Survivor fans are ready for change. Judging by social media, articles from critics and various podcasts, most of the fanbase really wants to see something new. They’re sick of watching a disaster tribe lose almost every single challenge during the pre-merge. They’re sick of the three tribe format, and they’re sick of the lack of memorable villains and lack of genuine animosity between the players. I get it. I’m ready for change too. Thankfully, a former Survivor player has a way to solve all those issues at once.
Sam Phalen, best known for his recent second place performance on Survivor 47, stopped by The Survivor Specialists this week to talk to host Phil Wood about Survivor 49. During their conversation, the subject of three tribes came up, and the castaway, who many would like to see return to Fiji, made a really compelling point about the problem with having three tribes.
He said that’s actually where the lack of animosity comes from. When you’re squaring off with a single opposing tribe every single challenge, you grow to hate that tribe. Rivalries form. It feels like us versus them, but when you’re competing against two other tribes, you don’t build up that personal hatred.
Here’s a portion of Sam’s really thoughtful observation based on personal experience…
It never feels like us against them. It feels like us against us. I was never sitting there and being like, ‘You know what eff Tuku. Screw Tuku for winning. They can go suck it. Come’on Gabe. This loser, Gabe. I’m taking him down one-on-one.’ That never crossed my mind. It was like, ‘Well, we messed that one up.’ And I do think that mano a mano rivalry, 1 vs 1 set-up of my tribe versus your tribe creates a level of tribe pride, creates those 1 on 1 match-ups within challenges that start fun rivalries in the season themselves. That is a great thing I’d love to see return.
The conventional wisdom has been that The New Era has more positive vibes because the show is now almost exclusively casting superfans who are just happy to be there and not desperate enough for the prize money. People, myself included, assumed that explained the lack of palpable hatred between the tribes, but I think Sam makes a really good point here.
I’m sure some of it is personality driven, but some of it is also the nature of competition. When you have a single opponent, you fixate on that opponent and build them into an enemy that needs to be defeated, but if you’re talking on multiple opponents, it’s more of a competition with yourself to perform and beat the group.
Bringing back two tribes would also allow the show to do more brute force, physical domination challenges which have largely gone away in the New Era. Think Heroes Vs Villains with Coach physically dragging Colby to the mat or Sandra intentionally undoing Sugar’s top. Those are the type of things that make the show feel like a brutal and animalistic competition, not a friendly game of Risk with an elaborate set.
This season of Survivor has been perhaps the worst case scenario for the three tribe format. All four of the eliminated contestants have all come from the same tribe, which still doesn’t have flint and cannot win anything. It’s the fourth time in the last five seasons one tribe has repeatedly gotten crushed to start the season.
In addition, the other two tribes have both had essentially the same pre-merge strategy. They’ve each hustled to put together a makeshift alliance of four people based on a shared not wanting to go home strategy, and we’ve just got a lot of confessionals about four people being in and two people being out. It’s a dynamic we’ve seen numerous times before, as we have with a lack of rivalry amongst the teams. In fact, after this week’s elimination challenge, the winners barely even celebrated because they felt too bad about the tribe that lost again.
I love Survivor. It’s one of my favorite shows on television, despite any complaints I may have, but it is time for a change. It’s time to see more animosity. It’s time to see some different pre-merge strategies. It’s time to see more balance. It’s time to see a season of Survivor that feels more old school, and to Sam’s point, the best way to do that is by bringing back two tribes and all the us vs them dynamics that set-up naturally brings with it.