LIFE

Was the 'Survivor' finale rigged for Ben Driebergen? Fans are wondering and Twitter is aghast

Two runner-ups from New Jersey lose "Survivor" after an odd "advantage" is added to the game

Bill Ervolino
NorthJersey

Really, “Survivor?”

Survivor Season 35's original Yawa tribe. Ben Driebergen of Idaho, far left, was named the season's winner.

The long-running CBS hit “Survivor” ended its 35th season on Wednesday with a clunk that left some fans wondering if the finale had been rigged.

The winner, Ben Driebergen of Boise, Idaho, accepted his check for $1 million from host Jeff Probst to wild cheers from the live audience in Los Angeles. 

Driebergen is a handsome, likable-enough guy. He’s a Marine, who has battled PTSD. And a family man. And, even though he never won an individual elimination challenge, he did find three immunity idols in the course of his 39 days in Fiji for a season devoted to “Heroes, Healers and Hustlers.” (He was one of the heroes.)

Driebergen’s idol haul was impressive. But was it impressive enough to carry him to the end? In the last few weeks of the show, Driebergen appeared to turn on his onetime allies, all of whom agreed it was time for him to go.

2 New Jersey residents made final 3 

The other two final three contestants were both from New Jersey. Chrissy Hofbeck, of Lebanon Township, played a strong social game and won four elimination challenges.

Chrissy Hofbeck from Lebanon Township was one of the 18 castaways competing on Survivor season 35.

Ryan Ulrich of North Arlington wasn’t a strong physical threat, but he brought a lot of strategy to his game-play early on and displayed strong social skills.

In the final elimination challenge, Hofbeck, Ulrich, Driebergen and California native Devon Pinto had to pile letter blocks onto three shelves — the blocks spelled out “Heroes,” Healers” and “Hustlers” — and then lock the shelves in place with a foot pedal, without knocking the blocks over. (It was tougher than it looked.)

Hofbeck won the challenge and immunity. And it seemed a foregone conclusion that she, Pinto and Ulrich were going to send Driebergen to the jury.

But, that didn’t happen because, as Probst noted, he was giving Hofbeck an extra “advantage.” In a nutshell: She could choose one player to sit beside her at the final tribal council, while the remaining two players would fight for the third spot with a fire-making challenge.

With advantages like this...

Although Hofbeck never questioned the twist on camera, it was clear to longtime fans that her “advantage” was nothing of the sort. If anything, it was a disadvantage that cost her dearly.

Driebergen easily bested Pinto in their fire-making faceoff, Pinto was sent to the jury and, when all was said and done, Driebergen walked off with the grand prize.

Twitter is aghast

Within seconds, the Twitter-verse went nuts. Among the posts:

Debate expected to continue

This is not to say that there wasn't plenty of support for Driebergen. He was an early fan favorite and had many people rooting for him until the bitter end. Still, the twist was bothersome.

On his Entertainment Weekly blog, EW.com, writer Dalton Ross called the twist “controversial” and wrote, “Survivor nation will now debate whether the new final-four-fire-making twist is a bold new stroke that adds both drama and another level of strategy and intrigue, or a cheat designed to give an extra boost to better players sure to be eliminated otherwise.”

Through the years, the show has inserted a few unexpected twists at questionable moments in the game. (Other reality show competitions have also gone to unusual lengths to retain players with high viewer appeal.)

The show's 'Rupert Problem'

In a telephone interview in 2003, I asked “Survivor” executive Mark Burnett about a twist that most likely kept another fan favorite, Rupert Boneham, in the game during the show’s seventh season set in Panama’s Pearl Islands.

Columnist Bill Ervolino

Burnett’s response was vague. “They said that in Africa,” he said, referring to the show’s third season, which took place in Kenya and was won by Ethan Zohn, a student at FDU’s Teaneck campus. “The important thing...what makes ‘Survivor” work, is the social psychology, thinking on your feet, no matter what happens.”

Boneham, an Indianapolis native and mentor for troubled teens, didn’t win that season. But his popularity was such that he was brought back three more times to compete on the show. He placed eighth in “Survivor: Pearl Islands,” fourth in the “All Stars” edition, sixth in “Heroes vs. Villains” and 20th in “Blood vs. Water.”

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The show’s 36th season, which begins airing in the spring, will recreate challenges and situations from previous seasons that, in the words of Probst, led to the some of “the worst decisions in ‘Survivor’ history.”

Wednesday'sfinale may be one of them.

This article is part of "The Daily Bill," columnist Bill Ervolino's take on the latest news that he finds interesting, fun or just plain odd.