Introduction

Survivor is a reality competition tv show that pits teams against each other in challenges and games in order to win a cash prize. These contestants are on an island and have to also survive in the natural conditions during the game as well as watching their backs against the other contestants, as 2 people get voted out at the end of every episode. This show was recently recommended to me and I have become an immediate fan. The show has just started its 41st season, first aired in 2000, and every week I’ll be here giving you the rundown on the episodes and some of my thoughts. 

Episode 1: A New Era

The new season of Survivor starts on a barge off of an island in Fiji; this is the island that the game will take place on. We meet the 3 teams, called “tribes”, that are taking part in the game on this barge. The three tribe names are Ua (Green), Luvu (Blue), and Yase (Yellow). The first game of the new season is for the different teams to find 6 hidden oars on the barge, unlock rowboats from anchors in the water, then row out to a buoy and back. The reward for this challenge is flint, an easy tool to start a fire with. This challenge was swiftly won by the Ua (Green) tribe, and the other two tribes had to go to the island without an easy way to start a fire. On the island, you get to meet all of the contestants (List at the bottom). The two losing tribes have to both do punishment tasks for losing the first game at the barge. They have to pick two of their members to carry water from the ocean and fill 2 large oil drums, but they only have small buckets to fill the barrels with. This task is very time-consuming, and while both tribes finished, it physically exhausted the 4 people involved in it.

After this is the immunity challenge. The winners of this challenge are given immunity for this round of eliminations, and the 2 losing tribes must vote 1 person off of the island each. To put the challenge simply; you have to go through an obstacle course, carry a bunch of heavy puzzle pieces up a ladder, and then build the puzzle on the table at the top of the hill. The green and yellow tribes both made it to the top to start building the puzzle, and the blue tribe made a very surprising and impressive comeback to win the challenge in the end. The yellow tribe had bad puzzle-building skills, and the green tribe had a contestant named “Sara” who had forgotten to take all of the puzzle pieces out, and it led to the yellow team losing.

So… the blue tribe was safe from eliminating anyone, and green and yellow tribes both had to vote someone off of their tribe and subsequently off of the island.

To find out what happens next week, tune in to watch Survivor on CBS at 7 p.m. on Wednesday nights, or for next week’s recap on the episode.