Jeff Probst says that this is going to help the survivors get a better sense of their teammates. Both Kims start crying before the tapes begin.

The new format: Lifetime Channel weepie!

One by one we see the families and watch the survivors' reaction. The older Kim's husband wishes her well from a beachfront deck.

She cries.

Randy flight attendant Teresa's family says hello from the edge of a couch. Her two kids speak with menacing little Southern accents.

Teresa cries.

Oddly enough, Ethan's family talks in front of a wall hung with African art. The masks look a little incongruous among the fresh faces assembled below.

Ethan wipes an eye.

Big Tom's video doesn't disappoint. First, we see his dad and his son sitting on a battered golf cart in a lush pasture.

They are surrounded by goats.

They have goats like Dr. Seuss had Sneeches.

The goats climb all over the cart. Tom's son is shirtless, with a baseball cap on backward. As the goats bray, he tells pop he's been doing the "same ol' stuff."

The same ol' stuff includes "tastin' a little beaver."

Funny, we don't see any dams nearby.

Has anyone ever said anything lilke that on broadcast TV before?

Tom Jr. gives his dad a thumbs-up sign, and Big Tom gives him one back.

Then we see Tom's wife, a stocky Midwestern maiden, with a big horse.

"I sure do miss you around here," she says, petting the horse. "I've just been riding this ol' stud here cause I don't have one at home."

It's great to see a family so in touch with the local fauna.

To think we thought Tom's family was just going to be a bunch of sex-crazed hicks.

The younger Kim -- the bland one -- starts crying at the mere sight of her mother. She's trembling almost uncontrollably.

Hyena Jeff asks if she's OK.

"Yeah, it's a good shaking," she says.

We're thinking the producers could use a good shaking about now.

Lex's family is up next. One of his boys is cute in that brown-back, unruly-hair, California kind of way. He says he loves his dad more than ice cream.

Lex cries.

Lex's wife, who appears to have as many tattoos as Lex, comes on next, speaking from a house that appears to have been furnished with a gift certificate from Urban Outfitters. "The minute I saw you, I fell in love with you," she says.

Hyena Jeff speaks up: "I think that's one of the most romantic things I've ever heard."

Your "Survivor" recapper watched this episode while home for the holidays. Our mother, a woman who reads romance novels and enjoys a good cry, audibly snickered at Probst's insincerity.

Hey, Jeff: You had us at hello!

- - - - - - - - - - - -

We're now at the challenge portion of the video tearjerker. It's a take-off on the old Newlywed Game. Probst asks a question. Each survivor has to write down an answer. If it matches his or her family's video answer, he or she gets a point.

The first question asks about embarrassing moments. Here's the unpleasant list of what we learn:

The older Kim threw up on her husband on their second date and once fell asleep on the toilet.

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