Tonight on CBS their Emmy Award-winning series SURVIVOR returns with a new season and eighteen new castaways. Season 28 was filmed in Cagayan, a province in the Philippines and will be themed “Brawn vs. Brains vs. Beauty,” and will feature three separate tribes who all have the same ultimate goal: to outwit, outplay and outlast, and ultimately be crowned Sole Survivor. The show is hosted by Emmy Award winner Jeff Probst.
The contestants this season are: Brawn Tribe (Aparri) – Cliff Robinson – Former NBA All-Star, Lindsey Ogle – Hairstylist, Sarah Lacina – Police Officer, Tony Vlachos – Police Officer, Trish Hegarty – Pilates Instructor, Yung “Woo” Hwang – Martial Arts Instructor. Brains Tribe (Luzon) – David Samson – President, Miami Marlins, Garrett Adelstein – Pro Poker Player, J’Tia Taylor – Nuclear Engineer, Kassandra “Kass” McQuillen – Attorney, Latasha “Tasha” Fox – Accountant, Spencer Bledsoe – Student. Beauty Tribe (Solana) –
Alexis Maxwell – Student, Brice Johnston – Social Worker, Jefra Bland – Miss Kentucky Teen USA, Jeremiah Wood – Male Model, LJ McKanas – Horse Trainer, Morgan McLeod – Ex-NFL Cheerleader.
On tonight’s episode called, “Hot Girl With A Grudge” it is a two-hour special premiere and three castaways face a game-changing decision minutes after the competition begins. Meanwhile, one tribe pours both blood and sweat into an early challenge and one castaway seeks revenge after discovering that her tribe wants to vote her out.
Tonight’s episode looks like it is going to be great and you won’t want to miss it, so be sure to tune in for our live coverage of CBS’s Survivor: Brawn vs. Brains vs. Beauty at 8:00 PM EST! While you wait for our recap hit the comments and let us know how excited you are about the return of Survivor?
Tonight’s episode begins now – Refresh Page for Updates
Survivor is back with a whole new twist – brawn vs beauty vs brains! The brain tribe has an average IQ of 130. We’ve got world chess tournament winners, a lawyer, a baseball club manager and more. The beauties have pageant winners, models and ex-cheerleaders. They think they can use their looks to get what they want. The last faction is made up of an ex-pro NBA baller, a lady cop, a guy cop and other jock types. This is day one of 39 days and it’s on!
The brawn tribe comes in via truck. Trish, a Pilates trainer, can’t wait to get started. The boat brings in the beauties and the jocks are already dissing them. The brains fly in on a chopper. One of the beauties says she sees them as the “Cochrans” of the game. There was no shame in his game…
Jeff greets them and calls on Morgan and asks which group she thinks she’s in – she guesses beauty. Another guy deduces he’s in the nerd group. He calls on Tony, the cop, who says they’re going to stomp on the other two groups. Jeff says the season will test all of their skills starting now. He orders each group to choose a leader.
Beauty chooses LJ – who thinks he’s not the cutest of them all. The brawn picks Sarah based on her confidence. The brains choose David because they think he looks the smartest and trustworthy. Jeff then tells the leaders to pick the weakest in their group they would get rid of first.
LJ picks Morgan as the weakest – a petite female. She steps to the side. LJ says she’s hot vs cute and he doesn’t trust hot. Sarah says she likes them all but picks Trish, the older woman. She’s annoyed because she spoke up for Sarah but says she gets it. David of the brains chooses Garrett without hesitation. Jeff is surprised and David says he picked it based on the last 2/3 of the game. He picked him because he’s a double threat – brawn and brains.
The three that were chosen are going to be sent on the chopper and get to camp early before the others and get to make a decision for them all. Interesting twist… They fly away and Jeff gives the others their tribe names and maps to the camps. He tells them to get going and build their shelters and they all head out.
The three in the chopper ride in silence. Garrett says being picked first sucked and he didn’t like how he was picked without hesitation and doesn’t see himself as weak. Once at camp, he sees a note that he can help himself or help his tribe. He can either get a second bag of rice or a clue to the immunity idol. He picks the clue and gets a little map. He says when people see his body, they think he’s a jock, but he’s a genius pro poker player. He goes off looking for the idol and says that David is a threat and wants him gone.
Trish is at camp and says she was picked for being older and thinner. She is torn about her choice. Her knee jerk is to go for the idol but says she’s not generally selfish. She’s a single mom and says she’s a team player. She goes for the extra bag of rice and passes up the clue to the idol and hopes it doesn’t come back to bite her.
At the beauty camp, Morgan says she was surprised because she thinks she’s stronger. She wonders if LJ was tempted by her looks (she’s right) but says she holds a grudge. She chooses to get the idol clue without hesitation. She says getting the idol will be a game changer.
At Luzon, the brains camp, Garrett is searching in the waterfall for the clue. He’s frustrated because he can’t find it but then he finds a huge burlap wrapped parcel and finds the idol! He says he’s going to keep it to himself. He says this puts him in a strong position. He heads back to camp vowing to get rid of David.
Morgan searches near the big rock shelf on the ocean near the camp. She worries they’ll be there soon and catch her looking. The rest of her tribe walks up while she’s searching the rocks. They don’t see her and think it’s suspicious. She sees them and worries she’s been outed and knows she needs to make an excuse for what she’s doing there.
The beauties come into camp and Morgan jogs out of the ocean. She decides to lie and says she picked the supplies that were already there. She says she’ll need to look for it on the sly. She says she was checking the tide pool for crabs.
LJ is distracted by her wet suit and thinks she was looking for the idol and may already have it. He tries to smooth things over. Brice thinks she’s a scorned woman and butters her up for an alliance. She’s happy to stick with him for now. They all get busy working on shelter and fire and soon have a spark! They’ve got their fire.
Over with the brawn group, Trish and Sarah hug it out and she greets them all warmly. She wants to get the target off her back. She explains to them the choice she had and tells them she went for the rice. The group is thrilled with her decision and they all give another round of hugs. They agree to split up to work on fire and shelter and everyone gets to work.
Lindsey thinks they will dominate. Cliff tries to say he’s in sports marketing, but Woo knows right away that he was a pro-baller. Most of them seem to know who he was so he finally admits to it but is relieved that no one is making a big deal out of it. Sarah asks Tony if he’s a cop and he lies. He says he’s a construction worker. She says he looks like a cop and he continues to deny it. He thinks it will put a target on his back. Sarah admits to being a cop and she knows he’s not being honest. She doesn’t think she can trust him and says he needs to go. What an idiot – they could have been allies!
The brains show up and greet Garrett. Spencer thought David made a terrible choice picking him since he’s got a great physique. J’tia, a nuclear engineer, says she can design their shelter. She tells the others what to do and they jump to. They saw, cut and work. No one is working on fire thought. Tasha thinks J’tia is being bossy and isn’t planning it very well.
Spencer doesn’t think she’s doing it well and Kass also thinks her attitude sucks and notices that J’tia isn’t helping – she’s just ordering. David also isn’t impressed. He says he’s had a lot of experience with people who talk a good game, but don’t actually do any work. He says she’s just too much. She sits on the structure to test it and knocks it all over!
It’s time for the immunity challenge! Jeff greets the survivors on a huge playing field. They will move a cart through an obstacle course to get keys to allow them to load up three chests. They have to take the cart apart, put it back together and then solve a giant dragon puzzle. They will get the immunity idol – actually two tries get immunity and the third goes to tribal council. The winner gets a fire making kit and the second place gets flint. The losers get nada…
They start and beauty takes the lead, brains are last. They unlock the first chests and load them up. Brain catches up and it’s nearly neck and neck. Cliff is snagging the rings with his mile long reach. Spencer is tall too so that helps. Brawn has the lead at chest two. Brains and beauty are tied. Brains fall behind the others.
The brains drop a chest and bust it open causing a major delay. Then they bust another one spilling the pieces. Brawn is working on the puzzle and beauty is a little behind them. Brain is still putting their cart together and Jeff mocks them as being not so bright. They are so, so far behind. He says it’s one of the worst performances ever at this stage of Survivor.
Brawn and beauty are neck and neck on the puzzle. Beauty pulls ahead slightly. They are down to 4 pieces. Brawn is at 6. Then it’s 2 and 3. Beauty wins it! Brawn comes in second and brains are left in the metaphorical dust. They are nowhere near done and they will be the first tribe to head to council and lose a member.
Jeff hands out the two immunity idols and distributes the rewards. He sends them back to camp. He tells the brain tribe they’re losing someone tonight. Back at camp, the brains pick their performance apart. They discuss that they can’t trash talk the other tribes. Tasha says they all blew it. David and
Kass talk about voting out J’tia or Garrett. She wants to vote J’tia for the sake of tribe harmony. She thinks David is dumb for thinking of Garrett since he’s their muscle. She says J’tia is dead weight that’s not contributing.
Kass even tells J’tia to her face that she thinks she’s going to vote for her. Later, J’tia cries in confessional and says she’s not lazy. She says she performed well in the challenge and Kass says that’s because she’s been resting for the last three days. She and Tasha talk and tells her that Kass says she’s been sitting around. Tasha says she sees how she rubbed some people the wrong way. Garrett joins them and reassures J’tia. He wants them to vote David off. He thinks J’tia is a pain but wants to get rid of David because he sees him as the biggest threat, especially to him. J’tia says she’s loyal and the girls seem to agree with him.
Garrett goes to talk to Spencer about voting David and he asks him about idol clues. He acts like he’s worried about David looking for an idol. Spencer says that David and Kass out walking could be a sign they have the idol. He would rather vote for J’tia to be safe. He doesn’t want to tell Spencer about the idol and is worried about his plan being shaken up. The rains start to fall as they head off to tribal council.
At tribal, they get their torches and light them. Jeff reminds them that fire represents life. Garrett freaks and says there is a big spider on them. Jeff starts the dialogue with J’tia. She says she knows she’s on the block. She says she didn’t know she was turning people off and that they saw her as bossy. She laughingly admits to knocking the shelter over. David says she came out strong but then her plan fell apart. She’s annoyed because David forgot she was an engineer.
Lightning and thunder interrupt the talk. Jeff asks why David chose Garrett. He says he just knee jerked to him. Garrett says it sucked and he didn’t like being cast as the outsider. Garrett says he trusts his team though. He asks if David is going to vote Garrett out and he says no.
J’tia says being voted off first will suck. She says she knows someone has to go, but doesn’t want it to be her. She suggests David is the one who should be voted out. Jeff asks Spencer and he says it’s all about moving forward to keep the tribe harmonious and in trust. Kass goes off to vote first. We see David votes for J’tia. She votes for David. No one else votes are shown.
Jeff goes to tally the votes. He calls for a hidden immunity idol and Garrett doesn’t blink. He reads the votes: J’tia, David, J’tia, David, David, David. David is the first person voted out – looks like Garrett was persuasive enough. Jeff snuffs his torch and we have the first blindside of the season! Jeff says he hopes the tribe gets their act together. He also gives them flint and sends them off. David says he has no regrets and says the tribe just doesn’t have it together. He says he has no hard feelings toward his tribe.
Next day, J’tia and the others get started on the fire. Garrett is pleased that David was sent home and says he’s not having fun. He says manual labor and starving isn’t a fun adventure. Kass and the other girls are working on the fire. Garrett is being really whiny. He talks to Spencer and they say if they end up back at tribal, one of the girls has to go.
They talk to Kass and form a tentative alliance. Kass feels like voting David off was a blindside to her as well and that she’s a third to either the boys or Tasha and J’tia. She knows she’s the swing vote. Garrett says it’s a final three pact, but she thinks she owes no one allegiance even though she swaps a handshake with them.
Over at brawn, Woo and Cliff take the boat out to fish. Woo teaches him how to steer the boat. Cliff wants Woo to be his wing man. They tip the boat and fall in. The others watch them and laugh. They bring it back in and need to flip it to get the water out. Cliff calls Tony over to help. Sarah says Clif is funny and charismatic. She thinks he’s the most liked on the tribe. Tony doesn’t get why the others like Cliff. Woo jokes that they failed.
At beauty, they try to cut a coconut. Brice says Alexis is being a flirt and very sexual, always in her panties. He says Jefra doesn’t have all the crayons in her box. Jeremiah flirts with Morgan and Brice is facilitating it. Brice, Jeremiah and Morgan are looking like a tentative alliance.
At brawn, they gather fire wood. Trisha asks Lindsey to get some fire wood and she bitches at being asked to chip in. Lindsey starts to freak out on her and mocks her behind her back. Trish beefs to Tony about Lindsey being annoying and lazy. Tony tells her that Lindsey is all about Cliff, but the two of them can stick together. He sees her as a drama free hard worker. He tells her he has a secret project. He’s building shelter and also a spy shack. #spyshack Tony constructs a stack of palm fronds to listen in on Woo and Cliff.
It’s time for another immunity challenge. This one is water based. Jeff welcomes the tribes #brawnsbrainsbeauty to the competition. They see that David is gone from the brains. He takes back the immunity idols and explains the course. They have to swim out to a bamboo cage, get into it and find fish traps. They have to untie the door, push the traps out and swim them back to the shore and solve a complicated fish puzzle. The first two tribes win immunity. They are also playing for fish kit for first place (nets, worms, lures, pan, oil, salt and pepper). Second place gets a puny fishing kit.
Brawn sits out Cliff. Beauty sits out Brice. They all have to reach the cage before any can climb over. Brawn and beauty are in first. J’tai drags down the brains. Brawn gets everyone into the cage. Garrett goes to work untying knots. The other teams have more people participating. They take turns going underwater. Brawn gets their gate open first, then brains. They start moving the heavy fish traps out.
Beauty finally gets their cage door open. Garrett is doing a lot of heavy lifting for his team. Jeff says this is an exhausting challenge because there is a lot of weight in the traps. The brains are working well together and they have a huge lead. They are first back to start on their puzzle. Beauty is floundering. Brawn finally gets back as well. J’tia is doing the puzzle for the brains.
Some of the brawn – Sarah and Tony – are bleeding. J’tia is struggling a little, but beauty is still stuck in the water. Sarah pulls brawn ahead and then J’tia catches it up. Sarah gets #2. Beauty still in the water. Sarah gets #3 then #4. Beauty finally starts their puzzle. Sarah has just two pieces left. Brawn wins it by a huge lead. LJ rapidly pulls the beauty ahead and J’tia starts to panic. Beauty gets #3 and #4 and Jeff mocks the brains.
LJ gets #5. J’tia is only on #2. LJ is at #6. J’tia is really blowing this. LJ pops the last piece in and beauty comes in second sending brains back to tribal council. Jeff hands out immunity idols and rewards and sends them back to camp. He asks J’tia what she’s thinking and she admits she let them down. The rain starts pouring down on them all as they head out. J’tia has the look of the doomed (and rightly so).
Brawn is happy with their stuff. They congratulate Sarah for rocking another puzzle victory for them. Tony’s foot is bleeding and her hand. He thinks there may be a clue to the idol in the basket with the spices and oil so he tries to search on the sly. He finds it in the little wooden tackle box. He tucks it in his pocket to read later. It says to look for another body of water – not the well or the ocean.
Tony says he knows it must be in the pond behind camp. He trots off to claim the idol and has it in hand within moments. He’s so excited that he gives it a kiss. He says he’ll keep it a secret so no one can use it as leverage against him. He calls himself the king of the jungle…
At the brains camp, they trudge back all desolate and depressed. Garrett thinks J’tia is the one that needs to go. He talks to the others and asks if they should just decide as a group. Garrett is trying to avoid playing his idol by getting a public group consensus. Kass calls out J’tia and Spencer agrees that she failed. He says they need to win and asks Garrett. He also says she should go and asks Tasha. She demurs and says that she thinks individual conversations are needed.
Spencer says he doesn’t think that’s necessary. Tasha is frustrated because she was looking forward to scheming. Garrett says they should all stick together until they go to tribal. He gets whiny and Tasha tells him this is the least strategic game she’s seen. She says that Garrett is laying around too much and focuses on eating too much. She wonders why he’s there if he doesn’t want to play the game.
J’tia says she felt like she got a performance evaluation and was told she’s going to be fired. Tasha keeps trying to talk them into talking. Spencer thinks Garrett is being an idiot for not having the dialogue in secret because now they have to babysit the girls since they outnumber him and Garrett.
Tasha goes to talk to Kass about making a play to take over from the guys. J’tia sits in camp upset. Tasha tells Kass this is the only time they will have the numbers to take the guys out. The guys walk over because Garrett doesn’t want them to talk. They leave J’tia at camp and she dumps the bag of rice into the fire! She says that’s what happens when you leave the mental patient alone. When Kass asks, she says she doesn’t know what happened.
The others discover what she did. Garrett is really whiny about that because he says it’s put him at rock bottom since he’s already hungry and struggling. Kass says she’d like to see the criteria that put people in the brains tribe. She says she was ready to align with and save J’tia until she pulled the rice stunt and now can’t trust her.
At tribal, the brains come in and Jeff greets them. He says their faces are upset. Spencer tells him about the open forum discussion that was not what you usually do in Survivor. Tasha says she wanted to talk in private, but Garrett wouldn’t have it. Jeff asks him where the strategy is in that. He says he wanted Kass to know they were allied with her. J’tia says she wanted to hurt Garrett so she threw the rice in the fire. He asks if she threw it all in there and she says most of it. Tasha says she knew that she was volatile and that’s why she tried to keep it private.
Jeff tells them that blindsides are effective. Garrett tries to defend himself and J’tia says that’s what he gets for spanking her in public. Kass says she was with Tasha washing their feet and that Garrett’s paranoia led him to the beach and that cost the rice. Tasha says that Garrett has no game and he says that she’s just upset that she and J’tia were allied. Garrett uses the word alliance and then tries to correct it and say tribe. Garrett then reveals the three of them had an alliance and Tasha isn’t happy.
Garrett tries to cover up what he said even after Jeff spelled out what he said. Spencer agrees that Jeff called it correctly. He tries to say Kass started up the alliance and throws J’tia back under the bus for throwing the challenge. Garrett keeps trying to play the girls against each other. Jeff says it’s crazy and calls for the vote. Garrett goes first and votes J’tia. She votes for him. Spencer votes J’tia and says the fact that she’s a nuclear engineer is genuinely scary. None of the others are shown.
Jeff calls for an immunity idol and Garrett sits on it. He reads the votes: J’tia, Garrett, J’tia, Garrett, Garrett. OMG! Garrett got a #blindside while holding an immunity idol. Holy crap! I love, love, love it! Spencer surmises that he’s now at the bottom. He tells the brains they’re finally learning how to play the game and sends them back to camp. Garrett admits he was blindsided and says his idol is back at camp. He says he was so confident he didn’t even bring it and says it’s embarrassing in a lot of different ways… Ha! Great start to the new season.
