The Dumbest Survivor Ever – Survivor: Micronesia’s Erik Throws Away His Game

Parvati said it when she was voting – Erik will “officially go down as the dumbest Survivor ever.” James also noted he “lost my reign as dumbest Survivor ever!” Both of them were right.

Don’t get me wrong – Erik seems like a really nice kid. But he was a kid who was in waaaaay over his head on Survivor. Sometimes we here at the Reality TV Hall of Shame induct the people who are just outright jerks (for the most recent example, see Big Brother 9’s Joshuah). But since we also induct people according to their game play – or lack thereof – we also end up inducting people who seem like fairly decent folks (for the most recent example, see our induction of Jason from this same Survivor season).

Enough about Erik’s personality, though. This induction is about, to be blunt, his strategic stupidity. When you have immunity in Survivor, you should almost never, ever, ever give it up. (Off the top of my head, I can’t think of an instance when it would be a good idea, but just in case there is one, I included the “almost.”) Indeed, the hardest fights are in immunity challenges. The individual immunity necklace is the most-craved object walking in to Tribal Council.

This is even clearer as the numbers dwindle. When you are at the final five, you are only two steps away from the jury. That immunity necklace puts you a mere one step away. Giving it up is unthinkable.

Or at least it should be unthinkable.

There have been a few past instances of people giving up immunity on reality TV shows. I’m not talking here about having the hidden immunity idol and making a poor judgment on whether to play it. I’m talking about openly having the ability to save oneself and deciding not to use it. The two that come immediately to mind are both already recognized in these Halls – Marcellas of Big Brother 3 and Bradford’s from The Apprentice 2. Both had immunity, both gave it up, both were immediately sent packing. It is only fitting that Erik join them here.

But in so many ways, this is even worse. Marcellas and Bradford were the first people in their respective shows ever given the option of not using immunity. On the other hand, the idea of passing along individual immunity has been with Survivor for many years. And Erik has been a fan for all of those years! He should have known better.

When he was talking about passing immunity to Natalie, the jurors’ faces betrayed their thoughts about how horrible an idea this was. Everybody could see what was about to happen – everybody except Erik, that is. And even Erik told me when I interviewed him that if he had been watching this at home, he’d have been screaming at the TV set. He admitted, “I was the kid on the couch telling people on the screen, ‘You’re an idiot.’ I turned into the idiot who’s doing that.”

Erik was such a fan of the show that he easily trounced the others in this week’s reward challenge, which asked questions about past seasons. This was not some guy off the street who had merely a passing knowledge of the show. This was Erik the Superfan. There was simply no excuse.

I mean, let’s consider this – Natalie almost didn’t even bother trying to convince Erik to give her the immunity necklace because she knew it was a ridiculous idea. As she said at the time, “Who would fall for that?!” And as I commented in my recap, Erik could do it “only if he’s incredibly stupid.” Little did I know at the time!

Indeed, we could see on the faces of his fellow players just how shocked they were that this actually worked. Natalie, who normally has a few sharp-tongued words for any situation, was speechless. So was Amanda. While Parvati had plenty to say about how dumb Erik was, the look on her face was one of pure shock that it worked.

I suppose we should give a bit of time to discuss the rationale Erik used when he thought this might be a reasonable idea. Erik told me he was pretty much an emotional wreck that day, due to the way the women were pulling him in different directions. I cannot give him a pass on this, though, because this is what he signed up for.

As for his reasoning (and I use the term loosely), he told me:

From a strategic point of view, my thought at the time was [I couldn’t win]if I made it to the end with two girls next to me because the girls had the majority on the jury. They didn’t show too much of Cirie talking me into this harebrained scheme – they showed a lot of Natalie – but they were talking to me about being a bloc of three because we had talked about Amanda and Parvati going all the way to the end. I thought it would have been beneficial from their point of view to come with me. That was one of the major strategy things I thought would happen – I thought it would be beneficial to them to do that.

I thought Cirie’s word was good… Up to that point, I had not seen Cirie lie; either I was in a different place when it happened [or I just didn’t see it]. She kept her word with Jason when I thought everybody would vote him out. Every time I talked to her previously, she kept her word, and she said she guaranteed she wouldn’t vote for me, “When have I ever done wrong on you?”

Let’s point something else out as well: The people in whom he was putting his trust – especially Natalie – were the very same ones who convinced Jason he was safe and didn’t need to use his immunity idol, and then voted him out! When I asked Erik how he could do this, he began by noting it was “A very good question.” Unfortunately, there really is no good answer.

When I wrote up the Reality TV Hall of Fame Moment for Amanda, I noted that there was pretty much no disagreement over whether she should receive it. This case for Erik is even clearer. Within minutes of the end of the show, we heard from readers, writers, and all kinds of viewers. Nobody disagreed or suggested that maybe we should give him a pass. Instead, the across the board agreement was that it’s likely nobody has deserved an induction into these Halls more than Erik does.

As I noted at the beginning of this article, Parvati said Erik would “officially go down as the dumbest Survivor ever.” But she actually underestimated the situation. I think it’s possible Erik will go down as the dumbest reality show competitor ever. And I have to say that I’m not sure how anybody would ever top him!

If you haven’t already, be sure to check out these other recent Survivor: Micronesia articles here on RealityNewsOnline:

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

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