How Rupert Boneham Almost Broke Survivor Forever

In the years since Jeff Probst began hosting Survivor, the reality TV show has aired many seasons of varying quality. As a result of that longevity, fans who are no longer worried about which seasons to watch first tend to know a lot about the show. For example, many Survivor fans know which player was the first to be medically evacuated and that Rupert Boneham was very popular.

Unfortunately for the show’s producers, Rupert has spoken out against how Jeff has changed Survivor. The fact that he spoke out like that is kind of funny, however, as it can easily be argued that Rupert’s popularity almost ruined Survivor forever.

Rupert Boneham’s Extreme Popularity Could Have Ruined Survivor

During Survivor: Pearl Islands, fans very quickly began to love Rupert Boneham. The season’s early episodes quickly gave viewers good reasons to think that Rupert was lovable and a lot of fun.

First off, Rupert was lovable because viewers could empathize with him after Jonny Fairplay and Burton Reynolds bullied him over his outfit. The fact that Rupert stole the alternative tribes’ shoes during a pirate-themed season is what made him seem so lovable.

Survivor’s producers clearly thought that Rupert’s popularity was a great thing for the show. As a result, they brought Rupert back to compete in Survivor: All-Stars. It is easy to argue that the events that took place at the end of Survivor: All-Stars involving Rupert could have ruined the show.

Even though Rupert’s behavior during Survivor: Pearl Islands made him very popular with fans, that didn’t help him in the game. After all, even though he showed a lot of strength during challenges, and he regularly caught fish for his tribe, Rupert was never really in contention to win the season.

Instead, Survivor: Pearl Islands was won by Sandra Diaz-Twine, and she arguably was the season’s most strategic player.

When Rupert returned for Survivor: All-Stars, he proved again that he wasn’t very good at strategy. For example, Rupert won a challenge and completely exposed his alliance by giving them great food to eat.

As a result of Rupert’s poor strategy, he yet again lost the game and walked away with a huge amount of popularity among fans. That is what led to Rupert’s popularity arguably almost ruining Survivor forever.

After Amber Brkich Mariano won Survivor: All-Stars, Jeff Probst surprised fans with an announcement. One week later, there would be a Survivor special that would culminate with a second $1 million prize being given out. That prize was given to Survivor: All-Star’s fan favorite player, based on viewer’s votes.

To the surprise of virtually nobody, Rupert was named the fan favorite and he was awarded $1 million, as a May 2004 CBS News article confirmed. Rupert winning $1 million for being popular is what could have ruined Survivor.

In 2021, a fan on the r/survivor subreddit posted a thread about Rupert winning $1 million for being popular.

CBS News’ aforementioned article about Rupert winning the fan favorite reward quoted a comment he made on The Early Show. Since it was revealed that 38 million people voted for Survivor: All-Star’s fan favorite award, Rupert commented on how many votes he believed he received. “I heard I had 85 percent of the votes. So, you know, rough math, 30 million votes I got.”

That post asked the fans of the show why they thought Rupert won so much money and the responses were definitive. For example, the top three responses all suggested the same thing, that Survivor’s producers liked how much fans loved Rupert and wanted to give him $1 million.

The problem with Survivor rewarding Rupert just as much for being popular as the person who won the season is it could have ruined the integrity of the game. After all, it could have set the precedent of Survivor players trying to be popular instead of attempting to win the game.

During the first season of Big Brother, the houseguests were ultimately evicted based on a viewer vote. As a result, every houseguest who was controversial in any way was quickly evicted. That resulted in the season becoming bland as there was no strategy beyond trying to be likable.

The format worked so poorly that CBS’ producers retooled the show and had the houseguests vote to evict each other instead, at least in most cases. That quick turnaround shows why Survivor would have become bland and boring if the players had just as much motivation to be likable as they did to be the Sole Survivor.

Thankfully, the fan favorite reward was retooled just as quickly as Big Brother’s viewer vote was. The next two seasons after Rupert won $1 million, the fan favorite winners got cars. Then the fan favorite prize became $100,000 until it was eliminated completely.

The Sia Award Also Corrupted Survivor For The Same Reason Rupert Boneham’s Popularity Could Have

In May 2024, it was revealed that the so-called Survivor Sia Award wasn’t going to be given out any longer. While that disappointed some fans, we would argue that was a good thing for the same reason Rupert winning $1 million for being popular was problematic.

Over several years, the beloved singer Sia gave an array of Survivor player more than $1 million combined, according to a Rolling Stone article. An act of kindness on Sia’s behalf, the most any player was individually given was $100,000.

The first player to get the Sia award was Tai Trang who was given $50,000 himself and $50,000 to a charity of his choosing after Survivor: Kaôh Rōng.

When Tai was a sweetheart during Survivor: Kaôh Rōng, he had no idea that the Sia award was a possibility. As a result, his kind behavior could easily be taken as completely sincere.

However, when Wendy Diaz let chickens go during Survivor: Edge of Extinction, many fans questioned if she was angling for the Sia award. In fact, that was such a common suggestion that The Hollywood Reporter brought up the theory that Wendy wanted Sia’s money. THR mentioned the theory as a part of the article they published after interviewing Wendy in March 2019.

The fact that even an outlet as credible as THR brought up the possibility that the Sia award was changing the game proves there was a problem. It seems clear that there shouldn’t be a popularity prize involved in Survivor.