Most Survivor Fans Are Happy With Season 48’s Winner, But I’d Like To File A Complaint

One of the most complained about seasons in recent memory came to an end last night, and for the most part, the Survivor fanbase seemed pretty happy with the result. Teacher turned lawyer Kyle won Season 48 in not-exactly-dominating-but-still-pretty-comfortable fashion, via a 5-2-1 split jury vote. I’m happy for Kyle and think he was a deserving enough winner, but I need to file a complaint about Joe finishing in 3rd place because, to me, it’s very symbolic of what I see as a major problem with Survivor’s casting process.

Before I get into why it bothers me so much, let’s quickly recap Joe’s season. He was widely considered the leader of the so-called Strong 5 alliance, which outwardly dominated the back half of the game. He put up four individual immunity wins and voted with the majority for the person who went home at every single post-merge tribal council, including the big vote where they turned on David. Throughout the entire game, he only received one vote against him, despite being part of a very public duo and being talked about by other players as a huge threat.

Throw in the fact that he’s a likeable firefighter who formed strong emotional bonds, and he seems to have played a game good enough to win. Instead, he got one vote. He finished last at Final Tribal, and it’s not because he rubbed the other players the wrong way. It’s because Survivor now almost exclusively casts superfans, and superfans are, for the most part, obsessed with splashy moves, whether they make any logical sense or not.

There are two big knocks against Joe, at least if you listen to Survivor fans on social media. The first is that he didn’t have a good strategic resume because he didn’t engineer any big moves. The second is that Kyle tricked him and Eva into voting out Shauhin by lying and saying he was flipping and had an idol. Let me address each of those accusations, however, because I just don’t see them the same way at all.

Joe didn’t make any big moves on Survivor because he didn’t have to make any big moves. Superfans are obsessed with blindsides and the big WTF reactions that a sneaky, unexpected vote can create, but there’s no reason to make those moves if you’re in control of the majority alliance. The point of Survivor is to get enough people to vote with you in order to eliminate other players. Joe had that the entire back half of the game, and despite being considered the obvious leader and most obvious threat, he was never in serious danger of getting voted out. Why would he proactively change that? What’s the point of making a move if it increases your chances of getting voted out?

Should Richard Hatch have proactively voted out Sue or Rudy just so he had a shocking blindside on his resume? No. That would have made absolutely no sense, but because Survivor only casts superfans now who view the game through a superfan lens of loving big moves, that’s increasingly becoming the go-to winning strategy on Survivor. There’s no better evidence of that than Kyle and Kamilla’s big move, which only makes sense from a jury management standpoint if the jury is stocked with people obsessed with the show.

Let’s talk about what Kyle and Kamilla actually did. With six people left, they didn’t get rid of Joe, the leader, because he had immunity. They didn’t get rid of his number two (Eva), the one player everyone knew he wanted to bring to the finals with him who had a public advantage in her pocket. Instead, they tricked him into voting out the person he cared about least in his four person alliance (Shauhin), exclusively so they could tell the jury they got him to believe a lie. That was the entire plan. His second best friend tricked him into voting out his third best friend so they could bring it up later as a gotcha moment.

I mean… well played, I guess, but in real terms, what does Joe even lose by Shauhin being gone? Shauhin was ready to flip on him, and he didn’t care about getting to the finals with him. He only cared about protecting Eva. His entire goal the whole season was to get to the finals with Eva, and he did exactly that. And it only got him one vote?

Look: Kyle is a sharp guy who had some big moments on Survivor this season. I find him to be extremely likeable, and his big move worked exactly as intended. The jury ate up the fact that he tricked Joe and Eva, and he was able to use that and a few other moves to paint himself as a far more strategic player. He knew what the jurors were looking for, and he gave them exactly that. Fair play to him. I’m not saying he didn’t deserve to win. This is modern Survivor.

Instead, what I’m saying is maybe we’re losing something with Survivor’s current obsession with casting players who really, really care about Survivor. The game is changing and evolving, specifically because superfans are trying to impress each other, and that leads to gameplay decisions in which it’s a better option to trick the perceived frontrunner into believing something inaccurate than working the votes to actually get rid of them.

I’m in on Kyle as a winner. I’m just not so sure I’m in on what his win means about where the show is going as it heads toward its highly anticipated 50th season.