‘Survivor 50’ was fun while it lasted
A eulogy for my favorite show's loftiest endeavor yet
I don’t think it’s particularly pejorative to say something “could’ve been worse.” It’s a display of optimism for me to cede that an experience I’ve had wasn’t all that bad.
But when a television titan is celebrating a milestone anniversary after over a quarter century on air, it is actually quite the condemnation for a lifelong fan (me) to nonchalantly say “Survivor 50” could’ve been worse.
Tonight on CBS, there will be a three-hour “Survivor 50” finale broadcast, with the show’s first live reunion since the spring of 2019 folded into its final moments. During said finale, a member of the final five will be winning a whopping pre-tax $2 million. It’s a lot of (justified) pomp and circumstance for one of reality TV’s biggest anniversaries ever.
But with six-time player and “Survivor” legend Cirie Fields voted out in sixth place last week, I believe “Survivor 50” is already over. The allure of a victory from the best player to never win is gone; the bereft audience has mourned for six days.
Don’t get me wrong, I’ve enjoyed the ride. I’ve repeatedly told friends that I’ve been surprised at how much fun I’ve had with “50,” how it’s been better than I’d expected. But as I’ve watched this season with a rotating cast of comrades on the weekly, I’ve ended every single episode mourning the loss of at least one returning player who I’ve looked forward to seeing on the show again. And each Wednesday night, I’ve told myself and those around me that while, yes, a star is gone, the “Survivor 50” night sky is still bright with stellar casting choices.
But 12 weeks deep, we’ve gone dark. The “Blood Moon” has set, the clouds have rolled in, it’s getting quite frigid out here. For the first time all season, there aren’t any more stars to look forward to gazing upon. We’re left with some grumpy manchildren and their monotone friend who seek to squeeze the final bits of charisma out of their tribe.
In a season meant to commemorate 26 years of the program’s past, producers strove too hard to embrace the future: half of the cast made their “Survivor” debuts post-pandemic, celebrity cameos dominated at least three episodes and I personally grew weary of just how many “historic” twists – temporary rule changes, essentially – took shape throughout the game. (Yes, said “twists” can be chalked up to the results of a pre-season fan vote, but I’m honestly not convinced that any of this buffoonery wouldn’t have happened regardless.)
The heart of this season, for me, was the cohort of old-school returning players. The narrative through line of “Survivor 50” told the story of whether or not these all-stars had learned from mistakes made during their previous appearances, or if they’d changed at all as people after seeing their highs and lows broadcast to millions of viewers.
It was thrilling to see season 13 heartthrob Ozzy Lusth hit the beach nearly 20 years later to re-contextualize his original appearance on the show; it was rewarding to witness season two fan favorite Colby Donaldson embrace “Survivor” again after a dour run on 2010’s landmark “Heroes vs. Villains” iteration (my very first foray into this convoluted cultural behemoth). Even famed kook Benjamin “Coach” Wade got the chance this year to return and attempt to rewrite a narrative about his own hypocritical gameplay on 2011’s “Survivor: South Pacific.”
It’s a theme this show hasn’t ever committed to like this before – not even throughout 2015’s “Survivor: Second Chance.” Bringing back so many of the show’s early icons invited new stories of personal growth that haven’t been told before across 49 prior installments; fans have been watching some of these returnees age and develop as people and players for over 20 years.
It’s been tough to watch these foundational faces of the game get phased out by this season’s aforementioned “unprecedented” twists. Now, with Fields gone, the last of our old guard has faded. Any ties that “Survivor 50” had to the history it claims to celebrate have been severed.
The sole surviving pre-pandemic player on “50” is its likely winner, Aubry Bracco, whose first appearance on the show is far closer chronologically to the present day than it was to the show’s 2000 debut. And perhaps Bracco’s success is the ultimate curling of the monkey’s paw; as a longtime fan, I wanted an old-schooler to win “Survivor 50,” and I guess, technically, one probably will.
The editors have telegraphed Bracco’s fourth-time’s-the-charm victory loud and clear – despite her general irrelevance to the overall narrative, overall inertia and perpetual commitment to eating sour grapes, the “50” edit has repeatedly, forcefully checked in on her. Weeks have been spent giving her credit for game moves she simply wasn’t associated with, hammering home how she shouldn’t be underestimated and how she’s been taking notes from the play style of the “Survivor” icon to whom Bracco lost her first outing. (Oh, and her winning odds on Kalshi haven’t done much to dispel murmurs about her impending victory, either.)
Bracco was once an all-time “Survivor” favorite of mine, but her grumpy (and disappointingly anti-woman) appearance on “50” has felt wildly antithetical to the “joyful” energy that host and showrunner Jeff Probst claimed to have wanted out of this big anniversary celebration. I’ll always look back fondly upon her engaging and entertaining run on 2016’s “Survivor: Kaôh Rōng,” but this version of her really hasn’t been it for me.
So I’m not jazzed about the concept of “Survivor 50” concluding like this. I’m not left with a sense of urgency to watch tonight’s finale, eyes glued to the screen, one hand on a snack platter and the other on my racing heart. If Fields, or, really, anyone else who played “Survivor” prior during the show’s inaugural decade, were sitting in the final five, I’d be stoked.
Instead, I’m checked out.
I’ll absolutely, unquestionably watch the finale, because it’s the latest episode of my favorite show. I’ll certainly tune into the 51st season this fall. But I don’t know a single person who’s excited for some bombastic conclusion to an epic saga tonight.
I feel like I’ve already gotten everything I can out of “Survivor” this spring – and with Probst going to war with the show’s audience in the press this past week, it’s clear that our final product has yanked away the idea that “Survivor 50” was ever “In the Hands of the Fans.”