Survivor David vs. Goliath: The three best challenge ideas

Survivor: David vs. Goliath did a good job of mixing innovative challenge ideas with old classics. What were some of the best challenge ideas of the season?

When you think of challenges from Survivor: David vs. Goliath, one probably pops in your mind. That epic six-hour battle between Christian and Alec that kept the audience enthralled during every second of it! However, that was a challenge idea we have seen twice before. There wasn’t a ton of completely new ideas this season, but there were a few great ones. Here are three of them:

Roll Away the Dew (Episode 9 Immunity)

There are some well-made, fun Survivor challenges that make you want to get up and try them. This was one of them. Although the entire challenge isn’t a completely new concept, the final stage presented a ball maze like no other. The castaways had to maneuver their balls into three slots along a fairly narrow track.

What was interesting about this maze is that you had to be careful not to knock out one of the balls you already landed earlier in the course. Based on the results, it didn’t look like an easy maze at all. Only Alec, who is a challenge beast, was able to calmly roll and balance all three balls in all three slots. I would love to see this portion of the challenge return! To see it again, click this link. 

Dishwalla (Episode 6 Immunity)

While the previous challenge was one that looked appealing to try, this one is the total opposite. Once again, this isn’t a completely new idea, as a tribe carrying a leaking barrel through an obstacle course has been done several times before. Only this time, instead of a compact, wooden barrel, the castaways had to carry a large, concrete saucer. This was one of the most unique looking props of this season and added an interesting twist to make this challenge more difficult.

The goal is to load up the saucer with as much water as possible and maneuver it through an obstacle course in order to fill up a well. When the well is full, the tribe will unlock puzzle pieces and the first two to solve it wins immunity. The problem is that lifting and carrying this heavy saucer is no joke. In this challenge, we watched as the Jabeni tribe painfully failed at this challenge, scrapping their hands badly. It would be cool to see this come back once every few seasons.

Ring Leader (Episode 7 Immunity)

Hands down, this was the most creative and brilliant challenge idea of the season! It boggles my mind to think of how production could have thought of such a unique idea. By means of momentum, the castaways were tasked with swinging a pendulum around a metal frame.

After Jeff explained the rules to this brand new challenge, I didn’t think a challenge of this stature could work. I thought that maintaining momentum around that narrow of an obstacle would be too difficult. However, once the castaways got into a rhythm, they had no problem with this challenge. I would love to see this innovative challenge again, maybe even every other season.