Challenges on Survivor Philippines

During the course of the game, players compete as tribes or individually in contests called challenges. Challenges consist of endurance, problem solving, teamwork, dexterity, and/or willpower, and are usually designed to fit the theme of the current season. A common style of challenge is a race through a series of obstacles to collect puzzle pieces which then must be assembled after all pieces have been collected. Challenges have also included gross food challenges (including foods eaten by the local population), and knowledge quizzes about the locale or players. Many seasons also include during individual challenges: a ‘loved one’ challenge where a family member, friend or significant other of each player participates or is part of the challenge reward; the ‘Survivor Auction’ in which contestants bid against each other on luxury items and strategic advantages; a challenge in which the winning contestant receives a car; and a challenge that includes components of previous challenges from that season. Endurance challenges typically require tribe members to stay balanced on a small perch or support their own weight in a precarious position for as long as possible. The degree of difficulty may be progressively increased during the course of an endurance challenge in order to arrive at a winner faster. Some challenges have had the tribes compete at their own beaches by constructing a shelter or an SOS signal. The results are then judged by an expert and the winning tribe notified by the receipt of a package dropped from a plane or delivered by boat.

Players are notified of when and where challenges are to take place via special messages left at a location near camp, dubbed treemail (a play on the word “email“) by competitors, due to the fact that the messages were delivered to a basket hanging from a tree in Survivor: Borneo. These messages nearly always include a rhyme which gives hints to the nature of the challenge and sometimes include props that may be useful for the upcoming challenge, allowing tribes and players to attempt to form a strategy prior to the challenge. In some cases, the tribes have been given equipment to practice with or information they need to memorize prior to the challenge.

There are two types of Challenges: Reward Challenges and Immunity Challenges.

• In Reward Challenges, the contestants compete for luxuries that are not essential for survival but make their lives easier and/or more enjoyable. Examples of rewards have included food, flint, matches, rain gear, and even short trips away from camp.
• In Immunity Challenges, the contestants compete for immunity from an elimination ceremony known as Tribal Council. When the game is in its tribal stage, the tribe that wins immunity does not take part in Tribal Council. Following the merger of the two tribes, the individual who wins immunity cannot have votes cast against him or her. (see Tribal Council for more details)

There have been several combined Reward/Immunity challenges. These have come in two approaches:

• A tribe can be given both a reward and immunity for winning. This usually occurs in the first immunity challenge, as there is usually no reward challenge during the premiere episode. Usually flint or matches are given to the tribe which wins Immunity.
• In cases where there are more than two tribes, the reward may be given to the first place tribe, and immunity to all but the last place tribe.
• In later seasons, when there are two tribes left, there have been challenges which result in both tribes going to Tribal Council (one after another), but with the winning tribe getting an additional reward, such as a meal, while they watch the proceedings of the other tribe’s Tribal Council.

Prior to the merge, all challenges are between tribes, resulting in tribal rewards and immunities. After the merge, contestants compete in challenges on an individual basis. Individual rewards have often included the option to select one or more other tribe members to participate in the reward. After merging, there have been reward challenges where two or more teams are created from the remaining players, with the winning team reaping the reward benefits.

In recent seasons of the US version, a special message, held in a bottle or by host Jeff Probst, has been given to the winners or the losers of the challenge, with instructions to either read the note immediately after the challenge, or to hold the note unread until Tribal Council. These notes have provided additional instructions to the tribe that holds it, such as deciding to avoid Tribal Council but requiring the tribe to move to a less desirable beach, or to vote off a second player immediately after voting off a first player at Tribal Council.

When one tribe has more players than the other tribe, it must designate players to sit out of tribal challenges so that equal numbers compete. No person may sit out twice in a row or, if this is not possible, no person may compete twice in a row.

The challenges are usually held in a 3 day cycle - one day for the reward challenge, one day of rest, and one day for the immunity challenge and Tribal Council.