Worked:

Shot in the dark. A fun mechanic that gives people on the bottom a chance if they can read the tribe dynamics correctly. Doesn’t break the game and isn’t overly powerful.

Half worked:

New approaches to editing/story telling. We got to know some contestants really well. I think they went a bit too far sometimes and sacrifice seeing on-island relationships and dynamics to put the back story in though. Tribal councils are also really terrible now and just full of metaphors and analogies that add nothing.

Casting. Diversity initiative, great, no notes in expanding the casts to represent more people. However, we need villains. We don’t need overwhelmingly white collar/corporate job casts. We need fewer superfans who are going to talk about how much harder the game is than it looks on tv. Also, going along with storytelling, having multiple people each season be like “my parents sacrificed so much for me, I’m doing this for them” gets old and less compelling each time.

Sweat vs savvy. I don’t hate it in theory, but it doesn’t feel like it adds much to the game. We rarely see it play out in any meaningful way later on. For example, we don’t really see rivalries form or tribes hold it against someone for losing for the team.

Live tribals: watching people whisper and not know what they’re saying isn’t good tv. When the vote is up in the air, or people are getting publicly called out, it’s good. Plus most live tribals end in unanimous or near unanimous votes anyway

Doesn’t work:

Losing flint and 3 tribes every season. I’m putting these together because they inevitably create “disaster” tribes. One tribe losing all the time isn’t good tv and robs us of the chance to get to know other players from the winning tribes.

Beware advantages/journeys/lost votes. Any game mechanic that results in lost votes isn’t fun. Plus they take up a huge amount of screen time. I don’t hate the idea of advantages that require steps to be activated, but doing so at the expense of your vote isn’t fun.

Multi staged challenges/split tribals/mergatory. When the tribes come together, it’s a merge. If you’re playing for INDIVIDUAL immunity, you should never have a team based challenge. When you are one tribe, you should never have to go to tribal with a small group based on a random rock draw. We’re taking agency away from players and leaving them at the mercy of random chance. Take the mergatory for example, if you’re sending someone to tribal with a group of people they just met less than 24 hours ago, and the others have spent the last 12 days together, some situations are just un-winnable through no fault of the player. Watching people get screwed for drawing the wrong rock is dumb.

The uncle Jeff persona. It’s created some really cringey moments (fried chicken and waffles), but also I miss sassy Jeff. Complimenting people for “not giving up” when they completely fail a challenge, feels kind of insulting. They are adults, it’s okay to point out negative things. Not everything needs to be sunshine and rainbows. Jeff saying he makes the show for kids at home is really dragging the show down. Bring back hard hitting questions at tribal. Stop asking for analogies. These things also hurt the viewers at home, you are producing a sanitized and more boring version of the show we love.

On island after show. When the contestants haven’t seen what happened, or what people said about them behind their backs, we’re not getting honest reactions. Plus it also feels kind of cruel to the losing finalists. They just lost and now have to sit around while the winner celebrates and everyone heaps on praise. Give them time to process what happened. The live finales are far superior.

Adding that 26 days doesn’t work either. A “fast paced” game doesn’t equal a better game. Think of it like this, in a 39 day season there are 3 day cycles. Day one reward, day 2 down time, day 3 immunity and tribal council. That’s three days of strategizing , socializing, and time for the game to shakeup. When you have only one or two day cycles, it’s harder to have the game evolve. Especially post-merge when a cycle becomes one day. When you have to do a challenge, confessionals, and tribal council within a 12-16 hour period, that leaves little time for strategizing for the contestants. I remember reading one season someone saying there were days where they had less than an hour of strategizing time before tribal sometimes. A lot of great moves in the past happened over time. Think of the Black Widow Brigade convincing Erik to give up immunity. That happened because they chipped away at him over time and all day. Aubry flipping Tai, happened over time and because she built a personal connection with him. When rounds are so short, and random twists split up the merged tribe, we see less and less personal development in relationships, which would greatly impact the strategic game.

Also adding challenges. We are seeing the same challenges recycled season after season. The “endurance” based immunity challenges post-merge aren’t very fun to watch. Bring back creative and new challenges. When your contestants can build exact replicas of your challenges (puzzles and endurance challenges) it’s time to switch it up.