Welcome to the Purple Rock Podcast’s coverage of Australian Survivor: Redemption. I suspect that in the wake of Survivor: Australia V the World, we have some newbies to full-fledged Aussie Survivor with us this season. Extra-special welcome to all of you.

The all-returnees, international, and highly truncated nature of AU V the World meant that for all that season’s positives, it was never going to be a proper showcase for what really makes AU Survivor stand out, particularly in the context of new-era US Survivor; namely, its sheer scale: 47 days, with two starting tribes of 12. This enables some truly head-spinning strategy, with tight alliances typically being forced into loose, unstable coalitions to secure a majority at tribal council. Also, the challenges are intensely physical in a way that US Survivor’s rarely are anymore, if you’re into that. Moreover, while there have been some amazing AU Survivor strategists and superfans over the years, every AU Survivor season also has its share of old-school honest-and-integrity types, a la Joe and Eva in Survivor 48. Ultimately, I prefer the more diverse mix of motives and gameplay styles in AU Survivor.

Unfortunately, the Winter Olympics has thrown a spanner into the works this season. Typically, AU Survivor starts a month-ish before US Survivor, so there’s usually only a couple weeks of overlap, during which fans of both franchises have to keep up with four episodes a week. This time, however, AU and US Survivor are both starting the week after the Olympics end (Monday the 23rd for AU Survivor, Wednesday the 25th for US Survivor), which means the entirety of both seasons will overlap. Get ready to watch Survivor like it’s your job (and RIP my sleep schedule and my podcast queue). That said, AU Survivor has a remarkably high ratio of good to bad seasons, so it’ll most likely be worth it (fair warning, though: When AU Survivor is bad, it’s dreadful). Making matters worse, this season of US Survivor is of course the landmark Season 50, which will undoubtedly take even more of the spotlight away from AU Survivor.

There’s also some extra-textual intrigue to this season. First, this is David Genat’s first season as host after the universally decried firing of Jonathan LaPaglia. However much we all hate what happened to JLP, David isn’t directly to blame, and I think it’s only fair to wait and see what he brings to the table. It would be a disaster if he hogs the spotlight with the Golden God schtick, but I think he’s smart enough not to do that. 

Second, there are four returnees this season, all of whom fit the Redemption theme in some way and all of whom I’m personally more than happy to see again. However, two of them can blame their prior elimination more-or-less directly on David, which is an absolutely wild casting decision that increases the degree of difficulty for David even further in his rookie season as host. 

Third, as much of an AU Survivor fan as I am (clearly), I have to call out the show’s lack of ethnic diversity (it’s improving, but still has a long way to go) and its bouts of misogyny (both in the edit and in too many of the men the show chooses to cast). There was a particularly ugly instance of combination misogyny/racism in the most recent full-fledged season (Brains V Brawn II) that the show (very unsuccessfully) tried to edit around. This will knock the season down a peg in the next edition of the International Survivor season ranking whenever I get around to it. Fingers crossed for improvement in this area this season.

The returnees are Official Assistant Dragon Slayer Australian Survivor Crush® Brooke Jowett (2016, All Stars), Harry Hills (Champions V Contenders II, All Stars), Mark Warnock (Titans V Rebels), and Simon Mee (Brains V Brawn, Heroes V Villains). The redemption narratives for all four are clear. Brooke, Harry, and Mark all made deep runs but fell just short, while Simon 1) went home with two idols in his pocket in his first season; 2) was humiliated over and over again in both his seasons by George Mladenov, most notably in episode 7 of Australian Survivor: Heroes V Villains, which no less that the New York Times declared was one of the 10 best episodes of TV in 2023; and 3) epically and hilariously derailed himself in his second season with what he mistakenly believed was a hidden immunity idol (if they don’t bring back the Cookie Idol this season, what are they even doing?).

It’s not clear what the redemption theme entails for the 20 newbie players. Most everybody in the world has some sort of setback in their life that I suppose could be shoe-horned into the theme. However, one player (Richard) is the CEO of a prominent Australian healthcare-related company, so it’s hard to see what the sob story is there (fun fact: according to LinkedIn, he and I worked at the same division of the same too-big-to-fail financial institution, albeit not in the same location and not at the same time). One possibility that I haven’t seen discussed elsewhere is the use of the Redemption Island gimmick. While I’m not a fan of RI, it would at least allow the show to get through its non-elimination episodes (a necessary evil in a 24-player, 24-episode game) without have to come up with some crazy, unproven, and possibly game-breaking new mechanic. 

As usual, a weekly comment post will go up on Sunday night, with separate comment threads for each episode to help prevent spoilers.

(Returning AU Survivor watchers can skip this part) You may be wondering how you can watch AU Survivor. I wish the various rights holders would get on the same page and put all the English-language versions of Survivor on one streaming site (most likely Paramount+). In an ideal world, someday Network 10 sees what simply posting episodes to YouTube for everybody in the world to watch for free did to boost the visibility of The Traitors and Taskmaster, and follows suit. However, we do not live in an ideal world (you may have noticed). We’re all adults here when it comes to VPNs and dodgy ways of acquiring content, that’s all I’ll say about that. However, you can also do the following to almost-legally watch the show (although with this method you do have to sit through Australian commercials).

1. Install a VPN on your computer if you don’t already have one
2. Set the region to Australia
3. Go to 10Play , the streaming home of Australian Survivor
4. Sign up for a free 10Play account (click on “Sign In” and then “Sign Up”)
5. Enjoy!