If you watched the premiere of Survivor 45 this past Wednesday (September 27), the Lulu tribe might just stick out like a sore thumb when you reflect on the oh-so infamous episode.
Consisting of Hannah Rose, Brandon Donlon, Sean Edwards, Kaleb Gebrewold, Sabiyah Broderick, and Emily Flippen, the Lulu tribe lost the marooning challenge, lost the “Sweat vs Savvy” challenge, and lost the immunity challenge all in a single episode, resulting in Hannah self-eliminating rather than experiencing a traditional tribal council — does it get any worse than that?
Featuring some of the most polarizing castaways of all time, such as the ultimate supervillain of Survivor’s new era, was the Lulu tribe destined to fail from the very beginning, similar to the Tika tribe from Survivor 44?
Keep scrolling to see what Survivor superfans are saying about this (for lack of a better word) pathetic tribe…
@Geeblord8 kickstarted the conversation via Reddit, sharing their theory surrounding the Lulu tribe: “After seeing multiple ‘disaster tribes’ be the focal point of these new era seasons and providing much of the entertainment particularly in the pre-merge (Ua, Vati, Tika), do we think production purposely designed Lulu to be this season’s disaster tribe? Just looking at this group, it seems hard to believe casting felt Lulu was physically equal to red and blue, then you’ve got Emily who was always going to be aggressive, and Brandon, Hannah, and Sean to be emotional/neurotic. Altogether in my opinion, this tribe never had a chance to make the merge with numbers — what do you all think?”
The Reddit user developed a great argument, something that a great deal of Survivor superfans agreed upon. Naturally, they were not happy about this manipulation by the production team (to say the least).
“I think most three tribe seasons they just make a tribe purposefully meant to fail. Matsing, Brains, No Collar, Hustlers, Ua, Lulu. And I don’t think this is even a wild conspiracy, it makes sense entertainment-wise to have one tribe stacked against the odds, although like Kaleb and Sabiyah, I’d be so pissed if I ended up on one of these tribes,” @lavachello explained, with numerous viewers sharing similar responses.
“Never thought about that before, but I see it now and agree. Production is always doing what is best for keeping the show entertaining with high ratings,” one Reddit user dished.
“I knew they were going to fail upon first sight of the tribe. I turned to my husband and said ‘Well, they’re losing.’ It’s was ridiculously obvious,” another shared.
“Yeah, without castaways picking teams themselves, there’s no reason Lulu should have that lineup. Production did them DIRTY,” @Ill_Tumblr_4_Ya shared referencing the schoolyard pick that older Survivor seasons utilized and garnering nearly 200 upvotes.
Even though the schoolyard pick sparked some controversy due to the fact that it sent the last people picked or those not picked packing, it does not sound like that bad of an idea, given how poorly the Lulu tribe was developed by the production team.
“I’m all for schoolyard pick coming back, but not if the last people picked/those not picked are immediate boots. I just re-watched Survivor: Palau and it’s so dang painful to see Wanda go,” @OkSpot8931 added, sharing their suggestions on how Survivor can bring back the schoolyard pick in the future, all in a much more fair way — with no unjust eliminations, it sounds like reviving the schoolyard pick could be a great idea for forthcoming seasons!
Will Survivor 45 experience a tribe swap soon? For the sake of those suck on the Lulu tribe, we sure hope so…
To see how the rest of the season unfolds, tune into CBS every Wednesday at 8pm ET/PT — Survivor 45 is sure to be one for the books!
