“Survivor” has lasted 47 seasons, but the show has an issue that needs to be addressed. The lack of real players has turned the once groundbreaking reality mirroring social experiment into a vapid 15 minutes of fame popup. Survivor needs to stop casting characters and start casting players. Players who are there to win the game do not get their moment in the spotlight.
The Issue With the “Survivor” 47 Cast: Contenders Over Characters
In the recent seasons of “Survivor – often referred to as the “New Era” – a large emphasis in the casting process has been on characters. Too often, players apply and get on the show because they have a larger-than-life personality. We have seen confessionals about players being there for the experience or finding themselves. We have less and less players actually there to win the game.
This was highlighted by recent voted-out player Rome Cooney. Through six episodes, Rome acted erratically, un-strategically and selfishly. His final episode saw him confidently promoting how he could get so many people to vote his way, only to be blindsided by nearly all the remaining votes being placed on him.
Rome has admitted that 15 months ago he didn’t even know what survivor was. If that is the case, why did he apply? Why did he want to go on a show where you have to scrounge for food, get very little sleep and be exposed to the elements and potential backstabbing from other players?
Could it be because he saw it as a way to get his time in the shine? His 15 minutes of fame? He wouldn’t be the first and probably not the last. We have seen players like Bhanu Gopal from Season 46 say he wanted to “win one million hearts, not one million dollars.” In season 45, we had two people quit because they couldn’t handle the “pressure” despite having 44 seasons of knowledge and over 700 former players to use as a resource. I guess they couldn’t do hard things.
The essential problem is Survivor is trying too hard to cast personalities that will make for good content versus allowing the gameplay to stand on its own. If you poll most show fans and ask them who some of their favorite players are; you will hear names like Boston Rob, Rupert, Russell, Sandra and Parvati. These are all players who got to that point because of their gameplay, not their personality. Yes, they have personalities, which impacted how they play the game, but their gameplay stood out more than anything. They were cunning, conniving and strategic. They embodied the motto of “Outwit, Outplay, Outlast.” It’s not, Out react, Outlandish, Outshine. Wanting to play the game to win should be paramount to large personalities.
A Happy Medium
The two can co-exist. You don’t have to look that long ago when Caroline Wiger and Yam Yam Arocho were in the final tribal vying for the title, all while being two of the season’s most prominent characters, if not the most recent seasons. Even some of the most hated players in recent years, like Shan Smith and Ricard Foye from Season 41 or Carla Cruz Godoy from Season 43, have been theorized as potential returners in the future by fans because they have left a lasting memory on viewers with their gameplay, even if it was seen as villainous. There are plenty of others who have had big personalities, but it was a compliment to their gameplay. Why have we strayed away from that so much?
We don’t need reactions. We don’t need the jury to have over-the-top reactions to every move made, as Missy Byrd did in season 39. Frankly, we don’t want it. We enjoy seeing the super fans coming on and finishing a puzzle so fast and efficiently that they have to retire puzzles and come up with new ones like we saw with Eevie Jagoda, Carson Garrett and David Wright.
Fans like seeing the underdog make it far in the game by finding idols, pivoting alliances and swaying votes another way, like Emily Flippen in Season 45. We don’t want castaways who are there because they are an exaggerated, over-the-top version of what we see in society. It would also seem that castaways don’t want that either. Often, those players are voted out early, like Rome, because they cause too much annoyance at camp and ruffle too many feathers to be good alliance members.
Maybe instead of trying to come up with new twists, advantages,or wrinkles, the producers should focus on bringing us the hardest-playing cast. We need a cast that will give it their all and be devastated when they get their torch snuffed instead of being happy that they can turn that into their 15 minutes of fame.
Lack of Stories & Legends
Editing should get back to giving us the relatable stories of the castaways as they did with Dee Valladares (Season 45) or Jesse Lopez (Season 43). Perhaps production is taking its cues from society at large, with the Tik-Tok generation and influencers trying to go “viral.” Survivor has always been a mini version of society at large. It has, in small part, tackled issues such as race bias, sexuality, women’s rights and gender equality, but maybe they are trying too hard now.
How many of the New Era cast members will be legends in 10 years’ time? The show is just as popular as it ever was, but it seems as if there are fewer people in every season that we want to see back. It seems that if we do get a season of returning players, it will be just from the seasons after the 40th installment. That season was a “Winners at War,” where it was all past winners battling it out for the ultimate prize and bragging rights. If it were just new-era players, the pool of players we want to see back would be smaller than it would have been in the previous era of the show.
Bottom Line
Competitors over characters is what we, as fans, want. It makes the show more enjoyable to watch. Too often, the past few seasons have been fairly predictable, with only a small number of contestants actually playing the game to win it.
The biggest reactions in survivor history are not because of some character; it’s because we saw players doing so well make one small mistake or become too big of a threat that they get taken out. The tribal council blindsides make for amazing television. They make for memorable moments. Those come from gameplay, not characters.
The immunity necklace and idol save the player who should be going home and give them a lifeline in the game even when their gameplay doesn’t warrant it. It creates underdogs. Those are the moments we have grown to love about “Survivor” and have kept it on TV for so long. It is what made the show great in the first place.
We need to return to the show’s roots, which made it a global success. Survivor is now produced in 40 countries. Competitors did that, not characters.
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