As the 43rd season of Survivor approaches, there has never been a better time to get into the show. After all, the new age of Survivor was built for new fans and long-time fans to enjoy together. With new twists, strong casts, and thrilling fast-paced gameplay, the show has grown increasingly welcoming to newcomers.
Yet there are some parts of the show that have not failed to draw some major critique. After 43 seasons, the show has certainly addressed some issues, but it’s impossible to solve them all without creating others. So even today there are many common criticisms of Survivor that fans continue to echo.
Too Many Advantages
After the incident where Cirie Fields was sent home by default, solely because every other player had advantages, it’s become a common critique that the show has too many advantages. With more piling on each season, it isn’t hard to see why, as Insider explained.
With each season introducing new advantages and twists, the show often expends a significant amount of screen time just explaining each advantage. Seasons 41 and 42 each spent a long while explaining the Beware Advantage, Ship Wheel Island, and the Knowledge is Power advantage at the cost of showing players developing relationships like Heather and Erika’s in Season 41.
Too Little Camp Life
A major lure of Survivor, as opposed to shows like Big Brother, is that it’s an environment that castaways are not familiar with. Trapped in a distant location, they have to try to use the resources at their disposal to build shelters and survive the elements, while also worrying about social relationships and strategy. As Distractify argued, it hasn’t been showcasing that often.
It isn’t easy to survive life on the island, but the show has largely drifted away from showcasing that in favor of strategies and advantages. Rather than long scenes exploring shelter building, players are encouraged to strategize from day 1. Even the marooning segment has disappeared over the years, which destroys the illusion of the abandoned castaways entirely.
Too Much Time In Fiji
In past seasons, Survivor used to hop from location to location regularly. From Borneo to China to San Juan del Sur, the show used to showcase fresh locations with their own unique conditions for castaways to try to thrive in. It was a measure that introduced new challenges, as each player would have to adapt without knowing what previous players had done.
In recent seasons, the show has remained in Fiji. Though it’s considered other locations like Georgia and Hawaii, according to TV Line, it’s happily remained in place. Of course, it’s taken advantage of the situation. Often reusing sets and challenges, the setting of the show has gotten somewhat boring. While Fiji is a fun Survivor location, many fans wish the show would keep changing locations in order to keep things from getting stale.
Challenges Are Boring
One consequence of remaining in Fiji is that challenges have become stagnant. Whereas locations like Gabon and China allowed producers to adapt challenges for different geographies and cultures, staying in Fiji for so many years means that the idea bucket is running low. After all, of Entertainment Weekly’s 35 best Survivor challenges, only three came from the Fiji era.
With most challenges involving little more than swimming, throwing a ball or sandbag, and balancing for an extended period of time, the challenge portion of each episode has grown predictable and repetitive. There are only so many times fans can watch a player throw a ring at a post before they get tired.
More Focus On Relationships
One of the major draws of Survivor: Borneo was watching players from wildly different backgrounds try to get along. After all, the friendship between Richard Hatch, an openly gay man in 2000, and Rudy Boesch, a stern Navy SEAL, was one of the pieces that made Survivor the hit that it was. As the AV Club describes, it changed reality TV entirely.
But lately, relationship building has been receiving less focus. After all, most fans were shocked to discover that Erika and Heather were close in Season 41, despite Heather being a major reason that Erika was able to go on to win the season. Entertainment Weekly even reports that Heather had to ask the show why she was rendered invisible. The removal of that aspect of the show has been a serious problem.
Missing The Auction
The Survivor auction was a reward challenge that offered players a set amount of money to bid on rewards and advantages to help them catch up in the game. Given that the auction was a fun addition to the show that led to one of Survivor‘s biggest meltdowns just because of a cookie, even Buzzfeed desperately wants to see it back, despite Hollywood Reporter reporting that it will not return.
Of course, the auction was removed for a reason, so it’s unlikely it will return without due cause. After all, in the last auction, players stopped bidding on anything that wasn’t an advantage, ruining the purpose of the auction. Still, if advantages were removed, it could be an excellent addition to the show.
Too Many Game Bots
Though initially marketed as a social experiment in abandoning random people on an island to get along, Survivor has come a long way. With most players having watched every season of the show’s history, strategy has evolved tremendously, which can be difficult for regular people to keep up with.
Because of that, there has been a phenomenon that fans have coined “game bots”, as players join with strategies pre-set and optimized to win them the show. Emphasizing big moves and alliance betrayals without strong social games, these game bots are often boring to watch, as Reddit user eda37 explains, as the players lack the strong personalities that made the show great.
Predictable Winners
Most fans spend each Survivor season trying to figure out which player is going to make it to the end and win it all. With a million dollars at stake, it’s pretty understandable that fans would be fascinated to know who would take the Survivor crown, and that interest has only grown since Winners at War.
Yet some fans think that the winner has become too predictable. Though Survivor has taken steps to prevent predictability, like burying Erika in the edit in Season 41, it remains a common critique. After all, most fans were accurately able to predict that Tony would win Winners at War and that Island of the Idols would come down to Tommy or Dean. While attempts at predicting can be fun, predictability isn’t. Of course, given that most fans thought Omar would be the Season 42 winner, according to Cinema Blend, it isn’t a huge worry.
Too Many Backstories
A major focus of recent seasons has been on the backstories of each castaway. Focusing massive amounts of time on the home lives of players and their tragedies through the years, the show has been increasingly dedicated to their life stories. Primetimer even referred to the show as a “docudrama”, as opposed to reality TV.
While the loved ones’ visits are an emotional part of the show, it’s best reserved for those specific visits. After all, the more flashbacks dedicated to explaining the worst parts of each player’s lives, the less time fans have to get to know their personalities and relationships.
Not Enough Conflict
Reality TV is all about conflict, and recent seasons have lacked it almost entirely. After all, aside from a few isolated fights about papayas and players talking too much, there haven’t been many fights. Even players who are voted out leave laughing and with smiles on their faces. But, as tabstis described on Reddit, it’s hurting the show.
Thanks to the rise of game bots, betrayals are now an active and accepted part of the game. Any player who is offended by those betrayals is seen as ridiculous or dramatic, despite the fact that drama is needed to carry Reality TV. It may be difficult to bring conflict back to the show, but it could pay dividends.
