The Million Dollar first prize has not increased since Richard Hatch. Summer of 2000. (or was it 1999?)
First place in golf’s US Open was $800,000 in 2000. This past summer, the winner got $2.16 Million.
Survivor has to be a Rainmaker for CBS and Mark Burnett.
I believe the prize breakdown is this(USD):
From there it drops of dramatically.
Each player also gets 10,000 for coming to the reunion.
They doubled the lower prizes at least the 2nd & 3rd place a few epis ago, on a All Star epi.
I am not sure if that stayed in place.
This cite sez no, but it is kinda secret.
Still, even if it is “only” $100000, that is a lot more than $10000. Worth accepting a spot in the final three, and having a small chance for #1.
Typical survivor mentality. For the life of me I can’t figure it out. “X is a threat so let’s take out their friend Y”. It happens year after year. Drives me crazy.
Agree.
It sometimes makes sense to target a less obvious player if you’re afraid of idols, and the person is aware that he’s likely to get targeted. For example when it’s an alliance of 6 voting against an alliance of 5, it’s often a good idea to vote for someone who is not the biggest threat, because they’re less likely to have idols.
It didn’t make any sense in this case, as it was a blindside. If you’re going to backstab the “big threat” then better to make sure they’re out of the game immediately. Voting their friend out just gives them an opportunity to scramble.
Occasionally, yes, but often times not… such as in this case. Chrissy didn’t have an idol and no one suspected she did.
Also, in that same vein, if there is a romantic “power couple” it’s almost always the girl that gets voted off when it’s the guys that are usually perceived as the bigger threat.
Or when everyone sits around grumbling about how player X is in charge. Vote them off! The perception of power on that game translates into real power somehow, yet even the lowliest player’s vote counts as much as everyone else’s.
That was sure entertaining! But it was kinda like watching Survivor: Children’s Edition. So many adults, so little impulse control!
Lauren was a complete idiot and deserved to go home. Ben was almost a complete idiot, but was smart enough to keep his idol secret. Ben better win immunity or find an idol next week. If he can make it to the end, he wins. That was big, big chess move, even though he made a lot of mistakes along the way.
Surfer dude and his mom are two peas in a pod. They even laugh exactly alike.
Ben still sucks at jury management.
“Worth playing for?” Pfffft. That’s a pathetic joke, to call that “playing” or a “challenge”.
Hot damn that was a crazy Tribal Council!
I can’t believe Lauren screwed up so badly… one reason I liked her was she seemed very even-keel and had her head on straight. I dunno if she just got caught off guard by Ben blabbing about her advantages but she screwed up with her comments about the extra vote, and then did indeed make a Dumbest Survivor Move of All Time contender by giving away half her Idol to a guy who clearly is just playing to have fun at this point.
This had already started to feel like a “voting blocs” season but I think it’s moved beyond that to a truly individual game, probably the earliest in a season we’ve seen this. Everyone has burnt bridges with everyone else at this point, except perhaps Devon and Ashley, and even the two of them are clearly open to whatever helps their game individually. I can’t say I like Ben but he made a great move. No wonder the guy had Russell Hantz as one answer for “what Survivor are you most like” on his CBS bio.
BTW, how lame was that loved ones “challenge”? Pulling marbles out of a bag? I really hope there’s a story about how they had something else planned and it broke at the last second or something.
Reading elsewhere that this was the first time in Survivor history that someone has played an Idol and caused a 1-0 vote.
The complete game of chance at the reward challenge was bullshit.
I thought at least it could be a “How well do you know your father/mother/wife/etc.” thing. Give them a fresh bag with pairs of matching marbles each round – but each time they had a different pair, both from last time and from the other pairs – and have each duo pick and reveal at the same time. Can you guess your wife will pick blue over green? Do you suspect your father will pick your favorite color purple instead of his own favorite red?
At least it would could show a little bit of skill over the random draw.
Lamest reward challenge ever, for sure. But one of the best TC’s ever. Dr. Mike is suddenly my favorite.
I honestly don’t see any goats among the remaining players. Any of the six could make at least a decent case to the jury. (Ryan maybe the least so, but he’s also pissed the fewest people off.)
I think we’re going to have an entertaining and unpredictable finish!
Wow! You would think that would have happened many times.
I was kind of surprised they all decided to vote against Ben. But it might have been virtually impossible to orchestrate a split vote under those conditions.
It’s going to be an absolute free-for-all next week! 
I get that one of the conceits of the show is trick-fuck editing but even as the chaos of tribal was unfolding Chrissy steadfastly (WRT what we were shown) insisted on voting for Lauren and kept saying “no, no, no” WRT to voting for Ben so, yeah, I was surprised she voted for Ben.
I love survivor, and I’m glad this season finally got cut throat but I think the show suffers from more heavily editing than in the past.
And yeah, the reward “challenge” sucked. The family episode is always my least favorite. It’s just way over-wrought. Doesn’t anyone ever go on vacation or go off to college? Devin almost had a breakdown over seeing him mom… after 30 whole days.
Yeah, this. It’s been 30 days, not six months! Hell, especially the children and parents…I went away to school and didn’t see my parents for over a year.
Not only was the Reward Challenge lame, but Lauren’s “retrieval” of the other half of the HII was just as (if not more) lame.
All she had to do was bend over and pick up a shell.
Just listened to Rob’s (has a podcast) Exit interview with Lauren, and he didn’t ask about the lame reward challenge.
But did you talk to them on the phone? Were you in contact with anyone else you knew? Did you watch TV shows you liked, or read books you enjoyed?
I’m willing to give survivors a pass on their emotions - they’re completely cut off from everything they knew, living a primitive-ish lifestyle, surrounded by people who are pretending to be their friends & allies but perfectly willing to stick a knife in their back at any time. That’s a bit more than being on a business trip and calling home every night.
BTW, in Probst’s interview with Dalton Ross, he said they did that stupid rock challenge because they wanted a quick one to fit everything they wanted into the episode. Which strikes me as difficult to believe, since at the time they’re filming, they have no idea how much material they’ll have for the episode that will eventually be broadcast.
I hope the “challenge” is not a trend. And honestly, as long as they took to pick rocks they could have done some very quick kind of challenge.
I can sympathize with parents separated from very young children, but otherwise I do think it’s a bit much.