultimately happens. I enjoy it as a speech and do enjoy Coby for the shade thrower that he is.

Video: (unavailable)

#4 Jonathan in Philippines: Jonathan pretty much shared his thoughts about all of the finalists in front of the jury. It was quite the interesting take on the game. He barely even made a case for anyone, but all he had to do to make my top ten was give an interesting speech. He succeeded by pretty much pointing out what all the final three had done.


#3 Kat in One World: This is a more unusual speech that may only be here because of me not being able to find other speeches that I liked in their entirety online (more on that later) and not having much to watch in my personal collection of Survivor seasons. Anyways, this is on here mostly due to Kat’s character growth after she was blindsided. She could have been bitter at all of them and instead just did a speech on why she felt that she didn’t have to be upset. While she never spoke out for a contestant or against a different one, she did do a memorable speech.


#2 Erik in Samoa: People really need to stop bitching about how Russell should have won because nobody like Russell who has zero jury management skills should ever win Survivor. Erik gave a great and impassioned speech about why Natalie should win and she did. Whether or not this actually changed minds doesn’t matter when you think about it. People who do get hateful speeches by the jury tend to never win (except for maybe Brian) and people who get glowing endorsements like this rarely lose. Erik told the other finalists very clearly why they didn’t deserve to win and they didn’t. This speech helps Natalie look even better than usual as she gets the love she deserves from a man she herself blindsided. I love this speech a lot, but not as much as the next one.


Now I leave you wondering what number one is. Most of you should already know by now what it is because you haven’t seen it mentioned elsewhere on the list. The original great jury speech can also be considered the greatest jury speech, in my mind at least.

#1 Sue in Borneo: Of course this is number one! What else could be considered number one? Sue was betrayed by Kelly and figured that Richard would make the better winner since he was better at the game. Snakes and rats would have to be one of the best Survivor moments of all time. Without this, we might not have the same Survivor we do today. It is a great speech and what I consider to be, quite possibly, the greatest moment ever in any final tribal council.


Honorable mentions: Shirin in World Apart: Shirin gives an impassioned jury speech, even if it seems a bit disjointed in different ways. Spencer in Cagayan was a nice speech in support of who he thinks is the best player between Woo and Tony. Dan in Nicaragua gave a speech that talked against both Sash and Chase. I couldn’t find any of these online, nor did I have it on DVD like I did with Palau. Otherwise, I might have and probably would have included them. There are probably others that I can’t remember or ruled out for one reason or another.


Well, that’s all that I can think of for this post. Maybe there is more that would have worked that I can’t remember for whatever reason. I just hope that my picks were good in the end. There’s not really much else to say. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.

1 comment:

  1. An interesting list, however I disagree with most of it. Speeches like Lex's are just sore losers complaining about getting outwitted by the finalists. Shii Ann's speech is much better because she put Lex and Tom in there place as sore losers. A good list for the most memorable speeches but not for the best ones.

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