To begin, this is still, by design, my favorite Final Immunity Challenge to date. It is a massive shame that it still has never returned to the show, and while it surely wouldn't feel as epic if not played in an awesome, eerie cave like it was in Thailand, it would still be tons of fun. I would love to see this return as one of the final immunity challenges in a modern season.
This is certainly a Survivor Challenge which has been forgotten over time, but it was actually very creative and is the exact type of fun, involved challenge I like to see in the post-merge, rather than a bunch of standing still balancing a ball challenges. Those who watch Big Brother may be reminded by this of the HOH Competition where the contestants have to slide across ice to fill their containers, but this concept was originally Survivor's idea!
Anyone who has seen Survivor: Vanuatu is bound to remember this challenge. Giant maze challenges near the end of the game are a Survivor tradition, but there is only one time they have done a vertical maze, and it was truly something special. Please, Survivor challenge team, make it happen again!
Modern Survivor loves standing still endurance challenges, and as I harped earlier, usually to an excessive extent. However, if Survivor insists on using a lot of challenges like this, nothing is better than some variety! This creative final immunity challenge from Vanuatu would work great with any number of people, though I could easily see it appearing as the first challenge after a merge. It would be such a fun throwback!
I love when Survivor challenges allow the teams to engage in a risk vs reward-type scenario within a challenge, and Survivor: Palau's first immunity challenge completely nails it! It saddens me that this challenge never went on to become a Survivor staple, because there are so many different ways it could play out and so many ways the concept could be reimagined, but as it stands, we have only seen it once.
Physical contact challenges in general have been severally lacking in Survivor laterly, and really, whenever we do get one, it is always one of the same 3 or 4 challenges (fight for the buoy, sumo at sea, or basketball in water). Survivor: Guatemala offered a unique physical challenge based on an ancient Mayan game, which was very fun to watch. I would love to see this challenge revived and added into the physical contact challenge rotation!
Survivor Cook Islands: Depth Charge (Ep. 9)
This was a very creative tribal challenge, which I imagine requires very particular water conditions to be used, which potentially explains why we have only ever seen it once, but that is not definitively the case. Aside from its innovative concept, this challenge brought one of my favorite Jeff Probst moments with Penner's "oh please, Jeff," and him saying "Jonathon, getting frustrated by me!"
This difficult challenge's sole appearance was as Survivor: Fiji's final immunity challenge. To be honest, I do not really appreciate this challenge, with its heavy reliance on one's physical strength, being the final immunity challenge of its season, which I believe should be a challenge which is more fair to everyone. (Nowadays, we usually get dexterity tasks for the final immunity challenge, which I enjoy.) However, this was an awesome, excruciating challenge and I would love to see it return in a modern season, perhaps as the Final 4 or 5 immunity challenge instead though.
I truly believe that this is one of the best challenges Survivor has ever had. Before we even address the content of the challenge, it already gets my love for being a rare, night time challenge, something very refreshing for Survivor. But putting that fact aside, they literally set off fireworks in this challenge!!! That is sooooooo cool! And the whole thing is beautiful too, and I admire how its concept plays into the season's theme of Chinese culture. Of all the challenges on this list, this may be the one which would excite me the most to see make a surprising return.
Another great challenge from Survivor: China, each member of the tribe had to work together in order to bounce a ball to the finish. This is one of those challenges where you watch it and then you just want to go and play it yourself, because it looks like so much fun. Team-based challenges, which have lately almost all taken the form of [random series of obstacles] followed by [puzzle or random carnival game], could absolutely use some variety, and I think that bringing back this engaging challenge would help to address this quite nicely.
Here is another great, albiet strange team challenge that we have only ever seen once, back in Survivor: Gabon. There is just something inherently fun about watching people throw fruit to each other while other people try and violently smash the flying fruit out of the air with a club. Really, this challenge needs to return some day.
Now here is a challenge that I cannot believe we have never seen again, and that would be Dizziness as Usual from Survivor: Tocantins. Every aspect of this nauseous challenge is entertaining, from watching the people on the pole spin around at hilarious speeds, to watching the dizzy players then hopelessly attempt to cross a balance beam. This challenge has always been a highlight of Tocantins for me, and I would love for it to become a highlight of a future season as well. Plus, the pun in this challenge's title is excellent!
This challenge is kind of a combintion of Gabon's Fruit Flies challenge, and a challenge from Micronesia where each tribe had 10 minutes to build a barricade which the other tribe would have to cross through. The result of this mixture was felt like another incredibly creative challenge. I will note however, that this challenge, in its current form, seems quite dangerous, what with the flying pigs shattering into sharp shards, as well as them being described as painful to catch. If this challenge were to return, which I hope it does, there should definitely be some adjustments made for a safer experience.
This challenge is another all-time favorite of mine; it is a brilliant adaptation of one of my most enjoyed childhood games, which puts me at the edge of my seat when watching it, and never fails to make me laugh when someone makes a fatal mistake and can only watch as dozens of coconuts come falling to the ground. That being said, it doesn't surprise me that we have only seen this appear one time. From a production standpoint, it looks like it was nightmarish to set up, especially when considering it likely had to be tested multiple times, and on top of that, it was clearly a lot more work for the editors than an ordinary challenge, as they had to constantly update the scores for each team. But come on Survivor, you've had 10 years to recover, let's do Coco Plunk again soon!
And here is yet another fantastic team challenge that we have only had the pleasure of seeing one time. Don't let this challenge's childish title distract you from what is an awesome, creative challenge involving a pinball table and impeccable concentration. The crazy thing is, this isn't even the last entry on this list which involves a pinball table. Apparently, mixing pinball with Survivor is just the golden formula for a great Survivor challenge. Anyway, this challenge's return is long overdue.
One type of challenge on Survivor that I have always been drawn to is the 1 on 1 showdown, and so this unique Philippines challenge is the exact type of thing I enjoy. This is one of those challenges that is so simple in concept, which is what makes it all the more impressive that it equates to such an entertaining challenge.
When looking back, I found that Survivor: San Juan del Sur actually had a surprising number of challenges which where, at the time, new to the franchise. Almost all of them were good, but something about this 2 on 2 basketball-throw challenge is particularly appealing to me. I love that there is a large consequence if you miss your shot, as you are forced back into the twisted obstacle course to retrieve your team-colored ball. It gives this challenge a very different feel, and like all of the challenges on this list, it needs to come back!
Here is another one of those 1 on 1 showdown challenges I was talking about earlier. I mean, they should have used this challenge like, at least, 4 different times by now. It is so much fun to watch, and is the type of challenge format which is refreshing to see in the modern era of the show where so many of the challenges follow the same structure. But alas, Shake It Off remains secluded to San Juan del Sur... Hopefully not for much longer!
Do you remember how I was praising Survivor: Palau's first immunity challenge for its unique element of risk vs reward? Well, the first immunity challenge to be seen in the Mamanuca Islands deserves the same amount of praise. They didn't have to give the challenge this cool aspect of choice, they could have easily just left it as it was without the shortcut options and it still would have been a totally functional challenge; no one would have complained. But they didn't. The challenge team deserves a lot of credit here for putting in the extra effort for this premiere episode challenge, and their work payed off, as this will go down as one of my most remembered challenges. I'd love to see them do this type of thing again and again.
Ah yes, as promised, another Pinball-related Survivor Challenge! This one features a really interesting concept of having to split your attention between solving a puzzle and being aware of the location of the ball on the pinball table. It's another one of those challenges that you see, and then instantly want to try out for yourself. I hope we see Pinball Wizard many more times in future Survivor seasons.
The Survivor Wiki considers this challenge simply to be a variation of Simmotion, the popular Final Immunity Challenge where you have to keep a number of balls from dropping to the ground as they roll down a metal track. And while the 2 challenges are similar in many ways, I think that to consider the challenges the same doesn't give this challenge, Always on the Run, the credit it deserves for being a fresh, entertaining yet extremely difficult team challenge. We need more challenges like this in Survivor.
The best word I can think of to describe this challenge is mesmerizing; I've found myself randomly compelled to go back and watch it several times since its airing. It's impossible to not admire a concept for an Immunity Challenge as creative as this one, and the whole viewing experiencing is made even better by the editors synchronizing the clanging sounds with the music. It is SO satisfying! This challenge was apparently adapted from Australian Survivor, with which I am unfamiliar, but with US Survivor, it has definitely only been used once, and of course, it desperately needs to be used more!
Now to be fair, they haven't really had a chance to reuse this creative gem from the latest season of Survivor yet, but when the time is right, they've got to! The balance beam / seesaw section of the challenge is pure genius. To be candid, I actually think it's a shame that the entirety of the challenge wasn't based around the seesaw concept, having it applied in different ways, where instead the show fell back into the overused format of ending a challenge with a puzzle. Hopefully if this challenge returns, we can see its brilliance centralized and expanded upon.
If you have any comments, questions, feedback, or just want to reach out to me, send an email to cadebw2@gmail.com!