Survivor Season 35: Heroes Vs. Healers Vs. Hustlers

at first glance, the "secret advantage" did feel contrived. but i think that's only because the show has a long tradition of the final immunity winner being able to choose who gets voted out. but as applebonkerz stated, this "new way" makes it that the immunity winner can't automatically get rid of a strong player. this makes for more uncertainty and excitement really as well as a more competitive jury vote. i think the genie is out of the bottle and it will likely be this way going forward.
i thought Ben, Chrissy and Devin all played good enough games to win it. congrats to Ben. he's a worthy winner.

 

That first Ben idol just seemed so contrived and obvious to me. Then, when it's certain Ben is getting voted out, we have a new twist, i.e. another chance for Ben to stay in the game? Am I the only person who saw it that way?

 

Ben still worked hard to find those idols, searching around for hours in the dark and very early mornings, the others sure didn't put in the effort to do so. The others could have beaten him to the idols. It's not like the show had the next idol laying in his hand already as Ben woke up in the morning. As I said earlier, the new twist was long overdue in this game to make people actually earn the right to sit in the final three, instead of just being carried along and handed the spot like Ryan was. It could have totally changed the outcome to several past seasons too. But again the final spot wasn't handed to Ben, he didn't even have the advantage to know and practice like Devin did.

It seems like you and some others are implying that the show manipulated Ben's win. Ben still had to actually work hard and earn that opportunity to win. The jury still could have been butt-hurt idiots and not voted for him like some of the past juries have done with worthy people before. I see it as the show finally doing something to make the selection of the three finalists more fair and competitive, so the actual strongest player isn't automatically always voted out last by all the weak players trying to make sure that person has no chance at winning. Why do you think Chrissy, Devin and Ryan wanted Ben out so badly? They all knew he was the one of all of them who most deserved the win too. The show will always be better when it's the best of the best competing until the end vote--not down to the least worst of the weak non-survivalist-capabable alliances that band together because they have no other way to actually survive and make it through the show otherwise. Sadly, there have been very few seasons when the best versus the best was actually allowed to happen for the final vote. Hopefully that tide is now shifting back with this new change. Actual survival basics like being able to make a fire should always be included as a competition to earn your way into being a finalist, not how good you are at solving puzzles. Make a new show called Puzzlemasters for that. Put more survival basics back into Survivor. It's always been there as a tie-breaker option, but we've seen in the past how people try so hard to avoid that ever happening. Most of them know they are terrible at it, so they don't want to have to do that. Force them all to! That one year a fire challenge went on for hours with no one being able to start one. People like that don't deserve to be a finalist on Survivor in my opinion. It's a great way to weed out the weak and unworthy. Devin at least actually was somewhat capable of making a fire. Does anyone really think Chrissy or Ryan ever would have made a fire, or been in the top two making a fire competing against Ben and Devin? Keep up the fire challenge Probst, and add in even more final competitions based around basic survival abilities.

 

i'm glad ben won....actually i would have been happy with anyone but chrissy. chrissy should have been voted out at the first tribal. talk about someone being full of themself, she might be the all-time worst. really really bugged me badly.

i get that ben is a nice guy, but i could never been as nice to chrissy as he was after everything she did to try to get rid of him.

all in all though, one of the worst survivor seasons ever. basically personality-less.

although the next one does look intriguing to say the least.

 

I'll make my point once more. Ben seeing a blatant sign that points down and digging right at the beginning of the show was suspect to me. And, yes, Ben had to win the fire competition. But how many past players have been given the opportunity to save themselves so many times in a row. Especially the finale. I'm glad he won, but I'd have been fine with Devon, Chrissy and Ryan playing for the win.

 

I disagree. He had no "right" to sit in the final three unless he won the final immunity challenge. Part of the game is not putting a target on your own back, but if the other three wanted him out, then he didn't succeed at that part.

Unfortunately it looks like there's a fair chance that the producers decided they wanted to keep him in to hand him the win on a silver platter so they concocted the fire-making contest on the spot to give him a half chance instead of zero. The more I think about it the more it ticks me off.

Chrissy was robbed!

 

Anyone that is good at the game, great at challenges, works a lot around camp automatically "puts a target on their own back" from all the others who can't, or won't do any of those things. Goats that are no threat to win immunity challenges walk through this show all the time with no targets on their back precisely because they are so unworthy to win the show others carry them along just for their voting block. What a pathetic way to get to the end.

Chrissy was one of the most unlikable and fake people to be a finalist.

The more I think about it, I'm extremely happy that she had her smug chip knocked off her shoulder in the end.

 

2 opposing ways to look at it right above this, and i have to agree about chrissy, just a very phony disgusting woman.

and ryan, if ryan sat in the final 3 with a flag and a log, he still would have finished 3rd. chrissy used devon to try get ben out and sold it just like the snake sold the apple "only you can beat ben, devon, ryan could never do it...no s***t, and she knew ryan didn't have a chance to beat her, and that ben would. i will give her that, she made devon the fool, and he took the bait hook line and sinker.

i am glad this one is over, and i am on fence as to whether the producers of the show manipulated things to get ben to win...and bringing his service friends on the finale kind of makes lean, sadly, toward that manipulation.

i am still waiting for an all-winners season, they'll 35 after the spring season, i'm sure they can entice 18 - 20 of them to come back one more time.

 

That theory falls apart due to the fact that the special advantage was in place before the immunity challenge. I don't think the producers have the ability to see into the future.

Chrissy really was an unpleasant player, and while I'd agree that Ben is the most deserving, it was the first season in a long time where I couldn't have cared less about who won; I was only actively rooting for Chrissy to lose, and the comeuppances over the fake idol and the fire challenge were delicious to watch.

John K.

 

exactamundo. i think it's pretty clear that this is a new direction for the game. and it's an improvement too because it makes for a much higher chance of the final three being more competitive.

excited for next season!

 

Yes, it keeps the last elimination vote from being just a popularity contest, where three weaker players decide to vote out the fourth, stronger player. It evens the playing field a little and keeps that penultimate tribal council from being anticlimactic (like it has been in past seasons). It also gives players a reason to hone their fire-making skills.

I always thought that if I were to be a contestant on Survivor, I would spend a couple of days practicing fire making before leaving home. Even if you don't need it in a challenge, you'll need for food preparation... well, except for the days that you're fed by Outback Steakhouse.

 

FYI from Jeff Probst:
"This idea came about to solve a problem that has bothered me for years. If someone plays a great game and gets to the final four, it has always bothered me that the other three can simply say, “We can’t beat him, so let’s all just vote him out.” So this year we decided to make a change. If you get to final four, you are guaranteed a shot to earn your way to the end. And if you are the one to win the final four challenge, you are in charge of who you take and who you force to fight for it in a fire-making showdown. And of course, it goes without saying, we got lucky with a huge million dollar showdown between Ben and Devon. It was electric. And yes, that will be a new format change and will appear in next season, Survivor: Ghost Island."
Survivor finale: Jeff Probst explains reason behind controversial twist

I sure hope it continues on past just the next installment. It has bothered me for years too. What took them so long to correct it?

 

Damn Survivor did it again...I was checked-out on this season, uninterested and bored by it. Didn't like this cast. Then the finale was one of the best I can remember. Great twist at the end, and very overdue.

Although I wish the reunion was with the entire cast like it used to be.

 

seems like every season the players that got voted out early get a shorter and shorter shrift at the reunion show. i wish they would go back to interviewing the entire cast and do less of the fan interaction. of course if the last hour wasn't 30 minutes of commercials, they would have time to do both!

 

John, I could be wrong, but Chrissy was given the "extra advantage" when she won the last immunity challenge. On the face of it, it seemed harmless. But it gave Ben another shot to make it to the F3. Yes he won it, but I've never seen someone with so many opportunities to continue on in the game.

 

he looked for the idol (that always goes back in play after it's been used) while the others laid around and slept. they had just as much opportunity to find it as he did. they chose to sleep while he kept looking. i'd say he wanted it more.

 

Unless I'm mis-remembering, that there was a secret advantage was announced by Jeff prior to the start of the challenge. We didn't know the specifics of it until after the challenge. Of course Jeff didn't show it prior to awarding it, so I guess it's conceivable that he had a number of different options in his pocket and chose one of them depending on who won the challenge, but I'm not that much of a conspiracy theorist to go down that road of thought. As noted in the above link, the official story is that there was only the one advantage.

John K.

 

Official and actual are oftentimes very different things.

 

Another FYI... I saw it mentioned a few times elsewhere online, and just went back to watch the section of the final immunity challenge and make this screen cap showing that Chrissy also had one of her letters upside down but didn't get called out for it on the show. The "s" in Heroes on the top row is upside down compared to all the other "s" in the blocks. You can clearly see the letter is not formed equally to appear the same either way it is placed. There is a larger curve with a flat angled edge on the bottom of the "s" (the same way the flat bottom letters have an angled flat edge on the bottom), and a smaller tight rounded curve at the top of the letter when it is set correctly. The "o" appears to also have a flat edge on the bottom and is placed correctly.

Chrissy didn't actually win this challenge either -- any more than Ben's upside down "u" didn't win. If the "s" letters would have been formed equally with no difference between top and bottom, then there would have been no issue with Chrissy's win. But there is a difference, and the letter forms do have a clear top and bottom to them. The show/Probst ignored this mistake to declare Chrissy the winner without her completing the challenge properly.

Even better that she didn't actually go on to win the season from this oversight, but she may not even deserve to win the 2nd place money because who knows if she would have even been in the final 3 if this challenge was finished to a proper end.

 

Great pick up!!!!!!!

 

Interesting too, the more I look at all the letters and blocks the "H" for whatever reason is made to be reversible so it is the same either direction. Both diagonally opposite legs are either shorter and flat across, or slightly longer with the angled edge. They must have decided the "H" would be too difficult for anyone to discern a top or bottom so made them be the only letters equally reversible when the challenge is played fairly and correctly.

 

Excellent pick up is right, the top row far right end S is clearly upside down compared to the other 2. So she should not have won this challenge, If Ben got picked out for his upside down letter so should this...I wonder what CBS has to say about this, it's clearly an error.

I really enjoyed this season and I like the new twist, did you see the desperation on Devon's face trying to make this fire? Ben deserved to win.
Jeff did mention that this new twist will be used from now on...so will players already know fire will be tested at the end or will they change it up from fire to something else?

 

In the Probst quote I posted earlier about continuing the fire challenge and why, he definitely says the fire challenge will be used in the following version of the show. Since usually the following season has already been filmed before the final of the previous show ever airs, those players will most likely be surprised by that change too. Whether they continue it on past Ghost Island, or change it up into something else remains to be seen.

 

The "twist" is still silly. Once everyone knows it will just force better players to be voted out sooner, possibly making the show worse at the end.

 

One side effect of the new twist is that it helps to highlight who's a "goat." The winner of the last immunity challenge will likely always pick a weaker player to bring to the final three. While I don't think Ryan had any real chance of winning, he admitted that he made it to the final three because he could not make fire.