What an Idiot!/Live-Action TV/Survivor (TV series)

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Examples of What an Idiot! in Survivor (TV series) include:

Examples moved from What an Idiot!

  • Season 16 of Survivor had a particularly stunning example of this. Near the endgame, there were five contestants left - 1 male and 4 females. Erik won the Immunity Challenge, so the four women plotted to get him to willingly surrender his immunity. They sent one of their group to convince him that he needed to give it up to "redeem" himself. Natalie herself lampshades the absurdity of the scheme possibly succeeding, stating "who would fall for that?"
    You'd expect: Erik to tell Natalie exactly where to stick her request, knowing that this game is based upon the concept of "Looking out for #1."
    Instead: He gives her the immunity necklace just before the elimination vote. No points if you guess what happened next.
    • His move was so epically stupid that James, the guy known for getting eliminated while sitting on two hidden immunity idols, stated that Erik had beaten him for the title of "dumbest Survivor ever."
  • Africa: Lex, who has just received an unknown vote during what he believed what was going to be a unanimous vote-off against Clarence at the merge, is hell-bent on finding out who made that throwaway vote against him. He eventually comes to the decision that his former tribemate Kelly that cast the vote, when in fact it was Teresa (who was a former member of the opposite tribe).
    You'd Expect: In an era of Survivor where voting along tribal lines was the norm - even with the low justification that it was Kelly that cast the vote - that Lex would at least wait until he had significantly Pagonged the former Samburus to get rid of Kelly.
    Instead: He press-gangs his allies into voting for Kelly based on his "gut decision." Kelly, obviously pissed for being on the wrong end of a Witch Hunt, flips to the Samburus to get rid of Lex, and would have succeeded in doing so had Brandon not held an even bigger Idiot Ball than Lex's.
  • All-Stars: Lex pulls a boneheaded move just before the tribal merge. At the tribe change-up, Amber ends up separated from her Chapera tribemates, and is put with the Mogo Mogo tribe (who are now in the Chapera camp). Lex (and the rest of his tribe members) have seen that Rob is highly protective of Amber, and has already proven himself to be a superior force in challenges. At the immunity challenge, Rob goes to Lex immediately after and tells him he will be protected, provided that Lex protects Amber in turn.
    You'd Expect: That after already eliminating two good competitors (Richard and Ethan) with backroom deals, he would look out for himself and eliminate Amber at the next Tribal Council, which would (a) put his tribe ahead of Rob's team, (b) demoralize Rob and (c) give Lex an opportunity to eliminate an opposing force before he makes any more moves. After all, Lex has already seen Rob carry most of his original team through half the game.
    Instead: Lex takes Rob at his word, and spares Amber by voting out another loyal team member (Jerri). In the following episode (where the teams merge as Chaboga Bogo), Rob tells him point-blank that he's not going to help him, and Lex is swiftly eliminated that night at Council. Following this, Mogo Mogo gets Pagonged by the tight-knit Chapera. For his part, Lex does admit he seriously screwed up when he did what Rob asked.
    Later On: When they're down to five people, Chaboga Bogo heads into Tribal Council with Rob wearing the Immunity necklace. At this point, Rob has planted a lot of discord between Tom, Rupert and Jenna (with the latter two realizing that Rob is playing them).
    You'd Expect: The three players, who all know that Rob has been tight with Amber since the beginning of the game (an alliance which he has told them multiple times he wouldn't break), would eliminate Amber immediately and take out Rob at the next Council, leaving the three of them left.
    Instead: Rob convinces Rupert (who knows Rob was tricking him into fighting with Tom) and Jenna (who knows she's a liability) to vote out Tom, which allows Rob and Amber to coast through unchallenged to the final Tribal Council.
  • Heroes Vs. Villains: Late in the season, the Villains outnumber the Heroes. Sandra (a Villain) goes to Colby and Rupert (the two Heroes left) and tells them that Russell can't be trusted. She explains that he played the Heroes team for fools when they gave him their hidden immunity idol, and that he's the one who's been leading the rest of the female Villains (as well as being the one that destroyed Sandra's alliance with Courtney). She tells them this no less than three times in the span of two episodes.
    You'd Expect: That, given how Russell already played an immunity idol post-merge and knocked out J.T. (after telling the Heroes that he had previously played it to save himself, something that never happened), and already showed that he broke his word multiple times, they would at least try Sandra's advice and knock out Russell before he becomes a bigger threat.
    Instead: They don't, proceed to try and vote her out instead, and both get systematically eliminated by Russell's alliance, leaving only the Villains left in the final three. Sandra proceeds to call Colby and Rupert out on this during the final Tribal Council meeting.
    • Meanwhile, Russell goes through this hard at the Heroes vs. Villains final seven: at the time, the only contestants left are his alliance with Parvati, Danielle, and Jerri, Sandra, who's aligned with nobody, and Rupert and Colby on the outs. But Russell is beginning to become suspicious of Parvati and Danielle, on account of the two of them keeping a Hidden Immunity Idol secret from him (which wasn't all that wise, either).
      You'd Expect: That Russell would keep his core alliance with Parvati and Danielle strong, given that they've been working together from the get-go (not to mention that the two are at this point the only ones left that will talk to him), just to be sure that the three of them will go to the end.
      Instead: He decides to pit the two of them against one another in hopes of separating them. When Danielle calls him out on it at Tribal Council, he proceeds to talk to Danielle like she's crap in front of the entire jury, which - if Courtney's reaction is any indication - destroyed whatever slim chance was left of him winning.
  • Nicaragua: It's the final six, Jane feels a bit on the outs in her four-person alliance with Chase, Sash, and Holly. The alliance's immediate target Fabio wins Immunity, and he tries to protect his ally Dan by convincing Chase that Jane's the bigger threat. Chase immediately takes the idea to Sash and Holly, and the three soon resolve to vote Jane off (forgetting, incidentally, that Fabio made the suggestion in the first place).
    You'd Expect: That they would blindside Jane. Dan and Fabio want her gone, and Chase and Sash are the ones with hidden Immunity Idols, so there wouldn't be any real way that she could protect herself if votes were cast her way.
    Instead: The tell Jane to her face that she's the next to go. Not only does Jane reveal the alliance at Tribal that night, but now Chase and Sash have to take Holly with them to the Final Three, lest they have a vicious attempt on Jane's part to turn the jury towards Dan or Fabio (the latter of whom ruined that plan with an immunity win).
  • Redemption Island sees Russell getting hit hard with this trope. To elaborate, this is the first season that he's playing alongside people that had the chance to see him in action; they know exactly what he's all about. One of the first things he does is promise his tribe that he'll be playing a different game this time.
    You'd Expect: That Russell actually would play a different game this time, or at least pretend to do so until the merge, when he would likely have the superior numbers.
    Instead: He runs the exact same play in the exact same way, from swiping clues to the Hidden Immunity Idol to forming an alliance with two pretty young girls (while dismissing anyone who isn't built like a cheerleader), to tampering with the tribe's supply line. Not surprisingly, he's marked as a threat, his tribe throws a challenge to off him, and the vote is split three ways on the off-chance he did find the idol. (Oh, forgot: he didn't even bother making sure no one was watching.) On the re-vote, they have five available votes and two options while Russell's side has only one available vote and one option. (Stephanie doesn't exactly help their cause with her irritation at David's spiel or her scorching tirade at Tribal Council, which loses them a potential swing vote.) One guess as to who goes.
    • Next episode, with their sugar daddy gone, Russell's concubines are alone against the Zapatera Six.
      You'd expect: Knowing they're basically begging for their game lives, Stephanie and Krista would try to make a little peace with the enraged Zapatera. They might even be able to replace the fifth or sixth wheel and have a legitimate crack at overtaking the Ometepe (who already got rid of one fringe player). Or, if they can last until the merge, swing over to the Ometepe, and use them to get back at their former tribe and go deep into the game.
      Instead: Krista points out to the Zapatera Six the folly of their decision in a confrontational manner, albeit far from Up to Eleven. Stephanie, of course, does Stephanie things. Just like the leader of their alliance, game, set, match.
      • The only thing that saved them earlier was their challenge win, which the Ometepe used to get rid of another player on the periphery.
    • And speaking of the Ometepe tribe, they managed to pull this and held an Idiot Ball for the entire season, shattering the record set by Samoa. One tribe gets Russell, and they get Boston Rob. Now they've all seen Russell play, and they have also seen Rob play and even knew who he was.
      You'd Expect: That they'd realize that he is Dangerously Genre Savvy and should get him out ASAP because he's got a huge target on his back, has more experience, has the producers on his side, there is nothing saying you can't immediately vote him out (as Russell found out pretty fast).
      Instead: only Kristina realizes this while everyone else except Francesca seems to be staring at Rob like he's Justin Bieber and then looking at Phillip asking, "Is this guy serious?". Kristina then goes on to find the hidden immunity idol within the first three days and immediately intends to use it to get Rob out of the game. They then vote out Kristina and Francesca and let Rob do all the work for him, letting it progress into the solo game when the producers throw one puzzle after another at Rob (the only challenges he gets to compete in, mind you) and are then surprised that Rob seems to be taking someone hated by everyone else (Phillip and Natalie) over them. The Ometepe tribe definitely earns the award for the dumbest tribe ever to play the game of Survivor, as well as the most boring.
      • And Rob wins in an 8-1-0 decision.
  • Episode 7-8 of South Pacific earns Ozzy a place here due to his choices regarding Redemption Island. At the final twelve, with one person on Redemption Island, Savaii go to Tribal Council and are expected to vote someone out to join Christine on RI. Ozzy confides in the tribe that he had a dream that he would get voted out, go to Redemption Island, battle and defeat Christine, and rejoin their tribe making sure that they go into the supposed merge 6-6. This plan is insanely risky in that the merge is merely assumed to be coming up, and Christine is still there, with no telling if the challenge will be one Ozzy will excel at (given how she's even beaten Mikayla, a highly physical player). Furthermore, Christine has been seen giving the finger to her old tribe and leaves no doubt she'd join Savaii in a heartbeat if she ever came back. Of important note is that this plan also involves putting trust in and keeping Cochran, whom the majority of the tribe has been treating as a Butt Monkey/verbal punching bag for the last 21 days.
    You'd expect: The rest of the tribe to ignore Ozzy's insane plan and vote out Cochran, not taking the risk that he'd swap to the other side after 21 days of verbal jibing, swing Christine to their side, and use her challenge prowess displayed on Redemption Island to their advantage for the upcoming 6-6 voting tie the entire tribe was anticipating.
    Instead: They go through with it, keep Cochran, vote out Ozzy, Ozzy beats Christine in the duel and gets rid of her. After a tie at the Tribal Council vote Cochran flips on his high-school-esque tribe and votes out one of their members with Upolu, who have been treating him well for the time the tribes have been merged. On to the challenge where players can either duke it out for immunity or pig out on pastries and iced coffee.
    Same season: Brandon Hantz (nephew of Russell Hantz, also on this list) wins immunity right before the final Redemption duel. He then gives it to an ally and is immediately voted off, similar to Erik's entry earlier on this list (though no one appeared to have planted any seeds in Brandon's head as the Brigade did Erik's).

Examples moved from Survivor (TV series)

    • Jason Siska in Micronesia. In a 15-day period, he managed to mistake a stick for the hidden immunity idol, give up immunity for a bowl of candy for the tribe, and finally get blindsided while holding a hidden immunity idol - despite coming within one vote of being eliminated at the previous Tribal Council.
    • Erik Reichenbach from the same season as well, who is voted off after being manipulated by the Black Widow Brigade into giving up his individual immunity for "redemption". Erik's decision wasn't 100% dumb: the others were only slightly exaggerating how much his double-dealing had irritated them. He'd have been unlikely to get enough votes to win without such a generous gesture.
    • Also James, he who got voted out of China while holding two unused hidden immunity idols, and at the point he was eliminated, he essentially had a free pass to the final five. Whenever he's appeared since, people have never failed to bring it up. However, due to Erik's aforementioned "sacrifice", he said he's no longer the dumbest Survivor ever.
    • JT in Heroes Vs Villains gave away an immunity idol. To Russell. Whom he's never met before. Who is on the opposite tribe. The one labeled "Villains". Because of a faulty assumption that Russell is on the wrong end of an Amazon Brigade. To be fair, they had taped the season before Samoa had a chance to air, thus none of the castaways knew of Russell's playing style, but they could've figured he was on the Villains tribe for a reason. To be fair, he didn't know what we (the viewers and the editors) did about the other tribe...but on the other hand, he was counter-intuitively surrendering control of the idol.
    • Candice went along with the villains despite that one of them (Sandra) was telling her to not do so, especially since they had no intentions of taking her along.
    • Brandon on Africa prevented his former tribe from taking control during the merge by switching his initial vote for major threat and Cloudcuckoolander Lex to total non threat and defector Kelly out of a petty dislike for his former Samburu tribemate Frank. This insured that not only would his tribe be Pagonged, but he would eventually be voted out himself for being seen as untrustworthy and undependable.
    • The Galu tribe fall victim to this after the merge, thanks to three factors - a) Natalie managing to convince the tribe to vote for Erik, b) Russell blindsiding Kelly with an immunity idol, and c) Shambo turning on her tribe out of a seething hatred for Laura. This ensures Galu's eventual downfall when Foa Foa take the majority.
    • In Nicaragua, Jane was already feeling like she was the odd-man out of her alliance with Sash, Chase, and Holly. Already things weren't going well merely because there were four and there could only be three of them. So when Chase brings Sash and Holly along to a reward...not a good idea. Unfortunately, their target Fabio wins immunity. So you have to vote someone else...why not the other person Dan? Nope...guess you gotta blindside Jane. Unfortunately they practically told Jane to her face that they were going to vote her out, and at the same time exposed their entire alliance to Fabio and Dan. WHOOPS! Suffice to say, Chase and Sash more or less had to bring Holly with them to the final three if they didn't want a very ugly attempt on Jane's side to turn the Jury towards Dan or Fabio if they made it to the final three. (However, Jane actually voted for Chase)
      • May also be Fridge Brilliance from Fabio - he actually suggested getting rid of Jane over Dan to them; and Chase & Sash made the idea their own, while Fabio watched it crash and burn. Still not a good idea to tell someone who thinks they're with you that you're going to blindside them.
    • Russell didn't seem to consider that the jury consisted of the entire remnants of the Heroes tribe...as well as two members of Sandra's alliance. Despite Parvati, a past winner, and Danielle, the Only Sane Woman to counter most of Russell's ridiculous ideas, blatantly telling Russell that Sandra would win if she made the finals, he chose to ignore her and took her under the impression she had no chance of winning in his eyes. Sure enough, the jury vote for the one person who survived Russell, which none of them could do.
    • Happened to Russell of all people in Redemption Island. It's the first season he was in where people have actually seen him before and thus knew the hard-balling, ruthless game he played both years previous.
      • You'd Expect: Russell to have wised up after his past two failures and, knowing that his tribemates know his game well since the producers kept him perpetually in the spotlight, try to back off a little in the initial stretch, thus making him actually likable. Afterwards, then he could start picking people off like old times.
      • Instead: Russell claims to his tribemates that he's gonna play differently... and then plays the exact same game, right down to assembling his typical harem, stealing rice while everyone's out fishing, scrambling for the HII (in plain sight without even knowing that people would have, by now, learned to never let him out of their sight for a minute) as early as possible, and then convincing weak players to flip on their alliances based on flimsy promises. Unfortunately for him, the latter two parts backfired horribly: Ralph got to the HII first (meaning he was drawing all that negative attention to himself for nothing), and Julie didn't take Russell's flip bait, resulting in him being the first voted off the Zapatera tribe.
    • The Ometepe tribe in the same season. You're put with a Dangerously Genre Savvy player who is clearly going to be favoured by the production staff, and only two of them even considers to get that person out ASAP?
    • Dr. Sean's Alphabet Strategy...at first glance. It's been pointed out that Dr. Sean's strategy of voting alphabetically actually put the members of the Pagong tribe on his targets first; meaning he didn't have to form an alliance. It only became as much of an "What an Idiot!" move in hindsight because at the time, alliances were considered unfair and dirty-handed.
    • Matt on Redemption Island got blindsided by Rob and the Ometepe Five. He then returns from Redemption Island and gets himself blindsided by the same people out of sheer naivete.
    • Grant on Redemption Island never seemed to consider that Rob might actually want to take the people who everyone else in their alliance hated (Natalie and Phillip) because he wanted to win.
    • The women in Vanuatu had a 6-4 majority with the men at the merge, yet allowed Chris to slip through them and throw out what would have been the easiest victories in the series.
    • In Micronesia, the fans basically decided to eliminate some of their stronger players first; which isn't that good of an idea.
    • Christine in South Pacific made no effort at all to be friendly with Coach, going as far as to call him a "temporary player." She then made it almost blatantly clear to the rest of her tribe that she was hunting for idols, and yet made no effort at all to ally herself with anyone except maybe Stacey.[1] And yet she's surprised that Coach and his alliance voted her out!
    • Also in South Pacific, Ozzy got the bright idea to get himself voted out, "blame" Cochran to mislead the other tribe, beat Christine at Redemption Island so she wouldn't rejoin her old tribe, and return to the game at the merge. He's extremely lucky this didn't backfire on him (Cochran even gave back the idol Ozzy gave away), but that's a lot of risk for absolutely no gain (the other tribe wasn't fooled) and wasn't even necessary in the first place (Christine had no love for her old tribe and wouldn't have allied with them, not that they knew this).
    • Russell voting out Danielle in Heroes vs. Villains, one of his final three partners along with Parvati. Jealous of the fact that Parvati was closer to Danielle than she was to him (despite the fact that they were a three-person alliance destined for the final three), he tried turning the girls against each other in a spectacularly bad way, and when that failed, rallied the remaining two Heroes and Jerri to vote her out. This huge slip-up not only created an extremely angry juror in Danielle, but also allowed eventual winner Sandra to slip into that third spot when everyone else was voted out, where she eventually won in a landslide.
    • Coach in South Pacific voted out four potential goats (Cochran, Edna, Brandon, Rick) who had more or less been riding on his and Sophie's coattails because he had wanted to honour his original F3 alliance of himself, Albert, and Sophie. This resulted in Sophie being seen as the lesser of three evils.
    • In One World, Colton wanted Bill out so badly that he led his entire tribe to give up their immunity and go to Tribal Council in place of the women. Keep in mind, in order to do this, the decision had to be unanimous, meaning both of the tribe's likely targets - Bill and Leif - agreed to it.
    • As mentioned in Complacent Gaming Syndrome, for some reason, people seem to be afraid to upset the status quo and don't seem to have any interest in actually winning. If you want to win, the person "in charge" of your alliance has got to go or else they'll win the game. Many people seem to be assuming that they'll sociopathically push their way through the game like Russell did, and that they can present themselves as a lesser threat.
  1. ↑ having an idol doesn't make a difference if you're in a 2-6 minority.
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