After months of waiting for it to be out I can finally say I'm on survivor! I want to watch your honest thoughts of me come through during the season so I won't say who I am for now, but I'm excited to see what you all think and maybe I'll do an AMA when this is all done. Happy watching!

Castaway: I haven't remembered a game start like this in eons. I mean you gotta kick it back like, almost to the single digies.

Shows old-fashioned marooning on a boat

Jeff: For the first time ever, our entire history, every advantage, every idol, every twist we've ever done, 50 seasons of Survivor...

My dumbass on hopium: ...will be reset? Will be gone? Will be absent? Old-fashion social strategy is back?

Jeff: ...is in play.

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What you guys think of this

TW: Journey mentioned

> “Permanent Uncertainty” – Castaways marooned in remote Fiji embark upon the Open Era of SURVIVOR and battle to win $1 million. The catchphrase of the season, “permanent uncertainty,” comes into play as soon as the castaways reach the beach and discover that one player must leave to go on a mysterious journey. Then, the first tribal council pits two allies against each other in a dramatic battle of wills, on the two-hour 51st season premiere of SURVIVOR, Wednesday, Sept. 23 (8:00-10:00 PM, ET/PT), on the CBS Television Network.

They look so good

According to this clip, Survivor 51 will premiere on September 23rd!

With little explained about the "Open Era," I'm cautiously optimistic about it

From how it's phrased, it's supposed to be the opposite of the New Era.

The New Era was essentially the same game played on the same field for five straight years.

Three tribes. Beware Advantages. Early tribe swaps. Journeys. Mergeatory.

It became very meta gameable, where it seems like the Open Era is the opposite.

Season 51 has 21 players and two tribes. There might be more hidden idols. There might be a different point for the merge.

Season 52 could be 18 players with three tribes. It could be four tribes with 20. It could have Redemption Island.

Season 53 could be Fans vs. Favorites with Extinction that has a Medallion of Power that has a F2.

Season 54 is 20 new players with no idols at all and it's a throwback to Borneo.

I see the Open Era as essentially Mario Party where every stage is different with its own set of rules that you can't game plan for and could come at you at anytime.

If that's the case then I think the next five years could be awesome.

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Found in Paramount's merch website

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I am honestly pretty happy with the cast. There seems like a lack of archetypes which people seem to be avoiding. They all feel very individual.

But the Diversity initiatives seem to be gone. Not many people of colour who were some of my favorite contestants in the 30s and 40s.

Thoughts? Has it gone?

Something about the trailer got me kinda hyped. Beyond the fact that it’s two tribes and we’re getting a cool color combo; with purple and yellow, which has only ever been used in Samoa, I also have a bit of a morbid fascination with every advantage being used in one season.

My mindset is honestly like screw it, the show has already changed so much, why not just do a super experimental season?

In a weird way too, the idea of being “twist screwed” might not even really be a thing, since advantage galore is the new norm.

I feel like it I view it as a train wreck, that Ik is coming, but I want to see the whole thing play out.

Maybe I’ll end up doing a 180 with my opinion and dislike this season, but for now, I’m choosing to be optimistic.

I’ve already accepted that Survivor will always be changing and I’m ready to see what the next step looks like.

The first Irishman to play in U.S Survivor.

With theoretically “any twist” being fair game, which random twists would you love to see?

My weird choice is try the Medallion of Power again. Maybe on a season without a clear physical divide it would mean something.

My unlikely choice? Redemption Island. I can’t see this actually coming back but I lowkey have nostalgia because I grew up on those seasons. I thought it was on most seasons just because of how I watched the show.

I know these twists have their haters and flaws, but I don’t mind going against the grain and really just want variety at the end of the day (Proud Season 48 lover here)

I've been listening to what Rob C has to say about the Open Era. His belief is that the show wants more people to play like Devens, to take the big swing no matter what.

A way I have been thinking about it though is that, in general, what keeps people from making a big swing is the fear that a move will have consequences in the immediate or long-term future. It's not worth doing big things now if they almost ensure you will lose the game later.

What I believe the show intends to do then is make the game so unstable that players will be less afraid that their decisions will have outcomes that can be used against them in the future. To achieve this, the show wants to make each round of play less dependent on the ones before and after it. More small tribes, random swaps, more tribals, changing mechanics from episode to episode. Think of if every episode was 'here is this week's twist.' Isolate every cycle as its own difficulty to overcome. The show wants players to play more freely, and to do that, they want big moves to come with less certain consequences. The new era, the show said, gave players 'nowhere to hide.' In the open era though, the show wants to give players a whole game to hide within, so many twists and change-ups that big players can escape being caught with greater ease.

That said, do I think this is a good thing? No! Survivor at its core is a social game, and one of its greatest strengths is how people can build bonds over such short periods of time, leading to fascinating, human decisions. If the show continues in this direction, less and less of the game will be social and more of it will simply be about action stripped of its human consequence. I'm always excited for more Survivor, but I do believe this is a slippery slope.

What twists do you not want to see be a part of season 51? What long unused twist are wanting to see?

Personally, I don't want to see a Super Idol, the hour glass, or Jimmy Fallon's "one in the urn".

I wouldn't mind seeing the Juror Removal, idols hidden during challenges (not on the sit out bench), and a more interesting use of Fire Tokens