'Outlast,' Billie Eilish boomerang idols and the 'Survivor' 50 challenge
I had horrible nausea the entire time I was pregnant with EJ, so I was on the couch a lot. I got really into Survivor. Like, a lot. As in, I watched all 49 seasons of the show.
It took me the better half of a year to get through all of them. Some days depending on how bad I was feeling, I could watch the majority of a season in a day. The first season I watched was season 33, Survivor: Millennials vs. Gen X. Then, I just hopped around based on popular seasons according to Reddit and players I had seen on The Traitors: Cirie Fields, Sandra Diaz-Twine, Parvati Shallow, Jeremy Collins (I love you), Boston Rob, Carolyn Wiger, oh and Tony.
Fun fact: there are 751 people who have played Survivor (US), but nobody from Alaska has ever been represented. Four states have never produced a player, including New Mexico, North Dakota and West Virginia. JD Morton, a smokejumper from Fairbanks, was initially cast for season 11 of Survivor: Guatemala (2005) but broke his ankle playing basketball with friends. He ended up on another reality competition show two years later called Pirate Master (which I had not heard of before! Added to my watch-list).
(total watch time: 24 days, 16 hours, 37 minutes)
'Survivor' in a trench coat, Alaska edition
I quickly realized a ton of shows are built off taking bits and bobs from Survivor and adjusting the format. Naked and Afraid = Survivor but players are nude (unless you're Richard Hatch). Get Out Alive with Bear Grylls is Survivor meets Fear Factor. And there are quite a few that are set in Alaska. I was talking to my dad and he suggested I watch Outlast. For those who are unfamiliar, Survivor's famous motto plastered on every season's posters is "outwit, outplay, outlast."
The game starts with 16 players split into four teams who must "outlast" one another in order to win $1 million.
Season 1 was filmed in the fall of 2021 on Chichagof Island, near the Neka River — west of Juneau, and Season 2 was filmed in the fall of 2023 in Little Duncan Bay, south of Petersburg. The show was renewed for a third last February.
A few key differences from Survivor: in Outlast, players cannot vote off others (unlike Survivor, where each episode someone is voted off at tribal council). The only way contestants leave the game is choosing to do so by firing a flare gun or med-evac. There are no official rules on taking essential items from other players in Outlast, so it's basically a free for all. In Survivor, that's a no-no (unless you're Sandra burning Russell's fedora). If you were on the beaches of Fiji and not in the Alaskan forest, game rules would allow you to look through people's belongings, just not take their things. But if you're playing Outlast, you can be pretty ruthless.
Season 1 spoilers coming up: consider this your warning!
Each contestant is described as a "lone wolf survivalist." By the end of episode four (around two weeks in), five players are out of the game, one of which is a medical evacuation. That's where the game begins to shift. I found a Reddit thread (the people's newspaper of record) on the show, and people's opinions largely centered around the rules of the game — or lack thereof.
Game rules (per Wiki) are as follows: (1) must be on a team of at least two people; (2) teams can vote someone off but that player has to accept the vote; (3) cannot physically harm each other; (4) cannot lay traps to protect your camp which may harm each other; (5) no more than four total teams total; (6) players without a team have 24 hours to be accepted into another team or are eliminated; (7) players may ask for a medical evaluation, but if they determined unable to remain or accept help, you are eliminated, and (8) when the game is down to two teams, the producers initiate a race to determine the final team.
Sometimes the rules are contradictory. When there are two teams left, a race is supposed to happen. But for some reason, even after the third team was eliminated in season one, the final teams were still trying to Outlast one another for several days before the race even began.
One of season one's cast members, Javier Colón, has appeared in the comments on several posts in r/outlastnetflix.
The race was completely unexpected. We all thought it would be skilled survival skills that would win the competition. But from what I have heard... It appears Jill and Amber lost their minds and we're extremely constipated at that point. So rather than have an emergency medical evacuation of those two at the same time... resulting in a boring ending... I think the producers had to speed up the conclusion with a race before more people were evacuated due to constipation.
He is not the only active Redditor on the cast; Nick Radner, one of the three winners who split $1 million, has shared some anecdotes from his time in AK.
Not staged. We all had 1 can of emergency water. And one can of emergency rations (Campbells. Chicken. Soup…for 4 people) gods honest truth. I lost 48 lbs and couldn’t hold my daughter when they literally dumped us on the plane home and said “take care, we’ll let you know when it’s done!” 😂😂 no hard feelings at all so don’t take it bad 🙌🏻
Speaking of food, I love watching Survivor and seeing challenge beasts like Ozzy Lusth catch 22 fish in two days. It's funny seeing the Alaska version of that; like Justin catching a dozen crabs. Or Jill going out to hunt.
I need to get this squirrel.
(She shoots at an ermine, lol).
Some players decide that the way to win is to cause chaos. They resort to stealing sleeping bags, destroying shelters, popping tires on rafts, and literally wrestling over buoys.
What the fuck is wrong with you? It's cheating.
Cheating is breaking rules.
You can't steal shit without ramifications.
There is no law here.
Yes, there is!
No.
This is America!
No, we're in the middle of Alaska.
You're still in the US of A, lady.
... Okay.
A Reddit user's comment summed up the game fairly succinctly.
It’s a shitty fence sitter between Alone and Survivor. Not the integrity of Alone, not the fun silliness of Survivor.
(total watch time: 12 hours, 10 minutes)
The preview for 'Survivor 50' is... uh...
During the finale of Survivor 49, CBS gave us a sneak peek into Survivor 50: In the Hands of the Fans, premiering Feb. 25. The best part is the cast, there are so many iconic players returning. Just a few folks I'm excited to watch: Cirie (double newsletter feature!) forever, Coach, Mike White, Q Burdette and Genevieve Mushaluk. The worst part is the weird Hunger Games-ification of the game that they held out til the last third of the trailer. Just a few snippets (these were all said in succession):
Now, I see Zac Brown on Survivor.
It's a Billie Eilish boomerang idol!
Jimmy Fallon might decide my fate in this game.
Welcome to Survivor 50, Mr. Beast.
Jeff, the fans did not vote for that scary YouTuber to come on the beach with his damn briefcase. We wanted to keep final four fire making and idols!!
It's idol-hunting time
Something that is pretty neat, though is the Survivor 50 challenge that CBS is putting on. Basically, an idol is going to be hidden in every state and if you find one, you will "earn a chance to win an epic grand prize."
The live countdown is slated to end on Jan. 27 at 10 a.m. AKST, and then players who have signed up for email notifications will get clues to find their state's idol. My guess is the "prize" is a 1/50 chance of your name being selected to attend the season 50 finale. There hasn't been a live finale since season 39, which aired late 2019.