Heroes vs Villains is the perfect Survivor season

This season of Survivor is the best we’ve seen – and corrects many of the issues that have plagued the Aussie version of the show.

Nick Bond

@bondnickbond

3 min read

February 28, 2023 - 1:52PM

Survivor Australia blows fans away with stunning tribal council

OPINION

It’s been seven years since Network 10 rebooted Australian Survivor – and this season, it seems like the Aussie iteration of the franchise is finally growing up.

In its seven seasons to date, Ten’s version of Australian Survivor has always been entertaining – but, compared to the goliath that is US Survivor, it’s still felt somewhat … provincial.

With the US version of Survivor now at a staggering 43 seasons, some contestants have been preparing for the show for literally their entire lives. They come trained on a 20-year diet of dozens of past seasons, ready to run tactical rings around their opponents.

In contrast, many Aussie players felt a little basic. Maybe it was the casting: So many athletes and Instagram-ready fitness influencers who valued trustworthiness, mateship and a good vibe around camp, and seemed unsure of how to play a truly strategic game (let alone how to properly play an immunity idol).

‘Challenge beast’ Simon has been having a surprisingly tough time this season.

Season after season, “challenge beasts” – aka jacked players who could smash the show’s intense physical challenges – were rewarded, while physically weaker players were targeted and turfed.

All that’s changed this season. The self-described “Spice Girls” alliance of three-time returning player Shonee (surely the most entertaining player in Australian Survivor history – can we please have her on every season?), George, and Liz have been quietly running the show for several episodes now.

‘Spice Girls alliance’ George, Shonee and Liz are running the show.

The game changed a few weeks back when George pulled a move at tribal council that saw him triumph against rival Simon with sneaky moves that fans praised as the “greatest Survivor tribal of all time.”

Confession: I had to watch it twice to figure out how he even pulled it all off.

A few episodes later, George and Shonee made a point of visibly throwing an immunity challenge, not even trying to hide their lack of effort. It was a bold power move designed to let their rivals on their tribe know: We don’t want to win, we want to vote you out.

Shonee and George, half-a**ing a challenge so they can send someone home.

Elsewhere, former Survivor winner Hayley Leake has done the near-impossible, making it all the way to merge despite the massive target on her back, having already been given $500k from the Survivor gods in 2021.

And her sneaky alliance with former rival George has been a joy to behold, the pair sharing secrets across enemy lines in the brief seconds they were reunited during challenges.

And week after week, hilarious moments from the show have broken out on social media, not just with Aussie viewers but also international Survivor fans who’ve been clued in that this season is one to watch.

There was this hilariously savage moment from George and Shonee, deciding who they should pick off next before landing on this reasoning to vote out Paige:

This has to be one of the funniest moments from any survivor franchise.. Praise god ðŸ™ðŸ™Œ #SurvivorAU pic.twitter.com/PlD42gDRVO
— Ringaux ðŸ’… (@QueenGrodner) February 14, 2023

Author Benjamin Law – gone too soon this season, voted out on day 22 – perfectly skewered the show’s penchant for casting beefy, blokey “challenge beasts” when he memorably dubbed his tribe mates the “meat tray”, a withering nickname that immediately took off among the fanbase:

The best meat tray available on Australian television ðŸ¥©#SurvivorAU: Heroes v Villains continues 7.30 tomorrow on 10 and 10 Play. pic.twitter.com/SQss1U4aOe
— SurvivorAU (@Survivor_AU) February 3, 2023

And then there was loveable himbo Simon, always fun to watch (especially when he’s floundering), being hilariously scolded by Hayley as he once more proved himself incapable of keeping a poker face:

Get your face better, Simon.

There was this moment from the spectacularly unbothered Liz, that made many a Survivor fan cheer at the screen as she dug her heels in and refused to vote out another woman, which would thereby turn this season into yet another “sausage fest”:

Note to future Survivor players,.

Be a Liz #SurvivorAU pic.twitter.com/hbM69L8rGa
— Ahmad (@Reality_Ahmad) February 26, 2023

And a special shout-out to much-loved player Stevie, 62, and near-blind as he competed without his glasses, who somehow beat actual Olympian Liz in the most surprising sporting result since Steven Bradbury’s 2002 Winter Olympics gold:

Stevie beating an Olympian in a #SurvivorAU challenge by going through headfirst and literal blind luck is one of the funniest challenge moments in a long time pic.twitter.com/Nj7JrVMbrm
— Mike Bloom (@AMikeBloomType) February 21, 2023

Last night’s tribal council was another one for the Survivor ages: properly thrilling TV, as the “Spice Girls alliance” fought from the bottom after merge, pulling out an immunity idol and playing it correctly to send “meat tray” member David home in a massive blindside.

Check out Liz not breaking her steely gaze as David pleaded in with her in vain not to use her idol: