We should rank the gimmicks Survivor has done, but we’d need a list. Let’s see…there’s:
Ghost Island
Exile Island
Redemption Island
Day 0 - the time they voted two off immediately
Outcast Tribe - losers coming back
Fake Merge
Medallion of Power
Hidden Immunity Idols
I don’t know what else counts as gimmicks, but I’d still put Redemption Island on the bottom…because it took so much time out of our episodes each week.
I’m finding Ghost Island to be pretty damn stupid, with one caveat: I think it adds an interesting twist when one tribe gets to pick a tribe member from the other tribe who has to go off by himself/herself for awhile. Especially when it means sitting out a Tribal Council. I’m just surprised they’ve let it go to rocks, unless they found it impossible to reach consensus. So, Ghost Island is OK, except for all the “Ghost” crap.
I forget - can the exilee pick any jar to break, or do they have to go down the line in order, which it seems to me they are doing? That would lay the blame for the slow play of games at the feet of the producers rather than blind luck.
Good question.
What was the Medallion of Power again?
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Whichever tribe has it can cash it in for an advantage at a challenge. Once they use it, it goes to the other team.
I was wondering the same thing. I’m guessing they have “go down the line”, otherwise someone would certainly have broken rank by now. I know that posters here would! 
Sounds like something from Get Smart. To be used right after engaging the Cone of Silence.
Then the thinking of the producers is “Show them a game first time out to get the viewers hooked, them save them all for after the merge when they’ll make the biggest difference in the game.”
http://ew.com/recap/survivor-ghost-island-season-36-episode-5/3/“But Probst assured me that all those mini-urns were set before the season began and everyone must smash them in a direct line from left to right, meaning they can’t change the rules on the fly.”
So it’s pointless to even make them go through it, as opposed to putting up a sign “no game for you!’ Lame.
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Not pointless, as there is a minimum amount* of crockery, pottery, and tiles Survivor must break every season. The jars have to be smashed.
Extremely “beneficiary” for Bjorn that his new mini-tribe came back to win immunity as being stuck in a small group with him and his ego seems like too much for even his close allies. What a comeback too, and an equally epic puzzle fail. Love those blindfold challenges for the classic physical humor and this one did not disappoint.
At the beginning of the challenge I opined that I couldn’t see how it was possible to guide somebody blindfolded through a jigsaw puzzle. I stand corrected.
…But enough about you, let me tell you more about myself!
No reward challenge. No Ghost Island. Nobody searched for a HII, nobody played one. Nobody had a medical emergency, nobody threw the rice in the fire. Kind of a pared-down episode.
The guy who left the bag behind just had to run back and pick it up. It must have taken eight seconds but they tried to make it seem like it was a half hour penalty.
My favorite part of the episode was when he said something to the effect, I don’t tell everyone I’m a model because people have a tendency to think models are really full of themselves. Again, not nearly a direct quote, but the gist of it’s there. This, after talking incessantly about what a great guy he really is to anyone that would listen. That provided much comic relief in my house. What a piece of work.
That’s about what I was thinking, new tribe at a new camp, there’s got to be an immunity idol somewhere around and yet, nobody went looking for one.
Might have been different it they had been the ones to go to tribal.
I lost track of how many times the callers said “watch out.” I thought that one girl (seriously I don’t know anyone’s names) might have broken her nose.
Reading through Dalton Ross’s recap, I think the biggest issue with this season is that the tribe mix-up happened too early.The point of the swaps is to break up big alliances to keep them from steamrolling the game. The problem is, they didn’t give time for the alliances and divisions to really form (other than Dom vs. Chris) , so everyone just latched onto their old tribe. I think the swap should be a few episodes later, and mix it up some more. Instead of just a random draw, maybe make them pick who is going to be leaving the tribe?
Maybe Dalton is wrong and the point of the swaps is to fuck up all the alliances that aren’t incredibly strong.