Review: Survivor, "The Thorn in My Thumb" | Season 45, Episode 7
The New Era's most invasive twist can't even manage empty thrills this time around
The double-elimination, split tribe format is perhaps the New Era Survivor twist that I understand the most from a production perspective. It’s an efficient way to shorten the game, yes, but it also guarantees that any type of dominant tribal alliance at the merge will not be able to just waltz through the first few votes. Between the pre-merge tribal where only half the tribe are vulnerable, and with the merged tribe then split in two, the actual merged game doesn’t really start until this is over, and there’s really no way for these episodes to fall into predictable patterns.
However, it’s also the twist that most punishes the players who have actively been strategizing and working to build alliances, since there’s nothing they can do to protect themselves or their allies. I know that I’m somewhat preaching to the choir with the audience for these reviews, given how much more likely we are to be invested in gameplay and strategy, but it’s still worth saying that seeing players be sub…