Survivor Winners at War: Editing continues to blindside viewers

After seven episodes of Survivor: Winners at War, one thing is clear: the editors are having a good time making the viewers think twice about who might go home at every tribal council.

Through seven episodes and nine Tribal Councils, Survivor: Winners at War viewers have been perplexed by the editing this season.

In seasons past, it was pretty easy to predict who was going home each week due to the editing. If someone who hadn’t been getting air time all of a sudden was getting multiple confessionals, then veteran viewers knew something was up. That player was more than likely going to see their name written down enough at Tribal Council to send them packing.

That hasn’t been the case this season at all and I outlined after three episodes how the editing was different this time around, but it’s continued to trend in an unpredictable pattern.

Since that last article, we’ve seen a few easier to predict boots like Parvati and Tyson, who were both big targets and we all knew they’d be getting the axe soon. Then, however, there comes the Sandra boot and Yul boot, both of which threw viewers for a loop. The Sandra one will go down as one of the all-time blindsides, but the editors didn’t make us think that Denise betraying Sandra was even an option.

Don’t get me wrong – It made for an exhilarating moment that had many of us falling off of our couches in shock, but there was no mention of it. We knew Denise was probably going to accept the idol, but most probably figured she’d vote alongside the rest of Dakal and write Jeremy’s name down.

Even when players like Danni and Ethan went home, there had been a few rumblings of them potentially getting their names written down, albeit minor and last minute.

Yul’s boot falls into the same category as Danni and Ethan, as his name wasn’t brought up until the very end. All episode long it appeared that Wendell’s fate was sealed, especially after he was prematurely calling Jeff over to crown Sele the winners, but when it came down to it, the editors threw the viewers off once more.

As a true veteran viewer, I’ve made it a point to hone in on who is getting the most air time and assume they’ll be safe that week. It’ll be even more interesting to see how the editors continue to throw us off the trail as the tribes merge this week.