Although we’ve referred to the third tribe of Survivor: Game Changers as Tavua, it appears that that memo didn’t reach the merchandise department.
Spelling in Survivor can be a little hard sometimes. Ditto with unscrambling words. (Anyone else still remember “A Reward With All the Fixin’s” as a word puzzle from Worlds Apart? The one that took over an hour to complete?) But that makes sense: the players don’t always eat a lot, and handling puzzles like that can require some extra energy. There’s a reason Jeff Probst has to tell them that they need to dig deep as one of his other things he says every season. (He even mentioned this in WA when he was trying to get them to complete the puzzle. Yes, Probst is self-aware.)
But it seems to us that perhaps the merchandising department is also digging deep. You see, every season, CBS releases some items that Survivor superfans can pick up to add to their collections. This season’s crop includes some T-shirts featuring the names of the three tribes: Mana, Nuku, and Tavua.
This tribal gear is game changing. Get Your Tribal T-Shirts Now: https://t.co/Z54rA4yHTS #Survivor pic.twitter.com/SUPA8n6omy
— SURVIVOR (@survivorcbs) March 30, 2017
Look at that black tee on the right. Wait, Tavau?
(Before you ask, official CBS press releases like this one spell it as Tavua, and that’s the spelling the show itself uses.)
Thinking that the Survivor shop may have recognized its error since advertising the shirts, we took a look at the shop today:
And nope, it still looks like you can purchase shirts for Tavau instead. Indeed, the spelling error even makes it down into the listing of the products’ names! Heading to the landing page for the first T-shirt shows that Tavau has made it into the description as well.
Presumably, someone will eventually notice the mistake and order up new T-shirts, which would probably make the Tavau shirts collectors’ items.
Has anyone ordered the T-shirt? Does it actually say Tavau instead of Tavua? Let us know in the comments below.
Next: Survivor: Game Changers Changed Debbie's Meltdown
Survivor: Game Changers will air its sixth episode this Wednesday, April 5.