★★★★★ 0/5

Mark wins Australian Survivor: Blood v Water

A unanimous jury vote delivers $500,000 prize to ex-SAS specialist Mark Wales.

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Ex-SAS specialist, Mark Wales, has won Australian Survivor: Blood v Water taking home the $500,000 cash prize in a landslide win.

The jury unanimously gave him the series title over runners-up Shayelle “Shay” Lajoie and Christine “Chrissy” Zaremba.

In his second season, Mark was selected as Sole Survivor after concealing two hidden immunity idols and enduring punishing physical challenges.

The final Immunity Challenge saw the final four contestants – Mark, Chrissy, Josh and Shay – standing on a ledge suspended over a waterfall while they held onto pegs until just one was left standing. That proved to be Shay, with Josh voted out in the Tribal Council.

It was the second season filmed in Queensland due to the pandemic, which featured US Survivor queen Sandra Diaz-Twine, who was voted out on Day 16.

Presuming the show is renewed for 10, it should look to international locations, previously in Fiji.

35 Responses

  1. Can we also not stoop to bringing in US cast members – love Sandra, but there was no place for her in Aus Survivor, was a gimmick we didn’t need!

    Also, for the love of god can someone tell JLP how to ask questions at Tribal and not just go around asking everyone ‘so how are you voting tonight’…..

  2. I’m clearly in the minority, but I loved this season! I don’t really understand all of the negativity surrounding it. I was definitely surprised that it was a unanimous jury vote, though. I thought Chrissy would have earned a few votes, especially based on the questions and comments from the jury.

  3. Shay in an instagram post indicated the final tribal was heavily edited and that some of the mens comments directed to chrissy and shay did not make it but led to her putting up and shutting up. Her post was fair and congratulated mark but she wanted to set the record straight as to why she did not appear to say too much … seems the producers decided how they were portrayed ….

  4. Mark and Sam played hard and played well.

    But as a die-hard huge fan of Survivor myself, I struggled with this season – I love the BvW theme (loved BvW on the US show), but the cast was not engaging (where’s the drive to play?) and edited program was a real let down with far too much focus on a handful of players (it was all Sam, Mark, Jordie with some Chrissy – even if the others were duds, show us the quieter players for some variation in the content).

    While the challenges are normally Aus’s strong spot, they focused too much on strength when they should be varied in skill set (especially with the lack of Puzzles). And if they have to do Non-Elim twists, keep them before the merge.

    At least the American & Sth African Survivor shows are there for us while Aus Survivor get their (bleep) together.

    To Aus Survivor producers, I’m not mad I’m just disappointed – do better because you’re losing me.

  5. Absolutely loved this season. The family members added a completely new dimension to the same old game. The right person won by a landslide too. Marks strategic game was superior. It even involved distancing himself from his wife early in the game. Bravo.

  6. Such an undeserved winner. The way him and especially his wife played the game showed they didn’t have any morals.
    Shay, even though was probably played the better game was voted out once and shouldn’t have come back.
    Chrissy, stood out from day one, played hard and also played the social game well.
    The fact Mark won in a white wash suggests to me that Sam was hard at work with the jury.

    And why on earth did we have to get the blood families not just once but twice?!? They have no place at the final jury.

  7. Awful winner and considering the jury wanted a winner that reflected them they’re not exactly showing themselves in a good light.

    All came down to Jessie and Jordan’s ego I think, wanting their narrative to be they were outplayed by a brilliant bit of gameplay by the eventual winner rather than being cheated and stolen out of $500k, hence they rewarded the behaviour rather than punished it.

    Hopefully this season just goes down as a dud rather than the beginning of a terminal decline.

  8. Finally this season is over it was painful to watch it’s one of the worst Season’s of Australian Survivor ever the contestants this season were scaredy cats all season

  9. I found Mark ans Sam repugnant as a couple….i love survivor but didnt care for most of this cast at all. If i feel the same after 4 episodes next year i wont be watching. They need to improve the casting, how did the twins make the cut this year? They did nothing all season…really disapointed channel 10 and given the ratings im not the only one who felt this.

  10. I’m not a super survivor fan but I have enjoyed past seasons of Australian Survivor and watched most episodes of each season. All I know is, this season I was bored watching the episodes and found them far too long, so simply stopped watching. I didn’t even bother with the finale.

  11. Can we please have a season with all new players, all unknowns. No returning players, no gimmicks, no celebs, etc – just 24 people who are interested in playing Survivor and have never been on TV before.

      1. Yes a fresh cast will be great for next year. I feel Blood vs Water hampered the casting where 1 person was a fan of the show and the other didn’t know as much about the show but the fan was the one who was cut early and we were left with Dave and Chrissy, 2 self-confessed non-fans getting far into the game. Don’t need to see any returning players or an All Stars season again anytime soon.

        Sadly non-elimination twists will always be in play with the number of episodes required and the number of contestants the show starts with.

  12. Congratulations to Mark. And great efforts from Chrissy and Shay. Really enjoyed this season of Survivor: Blood vs. Water. Hope they do another Blood vs. Water next season (or maybe another All-Stars season).

  13. Sadly cannot argue against all of these comments. Definitely was one of my go-to shows, but sadly was a little put off by the dragged out / diluted story producing. Hopefully the change in location next season gives it a a restart.

    Agree with above.

  14. I’m not quite on board with most of the criticisms here. Whilst this wasn’t the best season of AS so far, “least best” still stands so far taller than most recent seasons of the US original so job bloody well done as far as I’m concerned. My only real let down was no Reunion. Congratulations to Mark for a solid, well played win and well done to 10 for taking feedback with regards to the number and length of episodes per week. I loved it!

    1. I’m loving the US show recently. While they have a very twist heavy game structure, the contestants leave me more engaged in the show then the Aus show. While everyone’s “dog has cancer” (my nickname for sob-story), there’s a real drive to play from all the players. Above all, that’s the make or break factor for me in watching.

      Not to mention the edited show is well rounded in showing everyone while also being a shorter watch (45 mins a week).

    2. I’m with you Mac, I enjoyed this season and loved that they finally moved to a final three instead of two. The US seasons have been really declining with the last one being the worst I’ve seen by a long way. The current one is slightly more bearable, but as soon as Aus started doing them, the US seasons started to look poor and rushed with cast chosen for their backstory rather than their ability in the game.

  15. Casting had too many variables, mixing returning players, with ex-winners, with people who didn’t know what the show even was, with family. Too many streams of contestants!!
    Absolute overloading of strength challenges, the US version moved away from those stupidly long endurance challenges as the final challenge yonks ago. Make that final challenge and the few leading up to it a bit more open.
    More diversity needed. Was a slight improvement this season but needs to take a leaf from the Amazing Race casting book.
    Rant over – sort yourselves out Ten and the ratings will return.

  16. Agree with other comments. Snooze fest! Very disappointed as a long time fan of Survivor. The 2 – 3 nights of invested time was not worth it this season. Particularly when it’s those drawn out 2 hour episodes… reduce to 60-75 mins please. We don’t need 5 mins of landscape shots after every break, nor do we need JLP nodding before each person votes. The recaps were as good as the full episode given nothing happened for half the season.
    Editing not the best… but not helped by the filming – can they please try and keep the 1-on-1 interviews to one location per person?! You will literally see 3 different locations used for a one sentence monologue, making it so obvious that it’s been edited to suit the narrative.
    Clearly the producers tried to shake things up by bringing the 3 misfits back from purgatory. I’m sure that was originally only meant to be 1 returnee but when the cast is on a predictable path of voting, then you could see why there was no choice but to intervene.

  18. very flat finale, a lot of them became very unlikeable in the end, rolling their eyes when shay spoke. Past seasons’ jury interrogations have been gripping and engaging. everyone asking detailed questions about their grievances and airing each others dirty laundry. This year is seemed everyone said what they wanted to in the first minute, then just padded it out.

    Don’t do a final 3 ever again, just have one less non-elimination episode, i love the high-stakes final 3 immunity challenge and final tribal where one vote determines the other grand finalist.

  19. I was an Australian Survivor fan, but pulled out about halfway through this season. There’s just been too much tinkering with it. And in the early days with a 7.30pm start time and the finishing at about 9.15pm, that’s pretty much my entire night of viewing just on one show. Long, drawn out and frustrating. The low ratings seem to reflect a loss of direction this season, not just the MAFS effect.

  20. Happy for Mark but who can honestly say they knew it would be a unanimous decision based on the way the editing was influencing us on other ways? I thought it may be Shay even though she had already been voted out once. Glad it wasn’t Chrissie, I found her to be a bit fake. All the nice things said about why they voted Mark, who would’ve thought? Another Survivor fanatic here who was very disappointed in this season. I will have to write to Jeff and tell him to straighten out the Australian version producers before they ruin the brand altogether lol

  23. As much as I love the location this year and last year, having it back in Fiji or somewhere else would be a nice change.

    I’m an avid Survivor fan, love the US and Aus versions. But this years survivor was a major downer for me. It really concentrated on the Sam and Mark storyline and it felt like the Sam and Mark show. Last night even confirmed this. The Final Tribal council, Mark was doing all the talking. Shay hardly said a word and Chrissy said a few things. While on the Jury side, Jordan, Mel and Juice never got to ask a question. I’m sure they did, but it never made the final edit. So next season better have better editing and not just focus one one or two contestants for the duration of the show.

  24. I was waiting all season for this series to be worth my time… and it never happened.
    This has been the weakest season by far imo, and it turned out the Blood vs Water gimmick added little to no extra value after having the potential to be awesome. The editing this season was a complete mess and continues to be an issue.. I knew next to nothing about KJ and Shay… and they were in the final 5. It had been the Sam, Mark and Jordie show since the merge and the stubbornness of most contestants this year resulted in a boring, cliched, predictable season that offered little surprise (not the producers as they can’t make players vote one way).
    I’m also sick of the strength challenges every time… a few weeks ago watching KJ and Chrissie go toe to toe with Mark, Jordie and Josh in that ladder type challenge was ludicrous. Where are the full challenge puzzles or the head scratcher intellectual challenges? The whole season has been a snooze fest.

    I hope next season is better.

  25. Unfortunately, the show was so badly edited, that you could tell weeks ago who was going to win. Don’t even get me started on their editing of the usual pre-tribal council talk, again so obvious.

    At least there was only one (albeit it four returning) elimination twist this season.

    I love Aus survivor, but this season was not its best. With idols constantly hidden, we didn’t have the constant searching and playing / twists from surprise eliminations, we had more people who were interested in taking friends to the final than playing the actual game. I felt like even Jonathan was board half the time tbh..

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