In 2025, Survivor fans have a lot to be thankful for. For example, with Survivor 50: In the Hands of the Fans right around the corner, that landmark season could feature several compelling feuds among its most remarkable players.
On top of that, the reality show's viewers should be happy that Survivor 49 managed to beat all the odds and become a huge hit.
Sadly, however, not all is well in the Survivor world. In fact, there is one element of Jeff Probst's reality show that has been dragging the series down for far, far too long now. After they were once a highlight of the series, Survivor's challenges have become the worst part of the show for two reasons that could easily be fixed
Why the current state of Survivor challenges is terrible
I love Survivor. It is my favorite reality show by far. Because I enjoy the show so much, I have seen every episode that has ever aired, and I enjoy rewatching past seasons. Since I have been watching since the first season of Survivor aired in the year 2000, I have strong memories of what watching the show's challenges used to feel like.
There was a time when I would look forward to seeing each episode's challenges. I have fond memories of seeing Rupert Boneham holding up the weight of people who were dangling in the ocean, for example. I also remember many instances of Parvati Shallow showing off her incredible challenge stamina in ways that I believe should be a bigger part of her legacy.
When I think of moments like those and others, it makes me really sad to consider the current state of Survivor, which I would describe as terrible.
I remember many times when I was on the edge of my seat waiting to see who would prevail during a challenge. Thanks to the current state of them, however, I now find myself feeling bored by the vast majority of the show's challenges.
For example, during Survivor 49 episode 3, "Loveable Losers," there was a challenge where the fate of a tribe that was down on its luck was on the line. Since I like the members of the tribe and was rooting for them, I should have been invested. Instead, I found myself feeling bored when the challenge began, disinterested as it continued, and resigned when it finished.
There are two reasons why I find Survivor's current challenges to be not very interesting these days. The first of those reasons is that, aside from the occasional exception, virtually all the current challenges feel the same. The challenges that used to rely on the players' stamina, strength, and competitive spirit are long gone.
Why can't they do something as simple as having the tribes chase each other around an oval, with the first group to be caught losing? What happened to the eating gross stuff challenges? Can we please test the players by forcing them to endure stamina challenges?
It is hard to overstate how much I loved seeing stamina challenges that gave Probst the chance to bribe the players. All it would take to fix this problem would be for the show to bring back some challenge variety.
Puzzles have become the problem in Survivor challenges
The other problem with Survivor challenges comes down to one word, puzzles. I have grown to completely hate the fact that virtually all Survivor challenges end with a puzzle. It means that, aside from the few times when the results came down to the wire, everything that happens before the puzzle doesn't matter. I can't fathom why Survivor's team seems to have come to believe that watching people doing puzzles is such a cinematic experience.
I want to be clear, I have the utmost respect for the team that builds Survivor's challenges. The massive sets that they create are extremely impressive, detailed, and visually stunning. In fact, the production team's impressive design skills make me even more frustrated with the current state of Survivor challenges. The team puts so much work into the challenges, so why can't their efforts be in service of TV moments that are actually entertaining? All it would take to fix this problem would be to severely scale back how many puzzles each Survivor season features.
Unfortunately, there is no indication that the state of Survivor challenges is going to change anytime soon.
As a result, I fully expect almost every challenge to end with a puzzle in the future. With that in mind, I have one more Survivor complaint related to puzzles.
If the show is going to continue making puzzles the foundation of every challenge, its casting team needs to be very careful to make sure that every tribe has its own puzzle genius. As recent Survivor seasons have shown, having a group that doesn't have an expert at solving puzzles is the quickest route to creating a disaster tribe. That matters because the fact that so many recent seasons have had a tribe that completely flames out probably is the second biggest problem with Survivor these days.