The countdown to Survivor 45 is nearly over, which means excited fans will soon be seeing a brand-new season of one of the most intense reality TV shows in existence. Survivor takes people out of their lives and, most importantly, their comfort zones, and drops them into the middle of nowhere with a few simple goals: brave the odds, outsmart the competition, survive, and win the big bucks.
Survivor‘s payout is $1 Million, and the money is well-earned; from challenging competitions to experiencing a total disruption in any level of living comfort participants have ever felt, they’re working hard to win and to stay alive. In fact, one of the contestants this season is someone we’re familiar with, as he came out to compete last season, but was diagnosed with a concussion during the first challenge and had to be removed from the competition altogether.
Despite the ups and downs, viewers love sitting down on Wednesday nights to watch Survivor, and with the news that a long-forgotten part of the game show is making a resurgence, our interest is certainly piqued.
What lost piece of Survivor is making a comeback? The auction, of course, but if you’re scratching your head wondering exactly what that is, don’t worry — we’ve got you covered.
What is the auction?
Simply put, in the Survivorverse, the auction was a ceremony that the winning tribe would attain instead of an immediate reward. Contestants would be given money they could use to bid on items such as food, baths/hygiene products, letters from home, and more. The auction started as something lighthearted and looked forward to — until Probst, and other contestants, saw that it became about winning advantages and getting ahead.
Instead of contestants buying food or a note of love and confidence from their friends and loved ones back home, they would hold onto their money to bid on game advantages, and it became less about receiving a reward and turned into another cutthroat aspect of gameplay.
Of course, that’s to be expected in a game like Survivor, but it’s not what the auction’s intended purpose was; it was initially supposed to provide new and exciting rewards for competitions that aren’t just physically exhausting, but mentally and emotionally taxing.
There are specific instances of gameplay that made Probst’s decision to remove the auction a much easier one, and a few of those are discussed in this Reddit thread. Overwhelmingly, people blame Shirin, a season 30 contestant, whom many blame for breaking the reward system altogether.
With the auction coming back, we’re curious as to what will be different about it this go around and what measures will be put in place to prevent a failing system from happening again.
What did Jeff Probst say about the Survivor 45 auction?
As integral a part of the Survivor realm as any, host Jeff Probst is part of the game; he’s the man we rely on to navigate us through anxiety-inducing challenges and give his perfect commentary at each tribal council.
In a chat with Entertainment Weekly, Probst talked about the re-introduction of the auction for season 45, and how it will look different than you might remember; that being said, he isn’t giving away any teasers, and for a good reason:
“Well, we brought the auction back. And the reason that falls into this is the 26-day season does have certain limitations. And doing something like the auction is a lot of work for us. It requires many departments to contribute. We felt like this is a good season to do it, but we didn’t really have an idea. And this was because we felt like we broke the auction once we put advantages into the mix because players would just hold their money with the idea that there would be an advantage at the end, and then it would be a race to buy it.
So the auction became about reinvention, and this was a situation where I actually just sat down one day with a blank piece of paper, determined to come up with a new idea. And once I had something, I called my buddy Elan Lee of Exploding Kittens. As always, he added another great layer and brainstormed with me, and the new auction was born. And since it will only be new the first time you see it, I’d rather not tease it anymore. But it was directly related to having 90 minutes and thinking this would be a really fun thing to bring back, and this is the perfect season to do it.”
While we might not know exactly how it’s going to work, fans can rest assured that Probst spent a lot of time figuring out how to bring it back with a new set of ideas.
Longer episodes are another thing fans are really looking forward to, and as someone who has watched Survivor since I was a little girl with my mom, I can’t wait to see the auction come back; here’s hoping it’s with a system that makes it an enjoyable experience for everyone.
Survivor 45 premieres on Wednesday, Sept. 27.