Food rewards have been a part of Survivor since the series premiered in 2000, and 48 seasons later, players still haven’t figured out how to enjoy them without devastating aftereffects.
Survivor 43 third-place finisher Owen Knight gave a slightly TMI account of his experience after a reward and it makes one question if it was worth it at all.
“I had to run to the water in the middle of [a] confessional after our Final 5 steak reward,” he wrote via X on Tuesday, June 3. “Could not stop burping in the interview and eventually had to take care of business. I was also crawling around on all fours at the Final 8 pizza reward #Survivor.”
Owen, 32, shared his story in a quote of a question posed by Big Brother 24 winner Taylor Hale, who is bingeing old seasons of Survivor and sharing her thoughts with her followers.
“How do people not get violently ill from these food rewards?” she asked Tuesday while watching season 37, Survivor: David vs. Goliath. “Eating burgers, pizza, alcohol and more after only eating rice and water? My body would freak out.”
Having just wrapped its 48th season, Survivor has shown several times in the past what players go through when they survive on little-to-no food for days on end, then are suddenly served a full meal. Owen’s experience seems to be the norm as players have often spoken about rushing to the bathroom shortly after their rewards.
Thankfully for Taylor, 30, she didn’t have that issue in the Big Brother house. She only had to endure Big Brother slop — a bland oatmeal-like substance that “have-nots” are confined to each week.
However, in the event Taylor wasn’t convinced by Owen’s story, two-time Survivor player Stephen Fishback jumped in with what he witnessed in season 31, Survivor: Second Chance.
“I wasn’t a part of it, but half the group puked coming back from the famous Keith Toto reward,” he wrote. “Choppy seas plus full stomachs…And the worst part is then you lose all the calories!”
Other players have weighed in before. In a 2020 story for The Ringer, multiple former contestants weighed in on the question, “After scrounging for weeks, is it possible to eat a huge reward meal and not get sick?”
“It’s impossible to restrain yourself, so yeah, you’re gonna get sick,” said two-time player David Wright.
Christian Hubicki from David vs. Goliath recalled one of his fellow castaways eating various wraps on a reward and the horror that followed.
“I remember Alison Raybould, the doctor from my season — she was doubled over in pain and lying on the beach that whole night, I think even hallucinating,” he said. “She actually hallucinated something — that I was having a conversation with somebody that was strategically relevant as a consequence of these wraps.”
