Australian Survivor might set the stage for David vs. Goliath tribes

Despite the underdog dynamics, Australian Survivor: Champions vs. Contenders is showing us what David vs. Goliath might look like; a massive imbalance.

This post will discuss Australian Survivor as of its first ten episodes.

Survivor is best when you can see one of a few number of players reasonably capable of winning a season when you reach the merge. Part of that usually comes in tribal balance, as when things become too one-sided in eliminations it becomes a tad predictable for who could possibly win. The underdog story is a crucial element to the game at its best, and David vs. Goliath projects to be.

That made Australian Survivor: Champions vs. Contenders an interesting bit of a dry run, as it pit 12 everyday Australians against champions of their field, including athletes on both tribes. Some of the champions include an astrophysicist, a swimming legend in her 60s, a judge and a prolific, non-athletic poker player, so it’s not like it was a “Nerds vs. Jocks” division.

That said, with 10 players voted out of the game so far (one of them returning to the game after competing in an “Exile Beach” challenge), the tribal power balance has decidedly stayed in favor of the Champions tribe. The tribe has also gone to four-straight Tribal Councils, inner-tribe trust is at an all-time low, they don’t work as a team and were also subject to the first case of a player using an idol to omit all votes but their own via idol in a pre-jury tribe.

Meanwhile, the Champions have been working mostly as a team while also having players build relationships amongst each other. Thankfully, by the grace of producers finally bringing some semblance of balance to the game, the tribes will swap next week, as the 9-6 numbers balance would definitely prove too much heading into a merge.

The main question for US Survivor fans remains this; will we see this kind of tribal imbalance in David vs. Goliath?

I’d like to think not, as the tribes (of what we’ve seen so far) for David and Goliath aren’t divided by physical prowess or intelligent acumen. Bi Nguyen, an MMA fighter, is on the David tribe, and Mike White (aka Ned Schneebly in School of Rock) is on the Goliath tribe, so it does so that the tribal divisions will mostly be based on life standing.

However, the narrative might play into how the tribes act as a unit. For example, the Champions from Australia have very much been proving their worth, and are fighting for reputation as a team and their worthiness of being a champion. For the Davids, it’s about personal accomplishment over the establishment, and that may push players to take a more personal approach in order to rise up.

Something that Survivor has going for it is that the producers know when to swap tribes. Some may argue that they swap too often in recent seasons, but the alternative of having one tribe become decimated three weeks into the game and finally swap after four-straight Immunity Challenge losses is way worse.

With episode one airing in just over a month, we’ll have to find out if David vs. Goliath is anything like how Australian Survivor: Champions vs Contenders has gone so far. September 26 cannot come soon enough!