Counting Blessings, Not Votes.

While I try to practice gratitude in my everyday life (I’m thankful for my friends, partner, education, shelter, and food), Thanksgiving provides a unique opportunity to reflect on some of the less obvious things I’m grateful for. So as this holiday weekend comes to a close, I’d like to tap into my sentimental side and reflect on what I’m thankful for when it comes to Survivor. Like many fans, I sometimes find it easier to nitpick about things I dislike than to pause and reflect on all the good things Survivor has done and changed over the years. So to counteract all of the cynical complaints I’ve ever had, here is a shortlist of Survivor treats I’m most grateful for.

New Era Superfans

“Back in my day,” superfans were a casting type, not a normative description of most players. There would be a few of us superfans on a season, trying to hide our love for obscure podcasts like RHAP, with the majority of the cast being recruits who were either casual fans or who had never seen the show before. While this mix of fans and recruits could sometimes lead to a healthy amount of unpredictability, it could also lead to stale or frustrating gameplay. 

Even if every cast member isn’t a Day One superfan, people who know and love the show bring an energy that less-invested recruits don’t. (For example, Rome from season 47 binge-watched every season in a matter of months. An expert on strategy he was not. An electrifying ball of energy - most definitely.)

In the new era, it seems like almost every cast member is a fan at some level. Some might say a cast full of fans leads to robotic, homogenous gameplay.  I say it leads to devastating blindsides (see: Aysha, Anika, and Tiyana from this season), novel strategic moves (see: Rachel’s use of the Shot in the Dark to get a read on whether she should play her idol), and players engaging with the fan community more (see: everyone getting on Cameo as soon as they can connect to wifi on Fiji Airlines). The stakes of the game are so much higher when every vote-out is a crushing of someone’s dream. 

Diversity Initiatives

The work done by the Survivor Diversity Campaign (SDC), in particular, Black Survivor players like Brice, Wendell, J’Tia, Davie, Sean, and many more I haven’t named, changed the game for good. They are the true game changers. Survivor has a history of mirroring dynamics in the real world, in which minority players (whether in the numerical minority or in a minority racial/sexuality/gender group) are disadvantaged. The SDC changed that. After the SDC got a sit-down meeting with their showrunners, CBS announced an initiative for 50% POC casts that applied not only to Survivor but all of its reality shows. After that change went into effect, we got four women winners, four POC winners, and three winners who are out members of the LGBTQ+ community. As a person who falls into multiple minority groups myself, I have felt so seen and represented since these changes have gone into effect, something I never felt growing up watching reality television in the 2000s.

The Crew

The official Survivor social media has been ramping it up with the behind-the-scenes peeks into how the sausage gets made. Anyone who has been on one of these reality shows knows how much energy, effort, and attention goes into making the magic happen. As much as we dogpile on “the edit” for focusing too much on one storyline over another, or on Jeff and the producers for introducing another lose-your-vote twist, I am immensely grateful for the hard work that the crew puts in. This includes casting directors, producers, editors, camera operators, boom operators, sound mixers, divers, dream teamers, wardrobe, production assistants, the art department team, and so many more roles that go under-recognized.

Just recently, the Survivor Instagram featured Vanna Cheal, a carver who intricately chisels the season’s logo and immunity idols out of wood - a role most of us probably never even considered existed, but one that is crucial to creating the immersive and detailed world we see on screen. On the less delicate end of things, we can also learn how the diving team sets up challenges with equipment that weighs hundreds of pounds. 

And to see the way the landscape of the crew has changed is exciting. A producer from my time on the show six years ago, Andrea, was recently featured on Instagram. When I saw that post, I immediately saw that Davie from my cast commented “Night Lady!”, a term we dubbed her six years ago before we knew her name because she was our night producer. Now she is on a logistics team for idols and twists, and it’s so thrilling and meaningful to see her move on to new and exciting roles – especially as a woman in a typically male-dominated field.

 All of these behind-the-scenes remind us that as important as the cast is to providing us with entertainment, Survivor doesn’t get made without the labor of hundreds of crew members. So thank you crew for making the show we all love (and love to complain about). 

The Survivor Alumni and Fan Community

It wouldn’t be a Thanksgiving-themed post without the requisite sappiness. I am so grateful for the community I’ve found through being both a player and a fan of Survivor. I’ve made some of my closest friends not only through my season, but also from seasons across the years. I’ve spent my birthday at a Survivor watch party. I’ve stayed in the homes of people I’d only met in person a couple times before. I’ve connected with fellow academics and students over Survivor. I’ve found a niche group of people who enjoy discussing and overanalyzing and making dumb memes about the reality shows I like. 

I did not anticipate what that community would look like when I applied to be on Survivor – back then, I was only a part-time lurker of RHAP and the r/survivor sub (I remember when it had less than 50k subscribers - now it’s at 579k!), and I had no connections to any of the fan events or past players. I thought it was unreal that I got a chance to be on the show. I never thought it would open me up to a whole new world of friends, with whom I podcast, play online games, and stay at casinos until 4am in New Orleans. This community is the thing I expected least out of being on Survivor, but it’s the thing I have come to value the most.

So if you’re reading this, thanks for being a part of it. And may we all be thankful for every new season of Survivor!

-Gabby

Gabby Pascuzzi was one of the main castaways featured on the fan favorite Survivor: David vs Goliath. She is a PhD student and lives in Buffalo, NY.

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