History ShockingElimination / Survivor

* '''Omar Zaheer''' was seen as a shoo-in to take the win. He pulled off several big moves and little other competition. In addition, his close ally Lindsay had both an idol and immunity, meaning that if she simply played the idol on Omar, both would be safe. This idol was also set to expire next round, meaning there was little reason for Lindsay ''not'' to use the idol on Omar. Improbably however, Lindsay decided not to play it, and then Maryanne decided to use her extra vote and Romeo to capitalize on a split vote, taking Omar out in a 3-2-2 vote.

* In a repeat of last season's elimination of Shan, '''Omar Zaheer''' was seen as a shoo-in to take the win. He had a huge edit, pulled off several big moves, a big ally with a major advantage, with little other competition. Then Maryanne Oketch pulled out her extra vote and, with the help of Romeo Escobar, knocked Omar out in one fell swoop.

* To the viewers, it seemed that one of '''Josh Canfield''' and '''Jeremy Collins''' would win the game, depending on which one came out on top of thne other. Josh went first, fair enough, but then right after seizing the majority, the next boot is Jeremy after he slips up and gets the swing votes to turn against him.

* Trish Hegarty swings to L.J. [=McKanas=]/Jefra Bland's alliance and convinces outlier Tony Vlachos to oust a fellow Brawn tribesmate, affable NBA giant '''Cliff Robinson'''. Until that point, nobody even spoke of him as a threat.

* To the viewers, '''Josh Canfield''' and '''Jeremy Collins''' had become key players judging from the pre-merge... only to be voted out in succession as soon as the merge hit.
* '''Jon''', who was shown to be the more visible strategic face than Jaclyn in his pair, was blindsided at the final six with an idol in his pocket.

* '''Paschal English''' became the first victim of the infamous rock-drawing tiebreaker on Day 37, despite never having received any votes throughout the entire game. At a deadlocked final four, Vecepia and Kathy had voted for Neleh, while Neleh and Paschal had voted for Kathy. Paschal, Neleh and Kathy would draw rocks and whoever received the purple one would be sent home (Vecepia had won individual immunity). Paschal drew the purple rock and was thus eliminated. Despite the accusations of unfairness, it should be noted that [[AllThereInTheManual Paschal knew exactly the risk of tying the vote]], as all the contestants were informed of this course of action in their pre-game briefing.

** The infamous "Gervase X". To prevent InterfaceSpoilers, CBS decided to [[BlatantLies "accidentally"]] [[{{Troll}} release footage of a final four that did not include several members of the alliance]], leading to people believing the alliance would be overthrown. They then tampered with their website, allowing anyone capable of searching through the coding to find that unlike everyone else, [[RedHerring Gervase's photo had no capability to be easily X'd out]]. Every person eliminated had an X coded onto their face upon elimination, and that was impossible to put on the photo of '''Gervase Paterson'''. As a result, fans were ''shocked'' [[https://content.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,51855,00.html when Gervase was indeed eliminated]] (and a red X put onto his face on the website)

* '''Silas Gaither''' was in a prime position to make it to the end, having the majority alliance in the stronger tribe. [[DiabolusExMachina Unfortunately for him, he was swapped into the opposing tribe with two of his rivals by the previously-unseen tribal swap, and promptly voted off]]. [[GracefulLoser He took it surprisingly well though]].

* '''Paschal English''' became the first victim of the infamous rock-drawing tiebreaker on Day 37, despite never having received any votes throughout the entire game. At a deadlocked final four, Vecepia and Kathy had voted for Neleh, while Neleh and Paschal had voted for Kathy. Paschal, Neleh and Kathy would draw rocks and whoever received the purple one would be sent home (Vecepia had won individual immunity). Paschal drew the purple rock and was thus eliminated.
** Despite the accusations of unfairness, it should be noted that [[AllThereInTheManual Paschal knew exactly the risk of tying the vote]], as all the contestants were informed of this course of action in their pre-game briefing. However, due to the negative reception, the rock drawing has been removed as a tiebreaker for late ''Survivor'' stages since. Also, Paschal might have actually been evacuated had he stayed in the game: juror John Carroll (a nurse back home) revealed he collapsed before the final three tribal council.

* Right at the final four, '''Jesse Lopez''' seemed almost too obvious a winner: the politically-strongest player of the final four, carrying ''two'' idols, and having just pulled off a major blindside of a close ally. Unfortunately for him, he unexpectedly both the final immunity and the final 4 firemaking challenge, so the finale went on without him.

* '''Colton Cumbie''' suddenly quitting on day ''7'' of what is widely considered the easiest season of Survivor, because of no one wanting to play the game his way.

* Perhaps one of the most stunning examples of this in the series, '''Marcus Lehman''' was seen by most people as the most obvious winner ever. Not only was he the OnlySaneMan amidst a crowd of wacky characters and villains, but his positioning was nearly perfect within his alliance. So safe is he, that he convinces everyone at the final 10 to throw
hidden immunity idol into the ocean. Suddenly when it's revealed that the final 10 is a tribe swap rather than a merge, he becomes vulnerable for the first time, misplays his hand, and is narrowly taken out by one of his alliance members flipping.

* At the merge episode, '''Missy Byrd''' established herself as the BigBad of the season and quite possibly one of the most ruthless Survivor players in history. Many who thought she would be making her way to the finale to be (hopefully) beaten by Janet or Karishma we shocked, however, when the episode after, she gets voted out and her core alliance gets completely demolished.

* '''Leann Slaby''' caused the power shift from Ami/Leann to Twila/Scout, when the former idiotically tried to target Eliza Orlins instead of last man Chris Daugherty. Chris immediately exploited this, and got everyone except Ami to turn around and blindside Leann.

[[folder:11. Panama]]

[[folder:12. Cook Islands]]

* '''Michael Skupin''', one of the strongest contestants in the season, became the first evacuation in ''Survivor'' history after burning himself in the fire. Mark Burnett himself was show shocked he came up on camera trying to reassure Skupin.

* Colby Donaldson has a choice at the final 3 after winning final immunity of who to eliminate between Keith and Tina. If he eliminates Tina and goes to the end with the much-less-charismatic '''Keith Famie''', he will easily sway all the jurors. So it's a bit of a shock to see him eliminate Keith, allowing Tina Wesson to ultimately win. [[GracefulLoser Not that he had a problem with it]].

* '''Hunter Ellis''' seemed like an obvious person for his tribe to keep around, being the leader and extremely athletic. Unfortunately, Boston Rob organized his elimination because he wanted to control the tribe.
* '''Gabriel Cade''', was in a 5-3 majority alliance with no idols to be seen for until years later. Tragically, his alliance (read: John) decided he needed to go when he expressed disinterest in talking about the vote.
* '''Boston Rob Mariano''', due to a huge amount of people thinking he was the season's best shot at overthrowing the Rotu 4, and the sheer amount of focus he got. He did, however, sow discontent for...
* '''John Carroll''', leader of the majority Rotu 4 alliance truly takes the prize for this however. For the first three seasons, the show followed a somewhat predictable pattern of the majority alliance on the largest tribe Pagonging the smaller tribe with their own tribe, then getting rid of the people not in the majority alliance. Once Rob was gone, everything pointed to the same thing happening here, to the point where Paschal (not a part of the majority alliance or the smaller tribe) literally told John to his face that he would vote with him, seemingly being complacent with 5th or 6th. Then the infamous "Coconut Chop" challenge let everyone realize who the majority alliance was (thanks to some ''absurd'' cockiness on the Rotu 4's part). All of a sudden, the 5 people not in the Rotu 4 alliance (including Paschal) decided to band together and take them out, and voted John off. This marks the first official power shift in the game.
** Making this even more shocking was the previous season, where ManipulativeEditing tricked people into thinking Lex would be going home for several episodes. As a result, '''no one''' thought an actual power shift would happen this time, ''especially'' with Rob out of the game.

** Despite the accusations of unfairness, it should be noted that [[AllThereInTheManual Paschal knew exactly the risk of tying the vote]], as all the contestants were informed of this course of action in their pre-game briefing. However, due to the perceived "unfairness", the rock drawing has been removed as a tiebreaker solution at the final four ever since (it is still a solution at any other time, however). Ironically, Paschal might have actually been evacuated had he stayed in the game, as one of the jury members revealed he collapsed before the final three Tribal Council.
* Immediately after Paschal's elimination, '''Kathy Vavrick-O'Brien''' was flying high in the Final 3, she had an underdog story to sell and had a Final 2 with Vecepia (who wasn't popular with the jury). If they voted off Neleh, she would 100% win Survivor. Come to the final immunity challenge in 4 hours later, Kathy dropped off after Neleh pointed out her nip slip. Not even a minute later, Vecepia had a deal with Neleh to bring her to the final 2 ''in front of Kathy's face'', which Neleh accepts with little convincing.

* '''Lisa Keiffer''' was cut over Rory despite Rory being the only man on a tribe run by [[StrawFeminist Ami]]. In fact, it was Ami herself that caused Lisa's elimination, because Lisa seemed to act like TheStarscream.
* '''Leann Slaby''' caused the power shift from Ami/Leann to Twila/Scout, when the former idiotically tried to target Eliza instead of Chris. Chris immediately exploited this, and got everyone except Ami to turn around and blindside Leann.

* '''Bruce Kanegai''' made it to the final 7, and seemed to be in no danger because he was in the majority and was one of the least drama-prone contestants. Sadly, he suddenly comes down with constipation and gets medically evacuated.

* At the final seven, with two idols in his pockets and three tribal councils left to play them in, '''James Clement''' didn't play either of them and was blindsided by a 5-1-1 vote.

* Athletic NiceGuy '''Ozzy Lusth''' was blindsided 5-4 at the final nine instead of JerkJock Jason Siska, with Ozzy not even bringing the idol he had found many episodes prior. Keep in mind the whole episode had been playing up the Black Widow Brigade getting Jason to lower his guard with fake friendships. Even the other contestants and the first juror Eliza were shocked. (You'd think Eliza was having a heart attack!)
* The following round '''Jason Siska''' was blindsided himself, willingly losing immunity and also not considering playing the idol he found that day.
* Finally, at the final five, '''Erik Reichenbach''' managed the unusual accomplishment of being voted out ''[[BeyondTheImpossible despite winning immunity]]'', because he gave it up to Natalie and immediately ended up on the receiving end of a blindside. The actual elimination was only shocking to Erik himself, as the viewers knew ahead of time that Erik would be voted out the instant he gave it up.

* '''Russell Swan''''s evacuation on Day 15, which came out of freaking nowhere and canceled what would have been a double tribal council. To say nothing of just how bad it was...

* '''Stephenie [=LaGrossa=]''' was voted out on Day 8, possibly because of a lingering shoulder injury, but more likely because of her abysmal record in challenges. The Villains tribe was certainly shocked to see her go out so early.

* '''Danielle [=DiLorenzo=]''' was part of the same alliance and was part of Russell Hantz's final 3 ride-or-dies, but was booted when Russell got paranoid ''again'', and got everyone to vote her out.

* '''Matt Elrod''' had the unusual distinction of receiving two of these in the same season. First, on Day 5, he was blindsided because of bonding with Andrea. Then, after winning his way back into the game on Redemption Island, he was voted out at the merge by Boston Rob's alliance to avoid a potential idol play by the Zapateras.

* '''Brandon Hantz''' won immunity, but thinking himself safe, surrenders his necklace to keep Albert safe and is promptly betrayed by Coach.

* '''Colton Cumbie''' suddenly quitting on day ''7'' of what is widely considered the easiest season of Survivor, because no one wanting to play the game his way.
* '''Katie Collins''' becoming the first person to be rocked out since Paschal's legendary dismissal of such in Marquesas. She too did not appear to be in too much danger by that point.

* J'Tia Taylor screwed up the immunity challenge and is on the outs with her tribe for it. She even gets so upset she dumps out the rice just to spite them. Both the edit and J'Tia herself are practically telling the audience about how she's going next. Who ''actually'' leaves is competent but hyper-controlling '''Garrett Adelstein''', because they knew J'Tia would be less of a threat in the long run. In fact, J'Tia joined in on the blindside; she ruined their food right after Garrett bluntly told her she was going home.
* Trish swings to LJ/Jefra and convinces outlier Tony to oust former Brawn tribesmate, affable NBA giant '''Cliff Robinson'''.
* Come merge, usually-sane '''Sarah Lacina''' slowly loses her mind and openly declares being a swing vote, causing a disenfranchised Kass to potentially throw away a power position in order to vote Sarah out with the other tribe.

* '''Ethan Zohn''''s elimination was very surprising given his name was hardly brought up prior to his boot episode. Even on it, most people would speak of Adam or Parvati being the targets.
* '''Sandra Diaz-Twine''''s elimination. Given that the editing looked like it was going to be either Tony or Jeremy going to the Edge.
* '''Sophie Clarke''' was in a very comfortable position in the game with an idol in her pocket, being heavily involved in the strategic discussion, and doing an excellent job sneaking under the radar. Many fans had her pegged as either the winner or a finalist before being voted out in the final 9.

* '''David Voce''' getting the boot in Episode 2 is surprising as while Tiffany threw out his name, she did it out of sheer paranoia with Liana and Evvie (a.k.a. Tiffany's two biggest allies) being against the idea of voting David out.
* The next day we have '''Brad Reese'''. He wound up getting a lot of focus in the three episodes he was in, including finding advantages such as the Beware Idol that Xander found in Episode 1. Plus, J.D. seemed to keep digging his own grave by being caught with his extra vote despite insisting he never got one and generally being seen by his tribe as untrustworthy. So it comes as a shock when Ricard and Shan decide that the apologetic J.D. could make for a more loyal follower, leaving Brad to be voted out in his stead.
* '''J.D. Robinson'''. Genie was OutOfFocus within the first three episodes suddenly gets a ton of airtime in Episode 4; making it like it is going to be her DeathInTheLimelight episode. Instead, Shan decides to target J.D. because she wanted to keep his extra vote advantage he gave to her, despite keeping J.D. around a week before when something similar happened later.
* '''Naseer Muttalif''' was in a very comfortable position, being a well-trusted and loyal number in the majority alliance, being the tribe's provider, possessing an immunity idol and being good at challenges. Unfortunately for him, the tribe was split in half to have two separate tribals, and Naseer was left with Shan and Ricard, who immediately seized on the opportunity to blindside him while he was comfortable, with Naseer believing Heather was the one going home.
* '''Shan Smith''' was a frontrunner to win from the get-go, both to edgicers and casual viewers. She got the front and center edit, was a driving and dominant force in the game, had several strong alliances she was in the center of, and the edits of her fellow competitors were deemed to be extremely lacking. With Evvie gone, a lot of viewers assumed Shan had the game on lock... only for her to be blindsided the very next episode when the tribe itself realized she was a frontrunner to win and came together to take her out.

* In a repeat of last season's elimination of Shan, '''Omar Zaheer''' was seen as a shoo-in to take the win. He had a huge edit, pulled off several big moves, and with the elimination of Hai, as well as his ally Lindsay having a major advantage, seemed poised to win the competition. Then Maryanne pulled out her extra vote and, with the help of Romeo, knocked Omar out of the competition.

* '''Jesse Lopez''' seemed poised to take the win: being the strongest player of the final four, having ''two'' idols (practically guaranteeing him a place in the finals) and having just pulled off a major blindside of a close ally, most viewers were convinced he was the obvious winner. Unfortunately for him, he unexpectedly lost the final 4 firemaking challenge, and the finale went on without him.

* '''Bruce Perreault''' suffered a head injury that bled into a concussion just ''twelve hours'' into the game, setting an evacuation record.

* '''Kass herself''', who was unpopular for her SmugSnake attitude and seen as the biggest jury goat in the season, was inexplicably voted out by Woo at the final three.

* J'Tia Taylor screwed up the immunity challenge and is on the outs with her tribe for it. She even gets so upset she dumps out the rice just to spite them. Both the edit and J'Tia herself are almost directly telling the audience about how she's going next. Who ''actually'' leaves is competent but hyper-controlling '''Garrett Adelstein''', because they knew J'Tia would be less of a threat in the long run. In fact, J'Tia joined in on the blindside; she ruined their food right after Garrett bluntly told her she was going home.