Survivor: Worlds Apart was the show’s 30th season and aired in the spring of 2015. What were the most memorable moments?
Survivor: Worlds Apart is a memorable season, but not necessarily for the right reasons. It’s a season frequently referred as the “Dirty 30” because of how vicious the players were to each other. It was a tough season to watch, but it did have its fair share of memorable moments. Let’s take a look at them.
Theme of the season
Season 30 split the tribes by working class. There was a blue collar tribe, a white collar tribe, and a no collar tribe and they were duking it out to see which group was the best at the game of Survivor. It was an interesting concept, but not one that the show ever needs to attempt again.
Honest or Deceitful
Right off the bat, Jeff Probst had every tribe pick a leader. That leader then picked a person from their tribe to join them for whatever awaited them when they got back to camp. What followed was a decision to be made, as the two elected officials had to decide between being honest with their tribe or being deceitful.
If they were honest, they’d receive an extra bag of beans. If they were deceitful, they’d receive a small bag and a clue for the Hidden Immunity Idol. Only one tribe made the decision to be deceitful, as So Kim and Joaquin Souberbielle of the white collar tribe went that direction and attempted to cover their tracks by saying there was a third option of “Medium”, which is what they went with. No one bought it, of course, and So was the first one voted out as a result.
Dirty 30
I referred to this bunch as the “Dirty 30” earlier and that’s what they’re frequently referred to as. A lot of that is because of how vile and nasty this group was to each other and it’s that exact reason why the Worlds Apart cast made the cut on my list of the worst Survivor casts of all-time.
The nastiness of this group was tough to watch at times, as we had Will Simms berating Shirin Oskooi and telling her that no one loves her or cares about her. We had Dan Foley attacking her and other women for various reasons. We had Rodney Lavoi arguing with Lindsey Cascaddan because he felt that “women should hold themselves to a higher standard”. These three clowns were all in the same season and it made for an absolutely brutal watch.
It says something when Jenn Brown was one of the most normal contestants from this season. Jenn was nice comic relief in a season that was anything but.
Last ever Survivor auction
Another reason to be angry at the Dirty 30 is that they were responsible for the show doing away with the Survivor auction. The main reason for this is probably because of the controversy with Dan and Mike where the two of them along with Carolyn were all wanting to put all of their money toward the advantage in the game.
Prior to this, Jeff put up loved ones letters for auction and they were available for $20. Dan, Carolyn Rivera, and Mike Holloway agreed to all spend $20 on their letters and then go head-to-head-to-head for the advantage. Well, as everyone went to collect their letters, Mike tried to turn around and head back to the bench without his letter. This infuriated Dan and caused a huge stir.
Mike ended up paying for his letter and lost out on the advantage to Dan, but the damage was done. Survivor auctions were forever tainted because of this. Thanks a lot, Dirty 30.
The Advantage Era begins
With Dan getting the advantage, a new era of Survivor began with season 30. Dan received an extra vote, which was the first time this was ever implemented. His advantage was discovered when Tyler Fredrickson went through his bag, so everyone was well-aware that Dan held this advantage. He used it on Day 35, putting both of his votes on Carolyn, but in turn, getting voted out because Carolyn played her Hidden Immunity Idol.
Rodney’s birthday
One of the unintentionally funny storylines throughout season 30 was Rodney never getting a chance to go on a reward challenge. Every time a group won a reward, Jeff would say something to Rodney about it and it became some comic relief in a season that was otherwise pretty brutal.
One of the most memorable moments of the season was when Carolyn promised Rodney she’d swap spots with him and let him go on the reward if she won it. Well, obviously Carolyn won it because of course, and she decided not to bring Rodney with. Rodney didn’t handle it well and continuously whined about how he was stuck at camp washing dishes on his f***ing birthday.
To be fair, I’d probably be upset about this too if there was a reward challenge on my birthday and someone agreed to take me, but went back on their word. The problem was how Rodney handled it, as he continued to throw a hissy fit about it.
For more on Rodney’s birthday, I highly recommend checking out Mario Lanza’s entry on it for the Funny 115.
Mike’s win
Mike tends to fall in the middle of the pack when it comes to ranking the winners and a lot of that is because he was able to get in that position by winning five individual immunity challenges and also playing an idol for himself. He tied the record for most individual immunity challenges won in a single season and in doing so, was able to be immune from every vote from the final nine until the end of the game.
Mike didn’t play a good social game at all, but he was able to get to the end and beat two people who were not well-liked at all. He deserved the win, but isn’t a top tier winner by any means. It was also pretty obvious from early on in the season that he was going to win. That takes the fun out of it.
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Rewatching Survivor: Worlds Apart was even tougher than I had thought it would be. Everyone was so mean to each other and that isn’t exactly great television. The Rodney birthday stuff was funny and Jenn had some hilarious one-liners, but otherwise, Worlds Apart is a bottom tier season and one I won’t be rushing to rewatch again.