Episode 13: Satisfaction!

Published: December 21, 2023

Survivor 45 has crowned its champion, and Damnbueno is here with his in-progress reactions to the chaos, challenges, various Jake-ing, and through it all, the calm competence of Dee in the finale and Aftershow. Farewell to a well-played season, hello to a new tribe forming.

Episode 12: The head vs. the heart

Published: December 14, 2023

There's still one more episode of Survivor 45 to go, but Damnbueno is ready to crown the best strategic player of the season: Dee. Episode 12 showed her dodging and manipulating the episode, securing her desired outcome, and doing all this while almost entirely undetected. Can she go all the way?

Episode 11: New era whack-a-strategic-player

Published: December 7, 2023

As another big Survivor 45 player gets the boot in Episode 11, right after making a big move, Damnbueno looks ahead to the player making that move also getting the boot, ad infinitum. Also, a whole lot of jury preference projections.

Episode 10: Can a Big Move be the wrong move?

Published: November 30, 2023

At long last, everyone is finally voting on Survivor 45 in Episode 10, and Bruce does not have immunity. Damnbueno ponders the logic of taking out someone holding an idol while sparing the alliance that seems to be running the game.

Episode 9: It could be worse - it could be raining

Published: November 23, 2023

Damnbueno is thankful that three people losing their votes didn't turn out worse, but Survivor 45's Episode 9 still delivered a bit of a turkey. Which you then had to eat with your bare hands.

Episode 8: A positive evolution

Published: November 16, 2023

The auction is back in Episode 8 of Survivor 45, and Damnbueno takes you through the twists (of course there's a twist) and stomach-turns of that and the immunity challenge, plus a high-powered blindside at the subsequent Tribal Council.

Episode 7: Who's playing the long game?

Published: November 9, 2023

We've hit Episode 7 of Survivor 45, so it's time for the first individual challenge (sort of), and Damnbueno is happy to finally start evaluating who is playing the best long-term strategic game, who's treading water, and who's going under.

Episode 6: The dumb luck factor

Published: November 2, 2023

As the tribes join together-ish, the target narrows to six players, thanks to a twist. But one of them is miraculously saved, thanks to another twist. And another is targeted and leaves, thanks to a third twist. And yet, as Damnbueno agrees, it's all '___ crazy' fun.

Episode 5: The power of indecision ... to backfire

Published: October 26, 2023

Episode 5, the last pre-merge(atory) one of Survivor 45, was all about choices - Emily picking a side, or the journey trio deciding between sandwiches and amulets. Damnbueno evaluates those decisions, as the real game seems close to starting.

Episode 4: Who wants to play Survivor? No really, who?

Published: October 19, 2023

On Survivor 45, Episode 4 was a week of firsts - first swap of the new era, first win for Lulu, first time Lulu has fire - and also a week of seconds, as the season experienced its second quit. Damnbueno rounds all this up and evaluates how the swap affected players' positions.

Episode 3: The lost art of silence

Published: October 12, 2023

Episode 3 of Survivor 45 packed more big events into its hour-and-a-half, but it still managed to highlight most of the relationships important to how those events unfolded. Damnbueno recaps those and the big blindside, just before it all gets rent asunder in next week's swap.

Episode 2: The twist that doesn't twist

Published: October 5, 2023

After a denser, richer 90-minute Episode 2 that spent more time in camp than in recent seasons, Damnbueno mulls over Lulu's strategic choices and wonders about the implications of the Ep1 tribe-visit twist that was edited out for time.

Episode 1: Survivor déjà vu

Published: September 28, 2023

Damnbueno recounts the drama, collapses, misplays, oversharing, occasional triumphs, general chaos, and downer ending of the season premiere of Survivor 45. Featuring a few players who look like ones you may remember (especially Bruce).

Pre-season: The (lack of) evolution of the Survivor alpha male

Published: September 5, 2023

Damnbueno looks back on the pitfalls and obvious but frequently ignored lessons of attempting to play Survivor as an alpha male. With fewer attempts in the new era, has the archetype finally run its course?