Survivor Is Much Different
Since Survivor 41, there have been many developments. As a result of CBS’ new diversity requirement that at least 50% of any reality cast be people of color, the largest shift started with the casting. In addition, the game is now just 26 days long, rather than 39. Shot in the Dark, Knowledge Is Power, goofy secret phrases, the hourglass twist, Do or Die, Prisoner’s Dilemmas, and others were among the plethora of new game twists and changes that were made.
The game’s basic structure—strangers on an island voting each other out until one is crowned the winner—remains unchanged, but the show’s progress accelerated. Many of the difficulties experienced in seasons 41 and 42 were archaic. That’s not unexpected given the difficulties involved in even restarting the show in the still unstable period that was the spring of 2021 when both seasons were shot.
Will Players Handle the Games?
But now, a year later, challenge producer John Kirhoffer decided to go big for Survivor 43. Jeff Probst says that John Kirhoffer has led the challenge team for every single challenge of every single season. It must be noted that Survivor 43 has some of the most dramatic and biggest challenges of any other season.
Probst claims that when he first saw the competition courses in their full size and scale, even he was astounded. He also says that it seemed like every other day he was saying to Kirhffer that these challenges looked so much smaller on paper and he was unsure if the players could handle them.