CBS’s Road to Survivor 50 begins tonight, Monday, Feb. 9, 2026, with a classic episode featuring Survivor legend, Cirie Fields, who will be competing against 23 other returning players in Survivor 50: In the Hands of the Fans.
In the two weeks leading up to the Survivor 50 premiere on Wednesday, Feb. 25, CBS is airing one classic Survivor episode. They’re calling it the “Road to Survivor 50,” and it’s pretty cool for fans to get to revisit some of the show’s best episodes.
In the first of the re-aired episodes of Survivor, we get to see “If It Smells Like a Rat, Give It Cheese,” which was the Final Five episode from Survivor: Micronesia, which features Cirie, Erik Reichenbach, Parvati Shallow, Amanda Kimmel, and Natalie Bolton.
Tonight’s Road to Survivor 50 episode features, arguably, the worst move in Survivor history
I don’t want to give away too many spoilers and ruin the party for fans who haven’t seen this episode in a long time or even at all, but this is the episode featuring one of the most fascinating moves in Survivor history.
To set the stage, Erik wins immunity in the episode, and what should be a relatively easy vote to break up the alliance of Cirie, Natalie, Parvati, and Amanda turns into absolute chaos. Basically, the four women left in the game put on an absolutely blistering full court press on Erik.
The four women manipulate Erik into giving up his immunity idol to save Natalie, which would then force a vote between Parvati and Amanda, score Erik major points with the players for putting himself at risk, and secure his spot in the finale.
Well, immediately after giving up the immunity necklace, Erik was voted out. It’s one of the most baffling moves in Survivor history, but it’s truly one of the most legendary blindsides. It was basically orchestrated by two of the best Survivor players the game has ever seen, Cirie and Parvati.
Cirie, Parvati, Natalie, and Amanda deserve more credit for Erik’s move than they get
I know everyone wants to call Erik a dummy and a bad Survivor player for this move, but that’s simply not true. Erik was great at certain parts of Survivor, especially the immunity challenges. He could have won the season just by winning the final few immunity challenges, but his weaknesses in the social and strategic parts of the game were apparent, as well.
While it’s easy to sit here years later and criticize Erik, that does not do justice to what Cirie and Parvati were able to pull off. Survivor is a social game that tests players in so many ways. Cirie and Parvati identified Erik’s weakness, and they worked together to exploit that weakness.
There are better players than Erik who would have been talked into making the same move. I’m convinced that he thought he was making the right move for his game because of what those other players were telling him and promising him.
Watching it almost feels like those police interrogation videos where the police get people to admit to crimes they didn’t do because they’re backed into a corner and manipulated. Despite feeling like he was in a position of power with that immunity necklace, Cirie, Amanda, Parvati, and Natalie made sure that Erik felt like he was in a position of power at all, and they basically watched on the sidelines as he voted himself out.
And, for the first time in a long time, fans get to watch it play out on screen. That’s incredibley exciting.
I also want to note that, while Erik was burned by the game of Survivor in this instance, there are no players who play this game who are not burned by the game at some point or in some form or fashion. Amanda finished runner-up twice and could have won each time. Cirie is the only player in Survivor history to be eliminated by default. Parvati should have won Heroes vs. Villains, but a bitter jury made sure that she wouldn’t.
What I’m trying to say is that this game is brutal, and this time, the game got Erik, but none of these players, as good as they are, were able to avoid the inevitable.
