Even after just one episode, “Survivor 49” is well on its way to becoming a memorable and fan favorite season of the longrunning reality competition series. During Wednesday’s (Sept. 24) two-hour premiere, fans were officially introduced to this season’s brand new batch of castaways who, in the first 48 hours in the game, managed to provide an array of memorable reality TV moments including one player projectile vomiting at camp while another exposed her debilitating bird phobia.
While the premiere ended with a blindside elimination that saw castaway Nicole Mazullo became the first player voted out of “Survivor” Season 49, fans are already looking forward to next week’s episode, which promises to be even more entertaining than the first. Fans’ excitement was ramped up even further after CBS released a synopsis for Episode 2, revealing that the remaining 17 castaways will encounter a “never-before-seen” advantage next week.
CBS Teases ‘Survivor’s Latest New-Era Advantage
According to CBS, the forthcoming episode, titled “Cinema,” will see “reality and hunger begin to take their toll as the castaways grapple with their limited resources to find food on the island” while “generational differences come into sharp focus as some castaways find it challenging to keep up with the younger players’ current lingo.”
CBSIn addition to overcoming these classic “Survivor” hurdles, the castaways will also have to adapt their individual games as “a never-before-seen disadvantage appears in the game during this week’s immunity challenge.”
For the moment, the disadvantage – which will undoubtedly be an advantage to the players who aren’t saddled with it – remains a mystery. That being said, another (dis)advantage is nothing groundbreaking for the new era of “Survivor,” which has been historically – and often controversially – defined by its numerous twists and advantages.
‘Survivor’s New-Era Advantages Have Been Hit-or-Miss with Fans
The “new era,” commonly used to refer to “Survivor” seasons 41 through 49, has previously introduced a number of never-before-seen advantages and twists to keep the 25-year-old game show fresh, interesting, and, according to the show’s longtime host Jeff Probst, to “give the players permission to play [the game].”
Over the last nine seasons, gamechanging advantages like the Shot in the Dark, Knowledge is Power and the Beware advantage have become part of the game to varying degrees of success both with the show’s contestants and with its fans.
Season 41’s introduction of the Hourglass Advantage was openly criticized by fans for effectively reversing the results of an immunity challenge, leaving those who were safe one minute to find themselves on the chopping block the next. Some new-era advantages, like “Survivor 44”s Inheritance Advantage, have been deemed too powerful by fans, while others, like Season 45’s Amulet Advantage, were deemed too complicated.
While plenty of fans love the influx of advantages, “Survivor” recently gave viewers a chance to vote on whether to keep them or scrap them for the show’s upcoming milestone 50th season.
Though the results of the voting won’t be officially confirmed until “Survivor 50” airs next February, fan polling conducted by All Winners Survivor on Instagram showed that 48% of voters preferred advantages that provided players “strategic power” over more “dynamic” advantages.
Find out what the latest new-era advantage is when Episode 2 of “Survivor 49,” titled “Cinema” airs this Wednesday, October 1 at 8:00pm ET on CBS.
