To commemorate their monumental 40th season titled Winners at War, Survivor brought back 20 former players. This is nothing new, as returning player seasons have featured heavily throughout the show’s history. Beginning with the 8th season Survivor All Stars and most recently with Survivor Edge of Extinction (though season 39 is a grey area due to Sandra Diaz-Twine and Boston Rob Mariano appearing though not competing), the show has often drawn from the pool of existing castaways when planning seasons using the popularity of former legends to draw interest from lapsed viewers.
I say this as someone who had once checked out entirely from the franchise. This fact may surprise readers as if you know me there is a good chance you’re at least aware of my borderline obsession with CBS’s historic reality show. However, in 2007 I entered high school and fell out of love with Survivor, a property that I had grown up adoring. It wouldn’t be until 2010 when the show’s 20th season Heroes vs Villains brought back many of the players I had grown up watching, people who I had cheered for in their victories and mourned for when host Jeff Probst snuffed out their torches upon them being voted out.
Similarly, Winners at War, which not only features former players but former champions of the game, has brought me back to writing about the show. After Heroes vs Villains, my fandom knew no bounds, from joining message boards and Facebook groups, to covering the show in a podcast, then a blog. I was all in. As time went on, I had put distance between myself and the community, however with the 40th season likely being the last appearance for mainstays of the franchise I knew I would inevitably cover it. What I didn’t know was I’d be doing so as almost a post mortem for the players who got me into the show in the first place.
The cast was made up of eight players who played before the halfway point of Heroes vs Villains and 12 who first played after. Those eight players included Amber Mariano (Winner Season 8, first appearance Season 2 the Australian Outback), Ethan Zohn (S3), Rob Mariano (S4, Winner S22), Sandra Diaz-Twine (Two time champion S7 and S20), Danni Boatwright (S11), Yul Kwon (S13), Parvati Shallow (S13, winner S16) and Tyson Apostol (S18, Winner S27). These players are certified icons in the survivor community, people who helped build the show into something more than a social experiment but a complex game of strategy. They captured the imagination of myself and many others, establishing the rules by which the game is played and providing a base for newer players to build off of.
The inclusion of these old school players was reason enough to celebrate the season before an episode aired. That joy quickly became dread as starting in the second half of episode one they fell one by one, getting sent to the Edge of Extinction, a twist that offers a challenge which allows one player to re-enter the game at the merge, and is then repeated near the end of the game. Their iconic statuses served as flashing targets begging the newer players to take their shots. Since the newer players are also winners, they didn’t miss. So with the merge coming up, most likely one of them will win their way back. Provided season 29 winner Natalie Anderson, the only “new school” player to be voted out pre-merge, doesn’t put an end to that hope. However their chance of winning seems bleak. Even if they come back they most likely will be voted out once more.
I’ve seen many people online complain about the boot order for the season so far. I admit each elimination has felt like a gut punch for those of us who have been following the show for 20 years. Instead of dwelling on the fact our old school favorites are being dispatched I think instead we should be appreciating the growing legends of the new school. This season isn’t a slap in the face but a passing of the torch, one that can be painful but necessary if we hope for Survivor to continue to have success. The old school players can’t play forever and the new school players have shown their own strategic acumen and that should be embraced. So as Survivor turns the page in its history book, I offer you this, the old Gods are dead, long live the new Gods.
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