Season 47 of Survivor kicked off on Wednesday, September 18 with a 90-minute premiere. The castaways arrived in beautiful Fiji and were greeted by Jeff Probst, who informed them their Survivor journey had begun.
The premiere episode was solid and gave us hope that Season 47 would be competitive and dramatic. There was deception, backstabbing, and a close vote at Tribal Council.
If you missed Wednesday’s episode, don’t worry. We’ll catch you up to speed.
Here are the major takeaways from the premiere episode…
Anika Dhar emerges as a power player on Survivor 47
Castaway Anika Dhar emerged as the leader of the Gata tribe in Wednesday’s episode. Initially, the 26-year-old planned to play it cool in the background, but her leadership skills kicked in when it was time to set up camp. She took control and helped lead her tribe through the setup. While her tribe was grateful for the help, they also took note of how hard she was playing. After Gata lost the first Immunity Challenge, castaway Andy Rueda was quick to throw Anika under the bus.
Currently, Anika is well-positioned in her tribe. She has the support of the girls and Sam Phalen, who were all unwilling to flip the vote on her in the premiere episode. She may not be in trouble in the short-term but I have concerns about her long-term gameplay. I think she showed her cards a bit too soon.
All eyes are on Andy Rueda in Survivor 47
Andy Rueda brought the drama in the Season 47 premiere. The New York native suspected he was trouble after his tribe cheered for Jon Lovett’s coconut-cracking skills and not his own. Yes, that is a real sentence. Their lack of enthusiasm made him suspect they were planning to vote him off the Island. After Gata loses the challenge, he has a bit of a breakdown in an attempt to save himself. He told everyone, including Jeff, that his tribe didn’t like him and revealed his master plan to target his ally, Jon. Everyone was like, “Ok? Why are you telling us this?”
Back at camp, Andy told Jon he wanted Anika gone instead. Messy king. Jon and Andy tried to flip the vote against the camp leader but it was too late. Jon’s fate was sealed.
Jon Lovett says goodbye to Survivor 47
Survivor fans were excited when it was revealed that Jon would be joining the Season 47 cast. The 42-year-old is the co-host of the political podcast Pod Save America alongside former Barack Obama staffers Jon Favreau and Tommy Vietor. Viewers had high hopes for his game and were disappointed to see him go on Night 1.
He spoke about his early departure on Rob Cesternino’s podcast Rob Has a Podcast. He told the Survivor alum that Andy’s blowup made it difficult to wrangle votes to save himself.
“I feel very confident that what I was sensing was true. The vote was on me,” he said. “[The plan] was to tell Andy it was me, and tell me it was Andy [to] try and get me not to plan [my] Shot in the Dark. I was a threat, Andy was not.”
It’s true that a blowup can often work in a player’s favor. Once a player reveals themselves to be over-emotional and unreliable, their threat level decreases. Suddenly, no one sees them as strategic players but rather a ticking timebomb that is bound to self-implode. There is little incentive to get rid of these players. It does make more sense to get rid of someone like Jon.
Who are the front-runners?
It is difficult to know who will emerge as a front-runner from one episode but I have some predictions.
A Reddit user broke down the confessional count of each player and found that Aysha Welch and Gabe Ortis scored the highest. Oftentimes, producers will show more confessionals of the players that play a big role in the season. I predict Aysha and Gabe will go far based on their edits in the premiere episode.
Sol Yi only had one confessional shown in the Wednesday episode but has already garnered a lot of fan support. Fans in the Survivor subreddit predicted he would go far.
“Sol is my pick,” one user wrote.
“He rocks I wanna see more of him,” another user agreed.
TELL US – WHAT DID YOU THINK OF THE SURVIVOR 47 PREMIERE? ARE YOU PLANNING ON WATCHING THIS SEASON?
