Tag: Survivor 44

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 will have a tough time escaping the mess it made of this season

The merge is coming. Can it save a season that’s led to more questions than excitement?

Warning: DO NOT READ IF YOU HAVEN’T WATCHED EPISODE 5 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 has had plenty of highs and lows, but Wednesday’s episode 5 left many wondering where the game is headed.

Blake: Ok, Bryan. What the hell did we just watch?

Bryan: That’s like asking me to summarize an avant-garde film produced in a language I do not speak. Nearly everything about this week was strange, and you could tell that we were starting to lose the plot when there were five minutes left in the episode and they hadn’t even started tribal council. I’m so sorry to Matthew, though. It’s amazing he powered through as long as he did.

Blake: I wonder if Matthew gets a second chance. I feel like we’ve talked about it for weeks now, but there was just no way he’d be able to compete in individual challenges the way his arm was. Which leads me to my next point: Did the producers tell him they were about to merge but didn’t want to reveal it? That’s the only reason I can think of for not showing him getting taken out. I’m just absolutely baffled by the edit — which is something we typically don’t really focus on until the final five or six.

Bryan: That honestly makes a ton of sense. “Hey, Matthew. It’s cool that you’re here now because you can sit out challenges for your tribes. But we’re about to start individual challenges and uhhh your shoulder seems like it hurts a lot.” That conversation was probably about as awkward as the one that Jeff had with the Tika tribe after he arrived on the boat. The way that he explained what happened was like he was speaking in riddles.

Blake: This season has felt insulting on quite a few levels. Insulting to such a great, charismatic cast, to the game itself by making this season all about fake idols and to the viewers at home who can so clearly see the producers scrambling to make a 26-day game viable. You nailed it by saying they’ve lost the plot. Can they get it back post-merge?

Bryan: I sure hope they can, Blake. Fortunately, we do have some very interesting castaways still remaining heading into the merge and I think we’ve got some compelling television in front of us. I’m not sure how all three members of the Tika tribe are still left, though, and (I hope I’m wrong but) it will almost feel like Lil making it to Final Tribal on Pearl Islands after so narrowly escaping elimination last night.

Blake: As far as actual gameplay goes, I thought Josh immediately trying to establish a relationship with Yam Yam was the right move and I would’ve loved to see them try to take out Carolyn. The dynamic between the three of them feels very Game of Thrones-ish.

Bryan: If you had to bet it all, who was going home?

Blake: Carolyn. And I don’t think she even had a clue.

Bryan: Wow. You don’t think she would have played her idol? If that happened, it would have been pretty awful for the show to have another woman (and one of the more interesting castaways in a while) voted off there.

Blake: I think it was either Josh or Carolyn (remember last week when we thought Yam Yam was on the bottom? He actually ended up as the swing vote) and I just don’t think Carolyn did enough to repair her relationship with Yam Yam. The conspiratorial part of me thinks the producers didn’t want to see either go home after losing the immunity challenge so they gave Matthew a reason to exit and forced a merge.

Bryan: I don’t think that’s an unfair conspiracy!

Survivor has to change if women are constantly the first players getting voted out

There’s no hiding from this season’s most obvious issue

Warning: DO NOT READ IF YOU HAVEN’T WATCHED EPISODE 4 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. And Wednesday’s episode 4 just changed the game again.

Let’s dig into it.

Blake: Well, we got our tribe swap….kinda. Carson, Jamie and Josh were placed on new tribes (each with an immunity idol!) and in all the chaos Sarah ended up voted out. I think Yam Yam really struck a nerve with Carolyn, who appears reluctantly in control of the game. After eight days of getting pushed around, she’s finally pushing back and winning. Do you think Yam Yam got the message? 

Bryan: That was a very fun episode. I see where Carolyn’s frustration is coming from! You can’t just continue to use my name as a decoy over and over again without it becoming a problem. She and Josh made some strategic alignments and assessed the situation well with who they could trust and who they could not, and they immediately became the power players on their tribe with Yam Yam suddenly at the bottom. He definitely got the message. One question I had for you, though: Why does Josh feel so inclined to lie about being a surgeon? I feel like that isn’t the type of profession you need to hide on the island.

Blake: Well if he wanted to dumb himself down, his math skills definitely did the trick. How did he not think his lie through? That tribal council is going to have a massive impact on Yam Yam, and in turn the rest of the game, because they spent a good chunk of time on the island discussing how Josh was a blatant liar and Carolyn decided to align with him anyways. I would expect the niceties start to drop and things get a bit more cutthroat. 

I feel bad for Sarah, but not as bad as she’s going to feel when she realizes she went home with a fake idol.

Bryan: Her post-boot interview was a season-defining moment for me. I think this season could become uniquely centered around fake idols, specifically because production is helping the contestants by literally giving it to them. So when she said that she is joining an elite club of folks going home with idols in their pockets, little did she realize that she was actually creating her own club of getting sent packing with a fake idol in her pocket. It sucks she caught the brunt of Josh’s very real idol after our long-awaited swap, though, and I do think it is worth mentioning how we’ve now had four women in a row voted off. Not great, Bob!

Blake: Yeah, this is a big issue. In this case, it would’ve made way more sense for Carolyn to secretly target Yam Yam (as much as I enjoy watching him play). If you want to send a message that you’re not here to be a decoy, make an example of the guy who keeps suggesting you play the decoy. I do think Sarah is smart and capable and that definitely made her a threat. On the other hand, what good does sending a message to Yam Yam do if now you’ve alienated an ally who now has every reason not to trust you?

Bryan: I’ll tell you this much: If this tribe goes back to tribal, my bet is that it would be the last for Yam Yam. But regardless, with such a small tribe, we’re probably getting fairly close to a merge.

Blake: Let’s say Carolyn does target Yam Yam, she’d hold so much power not only in her tribe, but in the game. She has an idol, she knows Josh has an idol and she knows Sarah has a fake. That is a massive advantage. The edit does not make clear why Sarah was the target and I really wish we had more insight. It feels like Carolyn’s power play has a ton of potential to backfire. Am I missing something?

Bryan: My guess: Carolyn, as the more senior member of the tribe between the recently-formed alliance, made the executive decision. We have some postgame press from Sarah indicating that Carolyn just plainly did not like her. She explained that Carolyn hid the fake idol about three feet from where Sarah slept, so she may have specifically wanted Sarah to find it. Sarah also said that Josh didn’t like how much she questioned him about the details of his backstory, and also, she apparently told him she thought he had an idol — which he denied. So as much as it could have been a power play to get rid of Yam Yam, now that they’ve got numbers, they can just get him next.

Blake: That’s understandable, I suppose. Is there anything Survivor should do next season so it’s not just women on the chopping block tribal after tribal?

Bryan: I think the challenges are what they are. But let’s get rid of the three tribe non-sense and start with two bigger ones instead. With such small tribes, it’s easy to vote out one woman early in the game because of some perceived notion they can’t help in challenges — and then it just torpedoes from there. What say you? 

Blake: The three tribe format has to go. It does not work in a shorter game. You can still get different factions of people going at each other in two tribes. I also think part of the problem is the pace of the game overall. I’m not sure we’ll see Survivor go back to 39 days anytime soon, but that extra time was crucial for players to develop relationships and alliances. That makes a huge difference in how you approach the social game. When everything just continues to rely on the ability to win challenges, we’ve seen time and time again how women get blamed for failing even with that’s a patently false narrative in the vast majority of cases.

Bryan: I think it would be a travesty to not address this before Season 45. With four women in a row voted off to start the game, it’s absolutely not a coincidence.

Blake: Jeff has been good about confronting players in the past and having tough discussions. I think this warrants another even if the finger ends up pointed back at him and the producers. They can’t ignore the issue.

Bryan: If we can fix “Come on in, guys!” we can fix this! On another note, during our preview of the next episode, it certainly seemed like we could get a medical evacuation for Matthew. I’m not sure how much longer his shoulder is going to hold up.

Blake: If we don’t get a merge next week, I can’t imagine it won’t be too much longer before it happens. Matthew is clearly in trouble. If it’s not a med evac that does him in, the post-merge endurance challenges may put him in some serious danger.

Bryan: I hope he is able to stay in the game. That’s no way to go out. But you’re right: individual immunity with an injury doesn’t sound fun. Has anyone impressed you during challenges? Danny doing flips was awesome.

Blake: No one who really stands out yet, to be honest. But I don’t think anyone is really trying to stand out at the moment.

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: Dorky magnets, hidden talents and what it’s like to watch with a castaway

2 simple rules for watching Survivor with a current castaway

Warning: DO NOT READ IF YOU HAVEN’T WATCHED EPISODE 2 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. In Episode 2 the game seemed to slow down a bit as players settled into their strategies. Let’s dig into it.

Blake: Before we get into the episode, you went to Claire’s watch party in Brooklyn on Wednesday. Set the scene for us.

Bryan: Claire was a delightful host. She was in a particularly great mood the entire night. Earlier in the day, she had just gotten verified on Instagram (huge win, Claire!) and she got a new tattoo that may or may not allude to the title of the next episode of S44. She laid two ground rules for the night: No phones and cheer whenever she is on the screen. She clearly has the best facial expressions of anyone on the season, so we got a lot of wonderful reaction shots to hoot and holler about. It’s iconic that she has simply not participated in these tribal challenges so far because that’s truly what I would do, too.

One takeaway: Josh (who should be shown on screen more often!) may or may not have initially lied about his profession to his tribe. But as he finished the challenge during this episode, it was clear that he moved his fingers with the surgical precision of his actual profession: a surgeon.

Blake: I would expect absolutely nothing less from Claire. I get the sense that she might be hiding her strength in these early challenges by sitting out, but it’s certainly a huge risk if she’s forced to go to tribal council. So far it’s paid off. Claire has spent the first five days sizing up everyone on her tribe without coming off as a threat.

Bryan: Speaking of which, we got an answer to one of my burning questions from last week: How long can Helen go without revealing that she’s actually wicked smart? It turns out: Not very long! It was a bummer to see her eliminated so early, but like you said, it’s not a bad idea to hide whatever your strengths may be or you could end up in a similar fate.

Blake: Meanwhile, the other big thinker on the Tika tribe, Carson, has put himself in the center of things by aligning with both factions. I can totally see why having Carolyn and Yam Yam in his pocket is a good thing in this moment, but he’s playing with fire there (pun intended) if they ever find out his scheme. The vibe I get from Carson is a much more socially aware version of the game Spencer tried to play in Cagayan.

Side note: Hey Carson, do us all a favor and make those 3D Printed Survivor puzzles free to download online please!

Bryan: I really didn’t like the gameplay I saw from Carson in this episode. I think it’s setting himself up for disaster a bit too early in the season on such a small tribe. He was going to come out looking like a liar no matter who he voted for and that’s not great. I think he’s getting a lot of comparisons to Christian from David vs. Goliath, but he definitely reads more like Spencer to me as well.

The 3D Printed Survivor Puzzles would be fun to have around the house, that’s for sure. That being said, Matthew taking his sling off so he could do the challenge he built at his home was a … choice.

Blake: Matthew just cannot contain himself whether it’s needlessly climbing rocks or revealing way too much about his background. I love his excitement, but my guy, save that for the confessionals when no one can hear you!

Bryan: I think Carolyn was the most fascinating player of the episode, and I’m glad that unlike Brandon, she was able to keep her immunity idol a secret — even if it was challenging.

Blake: Do her and Yam Yam secretly control the game on Tika? That look they gave each other as they left tribal was very telling.

Bryan: They certainly have the majority after that latest vote, so if Carson keeps riding their coattails, they’ve got the power.

6 burning questions ahead of this week’s episode of Survivor 44

After a wild two-hour premiere, what can we expect before the next castaway gets voted out?

For The Win’s Blake Schuster and Bryan Kalbrosky are blogging about Survivor 44 all season long. Catch up with their thoughts on the premiere and this spring’s cast here.

Fans of Survivor had a week to digest a truly dramatic opening to the 44th season. We now know that Bruce will get a second chance to play after being medically evacuated after just 12 hours in Fiji and the shot in the dark may not be as useless as once thought. But now that our players are three days into the game, it’s time to start looking ahead at what’s coming next.

Here are the six burning questions we have ahead of episode 2, “Two Dorky Magnets”.

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: