< Survivor (TV series)

Survivor (TV series)/YMMV


A-E

  • Alternate Character Interpretation: Everyone. It's been stated time and time again that what the camera shows is not indicative of what each castaway is really like, so opinions on each character are going to vary wildly.
    • The show itself. Is it a semi-voyeuristic slice of life about people stranded in the wild, a social experiment that tests peoples morality, an adventure show that just happened to evolve into a game, a cutthroat strategy game that just happens to take place outdoors, or some combination of the above?
  • And There Was Much Rejoicing: When the season's villain gets voted out. Jerri Manthey's elimination had fellow castaways singing "Ding Dong, The Witch is Dead" after that.
  • Anvilicious: The editing style of choice for the show, especially during the more recent seasons. When the show wants you to feel something about a player or a situation, they hammer their point down HARD. Sometimes it's subverted, such as the subtly sweet relationship between Rodger and Elisabeth during Australian Outback or the friendship between Tom and Ian during Palau, but examples like those are more the exception that proves the rule.
  • Artistic License Statistics: Invoked - Probst regularly says that, when the numbers of players dwindle, the players have a one-in-x shot at winning a million. Except that it's actually not determined by luck of the draw - He actually says this to help motivate players to make it further.
  • Awesome but Impractical: Trying to play a VERY strong physical game in the early parts of the game. Unfortunately this winds up depleting your body (and possibly causes your body to consume muscle if you're male and don't have as much fat) and either causes you to slow down, get sick and either lead to you being Voted Off the Island or even worse, a Non Gameplay Elimination. And unless you can carry yourself with immunity wins; you'll be seen as a threat around the merge.
  • Base Breaker:
    • Rupert Boneham was one of the first, who either comes around as one of the few people who play the game with integrity and not wanting to anger everyone, or a doof who needs to learn that he can't just drift through the game on people's shoulders. Either way, he won a million dollars for America's Favourite Survivor, so the viewers obviously like him.
    • Russell Hantz, who in Samoa comes across as either a brilliant player (to viewers who have only been exposed to the strategic side of the game) or a terrible sport who needs to learn that people don't just win by playing his way (to viewers who know that Survivor is as much a social game as a strategic game, and pissing off jurors is no way to win). This base has mostly repaired itself since then, as while his antics might have been tolerable in Samoa they wore thin by Heroes Vs Villains (especially thanks to overexposure), so most people enjoyed seeing him finally get ejected in Redemption Island.
    • How people play the game can be a Base Breaker in itself. It's caused a few fame wars on fan sites - expect "What Measure Is a Non-Badass?" pulled frequently to any winner deemed "undeserving".
    • The Final Three. Jeff Probst likes that rule better because normally people would intentionally bring someone with them to the final two who was The Load and dislikable so they could say almost anything to the jury or just play the lesser of two evils card, and that way they'd have to at least take a competitor or Worthy Opponent. However plenty of the fans hate it partly because someone bringing The Load to the final two was more traditional. Not to mention; only once have all three contestants actually received at least one vote in the final three. (China, where the votes were 1-2-4.) The other times, it was really in between two contestants anyways. There's also a slight chance that, with a Jury of nine and final three that there can be a three way tie but the Jury's often united enough to give someone a majority.
    • Rob Mariano in Redemption Island. You either loved watching him play a perfect game and smirk his way through it, or you hated how predictable it made the season. Or you shut it off because you realized it was another repeat of All Stars with screentime. Or you thought that the producers slanted the show.
      • Huge flame wars on fan sites have erupted over whether or not Lex was a hypocrite for not voting for Rob to win All Stars (since according to those who argue against Lex, his game play was Not So Different from Rob's), and severing his friendship with Rob over a game.
    • Phillip Sheppard in Redemption Island - most fans can't agree on what degree Philip's Cloudcuckoolander personality was genuine and hilarious, genuine and annoying, a masterful play of the metagame, a terrible play of the metagame, or any combination thereof.
    • There's a relatively large group of die hard fans who only love the original seven seasons of the show and lambaste everything that came afterward. While most of these people are respectful towards those who like the more recent seasons, there's a lot of name calling that goes on between them and Trolls who like the newer seasons and accuse this group of wearing nostalgia filters.
    • Cochran flipping on the Savaii tribe in South Pacific is either the newest contender for the dumbest move in Survivor history, or a move that was perfectly legitimate given the circumstances.
  • Non Sequitur Scene: There was a scene in One World where a pig shows up from out of nowhere in the tribe's camp. Everyone starts to try and chase it while comical music plays, and... then cut to the immunity challenge. The pig isn't brought up after the challenge, and the only reason we know they didn't catch it is that there are a few shots of the same pig after the challenge. Fan theory is that the editors threw in that scene as Foreshadowing of Micheal Skupin likely coming back for season 25.
  • Boring Invincible Hero: Or Villain, it doesn't matter. When one alliance Pagongs another, all the suspense drains out of Tribal Council unless the larger alliance falls to infighting. If someone controls the game - such as Rob in Redemption Island or Kim in One World - then they become boring to watch, and if someone keeps losing control of the game, then it becomes more interesting...even though they're probably grinding their teeth.
  • Boring but Practical: Pagonging. Essentially, if you control a majority and remove all the other alliances and the floaters, you can waltz to a game milestone almost completely unopposed. Editors wouldn't like this strategy as it can make a season quite boring. Thankfully, it's only happened in its entirety in Borneo, Thailand, Cook Islands, Redemption Island, and South Pacific. And YMMV on Cook Islands since the tribe doing the pagonging was actually an underdog.
    • Obfuscating Stupidity / The Quiet One as a strategy. The editors don't like it unless you're doing something amusing like Fabio (Look how little screentime Vecepia, Brett, and Natalie got!) but when the other players think you're stupid/easy to beat, then if you play your cards right you'll be dragged along and possibly the last man out of your alliance.
  • Complacent Gaming Syndrome: Most players seem to have settled on the following strategy: When you hit the beach, you start making alliances of about three to five other people. Then you start sticking your hand in holes, digging up areas under suspicious looking logs or rocks, or looking in suspicious trees to find the idol. Then you start voting out people who are weak or sick, sometimes voting out physically stronger players because they're not as loyal. Around merge, especially if it's the last tribe-tribal council, you target the people who carried your tribe in the tribal phase and then target the other team's stronger players to reduce them to just one person. Then the person in charge of the alliance starts picking off the loads or the people in second or third, while the people at the bottom (or loads) start plotting to get the people on top voted out.
    • Extra emphasis on "complacent" in recent years (meaning Samoa to One World at least), as the prevailing strategy in several seasons has been "don't upset the apple cart". You have entire casts content to let the status quo be, allowing alliance ringleaders to waltz to the finals unopposed (such as Russell in Samoa, Rob in Redemption Island, and Colton until his medical evacuation in One World).
  • Complaining About Shows You Don't Watch: Survivor gets a lot of crap thrown its way by people who resent it for ushering in the rise of Reality TV. But most of these people who complain about it have never watched the Survivor in the first place, or even care that it's production values, entertainment value (and according to some, value as a sociological experiment) and viewer interactivity (via analyzing strategy, trying to spoil the winner ahead of time, etc) is orders of magnitude above the likes of Jersey Shore or any of the umpteenth dating reality shows you can find.
  • Creator's Pet: As you might have noticed from other tropes listed here, production plays favorites when it comes to screen time, due to their ability to effectively carry the season. More often than not, they fail.
    • Ben "Coach" Wade. Before Tocantins began, Jeff Probst claimed that he would be the most popular contestant since Rupert. He then became the focus of the entire season, often getting more screentime than the entire rest of the cast combined. To say there was a backlash would be putting it mildly.
    • Russell Hantz, if only for the fact that the viewers had to put up with him for three nearly-consecutive seasons: Samoa/The Russell Hantz Show and Heroes Vs Villains/Heroes vs. Russell; viewers then got a one-season break before he returned again for Redemption Island (but not for long, thankfully).
    • While Boston Rob was never too unpopular in All-Stars and Heroes vs. Villains, he hit this point after a large amount of shilling from the producers. Returning with other previous players in reunion seasons is one thing - coming back again for a showdown with Russell is another.
    • Philip on Redemption Island became this due to overexposure.
    • Ozzy on South Pacific. He was given a disproportionate amount of time in the reunion show, even including a question from a child in the audience basically asking how he was so awesome, at the expense of the other players including that season's winner. This for someone who was voted out three times, alternated between non-existent and disastrous strategy (his "Get himself voted out" gambit arguably cost his tribe the game, as it's intended target Christine had repeatedly expressed to them her hatred of Coach and would likely have been more loyal to him than eventual turncoat Cochran), frequently frustrated his alliance-mates with his fixation on Semhar and Elyse, and only got as far as he did because of the Redemption Island twist and his strength at the individual challenges.
  • Designated Hero / Designated Villain: Many seasons have at least one through editing. Heroes vs. Villains used this as its gimmick.
  • Dork Age: People often say that a season where somebody deemed undeserving wins, or with a cast full of people who are The Quiet One or where everyone's just really mean-hearted, boring, etc. Seasons 3-5 are sometimes considered the Dork Age (although Africa was moreso considered one by the editors because it was so hot out the players laid around all day and didn't do much interesting); but some have been calling 2009-2011 a Dork Age due to the producers' recent trends of constantly shoving the Creator's Pet down our throats, even calling two of the biggest Pets in the game back to star in the "Rob and Russell show", casting 16 players as extras, although Phillip and Matt obviously made up for the editors since Russell Hantz got voted out early before they could stuff him down our throats anymore.
    • To be fair to the editors and producers; Redemption Island had some things happen that was beyond their control. One, they really did a terrible job of balancing the tribe out, and one thing they couldn't control was not only putting the boring and stupid players on one tribe full of young people and eye candy, whereas all the older, smarter, and interesting characters were either clustered onto one tribe (Zapatera) that wound up pagonged (Which isn't the editor or producers' fault) or in Kristina and Francesca's case, was voted out early. The Redemption Island twist also wasn't used strategically like in the other versions because by the time the victors returned to the game the Ometepe cult was so united that the returnees were instantly voted right back out without having a chance to cause any drama and make the game more interesting.
    • As of One World, viewers have also identified the problem of overly complacent, conservative players who are not willing to take risks. This attitude led to Russell running Samoa, Rob running Redemption Island, and Colton running his tribe in the first half of One World. This last one was especially frustrating, because Colton was a petty racist bully and almost nobody was shown to even speak up in defense of his targets.
  • Draco in Leather Pants: Anyone that gets a villainous edit - be it designated or card-carrying - can get this treatment from part of the fanbase.
  • Dude, Not Funny: Oftentimes; seeing people fall down, getting thrown around, etc is pretty funny...until they're really hurt and sometimes have a game breaking injury.
  • Elimination Houdini: Several examples; read the article. It's actually a common strategy to take the worst player (meaning, in most cases, the most unlikable person out there) and protect them on the grounds that if it's you vs. them in the Finals, it's an easy win. This is called a "Goat". The concept is brutally subverted in Samoa, when Russell Hantz's goat actually ends up pulverising him in the Final Vote, which repeats itself in Heroes vs. Villains when both Russell and Parvati's intended goat wins over both of them.
    • There's a difference between flying under the radar and staying out of harm's way (like how Sandra managed to win both her seasons), and simply riding coattails (like Natalie in Redemption Island or Becky in Cook Islands). Getting to the finals by stealth is rewarded. Getting there by being a total non-factor isn't.
    • More people who kept houdini-ing their way out of elimination include:
      • Eliza. Almost every tribal council she was in, she was in trouble. Yet despite this she made her way to the final four, thanks in part to her alliance screwing up. Interestingly, Chris became an Elimination Houdini too (and the eventual winner) for that exact same reason: he should have been a goner when he became the last man remaining on the tribe and even sadly accepted that he was going home after he failed to win immunity, but thanks to Ami and Leann suddenly deciding that Eliza, who had always faithfully voted with them, was so annoying that she needed to go before obvious target Chris, he was able to split up the women's alliance with help from Twila and Scout.
      • Danni managed to escape because Stephenie's alliance decided she wasn't a threat and even thought it'd be a better idea to vote out the more easily-beaten Lydia over her.
      • Jonny Fairplay. Outnumbered 3-1 at the final four tribal council, had Sandra telling others not to trust him from early on, and everybody was fair game. He managed to talk Lillian and Sandra into voting out Darrah because she could win the final immunity challenge and that was probably their chance.
      • Chet. Just about every tribal council he was in, people were saying that he was weak. Survived about three tribal councils with people trying to get him out for weakness before finally being voted out, after more fit people like Mary, Mikey B, and Joel were eliminated.
      • Rocky, disliked by his tribe but was kept around because they needed to win challenges, picking him over the more easily-swayed Anthony. Finally with the merge around the corner, Ravu decides they had enough and sent him out.
      • Sarita managed to avoid elimination because Stephenie and Krista were less loyal to the Zapateras despite both being physically stronger.
      • Susie who was being voted for as a challenge liability several times; but due to her loyalties and lucky immunity win made the final three and even finished in second.
      • Sierra, managed to avoid elimination numerous times and was initially targeted for weakness. (having been on Antibiotics prior to the show due to Strep throat)
      • Cochran appears to be set up as this in South Pacific.
      • Gervase managed to charm his tribe mates enough to not get voted out of Pagong in the early stages of Borneo despite being bar none the laziest one there and causing Pagong to lose at least two challenges due to various weaknessess of his (such as his fear of bugs in the "Bugging Out" challenge and his inability to swim during "In From The Deep").
  • Ensemble Darkhorse: Every so often, characters who only make it a short way or fall short of winning tend to become fan favourites. This usually results in them being called back for an All-Star season:
    • Sonja, the first person ever voted out of Survivor, and Colleen Haskell, who was the first "sweet girl" on the show from Borneo.
    • Elisabeth Filarski, Colleen's Expy from The Australian Outback.
    • "Boston" Rob Mariano, from Marquesas was the first utilised example of this trope. Despite only coming 10th in his original season, he was asked back again for All-Stars where his game essentially made him the face of Survivor - he was even invited back for Heroes vs. Villains, being voted out again just before the jury stages, and even had an entire season created for him to win.
    • Andrew Savage from Pearl Islands, the leader of the increasingly desperate Morgan tribe who continually lost challenges while keeping a positive face and a winning attitude, voted out thanks to the outcasts twist. The even greater example of this trope in Pearl Island is obviously Rupert Boneham, who was one of the most unique and outlandish individuals to play the game at that point. His popularity earn him a spot on both All-Stars and Heroes vs. Villains, placing better on those seasons than he did on this one, as well as his own million dollars on America's Tribal Council.
    • Eliza Orlins from Vanuatu, perhaps one of the most notable examples of the Plucky Girl on the show - she went to every Tribal Council in danger, and always managed to escape by the skin of her teeth, and became the poster child for resilience. At least, until...
    • Stephenie LaGrossa from Palau basically became the face of Survivor in 2005, despite only coming 7th in her season. Stephenie was the sole survivor of her tribe's utter annihilation (which would forever henceforth be called "Ulonging" after her tribe) at the hands of Koror, and would be known for years on end as "America's Sweetheart". She was even invited back in Guatemala, where she was the runner-up.
    • Cirie Fields from Panama was the epitome of the woman on the couch, a fan of the show who was, at the start, scared of leaves. Come the end of the show, she's become the face of strategy on Survivor, returned for Micronesia and Heroes vs. Villains, and basically revolutionised the way people strategise on Survivor.
    • Yau-Man Chan from Fiji, the elderly Asian-American computer engineer who was deceptively good in challenges and was one of the nicest and child-friendly contestants that had been on Survivor, which earned him a return to Micronesia.
    • Jane Bright from Nicaragua, the Cool Old Lady who was one of the only people in the history of Survivor to go into the show having practiced making fire, and only went on the show to become the Ensemble Darkhorse - she succeeded, and became America's Favourite Contestant that year.
    • Stephanie on Redemption Island, one of Russell Hantz's "dumb ass girls". She was one of his best lambs, and captured more screen time than most of the other tribe, despite being voted out before the merge.
    • Although he has not yet been brought back, Bobby "Bob Dawg" Mason from Panama has a sizable online fandom thanks to his performances in challenges, his unique personality, and his razor sharp quips and put downs.
    • Troy "Troyzan" Robertson from One World has a pretty large fanbase, most likely a combination of his over-the-top personality during the game, and the fact that he's been a fan of the show since its first season.
  • Epileptic Trees: Some of the theories in this thread (which documents the history of online Survivor spoilers) can get pretty creative and outlandish, especially the Follow The Star theory by a Survivor Sucks poster called "Tapewatcher" which claimed that Ethan would win Africa because the editing symbolized him as Jesus.
  • Evil Is Sexy: Female examples are Parvati, Jerri, Ami, Danielle, Courtney. Male examples are Brian, "Boston" Rob, and Tyson.
    • Beauty Equals Goodness: On the other hand, the "Good" characters can boast Ozzy, Colby, J.T., Stephenie and Amanda.

F-J

  • Fan Dumb: Probably the most interesting theme of Survivor is how differently everyone views the show. To some, it's So Bad It's Good. To other viewers, it may be absolutely terrible or So Cool Its Awesome, and there's rarely any middle ground opinions about the "quality" of the show. The Fan Dumb for Survivor claim that the show used to be good, but dropped off in quality somewhere between Australian Outback and All Stars. Your Mileage May Vary, and it probably will.
    • Some viewers (mostly viewers whose introduction to Survivor was Samoa or Tocantins) actually agree with Russell, and ignore that it's also a social game, or ignore the "Outlast" bit of the show's slogan, meaning you can't win Survivor if the jury doesn't want you to win.
    • This shows a good example of Fan Dumb. The author, an acclaimed Survivor columnist and possibly the foremost expert on the show Mario Lanza, also mentions that the Boston Rob cult can be pretty vicious too. The keyword is mentioning how the fans reacted, since the author does admit he has his own biases.
    • Despite Fiji being a scrappy season for most, the unofficial car deal between Yauman and Dreamz sparked off one of the most volatile post-season discussions in the show's history. To recap, if Dreamz won the final immunity challenge, he had to give Yauman the immunity necklace in exchange for an SUV Yauman won during a reward challenge. The anger towards Dreamz for not following through on his side of the deal is understandable. The Fan Dumb comes in with the viewers threatening to boycott the show, because Dreamz was allowed to take the car with zero repercussions. This is in spite of Jeff Proust explaining that the deal can't be enforced by the game's producers, so if Dreamz does not follow through, they can't do a thing about it. Even more jarring, some of these fans even attacked Earl for not voting off Cassandra to keep Yauman in the game, since it's the honorable thing to do. Yes, after a dozen or so seasons of backstabbing and politics, now fans demand honor above. This is in spite of the jury admitting that they would have voted Yauman over Earl 6-3 if they both reached the top three. (And you just know people would be saying Too Dumb to Live if Dreamz had given up Immunity)
    • A lot of threads around how the "current winner" was the "Worst winner of Survivor yet". This happens with a much greater frequency whenever a woman wins than when a man wins - Unfortunate Implications and Hypocritical Fandom, anyone?
    • Survivor Sucks, a board for fans of Survivor is often full of Fan Dumb and can lead to some...quite vicious threads.
      • On the other hand, Sucks is more or less the most popular online community for Survivor fans. While there are a lot of idiots and trolls on the boards, there are also a lot of reasonable and very well spoken posters; amongst the Flame-Wars and comments made in poor-taste, there are actually a lot of people with genuine insight, as well as the "Edgic" around one forum, which has often been used to predict winners. (Editing + Logic)
  • Fan Nickname: "Pagonging" is when, after tribes merge, the one with the majority systematically eliminates the other (named for the Pagong tribe of Borneo, the first victim of this). As many of the players don't feel a need to immediately break the original tribal alliances upon merging, pagonging is attempted rather often. (It often leads to a Boring but Practical strategy if one thinks about it; because removing the opposing alliances at merge means you can waltz undefeated to the finals.)
    • "Ulonging" is similar; only the tribe gets utterly destroyed before the merge by losing challenges. Named for the Ulong tribe in Palau, who lost every single Immunity challenge. They went down in history as the only tribe to be completely eliminated before the merge (except for Stephenie). In fact, there was no official merge in that season because of this.
    • "Idoled" is when a contestant is eliminated only because another player who has the same or higher total of votes against them uses the Hidden Immunity Idol to save themselves from elimination. So far, this has happened in Fiji, Micronesia, Samoa and Heroes vs. Villains.
    • "Loser Lodge" is a popular term for the Ponderosa, the nearby complex at which Jury members are sequestered before the final Tribal Council.
    • "Mactor" is a Portmanteau of "model" and "actor", referring to the large number of models and wannabe actors who've been cast over the years. It's implied to mean in a cynical way that said mactor doesn't care about being on Survivor and is only on the show for the exposure (as opposed to an "applicant" who is more likely to have watched previous seasons).
    • "Gamebot" is a player whose entire focus is on winning the game and maximizing their success at winning the game at the expense of everything else (such as, you know, maybe enjoying the experience, or remembering that this is a social game too). They are differentiated from most players (who also want to win) by their total disinterest in anything that doesn't advance them further in the game. A good example of this is Amanda and Danielle during Heroes vs Villains when they went along with Colby to the home of Robert Louis Stevenson on reward. Amanda even said out loud that she didn't care about the reward itself, and just wanted a clue to the next hidden immunity idol.
    • Here's a few other popular(or once popular) fan nicknames for alliances featured on the show:
      • "Boran Boys Club" (Lex, Big Tom, and Ethan during Africa)
      • "The Rotu 4" (John, Tammy, Robert Decanio, and Zoe during Marquesas)
      • "Twigs and Sticks" (Jenna and Heidi during The Amazon)
      • "The Fat Five" (Lea, Bubba, Chris, Chad, and Rory during Vanuatu)
      • "Crazy Casaya" (Shane, Courtney, Danielle, Aras, Cirie, Bruce, and Bobby during Panama. This is an exception in that it describes the entire tribe instead of a specific alliance.)
      • Aitu 4" (Yul, Sundra, Ozzy, and Becky)
      • Black Widow Brigade (Parvati, Amanda, Cirie, Natalie, and Alexis during Micronesia)
      • The Onions (Marcus, Charlie, Corinne, Jacquie, and Bob during Gabon)
      • "The Ometepe five/six" (Andrea, Natalie, Grant, Phillip, Ashley, Rob when it's six.)
      • CRABS (Coach, Rick, Albert, Brandon, and Sophie during South Pacific.)
    • "CG-I", to refer to a player with an Out of Focus edit and seems almost digitally inserted into the show halfway through the season.
  • Foe Yay: Some contestants can be a little-too-obsessed with a fellow castaway they claim they don't like.
    • Jerri and Colby. Enough Said. Bonus: watch this, from 1:58 - 2:16.
    • Richard Hatch and Sue Hawk had a rather unfortunate encounter in All-Stars that led to the latter quitting the game.
    • Jeff Probst and Johnny Fairplay.
    • Russell Hantz was fixated on Boston Rob during Heroes Vs Villains, while everyone else in turn became fixated on Russell.
    • Kelly Wigglesworth and Sue Hawk from Borneo is a pretty sad example, given that they seemed to be good friends at one point.
  • Follow the Leader: Started an entire wave of reality shows.
    • Jeff Probst's first speech to the players in Heroes Vs Villains called his beloved show "the greatest adventure game in the history of television".
  • Funny Aneurysm Moment: In Fiji, Boo's Blunders are hilarious until the final episode when he tears his ACL. Nobody was laughing then.
  • Genius Bonus: In South Pacific, Christine angrily calls Coach "King Farouk" after she's voted out. Anyone familiar with the history of this king[1] could catch this as Foreshadowing on behalf of the editors that Coach was going to lose.
    • In one episode of Marquesas, Zoe compares the raft that her tribe is making for the upcoming reward challenge to Kon-Tiki, the famous raft used by Thor Heyerdahl in the 1940's to demonstrate that indigenous people from South America may have settled in Polynesia at one point. Heyerdahl first envisioned this hypothesis (which would later be largely discredited) while living in the Marquesas Islands.
  • Germans Love David Hasselhoff: In a complete 180 to the opinions of America, B.B. was perhaps one of the most popular characters on Survivor in Australia when it aired at the time, and the general consensus was that the Pagong tribe, apart from B.B., were lazy.
  • Harsher in Hindsight: Before Thailand, Jeff had said that the cast of that season looked to be the best that the show had so far. Thailand to this day remains to be Jeff's least favorite season.
    • Before the car challenge that Cindy won in Guatemala , Lydia says she is going to try to win it for her teenage son. Less than a year later, her only son would die in a car crash.
  • Hilarious in Hindsight: Amber mentioned in her audition tape for Australia that the host visited her in a dream and told her she would win. Which she did...the second time she played.
    • In an early episode of Pearl Islands, after arguing with Sandra, Jonny Fairplay declared in a confessional that "I got a million that says she won't be the final one!" Guess who ended being the first (and so far only) two-time winner?
    • IN the "Meet the Cast" videos for Samoa, Jeff mentions that Russell apparently doesn't realize it's a social game - guess what comes back and bites him in the ass HARD?
  • Holy Shit Quotient
  • Ho Yay: Some contestants are prone to this.
    • Bisexual Ami from Vanuatu generated more than a little Les Yay with some of her female tribemates.
    • Parvati Shallow (from Cook Islands, Micronesia and Heroes vs. Villains), is prone to this, as she uses her good looks to manipulate everyone around her. During Heroes vs. Villains, Danielle's Fatal Flaw was defensively revealing her alliance with Parvati to Russell.

Danielle: I'm closer to Parvati than you think.
Russell: ...oh, really?

    • There's a running joke among hard core Survivor fans that Colby and Jeff Probst are gay lovers. It didn't help to diffuse the rumor when Colby said during the Heroes vs Villains pre-show special, and I quote, "Probst, snuffing the torch. Man, I'd like to snuff that guy's torch." Seriously, he said this with a straight face... because he meant that he'd like to dismiss Probst from the game. Sometimes the fans see what they want to see.
      • And then there's the running joke amongst some fans where they try guessing which of the men Probst will crush on every new season, as he seems to hold favoritism towards the "manliest men" each season.
    • On the "Greatest and Most Outrageous Moments" DVD for Borneo, there's an extended scene of something orignally shown during Jenna Lewis' boot episode. The scene featured Gervase, Sean and Rudy discussing Richard's fishing ability and whether it was worth the value of him not doing any other work around camp. The conversation then turns to Dr Sean discussing Rich being a "fat naked fag", and how he would buy a calandar of other FNF's scuba diving and rock climbing. Ironically, Rudy said that such a calandar would sell "To the queers, anyway".
  • Hypocrite: in-game, people often criticize others for lying, making deals, or backstabbing them...when they themselves would do the same to get in their shoes.
  • Hypocritical Fandom: If a male lies, cheats, backstabs, and manipulates his way into the final two or three and wins, the fandom praises his gameplay. If a woman does the same, she's considered dislikable and is the "Worst winner yet".
    • Heck, one person even said this about responses to Amber from the U.S. "All Stars" season, who was considered one of those "Worst winners yet".

"If that was Amber doing all the strategizing, lying, backstabbing, deal-making, and manipulating, would you still say she's one of the worst winners ever?"

  • Idiot Ball: The Ometepe tribe held one for the entire season.
    • Sash grabbed it twice in Nicaragua: first when he chose to vote out Kelly B even though Marty was clearly the bigger threat, and then again at the end, when he was duped by Fabio into blindsiding Jane, and then proceeded to tell her right to her face that she was the next to go. (of course Chase had it too in that case.)
    • Lex giving up a 6-4 lead for his tribe and almost getting voted out during the merge in a close vote due to his rampant paranoia. And the only reason he was saved was because Brandon was carrying an even bigger idiot ball than him.
    • Tom in All-Stars just barely touched the idiot ball when he called himself the swing vote between the Rob-Amber alliance and the Rupert-Jenna alliance. Normally not a bad thing to say to the Confession Cam, but instead, he did it right to Rob's face. At the final five. That was all an already wary Rob needed to turn the vote against Tom and send him packing.
  • Iron Woobie: Stephenie LaGrossa is seen as this first in Palau when she was alone on the Ulong tribe, and then again after Heroes vs. Villains - some unconfirmed rumours state that she was eliminated because she was still hurting from having her shoulder dislocated in the first challenge in the game. (Would explain why she was voted out over that Candice girl nobody really knew.)
  • It's the Same, Now It Sucks: Some of the criticisms of the show for returning to previous filming locations (Panama, Samoa). Even some of the producers have thought this, but in between the weather[2] and political unrest,[3] finding a new location for the show is easier said than done, especially since they have to have worthy housing for three hundred people. They even stated that some locations are out due to problems with the area, such as Africa wherein everyone was sick and too hot to do anything, Guatemala where the temperature would regularly be over one hundred degrees F, or Marquesas where the insects inflicted quite a bit of discomfort amongst the contestants and staff. Therefore, reusing locations is a bit of a necessary evil, and even plenty of the staff would love to go to new locations too.
    • It's also been speculated that they always have to film it on an island away from civilization or in the event of a mainland one like Gabon, China, or Amazon, in a very secluded area due to speculations of people trying to fly or drive into the filming area(s) and spoil or disrupt the game. It's speculated that's why they won't film it in Australia again, or try Alaska.
  • Jerkass Woobie: Many

K-O

  • Love It or Hate It: The very early seasons (Borneo, The Australian Outback, and Africa). Some people love them for their emphasis on the wildness survival aspect, adventure, and superior character development(compared to the later seasons, everyone on the early seasons got a fair share of the camera time), while others hate them for their lack of sophisticated game play, pagongings, and the more neutral, impartial attitude of Jeff Probst compared to later seasons.
    • The later seasons also apply (Post-Season 12), albeit to a lesser degree. While some people love the sophisticated plotting compared to the earlier seasons and the various additions to the show (most notably the Hidden Immunity Idol), other viewers find the heavy emphasis on strategy at the expense of everything else(including things like character development), as well as host Jeff Probst's interventionist approach to player politics, to have ruined the show from it's "former glory".
  • Love to Hate: Richard Hatch and "Boston" Rob; both play hard and talk big but ultimately treat the game with as much seriousness as reality TV deserves (that is, little to none). Sandra could be added to this list, too - she's abrasive, but her "cut the crap" attitude can be very refreshing.
  • Magnificent Bastard: Richard Hatch from Borneo, Brian Heidik from Thailand, Chris Daugherty from Vanuatu, Yul Kwon from Cook Islands, Todd Herzog from China, Parvati Shallow from Micronesia, and Kim Spradlin from One World. Sandra Diaz-Twine was less outright manipulative, but she was able to win twice (Pearl Islands and Heroes Vs. Villains).
    • Honorable mention goes to "Boston" Rob Mariano, who dominated All-Stars and came within one vote of winning the million dollars, but still got away with far more than any second-placer can even dream of, starting with marrying the winner. (He would eventually win himself in Redemption Island, but fans attribute that more to the simple-mindedness of Rob's allies than Rob's own abilities.)
    • Other honorable mentions go to Rob Cesternino from The Amazon, Jonny Fairplay from Pearl Islands, Cirie Fields from Panama and even more so in Micronesia, Jessica "Sugar" Kiper from Gabon, Stephen Fischbach from Tocantins, and even Benjamin "Coach" Wade his third time around in South Pacific.
  • Memetic Badass: Samoa contestant Dave Ball, aka "Danger Dave."
  • Memetic Mutation: Silas Screws : A picture of Silas Gaither at an awards show inspires countless Black Comedy Rape jokes.
    • I'M LIVID! : An offhand comment by Amanda Kimmel leads to one of the funniest parodies of Survivor ever.
    • "I'm a 150-200% happy with the wife that I have!"
    • "It's just a fucking stick!"
    • After having the cameras turned towards Russell for the entire season before suddenly showing this "Brett" person in Samoa; It became a bit of a meme around some boards to refer to Brett as "CG-I Brett", or jokingly say that he was an extra actor hired to be artificially put into the season near the end, as well as photoshopping Brett into other shots of past seasons. (It's a Running Gag on the new 115)
    • "I will always wave my finger in your face!"
    • "Who is this jackass?!"
    • Rudy gave us "Me and Richard got to be pretty good friends,(but) not in a homosexual way, that's for sure", "I DUNNO", and ""I have a lot of friends", among others.
    • The posters on the Survivor Sucks message board have a running joke that they play on n00bs, pretending that B.B from the first season has been dead for several years. As of February, 2012, he's still around and kicking.
    • "BECAUSE YOU'RE WRONG, OKAY? So shut up!"
    • "I'm a grown-ass man!"
  • Memetic Molester: Jerri Manthey in Australia, thanks to her Erotic Eating fetish.
  • Memetic Outfit: Notable examples are Rupert's tie-dye shirts, Boston Rob's Red Sox cap, Russell's Nice Hat, among others.
    • It could be said that Richard's memetic outfit is his birthday suit.
  • Moe: Colleen Haskell from Borneo, Amber Brkich and Elisabeth Filarski from Australian Outback, Kim Powers from Africa, Eliza Orlins from Vanuatu and Micronesia, Michelle Yi from Fiji, Courtney Yates from China and Heroes vs Villains, Sugar Kiper from Gabon and Heroes vs Villains.
  • Misblamed: In South Pacific, Coach questions his alliance with Brandon Hantz after finding out he's related to Russell Hantz, because he remembers how Russell said he was also a man of god and then voted him out in Heroes vs. Villains...however, Russell Hantz was one of the people who didn't vote for Coach at his Final Tribal Council, along with Jerri. In fact; Russell and Jerri actually voted with him.
    • No, Redemption Island wasn't entirely Jeff's idea; other versions of the show have done it long before.
      • For that matter, Jeff has no say in the editing - with the exception of challenges and Tribal Council, he sees everything at the same time we do.
  • Nausea Fuel: People do get hurt in Survivor. Heck, it's an inherent risk, especially in the more recent season in which they have fighting challenges. However, one particular moment following a rather vicious looking challenge in Fans vs. Favourites had many viewers looking away from the TV screaming, "EW EW EW EW EW!!!" or feeling like they were about to lose their lunch. Jonathan Penner received a puncture wound to the knee and had to be evacuated from the game due to an infection that could potentially have taken out his leg. They actually showed the medic irrigating the puncture wound on TV to show how bad it was.
  • Needs More Love: Some seasons, most notably Thailand, are very underrated.
    • Fiji, despite being a failed experiment actually had quite a few very brilliant moves, and is generally one of the more goofy seasons (for the most part).
    • Some winners are also this.
  • Never Live It Down: The especially manipulative, deceitful, or heavy-handed contestants tend to get treated this way, In-show and out, along with the What an Idiot! contestants.
    • The show itself is never going to live down Russell...especially since they keep finding ways directly and indirectly work him into almost every season.
    • Marquesas has this in two parts: the first is that the location had so much discomfort from the bugs that it will never be used again. The second is that because Paschal was so unfairly screwed over by the Purple Rock, contestants in future season have betrayed alliance-mates so they don't end up forcing a tie and risk drawing the infamous rock themselves.
    • The accusations by Borneo contestant Stacey Stillman that the producer's persuaded Sean and Dirk into voting her off so they could save the more colorful Rudy, and Dirk's eventual admittance in court that this was true, has cast a shadow over the show for years and made many viewers question whether any other game influencing Executive Meddling has taken place.
  • Nostalgia Filter: Some viewers really prefer the older seasons to the more recent ones.
  • Not So Different: Quite a bit.
    • Some of the arguments against the Final Three have actually been Not So Different about complaints that happened when the show did a Final two format. Probst has pointed out that, yes, he has received complaints about "Blowout" Final twos where "Oh, nobody was going to vote for *Insert second place winner here*," just like how he has received complaints of "Oh, nobody was going to vote for *insert third place winner here*."
  • Offscreen Moment of Awesome: Tom's famous shark-hunt in Palau.
    • Pagong all voting for Jeff Probst at their first Tribal Council, and Greg's rebelliousness against the producers in general.
  • Older Than They Think: Actually not American from the beginning - the concept originated in Sweden as Expedition Robinson back in 1997. It was picked up by CBS in 2000, and the rest is history.
    • Certain twists meanwhile. Tribal switches had happened before Africa, and the concept of Redemption Island was actually used in previous versions of Survivor, often called "Island of the Dead" or "island of purgatory".
  • Old Guard Versus New Blood: As the strategy of Survivor has become more complex over the years, less emphasis has been placed on certain aspects that brought older fans into the show in the first place (such as the adventure element, which has sadly been more or less ignored in recent years) . As more and more twists became commonplace on the show (the hidden immunity idol, for example), there was also less time for character development. Old Guard fans complained about all the time being spent on strategy and twists, which lead to generic and dull seasons such as fan unfavorite Fiji and Redemption Island. These complaints consequently lead to the producers casting Spotlight-Stealing Squad contestants like Coach, Rob, and Russell, and editing the show in the over the top style that we see in the most recent seasons. Of course, Old Guard fans still haven't gotten what they wanted, and they complain that the lack of adventure and character development in these newer seasons is even worse than they were in Cook Islands or Fiji, while on the other side of the equation, the New Blood fans complain about the older seasons for being boring and lacking in strategy.

P-T

  • Plot Tumor: The Hidden Immunity Idol. In some seasons, the influence of the idol becomes so important that it's hard to imagine the boot order occurring even remotely like it actually did if the idol wasn't in place. It must be slightly jarring for modern viewers to imagine that once upon a time, there were no idols.
  • Portmanteau Couple Name: "Romber" was one for Rob & Amber.
  • Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: Coach in Heroes vs Villians. He was less obnoxious and he became good at the challenges (and we were less exposed to his... "eccentricities" thanks to Russell). Compare him in Tocantins to South Pacific. Likewise, Jerri became very well liked by fans throughout Heroes vs Villains, especially when you compare how she was booed off the stage in her previous appearance in the reunion show and how the crowd cheered and applauded her in this recent one. Her smile could've just lighted up the whole studio.
    • Boston Rob's gotten a variation; he was never anybody's Scrappy, but he's certainly been rescued from the villain heap. He came into Heroes vs. Villains as the arch-manipulator untrustworthy bad guy, but was arguably more heroic than most of the hero tribe, especially when put with other non-villain Villains such as Sandra and Courtney. Not to mention having actual villains such as Randy, Tyson, and Russell around to contrast with suddenly made Rob look like a pretty nice, easygoing guy (marriage and fatherhood probably helped too). By Redemption Island, his tribe immediately expressed relief that they got the "good" veteran.
    • Clarence Black from the Africa season. After being ostracized by his tribe for most of the game because he ate a can of beans from said tribe's food rations while the others were away searching for a water source , he later on shapes up, works hard at camp and in the challenges, and eventually earns back their respect.
  • Rewatch Bonus: There's actually quite a lot - the "Funny 115" site actually points out how easy it is to miss these, but if you rewatch a season, you can spot a lot of Foreshadowing.
  • Rooting for the Empire: Maybe you don't accept CBS' choices for Designated Hero and Designated Villain, or maybe Good Is Dumb and the "villain's" are more likeable or their strategy appears better.
  • Ruined FOREVER: In tandem with They Changed It, Now It Sucks, the many changes the show has made over the years has incurred the wrath of some of the shows Fan Dumb. Here's a partial list:
    • Replacing the Final 2 format with the Final 3 in the majority of recent seasons.
    • The Hidden Immunity Idol is very unpopular with certain fans of the original seasons.
    • How they frequently cut out the intro featuring the theme song and contestant still shots in every episode starting with season twelve (and just as bad, eliminating contestant shots from the intro as they are voted off).
    • Jeff Probst's obvious favoritism towards certain contestants and/or expressing his opinions in show rather than remaining impartial...this is especially prevalent in the reunion show, wherein Probst has been known to completely ignore certain players...
    • Certain Base Breaker contestants like Rupert or Russell getting the lions share of the airtime.
    • Both of the twists that allow voted out players to re-enter the game (The Outcast Tribe in Pearl Islands and Redemption Island in Season 22 and afterwards).
  • Scenery Porn: Especially in the seasons from Gabon onward, which were shot in HD.
  • Scrappy Mechanic:
    • The Hidden Immunity Idols. In their earlier seasons, they were not easy to find. Players had to receive and follow clues, walk great distances, search in very specific areas, sometimes even dig for them, making it a true treasure hunt. Ever since Samoa, the idols are now hidden in the near vicinity of the camp, in very easy to find places, namely inside holes on trees, under bushes and other easy places where one just has to stick their hand in and find it. This has lead to players finding them easily (at least those savvy enough to look for them) and being able to use several of them throughout the season, with Russell Hantz being the most well known example at how he'd find and use so many of them. Fans have grown tired of this ease to find the idols, as they feel it can interfere with the strategic portions of the game if the players are more focused on running around the island to find the idols than on anything else.
    • Neither of Redemption Island's twists, used again in South Pacific, worked out well:
      • Having two returning players tends to give them an unfair advantage in both experience and the fact that the new players are a little starstruck; Rob's tribe wound up following him like a cult and Ozzy's and Coach's tribes weren't much better (though to be fair, Russell was put at an equally large disadvantage; his tribe throwing a challenge to get him out). It also leads to them hogging all the screen time.
      • Redemption Island itself cheapens the Tribal Council vote, makes players play more conservatively instead of shaking things up, steals reward challenges (and therefore tribe drama) from those who still could get voted out, and means nothing if there is little effect on the boot order (Matt was ousted so quick both times it's like he never came back; Ozzy came back so quickly from his first time it's like he never left, and Ozzy's second time was almost like Matt's except he stalled one vote by winning immunity).
      • Redemption Island also had the potential to eliminate the entire "vote people out and then convince them to give you a million dollars" concept that is at the core of the show's drama. Ozzy came dangerously close to winning the game simply because he never had to vote anyone out.
  • Seasonal Rot: Thailand was seen as a hit and miss, thanks to a winner that could have been seen coming a mile away, boring and unimaginative challenges, and generally not having as many high points as other seasons.
    • Fiji also was hit with this and They Changed It, Now It Sucks; because only one person on the show actually applied. Everyone else was recruited. One other reason for this was the general Jerkass-ness of the cast combined with a dull predictable pre-merge game consisting of Ravu losing every single tribe with only tribal switches to make things interesting. The producers also admit that it's a failed experiment. (A "heaven" tribe and a "hell" tribe. Needless to say every challenge was more or less a Curb Stomp Battle.)
    • Redemption Island with the unnecessary return of infamous spotlight members Boston Rob and Russell. While Russell was voted off third, it became clear that only one of the tribes had the power to carry the season, and once they were Pagonged, with absolutely no opposition to Boston Rob, it was clear that Boston Rob had zero chance of losing. Add in the amount of shilling worked into every single episode, as well as a Finale that can be completely summed up as "isn't Rob awesome?", and you got what's universally considered the worst season of Survivor. People were actually applauding not that Rob finally won, but that the season ended, with plenty of long-time fans having shut off the season mid-way. Even those who sat through the previous "worst seasons ever".
  • Seinfeld Is Unfunny: Some of the earlier seasons, mainly Borneo, The Australian Outback, and Africa, can be a little hard to watch nowadays because many people had played the strategy game so well (Boston Rob, Brian, Rob Cesternino, Jonny Fairplay, Rafe, Cirie, Yul, Parvati, Earl, Yau-Man, Todd, Amanda and Sugar come to mind) some of the early players seem like utter fools in comparison. Even predesignated roles - Jerri proudly wears the title of Survivor's original Villain, but seeing her in Australian Outback after the likes of Jonny Fairplay, Boston Rob, Ami, Randy and Russell Hantz can make her look like just a rude girl in comparison. (She admits as much in the premiere of Heroes Vs Villains, and she wasn't that villainous thereafter. See also Rescued from the Scrappy Heap where Jerri was applauded; whereas she was booed off the stage previously in the All-Stars reunion)
    • However, the earlier seasons had a different mindset than what was used today. Richard Hatch was HATED by the audience not just for being arrogant, but for daring to play the game at all, because at the time most people (including most of the earlier contestants) expected votes to be based on merit instead of politics and considered alliances and shrewd gameplay to be unethical.
    • The challenges also fall into this category. They were far less elaborate in the earlier seasons than they were in the more recent seasons, unless they were one of the Final Exam Boss type challenges.
    • Plays that were at the time novel and brilliant are now seen as commonplace - alliances (first appeared in Borneo), finding idols without clues, (Guatemala), Splitting votes to flush out the idol aka "Plan Voodoo" (First envisioned in Cook Islands, first implemented in Redemption Island), throwing challenges following a tribal switch (Africa), bait-and-switch voting (Fiji), idoling (Fiji again), and fake idols (Fiji again) are all a part of the game so much that their use in later seasons has a lesser impact.
      • certain twists, too. Tribal switches, hidden immunity idols, etc are so commonplace.
    • From a recent discussion on a fan board, some people have said that "Borneo" was the worst season of Survivor specifically because it was so boring and predictable with the players making no strategy to speak of.
      • Borneo is arguably a case of Values Dissonance. It's not that the players on the first season weren't aware of strategy, they were, but they felt that it took away from the spirit and fun of the show. To paraphrase Greg Buis, alliances were thought of as boring and a dick move(as opposed to just voting your conscious and maybe the best player would naturally come forth from that). Many fans on Survivor Sucks like to rank the seasons, and when they do, a lot of them don't include Borneo in their rankings for this very reason(that it is incompatible with later seasons). And for what Borneo lacks in strategy, it makes up for in character development. Compare it to any other season, recent seasons especially, and you will notice a greater depth in the confessionals and story arcs. No one is a "Brett" in the first season.
    • Part of why "Australian Survivor" didn't do so well was that it looked almost like a knock-off of the first season of Survivor. Not as much character development and most of the early episodes looked a bit like filming a camping trip.
      • Not to mention, some poorly-designed challenges. The first immunity challenge had to be redone because they had to light fires and the fires all went out. In another challenge, the team who won thought the other team lost due to poor luck and gave them the reward.
  • Spotlight-Stealing Squad: Some say Survivor's entering a Dork Age due to how sickenly common this trope is getting in the recent years. The first real example of this that worked was Rupert in Pearl Islands, who really was one of the more unique people that had been cast on the show at that point; however, the producers have been trying to recreate that success with Coach in Tocantins, which arguably pushed the show's quality down when the camera was kept off of most of the other contestants and kept on him and his antics; Russell in Samoa repeated this trend, which robbed the eventual winner Natalie of any real screen time. Sadly, this was repeated again in Redemption Isand, where Boston Rob and Russell both returned and hogged all the screen time, but it should be noted that when one tribe consists of boring props and the only other interesting characters are Phillip, Matt, and the soon-to-be-gone Zapatera tribe, the producers are forced to give the screen time to the most well-known personality of Survivor.
  • "Stop Having Fun!" Guys: Many of the contestants on Survivor take the show far too seriously, often veering into Serious Business.
    • James gave vibes of this in Heroes vs. Villains. He was a lot more aggressive in his gameplay, and all he earned from that was a potential boot before the jury (at least that's what would've happened if his injury didn't keep him from playing).
  • Straw Man Has a Point: There are a couple nice moves performed by players who may even be idiots at worst - Russell deducing Immunity Idol locations with only one (or no) clues, Fairplay getting into the final three with two weaker players, Phillip seeing through Ralph's "lie" about having the hidden Immunity Idol, or NaOnka actually trying to play the game to pull Fabio on board with a blindside - when it was known that she hated him. If you can see through lies and get your enemies to help you, you've done something right.
  • Super Couple: "Boston Rob" and Amber; from Marquesas and Australian Outback respectively but they courted while playing All-Stars. The fame from this parlayed into two stints on The Amazing Race (one regular, one in their All-Star season) and their own reality show.
    • Rob and Amber's utter domination of All-Stars resulted in future castaways becoming extremely leery of similar hook-ups in later seasons. If it even appears that a young male and a young female are starting to bond, one of the two will almost certainly get voted out at the next opportunity.
  • Surprise Difficulty: A lot of people who really know the game from watching it for years (like those in Micronesia) often wind up running into this when they actually play. Mario Lanza and others have pointed out that playing the game is much different than actually watching it on TV. When you watch it on TV, you see all the confessionals, the tribal councils, etc, and are often well-rested and well fed while watching it. When you're playing the game, you do not see the Tribal Councils, the confessionals, and are always hungry and sleep-deprived. If you think about it, some plans that involved guessing at what people on the other tribe were thinking may have seen stupid to the viewers because we knew what happened on the other side, they didn't.
    • It was discussed at the end of Micronesia, also stating why fans vs favourite seasons don't always work out in favour of the fans. The fans have only known it from online-role-playing games, watching the show, discussing it, etc. The favourites meanwhile know what it's like to actually be in the game when you're hungry and sleep-deprived, and aren't within reach of a nice dinner or a comfortable bed whenever you are hungry or tired. That and the fans were a little too star-struck and were more likely to fall into traps and be easily-manipulated...or start knocking potential allies out trying to impress and find their way into nearly-unbreakable alliances.
  • They Changed It, Now It Sucks: The many additions/changes to the show have created a Broken Base over the past seasons.
    • If you watch all of the seasons back to back, there is an unmistakable shift in tone that occurs during the more recent seasons starting with Vanuatu, emphasizing strategy and shocking twists over everything else. Whether or not this "sucks" is up to you.
    • The Final Three format gets hit with this a lot. Probst actually says he prefers the final three because people would bring someone to the finals for perverse incentives, whereas others argue that this is part of the game, Others also point out that it's still in between two people in the end, since there has only been one season in which all three members in the final three received at least one vote (China: Amanda received one vote, Courtney received two, Todd received four) It was likely inspired by Exile Islands; where people were planning on taking Courtney to the finals simply because everyone hated her, and arguably when Terry, the only person who really fought to stay in the game through one of the most memorable immunity runs since Colby's, was kicked at the Final 3.
      • Not to mention, before the final three was even considered, there were seasons where the final vote was basically a "Blowout" because the winner was basically decided at the final immunity challenge; making the final tribal council nothing but Padding. The producers have even said they might go back to a final two at some point, nothing is set in stone.
    • The iconic Ancient Voices theme that used to play at the end of every episode has in recent seasons been replaced by a rather more generic and bland score.
  • They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Generically, whenever a contestant is put through a Shocking Elimination or whenever legitimately interesting or Badass-looking contestants are early-mid game boots. Especially early-mid game because we barely get to know them. See also I Coulda Been a Contender. A couple big examples include:
    • Dolly in Vanuatu.
    • Steve "Chicken" Morris in China.
    • Jacqui in Gabon. At the time, it looked like there was a near-unbreakable alliance with Charlie, Marcus, and Corrine. However; she wound up screwed by a twist.
    • Kristina Kell and a lot of the Zapateras on Redemption Island. Other than Rob and Phillip, most of the Ometepe players were just dull living props, whereas on the Zapatera side, we have some legitimately interesting people and a couple players who the host says is badass, as well as one of the most Dangerously Genre Savvy players in the series.
    • Kelly B, Yve, Tyrone, and Jill. It's pretty obvious that all four are physically capable (Jill even wins the first individual immunity of the game); but they wind up evicted in a very awkward part of the game: Right before the merge. Probst doesn't even acknowledge them that much (Kelly excluded); and there have even been speculations that Jill didn't even attend the reunion.
    • Sugar, Randy, Tom, and Stephenie in Heroes vs. Villains.
    • Richard, Rudy, Tina, Jenna, Jerri, and Sue in All-stars.
    • Jonathan Penner in Fans vs. Favourites. In Cook Islands, he was a bit of an annoyance. But in Fans vs. Favourites, he starts to play his own game more, do better in challenges and has a better social game, even though Jeff's dislike of him is still pretty obvious. He is however evacuated from the game early.
    • Russell Swan had what was one of the most memorable Crowning Moment Of Heartwaming in the series. Sadly he doesn't even make it mid-way.
    • Wanda and Jonathan of Palau were evicted in episode one. We really didn't get to know them.
    • Bobby Mason from the Panama season, if you believe his theory that certain contestants who are voted out early are either ignored or edited negatively in order not to upset viewers who would otherwise be outraged at a "good" contestant leaving early.
    • Rick from South Pacific, oh so much. Before appearing on the show, he had applied 14 times, and his confessionals posted online showed what an interesting character he was. However, he got almost no screen time, and was completely ignored during the reunion show despite placing 5th.
    • Kourtney in One World was shown early on as being the Only Sane Woman of the Salani tribe, only to be medevaced on day three.
  • They Wasted A Perfectly Good Twist: One World was obviously set up to get the two tribes mingling and think of themselves more as one group than two. Unfortunately, an act of sabotage by the men right at the beginning, before they knew they'd be sharing a camp, still cemented the usual "us vs. them" mentality. (To be fair, this wasn't really the producers' fault)
    • Redemption Island is often seen as this simply because it turned out to mostly be a chance to focus both seasons' footage almost exclusively on the Creator's Pet that returned.
    • Cook Islands and Panama, which started with a four tribe game, only to be bumped down to two within the first couple episodes. To be fair, these were four tribes of five (and four) and things would have quickly snowballed for a tribe that was down one or more, requiring half the contestants to sit out.

U-Z

  • Uncanny Valley: In the Heroes Vs Villains reunion show, CBS made a "prototype" survivor out of parts of all 19 winners at that point. The result was rather hideous ...
    • Jane's (Nicaragua) eyes seemed to bug out a lot when they told her she was being voted out.
  • Unfortunate Implications: On Cook Islands, the original tribes were segregated according to race. Cook Islands was a response to the criticism that the ethnicity of Survivor contestants became racially homogeneous overtime. Jeff Probst even admitted that when Entertainment Weekly brought up how "the cast has never been whiter" when describing the Guatemala contestants, that tipped the producers off. The producers also promised to balance the ethnic variety with its cast in future seasons. In Cook Islands itself, the ethnic segregation hardly affected the game in any fashion, given how the tribes mixed up so quickly. The more noticeable Unfortunate Implications came from two things. One, the Survivor producers more or less recanted their promise to make the game more racially balanced (stating the difficulty of doing that, compared to the ease of finding a mostly white cast and some token minorities), and two, during the Cook Islands and especially Fiji seasons, some fans complained about the lack of white contestants when their numbers dwindled with deadpan seriousness, obviously not seeing the irony of their complaints.
    • Some people have said some...unfortunate things. Best not repeat them. They often get called out on this in the jury, sometimes.
  • Vindicated by History: Back in 2000, Richard Hatch's win was considered very surprising due to his arrogance and "unethical" game play (Survivor turning into a cutthroat game of numbers and social politics due to him came as a complete surprise to almost everyone including the producers, despite it being common sense today). Nowadays, he is arguably the most famous and respected contestant ever and is the standard to which all contestants on the show are judged. His previously "evil" tactics have become Survivor 101.
    • And from the same season, Joel Klug. He was voted out of Pagong mainly because he thought this whole "alliance" thing might be a good idea to advance himself and his friends further in the game, and was promptly voted out for being arrogant to even bring up the idea and not just going with the flow and voting out whoever you feel like. Many viewers today may feel sorry for him for ending up on a tribe like Pagong, and wonder how he would fare on a season with modern players.
    • Stephen Fishbach from Tocantins. Post show, he's been very active in explaining his side of the story, and despite not winning, many praised his strategies (a few of the jurors even admitted that they'd have switched their votes if they'd known that he was as strong of a strategist as he was). J.T.'s blunder in Heroes vs. Villains certainly helped with this, too.
  • Wangst: Too many examples to list, but applies to several characters each season.
  • What an Idiot!: Guaranteed to happen at least once in glorious fashion during each season:
    • Jason Siska in Micronesia. In a 15-day period, he managed to mistake a stick for the hidden immunity idol, give up immunity for a bowl of candy for the tribe, and finally get blindsided while holding a hidden immunity idol - despite coming within one vote of being eliminated at the previous Tribal Council.
    • Erik Reichenbach from the same season as well, who is voted off after being manipulated by the Black Widow Brigade into giving up his individual immunity for "redemption". Erik's decision wasn't 100% dumb: the others were only slightly exaggerating how much his double-dealing had irritated them. He'd have been unlikely to get enough votes to win without such a generous gesture.
    • Also James, he who got voted out of China while holding two unused hidden immunity idols, and at the point he was eliminated, he essentially had a free pass to the final five. Whenever he's appeared since, people have never failed to bring it up. However, due to Erik's aforementioned "sacrifice", he said he's no longer the dumbest Survivor ever.
    • JT in Heroes Vs Villains gave away an immunity idol. To Russell. Whom he's never met before. Who is on the opposite tribe. The one labeled "Villains". Because of a faulty assumption that Russell is on the wrong end of an Amazon Brigade. To be fair, they had taped the season before Samoa had a chance to air, thus none of the castaways knew of Russell's playing style, but they could've figured he was on the Villains tribe for a reason. To be fair, he didn't know what we (the viewers and the editors) did about the other tribe...but on the other hand, he was counter-intuitively surrendering control of the idol.
    • Candice went along with the villains despite that one of them (Sandra) was telling her to not do so, especially since they had no intentions of taking her along.
    • Brandon on Africa prevented his former tribe from taking control during the merge by switching his initial vote for major threat and Cloudcuckoolander Lex to total non threat and defector Kelly out of a petty dislike for his former Samburu tribemate Frank. This insured that not only would his tribe be Pagonged, but he would eventually be voted out himself for being seen as untrustworthy and undependable.
    • The Galu tribe fall victim to this after the merge, thanks to three factors - a) Natalie managing to convince the tribe to vote for Erik, b) Russell blindsiding Kelly with an immunity idol, and c) Shambo turning on her tribe out of a seething hatred for Laura. This ensures Galu's eventual downfall when Foa Foa take the majority.
    • In Nicaragua, Jane was already feeling like she was the odd-man out of her alliance with Sash, Chase, and Holly. Already things weren't going well merely because there were four and there could only be three of them. So when Chase brings Sash and Holly along to a reward...not a good idea. Unfortunately, their target Fabio wins immunity. So you have to vote someone else...why not the other person Dan? Nope...guess you gotta blindside Jane. Unfortunately they practically told Jane to her face that they were going to vote her out, and at the same time exposed their entire alliance to Fabio and Dan. WHOOPS! Suffice to say, Chase and Sash more or less had to bring Holly with them to the final three if they didn't want a very ugly attempt on Jane's side to turn the Jury towards Dan or Fabio if they made it to the final three. (However, Jane actually voted for Chase)
      • May also be Fridge Brilliance from Fabio - he actually suggested getting rid of Jane over Dan to them; and Chase & Sash made the idea their own, while Fabio watched it crash and burn. Still not a good idea to tell someone who thinks they're with you that you're going to blindside them.
    • Russell didn't seem to consider that the jury consisted of the entire remnants of the Heroes tribe...as well as two members of Sandra's alliance. Despite Parvati, a past winner, and Danielle, the Only Sane Woman to counter most of Russell's ridiculous ideas, blatantly telling Russell that Sandra would win if she made the finals, he chose to ignore her and took her under the impression she had no chance of winning in his eyes. Sure enough, the jury vote for the one person who survived Russell, which none of them could do.
    • Happened to Russell of all people in Redemption Island. It's the first season he was in where people have actually seen him before and thus knew the hard-balling, ruthless game he played both years previous.
      • You'd Expect: Russell to have wised up after his past two failures and, knowing that his tribemates know his game well since the producers kept him perpetually in the spotlight, try to back off a little in the initial stretch, thus making him actually likable. Afterwards, then he could start picking people off like old times.
      • Instead: Russell claims to his tribemates that he's gonna play differently... and then plays the exact same game, right down to assembling his typical harem, stealing rice while everyone's out fishing, scrambling for the HII (in plain sight without even knowing that people would have, by now, learned to never let him out of their sight for a minute) as early as possible, and then convincing weak players to flip on their alliances based on flimsy promises. Unfortunately for him, the latter two parts backfired horribly: Ralph got to the HII first (meaning he was drawing all that negative attention to himself for nothing), and Julie didn't take Russell's flip bait, resulting in him being the first voted off the Zapatera tribe.
    • The Ometepe tribe in the same season. You're put with a Dangerously Genre Savvy player who is clearly going to be favoured by the production staff, and only two of them even considers to get that person out ASAP?
    • Dr. Sean's Alphabet Strategy...at first glance. It's been pointed out that Dr. Sean's strategy of voting alphabetically actually put the members of the Pagong tribe on his targets first; meaning he didn't have to form an alliance. It only became as much of an "What an Idiot!" move in hindsight because at the time, alliances were considered unfair and dirty-handed.
    • Matt on Redemption Island got blindsided by Rob and the Ometepe Five. He then returns from Redemption Island and gets himself blindsided by the same people out of sheer naivete.
    • Grant on Redemption Island never seemed to consider that Rob might actually want to take the people who everyone else in their alliance hated (Natalie and Phillip) because he wanted to win.
    • The women in Vanuatu had a 6-4 majority with the men at the merge, yet allowed Chris to slip through them and throw out what would have been the easiest victories in the series.
    • In Micronesia, the fans basically decided to eliminate some of their stronger players first; which isn't that good of an idea.
    • Christine in South Pacific made no effort at all to be friendly with Coach, going as far as to call him a "temporary player." She then made it almost blatantly clear to the rest of her tribe that she was hunting for idols, and yet made no effort at all to ally herself with anyone except maybe Stacey.[4] And yet she's surprised that Coach and his alliance voted her out!
    • Also in South Pacific, Ozzy got the bright idea to get himself voted out, "blame" Cochran to mislead the other tribe, beat Christine at Redemption Island so she wouldn't rejoin her old tribe, and return to the game at the merge. He's extremely lucky this didn't backfire on him (Cochran even gave back the idol Ozzy gave away), but that's a lot of risk for absolutely no gain (the other tribe wasn't fooled) and wasn't even necessary in the first place (Christine had no love for her old tribe and wouldn't have allied with them, not that they knew this).
    • Russell voting out Danielle in Heroes vs. Villains, one of his final three partners along with Parvati. Jealous of the fact that Parvati was closer to Danielle than she was to him (despite the fact that they were a three-person alliance destined for the final three), he tried turning the girls against each other in a spectacularly bad way, and when that failed, rallied the remaining two Heroes and Jerri to vote her out. This huge slip-up not only created an extremely angry juror in Danielle, but also allowed eventual winner Sandra to slip into that third spot when everyone else was voted out, where she eventually won in a landslide.
    • Coach in South Pacific voted out four potential goats (Cochran, Edna, Brandon, Rick) who had more or less been riding on his and Sophie's coattails because he had wanted to honour his original F3 alliance of himself, Albert, and Sophie. This resulted in Sophie being seen as the lesser of three evils.
    • In One World, Colton wanted Bill out so badly that he led his entire tribe to give up their immunity and go to Tribal Council in place of the women. Keep in mind, in order to do this, the decision had to be unanimous, meaning both of the tribe's likely targets - Bill and Leif - agreed to it.
    • As mentioned in Complacent Gaming Syndrome, for some reason, people seem to be afraid to upset the status quo and don't seem to have any interest in actually winning. If you want to win, the person "in charge" of your alliance has got to go or else they'll win the game. Many people seem to be assuming that they'll sociopathically push their way through the game like Russell did, and that they can present themselves as a lesser threat.
  • What Measure Is a Non-Badass?: Any winner who most fans deemed as "undeserving" solely for not being both physically and/or strategically dominating and aggressive compared to their runners-up. Notable cases are Tina Wesson from Australia, Amber Brkich from All-Stars, Natalie White from Samoa, and Sophie Clarke from South Pacific.
    • Sophie is an interesting case of this because she was both a strategic and a physically capable player. She was just more quiet about it.
    • As listed above, Becky Lee in Cook Islands was ignored because of her opponents in the final three are the season's resident Guile and Action heroes.
    • Or any runner-up. There were some people who thought Sugar deserved second because she played more of a strategic game than Susie; who merely did as she was told but won immunity when she needed it.
    • Some people who defend the "Undeserving" winners point out that there is in fact a third "O" in the slogan. "Outwit, Outplay, Outlast." A lot of people forget about that last bit - this is a game of Survival at all. If you're in the finals, you certainly did something right.
    • It's also most likely not a coincidence that almost all the players listed above are female. There have been male winners who get "undeserving/not strategic enough/just got lucky" accusations, like Bob from Gabon and Jud/Fabio from Nicaragua, but the criticism they receive is still noticeably less vicious than for the "undeserving" female winners.
  • What the Hell, Casting Agency?: Candice as a hero on Heroes vs. Villains. Seriously, either Kelly Wigglesworth or Kathy Varvick-O'Brien should have been in her place.
    • Many fans were also skeptical on casting previous winners in reunion seasons because they already won the title and the million bucks.
  • The Woobie: Some contestants can be this at times, especially when they're in the minority or the victims of mean-spirited players. Sometimes, people actually are pretty woobie-ish, especially people who are having mental breakdowns or are being physically evacuated. A lot of people wanted to just reach through the screen and hug some of the players who were evacuated.
    • The first example of this is from the first season, when Jenna was the only person that didn't get a video from her family.
    • From One World, Christina. The entire tribe yells at her in the first three days. Then when the tribes are switched around, everyone else is mean to her. Tarzan even says to her face that he would not be friends with her. Anyone not want to give her a hug?
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  1. ↑ An Egyptian pharaoh that was popular at first, but the internal rivalries of his administration and his alienation of the military - along with his increasing excesses and eccentricities - eventually caused his downfall
  2. ↑ Samoa got hit by a tsunami barely a week after Heroes vs Villains finished filming
  3. ↑ The Fijian Coup de'tat even happened as the season was being wrapped up. Plus, Jordan was considered as a location for the show once but canned due to 9/11.
  4. ↑ having an idol doesn't make a difference if you're in a 2-6 minority.
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