Is Survivor 48 an all-time season of Survivor? Well, it depends on who you ask, but one very important person in the Survivor world loved this season.
Survivor 48 has come to an end. The winner has been revealed, and Jeff Prost, Jay Wolff, and Rachel LaMont had a great episode talking about all of the ins and outs of the Survivor 48 finale on the On Fire with Jeff Probst podcast.
There are so many good moments during the episode, but near the end, Jeff shared some thoughts on Survivor 48 and a controversial opinion about how good Survivor 48 actually was.
Here's what Jeff said about Survivor 48:
"I put Survivor 48 is one of the all-time great seasons from start to finish, and that includes the entire group of players. I mean, we lost so many players early that we would have back again in a moment. And, it includes obviously the Final Six, the Final Five, the Final Four, the Final Three and our winner. I think Kyle is going to be a tremendous representative of Survivor. I'm so proud of him.”
From Jeff's perspective, I totally understand what he means. I don't know if he's right. There are a lot of great seasons of Survivor, but I do feel like they absolutely nailed this cast. There are probably 10 players from this cast who would be absolute stars and icons on other seasons of Survivor. We didn't even get to see some of the greats who were voted out early in the game. Thomas Krottinger and Bianca Roses only getting like a week in the game together is a travesty. Kevin Leung was a potential winner before his injury.
Everyone had an incredible story for why they were competing on Survivor. We saw incredibly emotional and powerful scenes with Eva Erickson explaining her challenges with autism while also overcoming all of the obstacles in her way. We saw Joe Hunter, a father playing this game because his late sister loved Survivor, comfort Eva when she needed someone in the game. We saw Mitch Guerra, the first Survivor player with a speech impediment, make it to the Final Five and get voted out unanimously because the other players were sitting next to him, because everyone loved him.
In terms of representation, the Survivor 48 is one of the more diverse casts in the show's history. Shauhin Davari was the first Persian Survivor player in the show's history. Survivor 48 winner Kyle Fraser shared stories of racial profiling in the criminal justice system, and he mentioned it during his speech at Final Tribal Council. There were conversations and stories about race, ethnicity, immigration, and family struggles.
As a cast, I totally agree with what Jeff was saying about this being a great season.
Then, in terms of gameplay, there were some absolutely iconic moments to start the season, too. We saw a historically bad tribe (Vula), a successful Shot in the Dark play for the second time in history, a successful hidden immunity idol play, and a big blindside in the first four episodes. Then, there was a period in the game where the majority alliance took control, and the momentum sort of stalled before a really fun finale. Maybe this is recency bias, but there's an argument for what Jeff is putting down, I think.
I also think it's really hard not to compare Survivor seasons to the previous season that we just watched. Survivor 47 was an incredible season because of how many big blindsides there were. Every single episode, someone was voted out in an epic fashion. We didn't really get that in Survivor 48. It was much more straightforward when a dominant, majority alliance kind of sinks its teeth into the gameplay and never lets go. It's really just a matter of preference.
Overall, viewers grew a little frustrated by the lack of move-making in the season. The editing also left viewers confused, but looking back, it was probably necessary with how the season played out. Kyle and Kamilla's big move wasn't taking out Joe, but rather Shauhin. They felt like they could beat Eva and Joe at Final Tribal Council, and that proved to be right. Kyle (with a lot of help from Eva) also took out the biggest threat in the game in Kamilla. The lack of big moves, post-merge, probably loses Survivor 48 some points in my rankings, but again, I see what Jeff is saying.
There might be a little bit of controversy that Joe's physical game was discounted. You can say the same about Eva's game and what she overcame to win so many advantages and get to the end. Mary Zheng was on to something when she said we've never seen a player like Eva before with that determination to achieve. She could have easily allowed Kyle or Joe to take her place in the fire-making challenge, but she didn't, and she won
Then, in terms of Kyle as a winner, I think the jury got it right. I wouldn't have a problem with Kamilla winning, or Joe or Eva even, but Kyle absolutely played the best game. He worked so many relationships to get to the end, and then he pulled the rug out from under them at Final Tribal Council to prove just how much work he was actually doing.
So, I do think there are a lot of moments from Survivor 48 that fans will remember for a long time, and that's what it's all about!