This post was written by Amanda Rabinowitz and me (Sean Falconer). Murmurs that the game of Survivor is more difficult for non-White contestants have been with the show since its early seasons. Survivor’s first Black winner, S4’s Vecepia Towrey, discussed issues of race with fellow contestant Sean Rector in a scene that was groundbreaking television in 2002 and remains resonant today. Vecepia and...
This post was written by Amanda Rabinowitz and me (Sean Falconer). We recently took a close look at the gender discrepancy in finding hidden immunity idols and its impact on women’s likelihood of winning Survivor. While the gender-gap in idol finding is stark and appears to coincide with poorer odds for female players, this is just one small piece of how gender can affect a complex social...
This post was co-authored by myself (Sean Falconer) and Amanda Rabinowitz. In Survivor’s most recent season, David vs Goliath, Angelina Keeley was the first contestant to call out on air the gender divide amongst idol finders. She stated that only 15% of idols are found by women. As many predicted, Angelina’s comment foreshadowed her own eventual idol find later in the game, making her only the...
With all the great pre-season Survivor coverage happening on RHAP, I was inspired to do my own pre-season project. We have all witnessed the awesome power of “Nicoletradamus” when it comes to winner picks, but what about predicting the “dateability” (i.e. whether a contestant makes the merge) of Survivor contestants? To address this age old question, I went back through...
During a recent voicemail segment on Rob Has a Podcast (RHAP), Rob Cesternino and Angie Caunce, discussed former-NBA player Scot Pollard’s performance so far in Survivor Kaoh Rong. Specifically, they asked the question: Is Scot Pollard the best big man to ever play survivor? There’s been a number of rather tall men that have played Survivor: Mitchell Olson, Australian Outback...
