One of the youngest to ever play this game, Michael Yerger enters Survivor Ghost Island super accomplished in opportunity, but not in life experience.
Usually, Survivor doesn’t like to cast teenagers to play their game. For someone to get chosen at such a young age amongst thousands of people who send in their applications means they carry themselves with the gravitas of someone a fair bit older. Michael Yerger enters Survivor Ghost Island as both a model and a real estate agent, acting every bit the hustler that would have got him cast a season earlier.
His CBS bio is barebones and speaks to how fresh he is to adult life. His personal claim to fame comes in the form of becoming an Eagle Scout for the Boy Scouts of America; the highest achievement rank possible. His hobbies include “luxury and exotics cars” and “concerts/festivals.” The three things he could wish onto the island are “hot sauce, boomerang, skittles.”
None of these facets discredit his ability to win the game, as another young model has already won Survivor in Nicaragua (Fabio Birza). However, it does put Michael a bit behind the 8-ball, as the frame of reference he has about his life comes from someone who’s striven to achieve personal success. In this game, you need to consider the wide variety of peoples’ perspective, as well as how they meld/collide together after several rounds of play.
Must Read: Survivor Winners: Ranking All 34 Sole Survivors By Season
If there’s a player under 20 who has historically got most of their life figured out entering the game, it would be Survivor Ghost Island’s Michael Yerger. The guy looks like he’s 23 years old, and that’s the age he’ll play up to in this season, as indicated in his introduction video. At the very least, he knows the game well enough to gauge others’ perspective of him as a youthful player, so playing up his age is already the first winning move in a series of moves necessary to get to the end.
Luckily for him, if strength is an early factor for the Malolo tribe, Michael will be able to carry his team for the first few rounds. Brendan and James qualify as the stronger players outside of him, although his social skills are an unknown quality at this time. He insists he’s rather ho-hum and doesn’t cause drama, so perhaps that will keep him afloat until a tribe swap.
Related Story: Survivor Ghost Island cast: Brendan Shapiro is ready to hold up the sky
Jeff Probst seems to think he’s super likable, so perhaps he can charm his way into people making an alliance with him as opposed to the other way around. His youthful inexperience works as a double-edged sword in that regard, as he doesn’t fear the unknown aspects of social plays and faux-pas’. At the same time, he’s prepared to lie, cheat and steal in this game, although perhaps unprepared for the consequences that follow.
With all the younger players on this cast, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Michael follow through on his promise to use flirtation to further himself in this game. It’s a gameplay tactic brought up by Morgan Ricke (only flirting is approved by her boyfriend), but I could imagine Michael falling into a legitimate showmance with another player. Not to the levels of a Parvati using strictly for gameplay, but slightly above the Big Brother levels of striving for a hashtag.
Next: Survivor: Ranking 34 seasons
Michael Yerger is certainly one of the most interesting teenagers we’ve seen in Survivor history due to just how young he is contrasted to what he’s accomplished professionally. However, his eager competitiveness could spell a merge/early post-merge boot if he doesn’t pick on the intricacies of a gameplay-dynamic season such as Survivor Ghost Island.