When it was first announced that Quintavius “Q” Burdette would be returning for Survivor 50, the biggest question was, “what’s going to happen when Q and Coach are on the same island?”
We all know Benjamin “Coach” Wade secured icon status through his multiple seasons of interesting stories and dedicated gameplay style. Q might be the closest we’ve come to a Coach-esque player in the new era in antics—their gameplay could not be more different.
Q’s Quick Stats
Survivor Career: Survivor 46 (6th Place)
Total Days Played: 23 days
Individual Immunity Challenges Won: 0
Individual Reward Challenges Won: 1
- The legendary Applebee's reward that led to Liz Wilcox's infamous verbal attack on Q.
Immunity Idols Played: 0
- Voted out with an idol in his pocket.
Advantages Played: 0
Survivor 46
After losing the marooning challenge, Q was nominated alongside David Jelinskey to earn supplies for the Yanu tribe via the “Sweat” challenge. The two used the time to form an alliance, but when Jelinsky felt the task was impossible and convinced Q that they should quit, Q no longer felt he’d make a good ally.
After returning to camp without supplies, Q formed an alliance with Tiffany Nicole Ervin and Kenzie Petty, and despite his earlier promise to Jelinsky, he voted with the tribe majority for him to be the first to go. This was the beginning of a massive losing streak for the purple tribe, coming up short in the first four immunity challenges—though they only had to attend three Tribal Councils when a member of the Nami tribe being medevaced saved them from voting out another member on Day 7.
Yanu finally won immunity and Q was sent on the journey that followed, alongside Nami’s Hunter McKnight and Siga’s Tim Spicer. While there, he initiated the “Journey Six” alliance with each of the players agreeing to align together with an added member of their starting tribe upon the merge to have the majority. Q brought Tiffany into the alliance as his Yanu second.
As soon as the tribes were together on one beach, in the process of merging, Hunter and his second provided important information about the Nami tribe, but Tim was reluctant to share anything, which made Q hesitant about trusting him. Before they were officially merged, the players collectively voted for a Siga member as the tribe seemed the tightest socially, but post-merge, when Tim stressed keeping his former tribemate Ben Katzman over the Journey Six’s Hunter, Q pushed and got him sent just before the jury began.
Q entered the Final Ten at the top of the game as the leader of the Journey Six. But when Tiffany asked for Maria Shrime Gonzalez—Tim’s replacement in the alliance—to be the next vote over Q’s choice of Venus Vafa, he grew furious at her for wanting to break the alliance and chose to tell everyone about her hidden immunity idol in an attempt to organize a blindside. But everyone else already had plans to blindside the Journey Six’s other member, Tevin Davis.
That night at Tribal Council, overcome with emotion and paranoia, Q declared that the tribe should vote him out, leading to a frenzied scramble where Tiffany discovered he was the one who told others about her idol. In the end, the plan to vote out Tevin moved forward and Q remained in the game.
But no one was happy with him for the antics he pulled at Tribal Council, and he was immediately put on the outs by his tribemates. With Q clearly on the bottom, the majority chose to use him as a smokescreen, moving forward in a back-to-back-to-back blindside of Hunter, Tiffany, and Venus, all of whom left with hidden immunity idols in their pockets.
During this time, we also saw Q’s relationship with Liz Wilcox plummet drastically when he infamously did not choose her for an Applebee’s reward. However, he also developed a tight duo with Maria who was the only person still open to working with him. He also found a hidden immunity idol, which Maria wanted to use to once again evoke the Q smokescreen and blindside Charlie Davis.
But despite his name being thrown around, Q felt safe in his position in the game and chose not to play his idol, ultimately blindsiding himself to become the sixth member of the jury and the fourth player in a row to have their torch snuffed with an idol in their possession. At Final Tribal Council, he voted with the majority in favor of Kenzie Petty to win the title of Sole Survivor based on what she planned to do with the money, though he didn’t agree with her recount of the game.
Survivor 50 Predictions: How far will Q go?
By the end of season 46, Q was a very volatile player and an extreme liability to those around him. While host Jeff Probst has claimed that the reason Q made Survivor 50 is because of a different vibe he’s giving off at this point in his life, he’s also reiterated that no one knows what will happen when Q gets back on the island. With all this in mind, it wouldn’t surprise me if he was an early vote as alliance lines are drawn.
Even with these players having the time to get to know each other a little better outside of the game, based on his previous in game performance, I don’t suspect anyone will want to keep around someone who blew up his ally’s games—one of which is also back this season—and then attempted to quit twice.
Q Burdette Survivor 50 Player Score
While Q is definitely an entertaining player to watch, he’s not a predictable player in any way, shape, or form, which makes him dangerous and a risk to keep around. Even if he’s taken the time to analyze his performance in Survivor 46 and figure out what he needs to do differently, I don’t think he’s the type of player who will get a chance at redemption due to his initial performance. But we may get the next great invention from him…second only to the “Q Skirt.”
Outwit (Social Game): 3/15
Outplay (Physical Game): 4/15
Outlast (Strategic Game): 4/15
Wildcard Factor: 5/5
Total Player Score: 16/50
Q is for sure one of the players I’m interested in seeing this season specifically because I have no idea how others will react to him or how he will react to others. Everyone else I’ve been able to get a slight sense of premonition based off their previous games, but Q’s essentially starting from below ground zero, which will make him one viewers will stay invested in, until he goes home. We’ll see if it’s first—or never…—when Survivor 50 premieres Wednesday, Feb. 25, at 8 p.m. ET on CBS and Paramount +!