WARNING: Spoilers ahead are unmarked. You have been warned.
What Could Have Been has its own page.
- Ascended Fan Nickname: In the early days of the series, a popular blog post established various archetypes, named for animals, describing everyone left in the final four. "Goats," specifically, referred to players who were drawing dead because they weren't respected enough to win a jury vote. "Goat" became a standard part of the show's lexicon, with a broader application referring to any lesser player strung along simply because they are expected to lose a later part of a competition. The other terms "fox" (people who practically pick the other finalists), "bear" (people who head to the jury in their own power, without deciding opponents), and "bunny" (people who rode coattails or came in under the radar) are obscure and largely forgotten.
- Author's Saving Throw:
- In Nicaragua, many people were very upset at how NaOnka and "Purple" Kelly got to be part of the jury despite them quitting the game. After the backlash from the fans, Jeff Probst stated in the reunion show for that season that a new rule was added in that if somebody quits during the post-jury phrase of the game, then production shall be able to not put the quitter(s) on the jury if they feel like doing so.
- With the very infamous reactions involving Michele's win in Kaoh Rong causing people to accuse of a bitter jury, Jeff Probst stated that he ended up changing the Final Tribal Council in Game Changers to make the jury less bitter about the events that went on in the game. Additionally, Adam and Jeremy were accused of having gotten their clean sweep victories in part due to sympathy votes. The new format has emphasized gameplay making that the main factor of someone's victory.
- After being called out for mishandling sexual harassment in Island of the Idols, Jeff made it a point at the reunion show to publicly apologize on behalf of production, explain that they were making rules changes to crack down on such things in the future, and allow Kellee to open up about the incident (when she originally hadn't been allowed to as a jury member).
- Seasons 41 and 42 featured a very unpopular twist at the merge, where one person could "change history" and swap the results of an Immunity Challenge, taking Immunity away from the winners and giving it to themselves and the other losers. After the icy cold reception in the two seasons, it was announced that this twist would not be returning for future seasons.
- Beam Me Up, Scotty!:
- In The Amazon, Jenna Morasca was thought to say "Being beautiful is a handicap" in front of an actual handicapped player. She didn't say this verbatim, that was Rob Cesternino mocking her a bit after the fact. She did, however, say something close and apologized by the final stages of the game.
- In the Final 11 tribal council of Caramoan, many people thought Malcolm said "Hold up, bro!" right before he asked Reynold for his idol. However, he actually said "Hold up, Reynold!"; not "Hold up, bro!" This song about that tribal council
may have contributed to this.
- Breaking News Interruption: This has happened twice during the run of the series:
- The finale of Survivor: Philippines on December 16th, 2012 was delayed by coverage of the Sandy Hook shootings.
- The finale of Survivor: Island of the Idols on December 18th, 2019 was interrupted to announce that President Trump had been impeached. Norah O'Donnell began the announcement by telling Survivor viewers that they would not miss a minute of it.
- Completely Different Title: Among international versions:
- Too many versions to individually list here have names based on Robinson Crusoe, usually as Expedition Robinson. Other variations of the theme include the Baltic version (Baltic Robinson), the Czech version (Robinsonův ostrov, or Robinson Island), the original Finnish version (Suomen Robinson, or Finnish Robinson), and the Venezuelan version (Robinson: La Gran Aventura, or Robinson: The Great Adventure).
- More unique names include the last Baltic season (Jungle Stars), Brazil (No Limite), China (走入香格里拉, Into the Shangri-La), the first Czech version (Trosečník, or Castaway), France (Koh-Lanta), Israel (הישרדות, Survival), Poland (Wyspa Przetrwania, or Island of Survival), the original Romanian version (Rătăciți în Panama, or Lost in Panama), and Slovakia (Ostrov, or Island).
- The Colombian and Spanish version are named La Isla de Los Famos.o.s. (The Island of the FamouS.O.S). The Italian version is also named L'Isola dei Famosi, without the S.O.S pun.
- The Russian, Ukrainian and Georgian versions are named The Last Hero (Последний герой, Oстанній герой, and უკანასკნელი გმირი respectively).
- The French version was originally called Les Aventuriers de Koh-Lanta - a Stealth Pun on the fact that the name of the first series' filming location, Koh Lantanote , is translated roughly as "the island of a million eyes", referring to the viewers. The name stuck even when they moved filming location halfway across the world to Costa Rica, and was shortened just to "Koh-Lanta".
- Channel Hop: The US version has always stayed with CBS, but the Spanish version has hopped three - almost four - different times. It was picked up by TVE in 2000 as Los Robinsones , but they pulled out after the furore attracted by Gran Hermano. Telecinco raced to pick it up after the success of GH and retitled it Supervivientes: Expedición Robinson, yet the programme swapped to Antena 3 in 2003. After a couple of series on A3, two retitlesnote and a Retool to play it with celebrities, Telecinco bought the rights back in 2006 and retitled it Supervivientes once more.
- It could have been once more - in December 2019 it was reported that Antena 3 had snapped up the rights for another shot in 2021, but this turned out to be incorrect.
- Creator's Pest:
- Jeff Probst doesn't like quitters in general. If it was for a bad reason, he all but forbids them from coming back on another season. In particular, Colton Cumbie got the worst treatment out of them all, when Jeff gave him a huge "Reason You Suck" Speech when he quit Blood vs. Water.
- Jeff Probst and Jonny Fairplay had a long running feud, after Fairplay got into a drunken and violent argument with Jeff Probst's brother. Fairplay asking to be voted out in Micronesia was labelled as a quit and stoked the animosity further. However, according to his Reddit AMA, Jonny Fairplay and Jeff Probst have buried the hatched.
- Ironically, despite accusations of Russell Hantz being a Creator's Pet, Jeff stated in this interview that Russell is his least favorite contestant as a person.
- Development Hell: From 2020 until 2021, the coronavirus pandemic prevented future seasons from being filmed until it becomes safe again. The last season's finale had to be done virtually instead of the usual studio audience, removing a lot of the suspense and ambiance in exchange for a rather hasty end to the festivities. When the show finally returned, the length was reduced by 13 days, pre-jurors were sent home immediately, and the winner reveal was done on-location.
- Fanwork Ban: CBS has taken down a popular Roblox server, forcing their developers to rebrand to Outlaster instead. But for the most part, CBS is relatively okay with "fan-run seasons" like Survivor: Maryland, and other online reality games.
- Foiler Footage: During the airing of Borneo, the show's website evolved the portraits of the players to feature a red cross after their elimination. Savvy internet users of the time discovered that every player portrait had an eliminated variant well before their eliminations, except for one: Gervase Peterson. Given that Gervase obviously didn't win that season, this is very likely an intentional misdirect on the producer's part.
- Follow the Leader: Started an entire wave of competition-style reality shows. In fact, Jeff Probst's first speech to the players in Heroes Vs Villains called his beloved show "the greatest adventure game in the history of television".
- In Memoriam:
- After one episode of Gabon, there was a brief message stating Rudy's wife, Marge Boersch died. Later, after an episode of Winners at War, there was a tribute to Rudy himself, who also died.
- The Heroes Vs Villains reunion included a brief memorial to the late Jenn Lyon, with warm and respectful words from Jeff Probst (who met up with her after she left her season).
- Money, Dear Boy: Jimmy Johnson calmly said (twice) that he expected his NFL fame and riches would keep him from winning Nicaragua; he intended to help another Espada member win the game. However, tribemate Jimmy Tarantino didn't believe that the legendary coach would remain that humble and selfless.
- Movie Multipack: Starting in Samoa, seasons are filmed in pairs back-to-back, with the second of the pair typically finishing up filming by the time the first season starts to air.
- Out of Order: Kaoh Rong (Season 32) was filmed from March 30, 2015 – May 7, 2015, but since production wanted Cambodia as the 31st season, they held off airing it until February 16, 2016. In another bit of trivia, Cambodia began filming nearly two weeks after Kaoh Rong finished filming.
- Romance on the Set: "Boston" Rob Mariano and Amber Brkich during All-Stars is the most obvious. There's also Amanda Kimmel and Ozzy Lusth in Micronesia, Keith and Whitney in South Pacific (to the point that she left her husband for him), Jaime Dugan and Erik Huffman in China. One might include Colleen Haskell and Greg Buis all the way back in Borneo, although they insisted it was only friendship. Julie Berry from Vanuatu once dated Jeff Probst himself. However, most players wisely avoid this, at least overtly: nothing says "unbreakable alliance" like two players making out.
- Screwed by the Lawyers: Despite many superfans clamouring for some sort of international crossover all-stars season with U.S. returnees competing with returnees from Australia, New Zealand, and/or South Africa; territorial rights issues mean that such a season will likely never see the light of day. This was also why no Canadian version existed until the U.S. edition started accepting Canadian applicants in 40.
