Hi, my bearded dragon fell asleep on my lap, so since I wont be moving for another hour or so, I thought i'd share some of the Survivor off-camera stories ive heard. Some of these are confirmed true, some are pure speculation, and some we'll never fully know the answer to. Also keep in mind im not some sleuth who dug through hours worth of leads to investigate these, if you have a source or more info on one, feel free to share.
Anyway, ya know, here.
BORNEO- A lot of Probst's phrases we take for granted, I feel. I mean, "worth playing for" seems kinda redundant, I mean it's not like they're going to say "no". Except, one time they did. Do you remember that one reward (I want to say Wiglesworth won but it might have been Jenna) where she got to watch like the first 10 minutes of the first episode and have a drink in a bar and whatnot? Well, initially that wasn't the reward. The reward was a single beer. I guess the produces thought one bottle of a natural dehydrant for people who havent had liquid not laced with sand and probably fecal matter was sufficient enough. Probst asked them if it was worth playing for, they said no and refused to do the challenge. Prbost upped the anti to the slightly awkward date night and they were game. *CONFIRMED*
THAILAND- On day 14 (5 days before they would fake merge), both tribes were given the option to mutiny. Since, you know, it's a terrible strategic move, no one took the bait, and since it was completely irrelevant to the story, they simply didnt include it in the edit *CONFIRMED*
AMAZON- Remember the Roger voteoff when everyone hated him and wanted him to leave like ASAP and Cesterneenee gave us that funny voting confessional where he sang the "Na Na Na Na Hey Hey Heeeeeyyyyy Goodbye" song slightly louder than he was supposed to? When he got back from voting and sat down, Probst looked at him and said "Nice try, smartass, but there's no way that makes it into the episode". Then, well, it did. Fuck off, Probst. This one really only has Cesternino himself as a witness, but I mean I dont see why he'd lie about that.
PEARL ISLANDS- Everyone fucking hated Scoutmaster Lill. Like it was visible that people didnt seem to like her much, especially during FTC, but apparently the edit did not do enough justice. First, Fairplay's FTC speech to her apparently lasted like an hour of him just straight up berating her nonstop and making her cry several times. What I find funnier though, is that the Outcasts, after voting one of their own into the game, went on a trip together, as we now know all pre-jurors do. The Outcasts of course famously voted Lillian back into the game, but they did it because THEY DIDNT WANT TO SPEND ANY MORE TIME WITH HER. Not only was Lill voted off her original tribe, she was even in a way voted off the tribe of people voted off. *CONFIRMED*
FIJI- This one isn't some crazy story or anything, but as you probably know, the entire cast of Fiji (except Papa Smurf) were recruited. Earl Cole had never seen the show before playing, and what I find really funny about this, is that early on in the game, Earl Cole, one of the best winners Survivor has seen, was asking Dreamz Herd, one of the dopiest goats in Survivor history, about the game, like rules and how things work and stuff. *CONFIRMED*
FIJI- Yay, for two Fiji entries! This one I find SUPER fascinating and it bugs the shit out of me that it didn't make the edit, because it adds so much more depth to the season. Day 1, we all remember that weird twist where they were all together just dropped off on the island, kind of left to their own devices, with all these materials to build a great shelter. Well, on that day, two major alliances formed, known as the Builders and the Explorers. The Builders mainly consisted of the older people (Earl, Cassandra, Yau, Boo, etc) and the Explorers the young (Mookie, Alex, Edgardo, etc). Naturally Earl was the leader of the builders, but surprisingly, Lillian Gomez was the leader of the Explorers. And the real kicker here is, there was one person to kind of drifted between both alliances, smack dab in the middle. Any guesses? The legend Andria "Dreamz" Herd himself. This explains a lot. Why some of the people seemed to bond and flip sides so quickly (like Boo to Earl's side), why Dreamz was the middle man of the alliances post merge, and even why the tribes were split the way they were, as Sylvia tried to even out the number of Explorers and Builders per tribe, so that she couldnt be placed on an all Explorer tribe and be picked off.
FIJI- Oh, and everyone knows this but I might as well include it anyway- Fiji had 19 people because the 20th contestant, Melisa McNulty, had a panic attack like an hour prior to filming and was pulled. *CONFIRMED*
MICRONESIA- At one point, Erik, A̶m̶a̶n̶d̶a̶ Alexis (thanks Christian_), and James snuck into production's camp and stole some food. They were caught but weren't given much punishment *CONFIRMED*
MICRONESIA- We saw unfortunately, Kathy Sleckman get very depressed while on the island and eventually quit. But there was some stuff that was left out of that story. Namely, that Jason Siska was one of the biggest assholes the show has ever seen and would frequently bully the Chet-Kathy-Tracy trio. He would push them out of the way when they were trying to make fire so that he could be seen on camera as the one who started the fire. He would hide the tools from them when they were trying to make their separate shelter. It got so bad that Chet and Tracy both started threatening to quit. Kathy's depression factored in a lot more than Asshole Siska, it should be noted however. Kathy got so emotionall distraught that she actually strongly considered CUTTING HER OWN HAND WITH THE MACHETE SO SHE COULD BE MED EVAC'D. She talks about it extensively in her Reddit AMA, I highly recommend giving it a read. *CONFIRMED*
GABON- This one's pretty vague, but some people (namely Corinne and Sugar) have said that Bob was pretty pervy and would get a little handsy on some of the girls. They talk about it as if it's not like a big deal or anything, so I guess it wasn't too bad.
GABON- Also on the subject of Bob, he would frequently steal little things (treemails after being read, parts of a torch, small things from challenges) and during the family visit sneakily gave them to his wife so they could take them home as souveneirs LOLOLOL *CONFIRMED*
TOCANTINS- Similar to Thailand, Tocantins also offered a mutiny option to any player who picked the correct jar at Exile. No one took it, so it was just left out of the edit *CONFIRMED*
TOCANTINS- We saw Sierra be straight up bullied by Tyson and to a lesser extent Coach and Debbie. Now, we know all three of these people to be Survivor villains, so we're kinda led to believe that they did it because they're jerks and that's that. While that may be true, why didn't anyone stick up for Sierra? Was it just to preserve their own games? Well probably that, but also, Sierra was cited as being super fucking annoying, prissy, and hard to live with. She would never do any work around camp and would just sit around and be a pissy little bitch like 24/7. *CONFIRMED*
SAMOA- Remember that one challenge where each tribe had to send 3 people and Probst straight up wasnt there and the challenge was just simply bocci ball or some shit like that? Wasn't that fucking weird? And why didn't Samoa have a family visit? And why does it have the worst editing of any season ever? idk im getting off track, Samoa sucks, but anyway the rumor goes that Probst didnt show up at the challenge due to being sick. I mean, the guy has to shout everything that happens during a challenge every other day, surely he gets a sore throat every now and again yeah? But no. Probst himself said he was perfectly fine that day, he just wanted to experiment a bit and see how they would react to the situation. Dick move, Dimples. *CONFIRMED*
HEROES VS VILLAINS- remember the scene where Rob like fainted and Jerri found him and they got medical out there and stuff? That really did happen, but they didnt catch it on camera as Rob was out to go take a shit when it happened. So, the version we saw in the episode? Re-enacted. *CONFIRMED*
HEROES VS VILLAINS- Sugar got like super depressed after being the first boot. She had already been in a really rough place at the time of filming and I guess this was the final push. Allegedly Sugar actually tried to commit suicide in Ponderosa and was taken out of Ponderosa so that she could seek psychiatric help.
HEROES VS VILLAINS- This one is plain as day to see, seeing as the video was released by CBS, but I just want to make sure everyone knows that Courtney, JT and Coach formed a band at Ponderosa called The Dragonz and they legitimately recorded a song.
NICARAGUA- The story goes that Sash offered to pay off Jane's mortgage in exchange for her jury vote, which pretty clearly goes against CBS's rules. Some forms of the rumor cut it off there, while other versions of it say that because of it, CBS actually told people not to vote for Sash, while other version claim Sash was so hated by the jury that they only voted for Chase so he'd get 2nd over Sash. This is one that, due to the legal implications, we're never going to get an answer to.
*REDEMPTION ISLAND- We've all heard that RI was totally rigged for Boston Rob to win. Everyone and their mother buys it, but, Rob originally wasn't even supposed to be on the season. Believe it or not, it was supposed to be Hantz on one tribe and Richard Hatch on the other, kind of like a "two greatest Survivor villains" type thing. But, unfortunately, ya know, Hatch and the law dont really tend to get along and Hatch had to drop out like last minute. Rob was brought in as a desperate replacement and the season was turned into a Rob vs Russell rivalry angle *CONFIRMED*
REDEMPTION ISLAND- It's theorized that Phillip isn't really that crazy at all, and was simply acting as fucking insane and unlikable as possible so that he could get brought to the end as a goat and get the check players earn for making finals.
**SOUTH PACIFIC- I touched on this in my recent SP blog, but Ozzy was also a least minute replacement for Shane Powers. Shane and Coach still don't quite make a lot of sense, I think the angle they were going for is "two trainwrecks with terrible social games", which at least makes more sense that Coach and Ozzy who really have nothing in common. The only source i've seen on this is Shane himself, which I dont count as a viable source of information.
SOUTH PACIFIC/CARAMOAN- Small bit here, but if you didn't know, production picks out clothes for the contestants to wear on the island, usually to try and kinda build up whatever character they're trying to make them into. The most famous example of this is Cochran, who had never worn a sweater vest or anything like that in his entire life. *CONFIRMED*
ONE WORLD/BLOOD VS WATER- This is just a bit of clarification- when Colton quits in BvW, Probst gets understandably pissed and claims Colton faked Appendicitis in OW so he could quit without seeming like a quit. This was just Jeff getting caught in the heat of the moment, Coltom legitimately was ill in OW. Still a vile little cunt tho *CONFIRMED*
PHILIPPINES- Two for one special with casting! It was always going to be three tribes with on returning player per tribe, but initially it was going to be centered around female returnees who needed redemption (the only player we know of to be considered is LaGrossa). This is told to us by Coby Archa, so idk if this is truly the case, however what IS confirmed is that originally Colton was going to be one of the returnees, but after, ya know, everyone fucking hated him, they replaced him (idk which one replaced him, my guess would be Penner. thank fucking god)
BLOOD VS WATER- Isn't it kind of weird that Candice got voted off in the initial vote over Colton, you know, one of the most vile and unhelpful people you could EVER have on a tribe? I mean I fucking hate Candice but damn was she really THAT bad? Well, there's some backstory to this. Blood vs Water had hardcore pre-game alliances. Like almost every returnee had a pre-game alliance with someone else. Well, the thing is, the Cody's were last minute replacements for RC Saint-Amour and her father Craig. Craig Saint-Amour had some health complications last minute and had to drop. As the Cody's were late to the party, they could not form pre-game alliances and therefore had no use to the returnee tribe. *CONFIRMED*
BLOOD VS WATER- While on the subject of RC dropping out, did you ever think the name "Blood vs Water" was kinda odd? I mean it's returnees vs loved ones, isn't it kinda Blood vs Blood? Well the season had a slightly different idea at first. If you notice, the cast is very even in terms of relationships. Half the cast are in a romantic relationship (Culpeppers, Hayden/Cat, the Cody's, the Gays, Tyson/Rachel, and the Bonehams) and the other half is familial relation (Tina/Katie, Laura/Ciera, The Baskauskas's, and the Petersons). If you plug RC and Craig into this equation in place of the Cody's, you have an even 5/5 split of Romantic and Familial. The Romantic pairs were supposed to all be on one tribe vs the Familial ones, hence "Blood vs Water". *CONFIRMED*
CAGAYAN- HERE IT IS BOYS, ONE OF THE BIGGEST SURVIVOR INTERNET MYSTERIES, WEASEL WOO. Weasel Woo is one of those rumors we're only going to get hints and snippets about. Now, what we have confirmed is that the cast of Cagayan overall hated Woo, they saw him as sneaky and Tony's little lapdog that he would go to and rat everyone out to, hence the term Weasel Woo (you can actually hear people call him this once or twice in passing). Where it gets tricky though, is that Woo did SOMETHING that went against production's rules. We'll never get an answer as to what he did, since the contestants aren't allowed to discuss it. This is where the rumors run rampant. The most likely one is that Woo stole food from production and hoarded it all for himself. That's the one I believe. Other rumors get wilder though. One claims Woo tried hiding in the background to listen in on someone's confessional. One claims that Woo actually hid in the bushes and watched a female player piss. And- get ready for this one- one rumor actually claims that Woo straight up sucked a cameraman's dick in exchange for food.
CAGAYAN- We all know of Tony's spy shacks, however they didn't seem to play much of a role in the season outside of that one scene where he overhears Trish speaking poorly of him (which, was not live. Tony DID spy on them and overhear it, however there was no wayto capture this on camera without revealing Tony was there, so they filmed Tony pretending to spy on them later and edit it together so it seemed to be live). They did have some off-camera roles though. Trish ending up finding the shack by the well and, believing it to be a bathroom, took a shit in it. Also, Tony told Trish about the one he made in the shelter, and on several times formed a plan- Tony would go hide in his shack, and Trish would sit in the shelter and engage someone in conversation about Tony, so that Tony could listen in and see what the person said. HOWEVER, often times Trish would FORGET THE PLAN AND JUST END UP TALKING ABOUT FOOD OR SOMETHING FOR LIKE AN HOUR, LEAVING TONY TO HAVE TO SIT THERE AND NOT MOVE FOR LONG PERIODS OF TIME. *CONFIRMED*
SAN JUAN DEL SUR- SJDS had an 18 person cast, which isn't inherently odd but what is off is the gender imbalance, the guys having the upper hand on the women. Both of these things are explained by the fact that Worlds Apart first boot So Kim and her sister were originally cast for THIS season, however her sister had medical complications last minute and they had to drop. Really sucks, having to drop and then getting the incredible chance to actually play only to get voted off first LOL WHOOPS *CONFIRMED*
SAN JUAN DEL SUR- It's speculated that the only reason Jaclyn got any non-Jon Misch votes is that the jury really hated Missy and wanted to make sure he got 3rd. Also, if you ever thought that Reed's bitter tryhard mean speech seemed a little.... random, Reed and Josh claim that Missy was pretty homophobic on the island. But the only sources ive seen on this are Reed and Josh, and I dont really know if I trust their word.
WORLDS APART- Ok this one i'm like 80% sure is fake, but I want to include it anyway because it's fucking hilarious if it's true. Jenn Brown claims that Vince hated Nina and at one point found some animal shit in the jungle, wrapped it up in palm fronds, and gave it to Nina claiming it was an idol he found. Side note, after WA Vince lived on Max Dawsons couch for like a year
CAMBODIA- This one is just like Weasel Woo in that we can never get a solid answer to it because the contestants arent allowed to talk about whatever happened. The fact is, SOMETHING happened at Ponderosa that was wildly against the rules. That's what we know for certain, and it's heavily implied that it was around Joe. It has been heavily hinted at by some contestants (namely Shirin and Wentworth) that Joe is like really douchey and makes the women around camp uncomfortable with how "flirty" he is. You know, the kind of bullshit that guys pull when they think they're hot shit. Creepy unwanted massages, ass slaps, shit like that. The hints take a much more serious and offensive turn, however, when we get back to the Ponderosa incident. Again, we're never going to get solid proof, but the leading theory that people have hinted at is that Joe hid his GoPro in Ciera Eastin's shower so he could see her naked. Personally? I buy it.
KAOH RONG- Kaoh Rong is famous partly because of the amount of med evacs, but it goes much farther than we were shown. I'll break it down. We have the game med evacs, Neal Caleb and Joe, that's 3 people injured. We have Debbie and Cydney fainting at the challenge where Caleb like dies, nothing serious but very scary nonetheless. That makes 5. Tai and Scot, as we saw, had several infections that were not life threatening but still required serious attention. Up to 7. Jenny's terrifiying ear worm makes 8. After being voted out, Jason revealed to production that he has a very serious infection on his leg that he kept hidden from them (that would have for sure have gotten him med evac's had they seen it), in addition he also lost several teeth due to malnutrition. Up to 9. Finally, that I know of, both Peter and Liz were evacuated from Ponderosa to a hospital due to very serious infections that required surgery (Liz had a really bad staph infection, she posted pics of it on Twitter, they cut out huge chunks of flesh from her shoulder). This brings the total of considerably injured Kaoh Rong contestants up to a whopping 11, over half the cast and almost 2 tribes worth of people. Jesus christ. Edit thanks to Nicolef: Aubry also had that huge bumpy infection on her thigh, making it a full 2 tribes worth of notable injuries *CONFIRMED*
MVGX- Small bit here, but it should be noted that Adam forged very strong 1 on 1 bonds with every juror. The editors left these out because he kept them largely secret and they wanted Adam's winner edit to be much less evident. Thus why he swept the jury vote, not the Mom thing (although im sure it helped, it didnt gain him an instant win) *CONFIRMED*
GAME CHANGERS- I know you all of course remember the Sandra boot tribal, where Tai seemed really flip floppy and openly said he'd vote Ozzy out. Yeah that was all pre-planned out by Zeke and friends, it was totally fake *CONFIRMED*
GAME CHANGERS- Speaking of things being faked this season, Debbie's feud with Brad was also largely fake. There was a lot of truth to it, Debbie WAS kinda pissed at Brad, but all the over the top yelling was faked, Debbie claims, in an attempt to fool other people in how close they were. Im tempted not to believe her at first, as it seems pretty unnecessary especially when she continued this charade in confessionals, but seeing her act drunk for no real reason at the merge feast makes me start to want to believe it.
GAME CHANGERS- Finally, Debbie shit in the middle of camp and tried blaming it on one of the cameramen *CONFIRMED*
Trish ending up finding the shack by the well and, believing it to be a bathroom, took a shit in it.
HOWEVER, often times Trish would FORGET THE PLAN AND JUST END UP TALKING ABOUT FOOD OR SOMETHING FOR LIKE AN HOUR, LEAVING TONY TO HAVE TO SIT THERE AND NOT MOVE FOR LONG PERIODS OF TIME.
AMAZON- Remember the Roger voteoff when everyone hated him and wanted him to leave like ASAP and Cesterneenee gave us that funny voting confessional where he sang the "Na Na Na Na Hey Hey Heeeeeyyyyy Goodbye" song slightly louder than he was supposed to? When he got back from voting and sat down, Probst looked at him and said "Nice try, smartass, but there's no way that makes it into the episode". Then, well, it did. Fuck off, Probst. This one really only has Cesternino himself as a witness, but I mean I dont see why he'd lie about that.
why did probst say that?
also link for the kathy one, like the reddit thing
brandt69 At that point in time, no one had done a confessional that could be heard from where the other players sat. I guess Probst saw Rob as trying to be a smartass and mock the tribal, which I suppose is accurate.
And Sierra was NOT that annoying, and how can Coach and Tyson bully her for being annoying when they're also pretty annoying? And I think people did like her, Taj and Erinn refused to vote her out.
I thought it was Alexis who went into production with James and Erik and how some people believed that played into their boot order all being back to back or some shit lol
DumbGinger Didn't Aubry also have that infection bump on her thigh and needed to take medication for it, therefore making 12/18 (2 tribes worth) being injured that season while Michele, Julia, Nick, Anna, Alecia, and Darnell were the only ones unscathed.
NicoleF Oh yeah you're totally right. Its funny, whenever I picture Aubry in my head I clearly have her wearing that thigh bandage, I guess my mind just blanked and though it was fashionable. Updated!
This are really interesting to read! Thanks!
Candice & John being last minute replacements was actually so unfair on them. The one about Trish is hilarious
DumbGinger wasn't the unaired mutiny in Pearl Islands? I thought Ryan O. confirmed it because he said that was his biggest mistake, not taking the mutiny.
Also, I think there was a rumor that Wigglesworth sucked off a cameraman for food in Borneo
To add onto the Alexis/James/Erik rumor, i also heard that Alexis hurt her knee when they got caught and she tripped while running away
Another confirmed rumor was that Erinn in Tocantins was given some candy and someone lit a fire for her with a lighter.
@_A_ yeah Erinn said the candy one. The crew gave her a piece of candy on exile or something. Fuzzy on the details. I read that interview a long time ago.
THAILAND- On day 14 (5 days before they would fake merge), both tribes were given the option to mutiny. Since, you know, it's a terrible strategic move, no one took the bait, and since it was completely irrelevant to the story, they simply didnt include it in the edit *CONFIRMED*
I'm like 90% sure that was included in the edit, I like remember Shii Ann and Steph talking about how much they wanted to switch tribes for the mutiny
I love these type of blogs! You should try to find some dirty poundersa stories. I've read a few involving Ozzy/Amanda, Michele Yi and so on but idek if they're even true.
Borneo - In one tribal council the Pagongs all voted for Jeff. He was pissed and made them revote.
Australia - Tina wasn’t even meant to be on the show but some other woman dropped out last minute because she was scared of heights. Rumored to be Jenn Brown’s mom.
Pearl Islands - People only said Lil would have beaten Fairplay at the reunion because they thought if they didn’t she would start crying and eat up all the airtime
Pearl Islands - Sandra and Christa kicked sand into Lil’s face
All-Stars - Since the payouts for all placings were higher than normal, a bunch of people played a game to make it far but not to win
Fiji - Michelle gang banged at Ponderosa
The Micronesia one is not confirmed
Heroes vs. Villains - Natalie Bolton was flown out as an alternate because they thought Courtney wouldn’t pass the medical exam
Nicaragua - Purple Kelly only quit because they just gave her a bikini to wear and she was freezing the entire time, but she was actually really funny and well-liked
Blood vs. Water There was also supposed to be redemption island but it was cut last minute due to the restructuring of the season
