History Series / Survivor

* AppleOfDiscord: Some individual rewards force the winner to choose a couple of tribemates to join him/her (or put another way, has to choose a bunch of people to get nothing). "Coconut chop" challenges are also good for this, as they put the social pecking order on display. In both cases, there's a good chance for someone to get offended.

* {{Auction}}: This was a commonly recurring "challenge" up until ''Worlds Apart'' (Season 30).

* BigBad: Most seasons have at least one contestant that plays the role, either of the [[AntiVillain anti-villainous]] or [[CardCarryingVillain card-carrying]] variety.

** Poor Boo Bernis of ''Fiji'' was one. He not only hurt himself numerous times on the same day (which was actually pretty funny) but later tore his ACL - [[MoodWhiplash then it went into the unfunny territory.]]

** ''Gabon'''s Fang won exactly one immunity challenge, plus a handful of rewards. However, they used their losses as a great excuse to kick off any Kotas swapped onto the tribe, and ultimately went into the merge with even footing. Tika in ''44'' had the gameplan, and actually produced the winner for it.

* CursedWithAwesome: Players considered to have strong athletic, social, or strategic prowess are likely to get voted out before making it to the final jury. This [[ExecutiveMeddling led producers to move from a Final 2 to a Final 3]], so there would be more than one compelling choice in the finals.

** All of the [[NonGameplayElimination medical evacuations]] fall into this - Jonathan's Knee and Joe's leg probably count as well; seeing as these were considered life-threatening.

** Some contestants actually have sustained injuries that followed them outside the game. The first person eliminated from Guatemala had torn his bicep in a challenge (after the hike). Months later, he was interviewed, and his arm was ''still'' in a splint. (It should be noted that he was actually one of the oldest contestants that season, which slowed down the healing process) Ian from ''Palau'' stated that he has nerve damage in parts of his feet from the nearly-12-hour-long-endurance challenge.

* DeadlyScratch: An occasional cause for medical evacuation, as limited access to medicine and bandages can make an otherwise controlled cut seriously infected. Jonathan Penner (''Micronesia'') and Neal Gottlieb (''Kaoh Rong'') both had to be pulled for infections that could have costed them their leg, if not their life, while James Clement (also ''Micronesia'') had to be removed for an infection on a cut no wider than his finger.

* DesertedIsland: The stereotypical setting for the show is on an island, though several seasons are instead in other sections of wilderness, such as ''The Australian Outback'' and ''Gabon''.

* DumbBlonde: There are usually several. Kat Edorsson from ''One World'' and Heidi Strobel from ''The Amazon'' and are probably some of the best examples. Granted, the ''Amazon'' reunion that Heidi actually has an IQ of 165, she just had a habit of [[DiggingYourselfDeeper putting her foot in her mouth]]) so it's more about presentation than actual smarts. Subverted by Natalie White from ''Samoa'', who acted like a DumbBlonde but [[ObfuscatingStupidity did so deliberately because the smart ones were being targeted]]; she then used her position to manipulate Russell and she eventually won. Jud "Fabio" Birza from ''Nicaragua'', was already kind of a ditz as a person, and intentionally [[ObfuscatingStupidity flanderized himself so the other team would underestimate him]], and like Natalie, he eventually won.

* FinaleProductionUpgrade: A given for each season from Australian Outback (Season 2) onwards. The contestants/jury are brought back and cleaned up, the votes are taken back to the United States to be read at CBS Television Studios, the families of all the contestants are brought in, and in at least one occasion, the final vote reading took place in a giant theater with a giant audience.

* MyGreatestFailure: Several players failed at the game and admit they failed. The producers likewise failed with a couple of twists, such as the "Have and have not" tribes in ''Fiji''.

* OddlyNamedSequel: Most early seasons were named after their location, but then we have the returning-contestant seasons of ''All-Stars'' and ''Heroes Vs Villains''. ''Panama'' is also known by the subtitle ''Exile Island'', its gimmick. (''Micronesia'' similarly used to be known as ''Fans vs. Favorites'', but with ''Caramoan'' using the same gimmick and subtitle the location is now necessary to differentiate.) Eventually, due to most seasons filming in Samoa or Fiji, titles based on the gimmicks became commonplace and are no longer "odd". Then, in a first for the series, the season after ''Winners at War'' was simply titled ''Survivor 41''.

* OneSteveLimit: Production doesn't really care whether they cast multiple people with the same or similar names on the same season: ''Africa'' had two Kims, ''Marquesas'' had two Robs, ''Pearl Islands'' had two Ryans, ''All-Stars'' had two Jennas and two Robs, ''Vanuatu'' had two Johns, ''Samoa'' had two Russells, ''Heroes vs Villains'' had two Jameses, ''Nicaragua'' had two Jimmys and two Kellys, ''Blood vs. Water'' had two Lauras, ''Cambodia'' had Kelly Wigglesworth and Kelley Wentworth, ''Millenials vs. Gen X'' had two Jessicas, ''Ghost Island'' had two Stephanies, ''David vs Goliath'' had Natalie and Natalia, ''Edge of Extinction'' had Julie and Julia, and ''Island of the Idols'' had Tom and Tommy. Usually, one or both players get around it by using their last names, initials, or nicknames.

* OutOfFocus: What makes a good Survivor game does not necessarily make a good television show. In most seasons, some people get left out of the camera's focus due to a) keeping quiet and not causing trouble at camp, or b) being on a winning tribe that doesn't need to do any politics. This is much a much more prominent trope in recent seasons since more attention is paid to strategizing and twists than character development.

** There's a rumor that "Purple" Kelly got the LivingProp edit in ''Nicaragua'' as punishment for quitting. Fellow quitter [=NaOnka=] didn't because she had a lot of attention-grabbing antics. Purple Kelly's was recruited for the show as little more than a glorified extra, but did surprizingly well at getting in good with the majority alliances. The only clothes production gave her were a little sundress, so she was physically suffering which is why she quit(and why the odd times you do see her she is usually wearing Fabio's jacket.).

* ReunionShow: A reunion show is part of every season's finale (barring ''Winners at War'' due to the COVID-19 pandemic.) All seasons with returning players also qualify in a way.

* TheRunnerUpTakesItAll: Sometimes, a non-winner will be the fan favorite over the winner, or otherwise get more mileage out of their appearance. Notable examples include Elizabeth Filarski (now Hasselbeck), who went on to have a ten year gig on women's talk show ''The View'' after placing fourth on ''The Australian Outback'' and Russell Hantz, who went on to have multiple return appearances and win the fan favorite award while the actual winner of ''Samoa'' faded into obscurity.

* SchizophrenicDifficulty: Due to the varying nature of the game locations (namely the weather), it may go from one of the ''harder'' seasons to one of the ''easiest'' seasons within the same year.

** Once ''Survivor'' stopped going to new locations they added gimmicks instead. These gimmicks get name-dropped constantly each season. In ''Worlds Apart'' everyone is constantly talking about the collar and in ''David vs Goliath'' they rarely stop talking about being "A David".

* TropicalIslandAdventure: Most of the series is set on tropical islands in Oceania and Southeast Asia, with ''Pearl Islands'', ''All-Stars'', and ''Panama'' also set in the Pearl Islands off the southern coast of Panama.

* WeAREStrugglingTogether:
** Intended to be invoked in ''One World'', where the two tribes are sharing a living space, but subverted as the tribes set up separate camps next to each other instead of living as one group.
** Subverted with the Casaya tribe in ''Panama''. Despite them being an ''extremely'' dysfunctional and combative tribe, they all managed to work together well enough in challenges to TeamKill the more peaceful and coherent La Mina tribe.
** This was the FatalFlaw of the Timbiras in ''Tocantins'', with Coach and Brendan jockeying for the alpha male position, and Erinn and ''especially'' Sierra getting the AllOfTheOtherReindeer treatment. The tribe was in a big enough division, that come the merge, the incoming Jalapaos (who were in the minority) exploited the tribe's "factions" and easily picked off the Timbiras one-by-one.

* WeAreStrugglingTogether: The Samburu tribe from ''Africa'', being split right down the middle, spent more time in-fighting than working against Boran. In fact, in several instances where the Samburus could have tried to vote out a Boran member, they just [[RevengeBeforeReason voted each other out instead]].

** Episodes of ''Island of the Idols'', "We Made It to the Merge!" The episode started off with a "Viewer Discretion Advised" warning, which is never a good sign. Dan had already established himself as having NoSenseOfPersonalSpace with the women around him, but the merge brings the problem to a head as Kellee is brought back into contact with him and is able to compare notes with other women who had to deal with his touching. She has a breakdown during a ConfessionCam -- and all hell breaks loose as first production steps in to give Dan a warning, and then two of the other women manipulate the accusations ''against'' Kellee. The night ends with Kellee and Jamal (who took her side) voted out, Janet trying to protect Kellee and tanking her own game as a result, and Dan and the manipulators completely safe.

* NonGameplayElimination: Several examples but these two deserve special mention-

** In ''Island of the Idols'', Dan Spillo got ejected. He'd already been given a warning about sexual harassment earlier in the season due to fondling his female tribemates, and apparently there was an incident with a crew member that served as the last straw. Other versions of the show have had ejections for offenses of similar caliber, but this was the first time it happened in the US version.

** In ''Island of the Idols'', Kellee claimed that she HatesBeingTouched because she's TerrifiedOfGerms. The later admits that this is a lie; Dan was being inappropriately handsy with her and other women and claiming to be a germophobe was a way to get him to back off without making a scene.

* EmbarrassingPassword: In ''41'', a set of "Beware Advantages" force their holders to say a code phrase in public in order to get an advantage. The phrases were made to be completely ridiculous and improbable to be thought up by anyone unaware: "I truly believe that butterflies are just dead relatives saying 'hi'.", "I'm as confused as a goat on [=AstroTurf=].", and "I didn't realize this until now...broccoli is just a bunch of small trees.".

* NakedPeopleAreFunny: Rich Hatch's other major shtick, besides being the show's first ManipulativeBastard.

* TheNicknamer: Coach Wade, who himself goes by a nickname. He calls Brendan Synnott "The Dragon", Stephen Fisbach "The Wizard" and the already-nicknamed J.T. "The Warrior". Coach even wrote "The Warrior" when he voted for J.T. to win ''Tocantins''. Also, he even calls ''himself'' "The Dragon Slayer"! There is also Phillip Sheppard, who after creating the Stealth 'R' Us alliance, gives each member a codename ranging from cool to just plain ridiculous.
* NippleAndDimed:
** Some fairly strenuous physical competition takes place among women dressed in bikini tops or skimpy shirts. On occasion breasts and nipples have been exposed. As this is American TV, such wardrobe malfunctions are visually bleeped out by blurring or pixelating the screen.
** It is also noticeable that during a game involving women contestants bobbing for items in a tub full of gloopy brown mud, several bikini tops were dislodged exposing breasts and nipples. But since the women involved were by then slathered from head to waist in a coating of mud, the bared breasts were not visually bleeped out and left in the full "uncensored" camera view.

* NothingCanStopUsNow: Russell Hantz in every season he's been in has gloated to the point of absurdity before ultimately losing.

* PoorPredictableRock: Three out of three times now, Russell Hantz's alliance strategy is "find some pretty little bimbo that I can manipulate". It didn't work the first two times, both of the girls were at least as savvy as he was, and it actively backfired when ''they'' manipulated ''him'' and one even won! The third time around, he managed to pick a properly empty-headed pretty girl and an ignorant girl who was almost as bad at the social game as he was. Unfortunately for him, the other members of his tribe knew what he was up to from the start and kicked him out early - the tribe even lampshaded in the first or second episode that he was probably collecting a harem as they spoke. And since the girls actually ''were'' just lackeys this time, they were no help in convincing the others to keep him around.
* PrisonersDilemma: Season 41 features these as a regular mechanic, as each episode takes a handful of players from different tribes and tells them to each make a decision which will be affected by the other players' choices. For instance, the first two episodes had "Protect Your Vote" (nothing happens, good or bad) versus "Risk Your Vote" (get an extra Tribal Council vote for later use if someone else chose to Protect, but if all players Risk then they lose their votes in their next Council(s) instead).

** A self-made one at that! At the beginning of ''Samoa'', Russell Hantz tells the audience: "I'm going to show America how easy it is to win Survivor." And indeed he did. By treating the rest of his tribe like crap, destroying their belongings, bullying and threatening everyone, and blithely ignoring the social skills of his would-be goat, Russell did indeed demonstrate how easy it was for '''Natalie White''' to win Survivor. He had to beat sixteen people - she only had to beat two.
** And then Russell goes and does the same thing in the very next season, ''Heroes vs. Villains''! At the time of filming, ''Samoa'''s results had not been announced and Russell was under the impression that he had won. He played the same game he had the previous season with the same results: he took Sandra Diaz-Twine to the finals expecting that he would easily win the vote against her, only for her to win another million.
* PublicSecretMessage: Season 41 contains an immunity idol with a twist, in that it's shared among all three tribes and can't be used until all three are found, and each holder must alert the others by saying a code phrase in front of the tribes during a challenge. The secret phrases are: "I truly believe that butterflies are just dead relatives saying hi", "I'm as confused as a goat on [=AstroTurf=]", and "I didn't realize this until now... broccoli is just a bunch of small trees."

* RatingsStunt: ''Redemption Island'', setting up a season to give Rob Mariano or Russell Hantz the wins that many claimed they deserved, casting a vast vast majority of people who had never seen the show before or had only seen Boston Rob and Russell's seasons, cutting half of these people from the show, and tailoring the challenges to their respective strenghts. ''South Pacific'' was also the same with Coach and Ozzy but has been received better, mostly because they didn't [[SpotlightStealingSquad forget they actually cast eighteen people and not just four]] this time.

* RuleOfFunny: There was absolutely no strategy behind Sugar convincing Bob to give Randy a fake immunity idol. Either way, he was going home, but she knew it would be hilarious to have him humiliate himself on the way out. And it was.

** Eric Hafemann's confessionals always being in a tree.
** Phillip Sheppard's job listed as "Former Federal Agent?" As of Season 41, it ''still'' appears this way in his profile on the CBS official website, and he last appeared in Season 26.
** Boo Bernis's increasingly AmusingInjuries (until the end when it [[DudeNotFunny wasn't played for laughs]]).
*** And everyone falling at the start of ''Fiji''.
** Michael Skupin in ''Philippines'' finding new and original ways to hurt himself. The editors didn't even feed this, it happened!
* SanitySlippage: The game has a pretty significant, though thankfully temporary, effect on the players. It's common for players to compulsively hoard food, experience night terrors and suffer from intense and persistent feelings of paranoia, claustrophobia and alienation for weeks after they get home.

* ScheherezadeGambit: Every now and then a person will be on the chopping block for survival merit or because they've angered a clear alliance, but invoke their charm and personality to keep in the game. The very first example is Gervase Paterson, who managed to prove himself by the end.

** Since seasons are usually filmed two back to back before either airs, both Russell Hantz and Amanda Kimmell ended up in a situation where they played two seasons in a row and got to the finals both times without knowing if they won their first season. The result was both of them losing both seasons. This could be why Russell cried at the ''Samoa'' finale, he just found out he likely lost both seasons when he was expecting to get Two Million-Dollar checks.

* SelfProclaimedLiar: Boston Rob was a ''master'' at this.

* ShipperOnDeck: Some players love pairing fellow contestants for some reason, such as Cirie for Amanda and Ozzy (and jokingly Erik and Ozzy).

* StealthParody: Easily one of the cleverest of these (if not the only one) was when Greg Buis asked both of the finalists on the first season to pick a number between one and ten during the standard Q&A jury session featured on each finale. Presumably whoever answered closest to the correct answer would get Greg's vote, and they did (Richard picked 7 and Kelly chose 3 when the secret number was 9). As some time went by and people began to call Richard an overrated winner since he basically won through luck and all the machinations and intrigue of his season were thus pointless, an old interview with Greg then surfaced claiming that he had planned to vote for Richard the entire time and only did the "pick a number" gimmick to mock the overly serious nature of Tribal Council.

* StrawFeminist: While some seasons encourage mild sexism by dividing tribes by gender, ''Vanuatu'''s Ami Cusack took the idea and ran with it. Obsessed with creating an all-female alliance, she went so far as to hoard a food reward from the remaining men, and then mock them with the bones...after they had just returned from working! Appropriately, she got the ''Survivor'' equivalent of a KarmicDeath when she was voted out by the four people she despised most [[DarkHorseVictory and the lone remaining guy survived the sisterhood and won]].

** Tina Sheer in ''Panama'' asked to be voted out first because she was still mourning her son, who had recently died in a car crash.
** Jim Lynch from ''Guatemala'' asked to be voted out because he tore his bicep...and was shown as ''still'' having it in a splint months later!

** Jeff Wilson from ''Palau'' asked to be voted out after spraining his foot on a coconut and realizing he wouldn't get very far with the injury, as well as to save his love interest, Kim (who ended up going home next).
** There are also unconfirmed rumours of people asking to be voted out. Allegedly; Chet Welch asked to be voted out because he probably would have been evacuated had they not, because had stepped on a piece of coral. Stephenie [=LaGrossa=] also was apparently still hurting when she dislocated her shoulder and asked to be voted out also. Ashlee Ashby also wasn't shown asking to be voted out, but the fact was confirmed outside the game.

** Sandra Diaz-Twice, in ''Heroes vs. Villains'', after the merge. Before the merge, Tyson Apostol's boneheaded moves destroyed her original alliance, and post-merge the Heroes completely botched every attempt to carry out her plans. In spite of it all, she [[GuileHero managed to]] ''[[GuileHero win twice]]''.
** James Clement almost invoked this trope word for word on ''Fans vs. Favorites'', saying something to the effect of "I feel like I am back in China with a bunch of idiots!". [[TooDumbToLive Of course, his own actions weren't exactly brilliant]].

** Janu Tornell's reason for quitting during ''Palau'', to screw up the original Koror's plans and allow [[EnemyMine Stephenie [=LaGrossa=]]] another chance to survive.

** Parvati Shallow ''deliberately'' plays the role in just about any season she's in.

* TookALevelInBadass: Some players who started weak become stronger as the game progress, such as Fabio in ''Nicaragua'', who started as a [[DumbBlonde himbo]] and went on an immunity run to win it all. There's also returning players who do far better a second time around, like Parvati Shallow.

* TheUnintelligible: Big Tom Buchanan of ''Africa'' and ''All-Stars''. To quote Jeff Probst:
--> "When you try real hard, you can almost understand what he's saying."

* TheUnfairSex: The standards for single-gender alliances are not-so-subtly biased. Rocksroy was vilified as a misogynist by the editors and other players for trying to make an all-male alliance when they had a 6-4 lead over the women. All female alliances (e.g., Black Widow Brigade and Witch's Coven) have been treated more sympathetically by the show. Jamal was called a misogynist for suspecting an all-women's alliance when his tribemates talked about making one in that same episode.
* UnkemptBeauty: Some Survivors can look good in the wild, where they live without shaving or having any cosmetics to cover up, in dirty clothes and rough living conditions. Sometimes they look even better than when they're dressed up for the reunion. The term "island hot" is frequently used by fans to describe players they consider to be becoming more attractive the longer they stay on the island. Depends on the viewer's opinion, though.

** Jeff Kent in ''Philippines'' was focused on making sure that none of the returning players won over the newbies, with much of his attention directed towards Jonathan Penner, whom he was on the same starting tribe as throughout the tribal portion of the game. Several of his confessions throughout the season revolve around targeting Penner and planning for his demise. Penner, however, had no idea of Kent's obsession with him, as the two formed an alliance early on and Penner's discovery of the immunity idol made blindsiding him very difficult, forcing Kent to play nice and use Penner as a shield in the meantime. It reaches its head in the second tribal after the merge, where Penner inadvertently gets Kent eliminated[[note]]At the final ten, Penner and Kent were part of a tentative alliance of five that were set to vote together against Pete, while the opposing five would vote for Kent, forcing a tie and leading to either someone flipping their vote or a rock draw. Penner tossed a stray vote to Abi-Maria instead, splitting the alliance's support and allowing enough votes to land on Kent to get him out[[/note]], leaving Penner mostly unaware of their feud until the game had wrapped up.

** Russell Hantz was arguably positioned as one of these in ''Samoa'', although he came off as more as an AntiHero. He was firmly in this position in ''Heroes vs. Villains'', however.
* VitriolicBestBuds: Ethan Zohn and Big Tom Buchanan on ''Africa''.
-->'''Ethan''': "Me and Tom, we have kind of like a brotherly relationship right now. He makes fun of me because I'm Jewish, and I make fun of him because he's fat and he's got a boil on his neck..."
** Rob Cesternino and Matthew Von Ertfelda in ''Amazon'' sort of had this. Rob and most of the others made fun of Matthew for sharpening the machete all the time and for being socially awkward. Even though most of the cast would have decided to boot Matthew for being an outcast, Rob decides to make fun of Matt even more by turning him and Butch into unwitting pawns of his during the merge (see Funny.{{Survivor}}). However, Rob and Matthew later develop a working relationship and Matt proves to be a more reliable ally despite Rob finding him annoying. By the Rob himself is out, he realizes he accidentally gave Matthew too much power and that Rob had to rely on him in return.
* WackyMarriageProposal: Six seasons before Rob famously proposed to Amber at the live ''All-Stars'' reunion, ''Australian Outback'''s Keith proposed to his girlfriend via instant message during an internet reward challenge. She said yes. Matty also proposed to his girlfriend during the loved ones visit in ''Gabon''.

** Until Russell Hantz came along, Rupert Boneham was easily the ''Survivor'' poster boy for this trope. He was so overexposed during his original two seasons, in fact, that at one point ''he was handing out the checks to the winners''.

** ''South Pacific'' continued to sponge off of Russell's infamy. He didn't come back ''again'', but the cast included his nephew, Brandon Hantz. And Russell got namedropped some more when Brandon came back again in ''Caramoan''. ''Series/BigBrother'' also had Russell's brother and Brandon's father, Willie Hantz.

* WouldHitAGirl: Well, they wouldn't ''hit'' one, that's an immediate ejection, but many male contestants have no problem with tackling them to the ground or forcefully hauling them fifty feet to the goal line. Some more notable examples:

** Played straight when Erik Reichenbach hits Eliza Orlins over the head with a heavy sack in the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJkp2p-41D4 Beach Bash Challenge]]. He then got Amanda Kimmel in the same challenge with a judo-esque throw.

* At some point when between two-thirds and half of the contestants are remaining, everybody is united into a single tribe and the Post-Merge begins. Reward Challenges are now played for the benefit of a single or small group of winners, and Immunity Challenges now give its sole winner immunity from being voted out at the subsequent Tribal Council. In this phase, contestants who are voted out join the Jury and are able to passively observe every subsequent Tribal Council.

* The Pre-Merge sees the competing tribes play for a Reward Challenge for some kind of nice group reward, and an Immunity Challenge, the losing tribe of which heads to Tribal Council. Around halfway through this phase, a Tribe Swap usually occurs in which contestants are randomly reassigned their tribes to even the numbers back out and to shake up the status quo of alliances.

* The Pre-Merge sees the competing tribes play for a Reward Challenge for some kind of nice group reward, and an Immunity Challenge, the losing tribe of which heads to Tribal Council.

''Survivor'' is... it's...

Well, if ''Series/TheRealWorld'' is the [[TropeMaker grand-daddy]] of the reality show, ''Survivor'' is [[TropeCodifier the daddy]]. It debuted in 2000, proved to be a huge hit and [[CashCowFranchise a big moneymaker]] for Creator/{{CBS}}, and launched a wave of reality shows that, even in TheNewTwenties, we're ''still'' recovering from.

The story is as follows: a fixed number of men and women are stuck in a wilderness setting (typically, but not always, a [[DesertedIsland deserted tropical island]]), where they're divided into at least two tribes (mostly random, but sometimes with some kind of overrarching theme). While settling in to their castaway life, they take part in challenges intended to sow division between them, cumulating in a Tribal Council each episode where a tribe gets the opportunity to vote out one of their members. The game is played in roughly three phases: