Survivor: Heroes vs. Healers vs. Hustlers is the 35th season of the American CBS competitive reality television series Survivor. This season featured 18 new players divided into three tribes based on a dominant perceived trait: "Heroes" (courage), "Healers" (compassion), and "Hustlers" (tenacity). The season premiered on September 27, 2017, and ended on December 20, 2017, when Ben Driebergen was named the winner over Chrissy Hofbeck and Ryan Ulrich in a 5–2–1 vote.
Format
Survivor is a reality television show based on the Swedish show Expedition Robinson, created by Mark Burnett and Charlie Parsons. The series follows a number of participants isolated in a remote location, where they must provide food, fire, and shelter. One by one, a participant is removed from the series by majority vote, with challenges held to give a reward (ranging from living- and food-related prizes to a car) and immunity from being voted out of the series. The last remaining player receives a prize of $1,000,000.
Contestants
The cast is composed of 18 new players, initially split into three tribes containing six members each; Levu ("Heroes"), Soko ("Healers"), and Yawa ("Hustlers"). Notable contestants include former beauty queen Desiree "Desi" Williams, Olympian Katrina Radke and football player Alan Ball.
+List of Survivor: Heroes vs. Healers vs. Hustlers contestantsContestantAgeFrom Tribe Finish Original Switched Merged Placement Day 46 Excelsior,Minnesota 1st voted out Day 3 25 New York, New York rowspan=2 2nd voted out Day 6 25 Auburn,Alabama 3rd voted out Day 8 31 Houston,Texas 4th voted out Day 11 26 Santa Monica,California rowspan=2 5th voted out Day 14 23 Los Angeles,California 6th voted out Day 16 28 Louisville,Kentucky rowspan=3 rowspan=12 7th voted out Day 19 26 Newport News,Virginia 8th voted out1st jury member Day 21 23 Little Rock,Arkansas 9th voted out Day 24 27 Los Angeles,California 10th voted out3rd jury member Day 27 34 Tolland,Connecticut 11th voted out4th jury member Day 30 35 Beaufort,North Carolina 12th voted out5th jury member Day 33 25 Satellite Beach,Florida 13th voted out6th jury member Day 36 42 Parkland,Florida 14th voted out7th jury member Day 37 23 Solana Beach,California rowspan=2 Eliminated8th jury member 22 North Arlington,New Jersey rowspan=2 2nd runner-up Day 39 45 , New Jersey rowspan=2 Runner-up 34 Boise,Idaho Sole Survivor
Future appearances Ben Driebergen returned to compete on Survivor: Winners at War, and Chrissy Hofbeck returned to compete on Survivor 50: In the Hands of the Fans.
Outside of Survivor, Driebergen and Desi Williams competed on the first season of The Challenge: USA. Williams returned to compete on the second season. Driebergen also competed on The Challenge: World Championship. Also in 2023, Cole Medders appeared on the second season of Bachelor in Paradise Canada.
Season summary
The 18 players were initially divided into three tribes: Levu (Heroes), Soko (Healers) and Yawa (Hustlers). During the marooning, Ryan from the Hustlers tribe found a Super Immunity Idol that was only valid at the first Tribal Council. As his tribe won immunity, he was able to send the Idol to a member of the losing Heroes tribe; he chose Chrissy. Ryan and Chrissy both became dominant players on their tribes, forming strong alliances with Devon and Ben, respectively. The Healers tribe went undefeated, while the Heroes lost one member and the Hustlers lost two.
When the tribes were switched, Ryan and Chrissy aligned on the new Soko tribe, working to eliminate Healers and their allies, including Ryan's former Hustlers tribemate Ali. At the merge, Ryan and Chrissy brought their former Heroes and Hustlers tribemates together against the Healers. Ryan and Chrissy's allies eventually turned on them, with Ben acting as a double agent to hinder their plans, but Ben's new alliance also betrayed him for being a threat to win the game. However, he managed to successfully play three consecutive hidden immunity idols to reach the final four along with Chrissy, Ryan and Devon.
When Chrissy won the final immunity challenge, she had to grant one castaway additional immunity, which would force the remaining two to compete against each other in a fire-making challenge to determine the third finalist. She chose to save Ryan. Ben defeated Devon in the firemaking challenge to join Chrissy and Ryan in the finals. At the Final Tribal Council, Ben was praised for finding multiple hidden immunity idols and making it to the end despite being a massive target while Chrissy was commended for dominating in immunity challenges, but both were criticized for their lack of social connections, while Ryan was criticized for his lack of strategic conversations and work ethic. Ultimately, Ben was awarded the title of Sole Survivor over Chrissy and Ryan in a 5–2–1 vote.
+Challenge winners and eliminations by episodesEpisodeChallenge winner(s)Eliminated No. Title Original air date Reward Immunity Tribe Player1"I'm Not Crazy, I'm Confident"September 27, 2017 rowspan="2" Katrina2"I'm a Wild Banshee"October 4, 2017colspan="2" rowspan="2" Simonecolspan="2" 3"My Kisses Are Very Private"October 11, 2017colspan="2" rowspan="2" Patrickcolspan="2" 4"I Don't Like Having Snakes Around"October 18, 2017rowspan="2" rowspan="2" Alan5"The Past Will Eat You Alive"October 25, 2017 rowspan="2" Roark6"This is Why You Play Survivor"November 1, 2017 rowspan="2" Ali7"Get to Gettin'"November 8, 2017Desi rowspan="9" Jessica8"Playing with the Devil"November 15, 2017Chrissy,Cole, Devon,JP, Ryan[Joe]ColeDesi9"Fear of the Unknown"November 22, 2017Chrissy,Cole, JP,Joe, MikeLaurenCole10"Buy One, Get One Free"November 29, 2017Lauren[Ashley,Ben, Devon]AshleyJPAshley, Ben,Devon, JoeChrissyJoe11"Not Going to Roll Over and Die"December 6, 2017Chrissy[Ashley,Mike, Ryan]AshleyLauren12"The Survivor Devil"December 13, 2017Chrissy, Devon[Ryan]ChrissyAshley13"Million Dollar Night"December 20, 2017 Chrissy[Devon, Mike] ChrissyMikeChrissy[Ryan]Devon14"Reunion Special"
Episodes
Voting history
Original tribesSwitched tribesMerged tribeEpisode12345678910111213Day368111416192124273033363738Tribe colspan=2 colspan=2 Katrina Simone Patrick Alan Roark Ali Jessica Desi Cole JP Joe Lauren Ashley Mike DevonVotes 5–1 5–1 4–1 2–0 3–2 7–5 7–1 1–0 5–1 2–1 VoterVote ChallengeBen Katrina Jessica Desi Desi Cole Mike Joe Lauren Ashley Devon DevonChrissy Katrina Roark Ali Jessica Joe Desi Mike Joe Ashley Ben Ashley Ben MikeRyan Simone Patrick Roark Ali Jessica Desi Desi Cole Mike Ashley Ben Ashley Ben MikeDevon Simone Patrick Jessica Desi Desi Cole JP Joe Ben Ashley MikeMike Chrissy Joe Joe Cole JP Ryan Ben Ashley BenAshley Katrina Joe Jessica Joe Desi Cole JP Joe Ben MikeLauren Simone Patrick Jessicacolspan="2" Cole JP Joe BenJoe Alan Chrissy Ben Cole JP RyanJP Katrina Roark Ali Jessica Desi Desi Mike MikeCole Chrissy Joe Desi BenDesi Alan Chrissy LaurenJessica ChrissyAli Simone Patrick Chrissy JPRoark ChrissyAlan Katrina JoePatrick Simone LaurenSimone PatrickKatrina Ashley
Jury vote14Day39FinalistBenChrissyRyanVotes5–2–1JurorVoteDevonMikeAshleyLaurenJoeJPColeDesi Notes
Production This season featured several alterations to the rules. This season marked a return to the tiebreaker format used before the previous season, Survivor: Game Changers, where a tied vote at Tribal Council was followed by a second ballot before being declared "deadlocked". The format of the penultimate Tribal Council, with four players remaining, was changed; in lieu of a vote, the winner of the final immunity challenge was to assign additional immunity to another castaway, with the remaining two competing in a fire-making challenge to determine the third finalist. This was the fourth season of the show filmed in Fiji (tied with Nicaragua, the Philippines and Samoa), following Survivor: Fiji, Survivor: Millennials vs. Gen X, and Survivor: Game Changers.
Reception and ratings The September 27 premiere episode, titled "I'm Not Crazy, I'm Confident" saw a significant boost in viewership over March's Survivor: Game Changers with 8.33 million people tuning in, compared to the show's all-time low of 7.64 earlier in the year. That said, the series once again ranked first in its time-slot (by a significant margin) and once again tied with ABC's The Goldbergs for the critical 18-49 demographic, with both placing behind Fox's Empire.
The season itself had mixed response, garnering praise for the likable cast, entertaining tribal councils, and the gameplay of the Final 8. However, the new Final Four Twist was mostly panned by critics. After winning the final immunity challenge, Chrissy Hofbeck was awarded an advantage to be used at the following Tribal Council. She learned that in place of the conventional Day 38 final vote-off, she had to select one contestant to join her in the Final Tribal Council, while the remaining two contestants would be forced in a fire-making challenge to determine the third finalist. Due to the inclusion of this twist, contestant Ben Driebergen, who was virtually guaranteed to be voted out without immunity, was allowed one final chance of avoiding elimination. Subsequently, he went on to win the challenge and advance to the Final Tribal Council, where he then went on to win the season.
Alyssa Norwin of Hollywood Life said that the twist undermined the significance of winning the final immunity challenge. People Magazine blogger Stephen Fishbach, who played in Survivor: Tocantins and Survivor: Cambodia, tweeted that it removed fundamental social strategy from the game.
Host and Executive Producer Jeff Probst ultimately confirmed that, while the twist itself was not implemented in the game to specifically benefit Ben, its main goal was to prevent contestants like him from being eliminated one step away from the Final Tribal Council, simply for being a threat to win the game. The twist, Probst said, gives these types of players one last chance to survive instead of just being unanimously voted out by the others.
Dalton Ross of Entertainment Weekly ranked this season 24th criticizing both the underwhelming start to the season and the fire-making twist. In 2020, Survivor fan site "Purple Rock Podcast" ranked this season 33rd saying that "cast is at least pleasant, and at one point in the season there is actually a shockingly strong strategic play" but this season is one that "you'll likely forget completely soon after watching it". Later that same year, Inside Survivor ranked this season 28th out of 40 saying that it has "aged better than its surrounding seasons, and that's due to a pretty strong cast, who may be better remembered if the endgame had played out differently."
In 2021, Rob Has a Podcast ranked Heroes vs. Healers vs. Hustlers 33rd during their Survivor All-Time Top 40 Rankings podcast.
In 2024, Nick Caruso of TVLine ranked this season 26th out of 47.
U.S. Nielsen ratings No. inseries No. inseason Episode Air date Time slot (EST) Rating/share(18–49) Viewers(in millions) 513 1 "I'm Not Crazy, I'm Confident" Wednesdays8:00 p.m. 1.8/7 8.33 514 2 "I'm a Wild Banshee" 1.6/6 8.15 515 3 "My Kisses are Very Private" 1.7/7 8.02 516 4 "I Don't Like Having Snakes Around" 1.8/7 8.12 517 5 "The Past Will Eat You Alive" 1.7/7 8.22 518 6 "This is Why You Play Survivor" 1.6/6 7.69 519 7 "Get to Gettin'" 1.6/6 7.82 520 8 "Playing with the Devil" 1.7/6 8.85 521 9 "Fear of the Unknown" 1.4/5 7.42 522 10 "Buy One, Get One Free" 1.8/7 8.27 523 11 "Not Going to Roll Over and Die" 1.8/7 8.96 524 12 "The Survivor Devil" 1.8/7 8.74 525 13 "Million Dollar Night" 1.9/8 8.70 526 14 "Reunion Special" 10:00 p.m. 1.2/5 5.97
References
External links Official CBS Survivor website