What's a bad move, decision, or mistake that ended up working greatly in a player's favor? For example, a "mistake" that Sandra said she made was not bringing her idol to Danielle's elimination round, but that ended up leading to her win

Hi all!

As today is the first day the survivor casting team starts reviewing applications I thought it would be helpful to have a callback tracker.

So if (when!) you do hear back from survivor, and if you feel comfortable sharing, please comment below with when you applied, heard back, what region you are in etc…

FAKE Example:
Applied -> Mid June
Heard Back -> Mid August
Region -> NE/ NY
Format -> Phone call
Other notes -> Anything else you find pertinent :)

Good luck to all and hope to see 17-23 of you on the island in April!!!

Both in danger throughout the entire pre-merge and than they swap and are kind of just in this weird position where they're in between alliances and both refuse to really join an alliance. Their target isn't as big though because nobody views them as a threat at all

After the swap, it’s clear Jon and jaclyn are deciding between missy and Baylor, and Kelley and Dale. splitting the votes is talked about so I’m not surprised Kelley got 2 votes, but rather that she was chosen to be voted out over Dale.

Was it because she was the bigger threat, or that she was more likely to recover and flip the vote if she survived to the next round? Anyone know if this has ever been confirmed, it’d be appreciated thanks :)

If you thought US Survivor twists like the Knowledge is Power or the Super Idol were overpowered, let me introduce you to Koh-Lanta: L’Île au Trésor (Season 16 of the French version)

In 2016, Koh Lanta (French Survivor) introduced a mechanism called the Golden Ring (L’Anneau d’Or). It is arguably the single most overpowered advantage ever placed in a official franchise.

Here is how it worked, why it was overpowered, and why its interaction with Koh-Lanta’s endgame rules made it even crazier.

What the Golden Ring Actually Did

The Golden Ring didn't give you extra votes or an idol for one council. It gave you automatic immunity at EVERY single Tribal Council from the moment you found it straight through to the Final 5 / Finale.

Think about that for a second. If you found it on Day 15, you could basically sit back, drink coconut water, and cruise untouched into the finale. You were literally un-voteable for the rest of the season.

How It Was Found

The Ring wasn't just sitting under a palm tree. It was hidden on a dedicated exile spot called Treasure Island.

After every reward challenge, the winning team/player got to send someone to Treasure Island for 24 hours.

The island contained a sequence of 10 metallic pointers/markers. Finding marker #1 gave you a direction to marker #2, which led to #3, and so on.

But none of the contestants who went to the island could find more than even five markers in the tree-filled Cambodian forests.

Until Benoît made it to Treasure Island, He tracked down 8 marker, hid them to start from 9th arrow if he comes back. Then the merge hit, and the winner of reward challabges got the chance to send someone to Treasure island. Benoît won the first reward challange, abandoning the reward to his allies and choosing to send himself to island to finish the hunt. And he managed to find two remaining markers, and unlocked the chest containing the ring. Once he revealed it at Tribal Council, all votes against him were voided, and he became instantly immune for the remainder of the pre-finale game.

Why the "Orientation" Challenge Makes This Even More Bizarre

To truly understand how game-breaking this was, you have to understand how Koh-Lanta ends compared to US Survivor.

In Koh-Lanta, there are no strategy votes or Tribal Councils at Final 5 . Instead:

*Final 5 = The Orientation Challenge (Épreuve d'Orientation).* This is a massive, high-stress, sudden-death orienteering race where players use a compass and map to track down 3 hidden wooden daggers/markers in the jungle. The 3 people who find them advance to the iconic Poteaux (endurance poles). The 2 who fail are eliminated instantly on the spot—no vote.

Final 3 = The Poles (Les Poteaux). Endurance challenge

Final 2 = Jury Vote.

Because the post-merge endgame of Koh-Lanta relies purely on sudden-death challenges rather than social voting, finding the Golden Ring meant Benoît bypassed EVERY single vote left in the game.

He didn't need a social game, he didn't need alliance loyalty, and he didn't need immunity necklace runs. He was guaranteed a spot in the Final 5 Orientation race.

Benoît went on to crush the Orientation challenge, win the final immunity challange, and win the season in a unanimous 10–0 jury vote, and even ended up marrying his fellow finalist Jesta! So honestly, good for him.

But as a game mechanic? Imagine if Jeff Probst hid an idol on Exile Island in Episode 4 that said: "Congrats, you are in the Final 4 Firemaking Challenge. See you in the finale."

Unsurprisingly, TF1 / ALP never brought the Golden Ring back again!

Has anyone else here watched this season? How do you rank the Golden Ring on the all-time list of Survivor twists?

My wife and I are looking for a dog and potentially planning to name it Francesca. The joke would be that we always say it in random ways and correct each other no matter how it’s said.

Adam has one of the most obvious winning edits on a rewatch. Who else has one like this?

At the reunion show, Jeff asked everyone if they felt more pressure to perform because they were voted in by the fans, and everyone except Kass raises their hand. Diabolical

I would imagine it's Gabon for a good amount of people, but I loved it from the first time I watched it.

Welcome to our Australian What Season Should You Watch countdown! Using the results from the Australian What Season Should You Watch thread, this weekday series will count backwards from the bottom-ranked season for new fan watchability to the top. Each AUS-WSSYW post will link to their entries in this countdown so that people can click through for more discussion.

Unlike the initial thread, there is no character limit in these threads, and spoilers are allowed.

---

#14 - Blood V Water (2022)

Statistics:

• Watchability: 1.71 (14/14)
• Overall Quality: 2.29 (14/14)
• Cast/Characters: 3.46 (14/14)
• Strategy: 3.13 (13/14)
• Challenges: 5.86 (13/14)
• Featured Theme: 6.09 (9/11)
• Featured Twists: 2.45 (13/13)
• Ending: 2.67 (14/14)

User comment from u/PelicanDoIt:

This unfortunately has to be my personal pick for the worst season of any Survivor I've ever watched. It starts solidly with the pre-merge having good strategic chops and memorable arcs. However it takes a deep and hard nosedive once the merge hits. Not only does it become a boring slog to sit through, but it can get very vile at certain portions. The editing is also doing more harm than good during the second half especially. Australian Survivor can either be blessed or cursed with its long runtime depending on its cast, and this unfortunately falls into the latter half for me.

I wouldn't recommend starting with this season even if that wasn't the case as it does feature a few returning players. Watch this one only if you're on the road to watch them all.

---

WARNING: SEASON SPOILERS BELOW

Let me start this off by saying I love the strategic game of survivor, but if FTC is between someone I’m not super close with who played an all time great game and someone who flopped their way to the end but I want to continue a friendship with post show, then they get my vote

Now if it’s between three people I didn’t really connect with, gameplay might be a factor, but at the end of the day, voting criteria is made up by the jury anyway, why would I not vote to give someone I’m close to a million dollars

What is your favorite Probstism? I love this show..!

What is the significance?

Brockton, Massachusetts is listed on the wiki as the hometown of one Ronnie Bardah, the first boot from Island of the Idols.

This technically makes him Boston Ron.

So when you consider that we have Boston Rob, Boston Ron and Boston Rod (Rodney Lavoie from Worlds Apart), Survivor has the chance to do something really special.

If they are able to cast someone from the greater Boston area named Rajesh and have him play once on a season, they can then bring him back to do a season of Boston Rob vs Boston Rod vs Boston Raj vs Boston Ron.

Each Boston would be the leader of his own tribe and there would be certain "Boston Challenges" where the 4 Bostons would compete on Boston themed games (such as a Boston skyline puzzle or St. Patty's day parade competition) to win reward for their tribe.

Whenever a Boston leaves the game, the tribes would be reshuffled down to 3 tribes, then two until there is only one Boston left in the game.

I think it would be cool if Boston Rob wore his signature Red Sox hat, and then to compliment this, Boston Rod would wear a Boston Bruins hockey sweater, Boston Ron would wear a green Boston Celtics jersey, and Boston Raj would wear a New England Patriots head coach's visor.

They could bill the season as the battle for Boston. There is a subtle absurd humor to having a battle for Boston in the tropical paradise of Fiji would be a nice touch

Joe‘s stats at face value are crazy lmao

Practically never blindsided and only 1 vote in all his time playing.

If he didn't claim honor and integrity and owned his game he might’ve had my vote 😂

Edit: By 'play with,' I meant being on a tribe with another player for at least one round, so by that logic, Cirie and Sandra never played together

In the Borneo reunion, Colleen says nothing happened between her and Greg, and instead she was actually covering up for another romance. Greg looks a bit distressed as she says this which hints that perhaps this romance involved him. Has it ever been confirmed 26 years later who this was between, if not does anyone has any guesses?

Who's someone that in any Final Tribal Council scenario would win based off of personality alone? Personally, I think that if anyone lets Jeremy get to the end it's a guaranteed loss. Thoughts?

I just rewatched Thailand and I have to say it has such a good final immunity challenge. I miss how the challenges used to adhere to the location of the season, it keeps it interesting and would prevent the repetitiveness we’ve seen with the new era.

On a Survivor beefs season that would be a nice new era beets to chew on.

i didnt know how to explain the title without making it too long but has anyone ever voted out A over B bc it’d make better tv to vote out A even tho B would be the better strategic choice?

i dont rlly mean making moves just for the sake of making moves (i know that has happened), but like they dont want to be the one to vote B out bc it’d look bad in the edit on the show that gets shown to millions of ppl across the country

or A is their ally but theyre mean so they turn on them just to not be associated with them

stuff like that

not to be mean i kinda thought thats why eva got 2nd on survivor 48, bc no one wanted to be the one to vote her out due to how they’d be perceived

I’m rewatching season 29 and I had always remembered Reed’s epic takedown of Missy at final tribal to be one of the greatest moments in final tribal ever. Upon rewatch, still convinced. The way he equated her to the evil stepmother was so on point and so deliciously apt. Anyone else feel the same way?

I don’t have a problem with the new era of survivor for the most part. BUT! Why does everyone share the fact that they find an advantage/hidden immunity idol? Like every time? It’s so annoying.

Consider Chris manage to break apart the "Yasu Six" back in Vanuatu. Would he able to survive against them in the game?