10 Changes Survivor NEEDS to make for Seasons 51 and Up

Obviously, I love the show, "Survivor".  I've gone over how to improve the show before, but this time I want to go over ten changes the show really needs to make post-Season 50.  It'll be another chance for a new era, a fresh start.  Also, these ten changes are ones the show could easily make and most of them wouldn't cost them any more money.  So, here are changes I think most fans would absolutely approve of, in no particular order:

1. Either go back to two tribes at the start, or keep mixing it up
This has been something that hardcore fans have grown tired of.  For nine straight seasons, (41-49), the show started with three tribes of six people.  Why?  Smaller tribes are ok on occasion, but not at the start of every season.  Why can't we have two tribes of eight, nine, or ten people every now and then?  Is that too much to ask?  Jeff needs to get over his obsession with this setup.

2. Quit taking away flint
A minor change, but a necessary change nonetheless.  Part of the punishment of losing a pre-merge challenge is that the losing tribe loses its flint.  That action has only increased the odds of a tribe continuing to lose and falling significantly behind in numbers, creating the dreaded "disaster tribe."  It also adds basically nothing to the entertainment value.  We know they don't have much food.  You don't need to take away flint to make the show look tougher, which it doesn't even do.

3. No mergatory, just merge at different times
We don't need to split people up as part of the merge.  Why, for so long, did they have to "earn" the merge?  For 40 seasons, earning the merge meant surviving enough votes or winning enough tribal challenges to get to the merge stage of the game.  Please revert to that.  They did for 49, so I have high hopes they will for 50 and beyond.  To keep it fresh, merge at different times like they did before 40.  

4. Only split people up post-merge for a reward

Another pet peeve we hardcore Survivor fans have is how they split players up post-merge for not only immunity, but sometimes separate tribal councils.  Too many players have gotten screwed by being put in a group with no allies.  Jeff Probst seems to like it when luck is a major factor in Survivor, but introducing twists like this adds way too much luck to the game.  We don't want to see lucky players win, we want to see GOOD players win.  We can only imagine the great players and winning games we were potentially robbed of in recent seasons because someone got put on a team with few or no allies and they were voted out.

5. Fewer journeys
I initially hated "journeys", when players go off to a separate island to compete for an advantage.  I think I'm okay with them now, in moderation.  I hate seeing them in every pre-merge episode.  I most dislike how they use them to replace separate reward challenges.  Gone are the days when most Survivor episodes were a reward, an immunity, and a tribal council.  I would like it if they could throw in a couple more pre-merge reward challenges and stop combining the reward with immunity every time.  Sometimes, all a struggling tribe needs is to win a reward or challenge of any kind, and it is a lot harder to do if it's always paired with immunity.

6. No forced loss of votes

One of my personal biggest pet peeves of modern Survivor is how easily players lose their votes.  It's especially irksome when the player(s) involved have zero say in whether they lose their vote or not.  Losing their vote to play their shot in the dark?  That's fine.  Lose their vote to get a beware advantage?  Also ok.  They chose it.  Losing your vote because you were selected for a journey?  NOT OK.  Too many players have been screwed over by this.  If you give the players the choice, that's fine.  But do not instantly say they lose their vote and have to "earn" it back.  Again, this is production forcing luck to be a part of the game, which most fans do not like.

7. Give them a small amount of rice at the start
Survivor players used to instantly get rice.  Yes, that was for 39-day seasons, but even for 26-day seasons, not having ANY food really takes a toll on them, and makes them more lethargic and less active with gameplay and strategy.  I even recently saw a comment from Sophi on Season 49 where she said she would have been way more active if she had any food.  You want exciting gameplay, Jeff?  Give them a small amount of food.  Doesn't have to be a lot.  Just enough so they aren't lifeless and have zero energy.

8. Make idols hard to find and introduce idol clues again
Think of the most iconic idol finds in Survivor history.  Yul on Exile Island.  Terry on Exile Island.  Sugar in Gabon.  Russell, without using a clue.  Idols finds were fun to watch when they were very hard to find and typically required a clue to find.  Too often in the New Era, they put them between waist and eye level, and we can see them sticking out of a crevice.  They need to bury them again, or even put them at challenges again.  Just change it up.  The "beware advantage" format is beyond stale.

9. Diversify challenges
I wish I had a nickel for every pre-merge challenge in the New Era that ended in a puzzle or a post-merge challenge in the New Era that was endurance-based.  It seems like the majority of each.  Challenges used to be my favorite part of every episode because of how unique and diverse each was.  I know Jeff has stated they want to stay away from physical challenges that could result in injury, such as Sumo at Sea and Smergenbrawl, but there are other challenges in Survivor's history I would love to see return that pose no risk of physical harm.  How about the memory challenges from Amazon or Worlds Apart?  Or how about the memory math challenge from Tocantins that Stephen dominated?  Or how about the knowledge-based games that have players holding a cube and using that for their answers?  Jeff is so insistent on every challenge having a physical and puzzle element early on, and an endurance element in the post-merge.  Change it up, Jeff, please!

10. Cast from more backgrounds
I'm very happy Survivor is casting more diversely, ethnically.  However, that has caused them to cast too many people in white-collar cushy jobs and not enough blue-collar "struggling to make ends meet" jobs.  Where are the construction workers?  Where are the waiters and waitresses?  Where are the cashiers and stockers?  I know those kinds of people apply too, so why are they being avoided?  And while I'm at it, a large chunk of New Era players are from two regions in the U.S.: California and the tri-state area of New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut.  I would wager around 40%, if not more, New Era players are from those two regions.  Where are the people from the Midwest, the South Atlantic, and Appalachia?  How about the Pacific Northwest, my home region?  And lastly, while I am still on the topic of casting, I would suggest they cast fewer super fans and more casual fans.  Survivor actually had some of its best seasons when casting recruited.  Casting itself has gotten stale, and the head of casting, Jesse Tannenbaum, NEEDS to have a different approach.  Not everyone has to be a good storyteller.  When everyone is a decent storyteller, nobody sticks out, and the season is not memorable.

BONUS: Let things speak for themselves rather than having the player narrate in a confessional
Survivor editors/producers need to focus more on showing us rather than telling.  I feel like every advantage/idol find, and every journey is narrated by the person involved, and I'd rather just have the moment speak for itself.  Watch past seasons.  They allow moments to speak for themselves, and only add a confessional when it adds to the moment.  But in modern Survivor, they have the player narrate in the confessional.  I'd much rather have them do the journey or find the idol, then, after it's over, talk about it, rather than narrating it and explaining it as it happens.

Top 10 Things We Have Yet to See on Survivor (But May Someday)

 I do a lot of blog posts on one of my favorite TV shows ever, Survivor.  I enjoy how the game has evolved over the years, and new things are happening all the time with its evolution.  We had a fan-favorite player get eliminated by default with Cirie in Game Changers.  We had a tribal in Second Chance where idols negated every vote.  But some instances or occurrences have never happened in Survivor history.  With all the new advantages and the numerous idols put into play by the showrunners, not only are some of these things likely to happen, but I think they (Jeff included) want them to happen.

10. A "No Vote" Tribal Council
One thing I'm not a fan of in recent seasons is how easy it is to lose your vote.  In fact, in Season 44, just going to the summit meant you lost your vote, unless you got lucky and succeeded in that 1/3 shot of getting an advantage.  It's so dumb.  Anyway, with how easy it is to lose your vote, and with shots in the dark, and with how small tribes can get, I feel like a "no vote" tribal council may happen someday.  I'm sure they have a plan in place for this, but this "dramatic moment" would feel so contrived, as do a lot of them in recent seasons.  And by a "no vote" tribal council, I do not mean a tribal council where all votes are negated.  That's happened before.  I mean a tribal council where everyone present has lost their vote or chooses to lose their vote.  Very unlikely, but it's theoretically possible.

9. A plurality tie at Final Tribal Council
I have a feeling this could happen in 44 (Spoiler alert: It does not).  But given three finalists, a tie with a plurality vote is certainly possible.  With 8 jurors like 44 has, we could see a 3-3-2 final vote.  Or if they had 9 jurors, a 4-4-1, or do I even say a 3-3-3?  We've seen a tie before in Ghost Island, but in that case, Laurel did not receive a vote and ended up casting the tie-breaking vote.  So if there's a 3-3-2 tie, how is it broken?  Do the 2 people who voted for the 3rd place person and the 3rd place person themself break the tie?  We may get that answer someday.

8. "Everyone's Safe" Tribal Council
This is what I think Jeff and the producers want most.  A tribal council where everyone is safe via immunity, idol, advantage, or shot in the dark.  We were close to it with the Cirie elimination in Game Changers.  But what would happen here?  They just vote out two people next time?  Everyone's safety cancels out and gets removed?  Draw rocks?  They fight for it?

7. Someone puts themselves into final 4 fire making and loses
We've seen it only once before where the player who won final immunity put themselves into fire: Chris in Edge of Extinction.  He won his fire-making duel with Rick Devens and then won the game.  A few others have considered attempting it, some of them regretting not doing so.  I think we will see (and likely soon) someone put themselves into fire, but lose.  It's become a running trend that winning fire-making looks a lot better to the jury.  This would happen when someone needs a boost to their resumé and knows they have no shot at winning without it.

Update: Heidi in 44 put herself into fire making, but won the fire making over Carson.  However, she still did not win the game, the first to put themselves into fire making but lose the game.

6. Multiple fake idols played at one tribal council
Hard as it may seem, we've never seen multiple fake idols be attempted to be played at the same tribal council.  For the first time in 44, producers made and introduced fake idols into the game.  In the past, players always had to make them themselves.  I think we may soon see a tribal council where someone attempts to play an idol but it turns out to be fake, and someone else attempts the same, feeling like there is no way theirs could be fake as well.

5. A player gets all the way to the end without ever having been vulnerable at a tribal council
I'm sure there have been a few players who have been somewhat close.  But this may never happen.  However, it theoretically is possible that a player gets all the way to the end without having been eligible to be voted for.  Their starting tribe would have to win every immunity, and they'd have to win individual immunity or be separated into a group that doesn't go to tribal every vote until the Final 3.  This person would have to be godlike at challenges.  They'd have to be smart with puzzles and athletic for endurance challenges.  I wonder if this ever happened, would this make a jury want to vote for them or not?  

4. A rock draw on a plurality tie
We've seen some rock draws in Survivor history, from Marquesas to Blood vs. Water to Millennials vs. Gen X.  But we've never seen one when there's been a three-way tie (or more).  I believe Survivor has had a three-way tie before, but it's always been resolved on the revote.  You'd think perhaps there'd be a tribe of 6 people with three twosomes, the twosomes all targeting three different people.  But generally, two pairs of twosomes get together to target one of the two odd people out.  Or, if a tribe has three people, each one targeting someone else.  I thought we might've seen that on Tika in 44 when they had just Caroline, Joshua, and Yam-Yam.

3. Someone gives someone their immunity necklace who then in turn plays an idol for them
I just think this would be a cute moment if it ever happened.  Two players close in the game, both of whom would be vulnerable.  One has individual immunity, but they decide to see if they can throw off the opposition and they give their immunity to their ally.  Said ally then plays an idol they happen to have on the first player.  This has never happened before, since the second player could just play their idol, but I'd still love to see it for the drama and fireworks.  Plus, it's something players would have to come up with, not the producers.

2. A player votes out someone with their idol
Let me explain.  In 44, we saw the introduction of the "Control a Vote" where Heidi got to control Lauren's vote.  Also, players loan idols all the time, namely in recent years to avoid the Knowledge is Power advantage.  This could mean someone is forced to vote out someone who has their idol.  That would just be such a kick in the nuts.  

1. A rock draw for $1 million?!
Even with a final three, a deadlock tribal council is possible.  I believe, for this reason, the show tries to avoid a jury size that is a multiple of 3 (namely 9).  I don't believe they've had a jury where the final 3 could've each gotten the same number of votes.  But I could be wrong.  But surely they must have something in place for this in case it happens.  For example, in Winners at War, what if one more person had left the Edge (joining Sandra in doing so), and the 15 jurors split their votes 5-5-5 between Tony, Natalie, and Michele?  Surely they wouldn't do a rock draw for $1 million, right?  I guess they'd have the jury talk it over until they came to a consensus.  Or possibly re-vote until someone gets the majority.  

BONUS (Unlikely): A juror that never casts a vote
We saw in 44 how Matt got to the jury, despite the only time he ever cast a vote being the time he got voted out.  Well, with how much the producers love taking people's votes away in mind (and the Shot in the Dark), we could see a juror on Survivor who never casts a vote, not even for a winner.  This could only happen if they re-introduced the "Remove a Juror" advantage, as seen in Kaoh Rong.  That was only introduced because of the med-evacs and needing an extra challenge, but I feel like we potentially could see it again.  Imagine, you get on the jury, but you don't get to cast a vote all game.  We will probably see a juror at some point that the first time they put pen to paper is for the winner.

I Love Russell Wilson

                I love Russell Carrington Wilson.  Not in the sense that I wanna marry him, but I love him as an athlete, a person, and a role model.  He's an inspiration to kids everywhere that want to succeed at a sport but play at a disadvantage, such as being too short.  He is a man who other men should strive to be like, because Russell Wilson is THE man. 
                Russell Wilson spends every Tuesday at Seattle Children's Hospital because he is such a great human being.  He is a strong advocate against cancer (Strong Against Cancer).  I start to wonder if this guy ever devotes any time to himself, with all the practice, watching film, and charitable work he does. 
                Russell Wilson's true character came out in the 2015 NFC Championship against the Green Bay Packers.  Despite throwing four interceptions and being down by two scores, this man did not give up.  He rallied his teammates because technically, they were still in it.  Most quarterbacks would have given up at that point, giving a half-hearted effort to get their team down the field knowing in the back of their mind they probably don't have a shot.  That idea never crossed the front or back of Russell's mind.  Despite facing the utmost of adversity, Russell never gave up.  Not for one second.
                I wanted (and received for my birthday) Russell's jersey, not just because of the great player he is on the field but because of the great person he is off the field.  He is almost for sure going to sign a new contract here with the Hawks (because why would he want to play anywhere else?) and he'll be worth every penny. 
                Russell sure has his critics (49ers fans mainly, but also even some Seahawks fans).  I've been one at times, I will admit.  He doesn't put up the best passing numbers in the league (his 2012 draft partner, Andrew Luck, has put up better passing numbers each year).  But Russell wins games.  I'd love to see what other quarterbacks would do with our offensive line and receiving units.  Sure, those units step up when it matters, but for the most part, they could be considered below average at times.  But Russell wins despite not having a huge weapon to go to on offense or without the best protection.  Here he is, perhaps winning his 2nd Super Bowl in just his third season. 
                It is my dream to one day meet Russell Wilson.  He'd even be in my top 5 people I'd most like to meet/shake hands with/get the autograph of.  He's only 1 month and 18 days older than me.  I have a feeling I will be a huge fan of this player, this person, for a long time...