Worst Strategic Move
Season |
Winner |
Notes |
Gervase Peterson Colleen Haskell Jenna Lewis Greg Buis Gretchen Cordy |
The Original Pagong Tribe didn't stick together after the Merge like the Tagi 4 did, which allowed the Tagi 4 to go on a rampage and pick off Gretchen, Greg, Jenna, Gervase and Colleen, in that order, before targeting anyone in their own Tribe. |
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Jeff Varner |
Even though Jeff knew that he would be a target at the first Tribal Council, he decided to take the temptations at the first Immunity Challenge. This would result in him getting voted out. |
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Lindsey Richter Silas Gaither Brandon Quinton Kim Powers |
For the first part of the game, Lindsey, Silas, Brandon and Kim P. ostracized the older players, Frank and Teresa. Because of this, when Silas, Frank and Teresa went to Boran as part of the Tribal Switch, they flipped on him and voted him out. Partly because of this, Samburu went into the Merge without the numbers. |
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John Carroll Tammy Leitner Robert DeCanio Zoe Zanidakis |
During a Reward Challenge that was designed to set a clear pecking order to the ones on the outs, John, Tammy, Robert and Zoe fell right into it and revealed that the four of them are together for good, causing Kathy, Paschal and Neleh to realize that they will be out 5, 6 and 7, so they flipped and went with Sean and Vecepia, getting them all at least to the Final Five. |
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Shii-Ann Huang |
When the Tribes seemingly Merged, Shii Ann immediately flipped to the other alliance, as she felt mistreated. However, her openness about her flipping lead to her demise when Probst revealed that it wasn't a Merge, but the Tribes were just living on the same beach. This caused Shii Ann to get voted out next, as she was just a liability. |
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No doubt one of the worst moves of all time was when Alex, Heidi and Jenna told Rob that they were voting him out in the Final Four, which prompted Rob to turn on his alliance and make it to the Final Three. |
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The infamous Outsiders twist is an admitted mistake, even by Jeff Probst. When Lillian and Burton were voted back into the game, it was unclear what the dynamic would be. Rupert explained to Burton why they voted him out and they came to an understanding, so Burton stuck with them after the Merge. The original Morgan Tribe, however, kept Lilian ostracized, so she turned on them after the Merge and caused the alliance to be decimated. |
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When the Tribal Switch occurred, the Tribes remained almost the exactly the same. However, one key difference was that Amber was by herself on a Tribe with Lex, Kathy, Shii Ann and Jerri from the (formerly) opposing Tribe. However, after winning an Immunity Challenge, Boston Rob whispered to Lex that if he could take care of Amber, then Rob would take care of him after the Merge. Lex, Kathy and Shii Ann did save Amber and sacrificed Jerri in her stead. They believed that it would be them, as well as Rob and Amber in the Finals. However, Rob immediately turned on Lex and Kathy and voted them off as the first two targets after the Merge. |
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Leann, Ami and Julie made one critical mistake during their season. They trusted Twila and Scout. When it came time to vote Chris out, they decided to switch up the plan and take out Eliza instead. However, Twila and Scout recruited Chris and Eliza and used them to take out Leann instead. |
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Ian had broken promises to both Tom and Katie and was not well liked by either by the time the Final Three came around. During the Final Immunity Challenge, Ian wanted to make amends with his friends, as he valued friendship more than the million. He told Tom that he would step down if Tom agreed to take Katie to the Final Two, which he did. All in all, a dumb move, dude. Should have gotten the million. |
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In the Final Four, Rafe won Immunity, opening the door to finally vote out Danni. If they would have done so, one of them would have easily beaten Lydia in the Final Immunity Challenge. However, they decided to vote out Lydia. Danni would then win the Final Immunity Challenge, voted out Rafe and then beat Stephenie at the Final Tribal Council. |
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This is a unique "Worst Strategic Move" award, as it is being awarded for simply forming an alliance. Directly after the Tribal Switch, an alliance was formed between Aras, Shane, Courtney and Danielle. However, this was an incredibly dysfunctional alliance, as none of them liked each other much. They were supposed to be Final Four, but Cirie slithered her way into their alliance, which pushed Courtney and Shane down in the pecking order. |
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One of the worst moves in memory was when Probst gave the castaways the opportunity to Mutiny to the other Tribe. Even though Candice and Jonathan were in a powerful alliance with Yul and some others on their original Tribe, each decided to switch to the other. And, even though they went to the Merge with numbers, Yul's superior strategy got him the numbers quickly and because he couldn't trust Jonathan or Candice, they were quickly out of the game. If they had stuck to their original Tribe, they might have made it a lot farther. |
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Mookie Lee |
When Mookie told Dreamz that he had the Hidden Immunity Idol, it caused his alliances downfall. Because of this, Dreamz told Earl's alliance, and caused Edgardo, Mookie and Alex to be the next few voted out. |
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Peih-Gee Law Jamie Dugan |
After the Tribal Switch, Peih-Gee and Jamie decided to throw the challenges to vote Aaron and James off. After throwing the first challenge, James reacted badly and told them straight out that he is never going to be with them. Despite this, they kept him and voted out Aaron. Aaron would probably have been more likely to be loyal to Peih-Gee, while James immediately went back to his old alliance. |
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When the Black Widow Brigade went on a tear, with Ozzy and Jason being voted out and James being evacuated, Erik was the only man left in the game. Erik went on an Immunity streak and forced the BWB to vote out Alexis. However, after one Immunity win, Natalie convinced Erik to give her Immunity, with a promise that he can be guaranteed to the end, whether he wins Immunity or not. Erik fell for it and got voted out. If he hadn't done that, he had a good shot of sweeping the rest of the Immunities and making it to the Final Two, which probably would have ended with him winning, due to all of the "bodies" the BWB left in their path. |
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When it came down to the Final Four Susie won Immunity, the first time Bob didn't have it in a while. Matty and Susie voted for Bob, as most of the Jury was made up of his old alliance, who had no ill feelings toward him. However, Sugar voted with Bob against Matty, causing a tie, which Bob eventually won. The smart move would have been to get rid of Bob and take Matty, as he wasn't as liked, because he had burned many of the same people that Sugar had. |
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Brendan Synnott Sierra Reed |
After the Merge, the Exile Alliance between Brendan, Sierra, Taj and Stephen was supposed to take over. However, they didn't communicate with Taj and Stephen at all, which caused J.T., Stephen and Taj to go with Coach, Tyson and Debbie to vote Brendan out. |
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For simply under-estimating Russell and his strategic prowess. If they were smart, they would have taken out Russell and his alliance from the start in-stead of giving him a free pass to vote out Erik. |
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As the numbers on the Villains Tribe began to dwindle and Tyson, Boston Rob and Coach were all voted out, the Heroes began to think that there was a women's alliance. Because of this, J.T. slipped Russell his Hidden Immunity Idol at an Immunity Challenge with a note telling him to use it to get Parvati out. Once the Tribes Merged, Russell said that he used the Idol but the "women's alliance" had thrown votes on Courtney just in case, so she was eliminated. However, when it came time to vote, the Heroes that Russell was on their side to vote out Jerri. However, Russell used J.T.'s Hidden Immunity Idol to save Jerri and blindside J.T. |
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Marty Pimobo |
Marty gave his Hidden Immunity Idol to Sash in order to try and secure his spot in the game, but was voted out at the next Tribal Council. If he would have kept it and played it to get rid of one of the majority alliance, he could have worked something out to make it farther in the game. |
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After the Merge, Matt returned to the game. The Zapatera alliance tried to get Matt and Andrea to flip, since they were blindsided by Rob and his alliance when Matt was voted out. However, Matt decided not to flip and told Rob that he was considering it, which caused Rob to blindside Matt once again. |
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When it came down to the last Tribal Council before the Merge, Ozzy had the idea to have his Tribe vote him out so that he can beat Christina and come back into the game, acting as if he had been blindsided. However, it had been plainly obvious that Christina wanted nothing more than to go against her former Trbemates when she got back into the game. Because of this, they'd have been better set by sending Cochran to Redemption Island and getting a new alliance member when Christina came back into the game. |
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When it came to a loved ones challenge that Kat won, she chose to bring Kim and Alicia on the Reward with her. However, it was widely known throughout the Tribe that whoever won should have taken Tarzan and Christina, as their loved ones had extenuating circumstances. Because of this, Sabrina and Chelsea targeted and successfully voted out Kat, thinking that she is selfish and doesn't deserve to continue. |
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When it got down to the Final Eight, Lisa and Michael were trying to choose who to align with between Jonathan and Carter, or Malcolm and Denise. Lisa trusted Jonathan more, so she tried to form the alliance with him, but he said it was too early to mess things up. This caused them to go with Malcolm and Denise instead. Because of this, Jonathan and Carter went out Seventh and Sixth, instead of being in the Final Four like Malcolm, Denise, Lisa and Michael. |
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Malcolm made the mistake of trusting Dawn, after Dawn had already caused Corinne to be voted out. Malcolm told Dawn his plan to get Phillip out, which was a mistake. Stealth R Us didn't realize that Malcolm had turned until this point and he became a big target. |
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Monica's overbearing paranoia could have been a detriment to her as even her closest allies thought about voting her out because of it. |
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The soonest bad strategic move to win the Award. Way before the Merge, in only the first episode, Kass and Tasha voted with J'Tia to vote Garrett out, instead of J'Tia, who was abysmal physically and even poured the Tribes food out. |
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After Jeremy was blindsided, Reed came up with a brilliant plan to take out Jon. He made it seem like he and Alec were voting with Jon's alliance to split the votes between Keith and Wes and flush Keith's Idol, which seemed like it was working. However, when Keith told his alliance "stick to the plan" at Tribal Council, in front of everyone, it caused Jon to get nervous and play his Hidden Immunity Idol, causing Keith's son Wes to be voted out. |
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At the Survivor Auction, Mike, Dan and Carolyn were waiting on an advantage. However, when Probst brought out letters from home, the three made a deal to spend the same amount of money on the letters so that they can still duke it out for the advantage. Right after Dan and Carolyn paid, Mike walked away, causing outrage from his Tribe, which eventually caused Mike to pay anyway. Since he didn't win the advantage and Dan did, which means that all Mike did was prove himself as untrustworthy and didn't get anything in return. |
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In the Final Six, Keith and Kelley were on the bottom but Kimmi knew that she couldn't beat Jeremy in the Final Three, so she decided to blindside him and get him out with Kelley, who had an Idol to protect herself from Jeremy, Spencer and Tasha's votes. However, Kimmi, Kelly and Keith were not discreet about their strategizing, which caused Jeremy to play his Idol, and eventually caused Kimmi to be sent home. |
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Tai's constant flipping should definitely be seen as a bad strategic move, as it didn't endear him to the Jury and he got no Jury Votes. |
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Will Wahl |
After he orchestrated the blindside of Zeke, Will was trying to keep the ball rolling and honestly getting a big head. He tried to blindside another strategic powerhouse, David, but wound up getting blindsided himself. |
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Sierra was the holder of the Legacy Advantage for a long time and nobody knew. However, shortly after the loved ones visit, Sierra put her trust in Sarah and told her that if she was voted out, she could will the advantage to Sarah. Because of this knowledge, Sarah got Sierra voted out while acting like she had no idea and Sierra willed the advantage to Sarah. |
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There was an alliance of four with Ben, Lauren, Devon and Ashley that had the numbers over Mike, Chrissy and Ryan. However, when Ben overheard his alliance talking about possibly blindsiding him, he began targeting Lauren. This started the scrambling, with Lauren trying to get Mike, Ryan and Chrissy on their side to get out Ben. Lauren had a Hidden Immunity Idol and gave one of the two parts to Mike, to gain his trust, who in turn threw it into the fire at Tribal, so that it could never be played, and Ben played his Idol to get Lauren out with a single vote. Lauren should have kept her Idol and played it instead of leaving it to chance. |
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Laurel and Donathan were aligned with the two biggest powerhouses in the game, Wendell and Domenick, from the Merge. However, once the numbers began narrowing down, Donathan and Laurel had many opportunities to blindside one of the two but never did. By the time Donathan decided to flip, it was too late because they no longer had the numbers. And it cost both of them the win in the end. |
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Angelina Keeley |
Angelina made constant social blunders during her gameplay, even at the Final Tribal Council, which really ruined her end game. |
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When Chris came back from Edge of Extinction, Lauren promised Chris that she would play her Hidden Immunity Idol for Chris if Rick played his Idol. When Rick played his Idol, Lauren stuck to her word and played her Idol for Chris, saving him and sending Victoria home. However, this was a bad move, as Chris and Rick played their own Idols the following week and Lauren was voted out. |
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In the Final Four, Noura won Immunity and chose to take Tommy, who got 8 Jury votes to win the game, and putting Lauren and Dean to make Fire. Noura should have made Tommy and Dean make fire and maybe Dean could have upset Tommy and this might have given her a better chance to win. |
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Before this season, Sandra was regarded as the best Survivor player of all time, having been the only one to have won twice. However, as Sandra herself said, she is only human. After the Tribal Switch, Sandra, Tony and Kim were on the top over Denise and Jeremy. Denise was the target, but Sandra took pity on her, giving her the Hidden Immunity Idol that she had that was only good for that Tribal Council, in return for one Fire Token before and one Fire Token after Tribal Council. However, Denise flipped the script by playing Sandra's Idol on herself and her own Idol on Jeremy to use her one vote to eliminate Sandra, which will probably go down as one of the greatest moves in Survivor history. |