With Survivor: Edge of Extinction’s weird jury format, it makes sense to bring back the Juror Removal advantage from Kaoh Rong.
There are only three castaways in the game. Even though it’s Day 39 of Survivor, the three still compete in a challenge. It’s not for Immunity or for a food reward. The winner receives a brand new advantage that allows a player to remove a member of the jury ahead of Final Tribal Council!
Michele Fitzgerald wins the challenge, she removes Aubry’s right-hand strategist in Neal Gottlieb, and the rest is history. Even if you’re not a fan of Michele receiving the million dollar cheque, the concept of getting rid of a jury member who could sway the numbers is a brilliant twist.
Five seasons have passed since Kaoh Rong and we haven’t seen the Juror Removal advantage again despite the large juries. Survivor: Edge of Extinction might just be the season to bring it back.
At this point, we are at the Final Seven, and there are nine jury members. Assuming no one quits, we’re going to see a 13 person jury at Final Tribal Council! That’s by the far the most in Survivor history. That means only Keith and Wendy won’t be there on Day 39.
The current record is held by five seasons starting with Second Chance that had a ten-person jury. So a group of thirteen jurors is a massive jump. For quantity alone, it makes sense for production to bring back the Juror Removal advantage. We already don’t get to hear a lot from each member with the discussion-based format.
In addition to the volume of people, there are three pre-merge jury members that could change the dynamics of Final Tribal Council. The only person that Aubry hasn’t played with is Lauren, but the real concern is Chris and Reem.
Both Chris and Reem haven’t spent any time with six of the seven remaining castaways! All they have to go on is what they see at Tribal Council and hearsay. There will be a major advantage if one of the castaways that return from Edge of Extinction makes it to Final Tribal.
People like Reem and Chris have spent more time with a majority of the jury members on Extinction Island than the players remaining. There’s a lot less backstabbing and conniving behavior on the Edge of Extinction, as the game is basically on pause. This allows them to build more genuine bonds of friendship and discuss the game more openly then if they were still playing.
That bodes really well for any player that returns and makes it to Day 39. A Juror Removal advantage would be perfect for this situation by getting rid of people who have very little knowledge of the post-merge and post tribe swap game.
Even though this era of Survivor seems to pour out all the twists, we have only seen the Juror Removal advantage once, and it played a key role in the final vote. This season is a great fit for this advantage, so let’s hope production found a way to squeeze it in.