Reaction to the most recent episode of Survivor was mixed, both on social media and inside my own brain. That’s because, like many episodes of the beloved reality show in the so-called New Era, it featured some exciting, unexpected twists that were fascinating to watch but also led to someone going home who probably wouldn’t have gone home if producers just let the castaways play the standard game. It’s a tradeoff we’ve all watched play out numerous times, and according to Jeff Probst, it’s the exact type of thing that excites producers the most.
The longtime Survivor host appeared on his post-show podcast On Fire after this week’s episode to talk about everything that happened, and during the conversation, he offered some really valuable insight into how he and the other producers are thinking about the game. He was asked specifically about the decision to split the players up into two makeshift tribes using a random rock draw with only the losers going to Tribal Council. He said he liked it because it introduced danger and danger equals fun on Survivor. You can check out more of his quote below…
On Survivor, danger means fun. You could have done this temporary switch a lot of ways. You could force the draw to be equal between men and women. You could force the draw to be an equal division of remaining tribe members. You could do all sorts of things to push the game in a direction you wanted it to go. Or you could give the game some autonomy by introducing chance. That is what typically excites us the most: the very real possibility that one minute you are safe, you are top dog on your tribe and then in a random draw out of a bag of rocks, you end up on the bottom of a new temporary tribe and you lose the challenge and you have to fight for your life in the game. That’s why Survivor is so incredibly difficult to win and so enormously fun to play.
There’s a lot there. Let’s discuss it in the context of what happened during last night’s episode because I think it exemplifies why this is all so emotionally confusing for fans including this one. SPOILERS AHEAD.
So, two episodes ago, we got one of the easiest votes in Survivor history. The tribes merged and poor Rome was almost unanimously voted out for playing way too hard. The last thirty minutes of the episode were basically a foregone conclusion with the players and even the editors of the show repeatedly dunking on him, as he was the only one out of the loop on what was going on. This week didn’t forecast to be quite so straight ahead, but there was still a good chance Andy, who probably should have gone home way earlier after an epic meltdown, would have been voted out.
But we’ll never know what would have happened because we got not one but two huge twists. First, the castaways drew rocks at the combination Reward and Immunity Challenge to split into two teams. The players then competed in a balancing challenge. The winner won Immunity for their entire makeshift tribe (plus reward), and the losing team was sent to Tribal Council with the best performer among the losers (Kyle) having Immunity. Only the members of the losing team were allowed to vote at Tribal Council, which meant Rachel, who drew the same color as five members of the former Tuku tribe was in rough shape on paper, but she was eventually saved after Sol, who was on the winning team, found an advantage that he sent to Rachel, which allowed her to trade her vote at Tribal Council for safety.
So, to explain it another way, instead of the usual one person who earned Immunity and was safe at Tribal Council as reward for winning the challenge, last night’s episode featured eight players that were safe from the vote. Because of decisions the producers made, only four people were even eligible to go home, all of whom started on the same Tuku Tribe. There had been some talk about them potentially cannibalizing each other, but eventually, they were forced to do it because they literally didn’t have any other options. Would they have done it on their own? We'll never know.
Now, as a viewer watching the episode last night, I have to admit it was riveting television. I was doing calculations in my head during the Immunity Challenge about who would be in trouble if each team lost, and I loved seeing Rachel, who normally plays a more low key game, scrambling to try and save herself with the ex-Tuku members. I also loved seeing Sol find his advantage and go back and forth on whether to give it to Rachel, culminating in the big surprise at Tribal Council. As Jeff put it, all the danger was really fun to watch play out.
The thing is though, as a huge Survivor fan, what’s the most fun in the short-term isn’t necessarily the most satisfying in the long-term. It’s like eating junk food vs salmon. The junk food is more appealing to eat in the moment, but deep down, I know it’s ultimately better for me if I eat the salmon. Sometimes I feel that way about Survivor. I want to watch the excitement of weekly twists and turns, but I’m ultimately more satisfied by seeing the best players succeed within the confines of the standard game.
The outcome of last night’s episode was very directly affected by decisions Jeff and the other producers made, which is a recurring theme even former players have called out. They can say they were giving the game autonomy by introducing a rock draw, but they are the ones who decided to make seven of the twelve contestants safe from elimination, and they were the ones who decided to add in an advantage that would save an additional person, through absolutely nothing she herself did. It was all fascinating to watch, but it’s hard not to be rubbed the wrong way a bit as a big fan who loves the game and wants to see players play the basic game, not just react to contrived circumstances the producers dropped in to make it more exciting.
It’s hard to find that balance. I get it. Jeff and company are trying to make these episodes as exciting as possible. I’m thankful for that. As much as I love the early seasons, I don’t want to go back there. There’s a difference, however, between letting a group of six vote off a group of five one-by-one over the course of five episodes without a single chance to flip the game and introducing so many wrinkles every single week that the group of six never has a chance to even try. Or introducing wrinkles that are so gigantic that they automatically change everything.
This week’s episode of Survivor was equal parts fun and frustrating. I’m definitely not the only fan who feels that way, and it would be nice if producers took that feedback into account and tried to find a balance where we got the occasional WTF twist but it was more like twice a season and not like twice an episode.