“Survivor 50,” the milestone season of CBS’s indefatigable reality competition, concluded Wednesday night in fitting fashion: as a subversively entertaining train wreck.
It ultimately was Aubry Bracco — making her third trip to “Survivor’s” final five — who emerged from a field of returning fan favorites and triumphed after 26 days in the Fijian jungle. But the biggest twist of an otherwise pedestrian finale was a blunder by host Jeff Probst (or perhaps someone in the CBS control room) during the show’s live reunion framing device in a Los Angeles studio.
The mishap occurred moments before CBS broadcast the fire-making challenge between Rizo Velovic and Jonathan Young that narrowed the final four to three. As Probst interviewed Velovic, he asked the swaggering 26-year-old to take a seat alongside the other ousted contestants — spoiling Young’s victory before it aired. Cue uncomfortable muttering around the room.
“What just happened?” Probst asked. “The fire hasn’t happened yet,” replied sixth-place finisher Cirie Fields. After an awkward cut to commercial, Probst came back with a sheepish grin and a tongue-in-cheek explanation.
“It’s the last twist of the season,” Probst said to waves of laughter. “We call it a peek into the future. So now we’re going to watch Rizo lose in fire to Jonathan.”
Innocent as it may be, it was yet another gaffe in a season filled with them. The 50th installment was subtitled “In the Hands of the Fans,” but true “Survivor” aficionados had plenty to gripe about — starting with the distortion of that viewer-empowering premise.
A year ago, “Survivor” released polls to dictate how the 50th edition would be crafted. Some choices were definitive enough. Exhibit A: Wednesday’s finale concluded with that fateful live coronation in Hollywood because voters chose that option over a taped reveal back in Fiji.
Yet, too many of the game’s missteps were producer-driven stumbles explained away with the rationale that the fans voted for it. Take the third-episode tribal swap that unmoored the show’s momentum and ensured that several eliminations would be dictated more by dumb luck than gameplay.
Yes, the fan poll — “I want the tribes to switch” or “I do not want the tribes to switch” — tilted in favor of the former. The options, however, did not specify a critical element: the timing. It’s unlikely that any invested viewer would have voted to implement the twist so early and derail the game before it gained steam.
“I’ve got to say, I’m kind of [mad] at the fans right now,” contestant Charlie Davis said at the time. “Now I’ve got to be, like, great first impressions all over again?”
Sure enough, Davis was quickly jettisoned by his new tribemates. (His consolation prize? A cameo on Season 4 of “The White Lotus,” as Mike White — that series’ creator and another “Survivor 50” player — shared during Wednesday’s telecast.)
It didn’t help that this twist was revealed via a rap — yes, a rap — from the 64-year-old Probst, who in that moment became the physical manifestation of the “How Do You Do, Fellow Kids?” meme. We shouldn’t be surprised. To watch “Survivor” is to roll with Probst’s endearing enthusiasm and his cringey antics. In one of the season’s welcome flourishes, Probst participated in an immunity challenge for the first time and promptly spent most of his (amusingly brief) effort skewering himself. But it was also tough watching him repeatedly and unabashedly fawn over MrBeast, the YouTube personality and “Survivor” fan who jetted to Fiji for a jarring cameo.
In fact, the entire parade of celebrity tie-ins was never in step with the gritty spirit of the show. The twist that sent the lovably neurotic Christian Hubicki packing was credited to, of all people, Jimmy Fallon. Immunity idols came with a note purportedly penned by Billie Eilish, who sure didn’t seem to know much about it when discussing “Survivor” on “Good Hang With Amy Poehler.” And there’s never been a more fast-forward-worthy stretch of the show than Zac Brown’s appearance as a human reward, there to serenade challenge winners and serve them fish he caught while spearfishing.
That sluggish segment was emblematic of a season that alternately felt bloated and rushed. The expansion to 90-minute episodes has given the strategizing more time to breathe, while suffocating viewers with excess. And whittling down 24 players over just 13 episodes created an unwieldy rhythm; contestants were voted out one week at a time, then dispatched in a slew of two- and three-person eliminations as the finish line neared.
That’s not to say “Survivor 50” was a bore. Rick Devens immortalized himself as the show’s most gleefully mischievous player, staving off elimination with a fake idol he planted at tribal council, then winning a coin flip that doubled the champion’s prize to $2 million. The Hubicki-orchestrated blind side of White was deliciously devious. (“You skunks!” White exclaimed.) The emotional send-offs for two aging “Survivor” icons — Season 2 runner-up Colby Donaldson and five-time participant Fields — struck a chord.
That said, it speaks to “Survivor’s” unsolvable flaw — the most entertaining players are identified as threats and axed — that none of those crowd-pleasers made it to the end. Bracco was a worthy enough winner, with a compelling tale of fortitude. But flashier contestants reduced her to a stealthy afterthought for much of the season, and her victory inevitably proved anticlimactic.
The show will doubtlessly endure. There’s both a timeless appeal to its “outwit, outplay, outlast” conceit and endless room for reinvention. And this season did come with a ratings uptick. But “Survivor’s” credibility? It may have finally been snuffed out.
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