While every bigreality serieshas hundreds of avid fans, few fandoms are as passionate asSurvivor’s. And it’s easy to see why; created byCharlie ParsonsforCBS, this intense game of social strategy and harsh survival is engineeredto make audiences get invested in the wild stories being told onscreen.Airing for more than two decades, the series' fans have grown with modern technology, with message boards evolving into whole online communities on social media platforms like X. It’s common knowledge not only how much discussion occurs on the app buthow many people have dedicated their entire accounts to documenting current seasons.
It’s that latter half who have madeSurvivor 48one of X’s favorite installments ever — but not necessarily because of what they’re watching onscreen. Because while entertaining, the true excitement from this installment comes from the diehard viewers who’ve grown so passionate about certain charactersthat they’ve configured entire accounts around their every move in the game. It’s sparked countless online conversations and huge waves of love (and occassional hate) for 48’s cast members, with these users spotlighting the characters who viewers want to see the most…now if only the show would do the same.
These X Accounts Do What ‘Survivor’ Won’t!
While it’s not uncommon to find onlineSurvivorfans, this season has seen a hilarious evolution with the prominence of users dedicating their every post to tracking the actions (or lack thereof) of certain castaways. This trend was sparked by X user @StarBase48, a person who was immediately taken by a cast member who’s been sadly ignored for much of this season: 48’s resident sales expert,Star Toomey. Now, the show has unfortunately decided to barely feature Star in this edit, but this hasn’t stopped the account from entertaining thousands of fans with their hilariously coy updates on literally every action the woman takes onscreen (ranging from graphics detailing how she does in a challenge to passive aggressive notifications for how little she appears in each episode).
This has inspired numerous other accounts to be made by similarly passionate fans,with other notable ones being dedicated to this season’s powerhouse tacticianKamilla Karthigesuor infamously conflictedCedrek McFadden.The fact that each one exists,and the many fans who’ve become committed followers, makes it clear how beloved these players are to the show’s current audience —though you couldn’t tell that from their edit.
Fans have long had issues withSurvivor’sunique style of editing. Namely, in who it decides to feature; the ‘Purple’ edit refers to a person who is sidelined narratively and rarely appears onscreen to share their thoughts about what’s going on. These are the opposite of the select few who each season grants ample amounts of screentime — with this season’s choices for that esteemed group baffling the show’s many fans.While physical powerhouses likeEva EricksonandJoe Hunterare interesting, online fans (especially those with update accounts) have grown upset that the unique personalities their communities adore are being largely ignored in favor of people we cannot stop hearing about.
The fact the fact that characters like Star and Kamilla have made it so far in the season inherently means that they’ve participated in some aspect of strategy, yet you’d never know it with how many of the recent episodes (or the entire season for Star) have refused any attention for themwhile delving deeper into the players viewers already know alot about.All of editing is a balancing act, and while these updates accounts are clear signs of the excitement and dedication fans feel forSurvivor 48, they also make it clear how imbalanced this installment’s focus is.
Everyone Give a Big Thanks to ‘Survivor’ Update Accounts!
While there is so much discussion happening online about the attention this season ofSurvivoris giving to certain players, fans of the many now-legendary update accounts need to remember one thing: this is all for fun. Sure, Star Updates and similar users may express (often extremely hilarious) distaste for how their favorite player is being treated by the edit, but that doesn’t erase their clear love for this program and the intriguing people it chooses to feature.
Rather than hating on the series peopleshould applaud these accounts for spotlighting endearing characterswho may not have received their well-deserved flowers otherwise. And while theSurvivoreditors should be glad to see such dedication to their program, they should also learn from this and realize that the characters they often ignore are the ones that fans want to see more of!
