Across 40 seasons, Survivor has had plenty of memorable challenges, including physically demanding tasks and mind-bending puzzles, with plenty of them being innovative, original, and unique. That said, 23 seasons of Big Brother have also produced several competitions and probably inspired Survivor to produce similar challenges (although Big Brother has stolen Survivor challenges, too).
These competitions often have to be adjusted for the major changes in setting and aesthetic between the two shows (Big Brother‘s competitions can be more high-tech, for instance). The spirit of the challenges, however, remains intact in the transition between shows, marking a clear connection between these otherwise fairly different series.
Jail Break
Originating in Thailand, the Survivor challenge Jail Break precedes the Big Brother 5 competition Caged, but Caged still inspired later versions of the Jail Break challenge. In both challenges, players need to use a variety of objects to create a pole that can reach a key from a cage.
The first three renditions of Jail Break on Survivor have players using the key to unlock shackles and then dig their way out of the cage, but Big Brother‘s Caged requires players to get a key to unlock the cage itself. This variation appeared on Redemption Island, officially incorporating the Big Brother competition into Survivor.
Touchy Subjects
Known by many names, the Touchy Subjects challenge on Survivor is famous for its divisive nature, as players must compete to guess which of their fellow players received superlatives in a private ballot. This challenge echoes the recurring Big Brother competition Wheel Of First Impressions, which has players deciding who fits with randomized adjectives.
While the Big Brother competition Majority Rules echoes Touchy Subjects closely, it is clear that both challenges owe a lot to the Wheel Of First Impressions. Assigning characteristics, including negative ones, to other people is a task perfect for reality TV, and Big Brother finds drama early by implementing it first.
Digging In The Mud
On Survivor, digging up items buried in the mud is a very common activity, usually as part of a larger challenge in which the digging is just one step. This idea may have come from the Big Brother 2 (a highly rated Big Brother season) challenge Dirty Dozen, which requires players to search for keys in an inflatable pool full of mud.
Digging challenges on Survivor are ultimately a more obvious fit, as the outdoor setting lends itself well to searching for bags of puzzle pieces in muddy pits. Both shows, however, have used the premise to great effect, leaving players dirty and exhausted from the tiring task.
Dizziness As Usual
In Big Brother 9, the wildly creative Dizzy Discs HOH competition first appeared, a recurring competition that is one of many that requires players to be spun rapidly. Survivor, on the other hand, has not had many challenges that involve dizziness, with Tocantins‘ Dizziness As Usual being one of the first.
In Dizzy Discs, spinning is the entire competition, while Dizziness As Usual involves the spun player to cross a balance beam. Otherwise, though, the challenges are remarkably similar, utilizing the disorienting and unpleasant experience of dizziness to test players’ endurance and motor skills.
Movie Challenges & Rewards
Starting in Africa, Survivor has had numerous rewards that involved watching a movie, and even some challenges like the Gulliver’s Travels challenge took their inspiration directly from movies. Big Brother 2, similarly, introduces the concept of a movie reward with a challenge to earn a screening of American Pie 2.
Big Brother would follow with other sponsored challenges themed around movies, but this first instance just barely beat Survivor‘s inaugural movie reward. Ultimately, these decisions were likely made separately without any influence on the other, but audiences saw Big Brother do it first.
Operation Balance Build
First appearing in One World, Operation Balance Build has become a recurring challenge on Survivor, requiring players to maneuver wooden bowls through a maze and balance them at the top. Although it’s not the exact same challenge, the Big Brother competition Caged Eggs from Big Brother 11 shares this challenge’s main idea.
Caged Eggs requires players to maneuver eggs from the other side of a wire cage to an end destination. While the balance element is new to the Survivor challenge, both versions of the competition maintain a need for precision and an element of fragility designed to reward patience and cause frustration.
Get Your Goat
Even though Survivor contestants are constantly living among wildlife, Big Brother is the first of the two shows to incorporate animals into challenges. One of the weekly tasks in Big Brother 1 requires the houseguests to train the pug Chiquita to complete an obstacle course.
In Survivor: Africa, the Get Your Goat challenge has both tribes competing to herd the most goats into their team’s pen, and a similar challenge appeared in Vanuatu with pigs. While training a dog is much different than herding goats, the Survivor challenge may have taken inspiration from Big Brother‘s focus on getting an animal from point A to point B.
Around The Bend
In a situation of Big Brother barely beating Survivor to the punch on a new challenge, both shows aired a competition that involves players untangling a ropes course. Big Brother 6‘s Rec-Tangle and Survivor: Guatemala‘s Around The Bend are practically identical challenges, although the latter has become a Survivor staple.
Even though this challenge has become more associated with Survivor, it aired first on Big Brother, but the challenge’s combination of agility and speed displays the skillsets required by both series. The challenge may be shared due to a coincidence or even a reuse of an idea at CBS, but it is an iconic competition either way.
Domino Effect
Debuting in Gabon, this Survivor challenge takes dominoes to the extreme by having players set up dominoes on a platform next to a tripwire course that they must carefully navigate. Big Brother is no stranger to this kind of challenge, either, as the very first season of the show featured a weekly task that involved setting up dominoes.
Setting up dominoes can already be a stressful task, so the sheer number of dominoes on Big Brother and the tripwire element on Survivor elevate the competition. While Big Brother got to this competition first, it seems like an inevitability that both shows would test their players’ patience with this intricate task.
Pinball Wizard
On the must-watch Survivor season Millennials Vs. Gen X, the Pinball Wizard challenge makes its Survivor debut, requiring players to complete a puzzle while trying to keep a ball behind them from touching the ground. Fans of Big Brother likely recognize the similarities to the competition Time Flies that premiered in Big Brother 14.
Time Flies requires players to complete a magnetic puzzle while returning to a button every few seconds to keep the puzzle magnetized. The Survivor challenge clearly takes inspiration from this competition, as both are deceptively simple tests of puzzle-solving, time management, and multitasking.
