In the new era of Survivor, there have been many changes to the format. The most significant change of the game is cutting the days down from 39 to 26. With that alteration, players receive less food, especially early in the game.
While it often seems as if the players are deprived too much at times, especially those in tribes that lose challenges early and often. Food is scarce, and when players get to eat, it is a special treat for their bodies and minds.
In Survivor 49 episode 4, with Kele down four members due to three immunity challenge losses and a medical emergency, host Jeff Probst announced they were doing a tribe swap earlier than planned.
The three tribes split into two, eliminating the red Uli camp. This meant that the new Hina tribe retained all the rewards the tribe had previously won, while the new Kele tribe experienced the scarcity of food and fire that had been absent from the previous tribe.
Sophie Segreti had an inexplicable complaint about the reward that came with immunity
Food is so scarce in the new era of Survivor that most players are genuinely grateful for anything they get in the way of rewards that they don’t have to scavenge for themselves.
As a reward for the first immunity challenge after the tribe swap, Probst displayed a table full of delicious fruit. One player, Sophie Segreti, formerly of Uli, now on the new Kele tribe, scoffed at Probst’s offering.
“This is diet food! I want to see a carb or a protein,” she griped. “This is snack food. This is not going ot give us that extra oomph.”
To an extent, she has a point. Survivor went from giving out too much food to being very stingy. This is because they need to make the game harder in several ways to justify the short 26-day format. They need to make it seem like playing is harder for 13 fewer days.
Making sure each tribe has flint and a bag of rice doesn't make the game too comfortable. They are probably going too far by depriving players of even these very basic essentials.
Still, for Sophie to ridicule what food they are given was unfathomable. Alex Moore or Sophi Balerdi have had nothing for eight days. How did they feel when Sophie scoffed at food that would provide sustenance and energy when they were starving?
It was a silly moment, but it also highlighted a minor issue for the new era of Survivor. Does the show need to provide slightly more food for the players? The answer is probably yes.