Survivor Winners Are Early Survivor Game Changers Targets

The 20 castaways competing on SURVIVOR this season, themed "Game Changers", when the Emmy Award-winning series returns for its 34th season with a special two-hour premiere, Wednesday, March 8 (8:00-10:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network. The season premiere marks the 500th episode. Photo: Robert Voets/CBS ©2017 CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
The 20 castaways competing on SURVIVOR this season, themed "Game Changers", when the Emmy Award-winning series returns for its 34th season with a special two-hour premiere, Wednesday, March 8 (8:00-10:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network. The season premiere marks the 500th episode. Photo: Robert Voets/CBS ©2017 CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Asking everybody on Survivor Game Changers to vote out a player before the game begins, more than half the votes are for the three former winners.

One of the worst parts about Survivor All-Stars back in the day was the underlying notion that past winners were the first targets to go. That latent bitterness derailed a lot of the potential fun that season could have been, with the focus shifting to the blossoming love connection between Boston Rob and Amber.

Survivor Game Changers will see three former winners compete for the million dollar prize, but if unofficial early votes ahead of the game’s official start are any indication, those who have won may already have a huge target on their backs.

Since the official February 8 reveal of the Survivor Game Changers full cast list, Dalton Ross of Entertainment Weekly has been providing interviews of each of the 20 castaways. On his Instagram account, he’s also been asking each of his interview subjects to vote their first person out that they wish, if they could.

Without knowing tribal lines or even speaking to any of the other players, after 20 interviews, here is the final tally for Survivor Game Changers early votes. Each vote includes the people who voted for them in order of reveal.

  • 7 for Tony Vlachos (Hali, Tai, Sierra, J.T., Varner, Andrea, Troyzan)
  • 5 for Sandra Diaz-Twine (Caleb, Aubry, Tony, Cirie, Sarah)
  • 2 for Cirie Fields (Malcolm, Ozzy)
  • 1 for Troyzan Robertson (Brad)
  • 1 for Aubry Bracco (Sandra)
  • 1 for J.T. Thomas (Zeke)
  • 1 for Andrea Boehlke (Debbie)
  • 1 for Ciera Eastin (Michaela)
  • 1 for Sierra Dawn Thomas (Ciera)

More from Season 34 Game Changers

As you can see, 13 of the 20 available votes went to either Tony, Sandra, or J.T. in this fun little exercise. Of course, with the tribes split into ten apiece and most pre-game plans usually being thrown out the window immediately, it’s just to show what the players of Survivor Game Changers are thinking before anyone talks to each other.

Interestingly enough, because of J.T.’s massive blunder in handing Russell Hantz an idol in Heroes vs. Villains, he’s fairly under the radar considering his abilities in the game. He doesn’t have Stephen Fishbach to help him out this time around, but he can still bring it in challenges and make the social connections he needs to be a huge threat. This may factor into boot list preparations.

In addition to the overwhelming winner jealousy, there were some other interesting comments made on some of the votes. For example, “F— You” Brad Culpepper noted his curse out and what silly name Troyzan is in his vote. Debbie remains salty and thinks Andrea is treating Survivor like it’s a Playboy shoot (rude). Ciera wants there to only be one of her namesake by voting out Sierra. Finally, Zeke just can’t handle J.T.’s dreaminess.

Next: Survivor Game Changers: Jeff Probst Confirms Change in Voting

We’ll have to wait until “The Stakes Have Been Raised” brings forth the beginning of Survivor Game Changers on March 8 at 8 PM ET to see who ends up leaving first and who ends up Surviving Tribal.