Hall of Shame Moment: Survivor’s James Ignores Immunity

James was the first person ever on Survivor to have not one, but two hidden immunity idols. And he was voted out of the game without using either of them. A move like that can only end in one place – here at the Reality TV Hall of Shame.

The call for James’ place here in the Hall began only moments after Episode 10 aired, and has continued unabated. His move was so bad that nominations for him to go into the Hall have been right around an all-time high. And this is a guy who is likeable!

But his play was anything but likeable. As one reader pointed out, James essentially lucked into the idols – he happened to still be around after the Zhan Hu chose to boot Aaron. Todd wanted to use James, so he handed over one immunity idol and told him how to get the second. It wasn’t like James brilliantly figured out the clues – he had the idols handed to him on a silver platter.

Perhaps that helps to explain why he didn’t know how to use them.

There were several different things going on at once, and James was oblivious to all of them. First, as discussed in Why James Lost, James should have recognized that this was the last time his fellow players could vote him out before he had a free ride to the final four. Had he recognized this, James could have made the necessary counter-move by using an idol at this Tribal Council instead of waiting.

It could be argued that James took a reasonable risk. After all, if he had used an idol now, there would have been one week later when he was vulnerable. This is true, but it ignores the fact that James was likely to face an immunity challenge within the next two weeks that he could have a good shot of winning. He knew he didn’t have the immunity necklace from a challenge this week, but had no way of knowing what the next few days might bring. Thus, it was better to save himself now and wait for later to sort itself out.

There are other players who grace this Hall who have faced similar situations. For example, as Associate Editor Jenn Brasler reminded me, there was Bradford on The Apprentice 2. He gave up immunity in the Boardroom and was immediately fired. If Bradford had not given up immunity, he might have only made it one more week – but then again, he might have lasted long enough for Trump to get over whatever it was that bothered him about Bradford.

Similarly, we can say that if James had used an idol this week, he might have gotten voted out later. And maybe he would have. But he also could have won immunity and made it all the way.

Another comparison that has been brought up by readers is Marcellas from Big Brother 3. In case you don’t remember, Marcellas had the opportunity to use veto power on himself, ensuring he could not be voted out. But he chose not to use it because he trusted his supposed allies, and was promptly sent packing.

Marcellas’ situation was a worse case than James’, as Marcellas could only use the veto that one time. James at least had the excuse that by not using immunity now, he could save it for later. However, there are other similarities. As I noted, Marcellas thought he didn’t need to save himself because he trusted those he believed to be allies. James was exactly the same in that regard.

However, in another way, James actually did worse than Marcellas. He admitted that he sensed that something might have been wrong. After he was voted out, he said he should have used an idol, but decided to roll the dice. If he had it in the back of his mind that he might have been targeted, James should have used the idol.

The fact that he didn’t, however, left him sitting at the post-vote confessional holding two very valuable – yet worthless to him at that point – items. James made a horrible decision – a shameful decision. And for that, we must recognize him with a Reality TV Hall of Shame Moment.

David Bloomberg is the Editor of the Reality TV Hall of Shame, and can be reached at RNO@pobox.com.

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