As Survivor chugs along as one of the most-watched reality TV shows on network television, viewers have gotten the chance to see their fair share of challenges. Between spelling competitions, races, and even one odd-ball reward challenge that had players flying kites, Survivor has always been a champion of creative contests.
Yet despite a tight medical presence and a Dream Team that play-tests each course before the players take them on, some of the challenges through the years have been unnecessarily dangerous.
Largely considered one of the most disgusting in the show's history, the Pig Out challenge had South Pacific players bite chunks of meat off of a roast pig without using their hands. Whichever team had the most meat by the end of a set time would win immunity and whatever they collected.
While the hygiene implications themselves are concerning, as Cochran pointed out after the challenge, there were also numerous injuries that the cast suffered due to competing. Chipped teeth, cut mouths, and Ozzy even suffered a dislocated jaw. With a challenge beast and one of the best players to never win complaining about injuries after a challenge, the producers knew it was seriously dangerous, and the challenge never appeared again.
While Free Fallin' isn't a challenge that looks very dangerous, the elaborate Survivor course managed to go so far as to remove a player from the game. Because the challenge involved jumping from a high platform into a net, castaway Kourtney Moon found herself landing awkwardly and breaking her wrist. She was then medically evacuated for an urgent surgery.
Though Probst warned players to take care when jumping, it isn't particularly strange that a dehydrated player rushing to win a competition wouldn't be as careful as they might otherwise have been. Unfortunately, as it goes in the life of contestants on Survivor, Kourtney paid the price.
A Season 42 challenge that seemed no more dangerous than is typical for the show, Go With The Gusto became so dangerous that Jeff Probst decided they would need to cut the challenge short, after only one of the three tribes finished. With castaways trying to set up and climb a ladder in choppy and increasingly turbulent waves, Survivor's crew was quickly sent in to relieve them.
While Survivor's Season 42 cast isn't entirely unathletic, the challenge was simply too dangerous to compete in. Thankfully, the producers stepped in before anyone could get hurt, and they were able to skip the water-based portion of the course and continue on land.
Kicking and Screaming was a challenge that was exactly what it sounds like. Players wrapped themselves around a pole and desperately clung on, while two opposing team members did their best to drag them away.
Though the potential for injury is obvious, as desperate players can accidentally hurt the defending player in the process of pulling them across the finish line, thankfully no one received more than bruises. Still, the challenge hasn't appeared since Survivor: Cagayan for a reason, and it isn't just because ordinary castaways weren't able to carry an NBA legend.
A simple wrestle over bags in sand ended with a dislocated shoulder, a broken toe, and a wardrobe malfunction. While it was the start of an amazing season, the first challenge of Heroes vs. Villains couldn't have gone worse for the Heroes tribe.
The challenge did bring about iconic moments, though, like Coach dragging one of the biggest challenge beasts in Survivor history like he was nothing more than a flea. Still, it's hard to deny the effect the challenge had on the Heroes, as their injured players helped to destroy their chances in the rest of the season. Well, that and J.T.'s letter.
While an 11-mile hike through the Guatemalan landscape seems like typical Survivor fare, it was anything but for poor castaway Blake Towsley. To make matters worse, Bobby Jon Drinkard suffered severe dehydration and cramps. And all that for flint and a flag!
There are few Survivor challenges that have led to that level of devastation for so little reward, and the fact that players had to go through that before even getting their tribal flag only serves to add insult to injury.
The first repeated challenge to ever be banned from the show, Schmergen Brawl involved players in a dirt pit playing a modified game of basketball with a wrestling component. But after causing a medical evacuation and destroying the knee of castaway James Clement, it became very clear that the challenge was simply too dangerous.
Besides, after Rupert Boneham nearly injured Jerri Manthey, a player with an entirely undeserved bad reputation, it was clear that the show needed to abandon the challenge. It was just an excuse for frustrated tribes to lash out, after all.
Commonly regarded as a drowning simulator, Spit It Out was a challenge that was eventually banned due to safety concerns. There's a good reason why. In the challenge, players are strapped to a giant spinning wheel. The players are spun in and out of a pool of water and must gather some of the water in their mouths to spit into a bowl. The problem is: They're doing it while in motion, and while multiple players are strapped to the same wheel.
With players literally dropping underwater without having any control whatsoever, there is a significant safety concern that players could quite literally drown on national television. With that in mind, it makes sense it was banned.
If Spit It Out is a drowning simulator, Last Gasp is just drowning. Players are made to hover under a metal grate and try to breathe as the tide carries the water above their heads. Oh, and if they try to get away from the grate, they're out of the game.
Unsurprisingly, the challenge hasn't been seen again since Survivor: Caramoan, and it isn't likely to return. With players like Phillip Sheppard expressing the fear of drowning, the show isn't expected to continue using challenges that force castaways to drown themselves for immunity.
The single most dangerous challenge in Survivor history, Dig It very nearly killed one of the contestants. With players attempting to dig in a sandpit in extremely hot weather, two players suffered heat exhaustion, and a fourth, Caleb Reynolds, experienced a heat stroke that led to his evacuation. To make matters more insulting for players, the castaways were competing for nothing more than a salt and pepper reward.
After having such devastating effects on the health and safety of the castaways, it's extremely unlikely that this challenge will ever appear again, and it certainly won't happen on such an exceptionally hot day.
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