season 1
Winner: Chad
Going in to Season 1, I was curious to see what parts of the first season of the real Survivor would naturally emerge, and if it would ultimately yeild similar results. Would the Survivor fans get far because they knew the game? Would the 8-hour time slot prove too long for most players, and leave us without a jury? Is Survivor more entertaining to watch on TV than it ever will be reproduced in someone’s apartment? As a host and superfan of the original game, I had so many questions.
The teams were decided through a random draw of colored bandanas. There was the Willoughby Team, wearing blue, made up of Chad, Ben, Ana, Natasha, Leslie, Nico, and Zack. The Kosciuszko Team, wearing orange, was made up of Maeve, Nick, Anna, James, Betsy, Sabrina and Kelsey. After Willoughby lost the first immunity challenge, Liam (who was late), joined their team.
Notable Relationships:
Chad and Ben (Willoughby) were coworkers.
Anna and Kelsey (Kosciuszko) were in a relationship.
Leslie (Willoughby) and Anna (Kosciuszko) were roommates.
Sabrina (Willoughby) and Kelsey (Kosciuszko) were roommates.
Anna (Kosciuszko) and Ana (Willoughby) were coworkers.
Betsy (Kosciuszko) and Liam (Willoughby) were best friends.
Natasha (Kosciuszko) and Maeve (Willoughby) were roommates.
Pre-Merge
Our first vote-out was simple: Ben asked to leave the game. An older member of the cast, he knew only one other person there, Chad. The two were my coworkers who I had painstackingly wrangled into playing at the last minute. As a result, when Ben’s team lost, he offered himself up as a volunteer to leave. He even voted for himself.
Willoughby’s initial loss was followed by a steady winning streak throughout the rest of the game. After Kosciuszko’s first loss, James clearly found the Hidden Immunity Idol, which sparked Maeve’s plan to make him play it. What she failed to consider was that if everybody voted for James, and he played his idol, the person with the next highest number of votes would be voted out. This was, incidentally, Maeve.
After Kosciuszko’s next loss, the team of six voted, and the result was a deadlocked tie - 3 votes for James, 3 votes for Betsy. To avoid going to drawing rocks, the remaining 4 verbally decided to eliminate Betsy. The devestation and harshness of this vote rocked the players, and set an ugly precedent for future games, where all continue to avoid ties so as to avoid this scenario.
There was then a team swap - everybody re-drew bandanas. Sabrina became the sole Kosciuszko member of the Willoughby team, while Zack and Nico joined Kosciuszko. This would prove to be their demise, as they became the next two eliminated after Kosciuszko continued their losing streak.
Dramatically, as Kosciuszko’s numbers continued to dwindle, they were left with Nick, James, Anna, and Kelsey. In an unexpected turn of events, Anna and James blindsided Kelsey, causing a huge upset. This would prove to have a ripple effect through the rest of the game.
The Merge
When the merge finally occured, the two teams became one - from Willoughby: Leslie, Natasha, Sabrina, Chad, Ana, and Liam… and from Kosciuszko: Nick, James, and Anna. From the looks of it, Kosciuszko was down in numbers. After Anna was voted out to avenge Kelsey’s blindside, a dominant alliance emerged: James, Sabrina, Ana, and Leslie. One by one, Nick, Natasha, and Liam went home, outnumbered by this core alliance. Chad seemed to sneak by due to his lack of strategy and seeming inability to deceive - he stood by a solid stance that he would not lie in this game, so his presence was non-threatening, relatively harmless as he never had any sort of numbers advantage.
Then it came down the Final Five: James, Ana, Sabrina, Chad, and Leslie, and the Core 4 turned on each other, revealing a deeper alliance of 3 between Sabrina, Ana, and Leslie. Using the Final 5 > 4 vote as a last chance to eliminate James, the three blindsided him, advancing Chad to the Final 4.
In the Final Individual Immunity Challenge, Chad endured against all odds, claiming victory and a spot in the Final 3. The remaining alliance of 3 was shocked by this outcome, as Chad had disrupted an almost flawlessly executed plan. They then had to make the sacrifice: Leslie was the final member to join the jury, as she was perceived as the nicest, most well-liked by the jury of the 3. If she had continued to the Finale, the consensus was that she would have won.
When voting for the Final 3, the jury commended Chad’s underdog arc. He had somehow made his way through the game with no strategy, no alliances, and only 1 individual immunity win. But, they also argued that his lack of strategy proved he worked less, and deserved the title less, than the other two, who had undoubtedly played hard. Sabrina and Ana, though tough players, had torn through the jury with their Core Alliance, and were responsible for each of the other players’ eliminations. This scorn proved overpowering, as Chad won over Ana by 1 vote, claiming the title of Sole Survivor and the $200 prize.
Chad’s victory was received with mixed reactions. The question of what “deserving” or “earning" the prize was hotly debated. His controversial win would create a precedent moving forward in future seasons of the game.
Photography by Maeve Bradley