‘Survivor’ Must Continue to Go Back to Basics in the New Era

Survivor 45 ended with an exciting bang, leaving many to consider the season as one of the best in the new era. With more time to learn about the castaways and their strategy in the expanded 90-minute episodes, the season continued to introduce new twists and turns. The biggest twist might have been the re-introduction of the Survivor Auction.

The challenge not only brought the show back to its origins, it forced the contestants to remain on their toes. Most players expect something new in the twist department, but the biggest twists come when they’re unexpected. And it’s most unexpected when a retired element is brought back. To keep Survivor exciting for players and viewers alike, the show must continue to go back to basics. Item number one on that list is removing the final four fire-making challenges.

Since returning for Season 41, the New Era of Survivor has introduced a plethora of twists and advantages. It was almost as if host Jeff Probst had a dream board at home with all of the ideas he accumulated during the COVID hiatus and implemented them all in a massive dump each season. In Survivor 41, the show introduced the Beware Advantage, which forced the finder to follow the parchment’s rules to redeem the advantage. Many of these rules were disadvantages for the castaway, which could, for example, cause them to lose their vote at Tribal Council.

In Survivor 41, three players were tasked to activate their idols by saying a secret phrase at the same challenge as the other recipients. At first, this silly twist seemed just that, but after playing out two seasons in a row, it was retired to make way for other enforced trials and tribulations. Enter the bead collection in Survivor 43. Another massive twist that played out in the first two seasons of Survivor‘s New Era was the infamous Hourglass Advantage, which found one player, who did not partake in the Earn the Merge Challenge, having the ability to smash the hourglass and transfer immunity from the winning team to the recipient of the advantage and the losing team. Both Survivor 41‘s Erika Casupanan, the season’s winner, and Survivor 42’s Rocksroy Bailey, destroyed the hourglass. This gave the show its big TV moment, as the immunity was transferred from the winners to the losers. By Survivor 44, a big twist was out in the open where each of the three starting tribes found a bird cage on their beach with an immunity idol inside, alongside a fake immunity idol they could do with what they choose. The paranoia was out in the open this time.

With much discourse over the power of many of the New Era advantages and whether some were there simply for gimmicks, Survivor 45 found its way back to the early days of the franchise and re-introduced the Survivor Auction, a challenge that had not been seen Survivor: World’s Apart in 2015. To celebrate the moment, viewers were treated to a montage of classic moments from the challenge. Long-time fans were able to see familiar faces partake in the challenge as well as food delicacies from peanut butter to the infamous fruit bat soup. While the challenge did have a new set of rules, the unexpected return of the Survivor Auction kept castaways on their toes, forcing them to implement new strategies.

Survivor

Release Date

May 31, 2000

Cast

Jeff Probst

Seasons

44

Studio

CBS

Eliminating the Final Four Fire-Making Challenge Can Improve the New Era of ‘Survivor’

The beauty of Survivor is the game is always evolving. And sometimes, in evolution, it’s not a terrible thing to return to the past. The first item on the Survivor agenda to implement is the elimination of the Final Four Fire-Making challenge. Earlier in season 45, while making fire with Jake O’Kane, Katurah Topps made a hypothetical statement that the editors kept in the show, asking Jeff, “Why can’t we just vote somebody out at four?” Little did we know that the Final Four Fire-Making Challenge would aid in Katurah’s downfall as she was eliminated by Jake in that challenge.

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The Final Four Fire-Making Challenge twist was first introduced in season 35, Survivor: Heroes vs Healers vs Hustlers. This twist replaced the traditional final four vote. While it was not new that fire-making could come into play should the result end in a 2-2 vote split, since its introduction, the winner of the final Immunity Challenge would have the power to decide who would be making fire and who would join them in the final Tribal Council vote by the jury. Jeff Probst has been a strong supporter of this twist as it would allow the perceived biggest threat an opportunity to fight for their chance to be in the final Tribal Council. Many winners of the final Immunity Challenge have opted to partake in the fire-making to help boost their resume and prove their case to the jury. Many winners of this challenge have often found themselves as the ultimate winner of the season.

Fans of the show have attributed this twist as a way to save many “alpha male” castaways. But the Fire-Making Challenge has caused many socially or strategically strong players to lose their chance to plead their case to the jury. In just the calendar year of 2023, Carson Garrett of Survivor 44 and Katurah Topps of Survivor 45 lost the Fire-Making Challenge. As potential front-runners to win the season, their loss severely altered the ultimate result of the season as neither contestant would likely have been voted out had it been a four-person vote. Should the show return to the original format before the final three, the game would be shaken up and the strategy and social game would triumph over the ability to make fire. Yes, you can argue that Jeff’s infamous saying, “Fire represents your life. If your fire is gone, so are you.” is the heart of Survivor, but this twist has altered season outcomes. Removing the twist would bring the old-school Survivor mentality back to the game.

There are several “back to basics” twists that Survivor could bring back that would allow the show to continue to evolve while paying homage to the early days of one of the most important reality television franchises on the planet. Perhaps it is time to do away with the open forum format of the Final Tribal Council and bring back the iconic jury speeches. Maybe without any particular themes, the season doesn’t need to start with three tribes, but maybe two. But nothing will be more effective than eliminating the Final Four Fire-Making Challenge. If a strong physical player happens to lose the final Immunity Challenge, then that’s what the fates of the island have decided. The Final Four Fire-Making Challenge has been the final free pass since Season 35. It’s time to allow the castaways to battle it out like they did in the early days of reality television’s greatest social experiment.

Survivor is available to stream on Paramount+.

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