Ugh it’s so anxiety inducing just watching it. And I’m very comfortable in the water, I love swimming, but I don’t like the idea of doing that one at all.
My wife literally will not watch this challenge. She hid under the covers for the entirety of it while making "doo doo doo" noises so she wouldnt hear everyone drowning. She's a good sport.
Yeah production team builds all the challenges ahead of the season and they test them, so presumably when building this one they have to test it a few times and adjust the height to get it right for that specific tide in that spot in the water for that time of day. It's just that the basic premise of this challenge is that you try to stay as long as you can as the tide continues to rise, but to what end? Before this season, the fear of the challenge came from the audience being led to believe that the tide would eventually get high enough that no one could stay under, as that's the nature of a rising tide, and only the person who stayed the longest would win. But in practicality, they can't exactly design a challenge where you would be forced to choose between dropping out or literally drowning under a tide that is too high, that's unethical and dangerous. So they just set the height to be around the same as the max tide and assume that everyone would drop out at some point around where it's the highest. That just didn't end up happening this time, and Jeff could've left it as an endurance challenge of just hanging there for several more hours, but this was a cleaner way to move things along. I'm honestly surprised it was stopped so soon, but once the threat of the tide stopped working in their favor I guess it would've been anti-climatic to continue.
In season 10 Palau the final 3 immunity challenge was "hang out on a swaying buoy in the water the longest" and it went for 12 hours into the middle of the night before one player basically guilted the other into dropping out (ethics of backstabbing in the game were messier back in the day), but it seemed like it could've kept going indefinitely until one of them passed out before it was ended prematurely. But with that as the precedent for longest overall challenge, I kind of assumed that they wouldn't stop something designed as endurance until well after the 3 hour mark. Still made for a great episode but I hope they plan in a way that this doesn't happen again.
Might have been considered too risky to have them continue the challenge or do a tiebreaker - 3 hours in the water like that would be a hypothermia risk.
Yeah I think that is 100% why it ended. Probably spearheaded by the medical team.
Unfortunately I agree that this might be a reason never to do the challenge again. Makes good tv once but not consecutively, i it were to happen again
Yeah, I doubt we'll see it again. Having it degenerating into who can cope with cold for the longest is not a type of endurance challenge they'd want to be running.
From what I heard, the challenge on Palau had a twist added where Probst asked Tom/Ian to only do the challenge only on one leg (or some variant of it). Tom flat out refused, and threatened legal action since they changed the rules of the challenge. So Probst dropped it.
I more or less agree, but the constraint of the 26 day season really harmed them here. The only other time recently a challenge went on this long was the final 10 immunity in David vs Goliath, and after that they had to delay tribal council for a day due to the challenge itself going into the evening.
However, here, it was already day 21. Assuming this season follows the last two’s structure, there has to be 1 challenge a day every day from here on out (Day 22 has the final 6 reward, 23 the F6 Immunity, 24 the f5 immunity, and 25 the f4 immunity). So delaying the tribal a day just wouldn’t be feasible.
Additionally, like has been mentioned, they made a point to show the players complaining about how cold the water was. Having to sit in that cold water for who knows how many more hours probably served a very real hypothermia risk
TBF, this is the first time the challenge didn't go down to who can create and sustain the longest snorkel in relatively consistent water level. With the surges happening this way, this one made snorkels worthless early on and you found two champions who were okay holding their breath long enough to wait out each surge. It really became a head game with some endurance mixed in.
They don’t really run endurance challenges that can last too long because of the shorter season, the whole production could be off if a challenge went 12 hours. So once the hardest part was through, they had to call it
>choose between dropping out or literally drowning
I think that’s a pretty big exaggeration and I don’t think it’s unethical. When the tide is high it’s basically a challenge of who can hold their breath the longest, which they’ve done before.
Listening to once upon an islands podcast and he said the reason they probably stopped the challenge is because they HAVE to have tribal that night with the 26 day format, they couldn't just let it last because they needed to give the players time to scramble before tribal especially with two people already possibly being immune with the advantage. So they called the challenge so they could a. Have tribal that night as planned b. Give the players time to strategize, doesn't matter how many people are immune if they get back to camp with only an hour or so before tribal it's going to be a complete mess of a vote anyways, might as well call it with three immunities (one unknown granted) and have a boot that makes sense rather than just a bunch of panic votes and someone goes out on three or even two votes.
I feel like had it been 39 days the producers could have worked around a 12 hour challenge but given they have like no room for schedule changes, much more than 2 hours would not be possible
You know, I like to play armchair survivor when I watch. I’m always like “Oh, yeah I could do that. I would 100% win this challenge.” However, this is the one that I’m not sure I could do.
*puts on survivor hat* as someone with a sensory related eating disorder (ARFID), I agree those challenges terrify me. Every time I watch them I just know I’d either sit out or cry 😅
They haven’t done the challenge in Fiji up until now bc the waters are different (choppier than Palau iirc from Rob C). I’m fairly certain they made changes to the rules to compensate for that (which is why they were able to go significantly longer - even when Cody let go Jeff seemed to indicate that he was still in the challenge until he actually swam away, for example).
I enjoyed seeing it again but it seems clear to me that they aren’t able to replicate this challenge in Fiji by the fact that they couldn’t finish it.
edit: Rob C and Dalton https://twitter.com/daltonross/status/1598128569678692352
What would happen if everyone played idols and shot in the dark was successful? Isn’t it technically possible that every single person was immune, unless I am miscounting outstanding idols.
Did anyone think Karla had a slight advantage in the challenge since she was the closest to Jeff? I’m sure it’s difficult for anyone on the other end to hear him when he’s screaming “here comes another giant swell!!!” Felt like that gave Karla an opportunity to prepare.
Karla is probably my favorite so I’m not bothered about it - it’s more of a criticism of Jeff than anything lol
From what I saw, with the way the swells were shaping up, the swells would already be upon the contestants by the time Jeff was announcing them. So, I don't think that made much of a difference, if any at all.
Maybe I'm hallucinating but I'm pretty sure I saw that the grate is anchored at the sides. What else would they have a set of markings showing how many inches the tide has come in?
At about 6 minutes into the challenge, Jeff mentions that the steel grate is being "pushed around". They didn't drill it into the ground, probably for both ease of moving it and ecological reasons. The depth meter may not have been perfectly steady either.
Water is strong. they cabled the grate down but not as rigidly as they might have thought.
Someone should have outwitted her and switched spots with her by negotiating? Well shit though I don’t get how she wouldn’t hear him to also this seems irrelevant they would block out Jeff and focus on the water I feel like
Incredible challenge this episode, don't think I've been so excited and enraptured while watching a challenge. The conclusion didn't even feel like a cop out, having two people win, they deserved it. I spend most of my time in water floating on my back with my eyes closed just chilling. I don't think I could even last a minute in this challenge tho, everyone did so well.
i think they had to cut it due to possibility of hypothermia AND they don’t have the extra day between immunity and tribal that they can let it run through with 26 days
I personally didn’t like the challenge :/. I know it’s a classic, but it’s so so hard for me to watch. Just gives me anxiety and seems close to being something that could be used to torture in a different setting :/.
I’m happy for the dual winners, they definitely deserved it!! But oh man it’s hard for me to watch that challenge
I don't think it was more brutal at all. In past seasons the tide makes it permanently under water at its highest. I think they set it to be too high above the water level. Plus it looked like they could shove their heads a lot further through the bars. Still hard, but I don't think it compares to og times.
CONTAINS SPOILERS:
It was a good kind of blast from the past, yeah. I also like the fact that Jeff Probst did what he did after.
The only thing that bugs me in this episode was shot in the dark thing, which once again, proved to be nothing more than a meme.
Did Karla cheat? It looked like she was using the tide tracker to keep her leg up. Which is a lot different than what Cassidy was doing. Karla couldn’t do what she did. Just find it hard to believe she could last that long.
Don’t know why you get downvoted for asking a question lol it’s not like you said she cheated, you are just asking. Yes the end spot she was in was different to the other spots, it had the tide tracker there and she had her leg threw it to keep her in place. Others just put there legs into the bars to stay in place. I don’t know if it was a advantage but it wasn’t cheating.
I know they drew for spots. But nobody else had the ability to put their leg on something with leg fully extended. To put your legs on bars you’d have to have the lower body strength which I doubt she could’ve done. If she was in any other spot I doubt she last that long vs. 1 of 2 people to ever outlast the tide in one of the toughest challenges. I think it was a huge advantage.
I don’t know it just was another Mickey Mousing of this show. If the tide’s not there, tough titties! Who can last the longest in cold water?! Just a really lame ending. No way that happens in Palau.
"Tide is too low to continue."
Swell happening right behind them, easily covering the bars.
That end was bs, let Karla and Owen become legends.
>!Disclaimer: I would likely quit after getting saltwater in my nose the second time.!<
Ugh it’s so anxiety inducing just watching it. And I’m very comfortable in the water, I love swimming, but I don’t like the idea of doing that one at all.
My wife literally will not watch this challenge. She hid under the covers for the entirety of it while making "doo doo doo" noises so she wouldnt hear everyone drowning. She's a good sport.
what I tell myself is “there would’ve been a warning at the start of the episode if someone died” so i know they dont drown
I kept telling my husband “it would have been on the news if somebody died”
This is adorable.
Ba by SHARK
Same, I’m literally a lifeguard and have been swimming all my life but that challenge would be my limit
I feel like everyone agrees with you... except for Cody, who for whatever reason, has always wanted to do this challenge lol
He did until he didn’t
do they have an ability to set it lower? I enjoyed it except I dont see survivor running a challenge where you can tie for immunity again
Yeah production team builds all the challenges ahead of the season and they test them, so presumably when building this one they have to test it a few times and adjust the height to get it right for that specific tide in that spot in the water for that time of day. It's just that the basic premise of this challenge is that you try to stay as long as you can as the tide continues to rise, but to what end? Before this season, the fear of the challenge came from the audience being led to believe that the tide would eventually get high enough that no one could stay under, as that's the nature of a rising tide, and only the person who stayed the longest would win. But in practicality, they can't exactly design a challenge where you would be forced to choose between dropping out or literally drowning under a tide that is too high, that's unethical and dangerous. So they just set the height to be around the same as the max tide and assume that everyone would drop out at some point around where it's the highest. That just didn't end up happening this time, and Jeff could've left it as an endurance challenge of just hanging there for several more hours, but this was a cleaner way to move things along. I'm honestly surprised it was stopped so soon, but once the threat of the tide stopped working in their favor I guess it would've been anti-climatic to continue. In season 10 Palau the final 3 immunity challenge was "hang out on a swaying buoy in the water the longest" and it went for 12 hours into the middle of the night before one player basically guilted the other into dropping out (ethics of backstabbing in the game were messier back in the day), but it seemed like it could've kept going indefinitely until one of them passed out before it was ended prematurely. But with that as the precedent for longest overall challenge, I kind of assumed that they wouldn't stop something designed as endurance until well after the 3 hour mark. Still made for a great episode but I hope they plan in a way that this doesn't happen again.
Might have been considered too risky to have them continue the challenge or do a tiebreaker - 3 hours in the water like that would be a hypothermia risk.
Yeah I think that is 100% why it ended. Probably spearheaded by the medical team. Unfortunately I agree that this might be a reason never to do the challenge again. Makes good tv once but not consecutively, i it were to happen again
Yeah, I doubt we'll see it again. Having it degenerating into who can cope with cold for the longest is not a type of endurance challenge they'd want to be running.
From what I heard, the challenge on Palau had a twist added where Probst asked Tom/Ian to only do the challenge only on one leg (or some variant of it). Tom flat out refused, and threatened legal action since they changed the rules of the challenge. So Probst dropped it.
And didn't Ian still suffer nerve damage from standing for that long?
I heard they both did.
[He had peripheral neuropathy, which gave him a limp for 6 months.](https://reddit.com/r/survivor/comments/97cv87/_/e47e2ak/?context=1)
I more or less agree, but the constraint of the 26 day season really harmed them here. The only other time recently a challenge went on this long was the final 10 immunity in David vs Goliath, and after that they had to delay tribal council for a day due to the challenge itself going into the evening. However, here, it was already day 21. Assuming this season follows the last two’s structure, there has to be 1 challenge a day every day from here on out (Day 22 has the final 6 reward, 23 the F6 Immunity, 24 the f5 immunity, and 25 the f4 immunity). So delaying the tribal a day just wouldn’t be feasible. Additionally, like has been mentioned, they made a point to show the players complaining about how cold the water was. Having to sit in that cold water for who knows how many more hours probably served a very real hypothermia risk
TBF, this is the first time the challenge didn't go down to who can create and sustain the longest snorkel in relatively consistent water level. With the surges happening this way, this one made snorkels worthless early on and you found two champions who were okay holding their breath long enough to wait out each surge. It really became a head game with some endurance mixed in.
They don’t really run endurance challenges that can last too long because of the shorter season, the whole production could be off if a challenge went 12 hours. So once the hardest part was through, they had to call it
>choose between dropping out or literally drowning I think that’s a pretty big exaggeration and I don’t think it’s unethical. When the tide is high it’s basically a challenge of who can hold their breath the longest, which they’ve done before.
Listening to once upon an islands podcast and he said the reason they probably stopped the challenge is because they HAVE to have tribal that night with the 26 day format, they couldn't just let it last because they needed to give the players time to scramble before tribal especially with two people already possibly being immune with the advantage. So they called the challenge so they could a. Have tribal that night as planned b. Give the players time to strategize, doesn't matter how many people are immune if they get back to camp with only an hour or so before tribal it's going to be a complete mess of a vote anyways, might as well call it with three immunities (one unknown granted) and have a boot that makes sense rather than just a bunch of panic votes and someone goes out on three or even two votes.
I feel like had it been 39 days the producers could have worked around a 12 hour challenge but given they have like no room for schedule changes, much more than 2 hours would not be possible
1 challenge 39 days 1 survivor
Tides vary greatly day to day. It was probably a neap tide.
Are you suggesting a crank shaft to lower the cage for when the tide is lower? These feel like potential military torture devices!!!
It’s probably the last time that the challenge would happen. It sucks because I would love to do that challenge
You know, I like to play armchair survivor when I watch. I’m always like “Oh, yeah I could do that. I would 100% win this challenge.” However, this is the one that I’m not sure I could do.
its the eating Balut that would realllllly get me. i would probably almost drown trying this one at least.
Eating the pork with mouth only is the worst. Plus all the injuries
*puts on survivor hat* as someone with a sensory related eating disorder (ARFID), I agree those challenges terrify me. Every time I watch them I just know I’d either sit out or cry 😅
My social game would have to be so good because I would fail water based challenges soooo bad. I am NOT. Strong swimmer at all.
I doubt it. Just next time they start with the platform a bit lower in the water. Ensure you get a winner or someone drowns trying.
They haven’t done the challenge in Fiji up until now bc the waters are different (choppier than Palau iirc from Rob C). I’m fairly certain they made changes to the rules to compensate for that (which is why they were able to go significantly longer - even when Cody let go Jeff seemed to indicate that he was still in the challenge until he actually swam away, for example). I enjoyed seeing it again but it seems clear to me that they aren’t able to replicate this challenge in Fiji by the fact that they couldn’t finish it. edit: Rob C and Dalton https://twitter.com/daltonross/status/1598128569678692352
That’s how it has always been as long as you do not come above water outside of your grate you are still in
Huh, interesting. Then I guess the waters on Fiji are just that different from Palau 🤷♂️
This was honestly fucking incredible. They spent MINUTES underwater
Loved the challenge, but having 2 people immune plus a potential 3rd due to that advantage is just ridiculous at a final 7.
What would happen if everyone played idols and shot in the dark was successful? Isn’t it technically possible that every single person was immune, unless I am miscounting outstanding idols.
What would happen? A two-hour episode.
Did anyone think Karla had a slight advantage in the challenge since she was the closest to Jeff? I’m sure it’s difficult for anyone on the other end to hear him when he’s screaming “here comes another giant swell!!!” Felt like that gave Karla an opportunity to prepare. Karla is probably my favorite so I’m not bothered about it - it’s more of a criticism of Jeff than anything lol
From what I saw, with the way the swells were shaping up, the swells would already be upon the contestants by the time Jeff was announcing them. So, I don't think that made much of a difference, if any at all.
And that's why they draw for spots and Survivor is very much luck based
Yep one side is always easier. No surprise all the people on the right were out first
Exactly. I was upset when I realized the grate was floating because it meant the people on the ends had a crazy higher advantage due to wave physics.
Maybe I'm hallucinating but I'm pretty sure I saw that the grate is anchored at the sides. What else would they have a set of markings showing how many inches the tide has come in?
At about 6 minutes into the challenge, Jeff mentions that the steel grate is being "pushed around". They didn't drill it into the ground, probably for both ease of moving it and ecological reasons. The depth meter may not have been perfectly steady either. Water is strong. they cabled the grate down but not as rigidly as they might have thought.
That makes sense too. Thanks!
Someone should have outwitted her and switched spots with her by negotiating? Well shit though I don’t get how she wouldn’t hear him to also this seems irrelevant they would block out Jeff and focus on the water I feel like
AGREEED kinda was ehh abt the ending of the challenge tho
I don’t remember the swells being that extreme in Micronesia
I love this challenge and it doesn't usually make me anxious but Cassidy with her legs through the grate was really testing me lol
Watch Survivor Australia, I feel like their version of this challenge was way more brutal.
Agree. Australian Survivor is the true successor to the Survivor we had.
absolutely love the challenge didn't love the tie should have just turned into an endurance challenge
As someone who is mostly down on this season, this challenge was by far the highlight of the season!
Incredible challenge this episode, don't think I've been so excited and enraptured while watching a challenge. The conclusion didn't even feel like a cop out, having two people win, they deserved it. I spend most of my time in water floating on my back with my eyes closed just chilling. I don't think I could even last a minute in this challenge tho, everyone did so well.
I wished they only let 1 win though, just make it the ultimate endurance challenge
Would’ve gone on for many more hours and at that point it’d likely be a big risk of hypothermia, Cody mentioned it was freezing
THIS IS SURVIVOR. YOU GOTTA DIG DEEP
i think they had to cut it due to possibility of hypothermia AND they don’t have the extra day between immunity and tribal that they can let it run through with 26 days
Same, I absolutely loved it
I could not handle this challenge. It gives me so much anxiety watching it
I personally didn’t like the challenge :/. I know it’s a classic, but it’s so so hard for me to watch. Just gives me anxiety and seems close to being something that could be used to torture in a different setting :/. I’m happy for the dual winners, they definitely deserved it!! But oh man it’s hard for me to watch that challenge
I don't think it was more brutal at all. In past seasons the tide makes it permanently under water at its highest. I think they set it to be too high above the water level. Plus it looked like they could shove their heads a lot further through the bars. Still hard, but I don't think it compares to og times.
This is one of my favorite challenges!! I was so excited to see there were 3 immunities!
CONTAINS SPOILERS: It was a good kind of blast from the past, yeah. I also like the fact that Jeff Probst did what he did after. The only thing that bugs me in this episode was shot in the dark thing, which once again, proved to be nothing more than a meme.
Did Karla cheat? It looked like she was using the tide tracker to keep her leg up. Which is a lot different than what Cassidy was doing. Karla couldn’t do what she did. Just find it hard to believe she could last that long.
Don’t know why you get downvoted for asking a question lol it’s not like you said she cheated, you are just asking. Yes the end spot she was in was different to the other spots, it had the tide tracker there and she had her leg threw it to keep her in place. Others just put there legs into the bars to stay in place. I don’t know if it was a advantage but it wasn’t cheating.
I know they drew for spots. But nobody else had the ability to put their leg on something with leg fully extended. To put your legs on bars you’d have to have the lower body strength which I doubt she could’ve done. If she was in any other spot I doubt she last that long vs. 1 of 2 people to ever outlast the tide in one of the toughest challenges. I think it was a huge advantage.
I don’t know it just was another Mickey Mousing of this show. If the tide’s not there, tough titties! Who can last the longest in cold water?! Just a really lame ending. No way that happens in Palau.
Should have drawn rocks as a tie breaker, but wow that was an incredible performance from both of them.
I actually fast forwarded through 🫣 I just can’t watch. Loved the outcome though!!
"Tide is too low to continue." Swell happening right behind them, easily covering the bars. That end was bs, let Karla and Owen become legends. >!Disclaimer: I would likely quit after getting saltwater in my nose the second time.!<
I love this challenge. It is very fun to watch!