Survivor tells fans to stop trolling: consider embracing kindness & compassion
Season 46 of Survivor is going to go down as one of the messiest seasons ever. The editing choices were bonkers (three episodes centered on Bhanu?!), the gameplay was frustrating (*four* idols out in a row!!), and there was an upset win. And, to top it all off, it was clear pretty early on this season that a lot of contestants did not like one another and/or had unsettled beef. Venus and Tevin were particularly vocal while the season was airing, prompting several former players, like 45’s Katurah, to publicly ask if CBS’ gag orders no longer apply to current contestants. Things really picked up after Venus was voted out, though, when she went on the record claiming that she was treated poorly both during and after the game. Soda and Tevin were real quick to take to social media to refute her claims and throw shade right back.
Things escalated after the finale, though, with Maria controversially switching her vote from her game-long #1 ally Charlie to Kenzie, costing him the million dollar win. Charlie said during his exit press that he was still bewildered and hurt by Maria’s decision. To make matters worse, Venus decided to step into it, declaring that Maria was actively campaigning against Charlie at Ponderosa. Q and Tevin both got into it with Venus, calling her out for being a fake. Venus responded by saying she had receipts. Maria then made matters even worse by posting a picture of both her and Venus, only she cropped Venus out. Venus, of course, posted the original picture with herself in it and a similar caption that trolled Maria. All of this happened over the course of a few days, so fans went crazy on social media, coming for Maria. It got so bad that The Powers That Be had to post a rare statement on Instagram reminding fans that if they can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all.
Survivor just wrapped its 46th season but it still has the capacity to whip up viewers — too much, apparently. On Thursday, the show posted a rare behave! message to its 583,000-plus followers on Instagram, asking them to remember that these are “real people” playing the game, not paid actors.
“One of the best things about the Survivor community is the passion, engagement and excitement around the show, gameplay and those brave enough to compete. So, a reminder as we watch and discuss the entertaining competition, epic blindsides and emotional journeys these players go on, remember that who you see on screen are real people navigating this experience. Please consider embracing kindness, respect and compassion before commenting.”
While CBS wouldn’t comment on why it was necessary to release a statement, it could have been triggered, in part, by the online backlash over Maria Gonzalez, who ended up voting for Kenzie Petty instead of her close ally Charlie Davis. Petty went on to win Survivor 46.
“I was really shocked,” Davis told EW. “I mean, I said it I think in the after-show. I haven’t watched the after-show in full yet, and I think they showed it very barely on the show, but it was very stark. One of the very last things she said to me before getting voted out was, “Get to the final three. You’ve got my vote. So I don’t know what more I can do. It feels to me almost like it’s like a perfect control experiment. Obviously, I have to perform at final Tribal, that’s always on me. But in terms of thinking I had someone’s vote going in, yeah, I really did think I had Maria’s vote 1000%.”
Even Petty was surprised that Gonzalez voted for her. “I literally said, ‘There’s no way I am getting Maria, so that’s out,’” she told EW. “I was like, maybe I’ll get seven, but there’s no way I am getting Maria. When I figured out she had voted for me, I was very shocked, but I really did work hard at connecting with everyone as hard as I could, especially post merge. I’m just a people person and I wanted to build bridges with everybody. And so I did spend a lot of time getting to know Maria. Obviously not as much as Charlie, but at the end of the day, you never know what people are going to vote for or what speaks to them. So I think my strategy was just to be authentically myself and hope that that showed through to the jury.”
One source close to Survivor said it wasn’t just Gonzalez who triggered such ire (like this thread on Reddit under the header “I’m surprised about the amount of hate toward Maria.”). Apparently, there were “unfriendly” posts toward several players and certain elements of the game.
Survivor fans have always been passionate and intense, but for the most part, the “casuals” keep their toxic opinions on Facebook and the casts usually present a united front of being good friends outside of the game. CBS is generally really strict about what contestants can or cannot say for a certain period of time after their season airs. They stopped airing the Ponderosa videos after something allegedly happened during Season 41, which was a real bummer because I truly loved watching those. I think all of the public drama between this year’s cast really set a negative tone and gave fans permission to go off and “avenge” their favorite players. People truly forget that the faces we see on TV are just normal people like you and me at the end of the day. Yes, some players are without a doubt terrible human beings but 90% of them are just like us, making decisions based on a lot of things that we never get to see. At the end of the day, it’s a game, and it would do us all some good to remember that.
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