Survivor: What happens when you find an idol early?

Just two episodes into Survivor: David vs. Goliath and already two Hidden Immunity Idols have been found. How have past Survivor players fared after finding an idol this early?

Dan Rengering on the Goliath tribe found the first idol of Survivor: David vs. Goliath within the first three days. Davie from the David tribe discovered his idol just a few days later. However, the way they are managing their Hidden Immunity Idols is completely different.

While Davie hasn’t said a word about his idol, four people from the Goliath tribe already know about Dan’s idol. Either way, having a Hidden Immunity Idol within the first six days is a great way to start Survivor. Let’s take a look at how Survivor players in the past fared after finding an idol early on in the season.

22 Survivor contestants have found an idol within the first two episodes. Finding an idol during the first six days isn’t something new and happens almost once every season. Only three of those players have not made the merge. That means over 86% of the time, castaways who find an idol early at least get a spot on the jury. Great odds for Dan and Davie!

One of the three who got voted off early was Kristina Kell from Redemption Island.  Kristina suffered from her idol getting exposed as well as her plan to blindside Boston Rob getting blown up. Needless to say, she didn’t last very long.

The other two early exits were Garrett Adelstein from Cagayan and John Rocker from San Juan del Sur. Both were overconfident with their place in the tribe and left with their idol in their pocket, or even back at camp!

If anyone could suffer this fate from Survivor David vs. Goliath, my bet is on Dan. Four people already know about his idol, including members who aren’t part of his alliance. Plus he’s shown how careless he is with his idol, by simply hiding it in his sock. The next episode will be key in seeing how Dan’s idol will impact his place in the tribe.

12 out of 22 players with an early idol have reached the Final Four! Yes, over half of the castaways who found a Hidden Immunity Idol within the first two episodes made it to the last episode! Eight of them reached Final Tribal and two of those eight won the title of Sole Survivor (Tony and Yul).

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David Wright from Millenials vs. Gen X, Tai from Game Changers, and even Russell Hantz from Samoa used their early idol to better their position in their alliance. I think that’s something Dan must be willing to do in order to retain the idol’s power. If he can use his idol to form a majority alliance within the Goliath tribe, I think he’ll be able to fight it out till the merge. Also, Domenick Abbate from Ghost Island showed us how it is possible to still go far in the game even when a lot of people are talking about your idol.

As for Davie, even though he hasn’t told anyone about his yet, it does appear that he might be on the wrong side of the numbers following Jessica’s vote out. We’ll have to see if Davie decides to save his idol for the just the opportune time like Wentworth did in Second Chance and Troyzan in Game Changers.  Or if Davie feels that he would need to show his idol to a few tribe members, in order to build their trust as Russell did.

Survivor history is definitely on Dan and Davie’s side. In the coming weeks, we’ll see if they can add to the favorable odds of turning an early idol into a successful run.