10 Best Survivor Blindsides Of All Time

When it comes to Survivor, we love a good blindsided move that throws the entire game in a new direction leaving room for anything to happen! Well, everyone loves it, that is, except for the poor sap who’s blindsided. We’ve put together a list of our favorite blindside moments in Survivor history—we’re still picking our jaws up off the floor over some of these moves.

10. Savage Gets Taken Out (Survivor: Cambodia)

Season 33 was rife with smart gameplay and big, ballsy moves, and saw more than its share of blindsides nine weeks in. But when Kelley Wentworth, Ciera Eastin and Abby-Maria Gomes (a.k.a. the “Witches’ Coven”) found themselves at the bottom of the pecking order and Kelley suspected she would be the one voted out, she produced her hidden immunity idol, which she had told nobody about, and surprised even her alliances, sending big man around camp Andrew Savage home—but not before he flipped them the bird on his way out.

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9. Rupert Is Sent Home (Survivor: Pearl Islands)

This was a big one, as Rupert Boneham was about the biggest personality the show had seen to date. When he was blindsided—he had suspected there might be a tie, but didn’t foresee his newest ally, Lillian Morris, voting against him—the disappointment in his big teddy-bear eyes was almost enough to make a grown man or woman cry. But he did go on to compete in three more seasons, and while he never won Survivor, he did win a million dollars on a special episode of Survivor: All-Stars, called Survivor: America’s Tribal Council, where he took 85% of the public vote.

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8. Blindsided Twice (Survivor: Redemption Island)

Hunky Matt Elrod may have gone on to some modicum of fame with his acting career, but his performance on Survivor was far from his Magnum Opus. Voted off second and sent to Redemption Island, he battled hard and earned his way back to camp—only to be blindsided again.

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7. Randy Uses Fake Idol (Survivor: Gabon)

Randy Bailey, the curmudgeonly wedding videographer, could hardly contain his smile (a rare sight to behold) when he handed Jeff Probst his immunity idol before the votes were read. But his fellow castaways could hardly contain their laughter—especially Sugar Kiper, who along with idol maker Bob Crowley, were the ones who concocted the plan to give it to him.

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6. Tyson Gets Blindsided (Survivor: Tocantins)

Tyson Apostol, the sharp-tongued Mormon with a propensity for going commando around camp, was so cocky and sure of his standing among his fellow castaways that it sure tasted sweet when he got completely blindsided by the rest of the players who saw him as too big a threat.

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5. Tyson Basically Votes Himself Out (Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains)

His second time playing, Tyson Apostol was part of Rob Mariano’s voting bloc of six from the Villains tribe. Up against the six strong were a minority alliance made up of Russell Hantz, Parvati Shallow and Danielle DeLaurentis. Rob’s group had decided to split the vote between Russell and Parvati at tribal, but at the last minute, Tyson—fearing that he was the target for the minority faction—panicked and switched his vote from Russell to Parvati, believing Russell would play his idol. But when Russell surprised everyone by playing his idol for Parvati, the votes cast against her no longer counted, and Russell no longer had the numbers to be cast out, making Tyson the one to go.

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4. Andrea Boehlke Blindsided by her Alliance (Survivor: Caramoan)

Andrea Boehlke, the likeable, smart entertainment writer from New York, was pretty much the mastermind behind most of the season’s gameplay up to the point of her untimely departure. In fact, she had the immunity idol when her own alliance turned against her but didn’t play it because she never saw the blindside coming.

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3. Rock Draw (Survivor: Blood vs. Water)

Not technically a blindside, but this was one of the most exciting and unexpected tribal councils of all time! With the players at a deadlock when it came to a tie vote, Survivor rules dictated that they draw stones if they could not agree on who was going home. While we’ve seen a handful of fire-making showdowns (which the rules declare must determine the tiebreaker at the final four tribal council), the rock-picking tiebreaker had not been seen since Marquesas. But in this nail biter of a tribal council, feisty, unpredictable Ciera Eastin (who had already voted her own mom out) convinced two other players to draw rocks with her. She survived—and sweet Katie Collins drew the white rock, earning her a one-way trip to Ponderosa.

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2. All-Girl Alliance Blindsides Erik (Survivor: Micronesia)

In one of the funniest blindside moments ever, this conniving female alliance made up of Parvati Shallow, Cirie Fields and Natalie Bolton came up with a plan to convince naïve ice-cream scooper, Erik Reichenbach, that he should give his immunity idol to Cirie or Natalie in exchange for Cirie and Natalie taking him to the final three with them. He fell for it, and the girls promptly voted him out, leaving him with the unfortunate reputation of being one of the worst players in Survivor history.

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1. Parvati Blindsides J.T. (Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains)

This was an amazing blindside on so many levels—not the least being that it took Russell Hantz totally by surprise. The back story began with “Hero” J.T. Thomas convincing his alliance of merry tribesman that if he could save Russell from the clutches of the evil succubi controlling the Villains side, Russell would team up with them after the merge. So, he gave Russell his immunity idol in exchange for Russell’s word. But, of course, Russell, being evil incarnate, went straight to his main ally Parvati Shallow and told her all about what had just happened, and they had a good evil laugh over it. Then Parvati found another hidden immunity idol, but didn’t tell Russell. One eviction later, the merge happened, and Parvati became the original Heroes tribe’s main target. Russell gave Parvati the idol J.T. had given him to keep her safe, not knowing she already had one. But after the Heroes decided to switch their vote to one of Parvati’s allies, suspecting that Parvati had an idol, Parvati caught wind of their plan. Then, after the vote, when Jeff Probst asked if anyone had a hidden immunity idol, Parvati was able to produce not one, but TWO idols, which she gave to her pals, Jerri Manthey and Sandra Diaz-Twine—who were both visibly shocked—and J.T. got sent home by his OWN IDOL! But the best part of all had to be Russell’s face…bested by one of his own.