Tag: Survivor

Survivor 45: Meet the castaways who will compete for $1 million in Fiji

Which of these 18 castaways will outwit, outplay and outlast?

Everybody grab a buff, it’s time to head back to the islands of Fiji!

The 45th season of Survivor debuts on September 27 with 17 new castaways — and one familiar face — forging a new society as they fight for a $1 million prize and the title of Sole Survivor.

Returning this season alongside host Jeff Probst is Survivor 44 castaway Bruce Perreault, who suffered a head injury just minutes after setting foot on the island in last season’s premiere episode which required a medical evacuation.

Probst and the producers are giving him another shot and it’s hard not to root for him. As for the rest of the castaways, it’s time to get to know them all.

The fastest fire-making challenge in Survivor history stunned every castaway

One castaway rewrote the Survivor record books in the most epic way possible

Warning: Spoilers ahead for the finale of Survivor 44

Even if you don’t watch the long-running CBS reality show Survivor, you can probably guess that the ability to make a fire factors pretty heavily in a game about castaways stranded on the islands of Fiji.

It becomes an even bigger deal once the number of remaining castaways gets down to four. Here’s how it works: All four castaways compete in an immunity challenge. The winner, in addition to a guaranteed spot in the final three, then gets to decide who they want to bring with them to the final tribal council — where they will plead their case for why they should be named sole survivor to the jury of previously voted out castaways. The remaining two tribe members compete in a fire-making challenge to determine the last member of the final three.

One of the biggest mistakes any player could ever make in Survivor is giving up immunity, but fire-making can change that calculus. It certainly did on Wednesday night’s season 44 finale.

After winning immunity, Heidi debated all day about whether or not her resume was strong enough to win votes at final tribal council against the likes of Carolyn and Yam Yam. Ultimately, she decided she hadn’t done enough to build a case for why she deserves the million dollar prize. And in one of the most stunning moves in recent memory, Heidi gave up immunity and placed herself in a fire-making challenge against Carson — who had struggled to make fire while practicing earlier in the episode.

This just doesn’t happen. The jury was absolutely floored. Host Jeff Probst could barely hide his excitement. And before anyone could get settled in for an epic battle between Heidi and Carson, it was all over.

Heidi built her fire in 3:02. Faster than anyone in the history of the show. It left everyone speechless.

In a show with a storied history of epic moves, few have required more chutzpah than Heidi sending herself to fire-making. That she not only won, but did so in record-breaking fashion, instantly made this one of the most iconic moments in the program’s 23-year history.

Sadly for Heidi, her hunch proved correct. The jury did not feel she had done enough over the previous 26 days to earn the million dollars, though her gusty fire-making display did sway at least one jury member to vote for her.

The rest of the votes went to Yam Yam, who played a strong social game from Day 1 and built enough of a rapport with each jury member to win them over.

None of that takes away from Heidi’s achievement. It’s one Survivor fans will be talking about for years to come and a reason for her to hold her head high.

Survivor 44 VIBE CHECK: Fake idols and the real consequences of sitting out challenges

You can only outwit and outlast so long before you’re forced to outplay.

Warning: DO NOT READ IF YOU HAVEN’T WATCHED EPISODE 3 OF SURVIVOR 44.

Ready?

Ok.

Welcome to Survivor Vibe Check! Each Thursday this season, Blake Schuster and Bryan Kalbrosky will chat about last night’s episode to see who is thriving and who is straight up not having a good time on the islands of Fiji. Season 44 got off to an absolutely chaotic start.  Episode 2 sowed strategies and alliances. Episode 3 exposed some tribal priorities. Let’s dig into it.

Blake: Well, Episode 3 was maybe the easiest vote they’ll have all season. We’ve talked a lot about what makes good gameplay on Survivor, especially early on. Claire’s exit reminded us that you have to actually play the game in order to stay. Sitting out twice in the first two challenges is questionable at best. Once that streak reaches three you officially have a target on your back. I believe Danny said it best: there’s a camaraderie you build with your tribe during challenges.

Bryan: Let’s just put it this way: I know that if I were hungry as heck and had just done something physically exhausting and challenging, I would be resentful of the person who didn’t have to go through that awful experience with me. It was like when someone was excused from the mile run in P.E. class. Why do I have to do this but not you?! She said all the right things in tribal, but the fate was sealed.

Blake: Even if the Soka tribe had won immunity again, I still think she’s dealing with the same issue for that exact reason. Other tribemates are hungry and tired and might need a rest, too. You have to be able to carry some of that weight and curry favor there. We don’t have the benefit of seeing what life is like at camp 24/7 but for how strategic Claire tried to play early on, I’d like to imagine she could pick up on who was struggling at the time.

Claire was sent packing having never participated in an immunity challenge and without casting a vote. That’s rough. I know Sandra talked a lot about not being a physical player at all and relying on her social game, but she knew you can’t just sit out every time.

Bryan: I just have to wonder how much of the decision to sit out actually came from the tribe suggesting her each time, as she said, or if it was more of a self-volunteer. It’s a bummer because we’ll never know if she could have helped them during challenges, but this was a valuable lesson for future players.

Blake: Yeah I don’t really care if it was her tribe asking her to do it. At some point you have to fight for yourself and your resume and say “I’m playing”. 

Elsewhere on Soka, Danny did an excellent job getting back into the birdcage, putting the fake idol in and getting Matt to think he found an advantage. THAT is how you build a resume and take control of the game.

Bryan I think Danny had a 10/10 episode. His performance was masterful. It was executed to perfection. Hopefully, for his sake, Matt does not use the fake idol any time soon — that’ll make everyone paranoid about who set that up. But when the showrunners decided to create a fake idol, this is exactly what they had in mind.

Speaking of fake idols…

Blake: Matthew! Welcome to the game!

Bryan: That was nice work, too, but the Plant Daddy nickname has gotta go. Meanwhile, I still wish he would show some consistency about when his shoulder hurts and needs to be in a sling versus when he feels like participating in a challenge. My guy: You have a former NFL player on your tribe. You don’t need to be the one reaching for the key! It feels like he is going to inevitably exacerbate this injury.

Blake: Did he pop his shoulder back in during that challenge!?

Bryan: I don’t know but if I’m a doctor or physical therapist watching this show, I would be infuriated with the way he treats that sling.

Blake: Aside from Danny and Matt figuring out how to use their fake idols, and Claire continuing to do Claire things, this was really just a calm episode. Which means we’re due for some chaos. Tribe swap to start episode four, perhaps?

Bryan: It certainly seems like something big is about to happen next week. I wouldn’t mind seeing Frannie and Matt (for my J.D. Salinger heads, I initially typed Franny and Zooey) on tribes apart from one another before their postgame road trip begins.

Blake: Our dorky magnets will always find their way back to each other, don’t you worry.

Survivor 44 VIBE CHECK: Medic calls and tribal council chaos in a wild season preimere

Survivor returned in epic fashion for season 44

Warning: DO NOT READ IF YOU HAVEN’T WATCHED EPISODE 1 OF SURVIVOR 44.

Ready?

Ok.

Welcome to Survivor Vibe Check! Each Thursday this season, Blake Schuster and Bryan Kalbrosky will chat about last night’s episode to see who is thriving and who is straight up not having a good time on the islands of Fiji. Season 44 got off to an absolutely chaotic on Wednesday. We saw multiple calls for medics, new advantages introduced and the first tribal council ended with only one vote counted. Let’s dig into it.

Blake: Bryan! What a return to the islands of Fiji. A wild, two-hour premiere for Survivor 44 with tons of new twists and some noteworthy characters. Sum up the premiere for me in one sentence.

Bryan: That felt like a fever dream and somehow required three times as many medics as there were votes counted in tribal council?!?

Blake: Oh, Maddy. Getting voted out first has to suck. Getting voted out first with ONE VOTE is about as brutal as it gets. The title of the episode was, officially, “I can’t wait to see Jeff” but it probably should’ve been “Don’t get cocky, kids”. I’m just absolutely stunned by the amount of mistakes made in just three days. It’s not something we’re used to seeing. 

Bryan: It was honestly like playing Blackjack with someone who has no idea how to play and they’re just asking the dealer for more cards and it totally ruins the table. Multiple people weirdly took away their ability to vote when they didn’t have to, and that somehow cost the game of one of the only people who handled tribal council normally.

Blake: If I can take your analogy a step further: It’s like asking for more and more cards and somehow getting to 21 because for the first time ever the shot in the dark was played successfully! I can’t fathom why you would want to take a 1-in-6 chance but congrats to Jamie for actually pulling it off.

Bryan: Just to perfect this Blackjack analogy, though: Jamie had a 20. She was already safe! She hit and happened to get an ace for a 21. But why?! She wasn’t going home. No one was talking about her. I can sort of see why Matthew might have done it — perhaps he felt the tribe viewed him as a risk in challenges due to his totally self-created injury. I was shook when Jamie did it, though.

Blake: I think once Jamie announced it, Matthew had to do it as well because of his injury. If Jamie plays it in secret, I’m not sure Matthew even considers doing the same. And at that point Brandon has to play his idol to make sure he’s not going home.

I want to back up for one second because I thought there was some really smart gameplay going back to the first immunity challenge.

With Claire and Matthew sitting out, Claire makes arguably the best move so far by subtly asking Matthew if Lauren proved that she lost her vote after being sent on the island hike. That immediately helped Claire build trust across party lines and gave Matthew ammo against a threat in his own tribe. Huge points there. Matthew then gives Lauren an opportunity to come clean during tribal council about whether or not she actually lost her vote. And Lauren, smartly, doesn’t own up to it and instead plays her “bank a vote” advantage. So now Lauren can play off the tribal as not having a vote and no one is wiser to it.

Claire and Lauren were the two winners of the first three days, in my opinion.

Bryan: That’s such an ideal way for one of the two newest advantages to, at least optically, work totally in Lauren’s favor. Very strong rebuttal after a savvy move by Claire.

Blake: I want to touch on Bruce real quick, too. It’s such an absolute shame that he gets hurt 30 seconds into the first reward challenge and is evacuated 12 hours into the game. I hope he gets a second chance to play at some point. But man, I really could’ve done without the intense, ultra HD, slo-mo shot of his head cracking open.

Bryan: Really? You don’t watch Survivor for the moments that most closely resemble an MMA fight? Yeah, that was hard to watch. I was glad he got a chance to stay instead of immediately getting evacuated, but it was so brutal to see the production team give us that. I know if I got hurt on the game, I’d like as few people to see it as possible and if any did see it, I hope they wouldn’t see anything too invasive. But that is one of the myriad of reasons why I’m blogging on it and am not actually on that island, I guess. What did you make of the other medics? Three in one episode is a LOT.

Blake: Bruce’s injury came from trying too hard in a challenge. I can understand that. Matthew just going rock climbing for the hell of it? Dude, what are you doing? It looked like a bad idea even before he fell and busted his arm and foot. He wasn’t even looking for an idol or anything. I just don’t understand. You’ve got to be smarter than that even if your adrenaline is telling you to go for it.

As for Brandon, he had a tough two days with the sweat challenge at camp followed by having to move huge puzzle pieces. I wonder how hot it was out there for him to cramp up as much as he did.

Bryan: Plus, with Brandon, you have to be extra careful after what happened to Bruce. The conditions must feel so awful, though, if this dude played through multiple seasons of NFL and college football. Like, that’s not easy stuff either!

Who are your early favorites to win a million dollars? And who are you most excited to watch on TV every Wednesday?

Blake: It’s so early and I feel like I’m just getting over Jesse not winning Survivor 43, so I hesitate to make a pick right now. That said, I think Claire has her head in the right place and I’m very excited to see her strategy play out.

Bryan: I hope that one day, we all have a Mandela effect moment where we all collectively decide Jesse actually won S43. I think smart money is on Claire, too. I had a good feeling about Frannie, too. But it’s such an impossible game to predict. I probably would have picked Gabler as the last guy capable of winning the season after the premiere of S43, and we saw how that turned out.

Blake: Jesse won our hearts. That’s what matters most.

Bryan: A million dollars would be nice, though.

Survivor 44: Meet the castaways who will compete for $1 million in Fiji

18 contestants, 26 days, 1 Survivor

For the 44th time, a group of 18 castaways will be deserted and left to fend for themselves for weeks all with the hopes of winning a $1 million prize. For just the fourth time, they’ll do so over just 26 days without any food rations and minimal supplies.

The COVID-era of Survivor has led to massive changes in gameplay and strategy. Now an all new cast will put their skills to the test as they attempt to outwit, outlast and outplay their fellow competitors.

Survivor 44 begins Wednesday, March 1 on CBS (streaming on Paramount+) with Jeff Probst hosting as usual.

Here are the 18 castaways set to battle it out on the islands of Fiji.

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Keep up with Survivor 44 on For The Win here: