Survivor‘s Edge of Extinction Twist Adds Controversy to Winners at War — But Do You Love It or Loathe It?
Survivor‘s Winners at War season is off and running — and though the all-champs spectacular couldn’t possibly have been more anticipated, there’s one element that seems to have harshed fans’ mellow: the return of the highly contended Edge of Extinction twist.
Introduced to the franchise in Season 38, the Edge of Extinction is a bleak, remote beach with even fewer amenities than the main island, where expelled contestants live to await a chance to re-enter the game. The twist was the subject of much controversy when that cycle’s Chris Underwood, voted out on Day 8, re-joined the game on Day 35 and won the entire season. Technically, Underwood only “outwitted, outplayed and outlasted” for 13 of the 39 days, which for some adds a big ol’ asterisk next to his victory.
The announcement of the Edge as part of Season 40’s Winners at War was a surprising one. Prior to its Feb. 12 premiere (read our recap here), the hashtag #EndEdgeOfExtinction saw longtime fans debating the effects of the twist, especially for an all-returnees season. From a production standpoint, the pros are clear: With such a dynamic group of competitors returning to the island (including Parvati Shallow, Sandra Diaz-Twine and Boston Rob Mariano), the Edge ensures the show doesn’t lose the biggest personalities pre-merge, a factor that plagued Game Changers, the show’s previous all-star season. Giving the franchise’s most capable and die-hard competitors (read: the biggest targets) this second chance keeps everyone hustling ’til the very end, while guaranteeing fan favorites remain on screen regardless of when their torches are snuffed.
But then there are the counterpoints.
Having that safety net strips away all of the drama and tension from the show’s defining moment: the vote-off. From a purist’s perspective, when “the tribe has spoken,” that should be it. Thanks for playing, bye-bye now. Keeping rejected players alive in the game doesn’t raise the stakes any higher; it feels like treading water. Additionally, all of the Edge participants bond in an environment outside of the main game. The returning player ultimately spends this time making friends with the jury, which feels too advantageous and unfair to those still in the game. (For the record, I wasn’t a fan of Redemption Island or the Outcasts twist on Pearl Islands either.) Re-entering players works on many other competition series, but on Survivor, it disrupts the sanctity of the game.
Host and executive producer Jeff Probst hears your cries. “When people get so invested that they don’t like [the Edge], that tells me, ‘OK, we’re in this together, you don’t like it, I get it’… we’re not going to do Edge for a while,” he said in an interview with Rob Has a Podcast host and former Survivor contestant Rob Cesternino. But Probst also added, “I’m not saying we won’t do it again… I like the back and forth [between fans and producers], but I wish people understood I’m truly coming from love.”
Having purged these frustrations, the Edge and Season 40 are walking hand in hand, so let’s focus on the positives: We finally have a freaking winners season! There are old school players we haven’t seen in years, like Ethan Zohn and Yul Kwon! We have some of the best social strategists the game has ever seen (Kim Spradlin-Wolfe! Sophie Clarke!) back and ready for bloody battle. And then there are the fire tokens, which allow Edge players to work for advantages they can sell to players for currency in the game. Will castoffs be able to buy their way back for a certain amount of tokens? Will selling these advantages help Edge players build new alliances from afar? If the Edge must exist, the fire token element at least adds a shiny new layer.
The days of “old-school Survivor” are long gone. The Edge is here (for now) and the show’s recent “advantage-palooza” trend isn’t going anywhere either. There are plenty of reasons why Survivor continues to outwit, outplay and outlast its reality TV competition, and twists like the Edge — love ’em or leave ’em — at least prove the show is willing to take chances in order to stay fresh. Game on.
Do you wish castaways would hit the road after the vote-off? Weigh in via the poll below, then tell us your thoughts in the comments!
LOVE Survivor, and I’m so glad TVLine has had a lot more coverage of the show this season!
But I do not care for Edge of Extinction. I didn’t like it last time, and Im not a fan this time around. Last time resulted in one of my least favorite seasons of recent times. Hopefully it doesn’t ruin a potentially great season. The premiere was really good, so I have hopes it will still be a good one
I agree! With an all-winners season I was hoping to go back to “old-school” and having all the advantages stripped away. The advantages are getting too much and while, yes, seeing your favorites get out early can be upsetting and can lead to a disappointing final three perhaps, getting Your torch snuffed is part of the game. That’s it. EoE definitely takes out that drama and tension of someone going home for good.
When you are voted out, you’re out. Period.
I think EoE should just give players to win some more money or just give the winner to be on the jury or some other prizes, but not to come back to the game and win. I like that we still can see the voted off. Especially this winner season we still want to see our fav players on our TV.
But anyway, I think chris underwood played a hell of a game at the finale. He deserved something. And it’s the jury who is bitter about the other 2
It takes every ounce of tension away from the show – what’s the point, until the last episode? Probst loves it, so it will keep happening.
Love it! It adds a whole other dimension to game play AND it affords ALL players to constantly be planning for the next chapter. You can’t “just” get rid of someone, you have to truly outwit, outplay, outlast. Besides, if it is an incentive to get back all these winners, I’m all for it.
I believe in one of the interviews leading up to this season it was said that to get past winners to do this again one of the things the producers promised was that no one would be gone in just 3 days ie the first tribal council. The Edge of Extinction is the way the kept that promise.
I just like being able to see more of the contestants I love after they get voted out and still have them to root fo
I’d like to know who those people were. At the second tribal in a not shown on TV moment, Jeff asked them who likes EOE and only three raised their hands. None of them old school.
I think that if a player was only to return to the game pre merge it would make extinction Island better.
Survivor is based a lot on social game, so having a player return to the game so close to the end puts that player on a different playing field (having a relationship with the jury but not with tribe members).
Bringing the player back before merge means they have a similar starting point with the jury and fellow tribe members as all the reset of the remaining players.
I don’t like Edge of Extinction, but it hasn’t ruined my excitement for this season. I get it from a producer and TV perspective. I agree with others that it should be gone pre-merge, and I am at least interested this time in how the Fire Tokens make it a little more interesting. That being said, my ultimate hope is that this crop of returning players respect the game enough that regardless of when a player returns or if they’re in the final tribal council, they won’t vote for them to win the game.
I loathe it for all the reasons you mentioned. I don’t like how the voted out player bonds with the jury, I don’t like how the voted out player gets to come back and not have had to do all the outwit, outplay, outlast strategy to stay in the game, and I don’t like how the powers that be let those on EOE impact the game (ex.. Natalie giving Sandra and idol). Once your out, you should be out.
I can take or leave EOE. I understand why people hate it, but I’m also sick of hearing people complain about it after just one episode. It seems very clear that EOE was a necessary evil to get back some of the past winners, and I wonder how strong the cast would have been were this not implemented. I know they weren’t told EOE was coming, but my understanding is that they were guaranteed some mechanism to hang around beyond the first vote. I do like the added strategy of the fire tokens and EOE people selling advantages to people still “in” the game. Analyzing Natalie’s move alone was a lot of fun.
Perhaps when the first play-in from EOE happens around merge time, that will be the end of it, rather than having it play out until the end of the season. That seems like a good compromise of satisfying the conditions promised to the contestants while avoiding another Chris Underwood situation.
The mistake with EoE on season 38 was keeping it until the final four (or was it five?). If the EoE ends at the merge then I’m ok w/it. I understand the point of keeping big players around, but I also think it is an advantage to people who remain on EoE for a long time to create bonds. I was rooting for Chris during his season and was disappointed when he was voted off and when he didn’t get back to the game at the merge. I didn’t expect that EoE would continue and allow another player back into the game at the end. Chris did a great job with his come-back at the end, but even I thought his win was unfair. I think it’ll be interesting to see these winners deal with the EoE and the coins, however I’m hoping that they’ll all be gone after the merge (except for one player who gets back into the game).
Previously not a fan of EoE, but I love the EoE twist this season. All voted off Winners get to go on the Island & survive their way back. They still have impact on the game with the introduction of the Survivor currency. Nat did well by offering to sell the Idol to Sandra. Looking foreword to seeing what happens next, especially as the people on EoE grow in numbers.
I love the serious Survivor reporting this season, TVLine. Get Nick out there for press this year!
Sure with EoE there are game play elements included, but it seems like a totally separate game from the game play on the main island. On Eoe there are no immunity challenges or sneaking around and spreading lies etc… The drama is all on the main island and on Eoe it’s just basically don’t raise the flag. Chris did a great comeback from EoE but im still 50/50 on whether he deserved to win the whole game.
This is the problem with it in a nutshell. There’s no “game” to play. You just sit there and mark time and whine about how hard it is. Want me to like EoE? Run parallel games between the main island and EoE. “Top Chef” has EoE in the form of “Last Chance Kitchen. And no one just sits there.
Survivor All Star seasons are like “Greatest Hits” albums. Trying to relive past glories because they’ve run out of fresh ideas. When Probst comes up with fresh faces and fresh ideas I’ll start watching it again. Until then I’ve got better things to do.
It’s been reported that some players would not have returned without the EOE twist. Keeping that in mind, I’m fine with it.
This article seems like a recap of Dalton Ross’ recaps.
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I’m glad to see Ethan healthy and Yul still at the top of his game. Hate EOE. This is exactly the kind of season that needs the shock value of vote offs. Also, the majority of the players said they dislike Edge.
I stopped watching Survivor the first time someone was brought back from the dead. I stop watching ALL competition shows where someone is brought back. The playing field is no longer level. Survivor has done everything within its power to unlevel the playing field, like swapping contestants or individual prizes or immunity idols. Bringing people who were voted off is just one stupid straw too many.
I do miss the days when players were able to just play the game without production interference. I think Big Brother is the worst when it comes to throwing in gimmicks and twists that tend to assist their considered “favorites”. I am curious what the tokens are all about but giving another player an idol smacks favoritism to me. It really makes me wonder how much influence they had on who that free idol went to. I’m always yelling at the TV saying “just let them play” lol.
It saps the energy from Tribal when you know these people are just going to a different island and we’re not really saying goodbye (even if we want to). The Edge of Extinction dynamic of a “show within a show” draws focus away from the main show / game and pulls me out of my zone with the game, it is worse than commercials; it allows my brain time to realize there are other things I could be doing / watching. This says nothing of how it tainted the results the first time they tried this gimmick. I know Jeff Probst loves it because they don’t have to lose people they think the audience will love, or who will provide drama, but usually people who get voted out are largely duds anyway and we haven’t seen evidence that Edge of Extinction keeps the players energized to actually play the game vs. hanging out for a a pay check.
I hate Edge for all the reasons you mention, plus another big one: Any camera time there takes away from camera time with the people who haven’t been voted out. I felt the same way about Island of the Idols, which added nothing of substance to the game or the drama.
Island of the Idols was really dumb. All it did was sabotage those who when there because they immediately had a target on their back and all of those who went knew what the jig was and were obviously told to keep silent. It just didn’t work.
A great twist would be to bring all (when there’s enough of them) the EoE players back into the game to have them compete with the other two tribes. The losing TRIBE ends up on EoE and the other two tribes go back to camp (even if it’s not.theirs; i.e. the losing tribes. This not only brings ‘lost’ players back into the game but also allows for more pre-merge strategy!
Players on the Edge create a bond with the jury – this is a very unfair advantage for the players who have been playing their hearts out in challenges through the game!!
Devens should have won and not Chris who suddenly jumped onto the band wagon at the end. Devens played a brilliant tactical, clean game. Chris had been with the jury and was ‘one of them’ – foregone conclusion that he would win!
Devens played a better tactical and clean game… Chris just tagged on with the backing of his chums on the jury.
The funny thing is, there were a TON of Survivor winners complaining the first time this twist was used, saying it completely defeats the point of the game… Yet now they’re on the show again they’re fine with getting a second chance!! lol
I just think it could potentially ruin what everyone has been waiting for. Like how much of a letdown will it be if the ‘Winner of Winners’ spent half the game lying on a beach NOT playing the game?!
And I’m sick of Jeff acting like he gives a crap about what the viewers think… He likes it, and that’s why it came back. Same as Rob. He was Jeff’s favourite player so he kept bringing him back until he finally won!!
I love edge because in this game the best players get voted off. They deserve a other chance. I wish more than one could return.
Loathe it. Very unfair to those who have actually ” played ” the game