‘Survivor 46’ is making history with the most Black contestants after the merge.
The Big Picture
- Survivor 46 marks history with most Black castaways post-merge
- Split Tribal Councils show a troubling pattern of Black castaways being voted out
- Challenges persist for Black players in Survivor due to racial bias and strategic gameplay
The new era of Survivor has its controversial changes. But the best one is CBS having 50 percent of the cast being people of color. Since then, we’ve seen multiple groundbreaking winners. A diverse cast lets people of color play their game without sticking out like a sore thumb just because of having a different background. However, we’ve seen that some things about the $1 million game have stayed the same.
Survivor 46 started with five Black players spread out over three tribes. The three-tribe format is tough, since it’s harder for castaways to hide if they go to the Tribal Council. We’ve also seen in the new era, the first tribe to lose tends to follow that trajectory. Despite all of that, this season made history in a major way. The season started with Yanu losing multiple times. The cast finally merged in episode 6, with Tiffany Nicole Ervin, Q Burdette, and Kenzie Petty being the remaining Yanu castaways. Siga lost once and voted out Moriah Gaynor, so the remaining three Black players (Tim Spicer, Tevin Davis, Soda Thompson) made it to the merge. This is a big deal given the long history of Survivor.
Survivor
A reality show where a group of contestants are stranded in a remote location with little more than the clothes on their back. The lone survivor of this contest takes home a million dollars.
- Release Date
- May 31, 2000
- Cast
- Jeff Probst
- Main Genre
- Reality-TV
- Seasons
- 46
- Studio
- CBS
- Creator(s)
- Charlie Parsons
Survivor 46 Has Most Black Castaways After Merge
Cirie Fields is a legend of the reality show, who didn’t have many chances to work with another Black woman until Game Changers. She had Michaela Bradshaw with her and tried to show her the ropes. “You have to control your emotions, and you can’t shut down,” Cirie advised the younger player. “When everybody else is talking, you can’t have that exterior.” She said she saw her younger self in Michaela. Michaela admitted the merge was new to her since she was voted out before the jury in Survivor: Millennial vs. Gen X.
It was a touching moment. But it’s upsetting to know this was a first for Cirie too, even though she played three times before. She was in the all-women Black Widow Brigade in Micronesia, which was another feat for women in the game. But she was also the only Black woman in it. This season, the first post-merge vote was split between two groups. The cast drew rocks to randomly be divided into two groups of six for the immunity challenge. Two people won immunity, two people were voted out, and one of the losers wouldn’t be on the jury. There was a six-person alliance with Q, Maria, Tim, Tiffany, Hunter McKnight, and Tevin. Tim wanted to take out Hunter because he was a threat in challenges. Q didn’t like that Tim wanted to go against the alliance, so they voted him out.
Nami affected the second group. Soda and Venus Vafa were at odds. But Tevin pushed for Soda to be the vote because she was a great social player. This wasn’t a great move for Tevin, since the same argument could be used for himself and Soda was working with him, not against him. In the end, Soda was voted out and became the first juror.
There is a pattern of only Black castaways going home in split Tribal Councils in recent history. James Jones and Ryan Medrano of Survivor 43, Sifu Alsup and Kaleb Gebrewold of Survivor 45, came before Soda and Tim of Survivor 46. The same thing almost happened in Survivor 42. Chanelle Howell was the first juror, and the following episode had the split tribe twist. The first tribe voted out Rocksroy Bailey, who immediately joined her on the jury.
The Split Tribal Councils Have a Troubling Pattern
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The next Tribal Council started, and Drea Wheeler looked disturbed by only Black people getting voted out. “I was so proud because we had four Black contestants in Survivor, and then it always happens where at one point, the Black contestants get booted out. Boom, boom, boom,” she said. “And then this is exactly what this is right now. So yeah, I’m pissed.” Jeff Probst asked if she thought this was race-related. “I think subconsciously a little bit of that, unfortunately,” she answered. She announced that she was playing her idol to stay in the game after seeing the jury. Tori Meehan was voted out instead.
That season ends with Maryanne Oketch dazzling the jury with an explanation of her strategy. She became the second Black woman to win Survivor after Vecepia Towery won in 2002. But the show went back to business as usual after that triumph.
The second Tribal Council no longer gets to see who was voted out after this season. So the other season 46’s castaways were surprised Tim went out first. Episode 8 showed more Black players were in trouble. Q wanted to target his closest ally, Tiffany, for targeting another member of the six-person alliance. Liz Wilcox led the plan to take out Tevin for wanting all the credit for the Soda vote. As if that wasn’t enough, Q threw another wrench into the game at Tribal Council.
Survivor 46: The First Two Jurors Are Black
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He asked everyone to vote him out because he wanted to take ownership of a “mistake.” The cast looked confused and immediately started strategizing. This meant every remaining Black player in the game was in danger of going home. The majority stuck to the plan and voted out Tevin, meaning the first two jurors were Black. The damage has been done to the remaining Black players.
Q tells allies, Charlie Davis and Maria, about Tiffany’s idol, which lessened his power. Q, who seemed to be running things with his alliance and the last vote, has ruined his reputation by asking people to vote him out. His remaining allies will probably want to jump ship. If he makes it to the end, it’ll be hard to convince the jury to give him $1 million after betraying his allies and saying he wanted to quit multiple times.
Survivor 46 will have a bittersweet spot in Survivor history with every Black player making it to the merge. Then it falls into the same trappings of them following each other out the door post-merge. All castaways should remember Drea’s words about a subconscious bias that could be at play when making these decisions in the game. Lastly, future Black players should stay on their toes when it comes to split tribals because the default has been them going out at this point. Survivor 46 airs Wednesdays at 8:00 pm on CBS. All seasons are available to stream on Paramount+. Watch on Paramount+
This article was originally published on collider.com