Survivor 48 has been a rollercoaster of emotions, to say the least. From a highly promising pre-merge to a dubious and flatline post-merge and, lastly, to what seems to be a promising endgame, this season has kept fans and haters on their toes.
Aside from the controversial "strong alliance," one of the most critiqued aspects of the season has been its overall gameplay and why players are seemingly too scared, or perhaps influenced, to play too passively. Here are a few pointers on why this season's gameplay might have been set in stone before Day 1.
As many fans know, two seasons of Survivor are filmed per year, except for when the show started in 2000-2001 and when the pandemic hit in 2020. Aside from those instances, Survivor production has a clear-cut filming schedule. Survivor 48 was filmed between "June and July of 2024, with filming dates spanning from June 27 to July 22, 2024".
When the Survivor 48 cast flew out to Fiji, the last Survivor season they saw was Survivor 46 and its somewhat controversial finale, where (spoiler!) Kenzie Petty beat Charlie Davis and Ben Katzman in a 5-3-0 vote. Many fans and viewers felt Charlie deserved to win over Kenzie due to his more overtly strategic game, as opposed to Kenzie's more socially focused one.
One juror's vote was particularly scrutinised: Maria Shrime Gonzalez voted for Kenzie instead of Charlie, the latter of whom had been Maria's ally throughout the season. Too many felt Maria was too salty by not voting for Charlie, as he had a hand in her elimination, and deemed her argument for voting for Kenzie nonsensical. Dalton Ross even stated on Entertainment Weekly that Maria's vote "was the one that cost Charlie a million dollars."
While I disagree that Charlie deserved to win over Kenzie, Maria and Charlie's conundrum may have caused more waves than we initially thought. With Maria and Charlie's fractured relationship in mind, perhaps too many players from season 48, particularly those who were on the post-merge and in the "Strong Alliance," specifically, felt that the strategy of "betraying your ally" had no place in their season.
Players such as Thomas Krottinger and Saiouina "Sai" Houghley were the exceptions to the "no betrayal" clause, so their absence hugely impacted the rest of the season when they were voted out early. On the other hand, players such as Eva Erickson, Joe Hunter, David Kinne, Mitch Guerra, Shauhin Davari, and Kyle Fraser, to an extent, repeatedly showed hesitancy to make a move and break out of the pack mentality instead of focusing on their individual games and play with other players who were in the bottom to use them in their favour.
Speaking of Shauhin, while doing his postgame exit press, he confirmed in his interview with Rob Cesternino for RHAP that Survivor 46 did impact his view of the game, as Shauhin considered too many moves done during that season were only done for the sake of building a resume, as opposed to these moves helping a player's narrative. After Rob asks Shauhin if he ever considered working with other players outside of his alliance, Shauhin answered, "I don't know why I would vote out or work with these people at the bottom to vote out my allies when my allies are particularly loyal based."
Shauhin does have a point in not wanting to alienate his allies to make a move. However, the continuous indecision several players showed for weeks did stagnate the gameplay for viewers, as many, including myself, felt we were seeing the same thing over again: people thinking about making a move to take out Joe, the leader of the Strong Alliance. Then, people were having doubts, with the editing pointing to a big blindside, only for the outcome to be another person at the bottom getting eliminated without resistance.
Survivor is a social bonds game, and throughout its 40-plus seasons, we've seen players struggle to play the game as strategically and logically as possible while balancing their relationships with their fellow tribemates. Some people can better separate the two, while others prefer to fall on their swords rather than betray their allies.
An argument can be made for both sides: loyalty is better, even if it's at the cost of one individual's game, for an alliance to have an equal and fair shot at winning in the end.
On the other hand, making big moves is necessary; otherwise, there won't be a resume to present to the jury. Having said this, season 48 players were a unique bunch, especially in the new era, as several preferred to play passively to maintain the game's power structure, ultimately leading to Survivor 48 not being remembered too fondly by most.