10 Worst Survivor Twists

Okay, there have been some good twists on Survivor and there have been some bad twists on Survivor. In order of tenth worst to worst, I will name the ten worst twists ever. These are just in a matter of my opinion and yours is probably different. First, I'll start by what isn't on the list: The Outcasts twist/tribe is not on the list because I, personally, was a fan of it. Since pre-jury boots are almost never returning players, this helped liven things up and give them a second chance in the game. Without this twist, it would have just been boring like every other season where you are just voted out and that's that. Redemption Island is also not on the list for the same reason. People may hate it, but I like how voted out people get another chance at the game. If I could put certain aspects of Redemption Island on this list, but not the whole island itself, then I would. But I won't. I'm also unsure of whether or not to include Exile Island on the list. I did like how the hidden immunity idol was buried there (sometimes) and you couldn't find it at camp. I think that I will do an entire blog post about Exile Island sometime because there's a reason why it isn't featured on the show anymore. I'm unsure as to whether the one returning player per tribe format is a bad idea or not. Most people hate it, but I'm not sure if it belongs on the list. Now if there are any other bad twists that aren't on the list, it's not because I liked them, but because I don't justify them being the ten worst twists. There are a lot of good twists too, that by nature, are not on the list. But I can talk more about that later.

#10 The hidden immunity idol (Guatemala-present): I know that I'm going to get a lot of crap for this, but I don't think that the hidden immunity idol belongs in the game of Survivor. People who should get voted out magically cheat death instead of making big moves with idols. Sure, it helps keep things interesting and lively in the game, but I don't think that it works quite right no matter how it has appeared in the game. But, even though I don't like it that much, I don't see why it should be higher on the list.

#9 Fans versus favorites (Micronesia and Caramoan): This twist is totally unfair to the fans or new players in the game. It has created two pretty interesting seasons that we wouldn't have gotten otherwise, but I still think that it's unfair since the favorites have experience in the game and are naturally better players. Why they don't just do all returning players is a mystery to me. It isn't as bad as it could otherwise be, but it still isn't that good a twist.

#8 Tribe swap via kidnapping (China): While normally I am a fan of the tribe swap and consider it to be the best twist that Survivor has ever done (if you include tribe dissolves and mutinies, it has happened in more season than it hasn't), this way of doing it was a complete joke. If you don't remember what happened in China the two tribes got to choose for themselves what two people would join their tribe as new members. Only two people would switch and the contestants even got to choose who they were. There was no special immunity given to anyone on the new tribes and when both of them went to tribal council before the merge, a kidnapped player would be voted out. Worst tribal swap ever.

#7 First impressions (Tocantins): Let me remind people what happened in this twist for those of you that don't remember. Before the game really started for the first time, two people were told that they would not be making the journey. They weren't voted out, but they were on the outs with their tribe and never really fit in the game. I do wonder because of this twist if more than 16 people were supposed to be on the season but they changed it to this twist when others weren't available. But it is still a dumb twist.

#6 Fake Merge (Thailand, All-Stars, Cook Islands *, Gabon): A fake merge doesn't really add anything to the game and only really screws the castaways out of a normal game. I admit that it was sort of interesting and entertaining to those who expect a change in the typical format. It did and didn't happen in Cook Islands due to the double boot twist. Also, in Palau, the no merge entirely was just dumb. They never switched the tribes around and when there were ten players left, there wasn't even a merge like there should have been. I had figured in my mind while watching the fourth season that there would always be a merge because even if one tribe won every immunity challenge, there would still be two players left and thus a merge. But probably because the producers wanted just once to see a season with no merge, they did that this season. At least the two screwed players got a second chance the next season. Likewise, a fake merge has never been that good an idea.

#5 Contestants choose their own tribes (Thailand, Palau, Gabon, Fiji): Okay, I'll admit that the producers choosing the tribes can get boring when they do it all the time. They typically put people who will conflict with each other on the same tribe. But contestants choosing their own tribes is very poor in execution. The first time is the only time it didn't create a one tribe being dominate the whole time. But after the fake merge on Thailand, Sook Jai became the first tribe since Pagong to undergo, well, Pagonging. Fiji might not have had a one tribe rule all were it not for another dumb twist that I will get to later. But contestants choosing their own tribes makes the last person chosen always on the outs. And there are other dumb parts of the twist like the leader getting voted out. I basically think that it would be best to never happen.

#4 The Medallion of Power (Nicaragua): What was this anyways? What purpose did it serve? What good was it to the game? I can't think of any real good it did. All it did was help mess up certain tribe's plans and gave some an opportunity for an advantage that most would argue is unfair. Now they only ever did this twist to help with the old versus young twist, but this only complicated things.

#3 The purple rock (Marquesas-present): I'll admit, it has been a long while since we've seen this twist. They only did it once so far when it wasn't even supposed to appear. I think that it probably will show up again at some point, although it's also likely that we'll never see it again. Maybe they didn't like the tiebreaker of votes cast at previous tribal councils. I'm not sure if that worked anyways since it was mostly meaningless, throwaway votes cast. But purple rock seemed even more unfair since it is random lottery against the people who didn't even have votes cast against them at tribal council (hence the reason it was misused the first time). I don't think that it's a good idea. Neither do the fans or the contestants. But it remains the tiebreaker for anything that's not resolved by revotes in any tribal except the final four, and for some odd reason, Ulong's tribal council of two.

#2 Two don't get to play (Palau): Poor Jonathan and Wanda. They weren't chosen to be on either tribe. Instead of being the outsiders on the tribe they'd join by default, they were eliminated from the game. How unfair is that?

#1 Rich versus Poor (Fiji): This is probably the worst twist that they have ever done on Survivor. Even the people behind the show said that it didn't work out as planned and it will probably never appear again. Jeff Probst himself states that he was against this twist. Now because of Melissa's departure from the game before it even began, there were 19 contestants. If she had played, this type of twist might have never appeared in the game. But it did and it led to the rich tribe predictably winning every challenge except one. I don't see how it was fair to anyone and it just didn't seem like a good idea. This is also known to some as Haves and Haves Not