These are just a few observations I’ve made on 48's preview. I think it’s interesting to analyze these trailers under the assumption that producers likely give notes on specific players to highlight, though I acknowledge that editing trends for marketing material will naturally not follow as strict guidelines as editing for the actual tv product. 

With that being said, there are some consistencies between this preview and that of previous seasons’ that i think are worth bringing up, both as a tool for predicting how this season might go and because i find it fun. I’ll be focusing my comparisons on 44 & 46 as they were both finished seasons when their previews aired (unlike 43/47) with a distant time out of the season (unlike 45) and without the weight of trying to really push this era as the new era (unlike 42), though I'll occasionally be bringing those other seasons into the fold where I think it's relevant...

1*** I do not think that these trailers give us any sort of hint as to who the winner is – that’s too easy. I especially don’t think that they have any guidelines about displaying the winner in specifically the last 15 seconds as another post theorized. The timing is too arbitrary – if we had a winner this season who appeared in the last 23 seconds, i bet next season we'd see theories about the last 25 or 30 seconds being paramount. The biggest hint i think these previews can provide is on who the major characters might be and who has potential to go deep.

In the trailer, we have 8 contestants get ‘spotlight’ confessionals, which i define as a confessional that gives some level of personal or strategic content where the person is clearly seen speaking in the trailer: Joe, Stephanie, Kamilla, Star, Kevin, Shauhin, David, Eva.

• For 44 we had 5 spotlit contestants: Matthew, Brandon, Carson, Carolyn, Yam Yam
• For 46 we had 5 spotlit contestants: Tevin, Ben, Venus, Tiff, Kenzie

10 prevalent characters across these seasons, including 2 winners, 5 finale-makers, 9 merge-makers, and the odd-one-out Matthew was a major production favorite in the pre-merge and was eliminated in unusual fashion. 

It should be noted though that this season preview differs from these other two in that it only has spotlight confessionals, while 44 and 46 both had other voiceovers that had disembodied players talking generally about the game. for comparison those numbers are:

• 44 had 8 total voiceover speakers – 6 merge-makers with 3 finale-makers, odd ones out being the aforementioned Matthew and bench-warmer Claire
• 46 had 8 total voiceover speakers – 6 merge-makers with 2 finale-makers, odd ones out being mergeatory boot Moriah and idol-in-her-pocket Jem.

I expect these numbers to be more sturdy for making predictions on the fate of the spotlit 48 cast: most merge-makers, 2-3 finale-makers, 2 pre-mergers – 1 with heavy significance to that section of the game (Matthew, Jem), 1 less so (Claire, Moriah).

Also, as a more minor point to this section: Matthew had a major amount of screentime in the 44 preview despite being a pre-merge quit/medevac. I bring this up in response to folks saying that Joe and the folks he followed on instagram are likely all merge-makers. As Matthew showed, Joe is definitely still vulnerable of going early despite having the most preview screentime. I’d argue that him following 3 non-speakers and only 1 speaker might actually spell danger for him given the aforementioned patterns of 2 pre-mergers being preview speakers. Worth keeping in mind once we see how the season starts unravelling…

2*** The two seasons of the new era whose stories were most shaped by the early obstacles of a tribe, 44 & 45, are also the only two seasons to disproportionately introduce members of those tribes, Tika & Lulu, in its preview. Most of the new era seasons give us introductions to a roughly even number of players across each tribe with the exception of these two:

• the Tika 3 have 3/5 confessional spots in 44’s preview;
• all of the Lulus who don’t quit get confessional spots in 45’s preview, this in comparison to 3 for Belo (one of which is returnee Bruce) and 2 for Reba.

This season, we once again have a disproportionate tribal focus: purple tribe has half of the confessionals at 4, while orange & green each have 2. i think this is possibly a hint that the purple tribe and the bonds those players make is crucial to the season’s story – likely because its the tribe where the major rootable characters of the season come from, as was the case for Tika & Lulu, and possibly because they are doomed to explode early on, as was also the case for Tika & Lulu.

Anyone curious about 46’s Yanu, which did not have a disproportionate amount of preview time (both Yanu & Nami got 2 players with spotlight confessionals) despite producing 4 of the most memorable characters of the season and losing most premerge challenges – I think the most important linking factor between Tika & Lulu is that the bond of the surviving players got pivotal screentime and those characters were all edited as rootable underdogs, while 46 was much more an individualist frenzy where neither Tiff Kenzie nor Q got edits that hinged on their relationships with one-another or positioned them as underdogs.

This trend is also informing my skepticism of Joe's preview screentime equating to game longevity and that his instagram following is a small collection of the jury or late-gamers. In general I think instagram following is usually just a distraction since these players go on to meet each other outside the game and become close, so it could mean entirely nothing game-related. But if it does mean something, I'm more inclined to believe that it suggests Joe, Thomas, and Bianca as the prophesied early purple boots whose absence unites the other 3 and that Mary and Kamilla are their stray pre-merge comrades. Again, I don't really think this, but I'll be keeping it in mind as the season starts to unfold....

3*** They’re not going to highlight all their major characters or successful players. That’s too easy. Looking at every trailer of the new era with a finished season behind it, we see that at least one finale-maker gets absolutely no speaking line, even including 46’s audition tapes. 

Looking at the new era finale-makers:

• 42 had 4/5 speak including 2 spotlights – Lindsay doesn't speak;
• 44 had 4/5 speak including 3 spotlights – Heidi doesn't speak;
• 45 had 4/5 speak including 2 spotlights – Katurah doesn't speak;
• 46 had 4/5 speak including 2 spotlights – Charlie doesn't speak;

If you choose to loop in 43, which was aired around the final 4 or 5, meaning that production likely had an unsturdy but still somewhat limited scope of who could make finale if they started production on the trailer a few rounds prior: 3/5 speak including 3 spotlights – Cassidy & Owen are the ones who don't speak. As a side note on Owen & Cassidy, they are the only ones from the Final 8 that season who don't get any spotlight, making me think that, while production didn't know the winner yet, they had a good idea that at least one of those two was getting dragged towards the end... lol

So the chances of making it to finale go up considerably for people who get spotlights. But importantly, they usually try to hide at least one person from immediate view. I highlight this mainly cuz every season the fake bootlists will be riddled with names in the pre-merge of just people who didn’t speak in the teaser – go back to 46 and charlie is pre-merge on nearly every fake bootlist. worth keeping in mind as those arise.

4*** While I don’t think the winner necessarily has to have a confessional in the preview – it's likely, but it’s also so easy for producers to order the editors to hide the winner just to keep schizo fans like us on our toes – I think it’s likely they at least wanna push a decent chunk of their deep-runners, including at least 1 or 2 finalists.

Interestingly, coverage of finalists for finished seasons seems to follow a pattern. Of the finished seasons:

• 42 gave 1 finalist a spotlight, all 3 speak;
• 44 gave 2 finalists a spotlight, the other doesn't speak;
• 45 gave 1 finalist a spotlight, all 3 speak;
• 46 gave 2 finalists a spotlight, the other doesn't speak.

With only spotlight confessionals in 48’s preview, I’m personally predicting at this stage that 2/8 speakers are finalists, and we don’t hear from the other finalist at all, similar to 44 & 46.

These non-speaking finalists typically get just one quick shot of them, as was the case for Heidi and Charlie. Following this pattern, I'm predicting one finalist between Bianca, Charity, Justin, Kyle, Mary, Saiounia, and Thomas

Interesting to note here that both 44 and 46 gave spotlight to 1st and 3rd places, though I think this is easier to not be deliberate. I do think its safest to bet amongst the spotlit contestants for the winner – all the other previews for finished seasons gave their winner a speaking part – though I don't think it's a certainty at all cuz I think it's inevitable that trend gets broken. And in a trailer with only 8/18 cast-members speaking, this could very well be the season to break it....

5*** Every player is shown on screen in a shot focused specifically on them except for one: Cedrek. Maybe he’s the aforementioned obscured finale-maker, but in season's past, we've at least seen those players' faces even if they didn't have a moment to speak.

No other preview in the new era (except for 47, which was a rush job done early in the season) has just straightup not shown one of their players. Before this, the least visible player in a new era preview was 46's Jelinsky, who was shown with his back turned in a very quick moment in the audition tapes segment of that preview. I think this likely means producers/editors literally just didn’t notice Cedrek didn’t have a shot in the trailer or just didn’t care, which I think is more than likely a foreboding sign for his longevity & memorability in the game.

And as a hilarious add-on to this point: the boat shot of green team doesn’t even include him cuz Kevin is in the way 😭😭 brutal

this is my most confident prediction. they do not know this man was even on the boat to begin with, let alone on the season 😭

Those are my notes. again, mostly just fun and predictive – patterns are broken all the time, and I don’t claim to have any insider knowledge or absolute algorithm. but i think this is fun information for early speculation, and as the season starts unfolding and/or we get credible spoilers, I think some of this stuff might be worth looking back at to shape further predictions....

TL;DR: robot, please, just a nibble

Someone in one of the episode discussions posts pointed out that the winner of every season of the new era was shown in at most, the last 15 seconds of the season preview

• Maryanne - Last 15 seconds
• Gabler - Last 8 seconds
• Yam Yam - Last 15 seconds
• Dee - Last 10 seconds
• Kenzie - Last 15 seconds
• Rachel - Last 12 Seconds

Obviously a few of these don’t mean shit cuz some of these seasons weren’t finished filming yet when their previews aired, but the fact that it’s 6/6 so far, is not something squint at imo. And the people who were in the last 15 seconds of the 48 preview were Joe, Shauhin, Stephanie, and Eva

So I’m willing to bet money that one of these four will be the winner of S48

Also now that we know the tribe divisions, I think it’s also worth taking another look at who Joe was following before the preview aired, and those people were Thomas, Bianca, Mary, and Kamilla

Now Thomas and Bianca are on the same tribe as Joe so that would make sense, but Mary and Kamilla is interesting cuz unless we get a swap in 48 (fingers crossed 🤞) or they meet on a journey, there’s no way for them to have met before Mergeatory.

So while I don’t think Mary or Kamilla win, I think it’s likely they at least make Mergeatory

https://imgur.com/a/oh2jlmS

...usually wins. How true is this?

As expected ..

This post was not true - This one has Rachel out pre-merge and as he said it wasn't true because she won. Correct
Female Winner - Correct

Anika doesn't win - Correct

Winner was not at the F12 Feast - Correct

Hope to see you back for Season 48 u/lifetimerobot and congrats on another successful spoiled season.

This is the first challenge (you can see everyone on purple). It involves cargo net and smashing tikis

I believe this is Kamilla, Kyle, Mitch at a water challenge

Kyle and Charity at water challenge

Bianca throwing ball at water challenge (sorry for unflattering photo lol)

Shauhin water challenge

I believe this is Mitch David and Chrissy arriving at water immunity challenge

Not confident but I think this is at the water challenge? Saionuia and I believe Mary's hair looks pretty wet

Joe water challenge

Eva water challenge

Thomas water challenge (buff position is different from both marooning and first immunity)

So the people safe should be

- All of orange

- Everyone on purple except Star

- Potentially Saiounia and Mary for green (again, little unsure about this one)

Black woman in purple is star and the old lady in orange is the firefighter whose name we dont know yet. Mary is falling when jeff calls the doctors (possible medevac?) this has to be the first IC or they would spoiled a lot... kyle (orange), bianca (purple), shauan (purple), mitch (orange), david (orange), saiounia (green), and some woman from green (mary or stephanie? picture below), eva (purple), joe (purple) are seen in a different challenge (water).

saiounia and a woman from green in a water challenge

a challenge in the first episode i guess

mary falling

firefighter lady

star

Purple:

Joe Hunter

Thomas Krottinger

Shauhin Davari

Eva Erickson

Woman with two nose piercings (Star?)

Bianca Roses

Green:

Kevin Leung

Justin Pioppi

Cedrek McFadden

Tarot card lady (Stephanie Berger?)

Saiounia Hughley

Mary Zheng

Orange:

Mitch Guerra

David Kinne

Kyle Fraser

Kamilla Karthigesu

Charity Nelms

Older Lady that looks like Sandy Burgin

This is the post-season discussion thread for Survivor 47. What did you think of the season? How soon did you guess the winner? Discuss all things Survivor 47 below.

This is the speculation thread for the preview of Survivor 48. Use this to discuss any spoilers for Survivor 48, and make your predictions about the season below.

This is the episode discussion thread for the actual finale episode of Survivor 47.

The stakes could not be higher at a crucial immunity challenge; castaways must spark a win or flame out at a fire-making showdown to earn their way to the final three; one castaway is crowned Sole Survivor and awarded the $1 million prize.

Has Rachel won or is dirt-contour-queen Sue Smey in with a shot?

Here's the description for the final On Fire episode:

It's the finale of Survivor 47 and Jeff, Jay and Charlie are joined by the Winner of Survivor 47 to unpack the epic ending. But first, Jeff looks back 47 finales later, and explains how it has evolved over the years. Then, they dive into the final immunity challenge and why the castaways returned to the mud one more time. Later, they explore the Final 4 Firemaking challenge and how the wind not blowing your way can change everything. Finally, they are joined by Survivor 47's winner to discuss their game, how one vote changed their entire journey, and how life completely changed for them when they got back home. Plus, an exciting revelation about Charlie's relationship with the Survivor 47 winner that will certainly surprise you.

Rachel was the S46 alternate, so that's probably Charlie's relationship that's being referred to here. Congrats Rachel and thanks again Rome.

With the final 3 being almost certainly locked in as Sue, Rachel, and Sam, I'm as curious as anyone where everyone's votes are going to go, and I think that the jury interview might hold a lot of insight into that. While this may be overthinking it, I think the "Who among the jury played the best game and why?" section gives a lot of insight into what style of gameplay they'll respect the most, and makes me fairly certain of how they'll all vote, with one exception.

Sierra's favorite juror was Kyle, and is probably a Sam voter. She could surprise me (Rachel's a challenge beast in her own right) but I think that Sierra's too close to Sam not to vote for him.

Sol and Andy both said Caroline, and I think this makes them easy Rachel locks. Gabe gave an honorable mention to Caroline so I'll put him in this section too. Caroline and Rachel played pretty similar games, so if you liked Caroline's game, you liked Rachel's.

Kyle's pick went to Gabe which would imply to me a Sam lean, and respect towards his more outwardly aggressive game.

Caroline chose Genevieve and is probably the biggest Rachel lock on the board. She's spoken pretty glowingly about Rachel constantly, and Genevieve has also in the past stated that Rachel played the game she wished she could've played.

Teeny isn't in the jury interview but actively dislikes Sam and is an obvious Rachel vote.

And the final vote, the one who everyone has a different opinion of, is Genevieve. Maddeningly, her answer was that she was torn between Caroline and Gabe. So she respects both the games of Rachel and of Sam. Which leaves us at square one. Imagine what great TV this would be if Genevieve was the swing vote here! Unfortunately I do think Gen probably just makes the difference between a 6-2-0 and a 5-3-0. I think based on the way that this last episode was edited I'd speculate that she'll vote Rachel, though. There would probably be more of the Sam/Genevieve relationship in there if she ends up voting for him.

Is all of this overthinking it? Probably!

And those people are Mary, Kamilla, Thomas, and Bianca

Now it could mean a number of things.

• They all make the merge/jury (best case scenario)
• They’re all on the same tribe, which makes this mean absolutely nothing (except for maybe the poor sap that Joe didn’t follow)
• They’re all pre-jury (worst case scenario)

But yeah, Joe Hunter of S48 follows these people currently on IG. Do with this info what you will

Also doesn’t this like go against his contract or something with CBS? Cuz if it does then Joe might be in big, big trouble.

And just in case some of y’all think I’m making this up (gives side-eye to those of y’all in the survivorsucks forum, cuz I know y’all see this too 😒). Here’s my proof

https://imgur.com/a/oh2jlmS

Bruce said Teeny will lose against Sam in fire, and that Rachel will beat Sam and Sue at F3, Sam will get some votes and Sue will get none. Why would Bruce do this?

https://preview.redd.it/jw7agfulut6e1.png?width=442&format=png&auto=webp&s=def2f4906410fbe1d14a0b4ee0a3843413307344

One of the missing contestants name is Star, she is in her 20s and African-American.

https://preview.redd.it/qevqo46lvm6e1.png?width=1904&format=png&auto=webp&s=22758c5785e3f74e0b5c882f87aebbff6b284f21

https://preview.redd.it/eww22cevvm6e1.png?width=1956&format=png&auto=webp&s=06cd9d6ebbba4ef483dc55f498b6ac79c0e3975b

https://preview.redd.it/sbue5ze0wm6e1.png?width=2286&format=png&auto=webp&s=f71bf40f53b86af4af7bd70bce73ad4a569dde8e

These all appear to be empty beach shots they use for the F3.

https://preview.redd.it/5lb5izmawm6e1.jpg?width=2098&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=04b8813680ed0d4843b7b65564efbd7107970ea9

https://preview.redd.it/du6psy6bwm6e1.jpg?width=1446&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b81d6ccdca695598f697f970497d87f48cb3a78d

Andy

Gabe - Force of nature

Rome - Competitive

Genevieve - Powerful

Teeny - Magnetic

Sue - Loyal

Sierra - Cahoot

John - Witty

Caroline - Analytical

Sol - Mentor

Rachel - Intuitive

Sam - Depth

Tiyana - Charming

Kyle - Grounded

Genevieve

Sam - Natural leader, fearless, amazing

Andy - Unpredicatable and meta

Sierra - My American sweetheart

Kyle - Family man

Aysha - Authentic

Sol - Safe haven

Caroline - Fascinating, brilliant

Tiyana - Sunshine, warm

Rachel - Genius, comp beast

Kishan - Adorable

Gabe - Boss

Sue - Strong willed

Tenny - Magnetic , loveable

Rome - Showman

I feel like Rachel could win the F4 immunity and tie with Kyle for winning 4 immunities each this season but that comment about Teeny not beating Rachel at fire seems like a foreshadowing so Sue or Sam wins F4, leading towards Sam thinking Sue is easier to beat cause Teeny is more likable thinking she's a threat so Rachel beats her.

But what is everyone's guess on the FTC vote? Now that we know the full season, i think it's gonna be a blow out now after seeing everyone's reactions to Rachel taking out Andy specifically and Andy respecting that. i thought Gen would vote Sam but he told everyone about her fake idol so he didn't play along to try and save her too.

I like how ever since the show went 50% minority we are seeing more diverse winners and it's not another Tommy, Nick, Chris, Tony, Ben, Adam same type winners.

Sierra - Rachel

Sol - Rachel

Gabe - Rachel

Kyle - Rachel

Caroline - Rachel

Andy - Rachel

Genevieve - Rachel

Teeny - Rachel