One of Survivor’s winners and another of its first boots actually got their start on The Amazing Race: San Juan Del Sur’s Natalie and Nadiya Anderson.
Way back when, Rob and Amber proved that CBS could cross-pollinate its casts for The Amazing Race from Survivor. After that, though, things went dormant for the TAR and Survivor connection for quite some time. (There was, of course, a Big Brother interlude with Hayden Mears going on the first Blood vs. Water with Kat Edorsson of One World.) But then came the “twinnies.”
And they used the word “twinnie” a lot, so let’s face it: Natalie and Nadiya Anderson sparked opinions when they first appeared on The Amazing Race‘s 21st season, whether you liked how competitive they were or not.
In season 21, Natalie and Nadiya played a game that had a lot of strategy — but also showed them playing a pretty social game, too. They picked up money that had been lost by another team. They convinced other teams to help them engineer a near-certain elimination in a game where, as we noted when we talked about Rob and Amber, you can’t actually vote anyone out. (The only guaranteed way to survive the race is to not come in last ever, barring any injuries.) But at the same time, they got along with other teams.
In terms of airing, the twins’ second run at The Amazing Race aired ahead of Survivor: San Juan del Sur. Their all-star appearance on TAR didn’t end well — they didn’t even make it to episode 2 of the series. But those opinions kept rolling, and so it seemed natural that they made it onto San Juan del Sur, which had the Blood vs. Water theme again. (It helped make up for the fact that Survivor repeated the theme in season 29 after first using it in season 27.)
If you’ve seen San Juan del Sur, you know that the Survivor production probably lost its collective mind when they realized that Nadiya was the first boot and Natalie went on to win. Even though Survivor has told all kinds of stories since the very beginning, that’s the kind of storyline you can’t engineer. You can only hope to just capture it accurately.
Fortunately, since she made it to 12th place on our list of best Survivor winners, the production seems to have done its job. As my colleague wrote:
"“Natalie Anderson took to heart the modern gameplay style of making friends early, keeping low and turning it up with subtle moves…”"
Subtle moves, you say? Like the one she pulled on TAR? Yup. Natalie Anderson might have gotten her start on that side of the CBS reality world, but we’d like to submit the argument that she’s an even better Survivor player, as evidenced by the fact that she won a million-dollar check from that and not the other. Can you imagine how Game Changers would have turned out with her on the cast, as she was supposed to be?
Next: Survivor and TAR: Rob and Amber
If there ever is an all-winners season, Natalie needs a spot. And if Survivor ever gets really weird and does a season of first eliminations, Nadiya should get a second chance of her own. We know we recommended you watch Rob and Amber’s debut season of TAR to get into the series as a Survivor fan, but if you can’t stand standard definition, season 21 of TAR might just be your best bet.