Survivor 47 is one of the best seasons of Survivor in a long time The season, won by Rachel LaMont, is easily the best season of the new era, and that puts a lot of pressure on Survivor 48, which premieres on Wednesday, Feb. 26.
Survivor 48 will have a tough task of living up to the hype after Survivor 47. Every season of this show is so different because there are so many variables in play at every moment. One bad apple can ruin the whole batch. Could the new season be better? Jeff Probst told fans in an Instagram video that the new season is "very good."
Even if this is a great season, there are a few ways where Survivor 48 will struggle to be better than Survivor 47. First, let's talk about the gameplay.
Incredible strategic gameplay
It's not that the gameplay in the new era of Survivor was bad, but there were definitely some interesting things that happened. That lackluster gameplay was on full display in Survivor 46 with some players. It seemed like Survivor 47 would feature the same when Andy Rueda had a meltdown after the first immunity challenge. Well, we were wrong!
The strategic gameplay in Survivor 47 was as good as we've seen in Survivor history. I rewatched a few episodes from the season, and there were so many epic blindsides, great moves that paid off later in the game, and key relationship-building that paved the way for great partnerships, like Operation: Italy.
And, that's just referring to the alliances and moves that players made in the game. There was revolutionary gameplay in Survivor 48 as we saw with Rachel LaMont's use of her Shot in the Dark and how she handled the Safety Without Power advantage. Rachel throwing away her vote to try to read the other players is such a poker move. Earlier in the game, she played the former Tuku tribe like a fiddle at Tribal Council, exploited the cracks, and that move split the tribe, isolated Kyle Ostwald, and paved the way to taking Gabe Ortis later in the game.
It's so funny how Andy, thought to be the biggest liability in the game, was actually behind some of the most savage moves in the game, including taking out Anika Dhar with Sam Phalen and Sierra Wright, flipping on Sam and Sierra with the split vote, joining forces with Sam and Genevieve Mushaluk for Operation: Italy, and more. Andy was stirring the pot way more than we got to see.
Speaking of Genevieve, she and Caroline Vidmar were also major strategic threats, as well. Genevieve just made her move a vote or two early and revealed herself as a massive threat. In Caroline's case, she did the same in her move to vote out Gabe.
Across the board, we saw fantastic gameplay in Survivor 47!
Multiple challenge beasts
Looking back at Survivor history, you have seasons with challenge beasts and major strategic players, but you don't often get the combination of strength and smarts and strategic play we saw in Survivor 47. We saw multiple challenge beats in Survivor 47! Kyle and Rachel each won four individual immunities. Kyle won his right after the merge, while Rachel waited until the end of the game to roll off wins in three of the final four immunity challenges to win the game.
There are some pretty physically imposing players in Survivor 48, so I'm expecting that we won't see two players combined to win eight of the individual immunity challenges.
In Survivor 47, the tribes were really evenly matched to start the game, too. Before the merge, each tribe lost two challenges except for the Tuku tribe, which lost one, so there was a good mix of players after the merge. That was the opposite in Survivor 46 when the Yanu tribe basically lost every challenge before the merge.
Superb immunity idol and advantage play
In Survivor 46, half a dozen players were voted out with an immunity idol in their pocket. That definitely caused some trepidation among the Survivor 47 players, but those immunity idols and advantages completely changed the game. Rachel LaMont won Survivor 48 because she played two advantages, one immunity idol, and won four individual immunities. Every member of the jury could point to those plays and see the resume she built for herself (with some help along the way).
But, it wasn't just Rachel. We saw lots of good idol play even though Rachel's idol was the only one to actually stop her from getting voted out. The way these players navigated idols and advantages was great to see. Genevieve convinced Rome to use his Steal a Vote advantage early in the game to vote to out Kishan Patel. Rachel used her advantage to stop the 2-2-2 split vote at the Final 6 to make sure the people she needed to get to the end (Sue Smey) got to the end with her.
Then, we saw the brilliant fake idol play with Operation: Italy. Players were very aware of what was happening around them in Survivor 47.
It's going to be really interesting to see if the Survivor 48 players bring that level of attention and detail to their season.
Obviously, Survivor 47 was not perfect. Players made key mistakes in big moments that absolutely tanked their gameplay. Even Sam, who finished runner-up, is probably viewed much more differently if he doesn't offer Andy as the backup plan immediately after the merge. Andy and Sam worked together later, but they had a really good chance of making a huge run if they stayed together with Sierra.
Anyway, Survivor 48 premieres on Wednesday, Feb. 26! We can't wait to see what these new players will bring to the table.