Owen Knight on Immunity Wins Being Devalued

Have Individual Immunity Wins Been Devalued? Did They Ever Matter?

Every Survivor fan dreams of wearing the Individual Immunity Necklace. Personally, watching Jeff Probst adorn the winner with their token of victory felt like a coronation, and as a child I told myself that I wanted that to happen to me one day. Aside from winning the game, that moment looked like the pinnacle of Survivor glory, and I wanted to chase that feeling.

Flash forward 22 years later, and I’m on the beaches of Fiji shouting out challenge beasts of yesteryear as I won my first of 3 individual immunities on Survivor 43. Of course, I didn’t end up winning the game and finished as a zero-vote finalist. Famously, I was shocked that my ally Cassidy Clark (who also won 3 individual immunities) did not take home the win, and my jaw comically dropped as Mike Gabler took home the million-dollar check (and promptly gave it away to charity; can’t hate on that). With three necklaces under my and Cassidy’s belts and Gabler with one, we are tied as the winningest Final Tribal Council in Survivor history. 

Cassidy and I had even joked about Bunim-Murray calling us to film the Challenge USA 2 after our performance, a joke that turned into a reality for Cassidy. While she was off filming in Croatia, I had more time to think about 43 without my fellow loser, and naturally, challenges were on my mind. I had various thoughts on the importance of our necklace tally. Did it matter at all? Would the jury have voted differently if they had watched the challenges? Did I maximize the opportunity the safety of the necklace provided me each round?

After my first win, I gave a confessional saying that I didn’t want to get a big head or get too cocky. I knew my place in the game: squarely on the bottom. I figured that if I came back from winning the Over-Extended challenge barking orders and acting untouchable, the tribe would promptly show me the door at the next round. Still, I should have pushed a little harder and dealt with the consequences later, particularly at the Final 7. There aren’t many times in Survivor that you can be 100% certain you won’t go home at a Tribal Council, and you should take advantage of them to the fullest.

I also found another wrinkle in my disdain for the Final 4 fire-making challenge. Why does it get all the hullabaloo and a live audience while a hard-fought individual immunity win gets smiles from the jury bench, at best? Walking into Tribal Council wearing the necklace pales in comparison to fighting for your life in front of a jury. Challenges, for the most part, are more demanding as well. I was especially frustrated with the concept of Cassidy giving up her final immunity necklace — why should she have to beat Jesse twice? For a while I thought a solution would be to have the jury watch challenges. Then they’d see! Right? Right??

Now that the grapes are less sour and I realize that Gabler played a very good, if unorthodox, social game, I know in my heart of hearts that individual immunity wins aren’t all that important. Sure, they can be a great tool to keep you safe and throw a wrench in somebody else’s plan (just ask Mike Holloway), but they exist more as an addendum to one’s metaphorical resume than a major selling point. Don’t get me wrong, I never thought that the person who won the most challenges should automatically win the game, but I think I overestimated how much challenge performance is part of the “Outplay” tenant, or how much “Outplay” goes into the jury’s calculus.

I got curious about the historical precedent around individual immunity challenges. Of course, I remember watching Tina beat Colby and his 5 necklaces in the Outback and melting my 9 year old mind. We saw back-to-back seasons where a castaway tied the record for individual immunity wins with Brad Culpepper winning 5 on Game Changers and Chrissy Hofbeck winning 4 on HHH. Both finished in second place.

I dug into the data for every season - see it here - and I was fascinated by the results. 18 seasons saw the person with the most individual immunity wins taking home the title of Sole Survivor (5 won while tied for the most). Conversely, 12 people have won the game without wearing the necklace a single time. Survivor winners have only averaged 1.7 individual immunity wins, while runners-up averaged 1.9.

I was most interested in the winners who came out on top without ever securing a win. The list of names honestly shocked me. We’re talking about bona-fide legends like Sandra (twice!) Yul, Earl, Todd, and Tony (in Cagayan). Most recently, Maryanne pulled it off on Survivor 42, while the aforementioned Tina Wesson was the first to do it.

Going a level deeper, we find that 3 of these winners beat an opponent who won 5 individual immunities. 5-time winners are only 2-4 on Survivor, with Mike Holloway and Tom Westman holding titles while Colby, Ozzy, Culpepper, and Terry Dietz do not. To be completely honest, there were moments on 43 where I was daydreaming more about tying the challenge record than winning the actual game. I knew I needed to win out and pull an Underwood to have any chance at the title. I hardly had any strategic agency throughout the season — the only move I could stake any claim towards was James’ boot, where Noelle and I collaborated to use her Steal-A-Vote to lull him into a false sense of security. I knew I needed to make a splash in a different arena.

However, I knew that winning the Final Immunity Challenge and beating Jesse in fire would not guarantee me the win. I suppose that means I knew for certain that challenge wins are just window dressing. But still, there is something magnetic about that necklace. I know we love Survivor for the strategic gameplay, blindsides, and plurality votes. But for me, immunity challenges bring back some boyhood excitement. It takes me back to my couch, holding my breath along with the castaways as I try to win Last Gasp from our living room. Then to get to compete, win, AND set a new record? Absolutely unfathomable, and my inner child was so proud. Maybe this whole line of thinking has to do with when I found Survivor. I’d venture to guess that people who started watching as adults don’t hold immunity wins in such high regard. Or maybe they do! I’m curious: if you’re one of those people, what do you think?

I’m sure many of you have been saying “no $hit, Sherlock” this whole time. That’s totally fair. Survivor is a social game at the end of the day. It isn’t The Challenge or Physical 100.  We watch it for reasons far beyond the physical capabilities of the cast, and I’m aware there are fans that fast forward through the challenges to get right to the strategy. I know all of this, and I love the show for those reasons! Still though, there is a little part of me that gets fired up when Kirhoffer debuts a new challenge or when we watch a castaway push their limits to a new realm. There’s magic in there for me. I get it if there isn’t any for you, but I think it might be a little more fun if there was.

-Owen

Owen Knight was a finalist on Survivor 43, where he won three individual immunities and was one of the main narrators of the season. He lives in New Orleans and works as a College Admissions Director.

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