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Survivor Edge of Extinction: Best new challenge ideas of the season

ByMichael Favaro|
Timothy Kuratek/CBS Entertainment ©2018 CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Timothy Kuratek/CBS Entertainment ©2018 CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

For the most part, Edge of Extinction reused old Survivor challenges, but there were a few interesting ideas that we would love to see return.

In addition to being an overall exciting season,Survivor: David vs. Goliathintroduced a variety of new challenge ideas. Production wasn’t able to replicate that same level of creativity inSurvivor: Edge of Extinctionas a majority of the challenges have been featured before, especially from the seasons set in Fiji. However, there were some unique portions within a few challenges that present interesting new concepts that are worth taking another look at.

Social Network (Episode 1 Immunity/Reward Challenge)

Survivor Edge of Extinction Episode 1 Immunity Challenge
Robert Voets / CBS

Thefirst challenge of the seasonwas one huge obstacle course ending with a massive block puzzle. It consisted of maneuvering through a tunnel of ropes, one member climbing up a tall rope to ring a bell, crossing a three-tiered balance beam and a passing through a rope bridge. My favorite part was the unique take on the balance beam.

It wasn’t simply the layers of the beam that made this portion interesting, but it was also the shortcut option. Once someone successfully crossed this tricky balance beam, they could then begin untieing several series of knots. That would eventually release a small pole which opens up the balance beam, making it much easier to cross. You canwatch this challenge again here.

This opening challenge wasn’t entirely a new concept, as the giant slide puzzle was seen inSouth Pacific. That said, production did a great job of spicing up a traditional balance beam and obstacle course and served as a great opener.

Beyond the Wheel (Episode 3 Immunity Challenge)

Survivor: Edge of Extinction
Photo: Robert Voets/CBS Entertainment ©2018 CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

The third fight for immunity introduced probably themost obscure challenge idea of the season. Who would have thought of players pulling a boat by swimming? The first part of this challenge required four castaways in the water, tied to a boat, while the remaining three were inside the boat.

The tribe members in the water literally pulled the boat by swimming with all their might to reach the next platform. I’m not saying that this is the best challenge idea ever, but it’s such a unique take that required serious out of the box thinking from the production team. Here’s thelink to the challenge video.

Running Down a Dream (Episode 13 Reward Challenge)

Survivor Edge of Extinction episode 13 Reward Challenge Gavin Aurora
Photo: Screen Grab/CBS Entertainment ©2019 CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

The penultimate episode ofSurvivor: Edge of Extinctionshowcasedone of the coolest challenge segmentsI have ever seen. Each castaway has to toss a ball in an overhead trap. At the same time, they have to high step through a series of ropes to catch the ball at the other side of the trap before it hit the ground.

There are someSurvivorchallenges that look utterly painful, and there are others that make you want to jump off of the couch and try it. This was definitely the latter. It was only a small part out of a Reward Challenge, but it stole the show in a rather boring episode of challenges. You can haveanother look at this brilliant idea here.

I’m sure there are a couple more new challenge concepts fromSurvivor: Edge of Extinctionthat I forgot about, but these three stood out the most. Hopefully production can find a way to reuse these effective challenges in the future.

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