The Survivor Hourglass Twist surfaced during Season 41, with Erika Casupanan getting the chance to “turn back time” by smashing an hourglass. The metaphor was stretched a bit far by host Jeff Probst, but it was an attempt to introduce something new to the game.
As a reminder of what the Hourglass Twist entailed, it was used as a tool after after the Merge Challenge on S41 and S42.
When the game was down to 12 people, two teams of five people each were selected to compete, and two people were left out. The winning team from the Merge Challenge got to select one of the people sitting out to also enjoy the Merge Feast with them, and the last person left was sent to Extinction Island. A slight alteration to that on S42 was that the winning team could send one of its members instead of a person who sat out. They declined.
The people who were sent to live by themselves got paid a visit by host Jeff Probst, who presented them with an hourglass that could be broken to reverse the results of the Merge Challenge. Erika broke it on Survivor 41, and then Rocksroy Bailey broke it on Survivor 42. This granted safety to the people who had lost the previous challenge and forced the winners to compete for Immunity.
Survivor fans weigh in on the Hourglass Twist
Many Survivor fans have been very frustrated by the Hourglass Twist, weighing in that it was “unfair” or that it took away from the true meaning of the Survivor Merge. And many more Survivor fans have called it “dumb” during the two times it was presented.
“They better change up the stupid hourglass idea from last season. Competing and winning safety JUST to be obviously reversed by the person breaking the hour glass(cuz who wouldn’t) was so DUMB,” wrote one enraged Survivor fan.
“The hourglass twist, even with a tweak, is still dumb as hell and hopefully we’ve seen the last of ‘turning back time’ #Survivor,” wrote another Survivor fan.
“I do think the hourglass twist is so stupid like the tribe that wins and deserves their win gets it taken away from some loser who smashes a hourglass (no offense to erika queen) #Survivor,” posted another Survivor viewer.
More from Survivor
Survivor 43 has been filmed and episodes will air during Fall 2022 on CBS. Since this new cast was able to watch the Hourglass Twist getting used on the previous two seasons, maybe the producers have already done away with it. That would make a lot of people very happy.
And speaking of happy people, it appears that Survivor alums Xander Hastings and Andrea Boehlke are dating. The two fan-favorites have been spending a lot of time together recently.
Survivor 43 airs on CBS in Fall 2022.