It’s rare for Survivor not to be nominated for a Television Critics Association award for reality programming, but it happened this year.
For those covering Survivor, the latest year of the show has been extraordinarily tough. First, Heroes vs. Healers vs. Hustlers was a total snore until the final third of the season and was only buoyed by the fact Ben idolled his way to victory with the help of a production twist given at the Final Four. Following that up, Ghost Island sent players home in a predictable fashion and made it all about Dom and Wendell all the way through to the end.
Even our fans here at Surviving Tribal rated Ghost Island as just an “okay” season, with the consensus that it’s the 22nd-26th-best season and 52% ranking it between 22nd-36th place. It’s clear that the show is in a bit of a rut lately, and the Television Critics Association has been paying attention, as well.
The 34th TCA Award nominations were released yesterday, and Survivor was not nominated for Outstanding Achievement in Reality. It’s just the second time in the past six ceremonies that the show wasn’t nominated in the category, as previous season noms include Game Changers, Cambodia and seasons aired in 2014 and 2013.
There are some strong contenders for the category that has knocked a stagnant Survivor out of the running. Two separate baking competitions (The Great British Baking Show on PBS, Nailed It! on Netflix), Project Runway, RuPaul’s Drag Race and the Queer Eye revival show a fairly particular pattern that the television critics have deemed compelling in 2018.
Next: Survivor: Ranking 35 seasons
Since the category has only been open since the 2010-2011 television season (well before Heroes vs. Villains aired), Survivor has never won the award. At the current rate that the show is going, it would seem to be a long ways away from the Television Critics Association hands them the award. Perhaps an all-winner season could provide the entertainment necessary to garner critical interest once more.