Hey Survivor Fans! It’s a wonderful Sunday night and you know what that means… It’s time for my weekly blog.
While I was watching the latest episode of Survivor on Wednesday night I decided to check out last week’s introductory post to this blog. It was only then when I realized that I had neglected to explain to the folks who are not familiar with Survivor on how the game works! So that’s what this week’s post will be all about sorry to those who were ready for me to start diving into specific elements of the game and how past winners have crushed those elements but I need to start from the beginning.
The game has EXTREMELY evolved from the 1st season but the basic format is still in its foundation. Survivor encompasses 39 days, one thing to note however is the current season has decreased the number of days to 26 due to the COVID-19 Pandemic having an effect on production and filming. On Day 1 the contestants (normally 18 or 20 depending on the season) are split into groups known as “tribes”. The number of tribes is usually either 2 or 3, for the currently airing season there are 3 tribes of 6 people. The players are taken to a remote isolated location (normally somewhere tropical) and are forced to live off the land with very little supplies and very little food.
Every episode there are frequent physical or mental challenges that pit the “tribe” against each other for food, other rewards, or for “immunity”. The tribe that doesn’t win the “immunity” challenge must attend “Tribal Council” a place located away from the tribe’s camp. At “Tribal Council” the tribe must vote off one of their tribemates which causes the paranoia, strategy, and backstabbing that makes for great television. A quick side note about tribal; every contestant receives a torch when they first go to tribal and they all have to light it themselves. This is part of the ritual at tribal council because as Jeff Probst (the host of survivor) says “fire represents your life and as soon as your fire is gone so are you”. When a player is voted out they get their torch “snuffed” by Jeff before exiting Tribal.
The players play in the “tribe format” until around 6 or 7 people have been voted off signaling the halfway point of the game. At this point, survivors from both tribes come together and live as one making it to what we call a “merge”. Instead of tribal immunity players now compete for individual immunity; whoever wins immunity cannot be voted out at Tribal Council. Most players that are voted out after the merge form the game’s “jury”. Once the tribe gets down to 2 of 3 players left a final Tribal Council is held where the remaining players plead their case to the “jury”; people they had a hand either directly or indirectly in voting off on why they should win the game. The jury then votes for which player should be crowned “Sole Survivor” and win the $1 Million Dollar prize and the title.
As I mentioned above Survivor has introduced numerous amounts of twists and modifications to keep the game interesting for the viewers. I will be talking about some of these twists in my future posts but for now I hope you all have a better sense on the rules of Survivor and can now start understanding the basics while you watch on Wednesday nights.
Thank you so much for reading “Surviving with Lucas!” see you next Sunday:)
October 10, 2021 at 2:57 pm
Lucas! I actually laughed so hard when I saw you chose Survivor as your Free Inquiry, such a great idea! I remember watching the first Survivor seasons with my parents and getting soo invested (as invested as I could be as a 5 year old). I’m glad that you will be touching on this season and previous seasons as I admit I have not kept up as much with the current iterations and understand it’s likely quite different with the implementation of multiple idol modifications.
Your summary of the core game was excellent and covered all the basics for any beginners! I look forward to following your blog and hearing your insights on the game!