Spoilers ahead for Survivor 46.
Survivor is one of the best reality shows of all time, and is credited with influencing countless shows that followed its 2000 debut. While some folks are still figuring out how to watch Survivor 46, the hardcore fans are dissecting the finale and watching all the post-game drama play out on social media. And Kenzie Petty's story about Hunter and leaving the ill-fated Yanu tribe for the Survivor merge is the most Season 46 story I've read yet.
Survivor 46's finale saw Kenzie named Sole Survivor, while some fans found Maria to be a villain. But there's still stories about the earlier stage of the game, which saw Yanu lose time and time again while Bhanu got a ton of screen time. While speaking with TV Line about her time in Fiji, she revealed how hard her time at Yanu was, offering:
The constant loss, like that momentum. It really weighs on your psyche. You saw it in Q, you saw it in me, I don’t know if you saw it in Tiff, but I did. The constant getting beat down by losing, it gets in your head. Then on top of that, our shelter was terrible. On top of that, we had no fire. On top of that, we weren’t eating anything because we didn’t even want to open coconuts anymore because it took too much physical exertion. There was a 20-hour period where Q and Tiff and I just laid around and no one talked to each other. It was pretty bleak over there in the beginning. It was tough and I think if we could have gotten some momentum, it would have been a little better.
Yeah, that sounds rough. It was frustrating as a viewer to watch Yanu lose challenge after challenge on Survivor 46 (which is streaming with a Paramount+ subscription), never even getting the chance to cook or boil water without their flint. But actually experiencing it must have been terrible, as Kenzie and company spent the first half of the game depleted.
This story is part of why Kenzie's win is so remarkable; for the first handful of episodes it looked like her days were numbered. Luckily the merge happened when Yanu was down to just three members, and Kenzie was quickly able to form bonds with the other castaways and position herself to make big moves. Later in that same interview, Kenzie joked about how much better the other tribes had it, including a shelter made by Hunter -- of course it was Hunter. In her words:
But I am grateful for the start on Yanu because once I got to the merge and saw their camp, I was like, 'Did production build this?' It was Hunter. But I was like, 'This is the Taj Mahal of Survivor!' My standards were so low that everything else was great. I’d been in the slums the whole time.
It looks like Kenzie was really able to enjoy Survivor once she was at the merge, and her living conditions and morale improved greatly. And in the end her social and strategic prowess got her to Final Tribal Council, where she was able to get enough jury votes to win. And through it all she gave hilarious confessionals, and helped Ben get through his night terrors.
Since the finale aired the cast of Survivor 46 has been fighting online, with Venus recently taking down her Twitter after going back and forth with Q and Maria. We'll just have to see if any of them return for another season, as Jeff Probst revealed Survivor 50 will feature returning players.
Survivor will be back for another season in the fall. For now, check the TV premiere list to plan your next binge watch.
