Survivor season 35 early boots test out episode 8’s Reward Challenge

In what is a series first, the Survivor season 35, Heroes vs. Healers vs. Hustlers, boots test out one of the game’s upcoming Reward Challenges.

There’s a surprising amount of downtime for players before and after their tour of Survivor duty. Press interviews, preparations, sitting at Ponderosa while not talking to fellow competitors for days before the competition starts; that all happens before the game even starts! There’s even more downtime if you’re one of the first ones out of the game, as the pre-jury players sit around at Ponderosa until the jury gets the place to themselves.

To pass the time, Jeff Probst and Survivor challenge producer John Kirhoffer did something that has never been done in the game’s history; bring back the early boots in order to test out a future challenge that remaining players will have to compete in. The behind-the-scenes video debuted over at The Hollywood Reporter, with Katrina Radke, Simone Nguyen, Patrick Bolton, Alan Ball and Roark Luskin playing as one team against the Dream Team challenge testers.

They competed in the Survivor season 35 episode 8 Reward Challenge named “Air Raid.” Players will form teams of five so they may race to the top of a tower and fire sandbags at five targets. The first team to knock down all their targets wins. It’s not a rare or unusual challenge, as it has been replicated in some way or another for the past few years.

Regardless, seeing Katrina Radke actually do something related to Survivor is a startling scene, plus it gives the players an opportunity to reflect upon their short time in the game and still involve themselves in the game’s production. All of the players would do it again, despite being cut short of possible greatness.

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The reward itself hasn’t been revealed, but THR called it “delicious.” We’ll have to see just how enticing the reward for this challenge will be when Survivor season 35 episode 8, “Playing with the Devil,” airs on November 15 at 8 p.m. ET.