It says a lot about Survivor 50 that the most memorable move of the season was a coin flip.
Prior seasons of all-star, returnee Survivor were defined by player-led moments, both strategic and personal. The ones that shine from 2004’s Survivor: All-Stars—the first returnee season in the show’s history—are Rob Mariano’s betrayal of Lex van den Berghe and his onstage proposal to Amber Brkich at the live finale. In 2010’s Heroes vs. Villains, J.T. Thomas foolishly sent an immunity idol across tribe lines to notorious villain Russell Hantz, and Parvati Shallow subsequently used that idol and another idol at the same tribal council. In 2015’s Cambodia, Kelley Wentworth’s two correct idol plays led to separate epic moments—one in which an incredible nine votes were negated and another in which all votes were negated after Jeremy Collins also played his idol. In Winners at War, Tony Vlachos wriggled his way out of an extortion disadvantage just to blindside his biggest competitor (who had an idol in her pocket) all in one episode.
Big names, elevated gameplay, and high stakes. The above moments are some of the best in Survivor history.
Fans were hoping for something like that from Survivor 50, the first season in six years featuring an all-star returnee cast. But Season 50’s watercooler moment wasn’t the result of creative strategy or an emotional story. It was the result of chance. In a MrBeast-sponsored twist in the 10th episode of the season, the cast was required to pick one player to flip a coin at tribal council. If the player called the coin flip correctly, they would win safety in that tribal and a personal immunity idol for future use, and the prize pot for the entire season would double to $2 million. If they called it incorrectly, they would go home.
Rick Devens, who has built his Survivor reputation on fun and chaos, stepped up to the plate. He called heads, and he called correctly. Stephenie LaGrossa Kendrick subsequently went home by tribe vote that episode; Rick lasted just two more episodes before suffering the same fate. But winner Aubry Bracco, who was crowned Wednesday night at a live finale in Los Angeles, benefited from Rick’s gamble to the tune of an extra $1 million.
The moment produced real buzz. Outside of the premiere, Episode 10 is the highest-rated episode of the season on IMDb. The fan communities on Reddit and Twitter popped off, and the fans I spoke to in real life mostly loved it. Devens’s coin flip is undoubtedly the moment of the season.
But the fact that the highlight of 50 came down to random chance really encompasses the up-and-down nature of this season in particular and the extent to which the current “new era” of Survivor has put twists and game mechanics at the forefront of the show and players in the background.
Take some other twists from this season. The “Billie Eilish Boomerang Idol” put a twist on the game’s well-worn idol mechanics. Players who found this idol weren’t allowed to keep it; they instead had to anonymously send it to someone on another tribe. If that player was voted out with the idol, it would “boomerang” back to the player who’d found it. But it also came with restrictions—the player with the idol was not allowed to transfer it or play it for someone other than themselves. That meant some of the most creative and strategic players in Survivor history were put into a box by this season’s idols. That iconic Parvati double-idol play I mentioned earlier? Not possible on Survivor 50.
And one player—Genevieve Mushaluk—found two such idols and had to give both away. As part of a “Blood Moon” twist that saw the large merge tribe broken into three separate groups, she was later swapped onto a small tribe with players who were never going to work with her. With nothing to protect her, she was anticlimactically voted out.
Later in the season, fan favorite Christian Hubicki earned a chance to go on a journey and complete the Jimmy Fallon “One in the Urn” challenge. If he solved a jigsaw puzzle before a timer ran out, he would earn the ability to write an additional vote and place it in the urn before tribal council. But after he failed, he was compelled to vote for himself at tribal. Worse yet, he had to announce this punishment to his entire tribe, with no chance to lie or deflect. He was a sitting duck and was easily voted out at that night’s tribal council.
Survivor is a game of deceit. Why not give Christian a chance to lie to his tribe and salvage his game? It’s also a game of relationships and trust. Why not give the players with idols the opportunity to use them on their allies? Why not keep them with their allies instead of breaking them up and leaving their fates to whoever they get randomly grouped with?
Often this season, it seemed like the game was playing the players, not like the players were playing the game.
The ‘Survivor 50’ contestants at the live finale
This is all the more perplexing given that this season was themed “In the Hands of the Fans.” Before the season was filmed, fans were given a chance to vote on many things affecting the game, but it never seemed like production fully embraced this theme. Many of the things fans voted on were inconsequential, like the colors of the tribes or the design of the immunity necklace. Others were clearly set up to get voters to choose a certain outcome, or they were worded in such a vague way that the actual consequences of the vote were difficult to parse. For example, fans had the chance to vote on whether they wanted idols in the game, and, predictably, given how popular they are, 80 percent voted yes. But then we didn’t get idols. We got Billie Eilish Boomerang Idols™. What is the point of having fans “vote” to include something, only to replace that thing with something else? What was it we really voted on?
Another example: Fans were able to vote on whether they wanted to include twists in the game or not. Sixty-three percent voted for including twists. Production would point to this to say that they only delivered what fans had clearly wanted. But did fans really vote for the Jimmy Fallon twist, which essentially spiked Christian’s game entirely and led to one of the most underwhelming vote outs in the history of the show? Christian summed it up best on day 16, after a different twist: “Don’t know if the fans voted for that specifically, but sure.”
Yet despite all these distractions, this was an enjoyable season of Survivor. It’s the gold standard of competition reality television for a reason. I’ve said before that Survivor is like pizza. When it’s good, it’s really good. When it’s bad, it’s still pretty good. Season 50 is the proof.
The cast really brought the energy we were looking for in a returnee season. The legendary Cirie Fields turned in one of her best performances in her five seasons; she came in with a sky-high reputation and somehow managed to grow it even though she went home in sixth place. Coach Wade was at his Coach-iest, delivering over-the-top entertainment value in almost every episode. Devens did his best to expand what was possible in this game despite the advantage-built guardrails, at one point planting a fake idol at tribal council and using it to save himself through a tricky vote. Ozzy Lusth showed a mature, emotional side we hadn’t seen in his four prior seasons. I could go on—you get the idea. And Aubry is a deserving winner with a very compelling multi-season arc.
But when fans think of this season in the years that follow, they will first remember that flip of the coin. It was a fun moment, but I would’ve preferred a season that gave more space for the players to shine even brighter.
