The self-proclaimed “nerd,” Christian Hubicki, is back to give everyone a run at their chance at $1 million and there’s a fairly high likelihood that he’s going to do it in Survivor 50, too.
It’s been seven years since the fan-favorite Robotics Scientist has graced our screens (if you don’t count his minor cameo in Mike White’s The White Lotus) which has given him more than enough time to calculate the exact formula he needs to adapt his gameplay to perfect his approach to Survivor on his second go.
Christian’s Quick Stats
Survivor Career: Survivor: David vs. Goliath (7th Place)
Total Days Played: 35 days
Total Votes Against: 18 votes
Individual Immunity Challenges Won: 1
Individual Reward Challenges Won: 0
Immunity Idols Played: 1
- Additionally, Christian had someone else play an idol on him.
Advantages Played: 0
Survivor: David vs. Goliath
Because of his general “underdog” vibe, Christian was cast on the David tribe where he was selected by the Goliath tribe as one of two weakest members, immediately being thrown into a reward challenge as the David’s champion. Luckily, his strength in puzzles led the Davids to the first victory of the season. Once at camp, he formed an alliance with Gabby Pascuzzi after they bonded over their general like-mindedness.
While the Davids lost the first two immunity challenges, they only attended Tribal Council after the second as one of their tribe mates was medically evacuated after the first. This worked well for Christian as he wanted to work with Nick Wilson, the planned first target of the David tribe. They formed the Mason-Dixon Alliance, which played the middle strategy between two majority alliances.
But the Davids won the next immunity challenge, allowing them to sneak through another vote before a tribe swap happened on day 10. Christian and his ally, Gabby, were distributed to a new third tribe, Tiva, along with three Goliaths. They went on to win all immunity challenges, securing a spot in the merge.
Once all the castaways were merged, Christian reunited with his Mason-Dixon ally, Nick, and together with Gabby, they joined former Goliaths Alec Merlino, Alison Raybould, and Mike White to become the majority cross-tribal alliance, which they called the Strikeforce. While Angelina Keeley tried to target him during the first merge vote, he and his new allies worked together to vote out a different David.
In the next vote, Christian’s name was thrown out again, this time by his ally Mike, who wasn’t sold on Gabby’s reliability or Christian’s loyalty beyond her. Alec caught wind of the plan and asked former David Davie Rickenbacker to play his idol on Christian. He did, negating seven votes against Christian and blindsiding a David instead.
With the idol having been played the night before, the Davids opted to search for the new hidden immunity idol, which Christian found with a well-planned search strategy. He told the Davids about finding the idol and once again, he received votes against him at the next Tribal Council, but thanks to another former David playing an idol nullifier, another Goliath went home instead.
Christian walked away with the necklace at the next immunity challenge thanks to an impressive display of distractive conversation held with Jeff Probst during the five and a half hour long challenge. That night he helped unanimously vote out his Strikeforce ally Alec and then followed it up at the next Tribal Council by plotting with the former Goliaths to blindside another David.
On day 32, when Davie told Christian that Gabby was planning a blindside against him, he didn’t believe it. But sure enough, he played his idol at Tribal Council, negating the majority votes against him and instead blindsiding Gabby — though Christian still hadn’t voted for her.
He and his two former Davids —Nick and Davie— found themselves at the bottom, and unfortunately, Christian’s threat status finally caught up to him on day 35 when he became the 7th member of the jury in a 3-2-0 vote.
At Final Tribal Council, Christian wanted to hear how the last castaways standing had outwitted their competition and decided he respected Mike’s gameplay the most, voting for him over his day 1 ally, Nick—who ultimately took home the title of Sole Survivor in a 7-3-0 vote.
Survivor 50 Predictions: How far will Christian go?
My gut is telling me that we could have a John Cochran situation on our hands with Christian this season. That is to say, the social game of their first season had just a few misgivings that kept them from pleading their case at Final Tribal Council, but when Cochran returned for his second season, he knew how the game worked this time around, and—even with a cast of some other returning players—perfectly strategized a win. I could see Christian turning around and doing the exact same thing.
The two players have a lot in common as far as gameplay goes, and even the way their minds work is very in tune. While it’s hard to determine for sure because everyone is coming back this season with a vengeance, I predict Christian has what it takes to be named this season’s Sole Survivor.
Christian Hubicki Survivor 50 Player Score
Like I said, if history has anything to say about it, this could be Christian’s year to take it all. But he does have to be a little more careful in navigating his social game—not giving away too much of himself to his allies. In David vs. Goliath, he eagerly created and named a lot of different alliances, but if he can carefully craft a solid, loyal few around him, he might have more leverage this go around.
And with the new era challenges being a better balance of puzzles and stamina than the physical athleticism we say more commonly pre-Winners at War, he actually has a higher chance at winning a few individual immunities this time around, on top of the one her won on his first season.
Outwit (Social Game): 10/15
Outplay (Physical Game): 5/15
Outlast (Strategic Game): 12/15
Wildcard Factor: 3/5
Total Player Score: 30/50
I think Christian is someone our other players should watch out for, but I hope they don’t. I would love to see him take this home after he should have made it to the end of season 37. I can’t wait to see how far he makes it! Survivor 50 premieres Wednesday, Feb. 25, at 8 p.m. ET on CBS and Paramount+ and then only time will tell how the game plays out!