Pop-Culturalist.com

Whenever I tell anyone my favorite show is Survivor, I am almost always met with a response along the lines of “that show is still on?!”  Well, with the upcoming premiere of season 34, titled Game Changers, I can definitely say, YES, it’s still on! And with good reason!  Survivor is the greatest social experiment of all time, and in my opinion, also the greatest game.

For those of you who don’t remember the very first season you may have watched way back in 2000, here is a very brief overview of the game, which doesn’t do it nearly enough justice.  If, however, you are interested in human behavior, strategy, and a healthy dose of reality tv drama, this show will be right up your alley.

THE RULES: A group of strangers are marooned on an island somewhere far away (usually in Southeast Asia or South America) and divided into tribes.  Those tribes compete in physical challenges.  If your tribe loses a challenge, you go to “tribal council” and have to vote one of your members, ending their game.  Once enough people are voted off, the tribes are merged, and each player is then playing for themselves.  The challenges are now for individual immunity from being voted out of the game, and everyone goes to tribal council.   The difference now is if you are voted out after the merge, you sit on the jury. Once there are just three competitors remaining in the game, or on some occasions two, they go to the jury.  The jury is tasked with asking the final contestants questions/making speeches/ranting/basically doing whatever they like, but ultimately casting a vote for the winner of Survivor.  The winner walks away with one million dollars, and most importantly, the title of Sole Survivor.

THIS SEASON: Season 34, which has its two hour premiere on March 8, is one of the most hotly anticipated seasons, because Game Changers is bringing back twenty of the most iconic, effective, and fun players to watch from previous seasons.  While there is so much to go into from each person’s game, I’m here to give you a quick glance at each player in anticipation of this upcoming season.  I’ll also be doing recaps of each episode as well, so tune in for that, and keep reading if you want to get a glimpse of this season’s cast.

Andrea Boehlke

Age: 26

Previous seasons: Redemption Island (5th place); Caramoan (7th place)

Claim to fame:  Being the first girl to win her way from a challenge back into the game in Redemption Island.  She also is credited with inventing the “shadow” game, where she tailed Malcolm around for hours preventing him from finding a hidden immunity idol before he was ultimately voted out in Caramoan.  You may also recognize her more recently from her hosting gig on People.com.

Aubry Bracco

Age: 29

Previous season: Kaoh Rong (runner-up)

Claim to fame:  Being robbed of the title of Sole Survivor from her first season.  Aubry had the classic hero’s journey.  At the beginning of her season, she was basically having a meltdown, but by the middle, she had confidence and showed her strategic and emotional chops for the game.  She gained the trust of key people, essentially controlling the game, and made such strong alliances that Tai Trang, another returnee you’ll see this season, forced a tie at the final 4 allowing Aubry to have a go at the fire-making challenge.  Aubry won that challenge by making a fire out of flint strong enough to burn through a piece of twine faster than her competition, ensuring a seat the final tribal council.  She was definitely the fan-favorite to win, and many consider her robbed of the win by a very bitter jury.

Brad Culpepper

Age: 46

Previous season: Blood v. Water (15th place)

Claim to fame:  “Playing for Monica.”  Brad played his first season with his wife, Monica Culpepper, and he was fairly open the entire time that he was playing his game just to protect Monica.  It was pretty annoying, to be honest.  Monica was perfectly capable of taking care of herself.  In fact, she sat at the final 3 while Brad got booted pre-merge.  Maybe he’ll show himself as a “game changer” when he’s out on the island alone.

Caleb (“Beastmode Cowboy”) Reynolds

Age: 28

Kaoh Rong (18th place – medevaced out)

Claim to fame:  His run on Big Brother.  No seriously, Caleb made it far in Big Brother but is a fairly unknown player this season due to the fact that he was medevaced out of his season.  Survivor can be a brutal game, and Caleb’s season truly highlighted that fact.  During one of the challenges, not one, not two, but three people basically passed out and required immediate medical attention.  The other two players ended up being fine, but Caleb, who was a physical beast and pushed himself to the max during the challenge, had to be airlifted out of the game.  Spoiler alert – he’s fine! And he’s now back to play.  Caleb is the only player here to have never been to a tribal council, as his team never lost a challenge before he left the game.  He had a very close relationship with Tai Trang, who attended his wedding after they played together and is  another returnee we’ll be seeing this season.  Can we assume they have a pre-game alliance?  Probably so.

Ciera Eastin

Age: 27

Previous seasons: Blood v. Water (5th); Cambodia (10th)

Claim to fame:  Voting her mother out in her first season and being over-eager to draw rocks after a tie-vote.  Also, her catchphrase “PLAY THE GAME!”  This wouldn’t annoy me so much if it wasn’t for the fact that everyone was playing the game, they were just choosing to play it without her.  She’s also not great at challenges and I suspect a huge target as a potential first boot this season.

Cirie Fields

Age: 45

Previous seasons: Panama (4th); Micronesia (3rd); Heroes vs. Villains (17th)

Claim to fame:  Convincing Erik to give the Black Widow Brigade (the all-girls alliance in Micronesia that the dudes of the season did not stand a chance against) his immunity AT TRIBAL COUNCIL! And then voting him out.  Cirie is possibly the most strategic and charming player to never win the game.  She has a gift of making people feel comfortable.  J.T. orchestrated the vote against her in Heroes v. Villains so there might still be some lingering bad-blood there.  She’s also the only woman to play Survivor a whopping four times!

Debbie Wanner

Age: 50

Previous seasons: Kaoh Rong (9th)

Claim to fame:  Having a million different jobs!  Seriously, from caretaker to nuns, to waitress, to chemist, the lady has done it all!  She also memorably helped nurse Aubry back to health when she was freaking out on the island only to be famously voted out shortly after by Aubry.  Debbie did not vote for Aubry to win at the final tribal council and I definitely anticipate some lingering bad blood between those two.

Hali Ford

Age: 26

Previous season: Worlds Apart (11th)

Claim to fame: Bodyboarding on a piece of driftwood with the other no-collar tribe members and convincing producers she was a no-collar member despite being in law school.  Also, convincing the producers she’s a “game changer.”  Maybe she’ll show us this season what she’s got strategically.

Jeff Varner

Age: 50

Previous seasons: Australian Outback (10th); Cambodia (17th)

Claim to fame:  Playing way back on season two of Survivor.  He also returned years later to play a very erratic game before being medevaced out for a foot injury.  He has never made the jury.

J.T. Thomas

Age:  31

Previous seasons: Tocantins (Winner); Heroes v. Villains (10th)

Claim to fame: Playing a perfect game his first season, and also winning the award for stupidest move on a Survivor season.  Meaning, J.T. never had a vote thrown at him his entire first season, except when he gained every single vote to win the million dollars.  In Heroes v. Villains, J.T. made the mistake of giving villain Russell Hantz his immunity idol before they ever even played together on the same tribe.  This is the move that earned him the award of stupidest move ever on Survivor!  Unsurprisingly,  he was shortly after voted out of the game.  If you want to hear the sweet note JT gave Russell with the idol, fast forward to about 3:34 of this video.

Malcolm Freberg

Age:  29

Previous seasons: Philippines (4th); Caramoan (9th)

Claim to fame:  That epic hair!  And sparking a “live” tribal council by pulling out two immunity idols for his alliance, effectively forcing the majority to choose a player of their own to vote out within what seemed like 30 seconds at tribal council.  Malcolm won the award for Fan Favorite after his first season and shipped out to play his second season very shortly thereafter, making him one of the few players to play two seasons back to back.  He has a real knack for finding hidden immunity idols and getting along with everyone.  Malcolm is one of the fan-favorites to win this season.

Michaela Bradshaw

Age: 25

Previous season: Millennials v. Gen X (14th)

Claim to fame:  Kicking ass at the challenges as a woman and showing her strategic chops early on, making her a big threat and getting the boot pre-merge.  Michaela is one of two returning player from the Millennials v Gen X seasons, and no one has seen her game since they filmed Game Changers before her first season aired.  This could put an early target on her back since some think it’s better to play with the devil you know, but as a challenge beast, I suspect there will be weaker physical players on the chopping block before her.

Ozzy Lusth

Age: 34

Previous seasons:

Claim to fame: Dating Lindsay Lohan.  Just kidding! Actually, I’m not, he did date her, but that’s not his real claim to fame.  Ozzy has been playing Survivor on and off for the past 10 years! He is a challenge beast and was born to climb coconut trees and catch fish with a spear.  He always keeps his tribe fed and winning challenges.  Strategically, he’s not the sharpest tool in the shed but that might help keep the target off this back this season and who knows, he might turn that around this time and show a different side.

Sandra Diaz-Twine

Age: 41

Previous seasons: Pearl Islands (winner); Heroes v. Villains (winner)

Claim to fame: Sandra is the only player to play and win twice! Her strategy motto is “as long as it’s not me,” and while very simple in concept, it’s extremely difficult to actually pull off.  Sandra is going to have a huge target on her back but I always appreciate her bluntness and I think she’ll have some great confessionals this season.

Sarah Lacina

Age: 32

Previous season: Cagayan (11th place)

Claim to fame:  Guessing Tony was a cop before he admitted it to anyone.  It was an impressive moment showing Sarah as a good instinct for reading people, which makes sense considering she too is a cop.  Sadly, she was one of Tony’s victims immediately after the merge.  Maybe she and Tony can get past her first season and work together to reform Cops-R-Us.

Sierra-Dawn Thomas

Age: 29

Previous season: Worlds Apart (5th)

Claim to fame:  She’s another one whose appearance in a “Game Changers” season puzzles me.  The only thing I really remember about her is that she’s a barrel racer and and attempted to actually stand on a barrel and roll it through the sand during one of the challenges.  She is also very tall, strong, and seems nice.

Tai Trang

Age: 52

Previous season: Kaoh Rong (2nd runner up)

Claim to fame: Being awarded $50,000 from Sia at the live season finale because of his love for animals.  While on the beaches in Kaoh Rong, Tai famously named one of their chickens after his boyfriend Mark and cultivated such a sweet relationship with the animal that the survivors couldn’t bring themselves to eat the chicken during their entire time out there!  He also blindsided former NBA player Scott Pollard by not playing the Super-Idol to save him.

Tony Vlachos

Age: 42

Previous seasons: Cagayan (winner)

Claim to fame:  Where to even start! Tony played Survivor like no one else.  He was a master at finding hidden immunity idols, lying to people, cultivating relationship and loyalty and then openly stabbing those allies in the back, and of course, creating the “spy shack,” where he would literally build a hidden shack under a bunch of palm fronds and spy on people while they were getting water.  He would do anything to win the game, and did, swearing on his family members lives when he was blatantly lying.  Tony is a master manipulator and people-reader, yet still comes off as a charming, likeable guy at the end.  He’s another one who will have a huge target on this back but he is arguably one of the most anticipated returnees of all time.

Troyzan Roberts

Age: 54

Previous season: One World (8th place)

Claim to fame:  Shouting “This is my island!” during one of the challenges.  He was super-competitive during his season and has been gunning to be a returnee on Survivor ever since and to be honest I don’t have much more to add about Troyzan here.

Zeke Smith

Age: 28

Previous seasons: Millennials v. Gen X (9th place)

Claim to fame: Those bright Hawaiian shirts! And also convincing his alliance to draw rocks for him in his war against David.  He was one of the most-loved players of his season both in and out of the game.  He got along with everyone, convinced people to work with him immediately after having betrayed them, and he is a Survivor super-fan.  He’ll likely have a big target on his back coming into this as no one on this season has seen his game and people might suspect he is a reincarnation of Survivor villain Russell Hantz, but I’m fairly confident with his personality and likeability, he’ll be safe for at least the first few votes.

Photo Credit: CBS