Survivor season 35: Producer sheds more light on inaugural immunity competition

Just looking at the photos from Survivor season 35’s premiere, the first immunity seemed fairly simple. It turns out that it’s not.

The photos from the Survivor: Heroes vs. Healers vs. Hustlers premiere seemed to explain the entire context of how tribes would win immunity. Apparently, the interpretation we offered, that more than one puzzle might be involved, is incorrect. That’s according to Entertainment Weekly, which quotes John Kirhoffer, one of the show’s producers, to explain it in full.

First, we also admit we missed a trick. Although the tribes will need to ride a cart down, they will then have to move the table, which may or may not be the one they want to compete on, and solve it somewhere else. It is not a three-table situation.

This is the big reveal Kirhoffer gives: only one tribe will able to be to use each table, so there’s no way that, say, the Healers and Hustlers can both use table 2, and it’s first-come, first-choice. That actually gives more context to one of the photos that EW posts, but that is no longer available in CBS’ photo repository as of this writing. You can see, however, that the Hustlers have table 1. In another photo, it looks  — but this is by no means certain — that the Healers may have table 2 because of the clean corner just visible (assuming the Healers don’t have the endpoint of the table nearer to the stairs), which may mean that the Heroes have table 3.

Watch Survivor on fuboTV: Watch over 67 live sports and entertainment channels (including CBS) with a 7-day FREE trial!

The two photos do clear up what table 1 is, though; it’s a bit more like a pinball table of sorts, with bumper-like wooden pieces that the Hustlers will need to maneuver around.

Thankfully, CBS has provided a photo of the Heroes that does prove there’s no real method of obtaining the balls needed to solve the table puzzles. They’re simply provided up on the platform. It looks like this photo is also taken on the “second tower” EW mentions. Note that there don’t appear to be wheels, and it looks like there’s a movable point in Healer yellow in this photo that the tribes will likely need to set their tables on to move them.

Next: Survivor season 35 cast assessment: Lauren Rimmer

The picture isn’t complete just yet, but with the Survivor premiere next week Wednesday, we’re sure we’ll have it all figured out then.