Survivor 46 Crowns a Winner in Emotional Finale
Survivor has officially named its 44th new champion.
To say Survivor 46 has been unpredictable would be an understatement. The new season has featured one of the most interesting casts in years and seen a record five different players get eliminated with Immunity Idols in their pockets. Ben Katzman, Charlie Davis, Kenzie Petty, Liz Wilcox, and Maria Gonzalez went into the Survivor 46 finale with a shot at winning the whole game, but only one walked away as Sole Survivor. WARNING: THIS ARTICLE CONTAINS MAJOR SPOILERS FOR SURVIVOR 46...
It came down to three at Final Tribal: Ben, Charlie, and Kenzie. After a round of intense questioning, the jury cast their votes and Kenzie edged out Charlie by a vote of five to three.
Maria was the first to go home in the finale, getting voted out at the final five. She has been seen as the biggest threat for some time now and her elimination was written on the wall. In fact, Liz helped Kenzie win the challenge just so they could beat Maria. That left four castaways fighting for the Sole Survivor title.
A potentially even bigger shock came at the very last challenge, when a wildly sleep-deprived Ben managed to beat all three of his fellow castaways and secure his very first individual immunity of the entire season. That set up a fire-making challenge with Ben in the driver's seat. He chose to take Charlie to the Final Three, and Kenzie beat Liz to earn the third spot.
Short Survivor Seasons Here to Stay
Survivor 46 was the sixth season of the show's new era, meaning it was the sixth consecutive season to adopt the newer format. That format include a shortened game where castaways are only on the island for 26 days, as opposed to the classic 39-day schedule.
The shorter seasons have been the subject of a lot of criticism from both fans and older players, but that format isn't going anywhere any time soon.
"The looming question is, 'Would you ever go back to 29 days?' We'll never say never," Probst admitted on an episode of the On Fire With Jeff Probst podcast. "And I mean that we're always open to where the game takes us as much as where we take the game, but for the time being, 26 days is the game. And I get it: If somebody else were sitting in this seat, they might have a very different decision. Even people on our own team, I think there's some of them that kind of wish we were at 39 days. So it's not a right or wrong, it's just, this is what we're doing."
