The Ten Dumbest Moves in Survivor History

The Ten Dumbest Moves in Survivor History

Account             Adam Decker's Survivor Blog

Okay. This might be my last top ten for a while. Then again, I don’t know how I’m going to come up with enough blog posts during the hiatus between the last season and the upcoming season. Guess I shouldn’t be doing two a week. Hopefully, the official cast will be released soon so I can talk about that. I don’t know when they plan on filming the 29^th or 30^th season, but it is possible that they are filming it now. Possible, but unlikely. Maybe I should do a list of all the twists that they could use for the 30^th season. I want to do a ten best tribes list (which would contradict my claim that this would be the last top ten for a while, but I don’t really care about that right now), but I’m not entirely sure what those ten tribes would be. And since I’ve done a worst twists list, I might as well do a best twists list, but I don’t have enough good twists on the list yet, although I’m sure that I could if I tried really hard at thinking about it. I forget what all the things I’ve promised to post but might not have posted yet is. I guess I should look back at this blog. Besides, if I don’t read it, then I’m not sure that anyone does. There is at least one person who says that they are a player in this season, but I don’t think that anyone should be saying that yet. In this case, it’s possible (but I’m not entirely sure) that this is a hoax. I don’t want to look up any information regarding this season (or the next two, for that matter) for fear that I could be spoiled as to who might when. I want to know where it is, what major twists they might use, and who is in it (but only if there are returning players). Other than that, I don’t really want to know and don’t know why I look stuff like that up sometimes. Also, hopefully these minor blog problems that I have don’t persist or I can stop saying things in this blog that annoy me to some degree that have been in my blog for quite some time and might annoy you too. The Survivor premiere could not get here soon enough. And I don’t know how to fix the time zone when my blog says that I post it at one time and that’s not when I really posted it. I’m not sure that I want to post it either, although you probably know that I live somewhere in either the Central or Eastern time zone and was not affected by either of the two possible delays in the finale of Blood versus Water. You know: the six minute delay or the twenty-five minute delay that I’m making a big deal about for absolutely no good reason. Regardless, I should stop the pointless commentary that normally accompanies these blog posts (one of the things that I do that annoy me and probably a lot of you) and get to the point of this whole blog post. Let me first think of all the dumb moves in the show. I have decided to only include dumb contestant decisions and dumb moves that were made in the form of challenges, twists, or some other form of production decision, are not going to be included.

Before we get to the main list, I will do a list of honorable mentions. While there are scores of dumb moves from various season to choose from (not even all of the very dumb moves are what I considered to be chosen on this list of mine), I will list what I think the dumbest moves are. I don’t think that Colby taking Tina to the end in Australia was among the top ten dumbest moves in the season of the show. As much as the women keeping Chris around in Vanuatu inadvertently letting him win the game was pretty dumb, but also unworthy of the top ten. Cindy keeping her car for herself in Guatemala was dumb, but it was pretty much a no win situation for her that she would have failed at anyways. Jason trying to use a fake idol in Micronesia only to have a real idol and not use it was another dumb move. But he is also unworthy because of the sheer number of bad moves that overshadow it. That is also why Ken getting himself voted out in Gabon while trying to blindside another player in the dumbest way possible (he more or less said, “give me your immunity necklace so I can vote you out”) is not on the list. And as dumb as Matt was when he reentered the game by winning Redemption Island only to get himself voted out again by trying to redeem himself by telling the person he had thought of blindsiding of his plan to vote him out, that is also not going to be on the list. So, with no further ado, I will post the top ten dumbest moves and hope that the order is good and the list is good considering how Survivor fans will always argue about what the dumbest move of all time is (or has yet to be).

#10 From Survivor: Thailand comes one of the few interesting parts of the season. It is still considered the reason why the affected player should return for another chance, despite the fact that she has already become a returning player. Shii-Ann betrayed her tribe at the merge. Well, that was the problem. It wasn’t actually the merge. The contestants didn’t think of the fact that nobody gave them new buffs that merged tribes typically get. They were none the wiser to the fact that the two tribes did not actually merge. I do wonder if this fake merge would have still happened if someone had accepted the mutiny offer in a previous episode. But I’ve never liked the way they did mutinies and was surprised the only time people accepted it. But, back to the topic. Shii-Ann’s tribe was mean to her for most of the normal premerge part of the game. In fact, she was the one who always got the votes at tribal council that weren’t given to the person who was voted out. Like Cochran many seasons later, she really wanted to flip. And everyone knew that she could have betrayed the tribe had they actually merged. But because they didn’t, she was immediately voted out once they lost the immunity challenge and didn’t end up making the merge. Regardless, her tribe was screwed either way. But, since the other tribe of the season doesn’t have a single returning player, this move isn’t as dumb in comparison to many others because she got a second chance because of it. That is why it only ranks as number ten, but it’s still more stupid than any other action not on the list.

#9 From Survivor: Guatemala comes what might be an overlooked dumb moment in the show, but still a pretty dumb move. Rafe had everything going for him that season. He could have easily won the game. But like other players before him, he messed it all up. And he messed it up at the final three of all places. He had a final two deal with both of the players that were left in the game. Thus, in theory, anyone could win the final immunity challenge and if it wasn’t him, he would still be sitting next to them. That’s when he impulsively threw it all away. His great game ended the moment the final immunity challenge did. Due to Stephenie getting upset, Rafe released Danni, the winner of the final immunity challenge, from their final two deal. He then tried to take it back and got upset at Danni when she voted out the bigger threat to win (him). He was the only jury member to vote for Stephenie to win, because she played a pretty poor game that season and definitely lost it at the final tribal council by poorly answering questions that the jury asked her. Poor Stephenie. Danni also seemed to come out of nowhere to win the game to when Rafe had everything going for him with great game play and a great strategy. But then he released Danni from their final two deal.

#8 From Survivor: Heroes versus Villains comes a dumb moment that I’ve already covered before. Tyson was given a simple task by his alliance. Vote out Russell. That way, if Russell plays a hidden immunity idol on himself, the other target named Parvati can get voted out. If Parvati plays a hidden immunity idol, Russell can get voted out. But it only works if you stick to your vote. Instead, Tyson decides to vote for Parvati at the urging of Russell of all people to ensure that a threat would get voted out. Tyson must have been that threat because he was the one voted out after he switched his vote and Parvati played the hidden immunity idol that Russell gave her. Tyson redeemed himself as a good player in the most recent season that he won. This move, on the other hand, was just stupid.

#7 From Survivor: China comes the first of many events known as the dumbest move ever made in Survivor. Such a thing had never happened before, although it has happened since, only with one less idol than it first happened. It’s always a dumb move but it was really dumb when it first happened. James knew that he was a strong competitor. He knew that he was a threat. Other people knew that he had not one, but two hidden immunity idols. And if he played them, then he would make it very far in the game. But he didn’t play either idol. He still has them both because he got voted out of the game with them in his possession. And he’ll probably never live that down. He has not had that many good experiences in the game, but this one was the only time that it was his fault.

#6 From Survivor: Palau comes more of a strange moment that came from a very unusual season. Ian, like many of these dumb players, had a lot going for him. While I’m not certain that he would have won in a final two against Tom, he definitely went about getting there the wrong way. At the final three immunity challenge, he spent a very long time facing Tom. In fact, this challenge lasted longer than any other challenge in the game. Jeff Probst listed it as his favorite challenge, although I’m not certain that they’ll use it again due to the length of time it can last. Ian and Tom went back and forth over who should drop out and vote out Katie. And then, out of the blue, Ian decides to give up immunity and his position in the game by saying that he’ll drop out of the challenge so that Tom would take Katie and not him to the final two. Now there were off camera game play that we didn’t get to see that much where Tom stated that he always planned on taking Katie to the final two and told Ian to do the same. I’m not sure if this is because Tom thought that Katie was easy to beat or if it’s because he valued an alliance with Katie. I think that it wasn’t because he wanted someone easy to beat, but I don’t know for sure. I guess that I’ll have to listen to that Survivor Oz interview again. Back on topic, Ian made a bad move that made many people mistake him for a quitter (although can you really quit that late in the game?), but I think that he might return at some point. I hope that he does, even if he has yet to be an alternate for a returning player season.

#5 From Survivor: Micronesia comes another event considered the stupidest move ever. As a matter of opinion, I have listed this here instead of later on the list. In fact, my opinion might not even be what many people think is the dumbest move of all time. Erik was playing, once again, a great game so far. Well, according to him, he made a lot of mistakes in the game. But he wasn’t going to do that when he gave up his necklace to Natalie. Say what! Why would you give up your own form of immunity? The women didn’t even want to try asking you to do that because of how dumb it was to do. And that’s why you made a terrible move. Nobody remembers what other dumb moves you might have made before that. When you returned to the game, you would also give up the tribal immunity idol and the hidden immunity idol, but somehow, that didn’t negatively affect your game. This bad move is what he’ll always be remembered for.

#4 From Survivor: Borneo comes what is considered by many (at least me) to be the first move to go down in history as incredibly dumb. It was very dumb. You’d think that it being the first season might have excused them in some way. But I just consider it to be a bad decision. Pagong should have voted together in a majority. With Sean voting on his own, the Pagong five could easily overpower the members of Tagi. Instead, they all cast individual votes. Having not seen the episode where this happened, I don’t understand it. And I think that the majority of the community will never understand it. Every member of Pagong voted for however they wanted to instead of as a group. They all got picked off one by one. And they would go down in reality show infamy.

#3 From Survivor: One World comes a shocking event that could be the dumbest move that a group of individuals did. While the lead-up will always be misleading since they can’t show us why this actually happened, it will still go down as a horrible and terrible decision. Manono just won an immunity challenge. They were safe. They didn’t have to vote anyone out. But because of irritation with a certain tribe member, they thought of giving up immunity to the other tribe. The decision was unanimous. It had to be. And if you are agreeing to go to tribal council to vote out a member of your tribe, you could potentially be giving your tribe permission to vote yourself out when they otherwise wouldn’t have. And that is what makes the decision so dumb. While Moto had given up immunity before, they had a perfectly good excuse (they’d lose their great beach if they kept it). Manono would just become the dumbest tribe in the show’s history.

#2 From Survivor: Heroes versus Villains comes an incredibly dumb player by someone who should be a great player. JT was the only player at the time to play a perfect game so he knew the great things that can be done to play a game well to win. This was not one of his bright and shiny moments. This was a very moronic moment. This is why many people hate him and consider him a bad player, although I don’t think that one of Survivor’s worst players would have won the game, especially not the way that JT won the game. Regardless, he was pretty dumb to give his hidden immunity idol to a member of the opposing tribe, that was even called the Villains or more evil tribe. JT’s tribe probably lost the game because of this moment. (I just lost the game. And so did anyone who understands what this comment means.) Poor JT thought that he was helping the last member of a tribe being targeted by an all women’s alliance. Instead, he helped a villain get even stronger.

#1 Okay, so I might end up cheating on this last item on the list. The dumbest move of all time is actually the dumbest player of all time. There is nothing smart that this player did any time he played the game. So I’m giving the award to Brandon for being a horrible player. In both South Pacific and Caramoan, he played the game in a worse way than any other player has. And I was thinking that his uncle was pretty bad at the game. But I was wrong. Brandon is the worst player. Under the pretense of not lying, he lies to everyone about everything. He does very dumb things such as telling people who the target is when they are getting voted out (and that person is the target), making up more lies about players and then getting mad when people figure them out. And the smartest thing he might have ever done was give up immunity to his ally. Wait, that’s not smart at all. When he gave up immunity, he got voted right out of the game. That move culminated and solidified his status as the all time dumbest Survivor player. And the moves he made wrong were the worst moves in the game.

I hope that this list doesn’t contradict any previous list that I did. That’s why I had to switch numbers three and four with each other. I don’t think that the most shocking moments are definitely the dumbest moments of all time. These are the ten that I chose. I’m not sure if I’ll do a reverse list and add numbers 11-20 or not. Hopefully, I can find something good to post about in the future until this coming season airs. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.