Entertainment
Survivor's Country Music Cameo Annoys Everyone
By Jennifer Asencio
| Published

Survivor is in its 50th season, which is subtitled In the Hands of the Fans. 24 of the show’s most explosive returning players were cast, and so far, the game has been pretty good this season, including incredible blindsides. However, the season’s fourth episode, “Knife to the Heart,” aired on March 18, 2026, and included a long segment that fans didn’t ask for or want.
One thing about this season being in the hands of the fans is that some fans are celebrities. Director Tyler Perry famously came up with a mega-immunity idol that was used in Survivor: Cagayan by winner Tony Vlachos, and the “Sia Award” has been given to players like Tai Trang and Rick Devens by the iconic singer-songwriter simply because they were her favorite show contestants that season. Celebrities have even played the game: athletes like Jimmy Johnson and Jeff Kent, TV and film actors like Lisa Whelchel and Jonathan Penner, and pro wrestlers like this season’s Jonathan Young or “Mayor of Slamtown” John “Morrison” Hennigan.

Country singer Zac Brown has apparently watched every episode, as he told the castaways when he appeared as part of a combined reward-immunity challenge on episode 4. The beefy star would be spearfishing for the winning team, then serenading them after eating the catch. This sounded like a great reward to a few of the contestants, including Dee Valladares of the Cila tribe. Unfortunately, she didn’t win: the Kalo tribe, in teal, got to experience the relaxing evening, with players like Coach Wade, Colby Donaldson, and Tiffany Ervin in attendance.
Interfering With Gameplay
The problem is, the segment went on far too long, while at the Vatu tribe, there were shenanigans going on that led to the ouster of The White Lotus creator Mike White, a formidable player. We didn’t get to see much about how that transpired, or anything about what went on at the third beach where the Cila tribe, with fan favorites Devens and Cirie Fields, is encamped. Instead of getting to watch the contestants that are the reason we watch the show, fans got to watch Zac Brown fish, Zac Brown cook, Zac Brown eat, and Zac Brown sing. This lasted more than half an hour of a 90-minute run time. We even got Zac Brown confessionals, and we got so many that he’s gotten more than some of this season’s cast.

Fans took to social media to complain. X and the Survivor Reddit subs are filled with fans who were wondering who voted for this. We’ve already been tormented with other celebrity name drops on the season, like the Billie Eilish Boomerang Idol, but no one tuned in to Survivor to see a concert. They tuned in for the game, and we were deprived of some of the best game play as Christian Hubicki maneuvered a historic blindside.
Some of the biggest journalists to cover the show also complained in their articles about it. Dalton Ross, one of the top commentators of the show, titled his recap, “How Much Zac Brown Is Too Much?” Mike Bloom was more forgiving, with “That Zac Brown Cameo Explained” as the title of his review, but he had harsher words on social media:
More Unwanted Cameos To Come
Former players like Victoria Baaramonde and Jonathan Penner seemed confused as to why we were seeing so much Zac Brown there, and Rob Cesternino, founder of reality contest powerhouse Rob Has a Podcast, admitted he had just found out who Zac Brown is. When even former contestants are questioning the segment, it should be a red alert to the producers of the show about what fans want.
Zac Brown isn’t the only celebrity slated to appear this season. Fans are already skeptical about the upcoming guest appearance of Mr. Beast, and as one fan expressed, this “segment is giving me MAJOR concerns about what we’re gonna get when Mr. Beast shows up.”

As Mr. Beast almost certainly comes from the Uncanny Valley, no one is looking forward to seeing him, and the length of the Zac Brown segment does set a worrying trend for this season. There is a much lower threshold for “too much” Mr. Beast than there is for Zac Brown.
It’s awesome that Survivor brings so many people together and includes celebrity fans. A season called In the Hands of the Fans is also a great time for these celebrities to express their fandom in their own ways. The problem is that the audience doesn’t need to see quite so much of it. We’re here to watch the people who brought us all together as fans, not watch other fans who are fortunate enough to have celebrity status. We don’t need one third of our precious time with the castaways gobbled up by a guy who isn’t even playing the game.
Entertainment
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Entertainment
6 AdultFriendFinder features other hookup sites lack
For 30 years now, AdultFriendFinder has quietly positioned itself as the internet’s premier adult dating site and a go-to destination for singles chasing casual flings and hookups. Their success hasn’t been an accident. They’ve stayed on top of the game, and even survived the emergence of dating apps, by forging a unique identity to help them stand out in an incredibly crowded and competitive field.
If you’re looking to let your freak flag fly, AFF offers you the greatest variety of ways to do it — here are six features AdultFriendFinder has that you won’t find on any other dating site.
Credit: AdultFriendFinder
Naked content
One of the first things you’ll discover after creating an AFF account is that the site doesn’t shy away from hosting nudity, nor is it hard to come by. In fact, it’s extremely common for people’s profile photos to contain genitalia or full-frontal nudity rather than the typical headshot you’re likely to find on most other dating sites.
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The nudity isn’t confined to photos, either. You can host videos on your profile, including explicit videos, and there are webcam feeds live at any given time that feature amateur and professional models in various states of undress.
If you find yourself distracted by all of the nudity or just want to browse the site in public without getting arrested, you can turn on the adult content filter by navigating to your profile settings in the top right of the screen, scrolling down to Content Filter and then selecting either No Nudity, Some Nudity or Everything (the default setting, naturally).
Live webcam feeds
There’s certainly no shortage of webcam sites on the internet, but it’s rare to find a dating site that hosts live webcam feeds, not only of professional models but also of regular men and women looking for connection.
Navigate to the Live Action menu at the top of your AFF window and choose between either Member Webcams or Pro Models. Once you’ve made this choice, you’ll be able to create even more specific search filters, including by gender (Men, Women or Trans), Nude or Non-Nude, and even by proximity to you.
The Looksmaxxing Glossary: Every term you need to understand the internet’s most unhinged subculture
One thing to note, however: while free members can view webcam feeds (including more than one at a time), only Gold members and above can actually chat with models.
Discussion forums, blogs, and group chats
Unlike traditional dating sites, which only seek to match people in one-on-one interactions, AdultFriendFinder encourages group dynamics, especially in their Community section. Here you’ll find not only personal blog posts by AFF users commenting on their experience, sharing stories or posting queries, but also group discussion boards organized around literally hundreds of interesting topics.
Many of these are sexual in nature (there’s a polyamory group, for example, and a “women who like older men” group), but many are organized around interests and hobbies, including politics, tech, travel, movies and music.
Mashable Trend Report
Best of all, you can participate in these communal discussions without having to subscribe to AFF’s Gold membership, which helps to keep these places more lively than they would otherwise be if only paying members could access these spaces.
Erotic stories
Fun fact: erotic fiction now accounts for approximately 25 percent of all fiction sold in the United States, so it’s hardly surprising that erotic writing (“literotica” for those in the know) would be a major draw. What is surprising, however, is how few online dating sites take advantage of it.
AdultFriendFinder members who wish to read or write sexy stories, real or imagined, can navigate to the Community menu and select Stories, where they’ll uncover a near-unlimited array of stories, novels, fan fiction and even erotic poetry.
If you’re feeling adventurous, you can explore the stories at random, but AFF also deploys a clever tagging system that allows you to search by topic, with popular options including First Time, Sci-Fi, TSTV (trans and transvestite), and Voyeur.
Popular stories achieve higher ratings and greater on-site visibility, and popular authors can actually build a large following on the site, so whether you’re eager to read more erotic fiction or aspire to write some, AFF has you covered.
Contests
One of the more fun aspects of AdultFriendFinder is that it genuinely seeks to cultivate a sense of community and actively encourages its users to spend more time on the site, especially in the public-facing sections. Their on-site contests are a fantastic example of this in action.
About once a month, the site hosts a themed photo contest, asking members to submit photos and then allowing the rest of the site to vote on which submissions best reflect or embody the contest caption.
The most recent photo contest theme was “Velvet Secrets: Valentine’s Masquerade,” while prior contests include “Naughty & Nice” for the holidays and “Midnight Mischief.” Winners get a special badge they can display on their profile, as well as tons more profile visibility, so there’s a strong incentive to participate.
To enter, scroll to the Community menu and then find Contests at the very bottom of the options list. If there’s an active contest and you are logged in to your account, you’ll be given the option of participating.
Kink-based profile search
Every online dating site or app has a profile section, where you can fill out pertinent personal information such as your sexual orientation, level of education, and whatever hobbies, interests or special skills you have that might make you stand out from the crowd, but AdultFriendFinder takes things a step further by offering members the opportunity to list their kinks.
If you navigate to your profile name in the top right of your AFF screen and then select Dating Profile and Edit Profile, you’ll have the opportunity to add to your My Kinks section. Popular options here include BDSM, voyeurism and cross dressing, but the full list is far more extensive.
Best of all, these kink lists aren’t merely decorative. If you have a premium account, you can actually search out other members by their chosen kinks, allowing you to find the people in your area who like exhibitionism or have a foot fetish, for example.
There’s no shortage of online dating sites, and even no shortage of hookup-first sites, but when it comes to adult dating, AFF clearly separates itself from the competition with its wide array of kink-friendly features and accommodations.
Entertainment
Netflix's Hit Fantasy Series Turned A Fan-Favorite Storyline Into Pure Nightmare Fuel
By Jonathan Klotz
| Published

Netflix’s smash hit One Piece live-action adaptation was always going to be compared to the record-setting anime series, but in some ways, it’s improved on the anime. The most obvious improvement is in the pacing, which has been all killer, and no filler. Less obvious is that going live-action provides a sense of weight and realism to even the most absurd action scenes. Then there was Season 2, Episode 5, “Wax On, Wax Off,” when the murderous Mr. 3 took the spotlight and went from an over-the-top supervillain in the original to a disturbing serial killer. Turns out, watching people be encased in wax is a lot more terrifying in live action.
One Piece’s Villains Steal The Show

Mr. 3 is brought to life by David Dastmalchian, who you might recognize from The Suicide Squad, Late Night with the Devil, Murderbot, or Ant-Man. His casting as the Baroque Works agent powered by the Wax-Wax Devil Fruit, which, as the name implies, gives him the ability to generate wax harder than steel, was an inspired pick by the manga’s creator, Oda. Dastmalchian was on fan’s wish lists for the role, and when given the chance, he owned every single second spent on screen.
One Piece’s colorful cast of characters revolves around taking a personality trait and amplifying it to a cartoonish level. Mr. 3’s murderous desire to turn people into artwork that immortalizes their suffering, anguish, and terror over slowly dying encased in wax is straight out of classic horror movies. In the anime, he’s off-putting, but in the series, Dastmalchian’s line delivery, coupled with his creepy smile, turns the absurdity of a giant wax candle covering Nami, Vivi, and Zoro with hardening wax flakes from cartoonish buffoonery into a nightmare.

His Baroque Works partner, Miss Golden Week (Sophia Anne Caruso, from The School for Good and Evil), also has a horrifying power, utilizing different colors of paint to force her victims to experience emotions. She uses yellow to force Zoro to be cheerful, and blue to make Luffy feel the saddest he has in his life (to that point). Mind control is a common superpower but, then you think about it in the context of the real world, it’s one of the most terrifying experiences you can think of. Trapped inside your body, acting against your will as you’re forced to move, think, and feel a certain way? That’s pure Hell.
One Piece Keeps Proving It’s The Best Anime Adaptation

Netflix’s One Piece didn’t bring over Mr. 3’s candle champion ability, but what it does keep intact is that the killer is a complete coward. Mr. 3’s running away at the first sign of an equal fight is a hilarious moment topped only by the very satisfying hammerpunch that Luffy lands on him to put an end to the nightmare. For now, as in the original story, he comes back later with his real name, Galdino, and while he’s not quite an ally to the Straw Hat Pirates, he does recognize when there’s a larger, much more dangerous enemy that needs to be taken down, and Luffy is the only one who can do it.
Thanks to the inclusion of the manga’s author Oda, Netflix’s One Piece adaptation is not only faithful to the source material, it’s the perfect entry point for those curious about the Straw Hat Pirates but scared to tackle the 1000+ episodes of the anime. And sometimes, it might even be a little bit better.
