Ridley Review: Survivor 46

Having tapped out of Survivor after Season 41, dissatisfied with the continued budget cuts and the increased twists in the Jeff Probst-produced seasons in the so-called “New Era,” I was roped back in by the longer episodes of Survivor 45. Thoroughly whelmed by the experience, I had no intention of watching Survivor 46 this Spring. Drawn back in by the rave reviews the first couple of episodes received, I made the metaphorical trip back to Fiji to see what the hype was all about.

Today, the Ridley Review takes a gander at Survivor 46. Here are several thoughts on the season:

Survivor Lives and Dies by the Cast

When you think of a great Survivor season, what comes to mind? I would bet my life savings that it is the characters; a wacky cross-section of Americans who starve, bond, compete, and backstab each other for big bucks and our entertainment. Sure, the exotic locales were the “extra castaway” in older seasons, but when it comes to the beaches of Fiji, the cast is the one crucial element of the show’s success.

The more the show lets larger-than-life personalities have fun and do crazy things, the better the season will be. I hope Jeff and the production learned from this season, which features fewer twists than the rest of the New Era and just let the cast play. Trust who you put on the island; they will make good TV!

Online Fandom

Reality shows in general have always attracted an interesting online fandom. As the pioneer of the genre, Survivor has seen its fanbase migrate several times, from the early days of message boards such as “SurvivorSucks” to, currently, social media platforms. Some of the old forums were absolutely ruthless, but unless the cast sought them out, they could continue to lead a fairly normal, private life after the first couple of seasons of the show.

Nowadays, that is not an option for almost anyone on not just Survivor, but reality TV in general (XOXO Bachelor Nation!). With so much public information (emails, addresses, employers, voting records) available online, their is no hiding from unhinged “fans”. There has been some massive fallout from this season impacting contestants personal lives to the point the winner will never consider going back on the show. I can’t say enough poor things about people who think it is okay to harass, stalk, and dox people’s personal and professional lives just because they participated in an edited television game. In a way I do feel somewhat bad, because to get to that point someone must be deeply unhappy and unhealthy in their own life to insert themselves into the life of someone they don’t know and try to make them miserable, but there is no excuse for such behavior.

A lot of fans claim they want more villains on the show; like that will ever happen when a starving, tired castaway is one borderline-edgy comment away from racist/sexist comments or even death threats bombarding them. This cr*p needs to end yesterday. I used to dream of being on the show growing up, but seeing how people get treated by supposed “fans” has put me off from applying for years now.

The Best Contestant in Years

Q. Fashionista extraordinaire and renown real estate agent, Quintavius “Q” Burdette stole the show from day 1. My man was off his rocker in terms of strategy and spectacle; every idea and quote was pure gold.

The cliffnotes version: beefing with the legend that is Jelinsky, going into a depression with his hapless tribe, relentlessly (and hilariously) seeking power at the expense of literally any ally, trying to quit the game when it didn’t go his way, resurrecting himself into a power position, and then getting blindsided with an idol in his pocket. Oh, and he made a contribution to the fashion world in the between. This was casting gold; certainly no BIG MISTAKE!

Jury Voting

One awesome thing about Survivor is how the game is decided. Despite attempts to change it, the format for deciding a winner is genius: it is totally subjective. Having a jury of peers who have just lost a chance at life-changing money decide the fate of the finalists remains one of the show’s crowning features. There is, despite what some think, no one “right” way for a juror to vote. Some vote for who they like best, others for strategy, yet others for challenge performance, one or two for who contributed best to the camp living, some for who needs the money the most, and, finally, some vote at random.

This shifts incredible responsibility to the finalists, who need to know the type of people that make up the jury and what qualities they prize in a winner. Many times, the person fans think played the best game lost, because the idea of “best game” is totally in the eye of the beholder. There is no “right” or “wrong” criteria to decide a winner. It remains genius, 24 years in and counting.

An Unexpected Comeback

I don’t pay much attention to TV ratings, because, quite frankly, my time on Earth is limited and it isn’t important. But I did sit up and take notice when it came out that Survivor swept the biggest demographics for the first time since 2001, when the show was watched by 1/5 of the USA every week. Survivor is back, baby!

One can only hope this leads CBS/Jeff to devote more money to the show, because we have over 20 years worth of receipts to show how epic it is at its peak: 39 day seasons, new locations, creative challenges, etc.; would it really be that hard?

On the flip side, I dread that CBS will see this and take away from it that they can sell an inferior/cheaper product and still rake in the viewers.

So ‘Bout That Finale…

Wow. It has been a long time since I have seen a finale this topsy-turvy and controversial.

The final 5 challenge was the major source of ire for me: I think it opens a dangerous can of worms allowing collusion between contestants to beat another in a challenge. Everyone competing for themselves has been a thing since the beginning, and I thought what happened was borderline cheating. Maria handled it much better than I would have, I’ll tell you that!

Ben winning (the super cool!) final immunity challenge was a nice bow on his story, and, although the Final 4 fire-making challenge is still the dumbest thing the show has ever introduced, it didn’t mess up the ending of the story. As an aside: even though the fire challenge is stupid, the sound work of the scrapping flint during everyone’s quotes before tribal was awesome sound design. Kudos to the sound team on that one!

The final tribal set up a clash of two different games, people, and mentalities. I found myself on the edge of my seat, watching a tit-for-tat, back-and-forth duel between worthy contenders for the cold, hard cash. Some decent questions were asked and each juror had something good to ask.

I liked the result; I think the winner just had a better pulse on the jury and what they wanted to hear than the runner-up.