While we still don’t have an official date, the countdown to Survivor 51 is so on that fans are already speculating what could come in Survivor 52. But not without some hesitation…
There are a few things we know for sure about Survivor 51, but there’s still so much in the air that fans are being widely speculative of what could come next. And rightfully so. When Jeff Probst introduced the new “open era” of Survivor, he declared, “it’s not a shapeshifting game, changing without warning, creating permanent uncertainty.”
But what does that actually mean? We dive into what we know and we predict we’ll see in this latest evolution of our favorite game.
A few things we know for sure about Survivor 51
When decoding the teaser trailer shared at the end of the Survivor 50 finale, there’s one big thing that’s very noticeable right away. We’re going to start off the “open era” with a classic marooning supply grab. While the recent seasons of Survivor have begun with a challenge that leads to the distribution of fire and starting supplies, season 51 is going to kick off with a timed grab, free-for-all.
In the past, we’ve seen this occur both with and without hidden advantages present for players to grab. After the lack of idols in Survivor 50, I can’t help but think that there will be an idol hidden on this boat and maybe no Beware Advantages hidden at the camps. There was such a switch-up in advantages last season that I predict we’ll see a return to the simpler format where players having advantages is less rare, but they’re still present and a constant question in everyone’s minds.
A leaked cast list has also let us know that we’re going to be getting 21 cast members this time around—an interesting medium between the standard 18 players and the latest 24 players. Having an uneven number of players on a starting tribe will kick off the show with power dynamics with true majority vote potential early in the game.
So, what’s on the table for season 52?
Anything. Everything. Nothing? As Jeff shared, the idea for this new “open era” is that all expectations should be thrown out the window. If it’s happened in Survivor before, it’s on the table now. Consistency, symmetry, and regularity of upcoming seasons are no longer being factored into production decisions. The team isn’t afraid to go from Survivor 51 to Survivor 52: Return to the Edge of Extinction to Survivor 53.
They truly want to make the upcoming seasons for Survivor as unpredictable as they once were. But Jeff’s also clarified that the season will likely be built around the cast. Rather than going into casting with the idea of building a group of people to best fit into the show, Jeff told Variety last month, “If, during casting, we discover a “David vs. Goliath” theme, it’s very likely we’ll do it…”
He also shared that, “Anything we’ve ever done, pretty much, is in our bag. Some people may think, ‘They’ll never bring this idea back’—I don’t know. Don’t be so sure about that, because the fact that somebody thinks we might not bring something back is all the more reason to bring it back immediately.”
So, again, nothing is off the table. And there’s an extensive arsenal of past advantages and twists that the show can infinitely pull from: fake merges, mutinies, joint Tribal Councils, medallion of power, super idol, juror removal, legacy advantage, idol nullifier, advantage menu, fire tokens…and that’s not even scraping the surface of what could happen.
We also know that, unlike the beginning of the new era with Survivor 41 and Survivor 42, it’s highly likely that the first two seasons of the “open era” won’t mirror each other and will be completely different formats. “The inconsistency is also another thing that we’re embracing,” Jeff hyped in the interview above. “Let’s just do what’s best for the show and not worry about the overall symmetry.”
What do you want to see in the new “open era” of Survivor?
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