Most Shocking Survivor Moments Part 1

There are many events in Survivor history worthy of being called shocking. There are so many that I will not mention a top ten like I originally planned on doing, but I will do a top twenty instead and start with numbers twenty to eleven in this blog post and get to the top ten in the next one. Consider this the ten alternative shocking moments or the ten honorable mentions. From twenty-seven different seasons so far, you can tell that tons of shocking things would have happened, but I will list the ones that I consider to be the most shocking. You might already know which is number one, but hopefully you'll enjoy the list regardless and enjoy the other shocking moments in Survivor history. I may not have every season present because I'm not sure that every season is worthy of the list. There will also be more than one moment from a single season provided that they are both still shocking moments. I have the feeling that even with twenty on the list, there will still be some great shocking moments not mentioned in the end. But I will list through every moment I can think of right now and hopefully you will enjoy the list. So here are numbers 11-20 in reverse order.

#20 From Survivor: Cook Islands comes an event that I'm not entirely sure is worthy of the list. I will not mention the five things I considered for either list that aren't on either one. But this is considered a shock because people actually accepted the offer. I'm talking about the mutiny offer in the game. The other three times they offered it, no one accepted it. (They didn't even show the offer in Pearl Islands because nobody did it.) But for currently the only time, the mutiny worked. People actually accepted it and switched to the other tribe. This may not have worked for the other tribe that now had half as many members, but they then went on a winning streak and became the final four. While I still think that there are better ways that they should do the mutiny in the potential future, the sheer shock of it is what helped define this season as good in the minds of many.

#19 From Survivor: Pearl Islands comes an event that at the time seemed very unusual. Never before did such a thing happen. I'm not even sure that many people considered it to be an option in the game, although it eventually became used by other contestants in other seasons. There was a lot of build up to it and the person responsible now says that there are off camera reasons they didn't show you that helped contribute to his decision. This changed the game in many ways. I'm talking about Osten quitting the game. It was unusual how the quit went down. Nowadays, they probably would have let his tribe vote him out like he asked to be. Instead, he quit the game. (I just realized that I lost the game.) Regardless, he set the standard that people could quit, although the two quitters in the next season didn't know about that when their season was filmed. People could quit Survivor now. It was an option. But this is one of the very few times when it was a shock.

#18 From Survivor: Africa comes an event that has since become a commonplace part of the game and has been included in more seasons than it hasn't been in. It is considered one of if not the very first twist in the American version of Survivor. I'm not entirely sure it belongs on a list of shocking moments since it is such a main part of the game now. But I'm still going to include it because of how much it changed the game in this season and seasons since. I'm talking about the very first tribe swap. Three people from each tribe went on a journey to meet Jeff Probst and winded up members of the other tribe. I'm disappointed that they never did that version of the tribe swap again. But I love the way it would end up affecting the game of Survivor for many seasons to come.

#17 From Survivor: Nicaragua comes a most unfortunate and infamous event which caused many people to hate this season. They especially hated the two players who did it. I'm talking about the two quitters of this season. NaOnka and Kelly S caused a lot of controversy by waiting that long to quit, quitting at the same time, and both being allowed on the jury. That is one of the shocking events that you'd never want to see in Survivor and are completely dumbfounded by when it happened. Why would you wait this long to quit? This caused a rule change in future seasons and they won't let quitters on the jury again (although Steve is rumored to have thrown a Redemption Island duel at the jury phase of the game and that might be considered quitting). I don't understand a move like this and hope that something this dumb will never happen again.

#16 From Survivor: One World comes an event that many were glad happened, even though it was a bad event for the player involved. Some people are even unsure if what we saw on camera actually happened since Jeff Probst himself said that something else might have happened instead. Whether it was really a quit or not remains in grey area, but it seemed a lot like karma was happening. I'm talking about Colton getting medically evacuated from the game. While all medical evacuations are shocking in their own way, few of them are among the most shocking moments in Survivor history. We have yet to see how it might affect Redemption Island (is it bad that I want one to happen on a Redemption Island season? Does that make me a bad person?), but we definitely saw a villain fall in a way never before seen in the game. Colton remain a controversial figure in the Survivor world and he probably isn't ever going to return to play the game again. His evacuation proved a low point and very interesting merge. Even though one of the more interesting people was gone from the game, it helped make One World the great season that I think it is, even though most people hate the season. But this was a very shocking moment to see a fall from the game like this.

#15 From Survivor: All-Stars comes a very controversial event from the very beginning. People think that the person who did this might have been overreacting since the person she was upset with was already out of the game. I'm talking about Sue quitting the game. She had a very good reason to quit the game, unlike a lot of other quitters. (I'm thinking of ranking them from best quitter or most excusable quit to worst quitter or you've got no reason to quit.) After an incident at an immunity challenge where a male naked contestant rubbed against her, she became more and more distraught over what had happened. That's all that she could think about and she was not at all focused on the actual game. This led to her yelling at Jeff Probst and quitting the game. There was enough build up to it so it wasn't a huge shock, but it was still a shock nonetheless. She's the last quitter I'm including on this list.

#14 From Survivor: Philippines comes an event that I'm not entirely sure what to call. It doesn't have a set name like other shocking moments before it. One wonders how someone was able to get away with it without getting voted out. It was a great tribal council, the best one of the season (but not the best one in the series because that comes later). I'm talking about the tribal council where Malcolm revealed that he had the hidden immunity idol. This was an inspiration to what would become the greatest tribal council in the next season (unless you count the moments and just the moments from other tribal councils that had more shocking moments in them). Regardless, Malcolm revealing his idol led to Abby not understanding sarcasm and revealing hers as well. It was a great tribal council, even though none of the idols were played.

#13 From Survivor: Pearl Island comes a shocking moment that made you take a player you already hated and absolutely despise him even more. For the first time in the game you might have felt sympathy for him very briefly until you found out that it was complete bogus. I'm talking about the infamous dead grandma lie. You probably hated Johnny Fairplay for making this up before the game even started. I don't know why Survivor Oz listed it as the number one Survivor moment on their youtube video of moments from the show. But many people were shocked and appalled at this decision that he made to lie for the rest of the game. And he used it to his advantage for the rest of the game.

#12 From Survivor: Samoa comes a moment that had dramatic appearances in the past. The way it appeared this season was pretty unusual. Nobody had seen this way of the event before. Many firsts happened because of it. I'm talking about when Russell Swan was medically evacuated. It happened suddenly at the challenge. He just passed out. The challenge was halted as he was evaluated. This has never happened in this way before. They never had to stop a challenge that was already underway. They never had to cancel one with no winner before. There had been challenges that probably would have been held but were cancelled before anyone ever started it. The challenge didn't directly cause his evacuation like others have (I'm looking at you, Free Falling). It was very intense to watch and led to one of the cruelest commercial breaks in Survivor history that I'm not sure most people would remember especially if they haven't seen it. This was a major turning point in the game and led to Galu failing after the merge. And it was a total shock when it happened.

#11 From Survivor: Redemption Island comes what is quite possibly the best first tribal council of any Survivor season. How can you hate this season with great moments like this? I don't understand why people hate Redemption Island. The point is, when Ometepe went to tribal council for the first time, a lot of drama held already unfolded. Kristina had found the hidden immunity idol and was going to use it to her advantage. She had an alliance of Francesca and Phillip. She was going to try and blindside Rob (which many people tried to do that season, if you don't remember clearly). But she thought that getting rid of Rob might be the wrong idea. Phillip ended up joining Rob's side and revealed his former alliance's plan to get rid of Rob with a hidden immunity idol. A lot of the drama unfolded at tribal council leading to a great start to a great season.

So I know leave you with part one of the list. Stay tuned soon for part two where I reveal the ten most shocking moments in Survivor history, which hopefully has all your favorite moments that aren't already listed on this list. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.