The challenges on Survivor have been an integral part of the show's structure and success for 41 seasons, but it may be time for some creative changes. Many of the most iconic moments in the show's history have taken place during challenges. No Survivor fan can forget Richard Hatch stepping down from the final immunity challenge in the first season, the infamous "chocolate and peanut butter" moment with Jenna Morasca and Heidi Strobel from Survivor: The Amazon, or the incredible 12-hour showdown between Ian Rosenberger and Tom Westman in Survivor: Palau. Challenges are definitely a core component of the game and can lead to thrilling television moments.
Survivor's challenge department has been headed by John Kirhoffer for all 41 seasons. Kirhoffer is responsible for overseeing the creation and production of each challenge, and he has been instrumental in the show's success. Over the years, Kirhoffer and his team have devised many incredible challenges and initiated necessary adjustments that make the competitions compelling (and safer for the contestants). For instance, the "Schmergen Brawl" challenge from Samoa and Heroes vs. Villains has been retired due to the amount of injuries players sustained while participating in it.
Now, it seems like it's time for the challenge department to make some more adjustments that will keep the show fresh and entertaining. For several seasons now, nearly all of the challenges on the show have been recycled from previous seasons, and they tend to follow a familiar pattern. In Survivor 41, Evvie Jagoda was able to solve a complex puzzle in seconds, after studying the puzzle when it was shown in past seasons. For the past several seasons, the post-merge challenges have also become overly familiar. Almost without exception, the majority of individual immunity challenges involve the contestants standing on pedestals and balancing in uncomfortable positions. There has been little variation within these challenges, so the element of surprise is lacking, among players and the Survivor viewers watching at home.
The biggest problem with the current era's challenges, however, is the lack of variety in the final immunity challenge, which is one of the most pivotal moments of every season. Four of the last seven seasons have featured a version of the same challenge, to determine who pulls out the most important immunity win of the game. Seasons 35, 38, 39, and 41 all used some variation of a challenge in which the contestants must spell a phrase by stacking letter blocks on a wobbly platform, precariously balancing the platform with a rope while retrieving the blocks, one at a time. The challenge has been used so often that it has become an expected gameplay element, which makes the final challenge feel a bit anticlimactic. Neither the Survivor players nor the fans are surprised when it's announced, or when the expected rhythms of the challenge play out.
Survivor doesn't necessarily need drastic changes in the challenge department, but it could definitely use some adjustments. When compared to international iterations of the show, the American version of Survivor is lacking in overall creativity with regard to challenges. Australian Survivor has managed to craft incredibly compelling and innovative challenges that are reliably demanding and surprising for the contestants. American Survivor could stand to shake up its familiar formula and experiment with the structure and frequency of its challenges. Such experimentation might complicate production a bit due to the complexity required to design and test challenges, but the show would be all the better for it in the long run.