Survivor megathread

[SnowLabrador]

I hate-watched the premiere. Survivor is unfortunately a withered husk of what it once was.

[7,052,770]

I hate-watched the premiere. Survivor is unfortunately a withered husk of what it once was.

Bad take. 42 was a top 10 season, and 44 at least looks like it has some potential to get there too.

I wish they'd cut down on all the advantages.

[Progressive Pessimist]

Damn that sucks so bad for Bruce, injuring yourself literally like 1 minute into the game.

Saw that Jeff Probst has said he wants Bruce to come back though. Maybe they could repeat the twist from season 25 and have 3 tribes of evacuees. Maybe even episode 1 evacuees with Pat from 37 and the woman all the way back in 24.

I expect season 45 to be a returnee season. That might be too soon for Bruce to come back though. So a Philippines situation would work too with evacuees coming back for another chance, one per tribe.

[morgankingsley]

I know it's three months late, but fun fact, Gabler is the first winner ever in 43 seasons (in the american version) to be the oldest contestant of his winning season. Conversely, Jenna and Aras are the only ones to be the youngest in their winning season.

I also wonder how the original pre jury members reacted to his win. Especially Elie, who Gabler confirmed became really good friends with him after the fact (although watching the season again, his winner's edit is probably the most obvious one in nearly ten seasons barring Tony, and the Elie vote is a large part of that).

As for 44, that was ridiculously wild. With 4 medical visits, and a over the top first tribal where two shots in the dark were played, a lose your vote, and a correctly played idol. I read that the theory is that Matt used his as a way to remove any guilt on the vote off so that whoever wins that initial vote he can integrate himself into the alliance well enough. I don't think it's a great move, but I get it. But the Jamie one was ridiculous.

- Morgan Kingsley

March 7, 2023

[Sol]

I hate-watched the premiere. Survivor is unfortunately a withered husk of what it once was.

Hate to say that I agree with SnowLabrador, but he's right. It's especially baffling since IMO Survivor had basically cracked the code in terms of game structure from around 25-32 or so--moderately frequent idols, occasional low impact advantages, and unpredictable timing and frequency of swaps. Plus a cast which came to play but had a good diversity in terms of survivor knowledge. Recent seasons have gotten too chaotic, with too many twists and a monolithic superfan cast that results in the same outcome of threats either getting defenestrated or idoling to the end.

[7,052,770]

https://www.justjared.com/2023/03/17/survivor-contestant-calls-out-winner-turned-politician-nick-wilson-for-voting-to-pass-anti-trans-anti-gay-legislation/

Unlikely we ever see Nick on the show again after he voted for Kentucky's brutal anti-trans bill. Honestly he is in the same tier as Jeff Varner going forward.

[Farmlands]

https://www.justjared.com/2023/03/17/survivor-contestant-calls-out-winner-turned-politician-nick-wilson-for-voting-to-pass-anti-trans-anti-gay-legislation/

Unlikely we ever see Nick on the show again after he voted for Kentucky's brutal anti-trans bill. Honestly he is in the same tier as Jeff Varner going forward.

We get it, any remotely conservative people should be banned from all media, and wanting to prevent experiments on minors is as bad as outing someone on national TV and trying to profit off of it with a book. In any case, I doubt Survivor wants to cast any partisan politicians.

[7,052,770]

https://www.justjared.com/2023/03/17/survivor-contestant-calls-out-winner-turned-politician-nick-wilson-for-voting-to-pass-anti-trans-anti-gay-legislation/

Unlikely we ever see Nick on the show again after he voted for Kentucky's brutal anti-trans bill. Honestly he is in the same tier as Jeff Varner going forward.

We get it, any remotely conservative people should be banned from all media, and wanting to prevent experiments on minors is as bad as outing someone on national TV and trying to profit off of it with a book. In any case, I doubt Survivor wants to cast any partisan politicians.

Yes, any politician who casts a vote to ban ALL gender affirming care, regardless of reversibility or parental approval, including destransitioning of trans teens who've already started the process, is a bad person.

And I'll give you a free pass for not realizing that Varner is as anti-trans as any Republican politician (check out his social media) and would have voted Yes if he was a legislator, but Nick is still worse since it is not a mere hypothetical for him.

[100% pro-life no matter what]

Let's not let this thread turn into a debate of the legislation Nick voted for, but Survivor is probably not casting any active politicians of either party.  Also, I'm pretty sure it was a relatively party line vote, so it's not shocking at all that Nick would vote for that.

[morgankingsley]

Let's not let this thread turn into a debate of the legislation Nick voted for, but Survivor is probably not casting any active politicians of either party. 

I'll just throw in my two cents. But realistically, this is probably the case more than anything else. Because not only would that alienate millions of viewers either way, but their politics would almost certainly cause them to be first voted out on their tribe anyways. Therefore making the casting choice would almost not even be worth it from a public or money stand point.

But that will be the first, and the only, time, I will talk about this specific bill on the thread.

Morgan Kingsley -

March 18, 2023

[7,052,770]

I'm going to disagree and say that I think Nick was one of the most likely WaW cast members to have a return (probably in the top 3), even after his election to the Kentucky House. It's only this particular bill and the reaction to it from Survivor cast members that have tanked his chances, probably permanently. Historically he's gotten along very well with the LGBT community, including for example Ricard and his trans husband, which is why everyone is so shocked he voted for this bill. Maybe he didn't really realize how extensive the effects of the bill are, but that doesn't strike me as a very good excuse.

[Progressive Pessimist]

I am not surprised at all at Nick Wilson's vote. All that matters when Republicans vote is the surface level keeping up of appearances. Why would he compromise his future in politics for a friendship? Ricard clearly isn't familiar enough with Republicans.

But to be fair, I never really saw him coming back for a future returnee season. In one of those, I expect that with some very notable exceptions from the later seasons in the past era like Angelina, Christian, and/or Rick Devens that most returnees will be from seasons 40 on.

[7,052,770]

5 episodes in, this season's already crazy.

The craziest part of it is that Carolyn is ... actually playing really well so far and has a knack for strategy?? Didn't see that coming back in episode 1.

[7,052,770]

Also the season of Australian Survivor that ended was pretty good, if anyone else here keeps up with that. I don't think I liked it quite as much as a lot of online people did, but the editing wasn't as atrocious as the last few seasons, and the cast wasn't as insufferable as last year (actually, last season was fine until Sandra got voted off on day 16 yet again after a bad swap).

[Progressive Pessimist]

5 episodes in, this season's already crazy.

The craziest part of it is that Carolyn is ... actually playing really well so far and has a knack for strategy?? Didn't see that coming back in episode 1.

Carolyn is stealing this season. Every facial expression she makes amuses me. This cast overall is full of real entertaining oddballs actually. And I'm fine with it.

[7,052,770]

They've got to change the puzzles up going forward. Maybe Jeff Probst thinks it's cool when someone makes their own versions of the puzzles and knows how to solve it ahead of time, but it really breaks the game.

[Progressive Pessimist]

They've got to change the puzzles up going forward. Maybe Jeff Probst thinks it's cool when someone makes their own versions of the puzzles and knows how to solve it ahead of time, but it really breaks the game.

Agreed wholeheartedly, and it seems like most Survivor watchers have reacted this way to last night's episode.

And f*** Carson, by the way: "just prepare." Yeah, because the average would-be contestant has or can afford a 3D printer.

[7,052,770]

Challenges are one area where the Australian version is better** than the American version for the most part. Jeff Probst should hire that team to design and build challenges. You'd get physical, puzzles, and the auction (!) but not this same stuff repeated year after year.



** - Except for the elephant in the room, where 3 of the last 5 seasons have featured a challenge breaking and forcing a medevac at no fault to the contestants, as well as the most iconic character of the show's history nearly breaking his neck because the challenge involved people going face-first into a shallow mud pit. That was really dumb. So maybe use the Australian team to design challenges, but with the American version's higher safety standards.

[100% pro-life no matter what]

They've got to change the puzzles up going forward. Maybe Jeff Probst thinks it's cool when someone makes their own versions of the puzzles and knows how to solve it ahead of time, but it really breaks the game.

Agreed wholeheartedly, and it seems like most Survivor watchers have reacted this way to last night's episode.

And f*** Carson, by the way: "just prepare." Yeah, because the average would-be contestant has or can afford a 3D printer.

I agree that lazy challenges are a problem, but I don't remotely blame Carson for knowing to use that to his advantage.

[morgankingsley]

Something I noticed when looking through the wiki pages to confirm what I was thinking.

But with 2 male evacuations, and 4 female vote offs, not only was Josh the first male to be outright *voted off* by majority vote, but he also ties with Matt from Caramoan to be the longest a person from either gender took to be eliminated by outright vote in any season, both being eliminated 7th. Although in Matt's case from caramoan, Brandon did get eliminated by vote at the challenge, so if you don't count Matt, Josh is officially holding the title for the record for longest a member of either sex took to be the first member of that sex to get eliminated by vote off.

Going forward with my statistic, every single season females were the first four *voted* eliminations, a man won. Gabler won 43, Cochran won Caramoan, Bob won Gabon, Earl won Fiji, and Aras won Panama.

Given this metric, not only do I think there is a very high chance a man will win, but with Tika's coverage, it will be either Carson or Yam Yam.

If Caron wins, not only would he be the youngest winner ever, but we would have a filming cycle (back to back seasons filmed in 2022) where we not only had the first winner ever to be the oldest contestant of his season and the second over 50, but also be followed by the youngest winner and the third one to be the youngest of his season in back to back seasons. Making that a incredibly iconic filming cycle historically speaking

Morgan Kingsley -

April 6, 2023

[SnowLabrador]

The last episode can be summed up in one word: Disastrous.

Honestly, in some ways Jeff Probst is a lot like Donald Trump. People were so outraged by having a mandatory fire challenge at final four, and his strategy to handle the backlash was to add more and more crazy twists. Now mandatory F4 firemaking is probably the 15th thing people want gone. I might be done with the show after this season.

[Progressive Pessimist]

The last episode can be summed up in one word: Disastrous.

Honestly, in some ways Jeff Probst is a lot like Donald Trump. People were so outraged by having a mandatory fire challenge at final four, and his strategy to handle the backlash was to add more and more crazy twists. Now mandatory F4 firemaking is probably the 15th thing people want gone. I might be done with the show after this season.

The Trump comparison is a bit of a stretch, but I agree that all these luck-based twists are bulls*** and ruining the nature of the competition. Just let them be one merged tribe and make their own alliances and relationships. I feel bad for Matt-he was a victim of circumstance more than bad game play.

[7,052,770]

Rob C. made the point on the podcast if they'd never done the "merge" but instead dissolved to 2 tribes at 12 and then had a surprise "swap" at 11, we'd be at the same place without as much hate, and while he's kinda right, I still wouldn't love that at all.

Ultimately, there's no need to take away the gameplay from the players, especially when modern Survivor is casting 100% superfans anyway. Just let 'em play it out!

(And come up with some new puzzles - this can't be emphasized enough!)

[MasterJedi]

The play was so stupid. You put votes on one of the three and then make it a tie, I doubt Brandon would have used his idol on anyone but him and then they’d switch or go to rocks.

[7,052,770]

The play was so stupid. You put votes on one of the three and then make it a tie, I doubt Brandon would have used his idol on anyone but him and then they’d switch or go to rocks.

And if you put the vote on Jamie, Lauren might just let her go and hold on to the extra vote rather than risking it just for a rock draw.