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Clarence quit the same challenge after lasting roughly the same amount of time and actually did get voted out, and I don't see him on the list.

Anyway, it's been requested, and I'm not one to ignore requests, so here goes the 75 Worst Survivor Moves of All Time.

One quick note before we begin. Everything on this list is an actual mistake, not something purposeful that ended someone's game. If a player stepped out or purposefully did something even though they knew it would hurt their game, I didn't count it, because those aren't bad moves, they're just moves with different priorities. So you won't find any quitters here, which is a good thing, because if I had included them, Ian would be #1 and that would be the end of that.

Let's begin, shall we?

75. Leslie shares her Hidden Immunity Idol clue with Todd.
Tell me, Leslie, what exactly did you think you could possibly get out of this? All you did was give more power to the guy in control of the tribe, and more motivation for said guy to eliminate you as soon as possible. You blew the huge advantage you had over everyone on your tribe, and just made yourself more of a target in the process. Stupid, stupid game play. You might have been the third one out anyway, but it was this move that ensured you weren't going to last very long in this game, and it was nothing more than a byproduct of insecurities and poor analysis of your situation.

74. Sean Kenniff's alphabet voting strategy backfires.
By this point, we all know that somewhere, hidden away, there was a method to Dr. Sean's madness. Sure, it took years before people started to catch on and see what he was going for, but he still had a purpose. Unfortunately for him, his little game maneuver backfired as badly as one's game maneuver can possibly backfire. He set out to make friends of the other players to improve his jury positioning, and instead he only managed to solidify himself as the pansy who was too afraid to cast an honest vote. He alienated the very people he hoped to win over and he managed to screw over the people he would have had to work with in order to go much further. In short, he screwed up. And it was quite clear how big a blunder his plan was when he was forced to abandon it after it destroyed Pagong's last hope and pissed off every single one of them in the process.

73. Shii Ann publicly betrays Sook Jai.
Shii gets more heat for this than she deserves, because really, how was she to expect that the merge was all a charade? Players have been screwed due to much more subtle twists in the past. Did Shii Ann really make all that big of a mistake? Well, yes. Because there was a way Shii Ann could have gone about this that didn't alienate all of Sook Jai. She had the right idea, but her execution was incredibly lacking. Had she communicated with people like Jake a bit more, maybe things wouldn't have worked out so terribly for her. But instead of doing that, she came up with these grandiose plans that she never effectively conveyed to her old tribe mates, and so she found herself in a position where they all ended up hating her guts, and when it came time for them to determine her fate, as would have inevitably happened at some point anyway, she had no chance at going any further.

72. Becky and Sundra decline to force out Yul's Hidden Immunity Idol.
This one's quite simple. Adam Gentry presented these two ladies with one final chance to potentially win the game. Now by this point, it actually didn't matter what they did, due to the F3 twist, but they didn't know that at the time, so we'll ignore that factor. As far as they knew, they could either let Yul hold onto his HII, go head-to-head in the F4 tie, and then have the remaining one guaranteed to be the F2 goat at the end, or they could bounce out Yul's HII, pick off Yul at the F4, and have a minute chance of facing each other in the F2, which is the only way they could win. With the former, both Sundra and Becky were guaranteed no shot at the million bucks. With the latter, they had a chance. Which one did they go with? Here's a hint: it wasn't the smart one.

71. Gary Hogeboom destroys his early alliance.
Nobody ever mentions this, and I'm surprised, because it's probably the best example of some of Gary's poor game play in Guatemala. I suppose the fact that it wasn't ever really made clear to us on the show probably plays into its obscurity, but still, it was pretty dumb, and it deserves at least a little recognition. Because on Day 1 of Guatemala, a majority alliance was formed that included Gary, Stephenie, Rafe, Morgan, and Brianna. Now, Gary and Rafe were at the center of that group, and unlike the rest of them, Gary was smart enough to actually form bonds with the outsiders, especially Amy. But then he blew it all. For some unfathomable reason, Gary decided that rather than holding onto his majority alliance that put him in a great leadership spot and led to a pretty strong tribe, given how much of a liability Lydia was, he would instead turn on his group and pick off two members of it, Morgan and Brianna. Why in the hell would he do this? No idea. He did a little self-righteous judging, and thought that would be best. I like the guy, but damn, that was dumb. And if the tribes had not been mixed up as early as they were, it probably would have backfired big time. Hell, it probably helped Yaxha be such a weak tribe early on, and it put Gary in a much more vulnerable position than he should have been in.

70. Lisa betrays her alliance.
I understand being afraid of the purple rock. Really, I do. But instead of actually doing something intelligent to avoid it, Lisa Keiffer decided early on in Vanuatu that she would be a miserable player, and screw over her alliance at the second Tribal Council Yasur attended. And what did it get her? Well, it ensured her a minority spot in the group, it alienated the younger girls she had spent the last week bonding with, and it advertised to everyone else that Lisa was a ruthless player who could not be trusted. And it bit her in the ass not much later, as her reputation of untruthfulness caused her boot at the hands of goddess Ami. There are players who know how to finagle, and then there are players that stab people in the back, and do it quite poorly.

69. Rob Mariano makes an unnecessary alliance with Alicia.
Here's the first move so far that probably cost a real contender the game, though it would have been tough for Rob to get Alicia's jury vote anyway, I'll admit. Basically, Rob took his control one step too far, he made one too many false deals, and he created one too many enemies. And it resulted in one too many jury votes going to Amber, leaving Rob the runner-up of All-Stars. There was just no reason for him to go making promises to Alicia. He could have ensured her security later on if he found he needed her, but instead he got paranoid, he fell victim to his own strategy of a fear-run game, and he made a promise he never intended to keep. It was just unnecessary, and it was just dumb, because it only hurt Rob in the long run.

68. Mike Skupin tosses away a pocket ally in Kimmi.
You know that Christian Coalition of Kucha I referenced in the last list? Well, Mike was the figurehead for that group, and I must say, he was a pretty miserable leader for the poor duo of Elisabeth and Rodger. Not only did he singlehandedly take himself out of the game (ooh, burn), but he managed to throw away one of the alliance's potential numbers when he helped boot Kimmi out of the game. Because for all intents and purposes, Kimmi was a free agent in Australia. She had no real bonds with anyone, and the closest she ever came to a real relationship was what she formed with Mike, the tribe's father. And the only way she would ever be of use to anyone is if Mike snapped her up and used her as a number in his group, a number that would have helped his chances against Rodger/Elisabeth and also helped his alliance's survival chances. But instead of doing that, he felt perfectly okay cutting Kimmi loose and contributing to the charge against her at Kucha's second TC, inadvertently setting her us as a possible vote for Jeff's alliance to take in and grab control of the tribe. And it just never made any sense for Mike to do that. Then again, Mike wasn't all that self-aware in the first place.

67. Kelly Wiglesworth loses her game positioning by befriending Pagong.
Early on, Kelly had the right idea in mind. She knew the jury vote would be crucial, and she played toward it more than anyone else on her season. But while her plan to make friends with Pagong, who would make up the majority of the group that would be determining the winner, was good in theory, it was executed terribly, and it ended up backfiring miserably against Kelly. In fact, rather than helping her spot in the tribe, it only got her kicked out of her alliance, ensured her 6th place without a lucky streak of Immunity wins, and established her reputation as the wishy-washy, immature, non-committal chick. And all it got her in the end was a couple of jury votes she would have netted anyway, plus the many enemies it made her. Not good, Kelly.

66. Cao Boi and Flicka vote out Cecilia.
The results of the pre-mutiny game of CI speaks for itself on this one. Cao Boi and Jessica had an early alliance on Aitu that would have taken them far. It put them with players that were similar to themselves, and personalities they could actually get along with. It took control away from the hardcore players, and Candice's trip to EI ensured them the numerical advantage at the tribe's first trip to TC. But instead of using that alliance to land themselves in a good position, Cao Boi and Flicka fell apart, letting themselves be played by the two most manipulative guys in the game. And it led to the two of them being the next two boots of Aitu, which just goes to show how dumb it was on their part.

65. Penny turns on Jake.
Why? Because it got her absolutely nothing. In fact, her willingness to play dirty and her attempts at hooking up with Clay only got her sent packing before Jake, who clearly posed the bigger threat. All she did was communicate to the SJ jurors that she had turned on them, and communicate to the CG players that she couldn't be trusted. There are times when it's good to abandon ship and fight for your own life as an individual. And then there are times when it's just idiotic. This was one of the latter.

64. Denise helps vote out Erik.
At Final 6, Denise was in the power position of China, because she could pretty much singlehandedly determine who would go home at Tribal Council that night. And for a woman that knew she would get 4th place at best if she went with the flow, this was a great spot to be in. Here was her chance to take control of the game, and organize things so that she would be ensured a victory. As long as she played her cards right, she was guaranteed the win, for the most part, because of the game plans of the other players. All she had to do was force the tie at TC. Hell, she could have forced PG to give her the HII necklace, thus ensuring her safety from the rock. And since she could also dictate how Erik/PG voted, she could get any member of the Fantastic Trio gone that she wanted gone. You think anyone besides Courtney would have forced a PROD to save each other? Hell, no. Todd or Amanda would jump ship in a heartbeat to stop that danger. Courtney goes, PG goes, Erik goes, Denise is in the F3 and has a million dollars. What's that, JR? You're a guaranteed jury vote? Thanks! Oh, James, you're a pocket juror? Jaime, you respect me as the player who made the biggest move of the game? Erik, PG, I saved your asses? Thanks you all so very much!
And worst of all, it's not like she got outplayed by Amanda or anything - she was fully aware that if she didn't do something at F6, she would end up in 4th place, end of story. She even said as much in her voting confessional. Damn, she screwed that one up.

63. Jonathan mutinies to Raro.
Jonathan never could have won with the Raro group. It's as simple as that. I'm glad he mixed up the game like he did, but it nearly ensured he would lose. He was completely unaware of where he really fell with the KKK alliance, who never expected him to come with Candice in the first place. He may have been carried a little while, but none of them would have let him near the end. Hell, he was at danger at every TC he faced going up to the merge, and come merge time, he found himself forced to jump back to the other side, thus guaranteeing he could never win. Fun to watch, but not good game play.

62. Shawn Cohen helps vote out Trish.
Let's see, Shawn. You can either make a move against the biggest threat on the tribe right before the merge, thus putting you in a powerful position and lining yourself up with fellow snakes you might actually be able to beat in a jury vote, and also making you the strongest member of your group, or you can hide a little longer, let your biggest threat survive, ensure that you're just a threatening, unnecessary (thanks to Jon) flip vote at merge, and end up having no chance at going very far whatsoever. Oh, you're going with the second one? Well, I guess that makes you the next boot, then. Too bad. You officially netted yourself nothing but a sucky position with that one, knowing full well that if the merge is delayed (as happened only two seasons ago, and could be expected given that there had no big twist in this season thus far) you're done for. Congrats.

61. Zoe abandons the Rotu 4.
When you find yourself with a minority group, the best move to make is probably not to establish your reputation as a lying snake and also alienate what would otherwise be ensured jury votes. Just a tip. Basically, Zoe got scared, and even though she got caught in more lies than anyone else in the game, she was stupid enough to think she could finagle her way into the power core after things were turned around on her, and she really had no chance at ever accomplishing that. It got her the very next boot, which she deserved, and you'd think Penny would have learned from her in the next season.

Guess what? It looks like I made a mistake, and this is actually only a list of the 74 worst moves in Survivor history, not 75. So we'll just skip #60, pretending like it never existed and like I can actually count.

59. Sue betrays the first Survivor alliance for no good reason.
CL likes to say that Sue played a good game in Borneo. However, I still have seen nothing that actually supports that, and plenty of mistakes from the brash redneck truck driver that suggest the complete opposite. One example is the way Sue screwed the very first alliance of her tribe, for no apparent reason other than the fact that she didn't like one of them very much. Basically, Stacey had a great way for the women of Tagi to grant themselves some safety in the game, and they would begin by booting one of their biggest liabilities? So what does Sue do? Well, she agrees to the plan, and then votes differently at TC. And it could have gotten her targeted, but she got lucky, and lived to see a similar position at Tribal Council #2. Which is where she decided to again tell Stacey they had a deal, and again stab her in the back, just because Stacey was a bitch. Sure, Sue, choose the alliance that you think will take you the furthest. Whatever. But there was no reason for her to lie like she did, and in most seasons, it would have come back to hurt her. And when you take into account that the female alliance actually positioned Sue pretty well, and the Tagi 4 alliance that later developed put Sue in a poor spot, you see that this was just a terrible game move.

58. Rupert votes out Michelle.
This was just a simple case of not properly analyzing the situation. Because the one thing Rupert should have known is that Shawn would flip on Drake the second the merge came. Shawn could not be trusted, he had flipped on his last alliance just to bide time, and he had made his intentions quite clear. Yet Rupert decided in his infinite wisdom that keeping Michelle around, a girl that was begging and pleading with him to save her, and willing to make whatever deal necessary to move in to the Drake core, was not in his best interests. He could have had a pocket ally, another weak female follower, on his side, and instead he opted to keep a known turncoat and huge threat in the game. And hell, I wouldn't have been surprised if Michelle had actually performed better than Shawn in that next IC anyway.

57. Sook Jai throws an Immunity Challenge to boot Jed.
Here's the deal - I'm not that vehemently opposed to throwing challenges. Sometimes, the numbers aren't as important as the people, and certain people just have to go. But this wasn't one of those situations. Because even though Sook Jai had a good reason to believe it was the stronger tribe, it was absolutely unnecessary to throw an IC only 3 episodes in. You never know what challenges might be coming, and you never know who might win what. It would have been so much safer to wait a couple more boots, ensure Sook Jai has the post-merge numbers no matter what, and then throw the IC if it's so important that Jed go home. But no, instead the tribe decided they would get cocky and head to Tribal Council way earlier than they should have, and we all saw what resulted. SJ ended up even with CG come merge time, with a betrayer ready to flip on them in a heartbeat. And after the delayed merge, SJ found themselves two men down come merger, and they all got bounced out of the game because of it. And for what? There wasn't even a good reason to want Jed out of the game. They felt threatened by him, and they thought he was too much of a rebel, I suppose. But it's not like he posed some risk of flipping - that was Shii Ann, the constantly ostracized chick. SJ threw a challenge because they were idiots, end of story.

56. Danielle wins the final Immunity Challenge.
Danielle knew she was the goat of the F4 of Exile Island. And no, backing out of that last Immunity Challenge probably wouldn't have changed her overall game placement. But the logic involved was just so obvious, that it makes this a stupid move regardless. Because Danielle didn't need to win the last IC at all. Once Terry dived out, winning that challenge could only hurt her. She knew Aras would take her, and she knew Aras was the person she wanted to face. She knew that winning and booting Terry would just make him that much more pissed off at her. She knew that winning the challenge would result in nothing more than one juror feeling more betrayed by her. So she went ahead and won it. Maybe it was her pride, maybe it was her competitive drive, maybe it was just her stupidity. But no matter what the reason, it was dumb game play.

55. Burton convinces Drake the throw the Immunity Challenge.
Lots of challenge-related moves here. Basically, Drake made the same fatal mistake SJ did, and decided to throw a challenge earlier than they should have. But more importantly, it was Burton that led the charge on this move, and it was Burton that this move ended up blindsiding at Tribal Council. The guy just had no idea where people actually stood, and he thought he had so much control over his tribe that he could get people to do whatever he wanted. He thought he had Rupert convinced, even though Rupert was so obviously opposed to the whole thing. And he thought he had Jon securely in his back pocket, even though Jon hated threats. So he rallied his tribe to throw the IC, and it resulted in him getting the boot at TC later that night. And that was even with the advantage of Rupert being sent to Morgan in a twist. Burton managed to go from being assured a spot in the merged game to getting a challenge lost for himself and the votes all against him.

54. Silas instructs the elders to vote for Lindsey.
Here's another case of cockiness overriding good judgment and proper analysis of the tribal dynamics. Here, Silas knew he had numbers. But he also thought he had some sway with the numbers he didn't have, and the very numbers he had betrayed at the previous Tribal Council. Hell, he thought he was so damn good that he could actually tell the older, bitter minority group what to do. And that's how he arrogantly dictated that Linda, Frank, and Teresa vote for Lindsey at Samburu's second Tribal Council. Not because it benefited them. But because it would help Silas, and the numbers he had pulled together against them. He really thought they would listen to him, say, "Oh, okay, Silas, if it helps you. After all, you were so helpful to us when you betrayed us the other night. Anything else we can do for you? Perhaps a shoe shine? Want us to fall on our swords, oh master?" and then vote for Lindsey. And instead, they all turned against him and landed him with dangerous votes that could risk his life come a tie situation. They used his hubris against him, and they set him up to be that much more vulnerable later on. What an idiot.

53. Rob Mariano votes out Hunter in his struggle for power.
Mariano's another cocky, cocky player, and he's one that always wants to eliminate everyone that poses any sort of threat to his game, so that he can create an atmosphere of fear and waltz into the end game. And it's an okay game plan, but you can't go instituting it like this. Because Maraamu was a weak tribe. And Maraamu was losing - a lot. And in Marquesas, tribal loyalties still ran deep, even after switches, and the tribe with numbers was bound to prevail. So if Maraamu wanted a shot at survival and if Rob wanted a shot at not being the immediate target come shuffle or merge, the guy needed both a buffer and tribal strength for challenges. And his way of obtaining this was to boot the guy who provided both of those. He was so threatened by Hunter, simply because Hunter was also a leader. So Rob sent his ass packing, he destroyed his tribe's only chance at winning future challenges, and he set himself up to be the target the second the tribes got blended together. It made absolutely no sense from a straightforward game perspective. Post-merge, it would have been a great move. But in episode 3, it was just stupid.

52. Ulong votes out Jolanda.
Yes, I do believe that the one thing that really killed Ulong was Jeff rolling his ankle. But apart from that, which was something the tribe had no control over, it was this decision that doomed them to a series of defeats. Because sure, Jolanda was abrasive, and the young tribe didn't like people telling them what to do. But she was easily the strongest woman in the game. She was the best athlete in the cast. She was a natural leader, and someone that would give them everything she could in challenges. And Ulong decided they wanted none of those things. And that was just a bad, bad call. Because as the tribe found out, it needed more athleticism. And as the tribe found out, it needed a leader, which is why James ended up taking charge of a lot of different situations (and let's face it: James was a terrible person for that role). Jolanda could have provided the tribe with an edge in the game, especially considering all of the weak players on the tribe. Ashley was already ready to quit; why not cut her in the first episode? Kim was a prissy bitch; why not cut her in the first episode? I mean, there were so many better options, and yet Jo was sent packing. And Ulong paid for it.

51. Terry votes out Ruth Marie.
Tell me, Terry. I know you're not too good at this strategy stuff, but which sounds like a better Final 5 to you? You, Dan, Nick, Austin, and Ruth Marie, the last being a woman who will happily side with you and Dan, and who will allow you an easy F3 IC win that will hand you a million bucks? Or you, Dan, Nick, Austin, and Sally, the last being a woman who will happily side with Nick and Austin, making you the first target and severely limiting your chances at winning a million bucks? Oh, add in the fact that Ruth Marie will remain loyal at all costs, whereas Sally will turn on La Mina the second a merge comes, should it benefit her. Plus, Ruth Marie respects you, whereas Sally hates you. Oh, one more thing - booting Ruth Marie will alienate your closest ally. Tell me, which one would you rather aim for? Here you are, the sole deciding factor at TC. What do you want to do, Terry? Oh, that's right. You want to be a freaking idiot. Never mind, then.

50. Coby destroys his position by overplaying.
Coby really wasn't that miserable of a Survivor player. As I pointed out in my previous list, he actually pulled together a very impressive move against Jonathan on Day 1. But he certainly made his share of mistakes, and when the game finally became an individual one, Coby self-imploded faster than any player in Survivor history. He managed to go from being likely safe for the round, to killing every chance he had at staying. And he did it because he did everything he didn't need to do, he said all the things he didn't need to say, and he made everyone very, very uneasy. He took his hand, and he played every card in it, all in the span of 24 hours. Quite simply, he didn't need to do that yet. Quite simply, it was too early. And quite simply, it resulted in him getting the boot. Instead of pulling in Stephenie, Gregg, or Jenn, it just pissed them off. Instead of helping the chances of a successful female alliance and a coup against Tom, he just crushed the minority's shot at pulling something off. He sunk his ship so quickly and so effectively that his boot was quite deserved, even if it was the first step in handing Tom the game.

49. Rudy helps vote out Tina.
Rudy's not much of a thinker. And he explained his actions in the first TC of All-Stars by arguing that there's no good reason to vote anyone out early on, so when a reason presented itself, he might as well follow it. And it got him sent packing a few days later, unfortunately. He could have had numbers, he could have had some safety on his tribe, he could have had an alliance with people he knew he could trust and that would honor their deal with him. He could go with the evil bitch who didn't respect what he brought to the tribe and who would cut him loose in a second, or he could go with the caring winners who needed what he brought to their game and who would take him as far as possible because they were loyal to a fault. And Rudy sided with the former, and it was just so dumb. He lost all the safety and security he could have had in favor of booting a winner. Not smart, Rudy.

48. Lill tells Andrew that Nicole is targeting Tijuana.
Lill went into Morgan in a bad spot. She knew she was in the minority, and unless a miracle happened, she would be the first or second gone. And yet when that very miracle fell into her lap, she threw it away like it was a hot potato of Survivor death, and it resulted in her getting her expected boot. Basically, Nicole offered to give Lill a second chance at the game. Nicole offered some tribal dissension that Lill could go with, and probably find herself in the majority for. Nicole had a girl already on her side, and she was offering a chance to overthrow the perceived reigning alliance to give Lill a better chance at survival. And instead of voting with them, either forcing a tie or swinging someone to their side, Lill immediately went to Andrew, tattled on Nicole, and got Nicole booted for her shit-stirring. And it bought Lill 3 days, but 3 days is not enough so early in the game, and that's why she ultimately got booted anyway, a week later. It didn't make sense, and it happened because Lill came into this game a very irrational player, lacking a good head on her shoulders.

47. Rob Cesternino gets Christy voted off.
This shouldn't have killed Rob's game. If the unlucky Immunity streak from Jenna hadn't happened, Rob still would have won. But this was the move that allowed that unlucky Immunity streak to occur, and it happened because Rob got too paranoid and made a rash decision. Christy was an idiot to waver on him, and she'll make an appearance on this list later for that stupidity. But Rob was almost as dumb for getting freaked out, and changing his game plans. Instead of following the pecking order that would have propelled him to the win, he diverted from the plan and sent Christy packing, because he honestly thought she could go with her evil stepsisters and take control of the game from his hands. It was a silly delusion, and it was just his paranoia getting the best of him. But because he let Heidi and Jenna survive 3 days longer, he gave them one more chance to luck out and cause his house of cards to collapse, and that's exactly what happened.

46. Todd gives James both Hidden Immunity Idols.
This one's obvious. Todd made a monster with this move. He created his Dr. Frankenstein. Sure, it was smart to get one of the HIIs out of the way and use it to save/create an ally and pick off a threat from the other side. But by giving James two HIIs, Todd created a huge threat to his game, one that could easily take him out if he ever made an aggressive move against him. Hell, those idols came very, very close to being Todd's downfall, had someone like PG told James he was in danger or someone like Courtney slipped up and pulled a Stacey at Tribal Council. And Todd singlehandedly made this call, because Todd was just so cocky. All he had to do was tell James where the other HII was, and then hold onto the one he himself had found. That would have led to the use of one HII to take out Jaime, while Todd would be able to have one in his own possession for his own use. And that was such an obvious game plan, but it's not what Todd went for, for reasons that are still incomprehensible. He's very lucky it didn't come back to bite him.

45. Rafe drags Danni to the Final 3, and then relieves her of her promise to him.
I really think Rafe gets a worse rap around here than he deserves. He really played a phenomenal game, considering the circumstances. But considering how things worked out for him, he must have done something wrong, and clearly he screwed up big time with Danni since, you know, she beat him. And part of his mistake with her was taking her all the way to the end of the game, and then being bold enough to relieve her of her promise to him. I mean, I know what he was thinking. He was banking on her moral standards and assuming her integrity wouldn't let her vote Rafe out. He thought it would make him look like a good guy and he thought it would help Steph feel better. But he completely blew it. Because even though Danni was probably going to take Stephenie to the Final 2 anyway, by giving Danni the option to do that, he just set himself up for a loss. Arrogance was his downfall here, because he was just so self-righteous that he really thought Danni was convinced he deserved to win so much she would take him to the end. And instead of playing his odds, he went all-out to win as much respect as possible, and it backfired big time. Danni would have had a much harder time voting him out if she had felt obliged to stick to her promise. Hell, he very well might have been able to win her over if he let the promise stand. But he didn't, and so he lost Survivor. Too bad, so sad.

44. Hunter votes out Peter in his struggle for power.
You know who the only person cockier than Mariano might have been on the Maraamu tribe? Well, that'd be Hunter Ellis. Because Hunter was convinced he was stuck on a tribe of knuckleheads that didn't know what they were doing. He was convinced he was the tribe's only saving grace. And he was convinced everyone would love him for it. And Hunter really was a lot like Rob. Sure, there's a bit of an age difference, and they come from different backgrounds, and their perspectives on life are a bit different. But they're pretty much cut from the same cloth. They're both arrogant, and they both hate competition. And it was their desire to be the top dog on their tribes that resulted in each of them getting the boot in Marquesas, but while Rob actually had a minute chance of saving himself, Hunter managed to screw himself so well on Day 3 that he could never rebound. Basically, on this dysfunctional little tribe, there was a struggle for power. All four men of the tribe were vying for power, and there was a lot of heads being butted there. And none of those guys could handle that, because, well, they included Rob and Hunter and Sean Rector. That's why Peter was the first boot of the tribe, partly because he didn't get along with the group, but partly because he was trying too hard to be some sort of leader, and the other guys just couldn't stomach someone stepping on their turf like that. So the tribe made the mistake of getting rid of him, and Hunter made the fatal mistake of contributing to that. Because Peter would have stuck by anyone that was willing to give him the time of day, especially a strong, reliable guy like Hunter. And Hunter needed Peter, but instead of keeping him, he cut him loose and set himself up to be booted 6 days later. He let the kids of the tribe have their numbers, and he positioned himself into the minority with no chance at survival. And it wall because he was too proud to admit that someone like Peter might actually take some sort of leadership role.

43. Sundra does not mutiny to Raro.
I think it's pretty clear that the Aitu 4 got pretty damn lucky that the mutiny did not kill their games. I mean, really, they should have been screwed after that, and yet they somehow hit the right streak of luck and prevailed. But that's not something anyone in the game could have predicted, Sundra included. And that's why Sundra's decision to stick by Aitu was a stupid one, because it should have resulted in her early demise. We know from Candice that Sundra was supposed to be the other person to mutiny, not Jonathan. We know Sundra would have been in a good spot over at Raro, certainly in a better spot than Jonathan who ultimately made the merge despite Raro's losing streak. We know Sundra would have been positioned very well if Raro had gone on to control the game, as was to be expected when up in numbers by 6. And yet she was so emotionally invested in her tribe and so opposed to the idea of mutiny just because it was "wrong," that she never even considered it. She sat there and watched her game walk away, and she didn't do anything about it. And it worked out to land her as a F4 goat, but still, it was idiotic.

42. The younger men of Lopevi refuse an alliance.
"Let's see, here. We've got a bunch of older guys, and an obvious division between them and us. It's a gender-split season, which means challenge strength is unnecessary. Sarge is desperate for an alliance, and Travis and Chris are already hooking up. We know a couple of those older guys feel really threatened by John P. and Brady, and we know none of them are going to want to let us interact with the women, since we'd flip over to them in a second. We could either take Sarge's suggestion of an alliance, or we could shoot him down, laugh in his face, and wait for the oh-so-obvious TC conclusion where Chris gets sent packing. Um, I think we'll take the latter, Jeff. I mean, we're just so great, I'm not sure how in the world things could go wrong."


41. Heidi and Jenna don't inform Christy she's in danger.
Yeah, I know Jenna still won, but dammit, that doesn't make this move any smarter. The chick lucked out, and after this dumb move at F6, the swimsuit model and her mastermind friend didn't deserve that streak of luck that led the former to the million bucks. Basically, Jenna and Heidi were screwed. Alex had done in their alliance, and they were set to be picked off by the Nerd Herd (no, not the BB one, I mean the the likable one). Yet out of nowhere, Christy was waffling, and the girls actually had a chance of saving themselves from the minority spot. Now, granted it would be easier to tattle on Christy and pray that Rob's paranoia is so intense that Christy gets the boot, but if they did that, they'd just go home in 5th and 4th place, not having helped themselves much. No, the obvious move was to play up on Christy's indecision, use that to split her off of the Nerd Herd and Rob, and convince Christy that her friends had turned on her, so it was time to take this woman thing home. And thanks to Butch, they would have ended up with a 3-2-1 vote that would have turned the game on its head, giving both Jenna/Heidi a new shot at life. Instead, though, they opted for choice A, and they managed to do little more than delay the boot order by 3 days. Big deal.

40. Mookie tells Dreamz about the Hidden Immunity Idol.
Oh, the hilarity that was the Four Horsemen. This actually wasn't their worst move, but it certainly was what helped end their game, and it's all thanks to the man with the second most ridiculous name in the group (bet you didn't expect Mookie to only be the second most ridiculous name in any group, did you?). Basically, the Four Horsemen consisted of the Alex/Edgardo/Mookie trifecta, and Dreamz. And when the trifecta stumbled upon the illusive HII, thanks to Lisi, they made the decision not to tell Dreamz, because quite simply not only could they not trust the guy, but even if they could trust him, he had a tendency to just say whatever he knew for no particular reason, and that could really ruin the whole elaborate HII plot. So they kept him in the dark, and they planned to use the HII as a surprise when they needed to. And they couldn't tell Dreamz, because Dreamz couldn't keep his mouth shut. And then the merge happened, and guess what Mookie did? Well, he told Dreamz. This was a few days after the HII had been found, and Mookie slipped it into conversation like it was a comment about the weather. Why? Because he was an idiot. So he managed to not only alienate Dreamz by telling him the alliance's trump card several days after they actually discovered their trump card, but they shared their whole plot with him and it led to one of the best blindsides in the history of Survivor. And it was quite dumb, I must say.

39. Austin and Nick vote out Misty.
Austin and Nick lucked out on La Mina, and found themselves shoved into a very powerful position where they could singlehandedly call the shots of their tribe. They were thrown into the middle of the power struggle, and if it was as simple as them choosing the wrong side, I might not fault them so much. But the fact is, they had the option of not yet choosing a side, booting the weakest tribe member, cutting off the option of the strongest pair in the tribe, not alienating anyone so early in the game, and, well, making the boot decision that actually would have made sense. And instead of doing that, they screwed up big time. They sided with one pair earlier than necessary, knowing full well that doing so would leave a girl pissed off at them and potentially dangerous in a switch or merge. They eliminated a stronger member over a weaker one, and they set up Terry and Dan to be able to have the majority if they ever actually got down to their dream Final 5. And the second I saw them do it, I knew the guys were idiots. Good thing they got Pagonged for their failures.

38. Cristina helps vote out J.P.
When I saw J.P. get overthrown by the women of Raro, I was quite happy about it, and I thought it was a sign that Rebecca could be a great player. As it turns out, it ended up amounting to nothing more than a huge mistake. It didn't save the women like they thought it would, and it just hurt the tribe to the point where they dropped numbers so quickly that they were decimated after the merge. And the person for whom this move was the biggest mistake was Cristina. Because unlike the other women (except Parvati), she had a solid in with the guys. Sure, they had a bond, but she had a deal with J.P., and that deal could help her out a ton if she played into it and used him as her way of securing a solid spot on the tribe. J.P. had no intention of turning on her, and had she stuck by him, he would have carried her far on Raro. But instead of showing an ounce of loyalty, Cristina jumped ship on her ally and helped create a female force at the first TC. And worst of all, she was even the one to dictate that the boot target would be J.P., the one person on the tribe she had an actual bond with. And by destroying the dominant alliance and cutting out her strongest ally, she ended up setting herself up to be the boot only two votes down the road. Dummy.

37. Lex helps eliminate every challenge strength on Mogo Mogo.
I understand what the guy was doing. Who wouldn't be afraid of the likes of Hatch? Who would ever want to compete with the likes of Colby or Ethan after the merge? Who would want to keep around those dominant players that could easily kick your ass? Well, anyone with any real foresight, that's who. Because while Lex's efforts to eliminate every threat on Mogo Mogo paid off in that it secured him a spot as the dictator and leader of his tribe, it also secured his spot as the first post-merge target, a big game threat, and a guy who couldn't win because he surrounded himself with women who would turn against him come end game. And the thing is, supposedly, Lex learned from his mistakes in Africa, where he allied with strong males who beat him out in the end. Thing is, that wasn't his mistake. His mistake was being too controlling. His mistake was cutting people he felt threatened by so that he made himself out to be a huge target. And his mistake was keeping around useless players who would easily eliminate him if they managed to wisen up come end game. And he made the exact same mistakes in ASS. They didn't play out quite the same way, but they caused his demise, nonetheless. And in ASS, his game play also led to the destruction of his entire tribe, which proceeded to lose challenge after challenge, despite having some of the strongest players to start with. Lex got so power hungry that he accidentally handed over the power to other players. Oops.

36. Christy waffles at Final 6.
Lots of mistakes were made at this crucial point in Amazon, but Christy's was the biggest, as it was the one that resulted in her immediate loss when she could have gone far. Basically, Christy had a tight F4 deal. And come F6, she had an opportunity to jump ship and shake up the game. Whatever she decided to do, the point was that she had options, and she could choose how the game would play out. But the problem is, this sent Christy on a power trip, and she got cocky. And cocky Christy ended up not taking a side at all, until it was too late. She scared the most paranoid player in the game, and she gave the most insecure players a chance at survival. She turned the game around on herself by not committing to either side, and getting herself booted out of the game as a swing vote that never fully swung. She thought she was so invincible she could sit back and decide who to boot whenever she felt like it. She kind of forgot that there were 5 other players in the game, and that she was certainly not invincible. And it bit her, hard. Also, it ruined chillone. Score!

35. Silas refuses the Elder alliance in order to stick with the Generation X alliance.
We all knew Samburu was screwed the second their tribe split like it did. Because in the early days of Survivor, numbers meant everything. And a split-down-the-middle meant the tribe could never get those numbers (you know, unless Boran proceeds to be a bunch of complete idiots). At the very least, though, the split wasn't 4-4, because that would mean Samburu was doomed. No, the tribe had simply alienated three younger members, and that could work out okay for a 5-person alliance come merge. Except Silas wasn't content with a 5-person alliance. You see, Silas wasn't a big fan of old people. So instead of going with the numbers, the numbers that would give his tribe a chance at having the post-merge edge, the numbers that would guarantee Silas his safety, the numbers that would make Silas the most valuable member of his group, he decided to force a tie at the tribe's first TC, side with the Generation X gang, and risk everything. Because not only did he run the risk of losing the tiebreaker and finding himself stuck in the minority with a group of bitter old people who felt he betrayed them. Not only was there a damn good chance that the unstable Lindsey would screw up, get booted, and Silas would find himself on the outside of the very alliance he had just turned down. No, there was also an almost guaranteed chance that even if the younger group managed to get control of the tribe, a week down the road, that younger group was absolutely screwed. Because once they alienated the Elders, they were never going to have numbers for the rest of the game. Whoever was left of the older people come merge was going to flip on Samburu and give Boran the win. And even if they picked off all 4 Elders, Samburu was guaranteed a post-merge minority. As it turned out, all of this came back to bite Silas even sooner than expected, but he was still an idiot for forcing the situation in the first place.

34. Tom Buchanan casts two "warning votes" for Clarence.
Another element of the early seasons of Survivor was the idea of past votes deciding future tiebreakers. Basically, it meant that early on in the tribal portion of the game, you wanted as many unanimous boots as possible so that you would have as few stray votes as possible that could screw your tribe come the inevitable merge tie. It was common knowledge that every vote was sacred, and any of them could easily come back to hurt you at the merge, just like one single vote doomed the Kucha tribe in Australia. So Big Tom Buchanan, the genius that he was, decided that at his first two TCs, he would give warning votes to Clarence. Why? Well, because he wanted to scare him. Except that those votes served no purpose for the Boran Boys. In fact, they only risked hurting Boran big time, because if a tie vote occurred after the merge, those votes that had been cast against Clarence could easily send Boran packing. And worse yet, all Tom was doing was just setting up Clarence to jump ship. It was like poking and prodding a sleeping tiger, just asking it to come and bite you whenever it gets the chance. It made no sense, and it was just stupid.

33. Kim Johnson refuses to vote with Teresa at the Final 6 Tribal Council.
Wow, three Africa ones in a row. Anyway, everyone knows Kim Johnson was a pretty poor Survivor player. And one example of her terrible play came at the Final 6, when Kim was presented with the choice of turning the game around and maybe having a minute chance at winning, or continuing to follow the Boran Boys to her Final 4 demise. She went with the latter, she blew her only chance at survival, and she turned into a F2 goat that the guys didn't even plan to take past 4th place. Genius.

32. Sandra and Christa help vote out Tijuana.
Fairplay played these chicks like a fiddle, straight-up. The women of PI were presented with a golden opportunity to take the game by storm and eliminate their biggest threats. And if they followed through with that, all four of them would have been in a much better spot to win. Instead, Sandra and Christa decided to trust a desperate Fairplay over a power-ridden Tijuana. Um, yeah, not a good call. Jon had just fucked them over 3 days earlier, his back was against the wall and he was ready to promise anything, and if he/Burton/Lill made F3, they'd have numbers to force a tie if not more. And so the two Drake girls decided to go with Jon, boot Tijuana, and throw their game out the window. It resulted in Christa getting the very next boot, much to her shock, and it would have led to Sandra finishing 5th if Burton hadn't screwed up so badly. They took their numbers, they let Fairplay destroy them, and they were shocked when he turned on them the very next TC, even though it was obviously coming.

31. Stephenie and Rafe vote out Lydia instead of Danni.
Here's the second part of Rafe's stupidity with Danni. Again, I know why he did it. But again, he outsmarted himself here. Lydia was one of the weakest challenge performers of all time, but Rafe didn't see this. Instead, he saw the unlikely Immunity wins of past players, like Kim Johnson and Lill, and he got scared, and he made a huge mistake. He kept an athletic, young woman around for the F3 challenge, and that was a bad move, because there are three types of final challenges: those slanted towards alpha males, those slanted towards an even playing field, and those slanted towards agile young women. None were good for Lydia, oddly enough. But one of them could easily allow Danni to win the prize, and Rafe and Steph kept her around, and they screwed their chances of their dream F2, because Danni went on to best them and win the game. The lesson learned is that no matter how much some chick may be puking her guts out and collapsing on sight, it's better to take your chances with the stocky older woman with the worst challenge record ever. Just saying.

30. Leann replaces Scout with Julie.
This was the move that robbed us of the best female winner to date, and I will always fault Leann for destroying the closest thing women have ever had to complete dominance of a season. Basically, the female alliance was well structured and positioned to take the game by storm. All the girls had to do was stick to the game plan, and then one of them would win. But what did Leann decide to do? Well, she got attached, she let emotions override her game play, and she swapped one of the women in the group for Julie. And it was a fatal mistake for her, because Scout didn't appreciate being thrown down to the bottom of the totem pole. Scout eventually pulled together a counter-alliance, decimated the all-woman alliance of Vanuatu, and claimed Leann as her first victim. Revenge was sweet in this instance, because Leann was just asking for it. Scout was ready to jump the second she got a feeling she wasn't being included, and Leann blatantly broadcast to Scout that she no longer had any plans for her. She straight-up told Scout, "Nope, sorry, I decided I'm not going to let you go to the end of the game. Deal with it." Worst of all, she knew how close Twila was to Scout, and she knew that Twila was one of the most paranoid players in the history of the game. And by cutting Scout, she should have known she was just asking Twila to flip against her. Everything about this move was idiotic, especially because not only did it kill Leann's game, but there wasn't actually any good reason for Leann to consider it in the first place. Even if it had worked like she wanted it to, it would have just hurt her chances at winning.

29. The Rotu 4 make their pecking order known.
I do think this move isn't quite as dumb as some people make it out to be, but anytime you've got complete control of the game and you throw it away by making the minority absolutely aware of their position, you've screwed up. The Rotu 4 can only be blamed so much because, really, who expected Paschal and Neleh to change their minds? But they did outcast the two otherwise loyal players, ultimately alienating them so much that they flipped over to the very people that neither Neleh or Paschal was ever very likely to align with. The Rotu 4 were so arrogant and so convinced they had the game in the bag that they made crucial mistakes, and they never did any of the things they should have done to keep their numbers in alignment. They were never able to recover from Rob's game moves, and they allowed the whole game to fall from their fingers. Not smart.

28. Jonathan betrays Raro.
Jonathan probably couldn't win Cook Islands no matter what he did. But still, if he had any interest in trying, jumping over to Aitu at the merge was suicidal. By that point, he had alienated 4 jury members in the mutiny. The worst thing he could possibly do was screw over another 4 of them, and guarantee his loss in the process. He was the one with all the power come merge, and he could singlehandedly determine how the game could play out. And instead of making it work for him, he just handed the game to the group of players he liked more, and he set himself up to be cut from the action very quickly. Basically, Jonathan didn't need to vote with Aitu. He made the right move in getting them to target Nate, but if he had voted with Raro at TC, Nate would have been gone, Jonathan would still have his allies, and the game would be wide-open for him. Maybe Ozzy flips, maybe Jonathan is able to work some sort of cross-tribal alliance, maybe he can win. See, by playing his hand differently, Jonathan had options. And while it made for great T.V., Jonathan's infamous betrayal was not good game play.

27. Stacy makes Yau-Man aware he's the boot.
This one's quite simple. Any time you're going to blindside the guy with the HII, all you have to do is make sure he doesn't know he's in trouble, and no matter how many idols he may have, he's gone. But Stacy didn't seem to grasp this. She was given yet another chance at going deeper into the game than she deserved, and that made her so happy and so cocky that she began to think she was just a better player than someone like Yau. And so she made the fatal mistake of broadcasting the vote at TC, hinting to YM that a blindside was coming. At first, I thought the editing was just trying to make it seem like Stacy did herself in. But according to Yau-Man's interviews, Stacy's answer at TC really was what tipped him off to his imminent departure, and it was what influenced him to play the HII before the vote. Stupid, stupid Stacy.

26. Gina votes out Sarah after the switch.
I don't hear about this one much, which is surprising, because it's pretty obvious why this was such a bad move. The switch gave Gina a new shot at survival in the game. She went from being the next boot to actually having some options. But see, the thing was, she was put onto the clearly weaker of the two tribes. She was on an all-female tribe (plus Paschal) with fewer numbers and no real challenge strength. Over at New Rotu, every remaining alpha male was just waiting to start kicking ass in challenges. It was absolutely reasonable to expect Maraamu was going to lose every pre-merge challenge. At the very least, it could be safely assumed that the tribe would attend at least two pre-merge TCs. And if that was the case, Gina couldn't afford to just help boot Sarah, and leave it at that. Because if she did that, she would be gone at the very next vote. What she needed to do was make a power play, get over her grudge against Sarah, and take control of the tribe. If she did that, she had a good chance at survival, and a pretty good chance at going far into the game. Instead, she went for the obviously weaker move, she followed the game like a sheep, and she allowed herself to go pre-merge.

25. Kelly Wiglesworth backstabs Sue.
Kelly's Immunity streak put her in a good shot to win her season. But her stupidity was ultimately was took that chance away from her, as she booted the one person she couldn't afford to boot at the F4. Because Kelly could only beat one person in the Final 2. She would never stand a chance against Rudy, and Rich was a big long shot (the vote was only so close because of Gervase and Colleen's unexpected switches). If Kelly wanted to win, she had to face Sue in the jury vote, and if she did that, she would probably leave a million dollars richer. Sue was ready to walk into the F2 with her and hand her the game. And Kelly's path to victory would have been clear. But instead of sticking by Sue and forcing the tie at F4, a tie that couldn't possibly hurt her as she was the one wearing the immunity necklace and she was the one with numbers on her side and she was the one with a stronger shot at winning any sort of challenge, she betrayed Sue, she made herself a bitter enemy, and she lost herself the game. By helping vote out Sue, she eliminated the only person she had a chance at beating and she destroyed her only chance at winning a jury vote. She sunk her game so fast, and it was so amazingly idiotic to do.

24. Jerri openly reveals her "friends" and the inner rings of her alliance.
Jerri, Jerri, quite contrary, how does your garden grow? Here's a hint: you'll never foster any metaphorical garden by letting all the sunflowers know they're just being strung along to help the tulips prosper. And that's exactly what Jerri did with her alliance. She pulled together a group of people on Day 1, and then she made the mistake of letting Tina know that she wanted no part in working with her. She allowed one of her numbers to realize they were nothing more than a number, and she broadcast a pecking order that excluded the person with the potential to turn the game on its head. She basically said, "Look, guys, here are my real allies, so if you want a shot at survival, you're going to have to flip someone, because otherwise, you're at the bottom of the totem pole." And it came back to bite her at the very next TC, when the person labeled "not one of Jerri's friends" destroyed the alliance that had excluded her and eliminated Jerri's closest ally of all. Silly Jerri.

23. Darrah stops promising Lill Final 2.
Darrah could have easily won season 7 if she had just continued to lie. Everyone else in the game was doing it, and if she had followed suit, she probably would have been known as the strongest female challenge competitor to ever win, and she probably would have received a much better edit (I'm quite thankful this didn't happen, by the way). Instead of keeping her game sorted out, however, Darrah let Jon exploit her mistake and get her booted at the Final 4. You see, Fairplay instigated a fight on Day 37, and there was an obvious choice to be made. Darrah could either lie and tell Lill that she was staying true to her promise and wanted to go to the Final 2 with her, or she could fall for Jon's trap and refuse Lill that F2 spot. If she chose the former, she had an ally on her side, Jon would have been voted off, and she would have won. But she chose the latter, and it turned Lill against her and led to her demise. It's a move that still makes no sense, and I do believe it was made because Darrah just never really understood the game. She would make game-ending blunders like this because she just wasn't capable of seeing how they could affect her positioning. She went from having a million dollars practically in her pocket to walking away significantly poorer. And it was just a dumb thing to do.

22. Rob and Amber vote out Tom.
Oh, Romber. Sometimes, I have to think they knew what they were doing, other times, I just have to question whether they had a brain between them. They made all the right moves going into the Final 5 vote. Rob ensured no coup would be attempted and they were guaranteed Final 4. But they screwed up big time when they actually wrote a name down on that paper. Because they decided to vote out Big Tom, and in doing so, they faced a F4 showdown that would place their entire game in the hands of one challenge. They let everything boil down to a lightning round. They let the game tie itself up and they allowed for a decent chance of them losing because of it. Had Rupert or Jenna won Immunity in the next challenge, game over for Romber. The tie would have been forced, and that very likely would have been the end of the line for them. And considering they had control over how the end game would play out, the fact that they allowed it to build up to this is just retarded, to quote the queen of retardedness herself. Their justification for it was even worse - "We wanted to piss off 1 juror instead of 2." That doesn't matter if you're both making Final 4, idiots. It's the single biggest fault of their ASS games, and it's what prevents me from considering either of them to be very good players.

21. Elisabeth refuses to vote with Amber.
This one's dangerously close to the realm of choosing integrity over the game, but I ultimately decided to include it because I strongly believe that while Liz's personal motives played a huge part in her decision, she also legitimately believed it to be a decent game move, and that's what makes it so dumb. Yes, Tina successfully convinced Elisabeth that she should fight to get the good people to the end. Yes, Elisabeth wanted to go far with Tina and Colby because she thought them more deserving. But at the same time, Tina was fostering the idea that Keith would go home in 5th place, and the F4 would really be the most deserving players. And I believe that somewhere in the back of Elisabeth's mind, this is really what she thought would happen. She thought Tina was as honest as she seemed, and the end game would play out in a way where she had a good chance at winning. She thought she was going to be handed a strong chance at a million bucks just because she was nice enough to warrant it. And that's why not turning the game around when she had the chance was stupid. If she knew she was going home in 4th place, I wouldn't fault her for it. But I suspect that she didn't really know that, and I suspect a part of the reason she didn't vote with Amber was because she thought she and Rodger actually had a chance at making F4 together just by staying loyal. Naive, and bad game play.

20. Amanda votes out Denise.
It's simple. Amanda could vote out either Denise or Todd at Final 4. She had control of Courtney, and however she voted, Courtney would vote. She knew about the Final 3, and she knew how to approach it. And yet, she voted out Denise. And the fact of the matter is, Todd crushed her. She kept Todd in the game, and she lost to him quite decisively. And if she had kept Denise around, there's a good chance Amanda would be a million dollars richer. It doesn't get anymore straightforward than that.

19. James Clement fails to use either of his Hidden Immunity Idols.
James' "blindside" was the most obvious blindside in the history of the game. There was only one more opportunity to take James out of the equation and keep him away from the Final 3. James was refusing to give away his HII to Todd, and he had already come dangerously close to getting picked off once in the past, when JR jumped the gun and tried to get rid of him. James was a huge threat, his alliance safely had numbers without him, and he was either going to go home at Final 7 or he was going to win the game. And yet with all of that in mind, he opted not to use an idol at the F7 Tribal Council. If he had any awareness of the game, he would have made his move and saved his ass from sure elimination. Instead, he was so oblivious and so arrogant that he thought nobody was capable of doing simple math, and he would be able to waltz into the end of the game. When Amanda turned things around on him, he was shocked and he was out of the game. And basically, the guy had such a great way to counter such an obvious move that his failure to do so makes this move the 19th biggest mistake in the history of Survivor. At least it's not really the dumbest move of all time, James, like Prost likes to attest.

18. Sue ditches Rich as her goat in order to lose to Kelly.
Here you go, CL. This is why Sue is such a terrible, terrible player. She had a great alliance sculpted out for herself. She had a goat she could actually beat in the jury vote, something that was hard for her to come by, given her personality. She had a free ticket to the Final 2 against a great opponent, and her path to victory was so open and so easy to follow. Yet Sue let her emotions get the best of her, and she threw all of that away just so that she could humiliate Richard Hatch. She was willing to go home $900,000 poorer just to ensure Rich never got to the end of the game. And that's why she decided to team up with Kelly and plot the demise of Rich together. That's why she decided she would face Kelly in the jury vote, lose to her, and laugh in Rich's face regardless. And such an obviously stupid move warrants quite a bit of criticism. Sue went from being on top of the game to being a complete loser.

17. Ian falls apart at the Final 5.
I don't hold Ian's F3 decision against him. I mean, I certainly don't consider it one of the 75 worst move of all time, because he was well aware of the consequences of his actions and he went through with them anyway. The moves he made at the Final 5, however, are a different story entirely. Because this was just Ian being absolutely terrible at Survivor. This was where Ian began to very clearly fall apart. First he promises Katie he'll take her with him on any reward trips, then he makes another deal with Tom, and honors the second one over the first. Then he goes off with Tom to enjoy a reward as the two biggest threats remaining in the game, and leaves three women back plotting at camp, one of whom is ready to kill him. Then he gets back to camp where the women immediately confront him, and he turns into a stuttering mess on the spot, as he fails to keep his lies straight and does things like telling Caryn, "It's going to be you, me, Kat - er, you, me, and Tom....I'm not going to make a decision until tonight." And then he completely breaks down, falling to the ground and crying as Katie rips him a new one. Somehow, he and Tom survived that round. But that day in Palau solidified how weak of a player Ian could be, because the guy was just incapable of lying and when it was finally time for those lies to catch up to him, they almost ended his game as well as his friendships.

16. Jan refuses to vote with Helen.
By the Final 5 of Thailand, Jan was pretty out-of-touch with reality. That's probably why when this move was discussed at the Reunion show, Jan wasn't even aware it had happened. Helen offered Jan an opportunity to switch up the game and gain herself a better game position. Helen was offering Jan a shot at making a good play and a chance at getting past 3rd place. And just like in Africa, Jan turned her down, and it led to her eventual demise. Like Helen said, "We could have controlled the game. We could have gone all the way. We could have done it." But because Jan was so emotionally unstable by that point, it never happened, and it was a huge mistake on Jan's part, because it ruined any chance she had at winning. The cards were laid out for her, and she decided to pick the 3 instead of the Jack. At least Probst went light on her post-show, even though she handed the game to Brian and Clay on a silver platter.

15. Lex and Kathy vote out Jerri.
Yes, this is probably one of the most complicated strategic decisions in the history of the game because there is so much back-story to be taken into account that we still are not 100% clear on. But from what we know, it boils down to this: Lex and Kathy decided that appeasing Rob Mariano and making an effort to build a post-merge alliance with him would take them deep into the game. They thought Rob's desperation to save his girl and their pre-game relationships would keep Rob loyal and help them find a powerful position when the two tribes came together. And so they decided that rather than cutting off Rob's left leg and forcing a post-merge situation where Tom would be their swing vote, they would instead let one of their own members go and make a sacrifice for the Robfather. And it came back to bite them in the ass big time, because they made the huge blunder of trusting one of the most ruthless, insincere players in the history of the game. They managed to throw away a perfect opportunity to take control of ASS, an opportunity that had been handed to them via a twist and that any sensible player would have never taken for granted. They went from being down-and-out to being on top of the world, and they decided to go right back down to that position of down-and-out. And that's how Mogo Mogo lost the game for their tribe. They invested their entire game in a player nobody there could trust and in relationships that ended up meaning far less than a million bucks. And after all the preaching Lex did of ensuring that he himself would use and abuse friendships to further his game, he never saw this ultimate betrayal coming. How silly is that?

14. Raro targets Yul.
If you like the Aitu 4, you're quite pleased Raro was stupid enough to do this, but if you're opposed to the dull season that alliance gave us, you probably hate this decision with a burning passion. I fall into the latter group, and maybe that's why it's so low on this list, along with the fact that it was so blatantly idiotic. Quite simply, Raro went into the merge in a risky position. Sure, they had numbers, but they also had reason to distrust one of their numbers. After all, their last three boots had all gone down calling for Jonathan's blood. So they knew things could easily flip around on them, and they knew that the inclusion of a then-uncovered HII could be the deciding factor in that delicately numerically balanced scenario. They also knew that the only person from Aitu who could have possibly found the idol, and the only person on Aitu Jonathan had ever really work with, was Yul. So at that first TC, what did the genius Raros decide to do? Why, they opted to vote against Yul, and in doing so, they sealed their fates. Because even if Jonathan had stayed loyal, by refusing to vote for anyone but Aitu's leader, they were ensuring the loss of one of their numbers at TC. The only person who could possibly have the HII was the one getting votes at that first post-merge Tribal Council, and despite all the hints Jonathan tried to give them, they went through with the vote regardless. The tribe was still so cocky as to believe they were invincible, and that's how they committed this deadly mistake. What Jonathan did may not have been much better, but considering Raro had the option to maintain control of the game and opted against it, they deserve quite a bit more flak.

13. Lex goes on his witch hunt against Kelly.
We all know why this one's here. If not for Samburu's (repeated) incompetence, this move would have singlehandedly turned the ruling post-merge alliance of Africa into the outnumbered minority, with the leader going from top dog to first juror, all in the span of 3 days. Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it, that didn't happen, but the way in which the Boran alliance attempted to throw their game out the window was simply amazing. Here they were with numbers. They had survived the first TC by cutting somebody from their group that they couldn't fully trust, and now they were up by one. A Samburu needed to go, or else they risked losing those numbers they had worked so hard to gain. Except there was a problem. Someone had cast a vote for Lex at that F10 TC. And damn it, no way in hell was Lex going to let that slide. Because that vote meant there was someone out there he couldn't trust. Sure, there was a tribe of 4 players that he had every reason to believe would target him. Sure, he was the leader of a clear majority alliance and in the position to get the minority votes at every turn. But that one vote angered Lex to no end, and so he went on his infamous witch hunt to track down the culprit. And that's how he (with the help of Ethan and Tom) blew apart Boran's game. He fingered Kelly as the mole, a player he needed to have to keep his numbers, and he called her out and managed to alienate her so much she flipped right over to the other side. And in one fell swoop, Boran was positioned to lose the game at TC that night. Yes, a stroke of good luck befell them, and a few of the Samburus proved to be even bigger idiots than he was. But still, Lex and, by association, the rest of his gang of Boran Boys managed to change what would have been a clear path to victory to a virtual mine field, and it's a wonder they somehow survived it. And it'll always feel somewhat wrong that Kelly got the boot that episode.

12. John Carroll gets Gabriel booted instead of Rob.
You know why, ultimately, John and the rest of the Rotu 4 lost this game? Because of this move right here, and the same sort of paranoia that caused Lex to commit the blunder he pulled at #13 on the list. The twist doomed Maraamu to a string of pre-merge boots. They had numbers on neither tribe, and John's little group was set to pick off the biggest threats from that old tribe, Rob and Sean. Whenever they decided to lose a challenge, their votes were all lined up nice and neat. Yet instead of Rob Mariano's godfather tactics backfiring in his face and resulting in him getting the boot, somehow, Gabriel Cade found himself the victim of John's strategy. And that was because John was an idiot. Gabe never would have stirred up trouble. Gabe never would have tried to rally a counter-alliance. Gabe never would have turned against John just for the hell of it. Gabe would vote along the obvious voting order, and he wasn't going to ever do a damn thing, strategically. Somehow, that frightened John, and for some reason, it scared him enough that he decided to get Gabe out. And not only did this allow Rob to make the merge, where his actions eventually led to a counter-alliance that would send John packing, not only did it cost John his post-merge numbers, not only did it alienate Paschal/Neleh, but this move potentially set up John to be the first boot of Rotu. Because if Gabe had decided to throw his vote to John, it'd be game over for the male nurse. If Gabe was frustrated just enough at John for betraying him, if Gabe changed his vote just that one little bit that any player would be expected to do, John would have lost the numbers on his tribe, he would have encountered a tie, and a PROD would have made for a whole new game for him, one in which he had a 50/50 shot of losing out on. Hell, considering the turncoat Zoe was, John could have been the boot right then and there. He lucked out that it didn't happen like that, but this mistake still ended his game regardless.

11. Burton stops promising Lill F2 and takes Jon on a reward trip.
Often times, only the second part of this mistake is cited as the reason Burton was voted out of PI (again). But the thing is, Burton could have taken Jon on their reward and still survived TC that night, if only he was a little more tactful. Because sure, leaving the three women alone at camp to scheme was idiotic. It just set up the guys to get burned, and it was just asking for trouble. But as cocky as it was, Jon was actually right - the two men actually would have been able to keep things in check, if only Burton had been able to lie a little better. The fact of the matter is that Jon and Burton didn't lose Lill's vote by going off on a reward together, but because Burton up and decided to stop promising Lill Final 2. He got so caught up in his game of playing the good cop to Jon's evil, diabolical, grandmother-killing, satanic cop that he lost the one ally he needed to keep in his back pocket. Over time, Burton played for the jury more and more, because he wanted to be the guy that lied less than Jon did. But by doing that, Burton allowed Lill to realize that Burt's real F2 partner wasn't her, but Fairplay. And that's when she truly decided to turn against him. The reward debacle just allowed the execution to become that much more delicious.

10. Stephenie helps vote out every single one of her potential goats.
Steph and her lack of self-awareness is what ensured she would never win Survivor. She was always oblivious to what the people around her really thought, and that's why she fell victim to Rafe's genius plan and helped him systematically eliminate every player she needed to keep around in order to have any chance at winning. As a returning player, the jury vote was going to be relatively difficult for her to overcome. Fortunately, people like Jamie and Judd were universally despised, and people like Lydia or Cindy were considered worthless players. Against one of them, Steph would have had a chance at winning. So what did she do? Here's a hint: she doesn't face them in the jury vote, that's for sure. No, Steph buys into Rafe's sales pitch and proceeds to boot every single one of them. She eliminates every player she needs to keep around for her own chance at a million bucks. She managed to go from having moderate potential to becoming the goat of the season, all because she picked off every player that was more of a goat than she was. By the time things in Guatemala wound down, Steph could no longer win the game, and considering the power position she was thrown into repeatedly, that says something about her game play.

9. Three of the Four Horsemen vote out Lisi instead of Dreamz.
This was a simple choice, and the most unsuccessful alliance of Fiji managed to screw it up big time. Basically, at the last pre-merge TC, they had the option of picking the 4th wheel in their alliance. On one side, there was Dreamz. The guy was a physical threat, he was completely irrational, he had ties to the other tribe, he had been alienated by half of the Four Horsemen at the beginning of the game, he was so mistrusted that the information about the HII was kept from him, he was a complete idiot, his true motivations were unclear, he was so desperate he would do anything to win, and every alliance he had ever formed had members sitting over at New Moto. On the other hand, you had Lisi. She was a worthless player, a complete tag-along, an ally from the very beginning, a player with no interest at winning or making a move to better her position, a hanger-on that would stay in the game as long as she was needed and then drop, a personality that clashed with half of the other tribe, someone who had helped them find the HII, a useless challenge competitor, a player that could never win a jury vote, and someone that could be trusted simply because she had no reason to do anything untrustworthy. And 3/4 of the Four Horsemen, in their infinite wisdom, decided that keeping Dreamz around over Lisi was the best move. Sorry, but I beg to differ. Being as Dreamz managed to screw the alliance into oblivion over the course of the next few episodes, I think I have the facts on my side.

8. Kimmi tells Ogakor that Jeff has a vote against him.
You know how I attributed the best Kucha strategy to Rodger, who was smart enough to see the importance of minority votes and carefully directed the sole dissenting votes of his TCs at Jeff Varner, positioning the Christian Coalition for domination later in the game? Well, there was someone else on Kucha who did the complete opposite. Instead of seeing the importance of past votes and doing what she could to keep them right where she wanted them, Kimmi decided it would be far wiser to simply spill this crucial information to Ogakor the second the two tribes had a chance to talk. With one little comment, Kimmi blew Kucha's entire game out of the water. Because at this point in Survivor, past votes decided the merge game, clear and simple. Unless one tribe had a post-merge numerical advantage, everything came down to how the first 6 Tribal Council votes had done, and what the two tribes did with this information. Keeping the results of Ogakor's votes a secret ensured their survival. On the other hand, by telling the other tribe about one little vote cast at the first TC of the game, Kimmi singlehandedly caused the demise of every single member of her tribe. Now, she never really got a chance to pay for her mistake. But even still, any move that is so dramatic as to kill not just your chances at survival, but the entire tribe's chances at survival must be pretty damn stupid. Maybe we should ask Varner?

7. Caryn refuses a female alliance.
Because Caryn sucks. And even though move #5 on this ranking kind of makes that comment pretty ironic in hindsight, Katie was still spot-on. Caryn sucked because Caryn destroyed the women's chances of winning Palau. She was just so afraid of Stephenie and so in love with Tom that instead of pursuing an alliance that might actually give her a chance at winning, she kept to a pecking order where she was the perpetual lowest man on the totem pole. Um, yeah. Sorry, but I'm not seeing the thought process on this one. I mean, what, did she think Tom would take her to the end? Did she think she could actually beat the guy even if that miracle came true? She got dragged for one TC and a quit and then was this close to being the next boot, for crying out loud. Then she went home in 5th place, as karma came back to bite her in the ass, because by the time Caryn was ready to make a female alliance, that ship had sailed, and she was screwed. Silly Caryn. Next time, don't pass up a good thing just because you're jealous of Stephenie, mkay?

6. Rupert makes the pecking order clear.
When you have guys like Burton and freaking Johnny Fairplay in your alliance, there's one thing you don't do: tell them they're 4th and 5th place. You sure as hell don't do it at the Final 10, and you don't do it when they've got your 6th place boot on their side, as well as the entire minority tribe. The fact is, Rupert and his two women got so power-ridden and cocky in the Pearl Islands, that they pulled the most arrogant show of power in the history of the game, and they did so with people who were more likely to flip on them for it than any other player that had been cast thus far. I mean, outright blatantly telling Jon Dalton that he's going to get 4th place at best? Really? Even when he's got everything on his side should he choose to flip the game around? Stupid, stupid, stupid. This was a hundred times worse than the Rotu 4 revealing their pecking order or Leann screwing up the female alliance. Both of those moves were miscalculations, scenarios where supposedly honest players had managed to make radical game moves and change things up. They're nowhere near the level of what Rupert did here, where he would go up to fucking Johnny Fairplay and Burton and tell them, "Look, you guys are going to make F5 with us, and you'll get very honorable finishes. Congratulations." John never went up to Paschal and said, "Hey, Pappy, you're going to get 6th place, but if you win Immunity, I'll cut one of my own people to keep you around! Aren't I swell! Sure, I'd have no other option, but I just wanted to let you know what a great, respected part of this alliance you are!" It was just terrible, terrible execution of an alliance that deserved what it got.

5. Katie refuses to vote out Ian at Final 5.
Sometimes, the jury votes are clear. Sometimes, it's very obvious how likely each player is to win the million bucks, should they make that coveted Final 2 spot. And when it's as blatant as it was in Palau, and the 2nd biggest goat of the game decided to help eliminate the only person they can beat at F5, despite having the numbers and everything else positioned for them to make a power play, yes, that's stupid game play. Katie was given a brand new chance at survival come Final 5. Ian handed her a chance to turn the game around, after she had failed to do so when Gregg left. Katie was handed an opportunity to win the respect of the jury by showing her skills as a game player and independent woman, she was given the chance to take down the power players that had been running things for so long, and she was granted the positioning to give herself a chance at a million bucks. Even sucky Caryn was game for a revolution. Yet instead of following through on those things, Katie sat back. She ate her own words and became the sucky woman of the F5, because she outright refused to turn on Ian, even after he had betrayed her trust and gotten caught in a mess of lies. And she never seemed to realize that if Caryn left, her game was over. By helping boot Caryn, Katie destroyed her game, and considering the alternative was so easily laid out for her, I consider it a pretty idiotic strategic decision.

4. Alex Bell tells Rob he will get 4th place.
Let me just transcribe this one for you. I feel that does it justice pretty well.
Alex: So, Rob, I was thinking. If the four of us go to the Final 4, I know that those two have sworn to each other. They're never going to vote for each other. So, the way I see it, if I win Immunity, I'll vote for you, and I'm sure if you win Immunity you're going to vote me off, and that's totally cool. I'm down. It's no worries.
Rob (confessional): Alex's decision to tell me that he is going to vote me out at the Final 4 is really kind of curious. I think it has to do with this idea that we're all each other's best friends, and even though I'm going to be voted out 4th, I'm losing to three worthy players.
Alex: And if one of them wins Immunity, that's a whole other ball of wax and I don't know what happens then. But I'm just saying, between you and I, and we've been down with each other from the very beginning, and I'll be honest with you and just straight-up. You know, because these two are never going to vote against each other. They know. They've sworn on their lives to each other. So whatever happens at 4 happens, you know what I mean? Are you cool with that?
Rob (confessional): I realize that I've been coming off as very sensitive with this group, talking about how much I love them and how much I'm going to be friends with them after the game, but I have never stopped playing Survivor and over my dead body will I turn over and let somebody just pass me by.
You were saying, Alex? One coup attempt against you wasn't enough? Had to ensure that another one was pulled, this time, with numbers?

3. Kim Powers refuses to vote with Brandon at the Final 8 Tribal Council.
This was Samburu's last chance at survival, and it was handed to the tribe on a silver platter when Lex broke down in Africa. And yet thanks to Little Kim, it never came to pass. Basically, the situation was simple. Boran had cut enough of its own members that things were tied up. And in the process, the Boran Boys had received enough votes that in the event of a tie, Lex would go home. All Samburu had to do was get their 4 together, vote against Lex, and their alliance would become the ruling majority of the game. All Kim had to do was say, "Sure, Brandon, let's do this," and it would have been game over for Lex. But that didn't happen. No, instead, Kim P refused to vote with Brandon. She was so pissed at him for his "betrayal" at the previous TC that she refused to do anything but see his ass booted. Even though doing that would hand the game right back over to the Borans, Kim would hear no other suggestions on the matter. Her mind was set, and that's how Samburu lost the game. They had the best comeback story ever all lined up, thanks to Lex's incompetence. And instead of capitalizing on it, Kim opted to kill anyone's chances that wasn't a part of the Boran Boys.

2. Mike Skupin leans too far into the fire.
Damn right. Mike was dumb for having so much wilderness training, and then making a silly mistake like this.

Which leaves our #1 worst move in the history of Survivor as being pretty darn obvious:

1. Brandon votes out Kelly.
Brandon, you idiot! Lex handed you a million dollars! Kelly was more than happy to run over to Samburu, where she would pose an extra vote for you and Kim! You could have directed the vote to someone like Ethan, arguing he was a bigger threat, and saved Lex, winning you jury favor from the Boran Boys! You could have had the game wrapped up! You could have saved us from an incredibly boring winner! You could have prolonged Frank and Teresa's stay in the game! You could have changed the outcome of Africa! Instead, you went against your alliance, alienating the numbers you needed to stick around, and got yourself out of the most powerful position in the game into the spot of the next boot target! You cut your Survivor experience by 12 days (and nearly $1,000,000)! Why, Brandon?! Why?!?!?!