Keen Australian Survivor: Heroes vs Villains 2023 fans have accused the producers of playing favourites after contestants voted out at Tribal Council were seemingly thrown a lifeline during elimination.
During the most recent Tribal Council, host Jonathan Lapaglia spared Nina Twine and Gerry Geltch from elimination and banished them to Survivor Isolation – a brand new concept akin to ‘rona quarantine which separates players and denies them food, water and information until the next Tribal Council.
The shock twist towards the pointy end of the comp raised eyebrows with superfans, especially after the controversial editing bungle in which Simon Mee looked like he’d been copied and pasted into the landscape during a confessional.
But Jonathan has finally set the record straight.
Australian Survivor’s Jonathan Lapaglia responds to claims the show is rigged
Speaking to TV Tonight Jonathan denied the claims and said the show’s fast pace simply doesn’t allow for producers to step in and change the game.
“That may be true of other shows. There’s always online chatter when we have a twist and someone says ‘They saved you because they like you’ or he’s controversial or whatever,” he told the outlet.
“But the honest truth is our game is so big and so tight, that the schedule just doesn’t have that latitude. We can’t pull things up to try and save someone.
“If we’ve got someone that goes to, you know, Redemption Rock, or whatever we call it for that season, that’s already been in the works before we even started the game. It’s just the way it folds.
“But the audience are always suspicious, which I understand. But there really is no room in the schedule to make those kinds of decisions. I mean, we are shooting every single day. There’s just no way we can move stuff around.”
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