Here's a brief synopsis of Survivor: The Australian Outback, which airs its 13th episode Thursday (8 p.m., Channels 12, 7).

Body count:

        Twelve gone, four remaining, after Rodger Bingham, 53, of Crittenden was voted out of the $1 million game Thursday. Former Ogakor tribe members now hold a 3-1 advantage over Rodger's former Kucha tribe.

Local ratings

       The Cincinnati area gave Survivor a 29.7 rating (percentage of households with televisions) and a 43 share (percentage of televisions turned on) last week to hold on to the distinction as the show's most-tuned-in U.S. market. Runners-up: Pittsburgh and Indianapolis. The local market — 838,800 households in 23 counties in Indiana, Kentucky and Ohio — has led viewership indicators every week since the show started.

Best news for us

       With Rodger out of the running, WKRC-TV (Channel 12) producers might find time in Thursday's 11 p.m. news for news. Weekly giddy reports from Crittenden have run their course.

Highlights

       Dallas hunk Colby Donaldson, 26, takes aim and spits venomous words at Keith Famie, 40, for wasting rice. “He's a fool,” Colby says. “The guy's a Bozo.”

Lowlights

       Crying into a computer starts looking like a new Outback custom, as the players exchange e-mails from home and promise, over and over, never to be gone for so long again; Keith types out a marriage proposal to his girlfriend in Michigan.

Best positive quote

       From Tina Wesson, 40, Knoxville, Tenn., recounting an e-mail reunion with her husband, son and daughter: “My mouth hurt from smiling so much.”

Best negative quote:

        From Colby, on Keith: “There's an ulterior motive for everything he does, whether it's cooking rice or proposing online.”

Big question:

        Will the Ogakor trio gang up on the lone surviving Kucha girl (Elisabeth Filarski, 23, Boston) or will Colby line up the vote(s) he needs to oust Keith in his snit over rice serving sizes at dinner?

Our guesses

       The personality factor might play more heavily than tribe affiliation in the next player-elimination vote. If so, Keith could get his flame snuffed. Or not.

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