60 free Survivor trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Aug 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 60 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Who has hosted every season of the American Survivor since it began?
Jeff Probst
He is also an executive producer and has hosted the show since 2000.
Q 02On which network does Survivor air in the United States?
CBS
CBS picked it up after Mark Burnett pitched Les Moonves in November 1999.
Q 03In what year did the American Survivor premiere?
2000
It ran as a summer replacement show and became a ratings phenomenon.
Q 04Where was the first season of Survivor filmed?
Borneo
The castaways lived on Pulau Tiga, an island about six miles off the coast of Borneo in Malaysia.
Q 05Who won the first season of Survivor?
Richard Hatch
He beat Kelly Wiglesworth 4-3 and was later jailed for not declaring the winnings to the IRS.
Q 06What is the standard grand prize for the winner of a season of Survivor?
$1,000,000
Contestants voted out early are paid on a sliding scale that starts at $2,500.
Q 07What title is given to the winner of each season?
Sole Survivor
The winner is chosen by a jury of players who were voted out after the merge.
Q 08Which Swedish show is Survivor based on?
Expedition Robinson
The Swedish name nods to Robinson Crusoe and The Swiss Family Robinson, two shipwreck stories.
Q 09Which British producer created the Survivor format?
Charlie Parsons
He shopped the idea for a decade before Swedish television finally bought it.
Q 10Which producer brought Survivor to American television?
Mark Burnett
He built on his earlier adventure race show Eco-Challenge and later created The Apprentice.
Q 11What is the host's famous line to a contestant who has just been voted out?
The tribe has spoken
TV Land included it in its 2006 special on the 100 greatest TV quotes and catchphrases.
Q 12Where do Survivor tribes go to vote out one of their own?
Tribal Council
Losing an immunity challenge is what sends a tribe there.
Q 13What is the halfway point of a Survivor season called, when the tribes combine into one?
The merge
After it, players compete for individual immunity instead of tribal immunity.
Q 21Which season did Parvati Shallow win?
Micronesia
Her all-female alliance in that season pulled off what many call the show's greatest blindside.
Q 22What nickname did Parvati Shallow earn for her flirtatious, strategic gameplay?
Black Widow
She later used it for a life-coaching course called How Villains are Made.
Q 23Which season did 'Boston Rob' Mariano finally win?
Redemption Island
He beat Phillip Sheppard and Natalie Tenerelli 8-1-0 on his fourth attempt.
What happened at the All-Stars live reunion just before the winning votes were read?
Q 14Who decides the winner at the end of a Survivor season?
A jury of players
John Cochran once wrote a law school paper comparing it to the American jury system.
Q 15How many days did a standard Survivor season last before the post-COVID seasons shortened it?
39
The Australian Outback stretched to 42 days, and post-COVID seasons run 26.
Q 16Since season 33, Survivor has filmed every season in which country?
Fiji
Season 50 was the eighteenth in a row shot in the Mamanuca Islands.
Q 17What was the grand prize for Survivor: Winners at War, the all-winners 40th season?
$2,000,000
Every returning winner was also guaranteed at least $25,000 just for playing.
Q 18Who won Survivor: Winners at War?
Tony Vlachos
He won 12-4-0 and became the first man to win the game twice.
Q 19Who was the first person to win Survivor twice?
Sandra Diaz-Twine
She won the first two seasons she ever played, Pearl Islands and Heroes vs. Villains.
Q 20Before Survivor, the winner of Cagayan worked in what job?
Police officer
His 'Cops R Us' partnership with fellow officer Sarah Lacina ran across three seasons.
Rob Mariano proposed to Amber Brkich
Amber won the season 4-3 over Rob, then said yes to him on stage.
Q 25Which season did superfan John Cochran win with a unanimous jury vote?
Caramoan
He went on to write for sitcoms and Star Trek: Lower Decks.
Q 26Kim Spradlin won which season, one that split its tribes by gender?
One World
She also collected $100,000 as the fans' Sprint Player of the Season.
Q 27In Fans vs. Favorites (season 16), Erik Reichenbach was voted out right after doing what?
Giving away his immunity necklace
Entertainment Weekly's Dalton Ross later called the resulting blindside the greatest moment in the show's history.
Q 28Which season was the first to introduce the hidden immunity idol?
Guatemala
That first idol had to be played before the votes were cast and expired at the final four.
Q 29On which season did the show first use Exile Island as a full-season twist?
Panama
The exiled castaway got a machete, a flint, a pot and a bucket of unsanitised water.
Q 30In season 22, what did a voted-out player have to do to earn a way back into the game?
Win a duel
The arena was built to look like an old ruined temple.