Survivor Edge of Extinction: The Lesu 3 are approaching the history books

The Lesu 3 have been on the exact same page for eight Tribal Councils in a row now, which isn’t an easy feat in modern or even old school Survivor.

How difficult is it for a group of three castaways to consistently vote together? It’s easy to think of strong Survivor pairings that voted together for the entire game, like Dom and Wendell, but it’s a lot harder to come up with examples when adding another person to the mix.

At this point in Survivor: Edge of Extinction, Lauren, Kelley and Wardog known as the Lesu 3, have written the exact same names down for eight straight Tribal Councils. They have voted together this entire season! Now you may have already heard this fact, but let’s look at the Survivor history books just to see how rare this feat is. Thanks to Survivor Fandom, I was able to go through all 38 seasons to find out how common three-person alliances actually are and how long they last.

It turns out that only three other seasons have featured long-term trios voting together from the start of the game, and this has only happened once since season 20! Famous alliances including the Aitu 4, the Black Widow Brigade, and the Tagi 4 either couldn’t make it to Lesu’s mark of eight in a row, or didn’t start the season off by voting together like the Lesu 3.

If you consider some of the more recent seasons, they’re not even close to this mark! David vs. Goliath, Ghost Island, Heroes vs. Healers vs. Hustlers, Game Changers and Koah Rong have all had groups of three vote together in only four or five consecutive Tribal Councils at the most until they wrote down different names. Let’s take a brief look at the three trios that were successfully able to match and exceed the Lesu 3’s uniting force.

Season 11: Guatemala (Stephenie LaGrossa, Rafe Judkins, Lydia Morales)

Oddly enough, the first time a trio stuck together from Day 1 was the first Survivor season to pin returning players against newbies. Stephenie and Rafe were the heads of a powerful alliance, while Lydia was more of a loyal follower. They voted together for ten straight Tribal Councils.

They came into the merge with the numbers and began picking off the competition one by one… except for Danni who sneaked her way into the alliance and earned the title of Sole Survivor. Oops! Although they didn’t get the million, this threesome produced a few memorable blindsides and they finished the season in second, third and fourth place respectively.

Season 19: Samoa (Natalie White, Russell Hantz and Jaison Robinson)

Although some of the great alliances like the Aitu 4 and the Tagi 4 weren’t able to make it on this list, the Foa Foa 4 definitely qualified. Thanks to Russell’s brilliant gameplay, Natalie, Jaison and himself stuck together and beat out the odds, creating unforgettable moments along the way.

Right from the start, they voted together in 12 consecutive Tribal Councils, which is a Survivor record. The only Foa Foa member left out of this trio was Mick, who didn’t vote with Russell earlier on in the season. While Natalie and Russell both made Final Tribal Council, Jaison was blindsided with five people left.

Season 27: Blood vs. Water  (Tyson Apostol, Monica Culpepper, Gervase Peterson)

The last time a trio similar to the Lesu 3 consistently voted together from Day 1 was just over ten years ago in Survivor: Blood vs. Water. Tyson formed the perfect alliance with Monica and Gervase, who followed Tyson’s lead for ten straight votes. All three made it to Final Tribal Council.

Out of the nine players that were part of these strong alliances, one finished fifth, one landed in fourth place, seven made it to the Final Three, and two earned the title of Sole Survivor. So the odds couldn’t look better for the Lesu 3!

Here are some honorable mentions of trios that just fell shy of the ones above:

• Borneo: Richard, Sue and Rudy voted together in ten consecutive Tribal Councils, but they weren’t on the same page in their first vote like the previous examples.
• Cook Islands: The Aitu 4 (Yul, Ozzy, Becky and Sundra) voted together in their first seven Tribal Councils together.
• Micronesia: Ozzy, Cirie and Amanda voted together for the first seven Tribal Councils until they blindsided Ozzy.
• Redemption Island: Two different trios from the Ometepe alliance voted together in ten straight Tribal Councils, but didn’t write down the same names in the first few Tribals.
• Millennials vs. Gen X: Adam, David and Ken voted together for eight consecutive votes, but weren’t on the same page for their first few Tribal Councils.

Although statistically Wentworth, Lauren and Wardog match up with those three Day 1 alliances, they still have work to do before achieving that same level of greatness. A lot of this record pace has to do with Lesu losing so many challenges which forced them to go to five Tribal Councils before the merge.

That being said, these three have played a smart strategic game, preventing themselves from getting blindsided even without using their two idols. We’ll have to keep an eye on the Lesu 3 in the coming weeks to see if they can continue to inch their way into the Survivor record books.