Is the Survivor "New Era" a Mess?

On Survivor 46 and the New Era

The "New Era" of Survivor has been polarizing amongst fans, myself included. The long-running series completed its 40th season, Winners at War, in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. Because of the pandemic, production on seasons 41 and 42 were halted until 2021. Because all players and crew had to quarantine for 14 days before filming, the game was shortened from its traditional 39 days to 26. Other changes included new twists like A Shot in the Dark (you can give up your vote for a chance at immunity), the Beware Advantage (you lose your vote for the potential to win an idol), and several other twists that usually revolve around someone losing their vote. Tribal council, where people are voted out of the game, is usually the highlight of any episode of Survivor. Secret alliances are revealed. Smart gamers emerge. But with all of these new twists removing players' ability to vote, the game has aggravating to watch.

One complaint of the New Era is that despite having more diverse casting than previous seasons, the game flush with super fans of the series. People who've watched the game at home for years and have emotional connections to the game. At a certain point, Survivor stopped becoming a game so much as it became a summer camp. Jeff spends episodes talking about how much the game means emotionally, rather than what it means to compete. There's nothing wrong with yearning to play a game that you've grown up watching (hello, sports). But the rules of sports don't tend to change to fuck up basic gameplay. And athletes don't tend to quit in droves when the game gets too hard.

The current season, 46, has been a rollercoaster to watch. One one hand, the casting has been great. There are a plethora of amazing reality TV contestants this season, people with dynamic personalities that clash with one another. On the other hand, dumb production decisions make it impossible to just enjoy the cast playing the game. The cast is already full of variables, the game itself can't be a variable too!

The entire point of a game is to… you know… watch people play it? And at every turn the twists on Survivor in the new era seem to suck every aspect of gameplay out of the show. Complaints out of the gate was the three tribe structure in the game. I'm not opposed to three tribes. Cagayan (otherwise known as Brains vs. Brawn vs. Beauty, ijbol) is a successful season with this format. What usually happens is one tribe of six gets wiped out very quickly. What should happen, like on Cagayan, is then the tribes are melded into two tribes to create new dynamics before the merge. Survivor is always best when people are kept on their toes, but still retain the ability to use their social game to survive.

This season, when the three tribes were merged into one, we had another frustrating twist where half the people on the tribe were immune?? What's the fucking point of merging then? And how does anyone manage to navigate a social game when people are constantly losing votes or half the people can't even be voted out? It's twists for the sake of twists and even that goofy show (that I love) Big Brother doesn't pull shit like this and all they love are twists that make no sense on that show.

Never mind that the beginning of the season had maybe one the worst players I've had the experience of watching on Survivor. I'm not going to say Bhanu Gopal is a bad person, but he was certainly a bad contestant. And an annoying one to watch. Players who are bad at the game can be funny when there are enough people around them who do know how. But Bhanu wasn't just bad at the game, he couldn't read human emotions, he didn't seem to understand how tribal worked, he was constantly paranoid, and we got far too many scenes of him crying and having breakdowns in the jungle. 

There's been complaints from some fans about 90 minute episodes being too long (I know, we all clamored for them and now we're mad!! You can never please a Survivor fan!), but it's not actually the length that's the problem. 90 minute episodes stuffed with scenes of Bhanu crying because he's going home are not fun. 60 minute episodes wouldn't be either! We've somehow gotten longer episodes with less gameplay than before. How can we get the Survivor budget in order so that we have immunity and reward challenges in each episode? Because an episode with just one challenge feel like a waste of everyone's time. 

But of course, there's also the show's host and producer, Jeff Probst. A Scorpio born on the same day as my mother so no wonder he annoys the fuck out of me, even though I love him. Jeff has created an amazing empire and I will be obsessed with Survivor till the day I die, but much like another Scorpio/host/producer RuPaul, Survivor is a little too obsessed with its own mythology. Just like challenges on RuPaul's Drag Race now reference every other challenge that's been on the show, including in-joke references to previous seasons, Survivor has been doing the same.

A recent challenge had Hunter McKnight, an admitted super fan, attempting to put the names of the previous seasons in order. Is this fucking pub trivia?? The history of the game should bear no impact on the actual game being played in any given season. The reverence for former players should be relegated to all-stars seasons, like the promised returning players season Jeff announced this week for Survivor 50. I don't need flashbacks to former players in each episode. I already know who they are and it's probably just confusing to new viewers. Survivor should maybe work on building a fourth wall on that beach again.

At this point, the common rhetoric amongst Survivor fans is that the Australian franchise is much better than the current show. Maybe it's recency bias, but the past three seasons of Australia have certainly been better in casting and gameplay than any season in the New Era of Survivor. The challenges remain fun and inventive (so nerdy superfans can't practice them at home!!) and also brutal. The game is called Survivor after all. But Jeff is of course opposed to borrowing shit from other franchises because he runs the O.G. franchise — unless you watch Robinson, the Swedish show that initially inspired Survivor. Despite my affinity for ABBA and Zara Larsson I don't actually understand Swedish, so I have not watched.

This season has vacillated between awful and extremely entertaining. Currently, I'm finding the chaos of it all kind of fun. But a little bit of chaos goes a long way. And while I'm cracking up at tribal each week, sometimes I'd like to be wowed by brilliant moves and not moves that succeed because the competition doesn't stack up. And because it doesn’t stack up, viewers are left creating fan fiction when it comes to the show’s gameplay. Somehow, Venus has emerged as the second coming of Parvati Shallow. She’s not. She was referred to a “Parvati type” because she’s very gorgeous, but Parvati knew how to build alliances. I felt bad for how Tevin iced her out of the tribe and used everyone else to do it because he personally didn’t like her, but if Venus were slightly better at a social game she’d have solidified any other alliance members besides Tevin. But due to a lack of interesting gamers this season, at least as far as we’re being shown by editing, viewers have created a version of Venus that’s a girlboss slaying the game like you’ve never seen before when she absolutely is not. If she makes it to the end, she’ll get zero votes.

Then there’s Q, who asked everyone to vote him out at tribal two episodes ago. People who I respect thought it was part of some mastermind game move… until the next episode where it was revealed Q was just breaking his toys because no one wanted to play his game. This season is so chaotic that viewers are having to create motivations for players that don’t actually exist. Or the players themselves are oblivious to how they’re playing the game, like aforementioned super fan Hunter not realizing he was voted out because of how he acted in an immunity challenge. You’d think a superfan would know not to showboat in an endurance challenge like he’s Malcolm or Ozzy. And yet!

At this point, I have no idea who I’m rooting for this season. Actually, I’m rooting for myself! I hope that whatever happens, I find it enjoyable and not maddening. And to the people who claim this is the most entertaining season of the New Era… put some fucking respect on Carolyn, Carson, and Yam Yam’s names because they’re the reason Survivor 44 is superior.

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A RANKING OF WHO I WANT TO WIN SURVIVOR 46

Of the 8 remaining players, we have:

8 - Q

Though I’m having fun watching him (attempts to quit aside) he is absolutely a monster and the second coming of Coach. I would be sick if he won.

7 - Maria

A little too attached to being Q’s right hand for me.

6 - Liz

Obsessed with how she reminds everyone how rich she is at every turn. Her winning would be hilarious, but it’s not happening and I’d rather several other people win before her.

5 - Venus

I don’t dislike Venus, but the Survivor Twitter audience seems to think she’s Taylor Hale from Big Brother. I can see why some of her tribe mates would be annoyed with her! She is rather petulant and demanding at times. She’s ain’t no diva (more of a potential mother), but she could be on a returnee season! I highly doubt it though, since she’s breaking her NDA left and right on Twitter each week.

4 - Ben

I feel like I’d enjoy hanging out with Ben and he’s doing a pretty good job of staying under the radar in the game. But I’d like to see some more flashes of brilliance other than hiding a secret immunity idol. Actually, I can’t even remember if he has one? That’s how much this season is sticking with me.

3 - Kenzie

Love Kenzie. Love her friendship with Tiffany and she’s just a fun player to watch. She’s been a bit all over the place this season but I think she’s in a good place now.

2 - Charlie

Swiftie behavior aside, Charlie has managed his threat level while also being amazing at challenges. He’s also one of the least emotional players in the game which means that he’ll probably give a killer jury speech if he makes the finals.

1 - Tiffany

That’s mother right there. She had me from the minute she told Bhanu, “stop making the block hot” after one of his Tribal meltdowns. And when she blew up at Q for telling everyone she had an idol. And when she tricked Hunter into not playing his idol.