Survivor Trivia
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109 free Survivor trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
52 free Survivor trivia questions with answers. Survivor has been outwitting, outplaying and outlasting on CBS since 2000, and this quiz is for the fans who have watched all of it. Fifty questions cover the Borneo beginnings and Richard Hatch, Jeff Probst and his catchphrase, the two-time winners Sandra and Tony, Parvati and Boston Rob, the hidden immunity idol, Exile Island, Redemption Island and the Edge of Extinction, the fire-making twist, the records held by Cirie and Ozzy, and the moments that still get argued about, from Erik's necklace to Sue Hawk's snakes-and-rats speech. Easy questions ask who hosts the show and where season one was filmed; the hard ones want the first season with a hidden idol, the year the purple rock came out, and which winner had to give up his Canadian citizenship. Made for people who yell at the TV during Tribal Council. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on the series, its seasons and its players, and each question carries the sentence that backs it up.
30 of 109 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Survivor's host tells players that the fire on their torch represents what?
Life
Life: "When your fire's gone, so are you," he warns, which is why a voted-out player's torch is snuffed before they leave.
Q 02On which network does Survivor air in the United States?
CBS
CBS was, in the format creator's words, an "ailing network" when it "took the risk", and the first finale's audience was second only to that year's Super Bowl.
Q 03What does Survivor call the cloth players wear to show their tribe?
Buff
Buff: when the host reshuffles the tribes, his order is "drop your buffs", and each player is handed a new one for the tribe they are joining.
Q 04Where was the first season of Survivor filmed?
Borneo
Borneo wasn't in the title at first: the season aired simply as Survivor, was later known as Survivor: Pulau Tiga after its island, and only then became Survivor: Borneo.
Q 05Who won the first season of Survivor?
Richard Hatch
Richard Hatch won 4–3 after stepping down from the final immunity challenge on purpose, betting that whoever won it would take him to the end.
Q 06What does Survivor call its contestants?
Castaways
Castaways: season one opened with the players salvaging supplies from a boat, jumping overboard and paddling rafts to shore, as if shipwrecked.
Q 07What title does the winner of each Survivor season earn?
Sole Survivor
Sole Survivor: from season 41 the winner was named on the island moments after the final vote, until fans voted to bring back the live reveal for Survivor 50.
Q 08Which Swedish show is Survivor based on?
Expedition Robinson
Expedition Robinson aired in Sweden in 1997 only after networks in Britain and America had turned the British-devised format down.
Q 09Which British producer created the Survivor format?
Charlie Parsons
Charlie Parsons first tested the idea years earlier on Network 7, a British show he ran, by marooning strangers on a desert island and filming them.
Q 10Which producer brought Survivor to American television?
Mark Burnett
Mark Burnett pitched the show around Hollywood for about a year, then won a network over by lining up the financing and sponsors himself.
Q 11What does Survivor's host say to each player who has just been voted out?
The tribe has spoken
The tribe has spoken: he says it as he snuffs out the player's torch, and the full sign-off ends, "It's time for you to go."
Q 12Where do Survivor players go to vote one of their own out of the game?
Tribal Council
Tribal Council takes only a few minutes on TV, but the host's questioning before the vote can run for hours.
Q 13Survivor's three-word motto begins "Outwit, Outplay" and ends with which word?
Outlast
Outlast closes the motto, and in Game Changers the show began building its final jury session around the three words, with Outlast the finalists' last pitch.
Q 21Parvati Shallow's first Survivor win came in which season?
Micronesia
Micronesia: she won 5–3 before an eight-person jury that could have tied, and runner-up Amanda Kimmel says a tiebreaker waited, unused, in a white envelope.
Q 22What nickname did Parvati Shallow's Survivor gameplay earn her?
Black Widow
Black Widow came from her own words: she called her all-women alliance the Black Widow Brigade, spinning the men around before "devouring them one at a time."
Q 23Which Survivor season did 'Boston Rob' Mariano finally win?
Redemption Island
Redemption Island: on his fourth attempt he won 8–1–0, after keeping his allies away from their rivals with separate sleeping quarters and mealtimes.
Q 14What do Survivor players call the note that announces their next challenge?
Tree mail
Tree mail can carry real news too: in season two it told one tribe that a rival's medical evacuation had cancelled that day's challenge and vote.
Q 15On Survivor: Pearl Islands, Jonny Fairplay invented the death of which relative?
His grandmother
His grandmother was alive and well: he had planned the lie with a friend before the season, and the other players took pity and let him win that day's reward.
Q 16Survivor: Africa, the show's third season, was filmed in a game reserve in which country?
Kenya
Kenya: in Shaba National Reserve the tribes lived inside thorny enclosures, as local people do, to keep dangerous wildlife out of camp.
Q 17Winners at War's $2,000,000 prize was matched in Survivor 50 thanks to which celebrity's coin-flip twist?
MrBeast
MrBeast arrived with a briefcase and a dare: Rick Devens staked his place in the game on one coin flip, called heads, and doubled the prize.
Q 18Who won Survivor: Winners at War?
Tony Vlachos
Tony Vlachos won 12–4–0 without one vote ever cast against him, partly by eavesdropping on rivals from a hideout he called his spy nest.
Q 19Who was the first person to win Survivor twice?
Sandra Diaz-Twine
Sandra Diaz-Twine won the first two seasons she played by sticking to one rule at every vote: anyone can go, "as long as it ain't me."
Q 20Before Survivor, the winner of Cagayan worked in what job?
Police officer
Police officer: he denied it at first, but fellow cop Sarah Lacina guessed on sight, and their "Cops-R-Us" alliance ran across three seasons.
Q 24What happened at the Survivor: All-Stars finale just before the winning votes were read?
Rob Mariano proposed to Amber Brkich
Rob Mariano proposed to Amber Brkich, she said yes, and minutes later the votes made her the winner over him, 4–3.
Q 25Which Survivor season did superfan John Cochran win with a unanimous jury vote?
Caramoan
Caramoan: a week after his win, the Harvard Law graduate announced he was moving to Los Angeles to write for a sitcom, The Millers.
Q 26Kim Spradlin won which Survivor season, one that split its tribes by gender?
One World
One World was named for its twist: the men's tribe and the women's tribe were sent to live side by side on the same beach.
Q 27On Survivor's Fans vs. Favorites season, Erik Reichenbach was voted out right after doing what?
Giving away his immunity necklace
Giving away his immunity necklace: the women still in the game persuaded him it would regain their trust, then voted him out minutes later.
Q 28Which Survivor season introduced the hidden immunity idol?
Guatemala
Guatemala: Gary Hogeboom, an ex-NFL quarterback hiding his past under a false name, found that first idol and played it to save himself.
Q 29Which Survivor season first used Exile Island as a season-long twist?
Panama
Panama: the rival tribe kept sending Terry Deitz into exile, which only gave him the time to find the hidden idol there.
Q 30In Survivor's 22nd season, what did a voted-out player have to do to get back into the game?
Win a duel
Win a duel: Matt Elrod won every one he fought to get back in, only to be voted out again at the first vote after his return.