History ShockingElimination / Survivor

* '''Pat''' is by far the most shocking first boot of any season, being evacuated after a freak disaster following the first immunity challenge. Unlike past early evacuations, it wasn't the conditions in Fiji itself, but an accident on the ''boat ride'' back to the David camp in stormy conditions. This is a rare instance where mother nature was the only factor in a castaway's departure and not because of anything they physically did, which makes it all the more disheartening and among the most emotional season premieres.
* While many fans considered '''Natalie''' to be a bad player gameplay-wise, her edit on the show caused people to be surprised by her going in Episode 5 as many fans believe that she would go to the end as a goat.
* '''John''''s boot as well from Episode 8. Many people expected this to be the episode where Christian was booted, but then: Davie pulls out an idol, saves Christian with it, and on top of that, the Davids split their votes (despite being in the minority) expecting Dan to play his idol with John being the fall guy.
* Many people thought that '''Christian''' would make it to the finale due to his presence throughout the season, but as it turns out, he was booted from the show at the penultimate episode of the season despite him barely being featured in the episode.

* '''Aubry''''s elimination in episode 5. Not only was she a renowned and game-savvy veteran who was known for surviving impossible odds, but she also had an idol and an extra vote advantage, setting her up in the long run. However, Victoria outplayed her by getting her to believe she was on her side, thus dropping Aubry's guard and blindsiding her with a unanimous vote.
* In a meta-sense, when CBS decided to air the Day 25-27 Tribal Councils as the double boot instead of the intended Day 23-25, fans expected it to be a quick filler episode to get rid of two minor players, or one minor and one big character at the very most. '''David''', he of the ''Millennials vs. Gen X'' final four blindside, was the first to go; reasonable enough, as he would have been voted out during the double boot episode either way. But then the Day 27 tribal council ended up taking out '''Kelley''', a returning contestant with a hidden immunity idol and seemingly a majority alliance!
* Despite coming back to win it all, '''Chris''''s elimination in episode three was a truly surprising blindside. Chris was the tribe's strongest challenge competitor and had friends on both sides of the tribes's alliance lines. But, he trusted the wrong person with crucial information and wound up getting himself blindsided, undoing his comfortable position in the game.

* Episode 6 had the four former Lairo manage to Block-A-Vote on the four Vokai on Nu-Vokai, with everyone wanting to target a different person. Dan and Lauren, whose edits were underdeveloped and in the former's case, pretty negative, were the biggest guesses over Tommy and Jason, who both had big and complex edits. And then there was also speculation that Elaine would go home anyway due to Aaron initially targeting her. But then the final four votes are revealed... and it ends up being '''Jason''', who nobody saw going after he managed to claw his way into majority and seemed pretty safe.
* At the merge episode, '''Missy''' 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.

* '''Ethan''''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''''s elimination. Given that the editing looked like it was going to be either Tony or Jeremy going to the Edge.
* '''Sophie''' 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''' 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.
* '''Brad''' 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, JD 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 JD could make for a more loyal follower, leaving Brad to be voted out in his stead.
* '''J.D.'''. 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 JD around a week before when something similar happened later.
* '''Naseer''' 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''' 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''' 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''' 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''' suffered a head injury that bled into a concussion just ''twelve hours'' into the game, setting an evacuation record.

* Gervase makes a sexist comment about women being the dumbest things next to cows. The women of Pagong are unable to forgive or forget this, and band together to vote out... '''Joel'''?! Apparently he chuckled at the remark when it was made, but it's odd why they decided to vote out him over Gervase, who y'know, actually made the comment? The cameras hardly got to show the audience Tagi's other issues with him. Even at the time, this was advertised as an "island shocker".
** 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'''. 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)
* If it wasn't for Richard Hatch and his alliance changing the show from a mere feat of survival on a "DesertedIsland" to a battle of Machiavellian strategy, '''Gretchen''', the best survivalist on the original cast and overall TeamMom, would have easily made it much farther than the merge.

* In the fourth episode, after finding out that she is the lowest in the hierarchy; Tina decided to ally with the only other outsider Keith, and Colby, who was close to her. Colby declined to vote off Jerri, the leader of the alliance. Tina and company just switch to booting second-in-command '''Mitchell''' in the next tribal council with ''zero'' warning, as apparently this had been arranged off-camera on the way to tribal council.

* After season one, it became an assumption that once one tribe gained majority they would simply eliminate everyone outside it, which made it a shock to audiences when '''Jerri''' was picked off at the final 8.
* Colby 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''', he will easily sway all the jurors. So it's a bit of a shock to see him eliminate Keith, allowing Tina to ultimately win. [[GracefulLoser Not that he had a problem with it]].

* The Samburu tribe was split between the older and the younger members of the tribe in a 4-4 split. The editors painted the youths to be spoiled, cocky, and lazy, while the elders were portrayed as hardworking and loyal. Bear in mind that the Tribe switch had not been introduced yet, and the Samburu tribe was in a key position to steamroll the other team, therefore it looked like whichever side emerged victorious would win. In episode 3, Samburu finally goes to tribal council, and as expected there is a tie between youth Lindsay, and elder '''Carl'''. To the surprise and horror of the viewers, Carl was the one sent home, which would have likely lead to Silas or Lindsay winning if not for the next entry...
* '''Silas''' 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.]]

* '''Hunter''' 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.
* '''Gabe''', 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''', 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''', 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.

* '''Paschal''' 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.

* Immediately after Paschal's elimination, '''Kathy''' 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''' 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''' 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''' 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.

* '''Jenny''' is this twofold. For one, Raro was caught off guard with a double elimination thanks to a bottle they received after losing the immunity challenge (originally they thought it would be a sign the merge would begin). Secondly, it's more shocking that Jenny, who was loyal to Raro, was sent to the jury over Jonathan, somebody who ''mutinied'' on Aitu days ago, and proved to be less trustworthy.

* '''Edgardo''''s elimination at the final nine marked a massive shift in ''Survivor'' strategy, as the first time the majority alliance actively worked around a hidden immunity idol.
* At the final six, Stacy became the first person to ever be directly eliminated by a hidden immunity idol being played.

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

* Athletic NiceGuy '''Ozzy;''' was blindsided 5-4 at the final nine instead of JerkJock Jason, 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''' was blindsided himself, willingly losing immunity challenge and also not considering playing the idol he found that day.
* Finally, at the final five, '''Erik''' 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.

* '''Stephenie''' 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.
* '''Candice''', despite being in a 6-2 alliance. Somehow she was voted out when a paranoid Russell insisted upon splitting the vote, assuming a [[RefugeInAudacity rock in Rupert's pocket was an idol]] and thinking the votes would come out 3-3-2 respectively on Rupert, Colby, and whomever the remaining Heroes targeted. At Jerri's suggestion, the girls in the alliance agreed to split the votes between Rupert and Candice instead as they would prefer her to be the secondary target. Colby and Rupert, burned by Candice and sensing a split vote coming, take advantage of this and stack their votes on her, sending Candice out in a 5-3 vote.
* '''Danielle''' 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.

* '''Matthew''' 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.

* '''Phillip''' himself was a literal last-minute elimination due to every member of the minority suddenly gaining immunity in some way, triggering a live tribal council.

* '''Colton''' 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''' 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 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 all but telling the audience she's going next. Who ''actually'' leaves is competent but hyper-controlling '''Garrett''', 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'''.
* Come merge, usually-sane '''Sarah''' 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.

* To the viewers, '''Josh''' and '''Jeremy''' had become key players judging from the pre-merge... only to be voted out in succession as soon as the merge hit.

* The round after Jon's elimination, '''Baylor''' was unexpectedly idoled out when Natalie gave her idol to Jaclyn.

* '''Vince''' was the second person voted out of the season despite his athleticism, as Will manipulated a split vote to his advantage.

* '''Andrew''' was idoled out when Kelley negated ''nine'' votes against herself at the final twelve, cracking the majority alliance.
* The final six Tribal Council resulted in the first ever 0-0 null vote after '''Kimmi''' flipped to Keith and Kelley's alliance, and Kelley and Jeremy both played idols. At the restart, Kimmi and Tasha tied 2-2, and Kimmi was voted out by consensus (sparing Keith, who would have been eliminated by default had no consensus occurred).

* All three medical evacuations, which together set a record for most in a season. '''Caleb''''s especially due to how life-threatening it was, making it arguably the most critical medical evacuation since Russell Swan's infamous one in Samoa.
* Former NBA player '''Scot'''. Due to the threat of the Super Idol, which could be played after the votes were read, and his antagonistic behavior making him an ideal goat, he was expected to be dragged to the end... only for one of his own alliance members to turn on him on Day 27, resulting in not only his elimination, but the Super Idol's removal too.
* '''Cydney''' was a dominant strategic force who controlled the game right until the finale.E veryone assumed she would be safe since she seemingly had a spot in everyone's final three; but because Aubry anticipated that Cydney would turn on her after Michele won immunity, she quickly flipped Tai which ended up causing a tied vote and firemaking tiebreaker. Cydney lost and became the final member of the jury.

* '''Michaela''' received a huge edit with her receiving a lot of confessionals, and she got eliminated right before the merge.
* '''Michelle''', due to the disproportionate edit leading people into thinking that Taylor or Adam was going home that day.
* '''David''' was a major character in the season and many predicted him for being the winner of the season. Come to the final four, his biggest ally Ken ended up turning on him despite him wanting to play a game with loyalty and trust. Prior to that vote, many people expected David and Adam to be put into a fire-making challenge with David being the winner of it. When that didn't happen and he got voted out, many people were surprised.

* Out of all the players to possibly be booted in the premiere of ''Game Changers'', '''Tony''' was probably the most shocking due to a) brilliant editing suggesting that Sandra would be voted out to keep the tribe strong, and b) the fact that he seemingly had put together a loyal all-threat alliance while Sandra's counter-alliance was going to split the vote between him and Aubry. But somehow, Sandra managed to turn his entire alliance onto each other - including Tony - and Tony ended up booted second while Sandra didn't even receive a single vote. It's not any less surprizing in hindsight, because he went onto win ''Winners At War''.
* This happened again in the fourth episode. The post-swap Mana and Nuku tribes were sent to a Joint Tribal Council. Nuku had a numbers advantage, but J.T. felt on the outs, his only friend being Malcolm, and wanted Sandra out from his own tribe. Mana was down a person and had only Hali left from the old Mana tribe, and feared her own disloyalty. However, Tai found an idol which would keep one of them safe and negate votes if played right. At Tribal Council, what kicked off the confusion and cross-talking was J.T. telling Brad of New Mana who his tribe was voting for. This frees Mana up to vote out Sandra, who insists that Mana doesn't have an idol and is a two-time winner. However, J.T. neglects to say who his only ally is on the Nuku tribe, and when Tai's idol is correctly played, it isn't Sandra who goes (she doesn't even get a vote against her!) but '''Malcolm'''.
* In the finale, '''Cirie''' isn't exactly voted out, she's eliminated by default [[GambitPileup because everyone else had immunity thanks to three immunity idols -two played for self and one played for another-, the legacy advantage, and individual immunity.]] Not only is this surprising because she had no votes cast against her, but because this is the first time this has happened in ''Survivor'' history, and everyone paid her due respect when she left the game gracefully.

* While the first two episodes of the season were predictable, '''Patrick''''s boot in episode three is a complete shocker due to clever editing red-herring Lauren as the boot, and due to the fact Patrick had an advantage in knowing one of his tribe members in real life, which gave him an instant ally.
* '''Alan''''s elimination in episode four, as he was presented as a major character in the first four episodes and editing showed that the Healers had initially seemed to be targeting Ashley.
* '''Ali's''' elimination before the merge. She had spent the entire pre-merge portion of the game being built as a major player and got a lot of focus early on. She was shown to be socially aware and a relatively solid and pragmatic strategist. But a betrayal at Ryan's hands caused everything to unravel and left her the odd woman out. And even though it seemed JP was the target of the next vote, Ryan betrayed her yet again to protect himself.
* '''Devon''' was a physical player who seemed like he could handle a firemaking tiebreaker, but turned out to be incapable of even sparking a blaze.

* Former NBA player '''Scot Pollard'''. Due to the threat of the Super Idol, which could be played after the votes were read, and his antagonistic behavior making him an ideal goat, he was expected to be dragged to the end... only for one of his own alliance members to turn on him on Day 27, resulting in not only his elimination, but the Super Idol's removal too.

* 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.

* Out of all the players to possibly be booted in the premiere of ''Game Changers'', '''Tony Vlachos''' was probably the most shocking due to a) brilliant editing suggesting that Sandra would be voted out to keep the tribe strong, and b) the fact that he seemingly had put together a loyal all-threat alliance while Sandra's counter-alliance was going to split the vote between him and Aubry. But somehow, Sandra managed to turn his entire alliance onto each other - including Tony - and Tony ended up booted second while Sandra didn't even receive a single vote.

* Former NBA player '''Scot Pollard;'''. Due to the threat of the Super Idol, which could be played after the votes were read, and his antagonistic behavior making him an ideal goat, he was expected to be dragged to the end... only for one of his own alliance members to turn on him on Day 27, resulting in not only his elimination, but the Super Idol's removal too.

* '''Alan''' 's elimination in episode four, as he was presented as a major character in the first four episodes and editing showed that the Healers had initially seemed to be targeting Ashley.

* Many people thought that ''''Christian''' would make it to the finale due to his presence throughout the season, but as it turns out, he was booted from the show at the penultimate episode of the season despite him barely being featured in the episode.

* 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.

* '''Chris''''s elimination in episode three was a truly surprising blindside as Chris was the tribe's strongest challenge competitor and had friends on both sides of the tribes's alliance lines. '''However''', he trusted the wrong person with crucial information and wound up getting himself blindsided, undoing his comfortable position in the game. Thankfully for him, he won his way back into the game at the Edge of Extinction, and subsequently became the Sole Survivor.

* ''''J.D.'''. 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 JD around a week before when something similar happened later.

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Please note that despite the jury vote being set up as "all but one person being voted out, making them the sole survivor", the runner-ups generally do not count. However, liminations that would be shocking before watching the episode qualify. For example: Silas was thought to be in an untouchable position, but everyone knew he was in trouble once the tribe swap happened. Reactions to eliminations at the time may wildly differ from rewatching the seasons with a modern perspective, and both qualify.

** The infamous "'''Gervase''' X". Presumably finding things too predictable, 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). 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)

* All three medical evacuations, which together set a record for most in a season. ''''Caleb''''s especially due to how life-threatening it was, making it arguably the most critical medical evacuation since Russell Swan's infamous one in Samoa.

* '''Devon''' was forced into a tiebreaker, but he turned out to be totally incapable of even sparking a blaze.

* Pat is by far the most shocking first boot of any season, being evacuated after a freak disaster following the first immunity challenge. Unlike past early evacuations, it wasn't the conditions in Fiji itself, but an accident on the ''boat ride'' back to the David camp in stormy conditions. This is a rare instance where mother nature was the only factor in a castaway's departure and not because of anything they physically did, which makes it all the more disheartening and among the most emotional season premieres.
* While many fans considered Natalie Cole to be a bad player gameplay-wise, her edit on the show caused people to be surprised by her going in Episode 5 as many fans believe that she would go to the end as a goat.
* John's boot as well from Episode 8. Many people expected this to be the episode where Christian was booted, but then: Davie pulls out an idol, saves Christian with it, and on top of that, the Davids split their votes (despite being in the minority) expecting Dan to play his idol with John being the fall guy.
* Many people thought that Christian would make it to the finale due to his presence throughout the season, but as it turns out, he was booted from the show at the penultimate episode of the season despite him barely being featured in the episode.

* Chris Underwood's elimination in episode three was a truly surprising blindside as Chris was the tribe's strongest challenge competitor and had friends on both sides of the tribes Alliance lines. However, he trusted the wrong person with crucial information and wound up getting himself blindsided, undoing his comfortable position in the game. Thankfully for him, he won his way back into the game at the Edge of Extinction, and subsequently became the Sole Survivor.
* Aubry Bracco's elimination in episode 5. Not only was she a renowned and game-savvy veteran who was known for surviving impossible odds, but she also had an idol and an extra vote advantage, setting her up in the long run. However, Victoria outplayed her by getting her to believe she was on her side, thus dropping Aubry's guard and blindsiding her with a unanimous vote.
* In a meta-sense, when CBS decided to air the Day 25-27 Tribal Councils as the double boot instead of the intended Day 23-25, fans expected it to be a quick filler episode to get rid of two minor characters, or one minor and one big character at the very most. David Wright, he of the ''Millennials vs. Gen X'' final four blindside, was the first to go - reasonable enough, as he would have been voted out during the double boot episode either way. But then the Day 27 tribal council ended up taking out Kelley, a returning contestant with a hidden immunity idol and seemingly a majority alliance!

* Episode 6 had the four former Lairo manage to Block-A-Vote on the four Vokai on Nu-Vokai, with everyone wanting to target a different person. Dan and Lauren, whose edits were underdeveloped and in the former's case, pretty negative, were the biggest guesses over Tommy and Jason, who both had big and complex edits. And then there was also speculation that Elaine would go home anyway due to Aaron initially targeting her. But then the final four votes are revealed... and it ends up being Jason, who nobody saw going after he managed to claw his way into majority and seemed pretty safe.
* At the Merge episode, Missy 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.

* Ethan Zohn's elimination was very surprising given his name was hardly brought up prior to his boot episode as everybody was putting out Parvarti's or Adam's name that episode.
* Sandra's elimination. Given that the editing looked like it was going to be either Tony or Jeremy going to the Edge.
* Sophie 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.
* Brad Reese wound up getting a lot of content in the three episodes he was in, including finding advantages such as the Beware idol that Xander found in Episode 1. Plus, JD 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 JD could make for a more loyal follower, leaving Brad to be voted out in his stead.
* JD can be viewed as this as Genie (who was OutOfFocus within the first three episodes) even receiving a ton of airtime in Episode 4; making it like Episode Four is going to be her DeathInTheLimelight episode. But instead, Shan decides to target JD instead as she wanted to keep his extra vote advantage he gave to her despite keeping JD around a week before when something similar happened that week.
* Naseer was in a 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, even though he believed Heather was the one getting voted out.
* Shan was a frontrunner to win from the get-go, both to edgicers and casual viewers. She had a 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 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 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, leading to a final three with an unpredictable winner.

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

* Gervase makes a sexist comment about women being the dumbest things next to cows. The women of Pagong are unable to forgive or forget this, and band together to vote out... Joel?! Apparently he chuckled at the remark when it was made, but it's odd why they decided to vote out him over Gervase, who y'know, actually made the comment? The cameras hardly got to show the audience Tagi's other issues with him. Even at the time, this was advertised as an "island shocker".
** The infamous "Gervase X". Presumably finding things too predictable, 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). 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)
* If it wasn't for Richard Hatch and his alliance changing the show from a mere feat of survival on a "DesertedIsland" to a battle of Machiavellian strategy, Gretchen Cordy (probably the best genuine survivalist of the initial cast) would have easily made it much farther than the merge.

* In the fourth episode, after finding out that she is the lowest in the hierarchy; Tina decided to ally with the only other outsider Keith, and Colby, who was close to her. Colby declined to vote off Jerri, the leader of the alliance. Tina and company just switch to booting second-in-command Mitchell in the next tribal council with ''zero'' warning, as apparently this had been arranged off-camera on the way to tribal council.
* 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.
* After season one, it became an assumption that once one tribe gained majority they would simply eliminate everyone outside it, which made it a shock to audiences when Jerri was picked off at the final 8.
* 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 Keith, he will very clearly win the game, so it's a bit of a shock to see him eliminate Keith, allowing Tina to ultimately win. [[GracefulLoser Not that he had a problem with it]].

* The Samburu tribe was split between the older and the younger members of the tribe in a 4-4 split. The editors painted the youths to be spoiled, cocky, and lazy, while the elders were portrayed as hardworking and loyal. Bear in mind that the Tribe switch had not been introduced yet, and the Samburu tribe was in a key position to steamroll the other team, therefore it looked like whichever side emerged victorious would win. In episode 3, Samburu finally goes to tribal council, and as expected there is a tie between youth Lindsay, and elder Carl. To the surprise and horror of the viewers, Carl was the one sent home, which would have likely lead to Silas or Lindsay winning if not for the next entry...
* Silas 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.]]

* Hunter 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.
* Gabe, due to being in a 5-3 majority alliance with no idols to be seen for at least 9 seasons. Tragically, his alliance (read: John) decided he needed to go when he expressed disinterest in talking about the vote.
* Boston Rob, 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.
* '''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.

* Paschal 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.

* Immediately after Paschal's elimination, Kathy 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 and Kathy was voted off.

* Lisa 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 came off like TheStarscream.
* Leann, 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 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. He suddenly comes down with constipation and gets medically evacuated.

* Jenny is this twofold. For one, Raro was caught off guard with a double elimination thanks to a bottle they received after losing the immunity challenge (originally they thought it would be a sign the merge would begin). Secondly, it's more shocking that Jenny, who was loyal to Raro, was sent to the jury over Jonathan, somebody who ''mutinied'' on Aitu days ago, and proved to be less trustworthy.

* Edgardo's elimination at the final nine marked a massive shift in ''Survivor'' strategy, as the first time the majority alliance actively worked around a hidden immunity idol.

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

* Athletic NiceGuy Ozzy was blindsided 5-4 at the final nine instead of JerkJock Jason, 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!)
* Another idol was then found by Jason the following round... who was immediately blindsided himself, willingly losing immunity challenge and also not considering playing the idol.
* Finally, at the final five, Erik managed the unusual accomplishment of being voted out ''[[BeyondTheImpossible despite winning immunity]]'', as 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 if he didn't have immunity.

* 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 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.
* Candice, despite being in a 6-2 alliance. Somehow she was voted out when a paranoid Russell insisted upon splitting the vote, assuming a [[RefugeInAudacity rock in Rupert's pocket was an idol]] and thinking the votes would come out 3-3-2 respectively on Rupert, Colby, and whomever the remaining Heroes targeted. At Jerri's suggestion, the girls in the alliance agreed to split the votes between Rupert and Candice instead as they would prefer her to be the secondary target. Colby and Rupert, burned by Candice and sensing a split vote coming, take advantage of this and stack their votes on her, sending Candice out in a 5-3 vote.
* Danielle was part of the same alliance and was part of Russell's final 3 alliance, but was booted when Russell got paranoid ''again'', and got everyone to vote her out.

* Matthew 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 wins immunity, but thinking himself safe, surrenders his necklace to keep Albert safe and is promptly betrayed by Coach.

* Brandon Hantz. Right before an immunity challenge was supposed to take place, he just blows up out in the open, reveals his misdeeds, verbally attacks Phillip, has to be restrained by Jeff, and a live vote is taken right then and there.
* Phillip himself was a literal last-minute elimination due to every member of the minority suddenly gaining immunity in some way, triggering a live tribal council.

* Colton 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 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 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 all but telling the audience she's going next. Who ''actually'' leaves is competent but hyper-controlling Garrett, 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 because 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.
* 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.

* To the viewers, Josh and Jeremy 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.
* The round after Jon's elimination, Baylor was unexpectedly idoled out when Natalie gave her idol to Jaclyn.

* Vince was the second person voted out of the season despite his athleticism, as Will manipulated a split vote to his advantage.

* Andrew Savage was idoled out when Kelley negated ''nine'' votes against herself at the final twelve, cracking the majority alliance.
* The final six Tribal Council resulted in the first ever 0-0 null vote after Kimmi flipped to Keith and Kelley's alliance, and Kelley and Jeremy both played idols. At the restart, Kimmi and Tasha tied 2-2, and Kimmi was voted out by consensus (sparing Keith, who would have been eliminated by default had no consensus occurred).

* All three medical evacuations, which together set a record for most in a season. Caleb's especially due to how life-threatening it was, making it arguably the most critical medical evacuation since Russell Swan's infamous one in Samoa.
* Former NBA player Scot Pollard. Due to the threat of the Super Idol, which could be played after the votes were read, and his antagonistic behavior making him an ideal goat, he was expected to be dragged to the end... only for one of his own alliance members to turn on him on Day 27, resulting in not only his elimination, but the Super Idol's elimination too.
* Cydney Gillon was a dominant strategic force who controlled the game right to the finale, and everyone assumed she would be safe since she seemingly had a spot in everyone's final three. But because Aubry anticipated that Cydney would turn on her after Michele won immunity, she quickly flipped Tai which ended up causing a tied vote and firemaking tiebreaker. Cydney lost and became the final member of the jury.

* Michaela received a huge edit with her receiving a lot of confessionals, and she got eliminated right before the merge.
* Michelle, due to the disproportionate edit leading people into thinking that Taylor or Adam was going home that day.
* David was a major character in the season and many predicted him for being the winner of the season. Come to the final four, his biggest ally Ken ended up turning on him despite him wanting to play a game with loyalty and trust. Prior to that vote, many people expected David and Adam to be put into a fire-making challenge with David being the winner of that challenge. When that didn't happen and he got voted out, many people were surprised.

* Out of all the players to possibly be booted in the premiere of ''Game Changers'', Tony Vlachos was probably the most shocking due to a) brilliant editing suggesting that Sandra would be voted out to keep the tribe strong, and b) the fact that he seemingly had put together a loyal all-threat alliance while Sandra's counter-alliance was going to split the vote between him and Aubry. But somehow, Sandra managed to turn his entire alliance onto each other - including Tony - and Tony ended up booted second while Sandra didn't even receive a single vote.
* This happened again in the fourth episode. The post-swap Mana and Nuku tribes were sent to a Joint Tribal Council. Nuku had a numbers advantage, but J.T. felt on the outs, his only friend being Malcolm, and wanted Sandra out from his own tribe. Mana was down a person and had only Hali left from the old Mana tribe, and feared her own disloyalty. However, Tai found an idol which would keep one of them safe and negate votes if played right. At Tribal Council, what kicked off the confusion and cross-talking was J.T. telling Brad of New Mana who his tribe was voting for. This frees Mana up to vote out Sandra, who insists that Mana doesn't have an idol and is a two-time winner. However, J.T. neglects to say who his only ally is on the Nuku tribe, and when Tai's idol is correctly played, it isn't Sandra who goes (she doesn't even get a vote against her!) but ''Malcolm''.
* In the finale, Cirie isn't exactly voted out, she's eliminated by default [[GambitPileup because everyone else had immunity thanks to three immunity idols -two played for self and one played for another-, the legacy advantage, and individual immunity.]] Not only is this surprising because she had no votes cast against her, but because this is the first time this has happened in ''Survivor'' history, and everyone paid her due respect when she left the game gracefully.

* While the first two episodes of the season were predictable, Patrick Bolton's boot in episode three is a complete shocker due to clever editing red-herring Lauren as the boot, and due to the fact Patrick had an advantage in knowing one of his tribe members in real life, which gave him an instant ally.
* Alan Ball's elimination in episode four also qualifies, as he was presented as a major character in the first four episodes and editing showed that the Healers had initially seemed to be targeting Ashley.
* Ali's elimination before the merge. She had spent the entire pre-merge portion of the game being built as a major player and got a lot of focus early on. She was shown to be socially aware and a relatively solid and pragmatic strategist. But a betrayal at Ryan's hands caused everything to unravel and left her the odd woman out. And even though it seemed JP was the target of the next vote, Ryan betrayed her yet again to protect himself.
* Devon, on account of it being an unexpected fire-making challenge forced onto the players which he seemed to be skilled at doing, but he turned out to be totally incapable of even sparking a blaze.

* Pat is by far the most shocking first boot of any season, being evacuated after a freak disaster following the first Immunity Challenge. Unlike past early evacuations, it wasn't the conditions in Fiji itself, but an accident on the ''boat ride'' back to the David camp in stormy conditions. This is a rare instance where mother nature was the only factor in a castaway's departure and not because of anything they physically did, which makes it all the more disheartening and among the most emotional season premieres.

* In a meta-sense, when CBS decided to air the Day 25-27 Tribal Councils as the double boot instead of the intended Day 23-25, fans expected it to be a quick filler episode to get rid of two minor characters, or one minor and one big character at the very most. David Wright, he of the ''Millennials vs. Gen X'' final four blindside, was the first to go - reasonable enough, as he would have been voted out during the double boot episode either way. But then the Day 27 tribal council ended up taking out Kelley, a returning contestant with a Hidden Immunity Idol and seemingly a majority alliance!

[[folder:Survivor 41]]

[[folder:Survivor 42]]

[[folder:Survivor 43]]

[[folder:Survivor 44]]

- Please note that despite the jury vote being set up as "all but one person being voted out, making them the sole survivor", the runner-ups generally do not count.

- Also note that reactions to eliminations at the time may wildly differ from rewatching the seasons with a modern perspective, and both qualify.

- Additionally, note that eliminations that would be shocking before watching the episode qualify. For example: Silas was thought to be in an untouchable position, but everyone knew he was in trouble once the tribe swap happened.

- Finally, note that this is the most spoileriffic page you will ever see. All Spoilers are unmarked.

[[folder:Redemption Island]]

[[folder:South Pacific]]

[[folder:Caramoan]]

[[folder:Blood Vs. Water]]

[[folder:Cagayan]]
* J'Tia screwed up the immunity challenge and is on the outs with her tribe for it. She even gets so upset she dumps the rice just to spite the tribe. Both the edit and J'Tia herself are all but telling the audience she's going next. Who ''actually'' leaves is competent but hyper-controlling Garrett, 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 because Garrett bluntly told her she was going home.

[[folder:San Juan del Sur]]

[[folder:Worlds Apart]]

[[folder:Cambodia]]

[[folder:Kaôh Rōng]]
* All three medical evacuations, which together set a record for most in a season, but Caleb's especially due to how life-threatening it was, making it arguably the most critical medical evacuation since Russell Swan's infamous evacuation in Samoa.

[[folder:Millennials vs. Gen X]]

[[folder:Game Changers]]

* Jeff Varner seemed to have successfully moved from being in a one-man tribal line minority to being a part of the majority at the expense of Ozzy and Zeke due to making solid arguments about their suspicious behavior. At tribal council, he continues to impress the majority with his statements...[[ForcedOutOfTheCloset and then suddenly outs Zeke as transgender]]. The rest of the tribe confirms with Jeff Probst that Varner must leave while Varner gets no say.

[[folder:Heroes vs. Healers vs. Hustlers]]

[[folder:David vs. Goliath]]

[[folder:Edge of Extinction]]

[[folder:Island of the Idols]]

[[folder:Winners At War]]

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

* Athletic NiceGuy Ozzy was blindsided 5-4 at the final nine instead of JerkJock Jason, with Ozzy not even bringing the idol he had found many episodes prior. Even the other contestants and the first juror Eliza were shocked. (You'd think Eliza was having a heart attack!)

[[AC:Samoa]]

[[AC:Heroes vs. Villains]]

[[AC:Redemption Island]]

[[AC:South Pacific]]

[[AC:Caramoan]]

[[AC:Blood Vs. Water]]

[[AC:Cagayan]]
* J'Tia screwed up the immunity challenge and is on the outs with her tribe for it. She even gets so upset she dumps the rice just to spite the tribe. Both the edit and J'Tia herself are all but telling the audience she's going next. Who ''actually'' leaves is physically fit but hyper-controlling Garrett, 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 because Garrett bluntly told her she was going home.

[[AC:San Juan del Sur]]

[[AC:Worlds Apart]]

[[AC:Cambodia]]

[[AC:Kaôh Rōng]]

[[AC:Millennials vs. Gen X]]
* Michaela might as well be the queen of this trope. She has received a huge edit with her receiving a lot of confessionals, and she got eliminated right before the merge.
* Michelle could be one due to the edit leading people into believing that Taylor or Adam is going home that week.

[[AC:Game Changers]]

[[AC:Heroes vs. Healers vs. Hustlers]]

[[AC:David vs. Goliath]]

[[AC:Edge of Extinction]]

* In a meta-sense, when CBS decided to air the Day 25-27 Tribal Councils as the double boot instead of the intended Day 23-25, fans expected it to be a quick filler episode to get rid of two minor characters, or one minor and one big character at the very most. David Wright, he of the ''Millennials vs. Gen X'' final four blindside, was the first to go - reasonable enough, as he would have been voted out during the double boot episode either way. But then the Day 27 Tribal Council ended up taking out Kelley, a returning contestant with a Hidden Immunity Idol and seemingly a majority alliance!
[[AC:Island of the Idols]]

* Kellee was quickly shaping up to be the season's driving force, being presented as incredibly smart and strategic. When the merge happens she predicts she'd be a big target because of the aforementioned traits and ends up finding ''two'' idols in a row. However, she gets tangled in the whole Dan dilemma where the man is presented as garbage that should be taken out. We expect Kellee to come out of this stronger than ever with her harasser gone. Instead, everyone on [=nuVokai=] decides to keep the sexual harassing creep around and voted her off instead. Kellee decided not to play either of her idols because she assumed everyone would do the moral choice.

* Despite making the top 6, Dan became the first player in Survivor history to be ejected from the game, after "an incident" with an offscreen member of the production crew despite being warned about his above-mentioned behavior.
[[AC:Winners At War]]

[[AC:Survivor 41]]

[[AC:Survivor 42]]

[[AC:Survivor 43]]

[[AC:Survivor 44]]
* Bruce suffered a head injury that bled into a concussion just ''twelve hours'' into the game, setting an evacuation record.

[[AC:Borneo]]
* Gervase makes a sexist comment about women being the dumbest things next to cows. The women of Pagong are unable to forgive or forget this, and band together to vote out... Joel?! Apparently he chuckled at the remark when it was made, though lord only knows why they decided to vote out their athlete over the useless Gervase, who y'know... actually made the comment? The cameras hardly got to show the audience Tagi's other issues with him. Even at the time, this was advertised as an "island shocker".

[[AC:The Australian Outback]]

[[AC: Africa]]

[[AC:Marquesas]]

* Immediately after Paschal's elimination, Kathy 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 and Kathy was voted off.
[[AC:Vanuatu]]

[[AC:Panama]]

[[AC:Cook Islands]]

[[AC:Fiji]]

[[AC:China]]

[[AC:Micronesia]]
* Athletic NiceGuy Ozzy was blindsided 5-4 at the final nine instead of athletic JerkJock Jason, without even bringing the idol he had found many episodes prior. The idea was of course, Jason being easier to manipulate in the long run. Even the other contestants and the first juror Eliza were shocked. (You'd think Eliza was having a heart attack!)
* Another idol was then found by Jason the following round... who was immediately blindsided himself, willingly giving up immunity and also not considering playing the idol.

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

* Danielle was part of the same alliance and was part of Russell's final 3 alliance, but was booted when Russell got paranoid ''again'', and got everyone to vote her out (mainly because they knew he'd be a goat after that).

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

* Hyper-controlling yet physically fit Garrett being voted out by Kass and Tasha over J'Tia, who had utterly failed in a puzzle despite being on the Brains Tribe and ''dumped the rice'' after she was told by Garrett she was going home.
* Trish swings to LJ/Jefra and convinces Tony as well to oust former Brawn tribesmate, affable NBA giant Cliff Robinson.

- Additionally, note that eliminations that would be shocking before watching the episode qualify. (For example, Silas was thought to be in an untouchable position, but everyone knew he was in trouble once the tribe swap happened)

- Any hypothetical [[Series/AustralianSurvivor Australian Survivor]] examples would go on its own subpage, not here.

* Gervase makes a sexist comment about women being the dumbest things next to cows. The women of Pagong are unable to forgive or forget this, and band together to vote out... Joel?! Apparently he chuckled at the remark when it was made, though lord only knows why they decided to vote out their athlete over the useless Gervase, who y'know... actually made the comment?[[labelnote:Historical note]]: Even at the time, this was advertised as an Island shocker[[/labelnote]]

* The infamous "Gervase X". Presumably finding things too predictable, 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). 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)

* In the fourth episode, after finding out that she is the lowest in the totem pole, Tina decided to ally with the only outsider, Keith and Colby, who was close to her. Despite Colby declining to vote off Jerri, the leader of the alliance, Tina and co just switch to booting Mitchell in the next tribal council with ''zero'' warning, as apparently this had been arranged off-camera on the way to tribal council.
* Michael Skupin, one of the strongest contestants in the season, became the first evacuation in ''Survivor'' history after burning himself in the fire.
* After season one, it became an assumption that once one tribe gained majority they would simply eliminate everyone outside the majority, which made it a shock to audiences when Jerri was picked off at the final 8.

* The Samburu tribe was split between the older and the younger members of the tribe in a 4-4 split. The editors painted the youngsters to be spoiled, cocky, and lazy, while the Elders were portrayed as hardworking and loyal. Bear in mind that the Tribe switch had not been introduced yet, and the Samburu tribe was in a key position to steamroll the other team, therefore it looked like whichever side emerged victorious would win. In episode 3, Samburu finally goes to tribal council, and as expected there is a tie between youngster Lindsay, and Elder Carl. To the surprise and horror of the viewers, Carl was the one sent home, which would have likely lead to Silas or Lindsay winning if not for the next entry...
* Silas was in a prime position to make it to the end, having the majority alliance in the larger 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.]]

* Hunter seemed like an obvious person for his tribe to keep around, being the leader and extremely athletic. Unfortunately Boston Rob organized his elimination as he wanted to control the tribe.

* Lisa 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.
* Leann, thanks in part to a power shift from Ami/Leann to Twila/Scout when the former idiotically tried to target Eliza instead of Chris. Eliza promptly turned around and blindsided Leann.

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

* Jenny is this twofold. For one, Raro was caught off guard with a double elimination thanks to a bottle they received after losing the immunity challenge (originally they thought it would be a sign the merge would begin). Secondly, it's more shocking that Jenny, who was loyal to Raro, was sent to the jury over Jonathon, somebody who ''mutinied'' on Aitu days ago, and proved to be less trustworthy.

* Edgardo's elimination at the final nine marked a massive shift in ''Survivor'' strategy, as the first time the majority alliance actively worked around a Hidden Immunity Idol. While it wasn't as much of a shock to the audience, the expressions on nearly everyone's faces (''especially'' Edgardo and Alex's) show how shocking it really was.
* At the final six, Stacy became the first person to ever be directly eliminated by a Hidden Immunity Idol being played.

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

* Ozzy was blindsided 5-4 at the final nine, having left a Hidden Immunity Idol at camp. Even his alliance and the first juror Eliza were shocked. (You'd think Eliza was having a heart attack!)
* The idol was then found by Jason the following round... who was immediately blindsided himself, though unlike Ozzy, he had the sense to bring the idol to Tribal Council.
* Finally, at the final five, Erik managed the unusual accomplishment of being voted out ''[[BeyondTheImpossible despite winning immunity]]'', as he gave it up to Natalie and immediately ended up on the receiving end of a blindside. This one was only shocking to Erik himself, as the viewers knew ahead of time that Erik would be voted out if he didn't have immunity.

* Candice, despite being in a 6-2 alliance. Somehow she was voted out when Russell paranoidly insisted upon splitting the vote, assuming a [[RefugeInAudacity rock in Rupert's pocket was an idol]]. The girls in the alliance decided to take advantage and send her home instead.

* Jessie seemed poised to take the win ~ being the strongest player of the final four, having ''two'' idols (practically guaranteeing them 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, leading to a final three with an unpredictable winner.

* 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 Keith, he will very clearly win the game, so it's a bit of a shock to see him eliminate Keith, allowing Tina to ultimately win. [[GracefulLoser: Not that he had a problem with it]].

* JP himself, a tough physical competitor, who, right before his boot, was rendered almost invisible during the episode. However, we knew a blindside had been planned by a rogue foursome. Also, it was conceived by Devon, a man who had been portrayed as a goofball until now, suddenly revealing the most dangerous strategic knack out of anybody in the season.
* Lauren, on account of Ben setting himself up to be voted out because he succumbed to massive paranoia and one ''[[IdiotBall monumentally]]'' stupid series of moves that left her without any usable advantages (left her extra vote back at camp, gave half of a two-part idol to Mike that only goes into play if both pieces are united, which he then threw in the fire pit) and let Ben use his own idol to nullify an unprecedented unanimous vote against him where Lauren could have easily forced a null vote with her own idol or a tie with her extra vote by casting a dummy vote, but she squandered her entire game all at once.
* Devon, on account of it being an unexpected fire-making challenge enforced on the players which he seemed to be skilled at doing, but he turned out to be totally incapable of even sparking a blaze.
[[AC:Ghost Island]]
* Morgan's elimination can be viewed as this. With Angela getting a ton of confessionals during the episode Morgan was voted out as opposed to getting none in the premiere episode, people thought Angela was getting eliminated instead. Also, with the scene of Jacob telling Stephanie about Morgan's legacy advantage, people thought that Stephanie and Morgan would interact thanks to that.
* Chris' elimination at the merge can be viewed as this, as not only did he find a Hidden Immunity Idol and seemed to be in with the majority of people, but the Naviti girls were seen plotting and targeting Libby, who was acting ''very'' [[TemptingFate confident]] in her position despite having her name thrown by everybody. Come tribal council... and not only does Chris ''not'' play his idol, but the majority of the tribe actually voted against him.

* Jessie seemed poised to take the win ~ being the strongest player of the final four 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, leading to a final three with an unpredictable winner.

* Karla looked to be te frontrunner to win due to her athletic prowess and being a strategic mastermind. Then when she lost a challenge she needed to win and with everybody realizing the threat she was, she you voted out just two days shy of Final Tribal Council.
* Jessie also seemed poised to take the win, due to being involved with nearly all of te jury's vote-outs and great public speaking skills, seemed to have the game on lock. Unfortunately, his athletic skills failed him, and he lost a crucial fire-making challenge to Gabler, knocking Jessie out one day before the Final Tribal Council. Coincidentally, his elimination happened one day after Karla's.