While romantic drama holds a special place in our hearts, and keeps us returning to Married at First Sight and The Bachelor, there’s nothing quite like Australian Survivor when it comes to a show that’ll keep you on your toes.
What makes Survivor so brilliant is that you truly never know what might happen: any night is a chance for your favourite to be voted off, sent home with an extinguished flame and a look of confusion.
However, there’s also ample opportunity for someone to orchestrate an amazing blindside, turning alliances and, ultimately, the game of Survivor, with clever social play.
While we wait for the true contenders of the current season, Survivor: Blood Vs Water, to establish themselves in next week’s premiere, here’s a look back at some of the best blindsides in Australian Survivor history.
Mat Rogers
It’s always hard watching a blindsided player walk out with an immunity idol in their pocket, which is exactly what happened to poor Mat Rogers. The ‘snake’ of the season, Benji, had organised a blindside to take Mat down, but Sharn, Mat’s friend and ally, jumped up to play her immunity idol for him. However, Benji was having none of it, and started talking during tribal – which is usually not allowed.
“Play it for you, don’t play it for Mat,” he told her. “Don’t gamble your life Sharn, you’re getting played.”
She wasn’t.
Mat was sent packing, having not played his immunity idol in all the commotion. However, he would later return for another shot in season five’s All Stars round.
Brooke Jowett
Showing that friendship doesn’t mean all that much in the game of Survivor, Brooke Jowett was spectacularly blindsided by her longest-standing friend in the season, Flick.
Brooke seemed to put her faith in the wrong people, with word getting back to El that she had a desire to vote out both El and Lee. Hurt by this, El was easily turned and influenced to vote Brooke out.
With Flick’s alliances up in the air, she eventually decided to vote out Brooke, considering her to be less genuine and more of a threat. A shocked Brooke had her flame extinguished.
However, her strong game would also see her return for All Stars a couple years later.
Craig I’Anson
Phoebe was not seen by her tribe to be any kind of contender, and it seemed as though she was going home when she pulled off an epic blindside.
While her conversations with Conner didn’t pay off in him joining her alliance, he did promise to let her know if his alliance had selected her to be voted off. Coming through on his promise, Phoebe walked into Tribal with her eyes wide open.
“The tribe decided who was going home tonight. I didn’t really get to weigh in on that decision,” she told host Jonathan LaPaglia after the votes had been cast.
“So, I’m just going to weigh in on it now,” she finished, playing a hidden immunity idol for herself.
The four votes for Phoebe were discounted, and it was Craig who was sent home.
Henry Nicholson
He tried to warn you!
When it came to Henry’s fateful exit in Season 4, JLP was asking if anyone had a hidden immunity idol they’d like to play.
“Play it. Play it,” Locky whispered to Henry.
Alas, he did not play it, confident that he wouldn’t be the victim of a blindside. And isn’t that always the way it goes? Henry was sent home minutes later.
However, we would see Henry again on All Stars.
David Genat
All’s well that ends well, and we know that David would return to smash it on All Stars the following year but watching him get voted out on Season 6 still hurts.
After deciding the Champions should just continue picking off the contenders one by one, David encouraged his allies to vote Daisy out. However, Janine, Pia, and Abbey found David’s overconfidence was proving to be a bit of a threat, and it was time to pull off a blindside.
Together, they orchestrated for everyone bar David and Luke to vote for David, going so far as to tell Daisy to act sad, so that the castaways would believe she thought she was headed home.
Although he had an idol in his pocket, David had no reason to suspect anything was up, which made it all the more devastating to see him become the victim of the ultimate blindside, getting his flame put out.
However, this would not be the last of David, and he had some revenge to exact on Daisy the following year.
Daisy Richardson
David was back and ready for revenge! Forming a secret alliance with Mat Rogers, the pair decided that David would say who was to be voted out, and Mat would then play the idol on them, with Mat then voting someone out of David’s alliance – and no surprises, he picked Daisy.
While David’s tribe caught onto a hidden idol in Mat’s possession, they decided to vote out Jacqui, not knowing that David would go straight to Mat and tell him who his alliance had chosen.
Also while orchestrating, the pair also managed to flush out an immunity idol held by Brooke by convincing her to play it for David – even though neither faction had plans to vote for him. Daisy was very shocked to see herself get voted out, but given David’s strong social game – he probably could have orchestrated anything he wanted.
Simon Mee
Simon’s blind side made for such classic Survivor that it has to go down on the list as well.
After a tribe swap that saw the Brain Vs Brawn castaways mixed up for the first time, it was Simon’s plan to stay ‘Brawn strong’ until merge, leading him to keep fellow Brawn players Dani and Chelsea close to his side.
However, Dani had come to play a big game, and when Simon revealed he was hiding two immunity idols, she figured it was time to take out the alpha and his bag of tricks, too.
She took her plan to reigning Survivor queen, Hayley Leake – who had control of the remaining Brain squad – and asked her to join ranks in pulling off a move she was literally calling the ‘Sandra Bullock’, after the film The Blind Side.
The whole tribe had Simon convinced that a sad-looking Flick was headed home, until the final vote was read out, and a bemused, laughing Simon was sent home with his two immunity idols in his pocket.
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