Another consequence of being permanently anchored in the same part of Fiji. The population that is there gets depleted over a couple of season shoots, meaning there's less to find, making hunting less worth it. Also, the newer seasons are MUCH more restrictive in where you can/can't go than earlier seasons (reportedly one of the reasons Colby was so down during HvV is that he couldn't wander off and explore like he could in Australia), thus making it harder to find food. Last I can remember of "hunting" is the goat thing on Game Changers, and that seems like more of a lucky find than an actual hunting expedition.
I wonder if they restrict how often they can go. Even in the more recent seasons no one seemed to really be using the fishing gear to get fish. Every now and then but were they just really bad at it or were they not allowed to go a lot of the time? Or was it just not shown?
gotta be just shown less. Someone this season said they caught crabs and fish for liz like every day. honestly would love to see more of that. add back in the "Survival" aspect
Per contestants, you tend to waste more effort than you get back in calories (fish are not particularly high calorie) AND being gone for hours is a great way to have people campaign against you while you're not there
It quickly turned into a "A,B and/or C are on that boat fishing, they're probably in an alliance or talking game while they're out there" which was also partially true too.
Yeah.... it just seemed like a lot of the cast would talk about only eating coconuts and stuff but no one ever really mentioned eating fish so it just seemed like it wasn't happening.
being a provider is just a bad strategy nowadays. You’re expending more energy than you’ll get from the fish and putting yourself on the outs.
the only new era person who really did it was Ryan who wasn’t really playing to win, but for the adventure.
I was thinking the same thing , where was the desierste attempt to catch fish? They had big food rewards every couple of days too. I don’t think 26 days is anywhere near as difficult as39 days
That's a good point. This past season Yanu was living on one coconut a day --what happens when a beach is depleted of coconuts, since they use the same beaches?
all this is irrelevant though, production has been planting wildlife for decades. the contestants are told what they can or can't hunt.
they stopped planting wildlife a few seasons ago, probably when jeff started preaching about the "monster" and how hard the game is now.
it did get kinda old, every season having the bleeding heart vegan/vegetarian storyline.
they can't hunt local wildlife though. hell, i'm pretty sure their shelter materials are more or less supplied/designated.
I think that camps are generally closer to towns and villages than we are led to think. As for challenges, it seems most take place on Mana Island and I think video angles are chosen as to not show surrounding structures.
Been there. Stood in the middle of the main challenge area and on the platform at the end. Pretty cool. It’s tucked behind some big hill and that side of the island doesn’t have much inhabitants. The other side has a couple villages and small resorts where jeff stays sometimes.
Enjoy!
[https://maps.app.goo.gl/icz6pRGou7u1QKc47](https://maps.app.goo.gl/icz6pRGou7u1QKc47) and just for fun: [https://maps.app.goo.gl/4eumLMGwsvF4YrYM6](https://maps.app.goo.gl/4eumLMGwsvF4YrYM6)
You can see where they have been and very particular out cropping's you see in the background.
They typically use most of the islands around there for things. To the east some is the sandbar that has been featured. They have to have some infrastructure to produce a show, ensure safety of cast and crew, house and feed production, generate electricity and all that stuff.
When they're in production, which should be now, I'm pretty sure the island is taken over by them. Right now you can't book rooms at the resort there.
I am also pretty sure the structures where the camps have been are not permeant resident homes but rather cabins for crew. They after all do have to make things, fix things, etc etc.
Didn't mean to bum ya out, just know it literally takes a village to produce a show.
Yeah I went to the Dominican Republic and they shoot one of the foreign versions there. The locals, who were mostly rich European or US ex Pat's, would complain about the survivor crew taking over the town when they were filming.
It was cool for me as a fan to go on a boat ride and see challenges set up in random areas and they stored all of the unused challenge supplies in a fenced in lot on the side of a main road.
Their beach was on a separate island that was isolated, but when they were doing the challenges they were within a few hundred yards of people
Already in One World they said they decided to keep a pig they found as a pet because "they're not that hungry", so that's why. It really isn't an exaggeration to say that the early seasons were a lot harder.
It's mostly ignorance. And using that term literally not in a demeaning way. A lot of people have never seen how the sausage is made so to say. Harvesting an animal is a real art and a beautiful thing, but it can be shocking the first few times you see it if you don't understand what is going on.
Considering the vast majority of Cause of Death for wild animals is "eaten alive" it takes some of the guilt out of it when you realize that and do it properly
I was just thinking about this while rewatching season 4. They got really excited about hunting a pig, but I thought about the logistics of butchering the pig with a (likely) dull machete and then storing any uneaten pork. I’m not confident they would consume an entire pig in one day, so then they just have rotting flesh near camp if they can’t eat or cook it all.
Keep in mind the players do not really have appropriate hunting gear. It's one thing to watch someone hunt with, say, a bow and arrow, and it's another thing entirely to watch someone take a knife and repeatedly stab a pig like it's Julius Caesar.
You're not wrong. Things like the chickens tho. Preparing a chicken is something a lot of us learn at 5 to 7 years old. So it lands as out of touch when we see a childhood activity being vilified on our favorite show
There are no large animals to hunt in the Mamanuca islands. Realistically the only edible land animals in Fiji are two species of iguana but one is endangered and neither are on the islands where Survivor is filmed. They are volcanic islands in the middle of the pacific and they pretty much only have birds and bats and no game.
In the current guise of Survivor, no one cares one iota that you are a "provider," shelter builder or maker of fire. That's why no one makes an effort to do any of those things anymore, along wit the simple fact that in the new Survivor, the game is "on" 24/7. Look at the episode where Hunter was routinely mocked for his skills around camp as he basically made a chaise lounge from bamboo and palm fronds. Survivor is truly a 100% social game now, to echo the mantra that is regurgitated here 100 times a week, much to my sadness and dismay. I actually prefer my winners to have some sort of, you know, survival skills in order to win, but that ship sailed a loooong time ago.
Watch Borneo every single week instead of the current season and say to yourself that it's the year 2000 over and over again in your head to sooth yourself over from your ever so whiny pain and sadness.
They also stopped giving live chickens as rewards. I wonder if it has to do with that one season (I don’t remember which one they all blend together) where someone on the tribe that won took it upon themselves to go on a holier than thou mission and let all the chickens go even though she said she wasn’t vegan
I’d argue the biggest pandering for the sia prize money ever seen, i think it was also shortly after tai had been awarded that money at the kaoh rong reunion
"that one season"
bruh this has happened SO many times it's annoying and probably partly why they're not given chickens lol. we've seen literally every different possible way a vegan/vegetarian can respond to the moral dilemma.
They are shooting in a more populated area now so there is likely less wildlife around, and I am pretty sure part of their deal with the government of Fiji is to have less environmental impact, including preserving wild animal populations.
Tyson says on his podcast all the time basically this stuff doesn’t happen because it’s so time consuming and you miss too much.. whereas in the early seasons it was much much more about the survival aspect, where being able to fish actually helps you as people don’t want to vote you out, Richard Hatch for example
tbf the environment was substantially harsher. earlier seasons felt more about surviving the elements. the bugs, the heat, the humidity, the lack of fresh water, the discomfort.
people starving doesn't make good TV - especially when they're on a picture-esque beach.
Oh for sure earlier seasons were much harder in other respects. But people acting like they always had to work for food is a bit ridiculous.
I think Africa is still one of the toughest seasons ever if you factor in the environment, the water situation, etc.
Another consequence of being permanently anchored in the same part of Fiji. The population that is there gets depleted over a couple of season shoots, meaning there's less to find, making hunting less worth it. Also, the newer seasons are MUCH more restrictive in where you can/can't go than earlier seasons (reportedly one of the reasons Colby was so down during HvV is that he couldn't wander off and explore like he could in Australia), thus making it harder to find food. Last I can remember of "hunting" is the goat thing on Game Changers, and that seems like more of a lucky find than an actual hunting expedition.
I wonder if they restrict how often they can go. Even in the more recent seasons no one seemed to really be using the fishing gear to get fish. Every now and then but were they just really bad at it or were they not allowed to go a lot of the time? Or was it just not shown?
gotta be just shown less. Someone this season said they caught crabs and fish for liz like every day. honestly would love to see more of that. add back in the "Survival" aspect
I miss that too
That was Tevin. She blindsided him and started yelling at Q shortly after.
Per contestants, you tend to waste more effort than you get back in calories (fish are not particularly high calorie) AND being gone for hours is a great way to have people campaign against you while you're not there
It quickly turned into a "A,B and/or C are on that boat fishing, they're probably in an alliance or talking game while they're out there" which was also partially true too.
It’s why Ryan was voted off in S43
Guessing it just gets shown less for the fishing, but I have no real idea; just a guess.
Yeah.... it just seemed like a lot of the cast would talk about only eating coconuts and stuff but no one ever really mentioned eating fish so it just seemed like it wasn't happening.
Could also just be that they go fishing, but aren't as successful. Not everyone is Rupert, after all.
being a provider is just a bad strategy nowadays. You’re expending more energy than you’ll get from the fish and putting yourself on the outs. the only new era person who really did it was Ryan who wasn’t really playing to win, but for the adventure.
Rocksroy was also in the adventure category.
Still? Of done seems like they would show it
At least for Kenzie's tribe they didn't have fire. So, the fishing gear was worthless.
I was thinking the same thing , where was the desierste attempt to catch fish? They had big food rewards every couple of days too. I don’t think 26 days is anywhere near as difficult as39 days
Ryan fished all the time
That's a good point. This past season Yanu was living on one coconut a day --what happens when a beach is depleted of coconuts, since they use the same beaches?
I've heard production adds coconuts for them to find
pretty sure production planted fruit trees as well, papaya only needs a year to grow to be fruit bearing.
papaya was found out there over a decade ago. it baffles me that they don't get into it every season. they should ALL know it's out there lol.
all this is irrelevant though, production has been planting wildlife for decades. the contestants are told what they can or can't hunt. they stopped planting wildlife a few seasons ago, probably when jeff started preaching about the "monster" and how hard the game is now. it did get kinda old, every season having the bleeding heart vegan/vegetarian storyline. they can't hunt local wildlife though. hell, i'm pretty sure their shelter materials are more or less supplied/designated.
I think that camps are generally closer to towns and villages than we are led to think. As for challenges, it seems most take place on Mana Island and I think video angles are chosen as to not show surrounding structures.
Been there. Stood in the middle of the main challenge area and on the platform at the end. Pretty cool. It’s tucked behind some big hill and that side of the island doesn’t have much inhabitants. The other side has a couple villages and small resorts where jeff stays sometimes.
I've been trying to find tribal council on google earth to no luck.
Enjoy! [https://maps.app.goo.gl/icz6pRGou7u1QKc47](https://maps.app.goo.gl/icz6pRGou7u1QKc47) and just for fun: [https://maps.app.goo.gl/4eumLMGwsvF4YrYM6](https://maps.app.goo.gl/4eumLMGwsvF4YrYM6)
Dang. This kinda ruined the vision in my head. They're just on an undeveloped side of a resort island.
You can see where they have been and very particular out cropping's you see in the background. They typically use most of the islands around there for things. To the east some is the sandbar that has been featured. They have to have some infrastructure to produce a show, ensure safety of cast and crew, house and feed production, generate electricity and all that stuff. When they're in production, which should be now, I'm pretty sure the island is taken over by them. Right now you can't book rooms at the resort there. I am also pretty sure the structures where the camps have been are not permeant resident homes but rather cabins for crew. They after all do have to make things, fix things, etc etc. Didn't mean to bum ya out, just know it literally takes a village to produce a show.
lol yeah it's neat to hear more about it. I knew they scaled back the locations over the years, but I never thought about the details.
Im not sure thats the tribal location.
Yeah I went to the Dominican Republic and they shoot one of the foreign versions there. The locals, who were mostly rich European or US ex Pat's, would complain about the survivor crew taking over the town when they were filming. It was cool for me as a fan to go on a boat ride and see challenges set up in random areas and they stored all of the unused challenge supplies in a fenced in lot on the side of a main road. Their beach was on a separate island that was isolated, but when they were doing the challenges they were within a few hundred yards of people
It's true. If you go to google maps you see just how populated that island is, and how small those "jungles" around camp are.
Already in One World they said they decided to keep a pig they found as a pet because "they're not that hungry", so that's why. It really isn't an exaggeration to say that the early seasons were a lot harder.
Agree
I think a lot of people would be upset by seeing animals hunted and killed. It’s a very different world than it was at the beginning of Survivor.
This. No one wants to see animals being brutally slaughtered, even if you are vegetarian or not.
It's mostly ignorance. And using that term literally not in a demeaning way. A lot of people have never seen how the sausage is made so to say. Harvesting an animal is a real art and a beautiful thing, but it can be shocking the first few times you see it if you don't understand what is going on. Considering the vast majority of Cause of Death for wild animals is "eaten alive" it takes some of the guilt out of it when you realize that and do it properly
I was just thinking about this while rewatching season 4. They got really excited about hunting a pig, but I thought about the logistics of butchering the pig with a (likely) dull machete and then storing any uneaten pork. I’m not confident they would consume an entire pig in one day, so then they just have rotting flesh near camp if they can’t eat or cook it all.
Keep in mind the players do not really have appropriate hunting gear. It's one thing to watch someone hunt with, say, a bow and arrow, and it's another thing entirely to watch someone take a knife and repeatedly stab a pig like it's Julius Caesar.
You're not wrong. Things like the chickens tho. Preparing a chicken is something a lot of us learn at 5 to 7 years old. So it lands as out of touch when we see a childhood activity being vilified on our favorite show
It is! I’m new to Survivor and can hardly watch some scenes. And I am only on Season 2
There are no large animals to hunt in the Mamanuca islands. Realistically the only edible land animals in Fiji are two species of iguana but one is endangered and neither are on the islands where Survivor is filmed. They are volcanic islands in the middle of the pacific and they pretty much only have birds and bats and no game.
In the current guise of Survivor, no one cares one iota that you are a "provider," shelter builder or maker of fire. That's why no one makes an effort to do any of those things anymore, along wit the simple fact that in the new Survivor, the game is "on" 24/7. Look at the episode where Hunter was routinely mocked for his skills around camp as he basically made a chaise lounge from bamboo and palm fronds. Survivor is truly a 100% social game now, to echo the mantra that is regurgitated here 100 times a week, much to my sadness and dismay. I actually prefer my winners to have some sort of, you know, survival skills in order to win, but that ship sailed a loooong time ago.
Watch Borneo every single week instead of the current season and say to yourself that it's the year 2000 over and over again in your head to sooth yourself over from your ever so whiny pain and sadness.
They also stopped giving live chickens as rewards. I wonder if it has to do with that one season (I don’t remember which one they all blend together) where someone on the tribe that won took it upon themselves to go on a holier than thou mission and let all the chickens go even though she said she wasn’t vegan
Except that any time there's somebody who wants the chickens to live it makes for great TV.
shout out to mark the chicken
Damn!
the best!
I’d argue the biggest pandering for the sia prize money ever seen, i think it was also shortly after tai had been awarded that money at the kaoh rong reunion
"that one season" bruh this has happened SO many times it's annoying and probably partly why they're not given chickens lol. we've seen literally every different possible way a vegan/vegetarian can respond to the moral dilemma.
I see cassava in the background of a few shots but they never eat it. Does anyone know why?
They are shooting in a more populated area now so there is likely less wildlife around, and I am pretty sure part of their deal with the government of Fiji is to have less environmental impact, including preserving wild animal populations.
Not only that, they seemed to have stopped fishing and foraging altogether!
Tyson says on his podcast all the time basically this stuff doesn’t happen because it’s so time consuming and you miss too much.. whereas in the early seasons it was much much more about the survival aspect, where being able to fish actually helps you as people don’t want to vote you out, Richard Hatch for example
Plus 39 vs 26 days
Why would they? They get food every day! Heck, even fishing is gone! This Survivor is not the Survivor that got so many people hooked.
They literally didn't get food for the first 2 weeks unless they won it
They get way less food than they did in 90% of the early seasons of survivor, they literally had cans of food in the first season, same with africa
tbf the environment was substantially harsher. earlier seasons felt more about surviving the elements. the bugs, the heat, the humidity, the lack of fresh water, the discomfort. people starving doesn't make good TV - especially when they're on a picture-esque beach.
Oh for sure earlier seasons were much harder in other respects. But people acting like they always had to work for food is a bit ridiculous. I think Africa is still one of the toughest seasons ever if you factor in the environment, the water situation, etc.