Why This Week's 'Survivor' Is the Lowest-Rated Episode Ever

This season of Survivor has been blessed with a handful of genuinely good, well-liked, and compassionate people with interesting backstories. It’s also made for one of the least exciting seasons in years. The dominant alliance continues to insist on playing the game honorably, the cowards don’t want to disappoint the Dad of the alliance, and no one wants to make a move.

The issues plaguing this season all came to a head this week in what is typically a pivotal episode: the final seven. It’s usually the last chance for players to mount challenges against dominant alliances — a moment where those at the bottom often break off to vote out favorites and position themselves for the final tribal council. That didn’t happen. Not only did no one inside the alliance of four make a move, but the two outsiders — Mitch and Kamilla — actually joined the alliance to vote out Mary.

And what was the grand justification for voting out Mary? It’s right there in the episode’s title: “Coconut Etiquette.” Mary, who was regularly left out of reward challenges and hadn’t eaten in days, cracked open the remaining coconuts and ate them. This didn’t sit well with the rest of the tribe, most of whom had just stuffed themselves during reward meals.

Unsurprisingly, there was almost zero drama in the episode, which also included the most meaningless reward journey in the show’s history. Eva chose a purple rock during a rock draw and was sent on a journey where she had to complete a fairly easy challenge to keep her vote at tribal. The challenge would have been harder if she’d opted to pursue the Knowledge is Power advantage, which lets you steal advantages from other players. But Eva is the only one left with an advantage, so there was no reason for her to bother.

It really says something that the most exciting moment in the episode came when David, a jury member, silently stood up when Mary was voted out, as if to honor her. David is deranged.

This drama-free pacing isn’t exactly new to Survivor. There have been plenty of episodes over the past 48 seasons where the outcome felt inevitable. The difference here is that those episodes rarely happen at such a pivotal moment — the final seven — and it’s become more glaring since CBS expanded these episodes from 60 to 90 minutes. It’s one thing to slog through an hour of going through the motions, but stretching it to 90 minutes feels almost punishing.

With six players left and the top two — Joe and Eva — holding all the remaining advantages and dominating physically, the outcome seems sealed unless there’s a wild, last-minute shakeup. I wouldn’t hold your breath. This season may be the most predictable since Yul held on to his hidden immunity idol and won in season 13, never having faced any real threat to be voted out, prompting producers to change the way idols could be used in the future.

That’s why this episode is sitting at 2.9 out of 10 on IMDb, the lowest-rated episode in the show’s history. Fans are rightfully up in arms, calling it perhaps the worst season of the series in the New Era.