The Top Ten Best Survivor Twists

Okay, a long time ago, I did my list of the ten worst Survivor twists. So this time, I’ve decided to post what I think are the ten best twists. Originally, I thought that I wouldn’t find enough twist ideas for it to work, but I looked up all the information that I could and I found what I needed to. I have decided what the best ten twists in Survivor are. As much as I loved the outcasts and love Redemption Island, I do not think that I could get away with naming either as the top ten. That could inspire a lot of hate on this blog and I’d rather get no comments (which is something I’m used to) then a whole bunch of hateful comments. With that being said, though, there still might be some controversial picks on this list of mine. Regardless, I’m still going to share with you what I think that the ten best twists that have ever been used in the game are and why I think that.

#10 This twist appeared in Survivor seasons Cook Islands, Fiji, China, Gabon, Samoa, Heroes versus Villains, Nicaragua, Redemption Island, South Pacific, One World, Philippines, Caramoan, and Blood versus Water. Some fans don’t like it that much, for reasons I don’t fully understand. And while seasons without it still sort of have it, I have decided to include it anyways. I’m talking about the final three. They helped bring an end to the bring a goat to the end strategy that was easy to accomplish. (People think that you can still bring two goats to the end, but considering how much harder it is to do, you have to wonder why they take their alliance to the end instead of hated contestants.) While a tie could cause problems potentially, it still seems much better in my mind that three people get to plead their case to the jury instead of just two. It adds another layer to the game and we finally get to see a more interesting final tribal council that is otherwise not part of the game. The reason it isn’t that well received is why I only have it at number ten.

#9 This twist appeared in Survivor Africa alone. It only appeared once in the show and probably never will appear again. That’s a reason why it is so low on the list. But it’s still a favorite of mine and I wish that they still used it instead of methods they use now. I’m talking about the natural quiz tie-breaker. It remains my favorite tie-breaker ever used in the game. And it only appeared once. But it seemed more fair than any other tie-breaker that they’ve ever used. It wasn’t randomly drawing a rock if you weren’t even a part of the tie. It wasn’t random, throwaway votes suddenly becoming important. And while the fire-making tie-breaker is also a great twist, it wasn’t used as often as this one would have been, if it only applied more often to another group of people. All you had to know was natural related trivia related to the area you were playing in. It wasn’t luck based. It wasn’t affected by previous votes. It wasn’t caused by someone flipping during a revote. And this great twist was only ever used once.

#8 This twist appeared in Survivor seasons Samoa and One World. It informally appeared in various other seasons to, but they are generally not counted. It makes the game more fun in a way even if it is unusual. I’m talking about do it yourself challenges. I’ll admit, when they first did it, you’d think that it was strange that only part of the tribe was there. You’d think that they were doing a tribe swap instead, but they weren’t. I love the way it works. The contestants are just doing the challenges themselves and you don’t have annoying Jeff Probst yelling at everyone about what we can see clearly on the show. (That’s the only thing he does that I don’t like, by the way. Well, that and only replying to one of my awesome tweets. And trust me, I always post awesome tweets on twitter. If you don’t believe me, then go on that site and follow @IamAdamDecker to see what great things I’m sure I posted. In case you couldn’t figure it out, I’m joking about most of this.) But it’s nice to see interesting challenges, even if they are unusual like this. And in case you are wondering what else counts as an unofficial do it yourself challenge, look up distress signal on www.survivor.wikia.com or rewatch the fourth episode of Survivor: Palau.

#7 This twist appeared in Survivor seasons All-Stars, Vanuatu, Palau, Guatemala, Cook Islands, Fiji, Micronesia, Gabon, Samoa, Heroes versus Villains, Nicaragua, Redemption Island, South Pacific, One World, Philippines, Caramoan, Blood versus Water, and I even know that it’s in Cagayan. It’s become such a common part of the game, that I’m not sure that a lot of people even consider it a twist. I’m talking about an expanded cast. An expanded cast means more than sixteen players in a single season. I’ve counted the seasons even if the people that made it more than sixteen were returning players. This twist made the show much more interesting and gave the show some more interesting players in the game. I’m not sure if there are any problems with an expanded cast of more players. It is weird to see a medical evacuation and tribal council in the same episode, but I still think that more players in a single season makes the game much more interesting than it already is.

#6 This twist appeared in Survivor seasons Vanuatu, Palau, Guatemala, Cook Islands, Gabon, Heroes versus Villains, and Nicaragua. It almost appeared in Samoa and sort of appeared in Pearl Islands, although I don’t count Pearl Islands as an official appearance of the twist due to the unusual nature in which it appeared. It always seems to help level the playing field. I’m talking about a double tribal council. When it appears, both of the two tribes have to vote a player out. This normally helps during seasons where there is a strong majority tribe that wouldn’t otherwise lose a member. While it is a bit strange to see two different people from two different tribes getting voted out, it is more interesting than seeing the same tribe loose over and over again, which is what typically ends up happening without this twist.

#5 I will not tell you right away what season this twist first appeared yet, because it will be a dead giveaway as to what the twist is. There is currently only one season with the twist so far, although it will probably appear again in the future. Many people were probably against the twist when they heard that it might happen. Some thought that it might ruin Survivor or do even worse things. But it provided us with a great season. I’m talking about blood versus water. Also known as returning players versus their family members, this twist did not destroy relationships that people have had for quite some time. It produced a great season that we otherwise never would have seen. We knew that Pagonging wouldn’t happen in a season like this. I still don’t know if Pagonging is a problem or not. But when I watch the first season this summer (if not sooner), then I’ll let you know my thoughts about it and its lasting impact on the game. I could do a special article about that beforehand, but I’m sure that I’ll keep coming up with articles until February 26, which is when the next season of Survivor premieres. Then you’ll see me constantly rambling about stuff instead of talking about what I should be, such as number five on the list of best twists on the show. I’m not sure how it might reappear in the future or even if it will, but I think that it is great. They might even try it with new players versus their families, but I think that it worked better for us to know who some of the people were. While not every returning player twist works out that well (improving on weak social game is what brought back Coach and Ozzy, that twist not making much sense to anyone), this one does and one other will be on this list as well. This twist is so good (SPOILER ALERT!), they are already considering doing this for the 29^th season, but I don’t know how true that rumor might be and also don’t know much about what will happen in the next two seasons after the upcoming one. (END SPOILER)

#4 This twist appeared in Survivor seasons All-Stars, Philippines, and Cagayan. Since there isn’t much in common between them, you might already know what it is. Survivor started with only two tribes in every season. But then things got interesting when they added a third tribe to the mix. That is why it is on my list of best twists. A third tribe, like other twists mentioned, adds an element to the show not otherwise seen. You get to see two tribes safe from tribal council instead of just one. You can get more out of the game with three tribes than you can with just two. And it hasn’t been used often enough. Hopefully, this coming season will live up to the standards of the previous seasons that had three tribes. They are much better than the four tribes seasons where the high number of tribes only lasted for a few brief episodes as they shuffled more around into the two tribes that we’re more familiar with and used too much. But three tribes work wonders and should appear more often than it has already.

#3 This twist has only appeared in one season. I want it to appear in many future seasons as often as it is needed to. It pretty much defined the opening of the season it appeared in and probably helped make it become the great twist that we remember it is today. I’m talking about returning players who were medically evacuated. While most people hate the idea of one returnee per tribe seasons, I quite enjoyed how this twist made it the people that were pulled unwilling due to medical issues beyond their control. Those are the people that you probably want to return just because it wasn’t really their fault that they were medically evacuated (unless they chose to do that, which I think still counts as a medical evacuation since they wouldn’t want to do that under any normal circumstance). To see them return for another chance at the game is great. Unresolved issues are finally played out again. I constantly update my groupings of how they would return in future seasons should this twist ever be done again. So far, Erik, Bruce, and Joe, the post merge medical evacuations are on one list, and the other two lists get confusing. I could put Mike Borrasi, Shamar, and Gary, the males, in one group while putting Kourtney and Dana, the females, in the other group. Or I could put Gary, Kourtney, and Dana, who never went to tribal council, in one group while putting Mike Borrasi and Shamar, who did go to tribal council, in the other group. Another option would be Mike Borrasi and Gary, the older players, on one list, with Kourtney, Dana, and Shamar, the other three left, on the other list. If I went with the episode they were pulled, Shamar, Dana, and Gary would be on one list and Kourtney and Mike Borrasi, would be on the other list. The three types of players that get medically evacuated on Survivor are strong players, old players, or just random players. If I went by that, Mike Borrasi, Bruce, and Gary would be on the first list of older players. Shamar and Joe would be on the second list of stronger players. Dana, Erik, and Kourtney would be on the third list of random or other players. So, if another player were medically evacuated in this coming season, it would be best for it to be a premerge medical evacuation. A female could easily join Kourtney and Dana. They could join Mike Borrasi and Shamar if they went to tribal council before they were pulled from the game. If it’s an older player, they could join Mike Borrasi and Gary on that list. They could join Mike Borrasi and Kourtney if they were medically evacuated in one of the first three episodes of the season. If it is one of the stronger players, then I might have to put it on the other list I mentioned. There’s a whole tribe of strong players this season, so we have yet to see if one of them will be medically evacuated or not. If they ever do this twist again, I don’t know how many tribes there will be. But hopefully, they do, because if they don’t do a second chances season ever, then they at least need to bring back medically evacuated players on a one returnee per tribe season. Hopefully, they can all be as great as Survivor Philippines was.

#2 This twist appeared in Survivor seasons Samoa, Nicaragua, Redemption Island, South Pacific, One World, Philippines, Caramoan, and Blood versus Water. It is the exact opposite of a bad twist that I mentioned earlier, although I forget where I ranked that in my bottom ten worst Survivor twists. Regardless, they introduced a better format to the game that goes hand in hand with the expanded cast twist. I don’t know why it didn’t appear sooner than the nineteenth season, but I’m glad that it is now a regular part of the game. I’m talking about an early merge. I don’t know if early merge typically refers to the day of the game which it occurs (although I’m not that familiar with which days are happening in which episodes ever since they got rid of the standard three days is one episode seasons) or if it simply refers to the number of players still left in the game. Either way, an early merge makes the game better and more than likely prevents an Ulong situation where they lose so many challenges that they don’t have a merge since only one player is left in the game. There is then more post merge to enjoy in the game and all sorts of craziness in the individual game itself as opposed to the tribal part of the game which isn’t always good depending on how much one tribe was dominating in the game before. I enjoy nice chances to the game that help improve it, and the early merge is definitely one of them.

#1 Okay, I’ve probably already mentioned my love for this twist in the past. I’ve already told you what I thought the best twist in Survivor history is. In fact, it has appeared in more seasons than it hasn’t, depending on how you classify it. The seasons it appeared on is Africa, Marquesas, Amazon, All-Stars, Vanuatu, Guatemala, Panama, Cook Islands, Fiji, China, Micronesia, Gabon, Nicaragua, One World, Caramoan, Blood versus Water, and will more than likely appear in this coming season. I’m talking about the tribe swap. Best twist ever. It has since come from a meeting of three different tribe mates from both tribes in the third season to a welcomed part of the game that many people come to expect. I love how it redefines tribe lines and shakes up the whole game. While some ways they’ve done it are better than others, I definitely think that it is great regardless of how it appears. A shake-up in the game is always a good way of keeping people on their toes about what’s next and coming up in the future. This is why I have it listed as the best twist in Survivor history.

I hope that you enjoyed this blog post of mine. My apologies if I spoiled something that might not even be true that you didn’t want to know. I hope that my friends do more of their podcast soon because they haven’t finished doing the last season and haven’t even started with info for any future season. Sorry that this wasn’t posted on Wednesday because I ran out of time that day and figured that with only one day out of the week to update my blog, I should have enough information to keep doing posts until the new season starts on February 28^th. Hopefully, I’m done with all the posts that I promised to post. I will do a cast assessment this season and hope that one of the readers of this blog will post a link to the TV guide preview of the new season because I don’t have much information to go on regarding where I’d rank the contestants. But I would post it the Sunday before the new season starts. Remember that Lent will be happening so some of my posts will be a bit late and hopefully I don’t have any problems regarding cats when I try to eat breakfast and watch the show in the morning. And I’ll post more information about whether I can still do updates normally here or if neither google nor the NSA care about my blog posting problem. Since it’s easily resolved, I’m not sure that I care that much myself. I just hope that what I tried to do works. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.