Survivor: Should show incorporate ‘last goodbyes’ into premieres?

Australian Survivor is set to premiere with their 2017 season and showed players’ last goodbyes, but is this something the American show should use?

One of the aspects that has always made Survivor special is the characters that we see develop. Yes, this is the case in most reality shows, even other competition shows. However, few have the elements that the Jeff Probst-hosted phenomenon does in terms of how character can be revealed. The best seasons of the show through the first 34 are those where the characters are strong, an almost unanimous truth.

However, if there’s been a complaint in some recent seasons, it’s been the lacking character development. Part of that may be in regards to the returnee seasons that have frequented the CBS airwaves of late, most notably with the most recent season, Game Changers.

Though this is just inference and assumption, the thought process would seem logical. When you have returning players, longtime fans should recognize them and know who they are. And if you’re a longtime fan, that’s likely the case. At the same time, however, that doesn’t help out new fans, nor does it do any good if players weren’t necessarily evolved as characters when they previously appeared on Survivor.

Again, Game Changers served as a fine example of all of this. 20 returning Survivor players competed in season 34. Some of them — Cirie Fields, Sandra Diaz-Twine, Ozzy Lusth, among others — needed little introduction. However, when it came to others, most notably eventual winner Sarah Lacina, we got very little insight into who they were as people. Yes, we saw how they were in the game, but the intrigue of the show is a human element.

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In stark contrast to this past season in America, Australian Survivor is set to premiere it’s 2017 season on Sunday, July 30. In preparation, they’re giving sneak peeks at the castaways saying goodbye to their loved ones:

Saying bye to your family'is the first of many tough challenges our Survivors face. Here's Mark's emotional farewell 😢 #SurvivorAU pic.twitter.com/6wjjLoBhCH
— SurvivorAU (@Survivor_AU) July 26, 2017

Even if you’ve never seen anything about the upcoming season, you know a bit about Mark. That moment humanizes him in a way that the game otherwise wouldn’t, which is a big deal. As such, that begs the question: should the American version of the show incorporate this?

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We’ve seen something similar in both Blood vs. Water seasons in years past. With the Day Zero twist, a player and their loved one get profiled a bit by spending a day together surviving before the tribal divisions occur. In doing so, those seasons have some quite memorable characters, largely based on the fact that we get to see them interacting outside of the game play.

However, seeing the last goodbyes might even be more effective. In a completely hypothetical scenario, imagine a player who is quite stoic and strong in saying goodbye to their family. But after some 20 days in the game of Survivor, they start to break down emotionally. Now an emotional breakdown is always somewhat hard to watch as viewers. That being said, it’s a far more powerful moment if you have the last goodbye juxtaposed alongside it.

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At the very least, last goodbyes is something that American Survivor should experiment with. As stated, there’s a similar precedent with the Day Zero twist. However, for a show that’s always adapting and evolving, this seems like a natural evolution to help create more fully fledged characters on the show.