Survivor Panama: The Twist that Survives the Hype  1/31/06

We hear about one every season, to the point we have become skeptical if not downright cynical - this season's "game changing twist." They've all been interesting, but almost none have truly lived up to all the hype. Until now….

Welcome to Survivor: Panama - Exile Island. Tune in on time, because in the first minute, the new contestants will learn about a truly game changing twist that will tank the Survivor strategies they've been carefully honing over the past five years as hopeful viewers.

Not only will one player be voted off every week, another will be sent to live on their own on Exile Island for an unspecified amount of time. Exiles will find no food, shelter or fire on the island, unless they manage to find or provide it for themselves. What determines who is sent to Exile Island? Speaking in a recent telephone press conference, host Jeff Probst would only say "the game is theirs," referring to the survivor contestants.

No food, no water, no shelter, and no way of knowing what's going on back at camp. Sounds pretty dismal, but wait….there's another part to this twist! Hidden on Exile Island is an Immunity Idol that the lucky finder can use to save themselves from being voted out of the game at Tribal Council. Like last season, yes, but wait….there's another part of the twist, and it's the game changing aspect.

The person in possession of the Immunity Idol can use it after the vote. Just think about what that means in terms of strategy. As Probst put it "That changed the game dramatically. Because you can't sucker me now. If I have the idol and you try to sucker me, I'm safe, and whoever has the next number of votes is going home. So you better be careful about how you vote. … And if I'm smart, and I've been on Exile Island, I'm going to lead you to believe I've found it."

It gets the head spinning. But at least you know that if someone hasn't yet been to Exile Island, they don't have the Idol, and they're a safe vote, right? Wrong! The Idol can be traded. Probst remarked that "at one point, somebody said to me at Tribal, 'you know, we think this has changed the game too much.' I cracked up. That's definitely a sign it's working."

That changed the game dramatically. Because, you can't sucker me now. If I have the idol and you try to sucker me, I'm safe and whoever has the next number of votes is going home. So you better be careful about how you vote. You better think twice. And if I'm smart, and I've been on Exile Island, I'm going to lead you to believe I've found it. But the twist that I think really threw everybody was being able to play the immunity idol after the vote. Because everybody's figured out strategies of how to ensure that this four can go this far, as long as we don't vote for each other. But now, what if I have the idol and I don't tell you? And what if you vote for me, all of you guys vote for me and I cast my single vote for you? And I have the idol and you're the one that has to go home? That will screw your game up. And everybody knows that. They know that anytime somebody has been to Exile Island, that means the idol could have been found, it means it could have been traded with somebody. You don't know. Maybe I'm telling you I have it and I don't. Maybe I'm not telling you I have it and I do. At one point somebody said to me at Tribal, "you know, we think this has just changed the game too much." I cracked up. That's definitely a sign that it's working.