Shocking Elimination / Survivor

Please note that despite the jury vote being set up as "all but one person being voted out, making them the sole survivor", the runner-ups generally do not count.

However, eliminations that would be shocking before watching the episode qualify. For example: Silas was thought to be in an untouchable position, but everyone knew he was in trouble once the tribe swap happened. Reactions to eliminations at the time may wildly differ from rewatching the seasons with a modern perspective, and both qualify.

Note that this is the most spoileriffic page you will ever see. All Spoilers are unmarked.

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1. Borneo

• Gervase makes a sexist comment about women being the dumbest things next to cows. The women of Pagong are unable to forgive or forget this, and band together to vote out... Joel Klug?! Apparently he chuckled at the remark when it was made, but it's odd why they decided to vote out him over Gervase, who y'know, actually made the comment? The cameras hardly got to show the audience Tagi's other issues with him. Even at the time, this was advertised as an "island shocker".
• If it wasn't for Richard Hatch and his alliance changing the show from a mere feat of survival on a "Deserted Island" to a battle of Machiavellian strategy, Gretchen Cordy, the best survivalist on the original cast and overall Team Mom, would have easily made it much farther than the merge.
• The infamous "Gervase X". CBS decided to "accidentally" release footage of a final four that did not include several members of the alliance, leading to people believing the alliance would be overthrown. They then tampered with their website, allowing anyone capable of searching through the coding to find that unlike everyone else, Gervase's photo had no capability to be easily X'd out. Every person eliminated had an X coded onto their face upon elimination, and that was impossible to put on the photo of Gervase Paterson. As a result, fans were shocked when Gervase was indeed eliminated (and a red X put onto his face on the website)

2. The Australian Outback

• In the fourth episode, after finding out that she is the lowest in the hierarchy; Tina decided to ally with the only other outsider Keith, and Colby, who was close to her. Colby declined to vote off Jerri, the leader of the alliance. Tina and company just switch to booting second-in-command Mitchell Olson in the next tribal council with zero warning, as apparently this had been arranged off-camera on the way to tribal council.
• Michael Skupin, one of the strongest contestants in the season, became the first evacuation in Survivor history after burning himself in the fire. Mark Burnett himself was so shocked that he got on camera trying to assuage Skupin during the evacuation.
• After season one, it became an assumption that once one tribe gained majority they would simply eliminate everyone outside it, which made it a shock to audiences when Jerri Manthey was picked off at the final 8.
• Colby Donaldson has a choice at the final 3 after winning final immunity of who to eliminate between Keith and Tina. If he eliminates Tina and goes to the end with the much-less-charismatic Keith Famie, he is all but guaranteed the million. So it's a bit of a shock to see him eliminate Keith, allowing Tina Wesson to ultimately win. Not that he had a problem with it.

3. Africa

• The Samburu tribe was split between the older and the younger members of the tribe in a 4-4 split. The editors painted the youths to be spoiled, cocky, and lazy, while the elders were portrayed as hardworking and loyal. Bear in mind that the Tribe switch had not been introduced yet, and the Samburu tribe was in a key position to steamroll the other team, therefore it looked like whichever side emerged victorious would win. In episode 3, Samburu finally goes to tribal council, and as expected there is a tie between youth Lindsay, and elder Carl Bilancione. To the surprise and horror of the viewers, Carl was the one sent home, which would have likely lead to Silas or Lindsay winning if not for the next entry...
• Silas Gaither was in a prime position to make it to the end, having the majority alliance in the stronger tribe. Unfortunately for him, he was swapped into the opposing tribe with two of his rivals by the previously-unseen tribal swap, and promptly voted off.

4. Marquesas

• Hunter Ellis seemed like an obvious person for his tribe to keep around, being the leader and extremely athletic. Unfortunately for him, Boston Rob organized his elimination because he wanted to control the tribe.
• Gabriel Cade, was in a 5-3 majority alliance, well-liked, and wasn't even attempting serious strategy. Tragically, his alliance (read: John Carroll) decided he needed to go when he expressed disinterest in talking about the vote.
• Boston Rob Mariano, due to a huge amount of people thinking he was the season's best shot at overthrowing the Rotu 4, and the sheer amount of focus the cameras gave him. He did, however, sow discontent for...
• John Carroll, leader of the majority Rotu 4 alliance and the man in charge of the early merge. For the first three seasons, the show followed a somewhat predictable pattern of the majority alliance on the largest tribe Pagonging the smaller tribe with their own tribe, then getting rid of the people not in the majority alliance. Once Rob was gone, everything pointed to the same thing happening here, to the point where Paschal English (not a part of the majority alliance nor the smaller tribe) literally told John to his face that he would vote with him, being complacent with 5th or 6th. Thanks to some absurd cockiness on the Rotu 4's part, the infamous "Coconut Chop" challenge let everyone realize who the majority alliance was and where their targets stood. All of a sudden, the 5 people not in the Rotu 4 alliance (including Paschal) decided to band together and take them out, and started with ringleader John. This marks the first official power shift in the game.
  • Making this even more shocking was the previous season, where Manipulative Editing tricked people into thinking Lex van den Berghe would be going home for several episodes. As a result, no one thought an actual power shift would happen this time, especially with "Boston" Rob Mariano out of the game.
• Paschal English became the first victim of the infamous rock-drawing tiebreaker on Day 37, despite never having received any votes throughout the entire game. At a deadlocked final four, it is suddenly revealed that as the new tiebreaker, Paschal, Neleh and Kathy would draw rocks and whoever received the purple one would be sent home (Vecepia had won individual immunity). Paschal drew the purple rock and was thus eliminated. Despite the accusations of unfairness, it should be noted that Paschal knew exactly the risk of tying the vote, as all the contestants were informed of this course of action in their pre-game briefing.
• Immediately after Paschal's elimination, Kathy Vavrick-O'Brien was flying high in the Final 3, she had an underdog story to sell and had a Final 2 with Vecepia (who wasn't popular with the jury). If they voted off Neleh, she would 100% win Survivor. In the final immunity challenge in 4 hours later, Kathy dropped off after Neleh pointed out her nip slip. Not even a minute later, Vecepia had a deal with Neleh to bring her to the final 2 in front of Kathy's face, which Neleh accepts with little convincing.

9. Vanuatu

• Lisa Keiffer was cut over Rory Freeman despite Rory being the only man on a tribe run by Ami Cusack. In fact, it was Ami herself that caused Lisa's elimination, because Lisa started to act like The Starscream.
• Alone against an alliance of women, Chris Daugherty and his wife fought for Chris's immunity during the loved ones challenge. When they failed, Leann Slaby and Ami Cusack were unable to take Chris out, feeling it would make his wife feel responsible, so they targeted Eliza instead. Scout, Twila, and Chris himself immediately exploited this, and got Eliza to turn around and blindside Leann, completely flipping the power structure of the game.

12. Panama

• Bruce Kanegai made it to the final 7, and seemed to be in no danger because he was in the majority and was one of the least drama-prone contestants. Sadly, he suddenly comes down with severe constipation and winds up medically evacuated.

13. Cook Islands

• Jenny Guzon-Bae is this twofold. For one, Rarotonga was caught off guard with a double elimination thanks to a bottle they received after losing the immunity challenge (originally they thought it would be a sign the merge would begin). Secondly, it's more shocking that Jenny, who was loyal to Raro, was sent to the jury over Jonathan Penner; somebody who mutinied on Aitutaki days ago, and proved to be less trustworthy.

14. Fiji

• Edgardo Rivera's elimination at the final nine marked a massive shift in Survivor strategy, as the first time the majority alliance actively worked around a hidden immunity idol.
• At the final six, Stacy Kimball became the first person to ever be directly eliminated by a hidden immunity idol being played.
• Yau-Man makes a deal with Dreamz, that at the final four, if Dreamz wins immunity, he will give it to Yau-Man in exchange for a truck. Dreamz however went back on his word, as he would have been voted out without immunity, leading to Yau being voted out instead.

15. China

• At the final seven, with two idols by his side and only three tribal councils left to play them in, James Clement didn't play either of them and was blindsided by a 5-1-1 vote.

16. Micronesia

• Athletic Nice Guy Ozzy Lusth was blindsided 5-4 at the final nine instead of Jerk Jock Jason Siska, with Ozzy not even bringing the idol he had found many episodes prior. Keep in mind the whole episode had been playing up the Black Widow Brigade getting Jason Siska to lower his guard with fake friendships. Even the other contestants and the first juror Eliza Orlins were shocked.
• The following round Jason Siska was blindsided himself, willingly losing immunity and still not considering playing the idol he found that day.
• At the final five, Erik Reichenbach managed the unusual accomplishment of being voted out despite winning immunity, because he gave it up to Natalie and immediately ended up on the receiving end of a blindside. The actual elimination was only shocking to Erik himself, as the viewers knew ahead of time that Erik would be voted out the instant he gave it up.

17. Gabon

• Perhaps one of the most stunning examples of this in the series, Marcus Lehman was seen by most people as the most obvious winner ever. Not only was he the Only Sane Man amidst a crowd of wacky characters and villains, but his positioning was nearly perfect within his alliance. So safe is he, that he convinces everyone at the final 10 to throw a hidden immunity idol into the ocean. Suddenly when it's revealed that the final 10 is a tribe swap rather than a merge, he becomes vulnerable for the first time, misplays his hand, and is narrowly taken out by one of his alliance members flipping.
• Once Marcus was eliminated, it seemed clear to the audience that either Ken Hoang or Matty Whitmore would be winning the season, making their back to back eliminations in the finale a complete shocker, especially given who was left to claim the title.

19. Samoa

• Russell Swan's evacuation on Day 15, which came out of freaking nowhere and canceled what would have been a double tribal council. To say nothing of just how life-threatening it was...

20. Heroes vs. Villains

• Stephenie LaGrossa was voted out on Day 8, possibly because of a lingering shoulder injury that wrecked her ability to work in challenges. The Villains tribe was certainly shocked to see her go out so early.
• Candice Woodcock, despite being in a 6-2 alliance. Somehow she was voted out when a paranoid Russell insisted upon splitting the vote, assuming a rock in Rupert's pocket was an idol and thinking the votes would come out 3-3-2 respectively on Rupert, Colby, and whomever the remaining Heroes targeted. At Jerri's suggestion, the girls in the alliance agreed to split the votes between Rupert and Candice instead as they would prefer her to be the secondary target. Colby and Rupert, burned by Candice and sensing a split vote coming, take advantage of this and stack their votes on her, sending Candice out in a 5-3 vote.
• Danielle DiLorenzo was part of the same alliance and was part of Russell Hantz's final 3 ride-or-dies, but was booted when Russell got paranoid again, and got everyone go with his whims.

22. Redemption Island

• Matt Elrod had the unusual distinction of receiving two of these in the same season. First, on Day 5, he was blindsided because of bonding with Andrea Boehlke. Then, after winning his way back into the game on Redemption Island, he was voted out at the merge by Boston Rob's alliance to avoid a potential idol play by the Zapateras.

23. South Pacific

• Brandon Hantz won immunity, but thinking himself safe, surrenders his necklace to keep Albert Destrade safe and promptly gets betrayed by Coach Wade.

26. Caramoan

• Brandon Hantz again. Right before an immunity challenge was supposed to take place, he just blows up out in the open, reveals his misdeeds, verbally attacks Phillip, has to be restrained by Jeff, and a live vote is taken right then and there.
• Phillip Sheppard himself was a literal last-minute elimination due to every member of the minority suddenly gaining immunity in some way, triggering an impromtu tribal council.

27. Blood Vs. Water

• Colton Cumbie suddenly quitting on day 7 just before a redemption island duel.
• Katie Collins becoming the first person to be rocked out since Paschal's legendary dismissal of such in Marquesas. She also did not appear to be in too much danger by that point.

28. Cagayan

• J'Tia Taylor screwed up the immunity challenge and is on the outs with her tribe for it. She even gets so upset she dumps out the rice just to spite them. Both the edit and J'Tia herself are practically telling the audience about how she's going next. Who actually leaves is hyper-competent but hyper-controlling Garrett Adelstein, since they knew J'Tia would be less of a threat in the long run. Even J'Tia joined in on the blindside; she ruined their food right after Garrett bluntly told her she was going home and was plenty happy to kick him out.
• Come merge, usually-sane Sarah Lacina slowly loses her mind and openly declares being a swing vote, causing a disenfranchised Kass McQuillen to potentially throw away a power position in order to vote Sarah out with the other tribe.
• Kass McQuillen herself, who was unpopular for her Smug Snake attitude and seen as the biggest jury goat in the season, was inexplicably voted out by Woo at the final three.

29. San Juan del Sur

• To the viewers, it seemed that one of Josh Canfield and Jeremy Collins would win the game, depending on which one came out on top of the other. Josh went first, fair enough, but then right after seizing the majority, the next boot is Jeremy after he slips up and gets the swing votes to turn against him.
• After running the game for most of the postmerge with his girlfriend, Jon Misch was sniped out of the game with an idol in his pocket by future winner Natalie Anderson.
• The round after Jon's elimination, Baylor Wilson was unexpectedly idoled out when Natalie gave her idol to Jaclyn.

30. Worlds Apart

• Vince Sly was the second person voted out of the season despite his athleticism, as Will manipulated a split vote to his advantage.

31. Cambodia

• Andrew Savage was idoled out when Kelley negated nine votes against herself at the final twelve, cracking the majority alliance.
• The final six Tribal Council resulted in the first ever 0-0 null vote after Kimmi Kappenberg flipped to Keith and Kelley's alliance, and Kelley and Jeremy both played idols. At the restart, Kimmi and Tasha tied 2-2, and Kimmi was voted out by consensus (sparing Keith, who would have been eliminated by default had no consensus occurred).

32. Kaôh Rōng

• All three medical evacuations, which together set a record for most in a season. Caleb Reynolds's especially due to how life-threatening it was, making it arguably the most critical medical evacuation since Russell Swan's infamous one in Samoa.
• Scot Pollard seemed pretty safe. He had the rare Super Idol, which could be played after the votes were read, and his antagonistic behavior made him an ideal goat. He was expected to be dragged to the end... only for one of his own alliance members to turn on him on Day 27, resulting in not only his elimination, with the Super Idol's removal too.
• Cydney Gillon was a dominant strategic force who controlled the game right until the finale.E veryone assumed she would be safe since she seemingly had a spot in everyone's final three; but because Aubry anticipated that Cydney would turn on her after Michele won immunity, she quickly flipped Tai which ended up causing a tied vote and firemaking tiebreaker. Cydney lost and became the final member of the jury.

33. Millennials vs. Gen X

• Michaela Bradshaw received a huge edit with her receiving a lot of confessionals, and she got eliminated right before the merge.
• Michelle Schubert, who left right after Michaela due to the disproportionate edit leading people into thinking that Taylor or Adam was going home that day.
• David Wright was a major character in the season and many predicted him for being the winner of the season. Come to the final four, his biggest ally Ken ended up turning on him despite him wanting to play a game with loyalty and trust. Prior to that vote, many people expected David and Adam to be put into a fire-making challenge with David being the winner of it. When that didn't happen and he got voted out, many people were surprised.

34. Game Changers

• Out of all the players to possibly be booted in the premiere, Tony Vlachos was probably the most shocking due to a) brilliant editing suggesting that Sandra would be voted out to keep the tribe strong, and b) the fact that he seemingly had put together a loyal all-threat alliance while Sandra's counter-alliance was going to split the vote between him and Aubry. But somehow, Sandra managed to turn his entire alliance onto each other - including Tony - and Tony ended up booted second while Sandra didn't even receive a single vote. It's not any less surprizing in hindsight, because he went onto win Winners At War, alongside his pre-existing Cagayan victory.
• This happened again in the fourth episode. The post-swap Mana and Nuku tribes were sent to a Joint Tribal Council. Nuku had a numbers advantage, but J.T. felt on the outs, his only friend being Malcolm, and wanted Sandra out from his own tribe. Mana was down a person and had only Hali left from the old Mana tribe, and feared her own disloyalty. However, Tai found an idol which would keep one of them safe and negate votes if played right. At Tribal Council, what kicked off the confusion and cross-talking was J.T. telling Brad of New Mana who his tribe was voting for. This frees Mana up to vote out Sandra, who insists that Mana doesn't have an idol and is a two-time winner. However, J.T. neglects to say who his only ally is on the Nuku tribe, and when Tai's idol is correctly played, it isn't Sandra who goes (she doesn't even get a vote against her!) but Malcolm Freberg.
• In the finale, Cirie Fields isn't exactly voted out, she's eliminated by default because everyone else had immunity thanks to three immunity idols -two played for self and one played for another-, the legacy advantage, and individual immunity. Not only is this surprising because she had no votes cast against her, but because this is the first time this has happened in Survivor history, and everyone paid her due respect when she left the game gracefully.

35. Heroes vs. Healers vs. Hustlers

• While the first two episodes of the season were predictable, Patrick Bolton's boot in episode three is a complete shocker due to clever editing making a red herring of Lauren, and because Patrick had an advantage in knowing one of his tribe members in real life (and got an instant ally).
• Alan Ball's elimination the next episode; as he was presented as a major character in the first four episodes and editing showed that the Healers had initially seemed to be targeting Ashley.
• Ali Elliott's elimination before the merge. She had spent the entire pre-merge portion of the game being built as a major player and got a lot of focus early on. She was shown to be socially aware and a relatively solid and pragmatic strategist. But a betrayal at Ryan's hands caused everything to unravel and left her the odd woman out. And even though it seemed J.P. was the target of the next vote, Ryan betrayed her yet again to protect himself.
• Devon Pinto was a physical player who seemed like he could handle a firemaking tiebreaker, but turned out to be incapable of even sparking a blaze.

37. David vs. Goliath

• Pat Cusack is by far the most shocking first boot of any season, being evacuated after a freak disaster following the first immunity challenge. Unlike past early evacuations, it wasn't the conditions in Fiji itself, but an accident on the boat ride back to the David camp in stormy conditions. This is a rare instance where mother nature was the only factor in a castaway's departure and not because of anything they physically did, which makes it all the more disheartening and among the most emotional season premieres.
• While many fans considered Natalie Cole to be a bad player gameplay-wise, her edit on the show made it seem she'd go far, if only as a goat; not being eliminated in the fifth episode.
• John Hennigan's boot as well from Episode 8. Many people expected this to be the episode where Christian was booted, but then: Davie pulls out an idol, saves Christian with it, and on top of that, the Davids split their votes (despite being in the minority) expecting Dan to play his idol with John being the fall guy.
• Many people thought that Christian Hubicki would make it to the finale due to his presence throughout the season. But as it turns out, he was booted from the show at the penultimate episode despite him barely being featured in that exact one.

38. Edge of Extinction

• Aubry Bracco's elimination in episode 5. Not only was she a renowned and game-savvy veteran who was known for surviving impossible odds, but she also had an idol and an extra vote advantage, setting her up in the long run. However, Victoria outplayed her by getting her to believe she was on her side, thus dropping Aubry's guard and blindsiding her with a unanimous vote.
• When CBS decided to air the Day 25-27 Tribal Councils as the double boot instead of the intended Day 23-25, fans expected it to be a quick filler episode to get rid of two minor players, or one minor and one major player at the very most. David Wright, he of the Millennials vs. Gen X final four blindside, was the first to go; reasonable enough, as he would have been voted out during the double boot episode either way. But then the Day 27 tribal council ended up taking out Kelley Wenthworth, a returning contestant with a hidden immunity idol and seemingly a majority alliance!
• Despite coming back to win it all, Chris Underwood's elimination in episode three was a truly surprising blindside. Chris was the tribe's strongest challenge competitor and had friends on both sides of the tribes's alliance lines. But, he trusted the wrong person with crucial information and wound up getting himself blindsided, undoing his comfortable position in the game.

39. Island of the Idols

• Episode 6 had the four former Lairo manage to Block-A-Vote on the four Vokai on Nu-Vokai, with everyone wanting to target a different person. Dan and Lauren, whose edits were underdeveloped and in the former's case, pretty negative, were the biggest guesses over Tommy and Jason, who both had big and complex edits. And then there was also speculation that Elaine would go home anyway due to Aaron initially targeting her. But then the final four votes are revealed... and it ends up being Jason Linden, who nobody saw going after he managed to claw his way into majority and seemed pretty safe.
• At the merge episode, Missy Byrd established herself as the Big Bad of the season and quite possibly one of the most ruthless Survivor players in history. Many who thought she would be making her way to the finale to be (hopefully) beaten by Janet or Karishma were shocked, however, when the episode after, she got voted out and her core alliance was completely demolished.

40. Winners At War

• Ethan Zohn's elimination was very surprising given his name was hardly brought up prior to his boot episode. Even on it, most people would speak of Adam Klein or Parvati Shallow being the targets.
• Sandra Diaz-Twine's elimination. Given that the editing looked like it was going to be either Tony Vlachos or Jeremy Collins going to Edge of Extinction.
• Sophie Clarke was in a very comfortable position in the game with an idol in her pocket, being heavily involved in the strategic discussion, and doing an excellent job sneaking under the radar. Many fans had her pegged as either the winner or a finalist before being thrown out in the final 9.

41

• David Voce getting the boot in Episode 2. While Tiffany Seely threw out his name, she did it out of sheer paranoia. In fact, Liana Wallace and Evvie Jagoda (a.k.a Tiffany's two biggest allies) were at first against the idea of voting Voce out, but ultimately didn't want to waste the opportunity.
• The next day we have Brad Reese. He wound up getting a lot of focus in the three episodes he was in, including finding advantages such as the all-new Beware Idol. Plus, J.D. Robinson seemed to be the one actually targeted by the tribe. So it comes as a shock when Ricard Foyé and Shan Smith decide that the apologetic J.D. could make for a more loyal follower, leaving outsider Brad to be voted out in his stead.
• J.D. Robinson. Genie Chen was Out of Focus within the first three episodes suddenly gets a ton of airtime in the fourth; suggesting a Death in the Limelight episode. Instead, Shan Smith decides to target J.D. because she wanted to keep his extra vote advantage he gave to her, despite keeping J.D. around a week before when something similar happened later.
• Naseer Muttalif was in a very comfortable position, being a well-trusted and loyal number in the majority alliance, being the tribe's provider, possessing an immunity idol and being good at challenges. Unfortunately for him, the tribe was split in half to have two separate tribals, and Naseer was left with Shan Smith and Ricard Foyé, who immediately seized on the opportunity to blindside him while he was comfortable.
• Shan Smith was a frontrunner to win from the get-go, both to studyers and casual viewers. She got the front and center edit, was a driving and dominant force in the game, had several strong alliances she was in the center of, and the edits of her fellow competitors were deemed to be extremely lacking. With Evvie Jagoda gone, a lot of viewers assumed Shan had the game on lock... only for her to be blindsided the very next episode when the tribe itself realized she was a frontrunner to win and came together to take her out.

42

• Omar Zaheer was seen as a shoo-in to take the win. He pulled off several big moves and little other competition. In addition, his close ally Lindsay had both an idol and immunity, meaning that if she simply played the idol on Omar, both would be safe. This idol was also set to expire next round, meaning there was little reason for Lindsay not to use the idol on Omar, let alone for anyone to attempt targeting someone with nigh-guaranteed safety. Improbably however, Lindsay decided not to play it, and then Maryanne decided to use her extra vote and Romeo to capitalize on a split vote, taking Omar out in a 3-2-2 vote.

43

• Right at the final four, Jesse Lopez seemed almost too obvious a winner: the politically-strongest player of the final four, carrying two idols, and having just pulled off a major blindside of a close ally. Unfortunately for him, he unexpectedly lost both the final immunity and the final 4 firemaking challenge, so the finale went on without him.

44

• Bruce Perreault suffered a head injury that bled into a concussion just twelve hours into the game, setting an evacuation record. He at least got to come back for 45.

45

• Before the first tribal council it seemed that Brandon and Emily were easily at the most risk of being eliminated from their tribe, until Hannah Rose declared that she wanted to leave the game, incentivizing her tribe to verbally vote her out.
• Similarly a vote between Sifu and Sean Edwards seemed to be heading Sifu's way until Sean decided to volunteer to leave the game as well. Astoundingly it would turn out that Sean was not even the target that night, as Dee still wound up voting for Sifu.