On a few seasons of Survivor, the player who won the game and received the most votes from the jury hasn't felt like the person who played the best game.
Survivor is an incredible competition reality show because it works slightly differently than other competition shows. At the end of the season, it's the players, not the audience or judges, who you played with, competed against, and voted out (in many cases) who have the final say in awarding one player $1 million and the title of Sole Survivor. That makes things complicated!
Over 46 (and soon to be 47!) seasons, the Survivor players, for the most part, have done a great job selecting the most deserving winner. There are no exact criteria for how each player is supposed to vote. There's no real scoreboard, so there's always debate and personal preference in how each player votes at the end of the season.
Every player who wins Survivor is definitely deserving of winning, but there have been a few decisions that could have easily gone the other way.
Let's get the list of runner-ups that probably should have won Survivor started with the most recent runner-up, Charlie Davis of Survivor 46.
Charlie Davis - Survivor 46
Let's start with the most recent season of Survivor! Charlie Davis played, in my opinion, a fantastic game. From the first day on the beach, Charlie was working behind the scenes to influence votes, take out all of the major threats in the game, and further his game with his main ally Maria Shrime Gonzalez. Despite working with Maria for a number of votes throughout the game, it became clear that Charlie and Maria were the favorites. To win, they'd have to take each other out.
Eventually, Charlie ended up in the final three with Ben Katzman and Kenzie Petty. Ben won the final immunity challenge and picked Charlie to join him at the final tribal. Kenzie beat Liz Wilcox in the fire-making challenge to earn her spot in the final three. At final tribal, Charlie made a good case for himself, but it was clear the jury didn't understand how influential he was in the social and strategic game.
Kenzie beat Charlie in a 5-3 vote that saw Charlie's main ally, Maria, cast the winning vote for Kenzie. It was a bizarre change-up, and I'm not entirely sure there weren't some other things happening behind the scenes that swayed the jury to vote for Kenzie instead of Charlie.
Taking absolutely nothing away from Kenzie, who played an incredible game with the odds stacked against her, Charlie probably played the best game in Survivor 46, but he stumbled at the end by not winning any of the final immunity challenges, winning the fire-making challenge, or proving his point well enough at final tribal. I still think he should have won, though!
You can listen to Charlie Davis and his takes on Jeff Probst's podcast, On Fire with Jeff Probst, throughout Survivor 47!
Aubry Bracco - Survivor: Kaôh Rōng — Brains vs. Brawn vs. Beauty
Aubry Bracco is the Survivor runner-up who was probably robbed the most in the final vote. Aubry lost to Michele Fitzgerald in a bizarre 5-2 vote in Survivor: Kaôh Rōng — Brains vs. Brawn vs. Beauty.
Again, taking nothing away from Michele's victory, Aubry played an incredible game on that season of Survivor from a strategic perspective. Maybe some of the social or physical elements weren't represented as well for Aubry, but looking back, she clearly played the best game.
I can't fully understand why the jury didn't reward Aubry's big moves, but I feel like it's one of those cases where the players feel so burned by how some of the moves happened that they carry that resentment with them to the final vote. There were A LOT of bad feelings surrounding Tai Trang's choices in the game, and Aubry had a huge hand in influencing those moves. Instead of rewarding Aubry for making the most of the situation, the jury used it against her. That's the only thing that makes sense to me. When you have a hand in voting so many players out, it's hard for some people to let that go.
And, credit to Michele, it's not like she came out of nowhere to win the season. She was a part of some big moves. She won a crucial challenge and was able to remove a jury member. She chose Neal Gottlieb, who was a medical evacuation, who likely would have voted for Aubry. Had Neal been able to vote or Aubry won that challenge, it would have been a 4-3 in favor of Michele, but who knows how things would have shaken out.
There's been a lot of criticism of Michele's win, and that is not my intention with this list. She won fair and square, and she played her game, which saw her get all the way to the end in a competitive season.
Gavin Whitson - Survivor: Edge of Extinction
Look, I can see a world where it makes sense that Kenzie and Michele beat Charlie and Aubry. The game plays out in weird ways sometimes, and the players who make big moves at the end get rewarded. I think it's safe to say that happened with Michele and Kenzie.
I do not understand how Gavin Whitson didn't win Survivor: Edge of Extinction, though. I didn't get it at the time, and I don't get it now.
For those who don't remember, Chris Underwood was voted out of Survivor: Edge of Extinction on Day 8, where he remained wasting away until Day 37 when he won a re-entry challenge to come back into the game. In the span of just a few days, Chris played hidden immunity idol to stay in the game, won the final immunity challenge, gave up immunity, and then beat Rick Devins in the fire-making challenge to earn a spot at the final tribal.
Then, Chris won Survivor: Edge of Extinction over Gavin in a 9-4 vote. To me, this is the biggest travesty in Survivor history because it's just so opposite of how the game is supposed to be played and has been for, like, 40 of the 46 seasons so far.
Gavin survived every vote without a vote being cast his way. He had a hand in and organized several moves in the game, including betraying several close allies who were bigger threats in the game. He won two individual immunities and used an advantage and it worked! He was a solid choice to win Survivor, although it's possible that Rick was more likely to win.
Anyway, Chris made a lot of moves once he was back in the game and played his cards exactly right. He suffered on the Edge of Extinction for almost 30 days, so what he did to win the game is quite incredible.
Still, it doesn't mean he should have won. Gavin had a hand in voting out almost every member of the jury. Then, those same jury members went to the Edge of Extinction and got to know Chris outside of the actual Survivor gameplay. Then, they got to vote for Chris. It just doesn't feel like that's what should happen on Survivor. Whatever that is, it's a different game.
That's the list! We hope it's not too controversial. We're covering Survivor 47 all season long, so check back for the latest news, recaps, and reaction about the new season!