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1'''WARNING''': Spoilers ahead are unmarked. You have been warned.
2
3!!YMMV Items with their own page:
4[[index]]
5* [[BaseBreakingCharacter/{{Survivor}} Base Breaking Character]]
6* [[BrokenBase/{{Survivor}} Broken Base]]
7* [[CharacterPerceptionEvolution/{{Survivor}} Character Perception Evolution]]
8* [[EarlyInstallmentWeirdness/{{Survivor}} Early Installment Weirdness]]
9* [[EliminationHoudini/{{Survivor}} Elimination Houdini]]
10* [[RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap/{{Survivor}} Rescued From The Scrappy Heap]]
11* [[ShockingElimination/{{Survivor}} Shocking Elimination]]
12* [[Woobie/{{Survivor}} The Woobie]]
13[[/index]]
14----
15!!Other YMMV Examples:
16[[foldercontrol]]
17
18[[folder:A-D]]
19* AccidentalInnuendo:
20** Jeff Probst's commentary on challenges involving balls or poles has reached an almost {{memetic|mutation}} status in the ''Survivor'' fandom, as well as forms of "[X] getting in on the action!" [[Podcast/RobHasAPodcast Rob Cesternino]] has even started running a "Jeff Probst Inappropriate Comment of the Week" segment on his Survivor podcasts.
21** Plenty of examples from the contestants as well. For example ''Vanuatu's'' confessional from Chris Daugherty about how opening up to women and showing them vulnerability convinces them to "open up that back door."
22** Brendan from ''Tocantins'' describing finding the hidden immunity idol hidden in a statue: "I just started feeling around, and looking at the skirt, and kinda lifted up the skirt on the backside of it, and saw a little hole, and there's the idol."
23** Many people joked that the ''Millennials vs Gen X'' [[https://survivor.fandom.com/wiki/Immunity_Necklace?file=Millenials_vs_gen_x_immunity_necklace.jpg immunity necklace]] looked like a penis.
24* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: Applied to everyone. It's been stated time and time again that what the camera shows is not indicative of what each castaway is really like, so opinions on each character are going to vary wildly.
25** ''Borneo's'' Sean Kenniff in particular. Was he really as clueless as he was presented, or was his "alphabet strategy" a way to vote with the Tagi alliance without being seen as a flat-out villain? There's plenty of evidence to support both theories.
26** ''Panama'': Was Terry the underdog winning immunities for his life in the game with the Casayas being the bad guys, or are the Casayas the good guys with Terry standing in their way?
27** ''Fiji'': Was Yau-Man just being a nice guy giving a car to Dreamz, or was he trying to exploit Dreamz's low socioeconomic status to leverage himself further in the game? Yau-Man himself would be the first to tell you the latter, and was shocked at how positively he was portrayed on the show.
28** [[{{Website/MariosSurvivorArchives}} Mario Lanza]] from ''Survivor Historians'' raises an interesting interpretation about Jerri Manthey and Colby Donaldson in the ''Australian Outback''. Is Colby TheHero of the season, and Jerri the BigBad... or is Colby actually the villain who betrayed his original alliance and is actually a VillainWithGoodPublicity thanks to editing given him the heroic treatment? Colby did back-stab her and their alliance. And it can be argued that due to her aggressive and strategic attitude (not unlike Richard Hatch, who America hated at the time due to his "unethical game") and early merge boot, editing decided to portray her as bad guy while portraying Colby as the hero who redeemed himself.
29** The show itself. Is it a semi-voyeuristic slice of life about people stranded in the wild, a social experiment that tests peoples morality, an adventure show that just happened to evolve into a game, a cutthroat strategy game that just happens to take place outdoors, or [[TakeAThirdOption some]] combination of the above?
30* AndYouThoughtItWouldFail:
31** Many people were very skeptical of ''Survivor: Blood vs. Water'' with the return of Redemption Island and many people thought the ''Blood vs. Water'' format would be a ScrappyMechanic. However, as it turned out, many people enjoyed it to the point that the ''Blood vs. Water'' format was reused in San Juan Del Sur, and many people believed that the season got Survivor out of its AudienceAlienatingEra.
32** Same goes for ''Kaoh Rong''. With Jeff Probst not talking about the season, many people assumed it wouldn’t be well-liked. However, many people found that it very entertaining due to the unpredictability and characters with the only problem being the [[BaseBreakingCharacter divisive]] SoleSurvivor of that season.
33** Pre-season, some people were nervous about ''Millennials vs. Gen X'' after having a similar twist to the twist from ''[[SeasonalRot Nicaragua]]''. However, with the likable cast that season had, an edit that avoided an obvious winner's edit that past seasons had, having nearly every vote be a blindside, and possibly has some of the most {{Shocking Elimination}}s of all-time, many people came out of that season enjoying it.
34** ''David vs. Goliath'' was largely hit this trope. Some people weren't hyped for the season due to how Jeff Probst not hyping it up as well as concerns that production will favor the David tribe. Come to when the season airs, many fans started to enjoy the season thanks to the very balanced edit, the characters, and the amount of power shifts.
35** The Coaches twist in ''Island of the Idols'' has been fairly well received after some initial concerns that [[EpilepticTrees Sandra and Rob would enter the game with the twist merely securing safety for a few weeks]], that they would become a SpotlightStealingSquad, or that they'd otherwise interfere with the season too much. These concerns have been assuaged, and other aspects of the season became far more controversial. Many even flat out admit that the twist was one of the best things about the season.
36* {{Anvilicious}}:
37** The editing style of choice for the show, especially during certain seasons. When the show wants you to feel something about a player or a situation, they hammer their point down HARD.
38** ''Millennials vs. Gen X'' has aspects of it trying to talk about the difference between Millennials and Gen X people. Needless to say, some people have gotten tired of this and the {{Anvilicious}} nature of this can come across a bit [[{{Narm}} Narm-ish]] as seen below.
39** This would get hammered down more and more as seasons became themes instead of new locations as a majority of confessionals would talk directly about the theme of of the season, especially ''David vs Goliath''.
40** The racial discussion between Jamal and Jack in ''Island of the Idols'' is often seen as way too on-the-nose.
41* AssPull: Some people are bound to think the final twist in ''Heroes vs. Healers vs. Hustlers'' which managed to save Ben when he was otherwise toast and help him win the game by enforcing a fire-making challenge instead of a vote was unfair or even rigged for Ben to win, even though Jeff claimed it was just a twist that one would expect in the game. The fact he kept conveniently finding idols back-to-back that saved him from elimination doesn't help his case- though he did find them fair and square.
42* AudienceAlienatingEra: People often say this about a season where somebody deemed "undeserving" wins, or with a cast full of people who are TheQuietOne or where everyone's just really mean-hearted, boring, etc.
43** Seasons 9-14 took place in the period after ''All-Stars'' when the show was still trying to figure out if it wanted to be more about adventure or strategy, resulting in a lot of hit-and-miss experimentation. Although these seasons have a lot redeeming features if you look at ''Survivor'' like a comedy show instead of a reality show.
44** Seasons 22-26 (''Philippines'' and ''South Pacific'' [[BrokenBase for some people]] being exceptions) due to the trends of, among other things, having a CreatorsPet who the editors make a one-man SpotlightStealingSquad, returning players, casts full of players that are too conservative/cowardly to act at best and TooDumbToLive at worst, if they aren't just {{Living Prop}}s for the CreatorsPet. On top of that, this stretch nearly led to Jeff Probst walking out of the show altogether when he became disenchanted with it.
45** Seasons 34-39 can be viewed as this with the exception of ''David vs. Goliath'' thanks to fans believing that the show has become too much about twists with many of those twists ended screwing over fan favorites such as Malcolm, Cirie, Devon, Jamal, Janet, and a lot of members from the original Malolo tribe out of the game.[[note]]Malcolm has to deal with the Mana/Nuku Tribal Council in which he could not prepare in advance, Cirie has to deal with [[FanNickname advantagegeddon]], Devon has to deal with the fire-making Final Four twist, many of members from the original Malolo tribe were voted out simply because they didn't have the numbers since the first tribal swap, Jamal losing his vote for taking a note hanging from a tree even when most ''Survivor'' players would taken that note regardless, and Janet had her idol nullified thanks to Dean who got an idol nullifier through a ''freaking coin toss''.[[/note]] Then, come to ''Edge of Extinction'' where the entire post-merge would have been entirely different without the twist as the final juror and the actual winner of the season were people that were voted out pre-merge but ended up coming back to the game. It is not uncommon for many fans to fear that this show is becoming like ''Series/BigBrother''. Not to mention the cast for ''Game Changers'', ''Ghost Island'', and ''Island of the Idols'' has been constantly criticized thanks to the first season having {{questionable casting}} choices, the second season not having a lot of people making big moves and playing to win, and the third season having the infamous Dan Spilo incident and the way a lot of players handled the incident was not very well-received at all. Let's just leave the last one at that.
46* AwesomeEgo: Cody from 43 is a beloved villain for this exact reason, he's incredibly cocky in confessionals, but he backs it up by being legitimately good at the game using the Beware advantage in such an over-the-top fashion and actually making it work and actually being one of the best strategic players at the moment.
47* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic:
48** Any variation of Ancient Voices qualifies, special mentions go to ''[[https://youtu.be/vDQpNoXh7bo Heroes vs Villains]]'', ''[[https://youtu.be/yhGLW0jQkso China]]'', ''[[https://youtu.be/stnzFYp_V9Q Pearl Islands]]'', and ''[[https://youtu.be/pZd4vrdy2f4 Africa]]''.
49** [[https://youtu.be/MAwQGkQ94xo This]] tribal council ending track, used several times in ''Redemption Island'' and ''South Pacific''.
50** [[https://youtu.be/du_o8MOkqSU The original Tribal Council track,]] perfectly designed to instill fear and drama into the contestants.
51** [[https://youtu.be/JKtEMgEAaJ0 A YouTube user made a mash-up of the first 36 seasons]] (''Borneo'' to ''Ghost Island''), and it is awesome!
52* BadassDecay: Several players upon returning just weren't as impressive on their previous appearances.
53** Colby was TheAce in ''The Australian Outback'', however in his subsequent appearances in ''All-Stars'' and ''Heroes vs Villains'', he just couldn't get it together. James even called him "Superman in a fat suit."
54** Oh, and speaking of ''All-Stars''... Everyone from that season not named [[TookALevelInBadass Ethan]], [[ReformedButRejected Jerri]], [[MissingMom Je]][[GlorySeeker nna]], [[MyGreatestSecondChance Shii-Ann]], [[SacrificialLion Rudy]], [[DarkHorseVictory Amber]], or [[CameBackStrong Rob Mariano]] has been accused of this.
55*** Richard Hatch and Tina won the first two games of ''Survivor'' ''ever'', and Rob Cesternino was TheChessmaster in ''The Amazon'', however in ''All-Stars'' they found themselves surrounded by people who wanted nothing more than to vanquish the people with the best legacies, resulting in none of them standing much of a chance. For what it's worth, Rob C has claimed that Rob M "outwitting" him was actually ManipulativeEditing; and Richard ''knew'' he stood no chance so he spent the entire season trolling people and goofing around. It has also been said that [[OffscreenMomentOfAwesome Tina attempted to filibuster Tribal Council to save herself.]]
56*** Sue Hawk in ''Borneo'' used ObfuscatingStupidity to make everyone think she was an ignorant redneck. In ''All-Stars'', she's flanderized into actually being a redneck and spends much of her time bickering with Tom.
57*** Tom as well, as he's completely unable to realize that Romber's final four alliance doesn't include him... despite this being shown during a Coconut Chop expy challenge.
58*** Rupert, Colby, and Lex were huge immunity threats on their own seasons. On ''All-Stars''? ...Not so much.
59*** Let's not forget Alicia's strategy of... not being in any alliances.
60*** Kathy was the fan-favorite and came one Challenge away from winning ''Marquesas''. Here's she's one of the pagonging victims, and comes off less sympathetically.
61---> '''Kathy:''' Your negativity is like a cancer on this tribe. ''[said to Jenna, whose Mom is '''dying''' of cancer]''
62** Jonny Fairplay, big time. In ''Pearl Islands'', he was the most infamous Survivor villain of all time, known for his infamous lie and strategy. When he returned in ''Micronesia'', he asked to be voted out first to be with his pregnant girlfriend. This was all a cover for the fact that his jaw was broken by Danny Bonaduce and he lacked pain meds. Because of this, Jeff has lumped him in with the other quitters and won't let him return, even for ''Heroes vs Villains''.
63** Rupert Boneham, in his first three seasons he was the memorable pirate who was known for his memorable antics like stealing shoes from the other tribe, catching fish, and his eccentric personality. However, in ''Blood Vs Water'', he gave up his spot in the game for his wife and ended up being the first one out. It's around that point that the viewers were starting to get tired of him.
64** [[SmugSnake Russell Hantz]] was an unstoppable force in his first season, but in ''Redemption Island'', not only is he the first person voted out of his tribe, he goes out [[SoreLoser indignantly]] - crying and blubbering, calling his tribe bitches, and even threatening to sue them for throwing the challenge to vote him out. Like with Rupert, most of the viewers were starting to get tired of him.
65*** Arguably in ''Heroes vs Villains'' as well, as his game is much weaker and he backstabs allies for no real reason, ensuring he gets '''zero''' votes at FTC. The only reason he made it that far this time is because everyone knew he was a goat.
66** Tasha Fox in ''Cagayan'' was known for her streak of 3 immunity wins. However, when she returns for ''Cambodia'', she ends up becoming merely a follower to Jeremy and ends up in the finale with no votes, all the while being condescending to her tribemates.
67** J.T. Thomas in ''Tocantins'' was known for playing the first "perfect game", not getting a single vote against him and sweeping the jury vote. In ''Heroes vs. Villains'', he became known giving the hidden immunity idol to Russell, which is considered to be one of the dumbest moves ever made in the history of the show. This has gotten worse by episode four of ''Game Changers''. At the Mana/Nuku tribal council, J.T. ended up telling Brad that his tribe is voting for Sierra and told Brad to vote for Sandra. However, J.T. forgot to make it clear that Malcolm was his only ally on his tribe and after Tai successfully play his idol on Sierra, Malcolm went out of the game leaving J.T. with zero allies in the game. After being voted out with an idol in his pocket after knowing he was on the bottom, it's safe to say his reputation is irreparable.
68** Prior to ''Game Changers'', both [[Characters/SurvivorCagayan Tony Vlachos]] and [[Characters/SurvivorBloodVsWater Ciera Eastin]] were viewed as the "poster children" of making big moves. Come to ''Game Changers'', both of them went on to be the first two people voted off that season. Double points for Tony as his crazy antics that he did in ''Cagayan'' made his tribe turned against him in ''Game Changers''. Tony was able to subvert this trope in ''Winners At War'' however as he started the game nowhere near as crazy as he did in ''Game Changers''; leading to him becoming a dominant player that season.
69** Joe Anglim was a challenge beast in ''Cambodia'' as he won four immunity challenges in a row (beating several returning players in the process), and he lasted so long in an immunity challenge that he passed out due to fatigue. In ''Edge of Extinction'', he lost the first (and only) individual immunity challenge that season in addition to the challenge to return to the game to a bunch of new players.
70** Aubry Bracco was considered by many to play the best strategic game in ''Kaoh Rong''. However, her later appearances had less impressive showings as she was on the wrong end of every pivotal vote in ''Game Changers'', and she was voted out with both an idol and an advantage in her pocket in ''Edge of Extinction''. This made many people to label her with this trope.
71** This was pretty much bound to happen to most of the cast in ''Winners At War'' as people were bound to be raised to a high standard and judged exceptionally critically given the cast despite most of them needing to go out fairly early as per the rules, a la ''All-Stars''.[[note]]Not that the cast of ''All-Stars'' helped their own cases[[/note]] With that said, there are some pretty standout examples:
72*** Danni Boatwright in her first season was on the bottom of the merged tribe throughout most of the season. Despite that, she managed to find a way to make it all the way to the final two, and win ''Guatemala''. Come to ''Winners At War'' however, when she ''thought'' she was on the bottom of her tribe, she ended up telling Ben about an alliance she was in within earshot of another member of that said alliance; making her appear untrustworthy to everybody, and was voted out third because of that.
73*** Sandra Diaz-Twine was a two time winner who even though was a dead man walking in ''Game Changers'', still managed to preserve her title. In ''Winners At War'', she was playing a strong game, up until her final two episodes in which she gives up her idols to Denise as a sign of trust, and promptly gets voted out with it.
74*** Wendell lost most of the social and challenge skills he had shown in ''Ghost Island'' when he developed a brazen cockiness resulting in him rubbing most of his tribe the wrong way and costing his tribe two challenges. Somewhat ironic considering the reason he won ''Ghost Island''.
75*** Kim was consistently on the bottom and on the wrong side of votes, and even managed to blow up her own game by quitting a challenge when she knew she was in danger.
76*** Ben Dribergen was known for his resiliency and cockiness in ''Heroes vs Healers vs Hustlers'', but this time around, he retains all the cockiness he had, but with none of the skills he had to back it up before. In addition, the people he was alienating were less acceptable targets making him come off less sympathetically.
77* BigLippedAlligatorMoment:
78** [[http://funny115.com/v1/41.htm Dancing with C.C.]] from ''Thailand''. Brian at this moment in the game is flying high, having tricked his fellow castaways into believing he is simply a hardworking middle-class worker that can be trusted. He proceeds to wins a reward challenge, but instead of winning something helpful, he receives a homemade video from home from his porn-star wife C.C., [[SpannerInTheWorks who proceeds to completely blow his cover by showing off his large house, fancy giant piano, and two new cars]]. [[MsFanservice All while shaking her booty]], much to [[MaleGaze the enjoyment of the male tribe members.]] They must have been really DistractedByTheSexy, because despite one or two confessionals proclaiming suspicion, it's never touched upon again.
79** There was a scene in ''One World'' where a pig shows up from out of nowhere in the tribe's camp. Everyone starts to try and chase it while comical music plays, and... then cut to the immunity challenge. The pig isn't brought up after the challenge, and the only reason we know they didn't catch it is that there are a few shots of the same pig after the challenge. Fan theory is that the editors threw in that scene as {{Foreshadowing}} of Michael Skupin coming back for season 25.
80** Then there was [[http://funny115.com/v2/115.htm this moment]] in ''Heroes Versus Villains''. Courtney is wandering through the jungle and ... comes across [[ImNotHereToMakeFriends Russell]] and [[HolierThanThou Coach]] on a giant see-saw. ''Russell and Coach'' on a ''giant see-saw''. If it was any other two contestants it wouldn't have been that big a deal, but - those two? True to the trope, it comes out of nowhere and is never explained.
81** The ''Caramoan'' finale featured an audience interview with Rudy Boesch for no apparent reason. That would be BLAM-worthy in and of itself, but the segment featured a taped greeting from Richard Hatch to Rudy... nude, of course.
82** During Jason's Ponderosa video, Scot cannot be found anywhere at first. Then, as Jason tries to find some breakfast food for dinner (brinner!), Scot jumps out of nowhere wearing nothing but a speedo and a professional wrestler's mask.
83---> '''Scot''': DID SOMEBODY SAY BLUE LABEL?\
84'''Jason (Giddily, like a little kid on Christmas morning)''': BLUE LABEL!!!
85** On ''Game Changers'', many fans felt that the scene where Debbie and Cochran were hanging out on a boat together feasting and relaxing is a bit out of place for this show.
86** On ''Island of the Idols,'' Sandra's finger gets bitten by a chicken because she wouldn't share her papaya with it. This is never mentioned again.
87* CaptainObviousReveal: The editors tend to edit some winners to the point that they will obviously win. Honorable mentions for this trope goes to Brian Heidik, J.T., Boston Rob, Kim Spradlin, John Cochran, Tyson Apostel, Mike Holloway, Jeremy Collins, Sarah Lacina, and Tommy Sheehan.
88* CatharsisFactor: Seeing some of the more unlikable castaways get voted out is very much trope. Honorable mentions go to these people.
89** When Russell was finally eliminated in ''Redemption Island'', many Russell haters relished in the fact that he was finally voted out, and that he cried on the way out.
90** Malcolm in ''Caramoan'' essentially ruins his own game by getting rid of idols just to make sure [[CreatorsPet Phillip]] is eliminated. Fans were relieved to see Phillip finally out of the game.
91** From ''Kaoh Rong'', after he alongside Jason showcased poor treatment towards [[TheWoobie Alecia]] early on in the game as well as sabotaging the tribe's camp and be a very bad influence to Tai in the process, seeing Scot get blindsided with Tai refusing to give him the superidol to save him is very much this trope.
92** From ''Island of the Idols'', many fans found it incredibly satisfying to see Aaron, Missy, and Elizabeth voted off in quick succession for their role in protecting [[HateSink Dan]], eliminating Kellee and tormenting Janet. Dan himself gets disqualified shortly after Elaine's elimination due to yet another touching incident, this time with a ''producer''. To say viewers were relieved he was finally gone is an understatement.
93** Not an elimination, but on ''Heroes vs. Villains'', after how totally screwed the Heroes had been getting for the first two weeks in immunity challenges, seeing them completely kick the Villains' asses in a total shut out through the Sumo Immunity challenge was an utterly immense delight to see.
94* CommonKnowledge: It is generally assumed that Jeff will read every vote cast except for excess votes cast for the departed player. This is not always the case. In the first 7 seasons, there is ''at least'' one example of the producers deliberately either counting more votes than is needed, or hiding a vote cast by a player in the minority.
95* ComplacentGamingSyndrome:
96** Part of the reason ''Survivor'' has drastically shifted to reward rapid strategizing and cutthroat behavior over the years, was this trope becoming far too prevalent. All people had to do to make it to the finals was get in the majority and not let other people realize they weren't in the majority. While some early seasons like ''Marquesas'', ''Amazon'', and ''Pearl Islands'' had dynamic power shifts, many early seasons suffered from this strategy being too effective until the introduction of the modern immunity idol in ''Fiji''.
97** Extra emphasis on "complacent" in certain years, as the prevailing strategy in several seasons had been "don't upset the apple cart". There were entire casts content to let the status quo be, allowing alliance ringleaders to waltz to the finals unopposed; such as Rob in ''Redemption Island'' and Colton until his medical evacuation in ''One World''. ''One World'' was especially frustrating, because Colton was a petty racist bully and almost nobody was shown to even speak up in defense of his targets.
98* CreatorsFavorite: As you might have noticed from other tropes listed here, production plays favorites when it comes to screen time, due to their ability to effectively carry the season. [[CreatorsPet More often than not, they fail.]]
99** "Coach" Benjamin Wade in ''Tocantines''. Before ''Tocantins'' began, Jeff Probst claimed that he would be the most popular contestant since Rupert. He then became the focus of the entire season, often getting more screentime than the entire rest of the cast combined. To say there was a backlash would be putting it mildly. Jeff Probst even lampshaded at the reunion how the most common comment he got regarding the season was animosity towards Coach. He got better in Heroes vs Villains.
100** There is also Rupert Boneham. While he used to be an EnsembleDarkhorse, he became a much more divisive figure among the fandom with him coming back four times causing people to grow tired of him believing that he was never going to win no matter how hard he tried, and how many times comes back into the game. Many people believed that CBS only brings him back, and gives him plenty of airtime just because of his "iconicness".
101** Joe Anglim has received this treatment. As his first season was airing, a lot of the Survivor fanbase felt neutral towards Joe at best. However, after he was put on the cast of ''Cambodia'', it became very clear that production was trying to force him to become a fan favorite when it wasn't there. By the time that he was announced that he would return for a third season, many people have turned on him as [[https://www.reddit.com/r/survivor/comments/a90yq8/survivor_david_vs_goliath_finale_day_after_survey/ this Reddit survey]] shows that out of the four returning players in Joe's third season, he was the castaway that the fanbase were the least excited to return.
102** Zeke Smith from ''Millennials vs Gen X'' is seen as this by several viewers. He was incredibly hyped up by Jeff Probst pre-season, saying that he was the main reason to watch this season. However, to many viewers he didn't live up to the hype, being overshadowed by more popular male characters from that season including Adam, David and Jay. While the controversial Episode 7 of ''Game Changers'' made people feel sympathy for him, as another contestant unleashes an incredibly despicable personal attack on him, his BaseBreakingCharacter status picked back up after the merge episode.
103** While many female contestants usually avoid this trope, Sarah Lacina manages to be the first female player to be accused of one due to her overly positive edit that took airtime away from fan favorites such as Aubry, and Cirie.
104** Rick Devens from ''Edge of Extinction'' has also received this treatment. Before he was voted out, he was seen as a well rounded, but flawed character. However when he returned from Extinction, he proceeded to devour all the screentime by finding idols, causing very controversial exits from Wentworth, Victoria, and especially Lauren. People had expected him to be a CaptainObviousReveal winner just like previous seasons, and while he wasn't, fans just didn't get the hype Jeff was giving.
105* CreatorsPet:
106** Russell Hantz from ''Samoa''. Over the course of the season, he received ''the'' most inflated edit in the entire game, with a whopping '''108 confessionals''', most of which consisted of one of two things. Proclaiming that he wanted something to happen (followed by the thing happening), and proclaiming how great he was. The end result of this was that people ultimately disliked the fact that he lost because the winner got comparatively little screen time.
107*** In ''Heroes vs Villains'' he received a more balanced edit, but is given credit for Tyson's elimination, [[AmbiguousSituation when arguably]], he had little to do with it.[[note]]Everyone agreed Tyson was voted out in a 4*-3-2 after switching his vote and Russell idoled Parvati. However, post-game press leaves it up for debate whether Tyson flipped his vote because of Russell's suggestion or whether he overthought the round and would have done so anyway. Also, whether Russell idoling Parvati was a calculated move, "worth a shot," or wanting to end his run heroically and getting lucky.[[/note]]
108*** In ''Redemption Island'', despite being eliminated second, it was repeatedly stated that the Zapatera tribe was doomed because they threw a challenge to get rid of Russell Hantz... despite that fact that he was actively harming the team with sabotage attempts (which weren't shown in the actual episodes incidentally). He was also nominate for player of the week, ''the same week his elimination was aired!''
109*** It should be noted that production (or at least Jeff) has evidently had their opinions change over the years. Nowadays Jeff has proclaimed that Russell is his least favorite contestant (likely owing at least partially to the comments Russell made about the game being flawed in the [=HaV=] reunion). [[https://ew.com/article/2009/12/21/jeff-probst-survivor-russell/ This is a sharp contrast to his opinions at the time of Russell's showings.]]
110---> '''Jeff''': ''"Survivor: Samoa'' will rank as one of my favorite seasons and for one reason: Russell Hantz. He single handedly kept this show interesting week after week after week."
111** Phillip Sheppard from ''Redemption Island'' and ''Caramoan'' for a wide variety of reasons chiefly among which being that he's a generally unpleasant personality that juggles random gimmicks in an attempt to hog airtime, willingly become Rob's goat despite giving confessionals detailing otherwise, and [[MoralEventHorizon accusing Steve of being a racist for utterly selfish and irrelevant reasons.]] [[http://np.reddit.com/r/SurvivorRankdown/comments/2cuxe9/round_02_494_contestants_remaining/cjjav5n A more detailed explanation is decently encapsulated here.]]
112** Boston Rob like Russell, is a repeat offender unfortunately. The only seasons he didn't receive an overly positive edit in were ''Marquesas'' and ''All-Stars'' (and in the latter, he dominated anyways), to the point where it's become a running meme that Jeff Probst (The host and producer) is madly in love with him. The fact that he praises him every time he comes up doesn't hurt at all...
113*** In ''Heroes vs Villains'', after he gets voted out [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZUkV7p6cww Jeff proceeds to rant to the tribe about how they should have voted out Courtney at the next tribal]]. [[HoYay Oh Jeff...]]
114*** But let's be real. You're reading this for his entry on ''Redemption Island''. From episode one, he is the focus, the star of his tribe, and everyone else is described as either having blind allegiance to him or being powerless towards him. Every episode is a coronation to his victory, and he announces this at all points. He has a very sharp advantage in that his is his fourth time, meaning he has four times the experience everyone else does[[note]]Parvati has stated in interviews that she had an easier time manipulating the new players on her second time out knowing what her body was going to do this time. Now imagine having quadruple the advantage over everyone else.[[/note]]. No tribe swaps or gross food contests (his weaknesses) happen. The season is additionally hyped as one of the best, as the one where "Rob ''finally'' wins", as if he was entitled to it. Finally we never actually get anyone's actual gameplay thoughts, and several people have outright contradicted the edit[[note]]Particularly with regard to strategic decisions.[[/note]], indicated he was favored by quite a bit. Someone on his tribe finds an idol on day ''one'' (a first), and is never mentioned to have done so at any point. All in all, he's the shining example of this throughout the franchise for this season alone.
115*** In Caramoan, despite not existing on the season, he's talked up by Cochran early on, talked up by Phillip Sheppard (see below) to a downright annoying extent, and takes tons of time away from the players at the reunion show by plugging his new book.
116*** This cumulates in ''Winners at War'' with him calling himself the best player to ever play despite ''directly'' causing his own loss at least 3 times[[note]]''All-Stars'', ''Heroes vs Villains'', and this very season ''Winners at War''[[/note]].
117** John Cochran from ''South Pacific'' and ''Caramoan''. He is infamous among the viewers for his infamous flip against his tribe, as well as his annoying tendencies. Despite this, he was brought back as one of the more {{Questionable|Casting}} choices for Caramoan, with a cast of returning players that he is friends with. He received several advantages over the course of the game and was heavily focused on throughout the season, and went on to an easy win. And all the while Jeff continues to fawn over him. This has gotten even worst about how he ended up making an appearance on ''Game Changers'' to give Debbie (who has been sent to exile island) some advice, and he manages to get even more confessionals than New Mana.
118%%** Kellyn Bechtold in ''Ghost Island'' becomes one in the consensus of many fans for ''always'' getting a confessional every episode while others who are more mysterious and untouched upon like Chelsea and Gonzalez get gnat-like focus and force fandom to go trawling onto the official Website/YouTube ''Survivor'' page to find material that had been cut in favor of spotlighting the bejeezus out of her, because the former is so quiet half the time that production likely found her too boring to focus on and the latter was a first boot. Worse, Kellyn is almost always portrayed like the unfailing source of kindness when she clearly has a scary temper and often mentions her divorce as a major blow to her confidence (which was recent at the time of filming), and fans began to find it very grating and irritating that she didn't live up to be the Teflon warrior production was making her out to be. Ironically, Kellyn starts to become the real bore because her overexposure makes fans tired of being force-fed the same player, like a relationship where neither spouse gets out of the house and become sick of each others' company. ''Series/ManWithAPlan'' aired an episode about why it's bad to do that on CBS in the same week Kellyn's boot episode took place- it's shocking how much it applies to this obviously over-favored edit.
119* CriticalDissonance:
120** In this [[http://www.realitytvworld.com/news/jeff-probst-survivor-san-juan-del-sur----blood-vs-water-wasnt-what-we-hoped-but-next-season-delivers-17209.php Interview]], Jeff believes that ''Caramoan'' was a great season. Fandom does not share his opinion on Caramoan. Caramoan is also widely derided for having a useless reunion where a SpotlightStealingSquad is king and the rest of the cast might as well just be replaced with cardboard cutouts.
121** Generally speaking, whenever Jeff hypes up a season, examples including ''Caramoan'', ''Worlds Apart'', ''Redemption Island'', and ''44'', it is generally poorly received, while seasons that aren't hyped up are generally better received such as ''San Juan Del Sur''.
122* DesignatedHero: Romeo beating Jonathan in the final four immunity challenges of "42" is portrayed as a triumphant David overcoming Goliath moment. He even tries to use it to inspire the pageant girls he works with in real life. It's hard to cheer for him as Romeo had been stealing food from his tribe since the merge, and Jonathan, despite being a BigEater in real life, ate his fair share of the food. Seeing as players who have stolen food or even overate, like Clarence, Na Onka, Julie, and Taylor, were rightfully vilified for it due to food being scarce on the show, Romeo came off more as being rewarded for his entitlement since stealing the food certainly gave him a leg up.
123* DesignatedVillain: Many seasons have at least one through [[ManipulativeEditing editing]]. ''Heroes vs. Villains'' used this as its gimmick. This is exploited in ''Cambodia'' where Spencer and Shirin are hated by their tribe for making fun of Abi-Maria despite the fact that virtually everyone on the tribe treated her the same way.
124* DracoInLeatherPants: Anyone that gets a villainous edit - be it [[DesignatedVillain designated]] or [[CardCarryingVillain card-carrying]] - can get this treatment from part of the fanbase.
125[[/folder]]
126
127[[folder:E-L]]
128%%%
129%% Please do NOT add Ensemble Dark Horse examples for anyone who is a contestant. As a reality competition show, it is expected for every contestant to get their moment to shine, so none of them can be a Dark Horse so to speak.
130%%%
131* EpilepticTrees:
132** Some of the theories in [[http://survivorsucks.com/topic/1113/The-History-of-Survivor-Spoilers#.Tv0LqNQ7UTY this]] thread (which documents the history of online Survivor spoilers) can get pretty creative and outlandish, especially the "Follow The Star" theory by a Survivor Sucks poster called "Tapewatcher" which claimed that Ethan would win ''Africa'' because the editing symbolized him as Jesus.
133** In Guatamala the four remaining players are allowed to watch the local tribe sacrifice a chicken but are then forbidden from eating said chicken. Once they are left alone, the players eat the chicken and that night are plagued by the most extreme storm they have had since coming there causing the players to theorize that they cursed themselves and pray to Mayan gods for forgiveness.
134* FanonDiscontinuity: There is certain fans who tend to ignore everything that happens after Palau and love everything that involves the "old school" seasons of Survivor believing that the show was at it's best during that time.
135* FoeYayShipping: Some contestants can be a little-too-obsessed with a fellow castaway they claim they don't like.
136** [[FieryRedHead Jerri]] and [[HonorBeforeReason Colby]]. ''[[https://youtu.be/8NY0zJftBjI Enough]]'' ''[[https://youtu.be/aJGaA7FCl-o Said]]''. Bonus: watch [[https://youtu.be/sTrTSmLCd1A this]], from 1:58 - 2:16.
137** [[http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,299527,00.html Jeff Probst and Johnny Fairplay.]]
138** [[SmugSnake Russell Hantz]] was fixated on [[ManipulativeBastard Boston Rob]] during ''Heroes Vs Villains'', while everyone else in turn became fixated on Russell.
139** Kelly Wiglesworth and Sue Hawk from ''Borneo'' is a pretty sad example, given that they seemed to be good friends at one point.
140** Stephen and Joe from ''Cambodia''. Stephen is seemingly fixated on Joe, calling him "Golden Boy" and "Pretty Boy", while trying to get him out. Joe in turn respects him but isn't as intense in the rivalry, making it kind of one-sided.
141** [[VillainWithGoodPublicity Jay]] and [[HeroWithBadPublicity Adam]] from ''Millennials Vs. Gen-X''. They had a very antagonist relationship early and middle of the game, but the fact that Jay seems to be growing fond of Adam and the fact Adam only confided in Jay about his mother puts them here.
142** [[AffablyEvil Kelley Wentworth]] and [[NiceJewishBoy David Wright]] from ''Edge of Extinction''. The two are constantly planning to vote each other out due to seeing each other as threats, but the minute the both of them are in trouble, they easily forgive each other and pair up their respective alliances against whoever is targeting them. Their interactions in episode eight and nine are rather {{Adorkable}}, and their earlier interactions sometimes seem like a SlapSlapKiss relationship.
143** There are plenty of one sides rivalries where one player will hate another while that player will be indifferent or even completely unaware of this feud. Some big ones include Shambo vs Laura on Samoa, Vince vs Joe on World's Apart and Coby vs Tom in Palau. It doesn't seem like Laura, Joe or Tom are even aware that the other hates them, in Laura and Tom's case it isn't even clear why the hatred is there (with Vince he was jealous because Jenn talked to Joe).
144** Liana and Xander of season ''41''. Despite their rivalry, many fans speculated that they had [[BelligerentSexualTension something]] going on, which was half-proven when a secret scene of episode 10 had Xander admit he had a crush on her, and Liana being flattered though still wanting him out.
145* FountainOfMemes:
146** Rudy from the first season gave us "Me and Richard got to be pretty good friends,(but) not in a homosexual way, that's for sure", "I DUNNO", and "[[AnOfferYouCantRefuse "I have a lot of friends]]," among others.
147** Heidi from ''The Amazon'' has a lot of notable quotes fans list out thanks to her DumbBlonde nature.
148** The Casaya tribe from ''Panama'' (yes, the entire tribe). Nearly every time they're on screen results in a ridiculous, oft-quoted moment, many of which revolve around Shane Powers: his attempt to quit smoking cold-turkey by going on Survivor, his "thinking seat," the "[=BlackBerry=]" he created from a block of wood, his frequent nudity brought on by groin chafing, his blindside, and his bizarre, volatile, and almost sexual dynamic with Courtney Marit (resulting in the "shitty apartment" scene). Then there's Bruce and Bobby getting drunk in the Casa Del Charmin, Courtney defiling Bruce's rock garden, the infamous Touchy Subjects challenge... and many more.
149** Most memes from Gabon originated from Crystal Cox and there are ''a lot'' of them.
150** Nicaragua gives us Fabio, [=NaOnka=], and Dan, all of whom provided a lot of hilarious imagery and quotes.
151** [[Characters/SurvivorCagayan Tony Vlachos]] has a lot of notable memes under his belt such as the Spy Shack, talking llama, his reaction to his first idol, and many more.
152** [[Characters/SurvivorDavidVsGoliath Angelina Keeley]] thanks to the RunningGag of her trying to ask people for stuff (especially when she tries to ask for Natalie for her jacket).
153** Mike Turner of ''Survivor 42'' has been the source of several memes due to coming across as a {{Cloudcuckoolander}} in many of his confessionals, along with his blatantly [[{{Hypocrite}} hypocritical]] attitude toward other players leading to frequent ThisIsUnforgivable moments over things that he himself has also done, making him outright hilarious to watch. [[https://www.reddit.com/r/survivor/comments/ukem6b/mike_has_such_a_way_with_words/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf Reddit even made a thread on his most meme-worthy quotes]] such as "There's no kumbaya. The K left, the umba left it's now holycrapaya", "Romeo, Romeo, Wherefort art thou Romeo? He's in the same spot he was in 20 days ago. Hasn't moved. That's where Romeo art thou", and "his head is in the GILL-ateeeeeeeen, ready to be LAHPED off." It also doesn’t hurt that he [[https://mobile.twitter.com/HobokenMikeT/status/1511809439766134784 bears a strong resemblance to Thanos]] of the ''Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse''.
154* FranchiseOriginalSin:
155** ''Thailand'', ''Redemption Island'', ''South Pacific'', ''One World'', and ''Ghost Island'' are notorious for being boring due to one tribe systematically eliminating the other. This can be traced back to season one. While this was actually a major complaint about ''Borneo'' (a.k.a. the very first season), it didn't negatively impact viewership simply because ''Borneo'' employs this as both a GenreShift and CerebusSyndrome, and this was simply not something people saw on television back then.
156** One of the biggest complaints about ''Game Changers'' is the lopsided casting that ended up leading some of the biggest names in Survivor to go out pre-merge leaving with the more questionable casting choices post-merge. It should be noted that ''All-Stars'' also had a similar complaint as nearly every single threat and strategist were voted out pre-merge. However, it should be noted that while ''All-Stars'' had a much more justifiable reason for this given how they were dealing with only seven seasons of Survivor beforehand, ''Game Changers'' ended up having thirty-three seasons to work with instead of seven, and hundreds of more castaways since ''All-Stars''; making it far less likely to have a lopsided casting than it did.
157** According to Jeff Probst, the universally panned Final Four twist in ''Heroes vs. Healers vs. Hustlers'' was added to the game for the more savvy players to make it to the end and win in which that is the same reason why production changed the final two to the final three. While the final three has a huge BrokenBase in itself, it lacks many of the complaints that the final four twist has such as undermining the significance of winning the final immunity, and removing fundamental social strategy from the game.
158** One of if not the most common complaint about the Redemption Island and Edge of Extinction twists are that they take away from the fundamental idea that when you are voted out and your fire is gone so are you. This can all be traced back to Pearl Islands (one of the most beloved seasons of the show), where right before the merge the Outcasts twist occurred, allowing 2 of the 6 players to return to the game after winning a challenge.
159*** This is complained about when mentioning the worst aspects of that season, but is generally seen as not as bad as the other returning twists because it only occurred once in the season, happened very early by comparison, and had to defeat all the player in a game to even have a chance at coming back, and because it only occurred in the 2 partner to return it didn't take up nearly as much screen time (whereas both Redemption Island and Edge of Extinction take away from the players in the game), and finally Lil and Burton returning was a big part of what made Pearl Islands's pre-merge so unpredictable and exciting. Additionally, neither returnee ended up winning but had enough impact that them coming back added to the season. None of this happened in the other seasons. The returnee in every Redemption Island season was generally picked off by the majority shortly after getting back in, while in Edge of Extinction the winner ended up being someone who was voted out third, and in Winners at War the first boot returned in the finale and if not for some late game mistakes could have won.
160** A common complaint about Redemption Island and to a lesser extent South Pacific as seasons is that they bring back returning players as captains of tribes of new players which most fans looked at as a ploy to give them an extra advantage for the win and also be a SpotlightStealingSquad. Redemption Island being the Rob show, and South Pacific giving much more focus to Coach and Ozzy as opposed to the season's winner are the big complaints. This can be traced back to the first time it was ever done in Guatemala, a fairly well-liked season that brought back two players from the previous season Stephenie and Bobby Jon and had them on opposite tribes. Stephenie was a SpotlightStealingSquad at the expense of the season's winner and her being surrounded by loyal fans in the way that Rob was do resemble the disliked seasons more. This is generally seen as not as bad, for the main reasons of Stephenie and Bobby Jon (especially the former), were incredibly popular so they avoided CreatorsPet accusations, the idea of giving the two Ulongs a second chance was seen as a good one (as there was a rooting factor to them after they spent so much time stuck on one of the most dysfunctional tribes in the show's history), the edit was much more balanced than in Redemption Island or South Pacific, and the season gave decent focus to the other players.
161* GeniusBonus:
162** In ''South Pacific'', Christine angrily calls Coach "King Farouk" after she's voted out. Anyone familiar with the history of this king[[note]]An Egyptian pharaoh that was popular at first, but the internal rivalries of his administration and his alienation of the military - along with his increasing excesses and ''eccentricities'' - eventually caused his downfall[[/note]] could catch this as {{Foreshadowing}} on behalf of the editors that Coach was going to lose.
163** In one episode of ''Marquesas'', Zoe compares the raft that her tribe is making for the upcoming reward challenge to Kon-Tiki, the famous raft used by Thor Heyerdahl in the 1940's to demonstrate that indigenous people from South America may have settled in Polynesia at one point. Heyerdahl first envisioned this hypothesis (which would later be largely discredited) while living in the Marquesas Islands.
164** Before ''Edge of Extinction'', Jeff compared the season's editing to that of a murder mystery and whodunit. While his comment was initially chalked up as being another exaggeration to hype of the season, after the finale, some fans found that the storyline and ending was shockingly similar to a particular story by the famous murder mystery novelist Creator/AgathaChristie. The story? Literature/AndThenThereWereNone.
165* GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff:
166** When ''Survivor: Borneo'' aired in Australia, B.B. was perhaps one of the most popular characters, and the general consensus was that the Pagong tribe, apart from B.B., were lazy.
167** In similar vein, the "villains" of early editions (read: scheming people that managed to strategise their way to victory with their wits and social skills) were considered the heroes and were popular in Poland. This is especially notable in case of ''Borneo'', where everyone started rooting for Tagi and their alliance the moment it was set up, seeing it as the only sane tactic and something worth following, rather than watching bunch of random layabouts in an exotic backdrop.
168** When ''Survivor'' first aired, it became extremely popular in Canada. And it has remained consistently popular throughout the years, with many Canadians still loving it and wishing they were allowed to participate in a season until they were finally allowed to join as of ''Island of the Idols''.
169* {{Glurge}}: The entire finale of ''44'' could be described as this, with the narrative of the episode and Jeff's hosting centering around messages of "positivity" and "kindness". Carson in particular went on a very cringe-inducing spiel about being insecure, with the editors treating it entirely seriously when Carolyn, who survived a drug addiction, was still in the game with him and didn't get anywhere near as much focus on her own story. Heidi's entire Final Tribal Council argument was trying to use her win to inspire Hispanic girls interested in science. What you end up with is a finale that feels more like a Series/FullHouse episode or Characters/TheAmazingRace33.
170* HarsherInHindsight:
171** In ''Marquesas'', Paschal makes a funny comment about how much he's enjoying the company of the three women he's with. He then steps down as judge because of a sexual affair with a much younger woman. This also makes his relationship with Neleh a little bit icky.
172** In ''Fiji'', Boo's Blunders are ''hilarious'' until the final episode when he tears his ACL. Nobody was laughing then.
173** [[http://funny115.com/v1/44.htm This Funny 115 article]] about Skupin being "a psychopath" is made less funny following Skupin's arrest for larceny and child pornography.
174** The Survivor Sucks message board had a running joke they would play on newbies about ''Borneo'''s B.B. Andersen having been dead for years. It became a lot less funny on October 29th 2013, when B.B. died for real.
175** The Survivor Sucks message board also had a thread that revolved around the running joke of posting a photo of ''Africa'''s Silas Gaither in a suggestive pose alongside images of other people simulating Silas "screwing" the person. This thread became Harsher In Hindsight following Gaither's 2019 arrest for rape.
176** Before ''Thailand'', Jeff had said that the cast of that season looked to be the best that the show had so far. ''Thailand'' to this day remains to be Jeff's least favorite season.
177** Before the car challenge that Cindy won in ''Guatemala'' , Lydia says she is going to try to win it for her teenage son. Less than a year later, her only son would die in a car crash.
178** In Richard's last confessional, he says that "a million dollars could really change someone's life." It changed his, but for the worst; the tax snafu whose origin is still debated by fans put him in prison for years and is still something that haunts his image til this day.
179** [[{{Website/MariosSurvivorArchives}} Some]] people have noted that the cast of ''Survivor: The Australian Outback'', (the second season) tried their damndest to be the good guys and not look like the more villainous victors of season one, with Jerri Manthey being the sole exception and villainess. It succeeded at the time, but... looking back, many of the greater "heroes" weren't the good guys they seemed to be. Tina on other seasons is incredibly cutthroat... in fact she is on this season too if you look close enough, [[DisproportionateRetribution along with being a huge jerk to Jerri]]. Elisabeth Hasselback TookALevelInJerkass on ''The View'' and expounded some ''very'' controversial views that certainly paint her in a more negative light than her "Sweetheart" appearance on the show. Jeff Varner crossed the MoralEventHorizon when returning for ''Game Changers'', attempting to further his own gameplay by outing someone as transgender. Mike Skupin went from being seen as a signature player, and was even considered a worthy player when he returned for ''Philippines'' to being seen as a person who got arrested for larceny and child pornography (in which said arrest also made Skupin's post-Outback vignettes much more difficult, considering all his talk about his newfound love for God and how he loves working with children). All in all... it's interesting that Jerri is seen as one of the most well-liked players to play on ''Australia'' when she was originally seen as the most despicable character of them all.
180** Brandon Hantz's [[SexIsEvilAndIAmHorny crusade]] against Mikayla Wingle either becomes this or HilariousInHindsight (depending how you feel about the Hantzs'), when you find out she had a relationship with Russell Hantz after ''South Pacific'' - which may or may not have contributed to him and his wife divorcing.
181** Adam's comments about his mother in ''Millennials vs Gen X'' become a lot sadder now since people knew that she died two days after filming.
182** Some people pegged Pat as the first boot of ''David vs. Goliath'' due to the pre-season interviews which ended up featuring some contestants not being a fan of his. Technically, Pat was the first boot but [[GameBreakingInjury the reasons why]] [[NonGameplayElimination he was the first boot]] [[TearJerker were much more tragic]] as his tribemates were ''really'' sad to lose him.
183** Within ''Island of the Idols'' as well, there was a scene in Episode 3 where where everybody in the original Lairo tribe ignored Karishma's hand injury. Everybody was confused about that moment when it first aired, but fast forward to the merge episode, those same people that are still around choose to ignore the sexual harassment allegations that were made by Karishma's allies as well; causing the Survivor fanbase to turn on a lot of them.
184** Natalie throwing John Rocker's past back in his face in San Juan Del Sur becomes this when Natalie herself got banned from The Challenge for racial tweets she made in the past
185** Colby talking to Ethan about not letting "the cancer fester in their tribe" becomes this after Ethan was disagnosed with a rare form of cancer
186* HilariousInHindsight:
187** Amber mentioned in her audition tape for ''Australia'' that the host visited her in a dream and told her she would win. Which she did...the ''second'' time she played.
188** Also, from ''Australia'', Rodger goes on to make a HeroicSacrifice in the game so that Elisabeth can make to the final four as he stated that "she needs the money". Following ''Australia'', Elisabeth would go on to co-host ''Series/TheView'' as well as ''Series/FoxAndFriends'', and earns much more money than Survivor could ever provide her.
189** ''Thailand'', where Brian won the reward challenge and won video tape of his wife, C.C. C.C wants him to win so they can go to Fiji. Survivor would later go to Fiji itself, in season 14 and from season 33 onward.
190** In an early episode of ''Pearl Islands'', after arguing with Sandra, Jonny Fairplay declared in a confessional that "I got a million that says she won't be the final one!" Guess who ended being the first two-time winner?
191** In the "Meet the Cast" videos for ''Samoa'', Jeff mentions that Russell apparently doesn't realize it's a social game - guess what comes back and bites him in the ass?
192** Hayden Moss originally applied to be on Survivor but CBS asks him to be on ''Series/BigBrother'' instead and so he did. Come to ''Blood vs. Water'', he actually went to play on that season. And from a more-so production standpoint of things, [[Characters/SurvivorNicaragua Fabio]] went to take his place in the season he applied. Guess who ended up winning ''Nicaragua'' and ''Big Brother 12''?
193** Several years ago, ''Series/{{MADtv}}'' did a celebrity parody of ''Survivor'', complete with Jeff Probst AsHimself. Among the contestants was Mrs. Garrett from ''Series'TheFactsOfLife'', who at one point says "I vote for Tootie! Cause Blair was always my favorite." Come ''Survivor: Philippines'' and Blair herself would be a contestant on the show, even winning Fan Favorite!
194** In the cast assessment for ''Cagayan,'' Jeff described Spencer of having "zero point zero chance of winning" based on his interactions with him. Fifteen days into the season, Spencer becomes one of his favorite players. And when Spencer DID make it into the final three in ''Cambodia'', believing he had a fairly good shot of winning? Jeremy proceeds to win in a landslide with every single vote out of a ten-person jury, meaning Spencer really DID have zero point zero chance of winning!
195** After the tribal shuffle, the former Blue Collar tribe Escameca from ''Worlds Apart'', who has Blue ColorMotif to boot, becomes a male-dominated tribe with one female member. Said female member is blond and is an original Blue Collar tribe member. Appropriately, the TropeNamer for TheSmurfettePrinciple has blue skin and blond hair. Time will tell if [[FanNickname they'll get called]] "Franchise/TheSmurfs" tribe" though.
196** After losing a challenge in ''Marquesas'', Sean mentioned that he needed the lawyer John Cochran. 19 seasons later on ''South Pacific'', one of the contestants is a law student named John Cochran.
197** ''San Juan Del Sur''
198*** Val claims to have two idols. In ''Cambodia'', her husband Jeremy would end up finding two idols... which he names ''Val's idols''. So she wasn't lying after all!
199*** In the same season, Drew Christy in his boot episode warned the tribe that Kelley Wentworth was the biggest threat and was at the center of an all-girls alliance, despite Kelley barely having any screentime up to that point. Come ''Cambodia'', he ends up being right...
200*** An earlier episode has the Hunahpu tribe declaring that their members will dominate the top five. It happened in ''Cambodia'' when three of the season's alumni who all came from said tribe made the top five, with one ultimately winning the game.
201** In ''One World'', Sabrina said early on "Nobody remembers second place!" Guess what place she ended up? It's taken even further where she failed to earn enough votes to make the cut for ''Second Chance''.
202** In ''Africa'', Carl, a baby boomer, criticizes his younger Gen X tribemates, calling them lazy with no work ethic. Fast forward fifteen years to ''Millennials vs Gen X'', where the Gen Xers are criticizing the millennials for '''their''' lack of work ethic, and having everything handed to them.
203** Just the mere fact that Ozzy's fake hidden immunity idol became a real idol in ''Ghost Island'' makes the whole entire thing about that all the more hilarious.
204** After Purple Kelly's OutOfFocus edit in ''Nicaragua'', many fans started to call people who are OutOfFocus as "Purple _______". Come to ''Ghost Island'' when the double tribal council had the final ten be split into temporary tribes and the purple tribe contains almost everybody with an OutOfFocus edit.
205** Before ''Ghost Island'' was filmed, Jeff Probst described what will happen in the event of a tie at the final tribal council during the ''Game Changers'' reunion. It's almost as if Jeff predicted what ended up happening in the season he was about to film.
206** [[Characters/SurvivorBloodVsWater John Cody]] stated that one of his pet peeves is people who eat paper. Come to an international season of Survivor in Survivor South Africa: Philippines, there was a contestant who ended up eating a piece of paper in the idol clue.
207** In ''One World'', Matt guessed that there would be a twist where both tribes would go to Tribal Council and vote out one person collectively. This later happened in ''Game Changers''.
208** Boston Rob's rivalry with and constant teasing of Ethan in ''All-Stars'' becomes a lot funnier when the two are allies from the jump in ''Winners At War'', and walked away from the season as really close friends.
209** When Kelley Wentworth and Lauren O'Connell had a ''Survivor 41'' premiere party, [[https://www.reddit.com/r/survivor/comments/ptrbhn/looks_like_lauren_kelley_didnt_get_the_memo/ they put-up a sign for said party]] that contains the words "Come on in, guys!" on it, a catchphrase which would be abandoned within that very episode.
210** A Survivor [=YouTuber=] named Peridiam [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5x5gZh3Pgs posted a video of "5 Times Survivor Advantages Went Horribly, Horribly Wrong"]] on November 3rd, 2021. Later in the night, Liana in ''Survivor 41'' goes on misplay an advantage that is considered very powerful if she uses it correctly.
211* InformedWrongness: In the ''43'' finale, Cassidy is condemned for not putting her game on the line in the fire-making challenge against Jesse, which was part of the reason the jury didn't vote for her to win. When Chris did it in ''Edge of Extinction'', it was because it was literally the only way he had a chance at winning. Gabler had already proven himself to be better at making fire, so her decision was a safe way to ensure the biggest threat went home without risking her immunity.
212* IronWoobie: Stephenie [=LaGrossa=] is seen as this first in ''Palau'' when she was alone on the Ulong tribe, and then ''again'' after ''Heroes vs. Villains'' - some unconfirmed rumors state that she was eliminated because she was still hurting from having her ''shoulder dislocated'' in the ''first challenge in the game''.
213* ItsTheSameSoItSucks: Some of the criticisms of the show for returning to previous filming locations (Panama, Samoa). Even some of the ''producers'' have thought this, but in between the weather[[note]]Samoa got hit by a tsunami barely a week after ''Heroes vs Villains'' finished filming[[/note]] and political unrest[[note]]The Fijian Coup d'etat even happened ''as the season was being wrapped up''. Plus, Jordan was considered as a location for the show once but canned due to 9/11.[[/note]], finding a new location for the show is easier said than done, especially since they have to have worthy housing for ''three hundred'' people. They even stated that some locations are out due to problems with the area, such as ''Africa'' wherein everyone was sick and too hot to do anything, ''Guatemala'' where the temperature would regularly be over one hundred degrees F, or ''Marquesas'' where the insects inflicted quite a bit of discomfort amongst the contestants and staff. Therefore, reusing locations is a necessary evil, and plenty of the staff would love to go to new locations too.
214** Taken to frustrating levels with Fiji, which as of ''Winners at War'' has been the location of ''eight straight seasons'', effectively destroying the SettingAsACharacter aspect that many were originally drawn to series with and pushing an increased focus on [[ScrappyMechanic gimmick themes]]. Jeff Probst very publicly expressing a desire for the show to never leave the country hasn't helped matters.
215* ItWasHisSled:
216** In general, any winner can be viewed as this, but especially Sandra Diaz-Twine (''Pearl Islands'' and ''Heroes vs. Villains'') and Tony Vlachos (''Cagayan'' and ''Winners at War''), who won twice. It doesn't help that most of the DVD covers ended up having the winner be placed in the top center. Similar to that, it's well-known that Russell Hantz does not win ''Samoa'' despite playing a rather dominant game.
217** Erik giving up immunity is very well-known in the fandom; especially since the show itself seems to NeverLiveItDown.
218** Cochran's flip in ''South Pacific'' could count as one since a lot people seem to talk about that for a lot of seasons later.
219** Both of the "big moves" Ciera ended up making in her first season with her voting out her mother and flipping to force a rock draw can be very well-known in the fandom. MemeticMutation may have a role in the former.
220** Both Colby and Woo losing the game because of them taking the wrong person in the end within their first seasons can be viewed as this as a lot of people considered that to some of the dumbest moves made on ''Survivor'' and the latter became what Woo was most notable about.
221** With {{Fan Nickname}}s such as "pagonging", "ulonging", and "matsinging", people are very well aware of the fates of those three tribes.
222** Jonny Fairplay's dead grandmother lie has became a very ironic moment in the show that a lot of people already knew about that.
223* JerkassWoobie: [[GreyAndGrayMorality Many]]:
224** Jerri Manthey in ''Australian Outback'', before ''Heroes vs. Villains'' helped restore her reputation. The woman had loads of crap dumped upon her, especially after getting booed at the ''All-Stars'' reunion.
225** Lex van den Berghe in ''All-Stars''. While he did vote out Colby, Ethan and Jerri, Lex was screwed over after doing a favor for his friend in real life.
226** Dreamz Herd in ''Fiji''. Even though he clearly regretted going back on his word to Yau-Man, he was brutalized for it months after the show ended.
227** Brandon Hantz (''South Pacific'' and ''Caramoan'') is a notable example. The guy's a hotheaded jerk, no doubt, but it's clear that he has a ''lot'' of issues.
228** With the death of his partner Caleb, Colton from ''One World'' and ''Blood vs. Water''.
229** Rodney from ''Worlds Apart'' could be one too since he never won a reward postmerge, even on his damn birthday!
230** Jeff Probst qualifies too, since he and [[Characters/SurvivorPalau Jennifer Lyon]] (''Palau'') were close friends before his untimely passing.
231** Richard Hatch, from all the way back in ''Borneo''. The guy's been bullied all his life for being gay, which at first he acted straight so nobody would notice and had a son. He got a lot of hate for coming out of the closet and what's more, the tax snafu involving his million cheque has tarnished his image forever. You can't help but feel bad for the guy even if he was arguably a "villain".
232** Jay Starrett in ''Millennials vs. Gen X''. While he was a smug antagonist for most of the game, he really was only trying his best to play for his mother and sister. He then breaks down with Adam in episode 12 when they tell each other about their respective mothers, with Jay admitting that his mother has had many brain aneurysms for the past nine years and is afraid she'll die one day.
233** With the passing of Dan Kay, fellow ''Gabon'' castaway [[{{Jerkass}} Randy Bailey]] becomes this. Listening to [[http://robhasawebsite.com/dan-kay-survivor-tribute-randy-bailey-ken-hoang-podcast/ Rob Has A Podcast: Remembering Dan Kay]] reveals that the Dan and Randy were especially close, and it's hard not to feel sorry for him when he sounds like he's on the verge of breaking down a few times.
234** Joe Mena. While the {{Jerkass}} is more prevalent than the {{Woobie}}, his story of how his parents' divorce ruined his faith in relationships definitely deserves sympathy.
235** Phillip in the false racism accusation incident. While he was way out of line for accusing Steve of racism for calling him crazy when he was acting that way, Jeff uncovers he had experienced virulent racism throughout his life including people calling him crazy for being black so even though Steve didn't mean it like that it's still a sore spot for him.
236* JustHereForGodzilla: Whom or what, exactly, is the Godzilla varies from one viewer to the next. For example, some viewers keep watching because Jeff Probst is still hosting.
237* LGBTFanbase:
238** Parvati has a pretty massive one, due to her flirtatious nature.
239** Kimmi Kappenberg has a '''huge''' gay following on social media. Hashtags such as #gays4kimmi or #gaysforkimmi are popular on Twitter, Tumblr, and other web places.
240** In an interview with Sandra, Rob from Podcast/RobHasAPodcast mentioned she had an LGBT fanbase.
241* LoveToHate: Richard Hatch and "Boston" Rob; both play hard and talk big but ultimately treat the game with as much seriousness as reality TV deserves (that is, little to none). Sandra too - she's abrasive, but her "cut the crap" attitude can be very refreshing.
242** Another well known example is Johnny Fairplay, who is generally seen as lacking any of the positive traits of the above three. Instead, he’s a shameless SmugSnake of a villain whose cunning and brazen deceit make him a serious threat. Fans often see him as the greatest villain in the show’s history.
243[[/folder]]
244
245[[folder:M-R]]
246* MemeticBadass:
247** At the time ''Borneo'' aired, it was assumed (true or not) that Greg Buis would 100% have won the game if he actually cared to, rather than spend his time trolling the producers.
248** ''Samoa'' contestant Dave Ball, aka "Danger Dave."
249** Sandra Diaz-Twine gets this a lot, being (for 20 seasons) the only two-time winner in the history of Survivor. Upon the reveal in ''Winners at War'' that Tony Vlachos was the second two-time winner, she became this even moreso, since he was evidently only permitted to win once she stopped trying to stop him (having taken him out swiftly to preserve her title a little longer in ''Game Changers'').
250** JP Hilsabeck himself has become inflated into a MemeticBadass due to being kept so OutOfFocus and somewhat lost and aimless in his season that ''Survivor'' message boards and fandom joke he's actually [[BewareTheQuietOnes a secret mastermind playing under the radar and controlling the game.]] (He's not.)
251** Lil from ''Pearl Islands'' has a touch of this. In every single episode she's in, she is the most pathetic person we've ever seen on ''Survivor''. She cries at the drop of a hat, is horribly incapable of performing in most challenges, and is incapable of performing anything you'd expect a scoutmaster to be able to do. [[EleventhHourSuperpower Suddenly in her final episode she kicks the ass of one of the series's most notorious villains in the final challenge]] while shutting down every attempt of his to negotiate, [[HonorBeforeReason then sends him home]] (and [[DownToTheLastPlay just before he can worm his way into a win]] too!) [[LastMinuteReprieve over fan-favorite Sandra]]. Because of this, some believe she's actually a powerful force of good, just laying dormant until just the right moment.
252** Certain winners have received this status for being extremely dominant, but none moreso than [[Characters/SurvivorOneWorld Kim Spradlin]].
253** Tony Vlachos for being a two time winner, and for handily defeating all the other winners in ''Winners at War''.
254** C.C. Heidik as she nearly blew up Brian Heidik's game in ''Thailand'' by blowing up his cover in her loved ones video.
255** Sydney Segal of Survivor 41 has achieved this, somewhat ironically, due to how much she hyped herself up every episode that she was in (“They hate me ‘cause they ain’t me!”, etc.), her love of [[{{Troll}} trolling]] everyone on social media by retweeting hate comments and proudly embracing the character of a self-absorbed mean girl, and that she does [[JerkassHasAPoint legitimately have a point that she only lost because of ridiculous twists, not any actual lack of skill or mistakes on her own part]]. Despite not even making it to Jury, some fans enjoy jokingly playing into her hype and claiming that she is just as badass as she claims to be.
256** Sabiyah from "Survivor 45" is this for her passionate gameplay and, among the first four early outs, being the only one that didn't quit. Many fans rank her as not only one of the most likable payers but one of the most likable early outs among the likes of Cao Boi Bui.
257* MemeticLoser: One should note that most examples of this are PlayedForLaughs by fans and are not generally hated or even looked down on much in any way (excluding the ones [[BaseBreakingCharacter/{{Survivor}} found]] [[TheScrappy/{{Survivor}} here]])
258** Francesca from 1 episode each of ''Redemption Island'' and ''Caramoan''. Getting voted out first twice is a very good way for her to be this.
259** Oddly for a winner who had the first "perfect game" (no votes to eliminate and all jury votes) in ''Survivor'' history, J.T. has become this. Why? Because in each of his appearances since his win, he wound up masterminding his ''own'' elimination by making utterly atrocious moves involving idols and trusting people from other tribes over his own tribe. It has gotten to the point that a good portion of the fandom credits [[TheStrategist Stephen]] for J.T.'s strong ''Tocantins'' performance over J.T. himself.
260** Many people with OutOfFocus edits such as Chelsea Townsend (''Ghost Island''), Brenda Lowe (''Caramoan''), and Joe Del Campo (''Kaoh Rong'') tend to receive this treatment. However, the most notable one to receive this treatment is Purple Kelly (''Nicaragua'') thanks to [[FanNickname many people calling castaways who are]] OutOfFocus [[FanNickname "Purple ______"]] after her season.
261** Boston Rob has also received this treatment. While he did win ''Redemption Island'', many people criticized how it took four seasons to do so. Not to mention the fact that he didn't even make the jury phase of the game for two of those seasons. In addition, the season that he won had many people accused of the castaways being a bunch of idiots who were too starstruck to vote him out. As of ''Winners At War'', he's had a perfect split of being eliminated pre-jury (or pre-merge in the case for ''Winners at War'') in seasons with good players (''Marquesas'', ''Heroes vs. Villains'', and ''Winners At War''), and making the final tribal council in seasons with weak competition (''All Stars'' and ''Redemption Island'')
262** Ozzy Lusth has gotten this reputation after ''South Pacific'' where he ended up getting voted out three times within the same season (in which while one was intentional, it backfired on Ozzy hard as Cochran went on to betray him at the merge vote). Not to mention that after he TookALevelInJerkass that season (showing off poor social game in the process), it caused people to label him as [[CripplingOverspecialization somebody who was only good in challenges but nothing else in the game of Survivor]]. While this reputation slightly lessen after he became a lot nicer in ''Game Changers'', many people still believed somebody like Ozzy can never win the game due to his skill in challenges (not to mention that he still holds the record for the most amount of times a Survivor contestant has been voted out).
263** Ben Driebergen also has received this treatment in ''Heroes vs. Healers vs. Hustlers'' as he needed to play three idols and have a fire-making twist in the game that none of the castaways knew about to even make it to the final three. This increased ''exponentially'' in ''Winners at War'', where he is consistently delusional, believing himself to be the biggest threat in the game amidst 19 more competent winners and accidentally costs his friend the game whilst trying to hand her the win.
264** Chris Underwood (''Edge of Extinction'') for being the sole winner that got voted out within his own season.
265** Erik Reichenbach gave up immunity in ''Micronesia''. While his MemeticLoser status was not exactly set in stone after that, the fact the show is still talking about it 23 seasons after that mistake cause many fans to jump him in that category.
266** Daniel Strunk from ''Survivor 42'', who is (half-jokingly) called the worst strategic player in ''Survivor'' history. He was actually playing a decent strategic game in the beginning but a series of monumental screw ups got to the point that people admitted they wouldn't even want him in his day job as a lawyer.
267** Crystal Cox from ''Gabon'' became a ''[[FountainOfMemes Fountain]]'' [[FountainOfMemes of Memes]] about her inability to win just about any challenge, especially the physical ones, often losing to unfit and scrawny people. Cox is an Olympic gold medalist. [[note]]She did later admit to using steroids causing her to be stripped of her gold medal, which may explain why she performed so poorly in challenges.[[/note]]
268** The Lulu tribe in ''Survivor 45'' became this in record time, and it only became worse as more of them got eliminated quickly. They failed to win all but one challenge, two of them effectively quit the game, one of them was an exceptionally poor challenge performer, and one was almost voted out first before any of the aforementioned for being so abrasive.
269** Alexis from ''Micronesia'' has gotten this treatment due to her being the only member of the Black Widow Brigade to pretty much do absolutely nothing that season.
270** David Jelinsky from ''Survivor 46'' reached this in record time for having what's widely considered the most pathetic game in ''Survivor'' history. He not only gave up on two of the three challenges he participated in and barely participated in the third, he wouldn't accept responsibility for his failures and tried to deflect blame.
271* MemeticMolester:
272** Jerri Manthey in ''Australia'', thanks to her EroticEating fetish.
273** Parvati has shades of this. Everyone from other players to herself admit she'll flirt with anyone to advance further in the game.
274* MisaimedFandom: Several people outright think that you got to make big moves to win the game. This is true of some modern seasons where focus has shifted drastically to reward that gameplay. However, often times, these big moves are often not the right moves and people will view them as an idiot, a backstabbing jerk, or most frequently [[TallPoppySyndrome a target]]. Several winners do not have a move to their name, for very good reason.
275* MisBlamed:
276** Audiences despised Jenna Morasca for [[InsaneTrollLogic claiming that her beauty was an handicap]] while sitting next to a player with an ''actual handicap''... except, [[StrawmanHasAPoint not only does this claim have some merit, particularly in a social game like Survivor in the early 2000's]], but she doesn't actually make that claim, another player puts those words in her mouth to make a joke.
277** In-Universe, in ''South Pacific'', Coach questions his alliance with Brandon Hantz after finding out he's related to Russell Hantz, because he remembers how Russell said he was also a man of god and then voted him out in ''Heroes vs. Villains''... however, [[ChronicBackstabbingDisorder Russell]] ''didn't'' [[NotMeThisTime vote for Coach at his Final Tribal Council]]. In fact; Russell actually voted ''with'' him.
278** Some people started hating Ben Driebergen for the infamous final four twist in ''Heroes vs. Healers vs. Hustlers'' despite the fact that while he did benefit immensely, the twist was not Ben's idea or fault. If anybody were to take blame for that twist, it would be production.
279** Many controversial picks for returnee seasons get hated on even though production had to ask them first to come back. All they did was not pass up another chance at 1 million dollars.
280* {{Moe}}: [[Characters/SurvivorBorneo Colleen Haskell]], [[Characters/SurvivorTheAustralianOutback Amber Brkich and Elisabeth Filarski]], [[Characters/SurvivorAfrica Kim Powers]], [[Characters/SurvivorVanuatu Eliza]] [[Characters/SurvivorMicronesia Orlins]], [[Characters/SurvivorFiji Michelle Yi]], [[Characters/SurvivorChina Courtney]] [[Characters/SurvivorHeroesVsVillains Yates]], [[Characters/SurvivorGabon Sugar]] [[Characters/SurvivorHeroesVsVillains Kiper]], [[Characters/SurvivorIslandOfTheIdols Chelsea Walker]], and [[Characters/Survivor42 Maryanne Oketch]].
281* MoralEventHorizon: While this trope is incredibly hard to apply in a game like ''Survivor'', a fine line is generally agreed to be hurting another player in some manner.
282** Jeanne from ''Amazon'' crosses this in the recap episode of all places, as it's revealed that she ''poisoned her own tribe'' out of petty revenge for her ally being blindsided.
283** Jeff Varner outing Zeke as Transgender to try to paint him as deceptive in ''Game Changers'' was and is widely seen as despicable. His fellow castaways agreed, and voted him out on the spot. Calling his boss cowardly for firing him after this incident didn't exactly help.
284** Dan Spilo sexually harassing women and continuing to do so after a warning in ''Island of the Idols''.
285** Will Sims during his tirade at Shirin insulting her for how her family was torn apart by domestic violence (something she was clearly still heavily traumatized about) and refusing to apologize for when called out on it.
286* MorePopularReplacement: Both Christian Hubicki and John Hennigan from ''David vs. Goliath'' ended up filling regular archetypes on the show with the former having the nerd archetype like Cochran or Ryan, and the latter having the male professional athlete archetype like Jeff Kent, Brad Culpepper, or Scot Pollard. However, while a lot of castaways before them were polarizing at best, Christian and John managed to be well-liked in the Survivor community as many people found the former to be endearing and the latter manages to be a GentleGiant instead of how much of the professional athletes tends to be treated as villains on the show.
287* {{Narm}}:
288** The way some finale episodes are edited to make it look like Jeff is taking the ''least efficient mode of transportation possible'' to go directly from the final tribal council to the live reading of the votes 15+ weeks later (such as a helicopter from Australia to New York or a ''jet ski'' to NYC from the Amazon) comes across as fairly ridiculous.
289** Rupert's explosion towards Jon following the sixth tribal council in ''Pearl Islands'' should at least cause a chuckle to first time viewers.
290--->'''Rupert''': Who the hell voted for me? [[SuddenlyShouting WHO THE HELL VOTED FOR ME?!]] JON?!\
291'''Fairplay''': Yeah?\
292'''Rupert''': WHO THE HELL VOTED FOR ME?!\
293'''Fairplay''': [[BluntYes I did.]]\
294'''Rupert''': '''WHAT THE''' ''(deleted)'' '''WAS THAT''' ''(deleted)'' '''TONIGHT?!'''\
295'''Fairplay''': I was down for Drake, dude. I made-\
296'''Rupert''': Dammit, '''LOOK AT ME!'''\
297'''Fairplay''': I'M LOOKING AT-\
298'''Rupert''': '''WHAT THE''' ''(deleted)'' '''WAS THAT''' ''(deleted)''-\
299'''Fairplay''': I made a decision based on Drake!\
300'''Rupert''': '''YOU'RE STARTING TO''' ''(deleted)'' '''NOW!''' ''Damn.''
301* Shane and Courtney of all people are forced to be the main participants of Bruce's Medical evacuation scene in ''Panama'', resulting in a horrifyingly funny scene where Courtney sings to Bruce against his will and Shane spends the scene pantsless for some reason as sad music plays in the background.
302** Kat crying about Hayden breaking up with her because she didn't make the merge is worth a chuckle.
303** During one reward of South Pacific, the Upolu tribe watched a screening of ''Film/JackAndJill'' with most of them enjoying it. Given how people found the film to be one of the worst films ever made, it is hard for people to take them actually liking the movie seriously. [[https://twitter.com/survivorquotesx/status/697037737598259200?lang=en Albert and Coach have admitted they were cued to laugh by production since they also hated the movie off-camera.]]
304** The {{Anvilicious}} nature of ''Millennials vs. Gen X'' can be seen as this with the worst example coming into mind is Jeff asking Sunday if she writes "you" or "u" when she is texting somebody.
305** On several live viewings of the show, hashtags will randomly pop up, informing you of what you should be talking about later and completely ruining any and all tension a scene might have.
306--> #[=SurvivorBreakdown=]!
307** The fact that Ozzy's fake hidden immunity idol from ''Micronesia'' was living on Ghost Island for a decade to fully mature into a hidden immunity according to the note has received this reaction from a lot of fans.
308** The removal of "Come on in, guys!" in ''Survivor 41'' can be seen by this. While a guy can refer to a male, the usage of guys when used in plural form can refer to a group of people regardless of gender. For Jeff Probst to stop saying it due to the former definition is seen as a bit silly.
309** Jeff's tendency in ''Survivor 41'' to talk to the camera at various points, such as after Evvie explained how she managed to solve a puzzle so quickly, can come across as rather goofy, with some viewers comparing him to a children's television host.
310** Jeff's trend of calling every mildly intense scene the "Best _ ever" devalues the phrase almost to the point Series/AmericasGotTalent has devalued the phrase "We have never seen anything like this before"
311** They have further embraced the Series/AmericasGotTalent approach by trying to play up every player as having an inspirational story. This causes a severe contrast in stories like Maryanne being bullied and Carson being insecure being treated with the same severity as Carolyn having a drug addiction or Jesse being caught in gang life.
312* NarmCharm: A lot of the aesthetic design can receive this reaction. It's cheesy as heck most of the time, but that's not stopping a seriously intense million dollar game from being played.
313* NauseaFuel: People ''do'' get hurt there. Heck, it's an inherent risk, especially in the seasons in which they have fighting challenges.
314** One particular moment following a rather ''vicious'' looking challenge in ''Fans vs. Favorites'' had many viewers looking away from the TV screaming, "EW EW EW EW EW!!!" or feeling like they were about to lose their lunch, where Jonathan Penner received a puncture wound to the knee and had to be evacuated from the game due to an infection that could potentially have taken out his leg. They actually showed the medic ''irrigating the puncture wound'' on TV to show how bad it was.
315** The ''Kaoh Rong'' premiere featured Jennifer who had a worm in her ear and was suffering hugely because of it. She was clearly in pain and her describing her pain in great detail could make some squeamish viewers squirm.
316** Once again in ''Kaoh Rong'', '''THREE''' people went down after the Episode 4 reward challenge, and medical had to check three people all at once, with the entire crew involved, ultimately ending up with one player being evacuated.
317* NeverLiveItDown: The especially manipulative, deceitful, or heavy-handed contestants tend to get treated this way, [[InUniverse In-show]] and out, along with contestants who make rash, dumb decisions.
318** The accusations by ''Borneo'' contestant Stacey Stillman that the producers persuaded Sean and Dirk into voting her off so they could save the more colorful Rudy, and Dirk's eventual admittance in court that this was true, has cast a shadow over the show for years and made many viewers question whether any other game influencing ExecutiveMeddling has taken place.
319** ''Marquesas'' has this in two parts: the first is that the location had so much discomfort from the bugs that it will never be used again. The second and more infamous is that because Paschal refused to vote off Neleh (his best friend in the game), and took the fall by the Purple Rock. In future season, there are instances that contestants betrayed alliance-mates so they don't end up forcing a tie and risk drawing the infamous rock themselves. Drawing rocks did return for ''Blood Vs Water'', thanks to Hayden and Ciera however.
320** Jonny Fairplay's infamous "Dead Grandma Lie". The lie was so successful, he was able to get his tribe to throw him a reward challenge, and used that lie to gain leverage throughout the game. Since then, contestants have been wary of others using real-life events to gain sympathy. The biggest example is in ''China'' during the family visit when Todd says his sister had a miscarriage, and Courtney doesn't buy it, directly referencing the dead grandma lie.
321** Lex van den Berghe after ''All-Stars''. Before ''All-Stars'', Lex's reputation was that of a highly competent strategist and very good physical player, albeit a slightly paranoid and emotional one. After his attempt at [[DealWithTheDevil making a risky deal]] with Rob to improve his game failed, and having denied Rob the win just to spite him, he is now thought of in a ''much'' less flattering light. Let's just leave it at that.
322** ''Fiji'' has this in two parts: first is the Haves vs. Have Nots twist, which the producers and Probst believe was a failed experiment. The second is the infamous car deal where Dreamz went back on his word to Yau-Man. Since then, the car challenge was never used again.
323** The show itself is never going to live down Russell...especially since they keep finding ways directly and indirectly work him until ''One World''.
324** ''Caramoan'' has this in '''spades'''.
325*** The poor casting on both sides, with over half of the fans being recruits that haven't even seen the show, and over half of the favorites coming from two of the most disliked seasons, ''Redemption Island'' and ''South Pacific''. Not to mention that some of the choices for favorites were questionable at best, Francesca was a first boot, Phillip is polarizing at best, Brandon clearly has issues and was not mentally well in ''South Pacific'', Cochran was unpopular for his flip in ''South Pacific'.
326*** Brandon's meltdown in Episode 5 is considered to be one of the lowest points for the show, as the producers brought back Brandon for another season despite the fact that he clearly had issues and personal demons the first time around, and cast him again despite knowing he had issues. This led to a confrontation with Phillip that just barely avoided turning violent. The worst part for many viewers was that the producers were clearly exploiting this for ratings.
327*** The conflict with Brenda and Dawn. After Brenda helps Dawn find her teeth, Dawn swears her life on Brenda. After Brenda wins the loved ones reward and offers to take Dawn, she is then given the choice to give it up so everyone else can see their loved ones. Dawn, Cochran, and Sherri team up to vote out Brenda that night, and Brenda was absolutely distraught. This led to a firestorm on Dawn's twitter where she was attacked by fans for her betrayal, forcing Dawn to shut down her Twitter account. Then, at Final Tribal Council, Brenda demands that Dawn take out her teeth for the sole purpose of humiliating her.
328*** The cherry on top was the reunion. The prejurors were not allowed on stage (most likely to cover the absence of Brandon), and some players on the stage (including Sherri, a finalist, and Erik who was medically evacuated) didn't even get a chance to speak. Rather than letting the players speak, Jeff brings up Boston Rob to shill a book, talks to Rudy in the audience, and talks to a young girl who can barely form a sentence, and you get a horrible reunion show.
329** ''Millennials vs. Gen X'' has become rather infamous for the way its pre-merge played out, specifically the demographics of those eliminated: Only one man was voted out pre-merge out of seven, with the other six players consisting entirely of [=BIPOC=] women (this includes Figgy, who is half-Puerto Rican). This left not only a merge with only one [=BIPOC=] player in Jay (who is half-Peruvian), but also one with only four women out of ''thirteen'' players total.
330** Much like ''Caramoan'', ''Game Changers'' had this in '''spades''' as well.
331*** The {{questionable casting}} choices had many fans believing it left the season with a lopsided cast. To start with, [[NotBadassEnoughForFans not many fans view a lot of the cast members as game-changing castaways]] causing people to hate the cast before the season even began. Then, it got worst by having many of contestants that actually changed the game go out pre-merge due to them being huge threats in the game, and the more questionable casting choices made it to the merge with the final four of that season each containing a QuestionableCasting entry listed below. Because of that, a lot of people view the season being better if the boot order was reversed.
332*** Jeff Varner outing Zeke as transgender on national television. Everyone was so disgusted with him that he was booted without even taking a vote as it was already clear everyone would be voting for him, and he reportedly dreaded the public reaction so much in the months before the episode aired that he considered suicide.
333*** Finally, we have [[FanNickname advantagegeddon]] where the final six tribal council of that season had everybody played their idols and advantages causing Cirie to be voted out simply because she was the only one to not be immune that tribal council. Many fans were upset over that causing a backlash against idols and advantages in general.
334** Lauren Rimmer having the chance to use a Hidden Immunity Idol and an extra vote but leaving the vote back at camp and entrusting half of the idol to Mike Zahalsky, who tossed it into the Tribal Council fire, followed by Ben controlling the entire vote to eliminate Lauren.
335** Ben's win is forever tainted by the final four fire-making twist as without said twist, he would have been voted out in the final four. If Ben just won the final immunity and not be forced to make fire, fans would most likely be extremely less harsh on Ben's win.
336** Laurel from ''Ghost Island'' will forever be known as the idiot who took Wendell and Domenick (aka the two biggest threats on the season) to the end with her.
337** Based upon the number of jokes about things maturing on ''Ghost Island'', you may be surprised that only one episode mentions things actually maturing on ''Ghost Island''. However, fans tend to act like a bunch of things were matured there.
338** Erik Reichenbach giving up immunity is something the show doesn't seem to live it down due to how a clip of Erik doing that ended up showing up in ''Island of the Idols'' (aka 23 seasons after ''Micronesia'').
339** While nearly every merge contestant apart from Kellee, Karishma, Janet, Jamal and Noura got some flack for how the situation with Dan was handled, Elizabeth Beisel and Missy Byrd in particular were notorious for how they outright used the situation to get Kellee out while keeping Dan in the game for their own sakes. It got to the point where Elizabeth was conspicuously absent from the Reunion, likely out of shame and fear for her own safety.
340** Despite Ricard having one of the flashier games in 41, him making Jeff abandon the iconic phrase "Come on in guys" is the thing he is best known for and the first issue most fans bring up when talking about him.
341** Survivor 43 is infamous for the fact that the first four people to go home were all women, and by the final 10, only three remained. Alongside Gabler's shocking victory, this is the first complaint people have about the season; even Adam Klein (whose winning season ''Millennials vs. Gen X'' had a similarly male-dominated endgame) has put this as his foremost complaint.
342* NightmareFuel: ''Africa'' had the tribes living in the middle of lion territory and they had to keep two players on watch at all times through the night. Just a few days into the game the players are woken up by the sound of multiple lions growling as they pace around their camp, and later on Ethan and Kim listen in horror as a lion stands right outside the camp roaring in the middle of the night. And keep in mind, their only protection is a six-foot high fence made of thorn bushes.
343* NotBadassEnoughForFans: Any winner who most fans deemed as "undeserving" solely for not being both physically and/or strategically dominating and aggressive compared to their [[TheRunnerUpTakesItAll runners-up]]. Notable cases are Tina Wesson from ''Australia'', Amber Brkich from ''All-Stars'', Natalie White from ''Samoa'', and Sophie Clarke from ''South Pacific''. Sophie is an interesting case of this because she was both a strategic and a physically capable player. She was just more quiet about it. This also applies to many first and second runner-ups who some people believe "should" have won or at least should have gotten ''some'' recognition.
344* OlderThanTheyThink:
345** The concept originated in Sweden as ''Expedition Robinson'' back in 1997. It was picked up by Creator/{{CBS}} in 2000, and the rest is history.
346** Certain twists. Tribal switches had happened before ''Africa'', and the concept of ''Redemption Island'' was actually used in previous international versions of ''Survivor'', often called "Island of the Dead" or "Island Of Purgatory".
347** Adam on ''Winners at War'' got a lot of jokes at his expense for attempting to grab the direction on the podium assuming it could be an idol. It turns out that ''Series/SurvivorSouthAfrica'' had an idol hidden at Tribal Council only a couple years previous, and he explained during an interview that he watched that season sometime before coming on to play a second time.
348* OldGuardVersusNewBlood: As the strategy of ''Survivor'' become more complex over the years, less emphasis has been placed on certain aspects that brought older fans into the show in the first place (such as the adventure element, which has sadly been more or less ignored starting around the Russell Hantz era of Survivor) . Old Guard fans complained about all the time being spent on strategy and twists, while on the other side of the equation, the New Blood fans complain about the older seasons for being boring and lacking in strategy. This is actually what drives most of the conflict who deserved to win between the two major finalists in ''Heroes vs Villains'', Parvati and Sandra. Parvati represents the New Blood in terms of playing a very strategic game, while Sandra represents the Old Guard by playing a very social game.
349* OnceOriginalNowCommon:
350** Plays that were at the time novel and brilliant are now seen as commonplace - alliances (first appeared in ''Borneo''), finding idols without clues (''Samoa''), Splitting votes to flush out the idol aka "Plan Voodoo" ''Cook Islands''), throwing challenges following a tribal switch (''Africa''), BaitAndSwitch voting (''Fiji''), idoling (''Fiji'' again), and fake idols (''Fiji'' '''again''') are all a part of the game so much that their use in later seasons has a lesser impact.
351** Certain twists. Tribal switches, hidden immunity idols, etc are so commonplace.
352* OneSceneWonder: Technically 2-scenes, but C.C. Heidik from ''Thailand'' appeared on a video as part of a loved ones challenge, where she proceeded to completely blow Brian's cover while dancing in a sexualized manner [[MaleGaze (That the male members of the tribe just loved)]]. This especially notable in that it was the [[KarmaHoudini only time in]] [[SpannerInTheWorks the entire season]] that it looked like [[TheChessmaster Brian]] could possibly be in any danger.
353* OvershadowedByControversy:
354** ''Worlds Apart'' has this in terms of sexism. The three most controversial characters all stated sexist comments in some shape or form making it the main reason why the season is considered SeasonalRot. It doesn't help that Jeff spent 50% of the reunion talking about the sexist comments Dan and Will make while 25% of the reunion was spent on the ''Cambodia'' cast and the other 25% of the reunion was actually talking major gameplay events in the game.
355** ''Islands of the Idols'', despite having a very enjoyable pre-merge and some entertaining characters, had the messy sexual harassment incident involving Dan that tainted the rest of the season in a negative light by many fans. It was so bad that in a ''Podcast/RobHasAPodcast'' poll ranking seasons 1-40, the season was ranked 40th due to the controversy in which many people believed it would have been ranked higher if it weren't for it.
356* PanderingToTheBase:
357** The ''Redemption Island'' and ''Edge of Extinction'' seasons can be viewed as this. All of those seasons had returning players in them, and the seasons with "captains" with them had the captains receiving a ton of screen-time. Those twists can be done as a way to give the returning players more screen-time even after they got voted out.
358** The reunion show for ''Caramoan'' is infamously criticized due to how only jurors as well as the final three can sit on stage (with the exception of Brenda who was pregnant at the time of the reunion but Probst took time to video call her there). Following this, all reunion shows took time to make sure to have everybody on stage. Additionally, some people believe the reason why they did during the ''Caramoan'' reunion was to hide Brandon Hantz not being there. However, in future reunion shows, if somebody does not attend the reunion whatever reason, CBS no longer tries to hide them not showing up.
359* PortmanteauCoupleName:
360** "Romber" was one for Rob & Amber in ''All-Stars'' and ''Worlds at War''.
361** "Arson" was one for the fan pairing of Aras and Tyson in ''Blood vs. Water''.
362** "Kimsea" is one for the fan pairing Chelsea and Kim from ''One World''.
363* QuestionableCasting:
364** There are always several questionable casting choices that show up in All-Star seasons, such as [[BackstabBackfire Shii-Ann Huang]], [[WallOfBlather Jenna Lewis]], [[DiscOneFinalBoss Rob Mariano]] and [[{{Shorttank}} Amber Bkirch]] (''All-Stars''); Amanda Kimmell and [[TheTease Parvati Shallow]] (''Fans vs. Favorites''), Amanda Kimmell, [[{{Turncoat}} Candice Woodcock]], and Danielle [=DiLorenzo=] (''Heroes vs. Villains''), [[EpicFail Francesca Hogi]] and [[TheLoad John Cochran]] (''Caramoan''), [[WeHardlyKnewYe Monica Culpepper]], [[PoliticallyIncorrectVillain Colton Cumbie]], Candice Cody, and [[SpotlightStealingSquad Rupert Boneham]] (''Blood vs Water''), [[MemeticLoser Ben Driebergen]] (''Winners At War''). Keep in mind, though, the winner of those seasons almost always comes from the more WTF casting choices.
365*** It's also worth mentioning that some were a little more forgiving in ''Blood vs. Water'' due to its twist of having the contestants play with their loved ones, which limits the availability of some with no apparent partner who is physically capable of playing.
366** ''Game Changers'' has a bunch of them as there are some people who didn't really change the game such as [[ICouldaBeenAContender Caleb Reynolds]], [[SpotlightStealingSquad Ozzy Lusth]], [[PragmaticHero Tai Trang]], [[OutOfFocus Sierra Dawn Thomas]], [[IneffectualLoner Troyzan Robertson]], [[DrunkWithPower Sarah Lacina]], [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} Debbie Wanner]], and [[PatrioticFervor Hali Ford]]. While some people feel like some of those people should of returned to the game, they shouldn't been brought back for that particular season. In addition, [[DumbJock Brad Culpepper]] was already a questionable casting choice for the potential returnees for ''Cambodia'' and there was very little fan support for him to be casted that season. Not to mention how Zeke ended up receiving {{Scrappy}} status after he mocked David with his anxiety issues.
367** There also some of the choices for potential returnees for ''Cambodia'' such as [[TagalongKid Natalie Tenerelli]], [[DumbJock Brad Culpepper]], [[HonorBeforeReason Woo]], [[OutOfFocus Kelley]] along with [[CoolOldLady Carolyn]] & [[LargeAndInCharge Mike]] who was still competing by TheReveal of choosing the season 31 cast and could be rendered ineligible by winning Worlds Apart, which did happen to Mike.
368** Many fans were also skeptical on casting previous winners in [[ReunionShow Returning Player seasons]] because they already won the title and the million bucks.
369** Outside of returnees, the casting department has also gotten a poor reputation for promoting a series of arrogant, deluded, and entitled players (Coach, Russell, [=NaOnka=], Phillip, Colton, Dan, Will, Rodney) in order to incite conflict with their tribemates.
370*** The most agreed upon example of this is re-casting [[Characters/SurvivorSouthPacific Brandon Hantz]] in ''Caramoan''. The producers more than likely knew he was unstable prior into joining the show, and many of the fanbase agree that he was probably cast in order to get the huge meltdown they got in episode 5 and were extremely upset with the show for doing so. In the same season, re-casting [[Characters/SurvivorRedemptionIsland Phillip Sheppard]] was looked down upon by many.
371*** In ''Blood vs Water'', Colton was brought back despite not only being arrogant, but decidedly racist and elitist, and... quit on Day 7. On top of that, [[UnreliableNarrator Probst claims]] that he faked his appendicitis on his ''One World'' trip, which really makes one question why they would cast him, considering Jeff has made a big stink of not inviting back anything that even remotely looks like a quitter.
372*** Casting people like Rodney, Dan, and Will (''Worlds Apart'') as well as Jason, and Scot (''Kaoh Rong'') were considered questionable since they went on to bully a female contestant on the show with some of those female characters being {{Woobie}} characters and people like Rodney, Dan, and Will were accused of being sexist for their bullying. It does not help much they were cast within the same year.
373** Completely ignoring the ''Guatemala'' contestants for reunion seasons. At least until ''Winners At War''.
374** Dawn Meehan in ''Caramoan'' as while a lot of fans believe she may be a good casting choice on her own, some fans felt as if [[Characters/SurvivorNicaragua Holly Hoffman]] was a better representative for Dawn's arc (aka an older female who wanted to quit early on but didn't and they went on to make a comeback in the game).
375** Casting non-winners for a third season has gotten this reputation as the contestants in question have a tendency to either be an odd casting choice that most feel don't deserve to be cast again [[labelnote:Examples]]Stephenie [=LaGrossa=] in ''Heroes vs. Villains'', Candice Woodcock-Cody in ''Blood vs. Water'', Andrea Boehlke in ''Game Changers'', and both Joe Anglim and Kelley Wentworth in ''Edge of Extinction''[[/labelnote]] tarnish their reputation [[labelnote:Examples]]James Clement and Colby Donaldson in ''Heroes vs. Villains'', Russell Hantz in ''Redemption Island'' (and on ''Series/AustralianSurvivor''), Ciera Eastin in ''Game Changers'', and Aubry Bracco in ''Edge of Extinction''[[/labelnote]] or worse [[note]]Jeff Varner in ''Game Changers''[[/note]]. Additionally, very few third-timers have made it past the final 7, let alone come anywhere near winning, making third-time castings feel pointless to some. Among the few to escape this stigma are Malcolm Freberg, Jonathan Penner, and Jerri Manthey, with Jerri making the final four on her third try.
376*** Casting anyone to play for a fourth time can be this even moreso, as some people believe that coming back for a third time should be the limit. It doesn't help that fourth-timers have an odd tendency to be a CreatorsPet of sorts, with Rob Mariano on ''Redemption Island'' being the most cited case. Again, there are exceptions: Cirie Fields is well-liked after her impressive fourth run in ''Game Changers'', and Tyson Apostol made a fourth appearance on ''Winners at War'' by virtue of winning his third.
377** Russell Hantz, Malcolm Freberg, Michaela Bradshaw, and Zeke Smith were all seen as worthy of return appearances after their first seasons, but having them return immediately after their first game drew criticism. Unlike in ''All-Stars'' and ''Micronesia'', the production schedule for ''Heroes vs. Villains'', ''Caramoan'', and ''Game Changers'' involved filming two seasons back-to-back, which meant that their fellow castaways had no idea who they were.
378** Having Ozzy and Coach being cast as the two returning characters on ''South Pacific'' has gotten some flak because of how they have very little in common, and they'd never played on the same season together, unlike Rob and Russell on ''Redemption Island'' who had both played on ''Heroes vs. Villains''. (To production's credit, this was apparently not their intended plan, and the two not having a pre-existing rivalry could have worked as a benefit had the season gone differently.)
379** Not including Richard Hatch and Tina Wesson in ''Winners At War'' despite them being the original two winners as well as having their seasons be the most watched seasons throughout history. In Richard's case, he was apparently cut in the wake of the ''Island of the Idols'' Dan Spilo controversy, as he'd been involved in a similar incident in ''All-Stars'' with Sue Hawk. As for Tina, her age may have been a concern; at 59 as of filming, she'd be by far the oldest person on the cast.
380* RetroactiveRecognition: Rafe Judkins (Guatemala) went on to establish himself as a television writer for ''Series/{{Chuck}}'' and ''Series/AgentsOfShield''. Ditto John Cochran (South Pacific, Caramoan) for ''Series/TheMillers''. Chase Rice (Nicaragua) was already a NASCAR crew member but went on to have a career as a country singer post-Survivor. Jonathan Penner (Cook Islands, Micronesia, Philippines) appeared in bit parts in an episode of ''Series/{{Seinfeld}}'' and an episode of ''Series/ArrestedDevelopment'' '''before''' his stint on Survivor, and later went on to write and act for the 2017 Horror film ''Film/TheByeByeMan''.
381* RewatchBonus: There's actually ''quite a lot'' - the "Funny 115" site actually points out how easy it is to miss these, but if you re-watch a season, you can spot a lot of {{foreshadowing}}.
382* RonTheDeathEater: As with DracoInLeatherPants, this can happen to contestants, whether by the show's editing or fans opinions. You could even say ''Heroes Vs. Villains'' is based somewhat around this premise, with them casting some of the more aggressive and ruthless players as evil Villains despite some being DesignatedVillain, or even outright simlar to the Heroes.
383* RootingForTheEmpire: Maybe you don't accept CBS' choices for DesignatedHero and DesignatedVillain, or maybe GoodIsDumb and [[ArsonMurderAndAdmiration the "villains" are more likable or their strategy appears better]].
384[[/folder]]
385
386[[folder:S]]
387* SalvagedGameplayMechanic:
388** Redemption Island was a much-hated ScrappyMechanic that many fans disliked. In ''Blood vs. Water'', they changed the dynamics of the twist that ended up causing more drama in which while many people still hate Redemption Island, a lot of people outright stated that it actually worked well in ''Blood vs. Water''.
389** The Legacy Advantage was believed to be a wasted twist given how in the previous two seasons it was used, nobody aside from the holder did not know that it exists at the start of the game. When it returns to Ghost Island, the person who found the legacy advantage must give it to somebody else making at least one person aside from the holder knew of it's existence.
390** One of the many issues with ''Edge of Extinction'' was that the advantages found on the island to be given to players still in the game were basically handouts and had no benefit to the players on Edge of Extinction. In ''Winners At War'', they can now sell them for fire tokens to the players which poses a risk to the player receiving the advantage and a benefit to the player who found the advantage on Edge of Extinction.
391** One of the largest complaints that the seasons in the late 20s and 30s was the overabundance of easily found idols, which meant that players could easily spam idols as long as they had already found one or knew that it would go back in play. Beginning with ''41'', idols were not only much less common, but also now carried a risk in that all three idols had to be found before they could be played and only went back in play during the pre-merge stage of the game. Later idols would also carry risks or force the players to think outside the box in order to claim them.
392* SalvagedStory:
393** Before the 40s, the show began to catch flak for having villains who were legitimately bad people rather than just someone playing the Heel for the show or playing aggressively, with Dan Spilo being the most infamous example and the point where everyone agreed it could no longer be ignored. Starting with ''41'', seasons have stopped casting HateSink types of people in favor of people who just have good villain storylines in the game, such as Deshawn, Ricard, Shan, Tori, Omar and especially Cody.
394** A large problem people had with the early 40s was that the show seemed to be casting too many people in the same, white collar lines of work, with ''45'' alone having several grad or law students and three lawyers, even though half the fun of the early seasons was watching people from completely different walks of life be forced to survive and work together. ''46'' had no repeat jobs amongst the cast as well as a much bigger job diversity, including several rather unique ones such as a musician (Ben), a parent coach (Maria), an actor (Tevin) and an artist (Tiffany).
395* SacredCow:
396** Rudy Boesch, for being a Navy Seal, a uniquely funny character, and being able to move on from and put aside his FairForItsDay homophobia in ''Borneo''.
397** Cirie Fields, for being one of the greatest players to have never won and being the poster child for the idea that anyone can play ''Survivor''.
398** Among seasons, ''Pearl Islands'', ''China'', ''Micronesia'', ''Heroes vs. Villains'', ''Cagayan'', and ''David vs. Goliath'' are constantly regarded as some of the best seasons on this show, and you'll hardly find anybody complaining about those seasons.
399* ScrappyMechanic
400** The Hidden Immunity Idols. In their earlier seasons, they weren't easy to find, thus making it a true treasure hunt. Ever since ''Samoa'', the idols are now hidden in the near vicinity of the camp, in very easy to find places. This has lead to players finding them easily (at least those savvy enough to look for them) and being able to use several of them throughout the season, with Russell Hantz being the most well known example at how he'd find and use so many of them. Fans have grown tired of this ease to find the idols, as they feel it can interfere with the strategic portions of the game if the players are more focused on running around the island to find the idols than on anything else. This is not helped by rumors that the camera crew outright points out the idol locations to certain players, an allegation supported by several players themselves.
401** Having returning players tends to give them an unfair advantage in both experience and the fact that the new players are a little starstruck and also leads to them hogging all the screen time. In ''Redemption Island'' and ''South Pacific'' Rob's tribe wound up following him like a cult and Ozzy's and Coach's tribes weren't much better . Though to be fair, Russell was put at an equally large ''dis''advantage; his tribe throwing a challenge to get him out. Still, being a returning player does give you an advantage over new players, as long as you have the ability to learn from past mistakes.
402** For some of the fans, the change to Final Three seems like this. Probst said that it is used to help future fan favorites to win. However, contestants simply mostly voted off the one who most likely to win at the Final 4 anyway. Also, Final Three reduces the level of backstabbing compared to older seasons. Furthermore, the season that started this new feature (''Cook Islands'') given viewers and contestants no prior warning. Also, in most Final Threes, It is an effective Final Two due to one finalist being a goat (being hated, viewed as a terrible goat or both.)
403*** After ''Winners at War'', people realized there was another issue. Though the ultimate outcome was likely to happen anyways (and was a well-received outcome nonetheless), many people that were planning to vote for the eventual third-placer piled their votes onto the eventual winner out of fear of the player that they did not want to see winning, taking the win. As such, the third placer wound up with no votes, despite this not being representative of the jury's feelings.
404** ''Fiji'''s "haves and have nots" twist, in which one tribe would have all of its necessities taken care of on top of some luxuries, while the other tribe would have to make-do without them. The producers were obviously hoping to get a fun underdog story out of that setup, but in practice the well-rested and well-fed haves just utterly demolished the have-nots in every immunity challenge, leading to a stale pre-merge that had to resort to tribe swapping to keep things interesting. This gimmcik was understandably never seen again.
405** Redemption Island, from the season of the same name, has several problems associated with it: It cheapened the Tribal Council vote by allowing another path to winning, with the possibility to eliminate the entire "vote people out and then convince them to give you a million dollars" concept that is at the core of the show's drama. It made players play more conservatively instead of shaking things up; as there's less of an incentive to pursue a controversial vote if the victim could come back. Reward challenges were replaced by RI eliminations, cutting off a source of creating drama for the tribe and giving it to those already halfway gone. Finally, it ultimately meant nothing since there was little effect on the boot order: Matt, Andrea, Ozzy (both times) and Tina were voted out quickly when they came back. However, in ''Blood vs Water'', the twist was a major source of familial drama and emotion, causing some people to call it RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap or even VindicatedByHistory
406** Zigzagged with the tribal swaps. Many fans feel that a tribal swap can screwed over a contestant making them go home because of the lack of the numbers on their side with the swaps in ''China'', and ''Ghost Island'' being the worst examples. On the other hand, many fans feel like it heavily decreases the chance of a pagonging thus it can be enjoyable.
407** The "Tyler Perry" Idol in ''Cagayan''. Basically it ensures a free spot to the Final Four. Granted, [[OlderThanTheyThink Terry and Yul had it first.]]
408** ''Game Changers'' had a lot of these:
409*** Some fans felt this way for the new tie vote rules of there being no revote and the castaways will automatically go to a discussion on who to vote out as they felt that the twist was too favored for huge idol finders. Come to the actual season, there was absolutely zero ties due to the fear of a lot of castaways having to go to rocks causing fans to believe that certain strategic elements were removed from the game such as attempting to split the votes and the possible risks that could come with it such as one person flipping. Quite tellingly, those rules have been dropped the following seasons after ''Game Changers''.
410*** The two tribes going to Tribal Council to vote one person without both of tribes being able to communicate to one and another. A lot of people were upset that Malcolm manages to be completely screwed over by that twist.
411*** Debbie receiving an advantage after missing a tribal, feasting and relaxing, and getting strategy advice from a totally exterior source (in which that source has been accused of being a CreatorsPet before). What makes this ScrappyMechanic is that Debbie received this advantage ''via complete luck''.
412*** Generally speaking, the massive amount of advantages and idols in that season made it very hard for the viewers to keep track at home. This comes full circle where at the final six, the amount of idols along with legacy advantage caused fan favorite Cirie to be voted out just solely by default as everybody else was immune.
413** The final four fire-making twist introduced in ''Heroes vs. Healers vs. Hustlers'' where the final immunity winner gets to pick one person to come with them in the end, and the other two get to make fire. After Ben has won, there has been many accusations of ''Survivor'' rigging the game for Ben to win, Devon getting screwed over, and Chrissy being robbed. Not only that, but the twist also has been criticized for removing the significance of winning the final immunity challenge as well as any of the social strategy.
414** Much like Redemption Island, the Edge of Extinction twist cheapens the outcome of tribal council given how nobody is voted out for good. It lends a hand in the controversial win of Chris Underwood as noted under SeasonalRot below and in Winners At War, while Natalie Anderson didn't win due to it, she is able to collect a lot of advantages and social connections to make her runner up despite being initially the first eliminated.
415** Island of the Idols itself isn't seen as one, as it was seen as a fun way for the newbies to learn lessons about the game, and, later in the game, take time away from the drama at camp. However, ''no one'' liked the way Jamal's challenge was implemented. Basically, he got screwed over in order to be taught a pointless lesson and was eliminated that very episode.
416** The merge twist in Seasons 41 and 42. At the final twelve, the remaining castaways shall be spilt into two teams and the two teams must be compete in an "immunity" challenge. The team that won ends up send somebody to Exile Island. While all this can be a bit odd, the ''real'' ScrappyMechanic from this twist is that Erika (a.k.a. the person that went to Exile Island) has the option to reverse the immunity win in exchange for their safety in the game. Basically, almost anybody within Erika's shoes would reverse the immunity win, and everybody that rightfully won the challenge to be immune would basically get screwed over instead. Not to mention that Probst ends up straight-up lying to the contestants while in previous seasons, he was very careful with his wording when a twist comes up.[[note]]For comparison, during the fake merge in ''Thailand'', Probst was extremely careful not to mention anything about a merge.[[/note]] Fans [[AuthorsSavingThrow appreciated that Probst announced it was removed]].
417** The gimmick of Jeff taking a losing tribe's flint away and forcing them to win a challenge to get it back has been railed against by many fans for putting one tribe at such an obvious disadvantage that has resulting in repeated Matsinging (one tribe losing all or almost all the challenges in a three tribe season) against one tribe. The lack of tribe swaps for the first couple seasons of the 40s only made things worse as it resulted in heavy focuses on tribal loyalty with almost no players willing to try shaking up the game by backstabbing their old tribe simply because they had only had bonds with their old one.
418* SeasonalRot:
419** ''Thailand'' was seen as a huge miss, thanks to an extremely unlikable winner whose victory could have been seen coming a mile away, boring and unimaginative challenges (with one notable exception[[note]]the infamous "attack zone" challenge[[/note]]), and generally not having as many high points as other seasons. Grindgate is also seen as intensely uncomfortable to watch, especially after the Dan Spilo incident in ''Island of the Idols''.
420** ''All-Stars'': The bigger threats (read: former winners and strategists who did well on their original seasons) were voted out pre-merge. And due to contestants having developed friendships outside the show, the castaways ended up taking the game personally, leading to a Final Tribal Council that mostly consist of [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech Reason Why You Suck Speeches]]. Not helped by the fact that the eventual winner was one of the more irrelevant contestants of their original season who had mostly gotten votes because of the jury hating the other finalist, who showed themselves to be a dominant player (if divisive with the fanbase).
421** ''Fiji'' also was hit with this and TheyChangedItNowItSucks; because only one person on the show actually applied. Another reason for this was the general JerkAss-ness of the cast combined with a dull predictable pre-merge game thanks to a "have and have nots" twist resulting in the "have not" tribe losing every single tribal Immunity Challenge with only tribe swaps making things interesting. The producers also admitted after the season that it was a failed experiment.
422** ''Redemption Island'' with the [[RatingsStunt unnecessary return]] of infamous [[SpotlightStealingSquad spotlight stealers]] Boston Rob and Russell. While Russell was voted off third, it became clear that only one of the tribes had the power to dominate the season, and once they [[FanNickname Pagonged]] their opposition, it was clear that Boston Rob had zero chance of losing. Add in the amount of [[CreatorsPet shilling]] worked into every single episode, as well as a Finale that can be best summed up as "isn't Rob awesome?", and you end up with an almost universally despised season.
423** ''One World''. Despite the winner, Kim, being popular & really skilled, it also introduced Colton Cumbie, one of the most disliked characters in the show's history who dominated the screentime with offensive tendencies until his elimination. After his evacuation, the season became dreadfully boring because of the ineptitude of most of the remaining castaways making Kim's victory too obvious. It doesn't help that future returnees from the season were the aforementioned Colton along with [[DumbBlonde Kat]] and [[WeHardlyKnewYe Monica]], both women coming off as being picked for ''Blood vs. Water'' merely because of their loved ones. Kim did at least return for ''Winners at War'', but this was years later.
424** ''Caramoan'' has [[QuestionableCasting questionable choices for favorites]] (including a first boot, an annoying SpotlightStealingSquad, and a [[MoodSwinger Mood Swinging]] TagAlongKid), and poor editing that mainly shows off {{Jerkass}}es like Brandon and Shamar while ignoring everyone else. Brandon's violent breakdown broke the fanbase and everything was in favor of the favorites. The post-merge stepped up but near the end, the 'loved ones challenge' became a DiabolusExMachina that eliminated a (though quite invisible) fan favorite, and the winner being too obvious and divisive. The cherry on top of all this was the fact that the pre-jury boots were not allowed on stage in the reunion show in order to cover up the absence of Brandon, and Jeff consistently claiming that it was a great season despite [[HypeBacklash not many people seeing it from his perspective thanks to said editing]].
425** ''Worlds Apart'' suffers from a poor boot order that eliminated the more engaging contestants early on, leaving boring and unlikable contestants behind. Also, the season lacked strategy to the point where the boot order was obvious, and the winner could be seen coming from a mile away. The editing also showed off people's Jerkass moments to an even further extent than ''Fiji''. Plus, the season was a major victim of HypeBacklash with Jeff Probst claiming that it was the best season ever while the majority of the fans didn't see it that way.
426** ''Game Changers'' has been accused of this. To start things off, there is even more {{questionable casting}} choices than in ''Caramoan''. There is also a bunch of [[ScrappyMechanic hated twists]], Jeff Varner's infamous comments towards Zeke in the former's boot episode, an incohesive storyline, and a generally disliked boot order with fan favorites like Sandra, Malcolm, Ciera, and Tony all going out in the pre-merge leaving most of the post-merge castaways as [[BaseBreakingCharacter Base-Breaking Characters]]—if not complete {{Scrappy}} characters—or OutOfFocus. Plus, the winner of that season managed to become one of the least popular winners in the show's history with [[CaptainObviousReveal her win being extremely obvious]], which fans didn't appreciate especially as the preceding season tried their best to avert the CaptainObviousReveal, making fans less forgiving of that trope.
427** ''Edge of Extinction'' has the main theme of the season being a ScrappyMechanic, a lopsided editing that has the last few episodes focus on a polarizing SpotlightStealingSquad, and a very controversial winner with Chris coming back to the game with him winning the whole season by spending most of the game with the jurors (in which a lot of them were bitter at the other two finalists) after they were voted out thanks to the aforementioned ScrappyMechanic which kinda makes 28 days of actual gameplay appear to not really be of any importance in the end.
428%%Reminder that there is an one-year waiting period after a season has ended for somebody to add an entry to it. In other words, don't add an entry for seasons that are either still on-going or ended less than a year ago.
429* SequelDifficultyDrop: Fresh water is usually supplied to make it easier, this [[AntiFrustrationFeatures is partly because some places they film in have little to no freshwater]], and because [[{{Squick}} some earlier seasons had contaminated water that made people sick]]. Despite this, however, a few seasons were significantly easier.
430** ''Cook Islands'' featured a surprisingly stable environment that did not feature too many rainstorms, not including the GameBreaker Hidden Immunity Idol twist. The amount of food rewards on top of the islands already having plentiful food ''also'' helped significantly.
431** ''Gabon'' had prebuilt shelters (that were fairly decent) due to not having a lot of resources, the weather was consistently between 21-28 / 70-80 degrees, and had fewer rainstorms. There were also plenty of pears that the contestants could eat offscreen (Especially Bob, who didn't lose any weight.)
432** ''San Juan del Sur'' was hot and humid, but that was it - hot and humid. Compared to ''Nicaragua'', it wasn't really raining.
433** ''Blood vs. Water'' was considered to have been one of the easiest seasons in terms of the Survival aspect. It rained for only a little bit on the first day, but after that it was very clear. This was lampshaded in the reunion in that the players said it was Survivor easy mode.
434* SequelDifficultySpike:
435** Most of the contestants in ''Africa'' had to be on the watch out for lions and other predators, became ''very'' sick due to the parasites and the heat, and faced brutal desert-like conditions.
436** Jeff Probst said Marquesas will never be a location due to the insects that constantly pestered the contestants and the film crew.
437** ''Guatemala''' began with a massive hike in triple-digit weather (plus humidity) and continued to be blazing hot.
438** Half the contestants in ''Fiji'' were constantly unable to sleep due to the "Haves and Have Nots" twist providing them with a terrible shelter.
439** ''Nicaragua'' was constantly raining and when it wasn't, it was blazing hot (like Guatemala).
440** ''Samoa'' had a constant rainstorm for the first half of the season.
441** ''Millennials vs. Gen X'' took the weather difficulty up to eleven ''on the first two days.'' The season had the bad luck to be starting right when Severe Tropical Cyclone Zena hit Fiji. It got so bad that, for the first time in Survivor history, ''all the castaways had to be evacuated.''
442** Not to be outdone, ''David vs. Goliath'' had ''two'' cyclones strike during production.
443*** Like Zena above, Cyclone Josie struck at the start of filming. While "weak" enough to allow production to continue the turbulent waters produced during the boat ride were still severe enough to force the medical evacuation of Pat Cusack due to a back injury. This caused the first Tribal Council to be cancelled and both teams given [[ThrowTheDogABone firemaking kits and tarp]] for their troubles.
444*** The much stronger Cyclone Keni struck on Day 12. The castaways forced to evacuate for two days to the production camp with only access to the bare necessities available. The camps were flattened by the cyclone.
445** Invoked with seasons 41 and 42--while both were reduced from 39 days to 26, this will cause the game to be played ''much'' more fast-paced than ever before - giving contestants ''very'' little time to strategise and put together plans.
446* ShockingMoments: The ending of ''Ghost Island'' has this big time! After the jury casts their votes, Jeff Probst comes out to read the votes (aka something that only has happened once in ''Borneo'' thanks to EarlyInstallmentWeirdness). As it turns out, the results of that tribal council happened to be a tie, making it the first ever tie at the final tribal council in Survivor history. This even extends InUniverse as the jury is hugely surprised by that outcome.
447* SignatureScene: Michael Skupin's medical evacuation after passing out in the fire in the ''The Australian Outback'', Jonny Fairplay's Dead Grandma lie in ''Pearl Islands'', Erik Reichenbach giving up the immunity necklace in ''Micronesia'', and ''especially'' Sue's Snakes and Rats speech in ''Borneo'' are seen as some of the most iconic scenes in the show.
448* StarTrekMovieCurse: The quality of Survivor seasons tend to vary. The first sixteen seasons (with the exception of ''Thailand'', ''All-Stars'', and ''Fiji'') are well-liked by a lot of fans (though ''Australia'', ''Africa'', and ''Cook Islands'' can be more on the [[BrokenBase divisive side of things]]). The ten seasons that came after Season 16 (with the exception of ''Tocantins'', ''Heroes vs. Villains'', and ''Philippines'') either have a [[BrokenBase mixed reception to them]] or be an outright SeasonalRot. Fortunately, the seven seasons after Season 26 (with the exception of ''Worlds Apart'') are generally seen as well-liked seasons...only for seasons 34-39 (with the exception of ''David vs. Goliath'') to go through a massive AudienceAlienatingEra.
449* StopHavingFunGuys: Many of the contestants on ''Survivor'' take the show far too seriously, often veering into SeriousBusiness.
450** James gave vibes of this in ''Heroes vs. Villains''. He was a lot more aggressive in his gameplay, and all he earned from that was a potential boot before the jury (at least that's what would've happened if his injury didn't keep him from playing).
451** Sometimes even the superfans can be hit with this, feeling that the clever scheming and blindsides are better.
452** This is how the Pagong tribe felt about the Tagi tribe, specifically the alliance of Rich, Rudy, Sue and Kelly, in ''Borneo''. Pagong was more interested in having fun playing the game while Tagi was focused on the competitive aspect. Of course, this being ''Survivor''. Tagi steamrolled over Pagong after the merge and the last remaining Pagong member repeatedly emphasized how miserable the game had become. In other words, the "Stop Having Fun" Guys were able to successfully stop the other players from having fun.
453* StrawmanHasAPoint: There are a couple nice moves performed by players who may even be idiots at worst, there are several parts where even their haters admit that was actually a good move. Examples include:
454** Russell deducing Immunity Idol locations with only one (or no) clues in ''Samoa'', and organizing the elimination of Boston Rob in ''Heroes vs Villains''.
455** Fairplay getting into the final three with two weaker players from ''Pearl Islands''.
456** When [=NaOnka=] gets involved in a blindside in ''Nicaragua'', she pulls aside her SitcomArchNemesis, Fabio, and gets ''him'' on board with it for a numbers advantage. In fact, when she even tells Fabio what she's involved in, he agrees that it was a good idea.
457** Abi-Maria acts like she's just taking the money and leaving from the ''Cambodia'' auction... however when an advantage is offered, she immediately offers up ''all her money'' to get the advantage and try to break their alliance.
458** Jeff's new policy in 2014 that contestants shouldn't use social media to talk about ''Survivor'', given how hungry maniacs that can present good theories by watching the tweets from the contestants.
459** Jason and Scot being mean to Alecia in ''Kaoh Rong'' may have crossed the line, however it is worth remembering that Alecia was constantly arguing with them (after the Episode 4 immunity challenge where she argued with Jason and Scot), so their bullying may not have been completely out of line.
460** The specific reason Jerri Manthey was booed off-stage during the ''All-Stars'' reunion? She was complaining about how everyone involved had suffered bad feelings and broken friendships just for the audience's entertainment. Yes, she was booed for a very common criticism of how Reality TV exploits its participants, that she experienced first-hand, and after coming off a particularly dark season where things got uncomfortably personal for even many viewers.
461** In one episode of ''41'', Shan is treated as unreasonable and rude after getting pissed at Ricard for eating some papaya that Naseer got for the people who didn't win the grilled cheese reward. However, Ricard won said reward and he had previously won the merge feast, while those that didn't get either (one of which was Shan) were completely starving. As such, it's not hard to see Shan's point that he should leave it for people who hadn't had much to eat.
462** Rocksroy was called a misogynist for trying to make an all-male alliance, however, he's 100% right that despite what was claimed in 39, all-female alliances (like in Micronesia and One World) have been more successful and all-male ones never follow through.
463* SuperCouple: "Boston Rob" and Amber; from ''Marquesas'' and ''Australian Outback'' respectively but they courted while playing ''All-Stars''. The fame from this parlayed into ''two'' stints on ''Series/TheAmazingRace'' (one regular, one in ''their'' All-Star season) and their own reality show. Their utter domination of ''All-Stars'' resulted in future castaways becoming extremely leery of similar hook-ups in later seasons. If it even appears that a young male and a young female are starting to bond, one of the two will almost certainly get voted out at the next opportunity.
464* SurpriseDifficulty:
465** A lot of people who really know the game from watching it for years often wind up running into this when they actually play. Mario Lanza and others have pointed out that playing the game is much different than actually watching it on TV. When you watch it on TV, for one hour a week, you see the confessionals, the tribal councils, etc, and are often nice and clean, well-rested, and well-fed while watching it. When you're actually out on the battlefield, you do ''not'' see the Tribal Councils, the confessionals, or the moves made by the other side, and are always hungry and sleep-deprived. If you think about it, some plans that involved guessing at what people on the other tribe were thinking may have seen stupid to ''the viewers'' because ''we'' [[https://www.youtube.com/all_comments?v=8dcEdJ3jAik knew what happened on the other side]], (while ''they'' didn't).
466** It was discussed at the end of ''Micronesia'', also stating why fans vs favorite seasons don't always work out in favor of the fans. The fans have only known it from online-role-playing games, watching the show, discussing it, etc. The favourites meanwhile know what it's like to actually be ''in'' the game when you're hungry and sleep-deprived, and aren't within reach of a nice dinner or a comfortable bed whenever you are hungry or tired. That and the fans were a little too star-struck and were more likely to fall into traps and be easily-manipulated... or start knocking potential allies out trying to impress and find their way into nearly-unbreakable alliances.
467[[/folder]]
468
469[[folder:T-W]]
470* TaintedByThePreview:
471** ''South Pacific'' was hit hard by this. After coming out what is considered to be a very poorly received season, many fans were upset that Jeff Probst tries to recreate that season.
472** ''Blood vs Water'' can also be viewed as this due to Redemption Island returning to the season as well as fans fearing the loved ones twist would be a ScrappyMechanic. However, the season was loved by a lot of people as Redemption Island was RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap, and the Blood vs. Water twist was a twist that made strategy much more interesting.
473** ''Caramoan'' and ''Game Changers'' was also hit hard by this as well thanks to the {{questionable casting}} choices those seasons had. Even more so when the spoilers were leaked for the latter's season when many fans were upset that the more "game-changing" castaways went out pre-merge.
474** People were nervous for ''Millennials vs Gen X'' season because of the age spilt that reminded people of ''Nicaragua'' (in which that season was [[SeasonalRot not well-liked by a lot of people]]). However, much like ''Blood vs. Water'', the season was praised by a bunch of people for the cast, the editing, and the strategy.
475** Some fans felt concerned over the theme of ''David vs. Goliath'' where they felt that production would favor the David tribe simply because of how they are built as "underdogs". Even more so since Lynne Spillman (aka the casting director of Survivor) was fired shortly after the filming of ''Edge of Extinction'' causing fans to be concerned that both ''David vs. Goliath'' and ''Edge of Extinction'' will be bad seasons. However, it should be noted that when ''David vs. Goliath'' got done airing, the season itself was critically acclaimed by a lot of people.
476** Once the twist was leaked for ''Edge of Extinction'', people were very upset believing that season would suck for a lot of reasons. First of all, it was a rehash of the ''Redemption Island'' season (aka the season that many fans considered to be the worst season ever). Not to mention how people became very upset towards the possibility of somebody was voted out Day One could come back to the game by Day 35. Also, people became very concerned over the jury format and the edit of the season. It's quite noteworthy that the promo at the ''David vs. Goliath'' finale mentions very little of how the Edge of Extinction twist would work as they may have feared this reaction once the full details of the twist was out in the public.
477*** Sure enough, the twist was revealed, and it wasn't pretty. It basically meant you could essentially win by "Doing Absolutely Nothing" and use the "getting voted out early" strategy to your advantage, which is ''exactly'' how Chris Underwood became the SoleSurvivor of [=EoE=]. It did have some strong points, so it wasn't a total bust like previous Redemption Island seasons not counting ''Blood Vs Water''. Many people expected Gavin or Lauren to win ''Edge of Extinction'', due to the fact Gavin hadn't received a single vote, and Lauren was very savvy in the game, at least until the finale where she fell for an obviously fake idol made by a CreatorsPet Rick Devens, and ended up getting a humiliation conga. Gavin came up three votes short due to a bitter jury, making a lot of people question "What's the point of surviving 38 days when someone can survive 12 days and have some 26 days on Extinction and come back and win the game?"
478** The reaction to the twist of ''Island of the Idols'' wasn't exactly pretty either. For one, it featured two winners of the game, one of which, though pretty popular, [[Characters/SurvivorPearlIslands won]] ''twice'' [[Characters/SurvivorHeroesVsVillains already]], and the other became something of a CreatorsPet and a MemeticLoser, having lost thrice before winning his fourth season. The flames died down when it was revealed they would be "coaching" the new players, but after one season of returning players being a bust with most of the players in question either voted out early in Aubry's case, a CreatorsPet in Joe's case, and the other two being relatively good game players, but screwed over by a sudden flip, this was not the way to win back the crowd. Not to mention that ''Series/BigBrother'' did a Coaches twist beforehand with the coaches managing to become actual players in the game (in which causes the Coaches to be immune during the first couple of weeks for unfair reasons). Ultimately, the fears of the Coaches taking over the show were unfounded; and with the actions of the players taking a nasty turn, the Coaches ironically ended up being seen as one of the positives compared to the ugliness back at camp. Some people have even (perhaps jokingly) claimed that Rob and Sandra entering the game would actually be an improvement, because it would be better than one of the [[TheScrappy Scrappies]] winning.
479* TakeThatScrappy:
480** When Colton quit ''Blood Vs. Water'', his tribemates, and especially Jeff Probst had him for lunch.
481** In a similar vein to Colton, watching Jeff tear into [=NaOnka=] after she quits ''Nicaragua'' is also satisfying.
482--->'''Jeff''': You wanna go? [[GetOut Go.]]
483** After Dan claims to state his sexism was edited on to the show and was not really him, Jeff Probst provided raw footage at the ''Worlds Apart'' reunion proving that it was not edited on the show.
484** Andrea's voting confessional towards Zeke in the merge episode of ''Game Changers'' could count as one.
485--->'''Andrea''': Terrible game move. You suck at this game. I hope to see you never.
486** Many fans felt disappointed in Laurel's game due to her taking two huge threats to the end of ''Ghost Island'' with her. The jury must have felt the same way given she received zero votes at the end.
487** Though more of a BaseBreakingCharacter than an outright scrappy, Ben in ''Winners at War'' was seen as one of the lower-tier winners to be returning and his performance early on did him no favors. It became very satisfying when Adam went off on him at his last Tribal Council.
488--->'''Adam''': Because you're so ''sensitive'', Ben!
489* TheyChangedItNowItSucks
490** If you watch all of the seasons back to back, there is an unmistakable shift in tone starting with ''All-Stars'', emphasizing strategy and shocking twists over everything else. Whether or not this "sucks" is up to you.
491** The Final Three format gets hit with this a lot. Probst actually says he prefers the final three because people would bring someone to the finals for perverse incentives, whereas others argue that this is part of the game, Others also point out that it's still in between two people in the end, since there were only five seasons that all three members in the final three received at least one vote. It was likely inspired by ''Exile Island''; where people were planning on taking Courtney to the finals simply because everyone ''hated'' her, and arguably when Terry, who had one of the most memorable immunity runs since Colby's, was kicked at the Final 3.
492*** In a similar vein, the forced fire making at the final four introduced in ''Heroes vs Healers vs Hustlers'' was also reviled by many fans. While it's generally believed that it was added to give strong players who would otherwise be voted out at the final four a chance to make it to the finale, many fans argue that all it does is force other players to vote these players out earlier.
493** The iconic Ancient Voices theme that used to play at the end of every episode has been replaced by a rather more generic and bland score.
494** Some fans were not pleased with the new Final Tribal Council format introduced in ''Game Changers'', in part due to fears that Jeff might intentionally ask more questions to jurors that favour the contestants ''he'' wants to win in an attempt to sway undecided jurors.
495** Season 41 introduced two changes that prompted this response:
496*** First, Jeff changed one of his signature [[{{Catchphrase}} catchphrases]] from "Come on in guys!" to simply "Come on in!" in an attempt to be more inclusive. A small yet very vocal portion of the fanbase had an extremely negative reaction to the change, and you can still frequently find comments on the show's social media pages asking for Jeff to go back to his original catchphrase.
497*** The shift from a 39 day format to a 26 day format, originally caused by the UsefulNotes/Covid19Pandemic, has also received its share of criticism by the fans. While the effect on the viewing experience isn't immediately obvious, some fans argue that the shorter time frame leads to weaker bonds being formed between players, and thus less drama when allies or friends are forced to turn on each other.
498* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter: Generally, whenever a contestant is put through a ShockingElimination or whenever legitimately interesting or badass-looking contestants are early-mid game boots. Especially early-mid game because we barely get to know them. See also ICouldaBeenAContender. A couple big examples include:
499** Andrew Savage in ''Pearl Islands''. Inverted with Burton and Lil, who many feel became more interesting after returning as an outcast.
500** Dolly and John P. in ''Vanuatu''.
501** Steve "Chicken" Morris and Dave in ''China''.
502** Jacquie in ''Gabon''. At the time, it looked like there was a near-unbreakable alliance with Charlie, Marcus, and Corinne. However; she wound up [[DiabolusExMachina screwed by the tribe swap]].
503** Kelly B, Yve, Tyrone, and Jill from ''Nicaragua''. It's pretty obvious that all four are physically capable (Jill even wins the first individual immunity of the game); but they wind up evicted in a ''very'' awkward part of the game: Right before the merge. Probst doesn't even acknowledge them that much (Kelly excluded); and there have even been speculations that Jill didn't even ''attend'' the reunion.
504** Kristina Kell and a lot of the Zapatera on ''Redemption Island''. Other than Rob and Phillip, most of the Ometepe players were just made into dull {{Living Prop}}s, whereas on the Zapatera side, we have some legitimately interesting people and a couple players who the host says is badass, as well as one of the most cunning players in the series.
505** Sugar, Randy, Tom, and Stephenie in ''Heroes vs. Villains''.
506** Richard, Rudy, Tina, Jenna, Jerri, and Sue in ''All-Stars''.
507** Jonathan Penner in ''Fans vs. Favorites''. In ''Cook Islands'', he was a bit of an annoyance. But in ''Fans vs. Favorites'', he starts to [[RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap play his own game more, do better in challenges and has a better social game]], even though Jeff's dislike of him is still pretty obvious. He is however evacuated from the game early. And then we get to the ''Philippines'' season.
508** Russell Swan had what was one of the most memorable heartwarming moments in the series in ''Samoa''. Sadly he doesn't even make it mid-way. And again, there's ''Philippines'' which is a whole other story.
509** Wanda and Jonathan of ''Palau'' were evicted in episode one. We really didn't get to know them other than Wanda singing.
510** Bobby Mason from the ''Panama'' season, if you believe his theory that certain contestants who are voted out early are either ignored or edited negatively in order not to upset viewers who would otherwise be outraged at a "good" contestant leaving early.
511** Rick from ''South Pacific'', oh so much. Before appearing on the show, he had applied ''14 times'', and his confessionals posted online showed what an interesting character he was. However, he got almost no screen time, and was completely ignored during the reunion show despite placing 5th.
512** Kourtney in ''One World'' was shown early on as being the [[OnlySaneMan Only Sane Woman]] of the Salani tribe, only to be medevaced on ''day three''.
513** A lot of the Gota tribe on ''Caramoan'' had some serious potential, such as Matt the [=BMXer=], Julia (who is not nearly as vanilla in real life), Allie (an actual superfan), and Laura, who gained a massive fanbase. However, none of them make the merge and the pre-merge is sucked up by {{Jerkass}} Shamar.
514** Among the snubbed returnees for ''Cambodia'', [[CoolOldLady T-Bird]] from ''Africa'' and [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} Shane]] from ''Panama''.
515** Kelly Wiglesworth in ''Cambodia''. Despite being arguably the most iconic player in the cast (the runner up from the inaugural season), she was invisible for most of the season, barely factoring into strategy discussions, and having almost no confessionals. By the time her boot episode rolls around, she is played up as this huge social threat that has to go, despite not showing why she was such a huge threat.
516** Caleb Reynolds in ''Kaoh Rong''. He seemed to have turned a new leaf since his stint on Big Brother 16 where he was infamous for a one-sided crush on fellow contestant Amber. In this he is a genuinely nice guy now forming fast friendships with everyone on his tribe with the exception of Nick. Having a fiancée obviously mellowed him out along with the character development he got in [=BB16=]. Before we get to see this new significantly kinder and more mature Caleb, he is pulled from the game in one of the most heartbreaking medical evacuations ever.
517** Mari from ''Survivor: Millennials vs Gen X'' can be seen as this as she was shown to be being very strategic for the two episodes she was shown. Plus, since she is a professional gamer, she will probably be very competitive out there.
518** A lot of fans wanted David or Jay to return as a male castaway from ''Millennials vs Gen X'' on ''Game Changers'' as many fans agree that the former ended up playing the best game in that season and the latter would have an interesting relationship with Michaela given how upset she was when he blindsided her. Instead, we got Zeke, who ended up having less warm reception than those two.
519** Everybody in ''Ghost Island'' who is not Domenick, Wendell, Laurel, Donathan, Kellyn, or Michael can be considered this. Many of the pre-merge contestants such as Brendan, Stephanie, and James could have been excellent strategists down the road while people like Jacob or Bradley could be very interesting characters (though the latter could be more on the LoveToHate category). As for the contestants who actually made it to the merge, many of them were OutOfFocus despite being shown to be interesting characters in their Ponderosa videos. In fact, many contestants on that season stated in post-game interviews that they believe that Sebastion would win this game which can come across as an InformedAttribute thanks to his OutOfFocus edit. Even Chris who has plenty of screen time for being the merge boot can be considered this for reasons listed below.
520* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot:
521** ''One World'' was obviously set up to get the two tribes mingling and think of themselves more as one group than two. Unfortunately, an act of sabotage by the men right at the beginning, before they knew they'd be sharing a camp, and because the tribes themselves were divided by genders, still cemented the usual "us vs. them" mentality. (Whose fault it was really doesn't matter today.)
522** ''Redemption Island'' is often seen as this simply because it turned out to mostly be a chance to focus both seasons' footage almost ''exclusively'' on the CreatorsPet that returned.
523** ''Cook Islands'' and ''Panama'', which started with a ''four'' tribe game, only to be bumped down to two within the first couple episodes.
524** Throughout the show, a lot of alliances were formed only to be abandoned mid-season. The worst examples of this trope includes the likes of the Exile Island Alliance in ''Tocantins'', and the Strike Force Alliance in ''David vs. Goliath''. The former alliance had the alliance being built up through-out pre-merge only for Brendan to not tell any plans to the Exile Island alliance members once the merge hits; causing Taj and Stephen to turn on the alliance. The latter alliance was formed in the merge episode, and then was abandoned the very next episode when Mike decides that he should vote out Christian.
525** The Recon Twist in ''Millennials Vs. Gen X''. CBS had hyped it up as a game-changing twist, leading to theories that there was either going to be a swap, or that the people chosen were going to make their own third tribe of evenly numbered millennials and gen-x's, which would have led to an interesting dynamic of how this third tribe would co-exist with being two generations with different ideals and beliefs. But instead, all we got was a picnic with four millennials and four gen-x's who didn't do too much but talk.
526** The Legacy Advantage has been accused of this. While many fans can enjoy the concept of it on paper, many fans would have preferred if the legacy advantage was known to the other players in ''Millennials Vs. Gen X'' and ''Game Changers'' making it more for interesting drama. Instead, only the holders of that legacy advantage knew about that twist. However, as noted above in the AuthorsSavingThrow section, ''Ghost Island'' fixes this a little.
527** The other options in the tackle box on the Exile Island ship that Debbie got to choose from when she picked the extra vote. They were a fake idol kit and an advantage for her tribe at her next immunity challenge. By principle, she could only choose one. The fake idol kit was especially interesting because it took away the difficulty of passing off a phony idol in a creative way.
528** As literally as you can get with this trope, the extra vote Lauren obtained in ''Heroes vs. Healers vs. Hustlers'' was wasted on her because she neglected to bring it with her to Tribal Council and told people about it. Not only that, she had a two-piece idol that she split with Mike... who then tossed his half into the fire. Lauren blew ''two'' advantages in one night ''and'' got eliminated by the use of an idol by Ben.
529** Many fans wished that the rivalry between Chris and Domenick in ''Ghost Island'' would have lasted a little longer therefore preventing what many fans believed a boring post-merge afterwards.
530** Parvati gets an idol nullifier in ''Winners At War''...and proceeds to get voted out that very episode she got the nullifier without getting a chance to use it. She wasn't even shown trying to barter with the nullifier in order for her to stay one more night.
531** With Bruce Perrault of ''44'' returning for the next season due to his day one medical elimination, more than a few fans were disappointed that production didn't make ''45'' a full on captains season by also bringing back fellow episode 1/day 1 medical eliminations like Pat Cusack and Kourtney Moon.
532* TooBleakStoppedCaring: Some of the worst seasons are the ones with so much drama between unlikable people that nobody cares who wins. These are some of the most infamous examples.
533** ''Thailand'' is generally considered the first season to suffer from this. Many of the contestants were considered incredibly unlikable, with the winner being no exception. Not only that, but the contestants can engage in acts of inexcusable cruelty towards each other (for instance, Robb choking Clay in a challenge or the racist harassment Shii-Ann receives for eating chicken heart). It doesn’t help that one player runs rings around everyone for most of the game, resulting in a sense of pointlessness.
534** ''All-Stars'' was viewed as a massive disappointment, particularly from the merge onward. The cast was simply fighting to get as far as possible, as opposed to win, leading to a very blatantly obvious final 2 (and winner for that matter). Everyone is fairly nasty to one another, with the exceptions being voted out before the merge. The winners and better players are voted out on reputation alone, and Rob Mariano backstabs several people in exceedingly cruel ways, before ultimately getting rewarded by it by marrying the winner and coming back 4 more times. Very few people come out with any decent reputation intact (Rudy, Jenna M., Ethan, Shii-Ann, Rob M., Amber). The one and only major saving grace by the end of the season is that the winner is the one reasonably positive, nice person left.
535** ''Redemption Island'' and ''One World'' had many fans believed that a bunch of idiots were just following a clearly alpha leader who was destined to win the game if they made it to the end. Plus, the pre-merge of One World had [[HateSink Colton]] becoming a SpotlightStealingSquad.
536*** Similarly, ''South Pacific'' was disliked at the time because the boot order looked to be too obvious and it seemed that Coach or Ozzy was destined to win in a similar manner as Boston Rob. This was particularly galling with Coach, as some people felt that his behavior was rather deplorable. Fortunately, a fan-favorite new player triumphed in one of the best finales for a winner imaginable, and [[BrokenBase while the season still has it's detractors, a lot of people now like the season]] for its characters, humor, strong winner, and storytelling.
537** Many people view ''World's Apart'' this way (though this is not universal) due to having an extremely unlikable majority alliance, including [[TheScrappy Will Sims]] who yells at [[DarkAndTroubledPast Shirin]] that no one loves her ([[DisproportionateRetribution in response to her accusations that he's being strategic on Survivor]]) and refuses to apologize for it, Rodney who is a whiny lazy jerk, Tyler who most fans find bland yet mean, Dan Foley who [[BaseBreakingCharacter many]] fans find incredibly forced and annoying, Sierra who is OutOfFocus, and Mama C who devolves into a purely-stategy focused character as the game goes on. Mike Holloway is fairly well liked, but this leaves the audience with roughly one character to really care about amongst ''7''.
538** ''Ghost Island'' thanks to the very dull pagonging of the Malolo tribe and how OutOfFocus the Naviti tribe has been leading little fans to care about them.
539** Many people had this reaction after the merge episode of ''Island of the Idols'' where the people who tried to stand up against Dan being inappropriately handsy with women got in the bottom of the tribe where Dan as well as Missy/Elizabeth (who tried using that behavior to manipulate others) and Lauren (who outright stated that she doesn't care since [[ItsAllAboutMe it didn't happen to her]]) got in the majority alliance. Fortunately the next episodes improved things; as Missy, Aaron, and Elizabeth were voted off in quick succession (Missy specifically for being a bully towards Karishma), and Dan was ejected later on when he pushed his luck with a crew member.
540* ToughActToFollow: Some seasons such as:
541** ''Africa'' to ''The Australian Outback'' '''and''' ''Borneo'', as the first seasons were insanely popular and filled with memorable characters. Unfortunately having a predictable boot order didn't help it's case, nor did several sketchy moments[[note]]Tom claiming he'd shoot Clarence if he had a gun, Kim's paints winning the SOS challenge for Boran, the tribe swap screwing over Silas, Lex being declared wrong and losing immunity in the final 4 despite giving a correct answer (screwing him and Tom over), Ethan getting distracted by a vomiting cameraman and losing final immunity because of it.[[/note]]. Thankfully the Finale and subsequent winner were extremely popular, and Ethan in particular is known ''to this day'' as one of the only outright heroes to win[[note]](In elite company with Sandra, Amber, Tom, Yul, Earl, Natalie, Fabio, Mike and Maryanne)[[/note]].
542** ''Thailand'' to ''Marquesas'' thanks to the latter revolutionizing Survivor strategy and outright showing people a new way to play... only to be followed by a season with an irritatingly predictable boot order. Not to mention that the one major complaint of ''Marquesas'' (the hero loses crushingly) was taken to extreme levels in ''Thailand'' as the sociopathic puppy shooter wins.
543** In a bizarre twist, ''All-Stars'' to ''Pearl Islands'', as the latter is known as one of the best seasons of the franchise. ''All-Stars'' was expected to be too, but... wasn't, despite featuring the most popular castaway from that season.
544** ''Guatemala'' is hit with this ''hard''. The previous season introduced one of the biggest heroes of the franchise, and she returns... except with all of her negative qualities showcased to justify her losing 6-1 to a character who's entire strategy was to not give the cameras any indication of her strategy (making her rather bland). On top of that, the cast is a bit gamebot-ey, with only a select few characters being particularly popular.
545** ''Gabon'' to both ''China'' and ''Micronesia'' as the latter two were acclaimed as two of the most well-received seasons ever, while Gabon is widely considered to have one of if not the least strategically capable casts. It is worth noting that people who aren't as into strategy tend to like this season much more (see also Nicaragua).
546** ''Samoa'' to ''Tocantins'' as while the latter is a really well liked season with a boatload of good players/characters making the jury, ''Samoa'' is generally agreed to be a mass of wasted potential. Pretty much every Galu to make the merge is underused (Sans Shambo), and Foa-Foa is unfortunately overly focused on Russell Hantz, with him receiving the most confessionals and screentime of... pretty much every single contestant ever. The winner and 4th place finisher are night-universally agreed to be underdeveloped, while Russell is credited for many many things he did not so much as help cause. Since Russell does not win, this also makes some audiences feel that this season has a bad case of an unsatisfying ending. All in all it's best summed up as a long commercial for Russell Hantz in ''Heroes vs Villains''.
547** ''Nicaragua'' to ''Heroes vs. Villains'', despite having a rather crazy cast ala ''Gabon'', was plagued with horrible strategy, two quitters in the same episode, and an old vs young twist that slanted towards the young-uns winning. That said, some find it a decently comedic season especially amidst the strategic ineptitude. The real issue is that ''[=HvV=]'' is a legitimate contender for best season of the franchise.
548*** Interestingly ''Redemption Island'' has a hard time following both of these, as despite ''Nicaragua'''s flaws, ''Redemption Island'' is often considered one of the worst, and the final 3 is considered one of the worst in the show's history.
549** ''One World'' to ''South Pacific'', at least to casual viewers, thanks to being extremely boring, as opposed to ''South Pacific'' which at least had memorable characters and storylines.
550** "If you enjoyed ''Phillipines'', you're gonna '''love''' ''Caramoan''" sounds like a pretty good endorsement, but many people feel that it fails to live up to the major WinBackTheCrowd that ''Phillipines'' brought to the table. While ''Philippines'' brought fans back with memorable characters, emotion, and some interesting strategy sprinkled in, ''Caramoan'' is actually somewhat despised by a decent chunk of the fanbase for not fleshing out many of its characters, bringing back the mentally unstable Brandon Hantz (which is nigh-universally agreed to be despicable casting), and generally just not being interesting. That the winner of said season has a major BrokenBase does not help.
551** ''San Juan del Sur'' to ''Cagayan'', was shunted off due to the unrootable cast and the boring pre-merge, though it had some bright spots with its stepped up editing, new type of social strategy play (with contestants using rewards as leverage) and an unpredictable post-merge where viewers found it difficult to confidently say who got the win in the bag. ''Cagayan'' however is one of the most popular and chaotic seasons of the franchise with a good chunk of the cast being practically iconic, so it's no surprise that ''San Juan del Sur'' fell a little short.
552** ''Game Changers'' to ''Kaoh Rong'' and ''Millennials vs Gen X'' for a number of reasons. The first and foremost reason is that ''Game Changers'' is just not a well-liked season, nigh-universally agreed to go down the toilet once Sandra is voted out shortly before the merge. While the previous two seasons introduced casts of well-liked characters, ''Game Changers'' falls into TooBleakStoppedCaring as many of the likable characters wind up getting underedited and booted for reasons increasingly beyond their control. The most controversial parts of the former seasons were the winners, but ''Game Changers'' '''wishes''' that the winner was its biggest controversy.
553** ''Edge of Extinction'' to ''David vs. Goliath'', was shunted off due to the editing, a badly planned-out twist, and the controversial winner, particularly as ''David vs Goliath'' was considered one of the best seasons within the 30s.
554* UnexpectedCharacter: Nearly every season with returning players has at least one that nobody saw coming.
555** Amber Brkich was the least known castaway on ''All-Stars'', which makes it ironic that she won that season.
556** Parvati Shallow's return came as a bit of a surprise in ''Micronesia''. While that season and ''Heroes vs. Villains'' have now cemented her as a Survivor legend, she wasn't a particularly popular player in her debut season, ''Cook Islands''.
557** Candice Cody's appearance in ''Heroes vs. Villains'' was a bit of a surprise, especially given her placement on the Heroes tribe, which leaves fans scratching their heads to this day.
558** Very few people expected Francesca Hogi (aka the first boot of her first season) to be on ''Caramoan''.
559** ''Blood vs. Water'''s tribe of returnees was full of surprising picks, such as Gervase Peterson, (who hadn't appeared on the show in ''thirteen years''), Monica Culpepper (a pre-merge boot from a fairly unpopular season), and Laura Morett (who wasn't particularly well remembered, and whose last season was a few years old by this point).
560** Jeff Varner, Kimmi Kappenberg, and Andrew Savage were all shocking to see on the ''Cambodia'' ballot, given that they were all pre-jury eliminations on seasons that were over ten years old.
561*** Contrarily, Kelley Wentworth was from a then-recent season, but had also been a pre-jury boot, and wasn't really that well remembered or popular with fans.
562*** Seeing Mike Holloway and Carolyn Rivera on the ballot was also rather confusing, given that their season was still airing and they hadn't been eliminated yet. Given that the whole point of ''Cambodia'' was that its players hadn't won, fans were confused about how these two could be on the ballot given that we didn't even know if they were eligible to compete yet. It was later clarified that if either Mike or Carolyn won the season, then they would no longer be eligible for ''Cambodia'', and if they had received enough votes to make the cast, then their spot would go to whoever had the next highest number of votes. Mike ultimately did end up winning ''Worlds Apart''.
563** ''Game Changers'' is perhaps the most notorious example of this, with many of the cast members seeming like bizarre, random inclusions that didn't really fit the season's theme. Sierra Dawn Thomas is perhaps the most infamous example, but Hali Ford, Brad Culpepper, Caleb Reynolds, Debbie Wanner, Michaela Bradshaw, Jeff Varner, and Sarah Lacina all elicited varying levels of confusion as well.
564** In a rare example from a non-returnee season, Bi Nguyen being on the David tribe during ''David vs. Goliath'' as you wouldn't expect an MMA fighter to be on the David tribe, but Bi faced a lot of hardship growing up in rural Vietnam, which puts her here.
565** ''Winners at War'' has a couple unique examples:
566*** While Ethan Zohn was a popular winner and thus seems like a logical choice for the cast, he had battled with lymphoma for several years, and thus some fans were pleasantly surprised to see he was healthy enough to play again.
567*** Boston Rob Mariano, Amber Brkich, Parvati Shallow, and Jeremy Collins all seem like no-brainers for the cast, but all four had indicated at some point that they wouldn't play Survivor again, thus their return may have come as a surprise to some of their fans.
568*** Speaking of Boston Rob and Amber, seeing them ''both'' compete on the season was a bit of a surprise, given that Survivor has never casted a husband-wife duo outside of a Blood vs. Water season.
569* UnintentionallySympathetic: Some find bitter jurors to be entirely justified, since ''Survivor'' is just as much a game of social politics as it is a strategic one. Jurors aren't bitter until someone or something makes them that way. [[ItsAllAboutMe Russell Hantz and his supporters disagree.]]
570* UnintentionallyUnsympathetic: We're supposed to feel bad Abi-Maria was made an outcast within her own tribe in Cambodia, yet she was isolated because of the abrasive attitude that made her a goat in "Philippines" so she really brought it on herself
571* UnpopularPopularCharacter
572** Almost everyone from ''Thailand'' and ''All-Stars'' says they can't stand Shii Ann Huang. She is one of the most well known contestants from ''Thailand'', and in ''All-Stars'' is pretty much the only one pretty much all the viewers like.
573** Christy Smith from ''Amazon'' was not well liked by the other contestants due to her BrutalHonesty and overall confrontational personality. She is one of the biggest fan requests to return for another season.
574** Rupert Boneham was evidently not very well liked by his tribemates (sans Christa and Sandra), but is one of the most popular characters of the franchise, particularly in ''Pearl Islands''.
575** Judd Sergeant from ''Guatemala'' was hated by the other contestants (and Jeff Probst) for his {{Jerkass}} behavior, NoIndoorVoice, and being an giant bully. The fans love him for those exact same reasons.
576** Although she is divisive in this regard, many fans find Lisi Linares from ''Fiji'' far too ridiculous and over the top to hate.
577** Jean-Robert Bellande from ''China'' was a complete sleazebag, and pretty much every contestant insulted him at some point. The fans love him.
578** From ''Tocantins'', we have Sierra Reed and Erinn Lobdell. Both were intensely disliked by their tribe, and would have likely been voted out early had it not been for their tribe's winning streak. Sierra gets love on the grounds of being TheWoobie, and Erinn for being a DeadpanSnarker.
579** Abi-Maria Gomes from ''Philippines'' and ''Cambodia'' was despised by just about everyone on both her seasons. The fans however, find her utterly hilarious to watch.
580** From ''Worlds Apart'', almost everyone in the merged tribe despises Shirin Oskooi. For the fans, however, she is one of the most popular characters of the season, with only Jenn and (for a time) Joe rivaling her, and she is well-liked in virtually every circle of ''Survivor'' fandom.
581** Natalie Cole from ''David vs. Goliath'' has rubbed people the wrong way on the island. However, fans believed that she is very good television making her a fan favorite.
582** Noura Salman and Karishma Patel from ''Island of the Idols'' are probably the least popular among their fellow tribe mates. Noura for being unpredictable and obnoxious, and Karishma for being TheLoad and emotionally flip-flopping. However, both women are relatively popular outside the show, Noura for her humorous moments and being very proactive and pro-woman, and Karishma for the exploration of her Indian-American heritage and genuinely sympathetic backstory. And then both of them had their popularity rise after the incident with Dan, where both women showed a willingness to vote him out and didn't approve of his behavior; and Karishma followed up by standing up to Missee bullying her.
583* TheUntwist: Several seasons with allegedly "unexpected winners" can be this to some people.
584** ''Borneo'' compared to viewers at the time, who weren't realizing that Kelley's backstabbing and Richard's work ethic and fishing made him a more likable person.
585** ''The Australian Outback''. Well yeah, the Jury is going to vote for the person presenting themselves as an non-strategic entity over the alpha male after what happened in ''Borneo''.
586** ''Samoa'' has an infamous one. Russell Hantz received a vast majority of the screentime and an edit that made it look like he was the only strategic force on his tribe. Anyone looking at the jurors however, sees a group of people that don't like Russell, and like Natalie. Not to mention Russell being a gigantic {{Jerkass}}.
587** ''Heroes vs Villains''. Sandra is the only one the Heroes even tolerate, and the Heroes make up the majority of the jury. Of course she's going to win, not Russell or Parvati.
588** People examining the edit of Kaoh Rong found that Michele was the most likely winner due to getting extra confessionals close to the finale that really weren't as pertinent as others'.
589* ValuesDissonance: %% Please don't add examples from less than 20 years (38 seasons) ago.
590** The [[EatThat food challenges]] commonly feature items like like Balut, Fafaru, and grubs which are eaten in the parts of the world the show is filmed in and are seen as strange to a North American audience.
591** Rudy's homophobia was played for humor in ''Borneo'' and he was the most popular contestant in the Final Four, but today his complaining about queers would be hugely controversial and turn the audience against him. (Case in point: Varner's actions in ''Game Changers'' were treated as a MoralEventHorizon by all involved; Varner included.) However, it '''very much''' helps that in case of Rudy, he had an OddFriendship going with Richard Hatch, an openly gay man, so for all his complaints, he didn't mean harm and it was all generally softened by his actions and interactions with Rich.
592** For a less offensive example, when ''Borneo'' was being aired for the first time, Pagong were portrayed as the way how to even play the whole thing, with their laid-back attitude and actively getting rid of anyone who wants to treat the show or the competition serious, like B.B. or Joel. Then came the finale of ''Borneo''. And all the seasons that followed. Nowadays they are widely considered TooDumbToLive, while Tagi's ruthless efficiency and social politics became the way how to even stay around for more than two episodes.
593** In the second season, when the contestants killed a wild hog this caused a ''lot'' of controversy over the fact it was shown on TV. While we have had plenty of [[GoryDiscretionShot discretion shots]], hunting is often shown more casually on TV.
594** Big Tom Buchanan in ''Africa'' is a walking example of this, displaying somewhat politically incorrect behavior frequently, and being constantly perverted towards the women on his season.
595---> '''Kim''' (on Tom giving everyone a bath): "I mean, Tommy's harmless, it's not like he's gonna, like, jump our bones there or anything, he's really harmless, and if he gets a peek, you know, more power to him. It doesn't do any good for anybody to take offense at anybody." %%(There were two Kims on this season so which one is speaking needs to be specified)
596*** The beans incident deserves special mention. When Clarence Black (a black person) takes a can of beans to eat with fellow contestant Diane Ogden, he is caught doing so. This is a big deal because supplies were extremely limited in that season. However, the conversation is escalated to the point where Big Tom notes that they would shoot Clarence if they had a gun. A statement that one would shoot someone else over food, let alone a black person, [[UsefulNotes/BlackLivesMatterMovement would not go over well if aired today to say the least]].
597** Boston Rob outing John Carroll in ''Survivor: Marquesas'' wasn't made a big deal back then, despite the fact John hadn't yet outed himself to his friends and family, and it having negative consequences on his life as some of his family didn't accept his sexuality. Had he done it in this day and age, he would have been reviled the same way Varner was for his outing of Zeke.
598** The whole Grindgate situation with Ghandia and Ted in ''Thailand'' bears some downright eerie similarities to the Dan Spillo situation in ''Island of the Idols''... only everyone was on Ted's side at the time. (To be fair, Ted himself did seem genuinely apologetic, and it seemed like an honest if '''horrific''' mistake on his part)
599%%** Some modern viewers take offense at the blatantly perverted [[HarsherInHindsight and handsy]] guys in ''Amazon'' (Springing from the Men vs Women setup), though it is somewhat mitigated by being PlayedForLaughs. It really helps that they all meet downfalls. (This can be re-added on May 11, 2023)
600%%** Jean Robert in ''China'' creepily snuggles up to Amanda Kimmel and Courtney Yates at night despite constantly being told no, the latter of whom '''really''' wants him gone and is treated as the unreasonable villain for this. Todd shuts her down by saying he's one of his numbers, but gets rid of him to "cause some chaos", indicating no one on the tribe particularly expected him to be eliminated. Disconcerting... (This can be re-added on December 16, 2027)
601%%** A video that compiles a decent amount of these moments from as early as "Borneo" to as late as "San Juan del Sur" can be found [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGM1F1sj9dM here]]. (This can be re-added on December 17, 2034)
602* VindicatedByHistory: Plenty of seasons that were once disliked have been revaluated in a better light:
603** ''Marquesas'' was not particularly well received, mostly thanks to the Finale, where (in order), Paschal was taken out by a tiebreaker seen by many (at the time) to be unfair, Vecepia backstabbed fan-favorite underdog Kathy, and proceeded to defeat the sweetheart Neleh in the jury vote despite being rather OutOfFocus. Over time however, people have come to realize its sheer enjoyable unpredictability, innovative strategies, and wonderful characters. It's also seen to be ahead of it's time as far as strategy goes.
604** Jeff stated that the original ''Fiji'' was "Not memorable". Part of this was [[OvershadowedByControversy the infamous Car Deal]] and the cast containing plenty of ''very'' mean-spirited and abrasive people that were ''recruited'' (With the only applicant, Gary, going out in a NonGameplayElimination). People have looked back on it and said it was actually a lot better than Jeff advertised, especially since it contained ''many'' memorable moments such as the downfall of the "Four Horsemen" alliance and everybody falling in slow motion in the torchwalk. This has come to the point where some people actually want ''Fiji'' players to return, since only Yau-Man did.
605** ''Nicaragua'' had the daunting task [[ToughActToFollow of following up on ''Heroes vs. Villains'']], a season many considered then and now to be among ''Survivor's'' finest. At the time, safe to say many found that it did not live up to its predecessor, with a cast many found annoying or invisible. Not helping matters was how the next three seasons are considered divisive at best, thus many see it as the start of Survivor's AudienceAlienatingEra. However, those who look at it on its own have seen it as an entertaining season in of itself, with the players who weren't invisible like Fabio, Marty, Jane, and Holly at least making for great TV and having some great strategic mentalities behind them.
606** ''South Pacific''. At the time, many indicated it as another example of the AudienceAlienatingEra the series was going through at the time, since it directly followed up on the lambasted ''Redemption Island'' and preceded the similarly divisive at best ''One World''. Combined with players who were either camera hogs or OutOfFocus with little in-between and plenty of divisive ones at that, it was not received kindly then. Years later, especially when taken on its own, while not most people's favorite season, it has been appreciated it for its storytelling and humor, and as listed above, many have came around to Sophie as the most deserving choice to win that season.
607** ''San Juan Del Sur'', during its original airing, was not well received, with even Jeff trying to assuage the fans by promising that ''Worlds Apart'' would be better. Thanks to a combination of a popular winner, and three of its alumni having impressive showings in their second stint in ''Cambodia'', caused fans to take another look at the season to find that it comes across much better in retrospect. Its twist was also seen as a breath of fresh air as well - Despite being a recycled twist (People paired with their family members), the fact that this was an all newbie cast was also well received.
608%%** ''Heroes vs. Healers vs. Hustlers'' manages to do this in some level. Many fans complained about [[ScrappyMechanic the infamous final four twist]] that season. However, after ''Ghost Island'' had a dull boot order and how a lot of the Naviti tribe members were OutOfFocus and were accused of playing it safe, people started to look back at some of the more positive things in ''Heroes vs. Healers vs. Hustlers'' such as a more fleshed out cast, people who are more willing to make big moves and take huge risks, and have more exciting story lines.
609* {{Wangst}}: Too many examples to list, but applies to several characters each season.
610* WhatDoYouMeanItsNotSymbolic: In ''The Amazon'', Joanna decided she didn't like the immunity idol because of biblical laws against idolatry.
611* WinBackTheCrowd:
612** ''The Amazon'', which ended a three-season trend of increasingly unpopular seasons with its LighterAndSofter tone, younger and funnier cast and innovative gameplay.
613** ''Philippines'' brought new life to the series after a streak of poor seasons with it's entertaining gameplay, exciting cast, and one of the most popular underdog winners.
614** After ''Caramoan'' was deemed an unworthy followup to ''Phillipines'', ''Cagayan'' managed to break ''Survivor'' out of a particularly irritating AudienceAlienatingEra in spectacular fashion due to its 100% new and engaging cast, drama, and balanced screentime.
615** ''David vs. Goliath'' was a very well received season after the mediocre ''Ghost Island'' and questionably ended ''Heroes vs Healers vs Hustlers''. Among the bounty of reasons why include that everyone fought hard to win and that no one was horribly out of focus.
616* XPacHeat: Occasionally, a player built up as the next great Survivor villain ends up here because they come across as genuinely bad people rather than an entertaining heel and end up dragging the season down with their presence. Some of the worst examples include Colton Cumbie and Alicia Rosa of ''One World'', and Will Sims II of ''Worlds Apart''.
617[[/folder]]

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