Survivor: Game Changers: 3 Questions Going into the Season Premiere

Since Survivor: Game Changers premieres tonight, we have a few burning questions that we hope will be answered in the episode.

We have finally made it. After what felt like a ridiculously long off-season, Survivor returns to television screens tonight with its 500th episode and the premiere of its 34th season: Game Changers. What better way to celebrate a milestone like that than kicking off a season of returning players? That question doesn’t count as one of our three, by the way. No, these questions below are ones we still don’t know about what’s to come in two hours tonight, despite having a synopsis already.

How Many Tribal Councils Will We See?

Generally speaking, Survivor double episodes are just that: two episodes smooshed together with two Tribal Councils and two eliminations. However, there is some precedent for a season premiere to have two hours and not show two eliminations. It only seems appropriate to refer back to Heroes vs. Villains, which falls into the latter category. With so many excellent players, it may actually be better to only show the first three days of the game. That means more time for confessionals and more time to show alliances starting to form.

At the same time, though, noted Survivor spoiler Martin Holmes (Redmond) has suggested that there will actually be two boots in this episode. Based on the already-released first seven minutes of the episode, we know one of the boots probably won’t be the old first impressions vote.

It seems too early to bring in another tradition of having both tribes going to Tribal Council as well. That’s usually deployed in the middle of the pre-merge phase of the game. Then again, we are on Game Changers. Perhaps if there’s a Reward Challenge, it’ll be the chance to sit in on the opposite tribe’s session with Jeff Probst.

What About Alliances?

Some of the strongest alliances in Survivor came into being during the very first three days of the game, including Rob Mariano and the then Amber Brkich’s alliance on All-Stars. With the Game Changers cast full of people who, if nothing else, will play the game, to borrow the words of Ciera Eastin (who also voted out her mom, if you don’t recall), it seems like a safe bet to guess that there will be a lot of wheeling and dealing as soon as both Mana and Nuku hit their respective beaches.

We’ve speculated early and often about potential alliance partners for everyone in our cast assessments, like this one for Hali Ford, but let’s face it: the game can dictate alliances more than personalities do.

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The synopsis also suggests that clashes will start early and often, and the easiest way to make sure you can take someone else out before they can take you out is to make alliances and gather up your numbers. With 10 people on each tribe, ties are very much possible during that first Tribal Council. Who knows? We might have Probst explaining the new tiebreaking rules to us within the first hour of the season.

Will There be Separate Reward Challenges?

If it’s true that we’re going to see two eliminations tonight, it seems likely that we won’t have separate Reward Challenges on top of the presumed two Immunity Challenges. We already know what the first Immunity Challenge will look like (spoilers: there’s water and a puzzle involved. Shocking, right?). However, Survivor and CBS have kept pretty mum on what we’ll actually see when it comes to that promised second hour.

Additionally, in those first seven minutes, Probst did emphasize that they’re going back to Borneo for this year’s season opener, and the very first episode actually did combine the Reward and Immunity Challenges. Then again, the show has gone back and forth between separating and combining lately. Maybe we’ll just split the difference and suggest we’ll see one Reward Challenge in between the two Immunities.

Next: Check Out the Game Changers Opening Credits

Survivor: Game Changers premieres tonight. What do you hope to see in tonight’s episode?