It’s hard to believe that Survivor 49 is almost here! With all the hype around Survivor 50, Survivor 49 has been somewhat swept under the rug. Nonetheless, every season of Survivor is one to celebrate.
Survivor 49 comes on the heels of Survivor 48, which was an interesting season. While Survivor 48 started and ended strong, the middle of the season was at times a difficult watch. If Survivor 49 wants to be remembered as a better season than 48, it’s critical that it will feature these three improvements.
Survivor 49 needs to focus more on smaller alliances and blindsides
One of the biggest issues with Survivor 48 was the majority alliance in the merge. Known as the Strong People’s Alliance, several individuals who felt they were best at physical challenges decided to team up. In the early to mid-merge, they picked off the weaker players one by one. Many viewers quickly became frustrated by this. The Strong People’s Alliance focused more on targeted eliminations than blindsides, which is part of what makes Survivor so fun to watch.
Survivor 49 will need to have a more unpredictable merge to be better than Survivor 48. Hopefully, this season will focus on several small alliances in the merge, as opposed to one big one. It’s never fun to watch Tribal Council when you know who’s going home. Having smaller alliances helps to make the votes more unpredictable and ever-changing.
It would also be nice to see a number of good blindsides in Survivor 49. The only true blindsides of the Survivor 48 merge were the votes against David Kinne and Shauhin Davari. Survivor 49’s merge should have several more, as this is what helps to keep the game turning. Blindsides also look great on players’ resumes and help them earn a win at the end of the season.
Survivor 49 should distribute advantages more evenly and have better advantage plays after the merge
Another frustrating aspect of Survivor 48 was the advantages. The pre-merge featured excellent advantage plays. Mary Zheng was saved by her Shot in the Dark, and Kyle Fraser saved himself with an Immunity Idol. After the merge, however, the use of advantages became incredibly frustrating.
Eva Erickson obtained an idol before the merge from her tribemate, Star Toomey. Since Eva helped Star solve the lock on the idol, Star felt that giving Eva the idol was the right thing to do. Eva later obtained a Safety Without Power advantage after winning an immunity challenge. This was another controversial advantage for Eva, as the clue was placed directly in front of her name tag on a reward. Some fans felt that the advantage was slightly rigged.
At the final five, Eva played the idol on herself despite not receiving any votes. Eva could’ve used the idol strategically on a tribemate, but she failed to do so. The lack of meaningful advantage plays after the merge was an annoying aspect of Survivor 48. Hopefully, Survivor 49 will feature a few strategic advantage plays after the merge. While idols in the pre-merge are interesting, those in the post-merge are even more enjoyable due to the intensity of the competition.
Survivor 49 needs to utilize new challenges
One of the most exciting parts of every Survivor episode is the challenges. Each episode typically features one or two. Sometimes there are reward and immunity challenges, and other times there are only immunity challenges. The challenges typically feature some type of physical component, and often incorporate strategic tests like puzzles or mazes.
The New Era of Survivor has created many new challenges, although many of the Survivor 48 challenges felt recycled. There were a few challenges that were exact copies of those from Survivor 47, which made them less exciting to watch. While there are some great classic Survivor challenges, it’s important to come up with some new ones each season as well. If Survivor 49 introduces some cool new challenges, it could easily surpass Survivor 48 on the ranking of New Era seasons.
Survivor is available to stream on Paramount+.
TELL US – ARE YOU EXCITED TO WATCH SURVIVOR 49? DO YOU THINK IT WILL BE BETTER THAN SURVIVOR 48?
