Survivor Island of the Idols: Stories to watch in the season premiere

After a long offseason, Survivor is finally back with Island of the Idols. With a 90-minute premiere, there are plenty of stories to keep an eye on.

It’s been roughly 132 days since the last episode of Survivor, and that streak ends today! In under 12 hours, we’ll get the chance to meet 20 new castaways and see Boston Rob and Sandra back for the 29th time. It will be fun to fully understand what will actually be going down on the mentor’s island.

After all the flack Edge of Extinction received for its rushed premiere, the producers wisely decided to go back to the 90-minute format that worked so well with David vs. Goliath. With the stage set, here are three stories to watch heading into tonight’s episode.

1) How big of a role will the mentors play?

Jeff mentioned in an interview with Josh Wigler that this is the riskiest twist they have ever attempted. Although Jeff does say that basically every season, there’s no understating the impact a twist can have on a season. Look no further than the Edge of Extinction twist!

The premiere will tell us a lot about the mentors’ role for the rest of the season. Are Boston Rob and Sandra going to be seen only when a castaway is sent to the Island of the Idols, or will they be featured throughout each episode? Will the edit try to bump up the effect that the mentors had on the castaway sent there? Hopefully they won’t spend to much time on the two Survivor legends and keep the focus on the new cast.

2) Watch for early alliances

A common theme among the preseason coverage was that every player expressed a desire to lay low and start slow during the first few days. Several castaways emphasized building friendships before alliances, but we all know that some alliances will be made in the premiere, it’s inevitable.

While a bunch of them never pan out, it’s been fairly common recently for the edit to feature the winner of the season making an alliance within the first episode. It will also be interesting to watch how Tom Laidlaw and Janet Carbin will factor into alliances. They are two of the eldest players in a while, so it will be fun to finally watch a cast featuring a diverse age group.

3) Can Kellee Kim survive her cold?

Out of the 20 first time players, nobody enters Island of the Idols in a more worrisome state than Kellee Kim. We learned in a preseason interview on RHAP just days before shooting began that Kellee was battling a cold along with a noticeable cough. Seeing someone not at full strength and possibly even contagious could raise red flags immediately.

That said, Kellee came in with a very positive attitude about it, plus she caught this bug a while ago and is just a few days from putting these visible symptoms behind her. It will be interesting to see how much of this storyline will make the edit. Hopefully, for Kellee’s sake, she recovered quick and can start her Survivor journey on an even playing field.