re: Survivor Season 39 - Return of Boston Rob and Sandra....Or Island of the idols

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ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: At the end of the Edge of Extinction finale, you all showed the promo for Island of the Idols. And you announced that you’re bringing back Boston Rob and Sandra Diaz-Twine — not as players, but as mentors. Just walk us through the origin of this idea to bring them back in a new capacity that we haven’t seen before.

MATT VAN WAGENEN: This idea has morphed a million times. Jeff may have a different recollection of it, but I do remember one time we were walking back from a challenge while shooting over a year ago. We were walking back from a challenge, and he’s like, “What if we had something with some returning players, and we had, like, a Mount Rushmore?” And we started talking. And that was just the idea of faces on a mountain, I think was how things started. He had it cooking in his mind for a while. We threw out a lot of different names, and really when you talk about people who represent Survivor, I mean, Sandra, the only two-time winner. And Rob, who is one of the greatest players of all time. It’s not just their résumés, but it’s also their personalities that we thought would work for this. I think there was a brief discussion whether they’d be involved in the gameplay, but we put the kibosh on that pretty early. You know, it’s interesting, we spitball ideas for months. And there are so many different versions of these things, and we carve it down until we actually get the idea. And that’s what was fun about this one. To go from this crazy idea from over a year ago to walking out on the beach, seeing those giant heads…

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So where did the idea for this latest twist come from? “The idea came from wondering how to get a player like Boston Rob, who has said he’d never compete again because he doesn’t feel he’d ever really have a shot to win, to return to the show,” says Probst. “So, the idea of making Rob and Sandra mentors was born. They aren’t playing, they can’t cast a vote, they can’t be voted out, and they can’t win the million dollars. The basic idea is they run a Survivor boot camp. They teach aspects of the game and then give players a chance to test what they’ve learned.”

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Someone mentioned the puzzle Rob used to get back into the game on Redemption Island, so maybe the players are giving tips and tricks on small pieces like that.

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But the Island of the Idols concept is not so simple. (Is anything simple on Survivor?) Because the two icons are not merely dispensing advice. Any new players that happen to visit the island will also be tempted with a challenge. “We give them the opportunity to test what they’ve learned by going up against Rob or Sandra,” Probst explains. “And the twist is, yes, it’s a bootcamp. But it’s a Survivor bootcamp. ‘So never forget, I’m Boston Rob and that’s Sandra, and you just fell into a trap.’ That was kind of the big idea. So the way it works is, the first person to visit Island of the Idols gets taught something about gameplay. It could be about making fire or it could be a strategy thing. And then Rob and Sandra give them a chance to test what they’ve learned.”

Should they pass the test, they will be awarded some sort of advantage in the game. But should they fail, they will lose something that could lead to their undoing. Says Probst: “For the person who is foolish enough to take the test and fail, they say, ‘Here’s your other life lesson, you should have never gone up against me. I’m the one who just showed you that. I’m an expert. And now you’re in trouble. Here’s how you recover.’ And if somebody says, “I’m no fool, I don’t want to go up against you,” [Rob and Sandra] were given the freedom, their own decision, to raise the stakes. So we gave them a cushion and said, you can go from here to here with the advantage. Whatever you want.”

Essentially, it’s a form of Survivor haggling and betting all rolled into one. “So Sandra could lean in and say, ‘What if we make an idol good for three Tribal Councils?’” says Probst. “Now you’re interested. And then the player might say yes. And they might still lose. And Rob might say ‘Why did you change your mind simply because the advantage got bigger? Your odds didn’t.’ So that’s the basic premise.”

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But the Island of the Idols concept is not so simple. (Is anything simple on Survivor?) Because the two icons are not merely dispensing advice. Any new players that happen to visit the island will also be tempted with a challenge. “We give them the opportunity to test what they’ve learned by going up against Rob or Sandra,” Probst explains. “And the twist is, yes, it’s a bootcamp. But it’s a Survivor bootcamp. ‘So never forget, I’m Boston Rob and that’s Sandra, and you just fell into a trap.’ That was kind of the big idea. So the way it works is, the first person to visit Island of the Idols gets taught something about gameplay. It could be about making fire or it could be a strategy thing. And then Rob and Sandra give them a chance to test what they’ve learned.”

Should they pass the test, they will be awarded some sort of advantage in the game. But should they fail, they will lose something that could lead to their undoing. Says Probst: “For the person who is foolish enough to take the test and fail, they say, ‘Here’s your other life lesson, you should have never gone up against me. I’m the one who just showed you that. I’m an expert. And now you’re in trouble. Here’s how you recover.’ And if somebody says, “I’m no fool, I don’t want to go up against you,” [Rob and Sandra] were given the freedom, their own decision, to raise the stakes. So we gave them a cushion and said, you can go from here to here with the advantage. Whatever you want.”

Essentially, it’s a form of Survivor haggling and betting all rolled into one. “So Sandra could lean in and say, ‘What if we make an idol good for three Tribal Councils?’” says Probst. “Now you’re interested. And then the player might say yes. And they might still lose. And Rob might say ‘Why did you change your mind simply because the advantage got bigger? Your odds didn’t.’ So that’s the basic premise.”

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this sounds like something BR would say. This sounds awesome and gives me hope for the new season

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Tonight's the night. Tune your antenna and fire up that streaming service my survivor junkies.

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I will never understand how she won that show not once...but twice.

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Cassandra is the luckiest player ever. I by that I mean, she made it only because she was the lesser of an evil every time. I don't mind fly under the radar types, but she was brought along and not voted out because she was seen as weaker. She strictly was crowned because other tribesmen could not under any circumstances vote for the other(s) to win.

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