‘That is absolutely insane’: A shocking ‘Survivor’ first means season 47 just made history

Warning: This article contains spoilers for Survivor season 47, episode 3.

We’re only three episodes into Survivor’s 47th season and it’s already making history in the last way longtime fans were expecting.

Episode 3 brought audiences several familiar tropes, from a high-stakes immunity challenge to the utter crumbling of an alliance. The historic evening wrapped up with the number of castaways shrinking to 15 as Rob Has a Podcast co-host and IT consultant Aysha Welch was voted out of the game. Her red tribe, Lavo, failed to capture immunity in the third compete-for-safety challenge, and because she was ousted, a new chapter was written in the reality competition show’s history books.

As hard as it is to believe, this is the first time the first three players eliminated from an American iteration of the franchise were from three separate tribes. That’s right ⏤ even though Survivor has been airing on CBS since 2000, this has somehow never happened before. The biggest reason for this is because most Survivor seasons have begun with two tribes battling it out, not three. That said, we’ve been in the new era of Survivor since 2021, meaning every season since has begun with three tribes, including this current one. It’s also important to note that this season’s players were eliminated, not voted off. For example, Survivor 44 started with Tika’s Bruce Perreault being medically evacuated on day one. What followed was immunity challenge losses by Ratu, Tika, and Soka. Although the first three Tribal Councils featured each tribe, Bruce’s elimination was the first, and Ratu’s Maddy Pomilla and Tika’s Helen Li followed.

Another new-era example that nearly accomplished this feat was Survivor 42, wherein the first three who had their torches snuffed by host Jeff Probst were from three separate tribes. In this case, Jackson Fox was medically removed before the first Tribal, and his Taku tribe also voted someone off during the second ceremony. That wasn’t what went down in Survivor 47, however. The yellow tribe, Gata, was the first to taste defeat at an immunity challenge, and they were forced to vote out one of their own — podcaster and former Obama speechwriter Jon Lovett. Fortunately, they’ve managed to stave off defeat since then. Episode 2 saw Tuku, the blue crew, lose athlete marketing manager Terran “TK” Foster after they dropped the second immunity challenge, and then Aysha followed Jon and TK to Ponderosa in episode 3.

It’s an exciting and unprecedented start to a season that might need it given that some are already deeming it no longer addictive. Curiously for CBS, Survivor 47’s history-making moment was not the first to hit the network this year. Over in the Big Brother house, not only was the Power of Veto used a record-breaking 10 times in a row, but one infamously messy competition ended after only one round when every competing houseguest got the question wrong except for one. There was also that unfortunate case of Covid that prevented host Julie Chen-Moonves from hosting the Sept. 12 broadcast ⏤ the first she’d missed in over two decades.

With Survivor bringing together million-dollar hopefuls for nearly 25 years, it’s hard for players to make history nowadays, but that’s also the beauty of the game: even though the competition series has been around for over two decades, it has continued to stay relevant and fresh thanks to its colorful characters and ever-changing gameplay. For these reasons, we shouldn’t expect this to be the last history-making moment on CBS’s flagship series.