The 16 survivors, divided into two eight-person groups, float their rafts to their respective beaches on the South China Sea island of Pulau Tiga. Ramona, the 28-year-old biologist, sits on the raft barfing. On the Tagi beach, tubby Richard, a 38-year-old corporate trainer, sits on a tree branch and tries to tell everyone how to process decision making; the other group members roll their eyes. Stacey, a cranky 27-year-old lawyer, doesn't get along with Rudy, a 72-year-old former Navy SEAL and a real martinet as well. Sonja, a 63-year-old cancer survivor, plays a ukulele. The group can't seem to get a fire going.

Over at Pagong beach, another crabby old guy, B.B., 64, assiduously builds a house and loudly notes who is and isn't helping. Every three days, the teams must compete in some sort of grueling ordeal, with the losing team having to vote a member off the island -- this is the "immunity challenge." In this episode, the teams compete to run a raft through the bay in hopes of winning a supply of matches. Sonja falls down in the middle of it, and the Tagi team loses as a consequence. They have to convene later that night in a remote tiki hut for a "tribal council," where, under the stern gaze of host Jeff Probst, they vote to eject one of their own off the island. Richard votes to off Stacey; Stacey, for Rudy. ("He's a Navy SEAL and he couldn't even start a fire.") Stacey gets one vote, Rudy three; Sonja, who'd compounded the ukulele playing with the contest mishap, gets four. She's history, and things don't look good for Rudy.

Meanwhile, back in the real world, the debut episode racks up ratings, enough to beat the previously impregnable "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" in the most important demographics.

(B.W.)

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